April 15, 2007
 
Survey: Boomers Have Money, Aren't Afraid To Spend It
Far from being cowed by the growth in technology, the aging baby boom generation has embraced the Internet and everything related to it, and enjoys spending time online and surfing interesting Web sites says an article in BrandWeek.
That’s the crux of a new study by BoomerEyes, a leading boomer research and demographic intelligence company that studies baby boomers and their influence on American society and the economy. In a report out this week, BoomerEyes highlights some of the points of its survey of 1,110 respondents. Among the findings:
Tax Bites On Travelers Go Deeper
For all the complaints travelers have been voicing about delayed flights, declining service, crowded planes and invasive security procedures, there has been comparatively little outcry about another trend: escalating taxes on flights, car rentals and hotel stays.
But, reports The New York Times, travel companies and trade associations are beginning to reach for the megaphone on their customers’ behalf, protesting the growing cost of taxes, many of them financing initiatives that have nothing to do with travel.
“It’s probably our No. 1 legislative issue at the moment,” said Bill Connors, executive director and chief operating officer of the National Business Travel Association, a trade group. “Local politicians have this idea that travelers are an easy cash cow because they’re not there to vote. But it’s a form of taxation without representation.”
In partnership with major car rental companies, the association has focused on fighting high taxes on car rentals and has tried to raise awareness by lobbying state and local officials. Taxes and other charges passed along by car rental companies, like vehicle licensing fees, raise the average rental bill 28% at airport locations, according to Travelocity, the online travel agency. These taxes and fees can exceed 50% at airports in Kansas City, Dallas, Atlanta and Seattle.
Industry analysts say more municipalities are taxing rental customers to pay for local projects like sports stadiums, convention centers, public transportation improvements and even a rodeo arena.
As of last October, there were “something like 86” special taxes and surcharges around the country levied on car rentals, and another 48 were being considered, said Neil Abrams, president of the Abrams Consulting Group, which follows the car rental industry.
As an example, Mr. Abrams cited a proposal to increase the tax on car rentals in Racine, Wis., by $13 a rental to help finance a commuter rail line. “They see the rental customer who does not vote in local elections as basically an oil well with untapped resources,” he said.
 
Ryanair Plans $12 Transatlantic Flights
Ryanair may consider a no-frills transatlantic airline by the turn of the decade with flights for $12 (£7), according to CEO, Michael O'Leary. He said the airline would serve secondary airports such as Baltimore, Providence and Long Island from bases such as London Stanstead, Dublin and Frankfurt.
Flights would also operate to other US destinations including Florida, Dallas and San Francisco under plans outlined by the airline.
According to Airline Travel News O'Leary told Flight International that he was confident the venture would succeed if it got the go ahead. "By mid 2009, we will be carrying 70 million passengers at 23 bases across Europe," O'Leary told Flight International. "It will be relatively straightforward for us to do a deal for 40 to 50 long-haul aircraft and connect these bases transatlantically. There would be no one to touch us."
Under the open-skies deal, more US-Europe flights will be allowed from March 2008.
 
NYC Hospitality Industry "On Fire"
New York City’s hospitality industry "is on fire," the global chairman of brokerage services at CB Richard Ellis, Stephen Siegel, said. "People from around the world want to visit New York," he said, and, of course, they all need places to stay.
More than 8,000 rooms are in various stages of planning throughout the city reports The New York Sun. Supply cannot meet the demand, which has been created by the more than 41 million visitors to the city in 2006. According to industry leaders, 44 million visitors ­ a record number ­ are expected this year, helping to fuel the hospitality fire.
Owners and operators in the hospitality sector are saying they have not experienced such impressive cash flow, hotel property selling prices, and availability of financing for close to a decade. "One of my clients who operates a four-star hotel says cash flow from operations increased from $12 million to $45 million in less than two years," the chairman of the national real estate practice at Greenberg Traurig, Robert Ivanhoe, said.
Even after several years of positive growth, real estate experts say the market is improving so far in 2007. "Occupancy levels have been close to capacity for the second year in a row, and room rates had another year of double-digit growth," the president of Lodging Advisors, Sean Hennessey, said. "In light of this, more and more people assume the pace of improvement must moderate. And yet, for the first quarter of 2007, occupancy is up about 1 percentage point over last year, and room rates are up 12%. The reality is that the hotel market is getting stronger, not weaker."
 
American Says It Knows Why Women Fly
From putting purse hooks on new business-class seats to tweaking its advertising, American Airlines is making a subtle pitch for women who travel reports USA Today. A year ago, the nation's largest airline created a director of women's sales and marketing. Now American has added a women's section to its website, offering promotional packages such as "Girlfriend Getaways" and a place for women to share travel tips.
Airlines aren't known for catering to one sex or the other. Presumably, good prices and convenient schedules appeal equally to men and women.
Airlines that carry more leisure travelers tend to have a higher proportion of female passengers, which helps explain why 52% of American's passengers are male and 48% are female. For many years, that wasn't necessarily a concern for American, because men are more likely to fly for business, and those are the most lucrative customers for airlines. American officials say the percentage of business travelers who are women is "in the high 20s."
But that figure rose 6 percentage points from 1999 to 2006, they say, making it increasingly logical to pursue women travelers. With the women's section of its website, American is going after women by providing more advice, including pointers for safety and traveling with friends and family.
"Women are very focused on the details of the business," said Peggy Sterling, the vice president of safety ­ and American's first female line-operations officer. "They look for things like, do we have a place for children in the Admirals Clubs, and do we have showers in international clubs so they can shower before going into a meeting."
 
Study: Hotel Supply, Demand Imbalance May Be Ending
Slowing demand for hotel rooms, coupled with an increased level of development activity, may have a negative impact on hotel owners' profits in coming years, according to a new study just released by PKF Hospitality Research.
            "First and foremost, we are not predicting a wave of overbuilding," said Mark Woodworth, president of PKF Hospitality Research. But there are "signals on the landscape" that some factors that have contributed to a low level of hotel development in recent years may be changing, Woodworth said.
            Hotel owners have reaped the benefits of increased demand, spurred by a growth in both business and leisure travel says Commercial Property News. The study notes that since 2003, demand has increased by 10.2%, while net change in room supply has been nearly flat. During this time frame, the average cost of renting a hotel room in the top 50 U.S. cities has increased by 23%, according to Smith Travel Research. But, price resistance is beginning to be seen, and demand levels in 12 of the nation's top 24 markets actually declined in 2006. Smith Travel Research also says that first quarter industry-wide demand levels are below their 2006 amounts.
 
Hyatt Andaz Brand Seeks Luxury Guests
Seeking to capture the attention of luxury travelers, Global Hyatt Corp. said it will announce today the new Andaz brand of upscale urban hotels planned initially in London, New York and the Los Angeles area.
According to The Wall Street Journal the closely held Chicago-based hotel company hopes Andaz will find a place between its high-end Park Hyatt brand and its Hyatt Regency product. The first Andaz is slated to open in September at an existing hotel in London's financial district. A new hotel currently under construction in New York is planned for Fifth Avenue and 41st Street, while an existing Hyatt property in the Los Angeles area will likely be transformed into an Andaz, the company said.
Hyatt officials say their market research found that despite all of the options currently available, frequent business and leisure travelers with money to spend are looking for an option with "customized and uncomplicated service." The Andaz hotels will, for now, be concentrated in urban areas and will include elements currently popular in the lodging industry -- with a focus on spas and environmentally friendly initiatives, including energy efficiency and organic food.
The word "Andaz" means "personal style" in the Hindi language. Hyatt said room rates at the new hotels haven't been set.
 
Las Vegas Spending Huge Amounts To Protect Slogan 'What Happens Here'
What happens in Vegas is getting reproduced all over the country, to the chagrin of Southern Nevada tourism boosters trying to protect Sin City's trademarked slogans says Hotel-Online.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority voted 11-0 Tuesday to oppose a trademark application by an Illinois woman who wants to sell shirts at the Kentucky Derby. The shirts, which would read "What happens at Derby stays at Derby," are too close for the comfort of tourism boosters who zealously guard the popular, and protected, "What happens here, stays here" slogan.
But the most recent dispute prompted discussion among tourism officials, who are fighting at least six similar battles over the slogan, about whether some trademark protection victories are worth the cost of the fight.
"This is not going to be the last of these," said Oscar Goodman, mayor of Las Vegas and chairman of the convention authority's board of directors, of the Derby application. "If it doesn't hurt us, I'm not sure we want to spend the money to stop it."
Legal wrangling over trademarked Las Vegas phrases in the six cases, including one in which the authority is a defendant, have cost $732,123 to date.
 
Hotels Starting To Offer “Star” Treatments
Stars aren't the only ones involved in overindulging these days, says TravelMole.
"The hottest trend….from boutique hotels to Canadian fishing resorts, overindulgence is getting overnight privileges in travel packages that encourage guests to adopt the stars' philosophy that too much is never enough," says CanWest News Service.
Some of the latest services:
Zoom Airlines Announces Low-Cost Flights From NYC To London
Zoom Airlines, the U.K. unit of Canada's Zoom Airlines, plans to start low-cost flights between London's Gatwick airport and New York beginning June 21 reports USA Today.
The airline said one-way fares will start from $254.90 including taxes and charges. It will offer economy and premium economy services with designated seating and a meal service.
Flights will leave London Gatwick every lunchtime, arriving in New York in the early afternoon, the company said. Return flights will leave New York in the early evening, landing at London Gatwick at around 6 a.m. the following morning.
Zoom said it will initially operate five flights per week direct from London Gatwick to New York and two off-peak services via Bermuda.
 
Jamaica Hotel Inventory To Jump By 53%
Ten thousand new hotel rooms are expected to come on line on this Caribbean island by 2012, representing a jump of 53%. Published reports citing Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association projections indicate the majority of new inventory will come from a handful of maga-projects. High on the list is the development of Harmony Cove, a 2,200-acre deluxe development that will include several hotels. It's being developed by the Tavistock Group based in Florida.
According to HotelBusiness other large projects moving forward include the Palmyra Resort & Spa at Rose Hall and the 856-room Riu Ocho Rios Resort.
 
Study: Social Networking Sites Influence 1 In 3 Internet User Purchases
Search engine marketing firm iProspect® has announced the publication of the iProspect Social Networking User Behavior Study, resulting from a survey sponsored by iProspect and conducted by JupiterResearch. The study reveals that approximately 1 in 4 adult Internet users regularly visited the most popular social networking sites in the past year, including MySpace, YouTube, and Amazon.com.
In addition, the study also revealed that 1 in 3 Internet users report that their purchase decisions are influenced by sites that contain social content, with Amazon.com being the most influential of all.
Fielded in January of 2007 with over 2,000 respondents randomly selected from the U.S. online adult population, the survey that served as a basis for this study focused on user behavior on popular social networking sites. For purposes of this study, iProspect defines a “social networking site” as one that allows Internet users the ability to add user-generated content such as: comments, review, feedback, ratings, or their own dedicated pages. It’s because of its use of user-generated content, for example, that Amazon.com – a site which many see as a purely ecommerce site – was included in this survey.
 
Choice Hotels In Deal For India Hotels
Choice Hotels has entered into a deal with Royal Indian Raj International Corp. to build at least 12,000 budget hotel rooms in India, Royal Indian Raj told Reuters news agency on Thursday.
According to Hotel Travel News Royal Indian Raj said it entered into a contract with Choice Hotels India to build hotel rooms under the Comfort Inn, Quality, Sleep Inn and Clarion brands.
 
Belgium Requires Business Travelers To Register
Belgium has introduced tough new measures requiring some business travelers to register before entering the country says BusinessTravelEurope. The scheme, called Limosa and launched at the beginning of the month, demands that business travelers working more than five consecutive days in a month must first register.
The ruling applies to all foreigners including citizens from the European Economic Area (the EU plus Norway and Iceland) and Switzerland. These citizens, unlike some countries, do not need permits or visas to work in Belgium.
Employers failing to register themselves or their colleagues before a visit can be fined or even jailed for up to two years. The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) has already protested and called on the Belgian authorities to delay the imposition of any penalties until May 15.
 
Spring Break Skews Internet Use
The Hitwise US Travel Report for March showed the influence of spring break with MapQuest the no. 1 site, with almost a 12% market share says TravelMole, followed by Expedia and Yahoo!Maps at around 4%. Travelocity was fourth and Southwest Airlines in fifth place.
"Spring break dominated March's online travel activity with traffic to sites like the college spring break activity planning site SpringBreak.com increasing significantly in the rankings," said Leeann Prescott, director of research. She added: "Traffic to Web sites for Florida family destinations were on the rise: the market share of visits to Universal Orlando, Sea World and Wet 'N Wild Orlando increased by more than 50% from February to March."
Hitwise's date is based on a sample of 10 million internet users.
 
Niche Sites Invigorate Online Travel
Friends and family tired of your vacation videos? Just go online says eMarketer.
New online travel sites are chipping away at some of the expertise that drives people to online travel agencies (OTAs), which are themselves already pressured by travel supplier sites run by airlines and hotels. Recent offerings from Farecast and FareCompare help consumers determine the best time to book airline tickets. Travel social networking sites like Gusto.com let visitors share itineraries and trip information.
Capitalizing on the online video rage, travelervideos.com lets travelers upload vacation photos and videos and write their own travel blogs ­ all of which can be shared with family, friends and other travelers. All this activity comes as research from comScore shows that travel supplier Web sites are steadily taking share away from OTAs, due to the success of their lowest-price guarantees.
Specialized Web sites and Internet tools are beginning to catch on with online travelers as online travel resources, according to Forrester Research. For example, 12% of online leisure travelers subscribed to travel-related RSS feeds in 2006, compared with 1% a year earlier.
Forrester also found that peer reviews and blogs can have a decisive influence on travel behavior. Among travelers who used the Web to plan or book a hotel stay and consulted peer reviews, 25% of infrequent leisure travelers and 33% of frequent leisure travelers changed their hotel stays based on what they read.
 
They Think We Haven’t Noticed?
Most of the USA's biggest airlines operated their planes fuller last month than in any previous March, virtually snuffing out hope among passengers for an empty middle seat to sprawl across.
American, Delta, Continental and United last week each reported their highest-ever percentages of filled seats for March. US Airways, the product of a late-2005 merger, filled a higher percentage of seats last month than in March 2006, the only comparable month. Northwest was close to a record March. Each airline ran more than 80% full on average, meaning that many flights on the most popular routes at the most popular times ran full.
As the big airlines have clawed their way out of the deep financial losses that followed terrorism and recession earlier in the decade, says USA Today, they've aggressively moved to fill every seat possible with a paying passenger. In March, spring break vacationers and bad weather jammed even more people than normal into planes.
 
And Now Another Possibility…Window Seat, Aisle Or Back-To-Front?
Airline passengers may be required to sit facing the rear of the aircraft by a new seating layout designed to pack more people in as well as giving everyone more legroom says The Times of London. Ten airlines, including one British carrier, are considering turning half their economy-class seats to face the opposite way to the other half to squeeze in an extra column of seats along the aircraft.
Airlines could add up to 50 seats to each aircraft and increase the seat pitch, the gap between one seat and the seat in front, by four inches (10cm). But they would have to persuade passengers to spend up to 15 hours facing the back of the aircraft and trying to avoid eye contact with passengers facing the other way. People in the rear-facing seats would have a slightly greater chance of surviving a crash landing.
The “yin-yang” seating formation has been developed by a British company and is being unveiled this week at an exhibition in Hamburg.
 
New Zealand Hotels Rate Among The World's Cheapest
While sleep may have become an exorbitantly expensive commodity at Britain's hotels, an industry body in New Zealand is trumpeting prices here as "exceptionally low" by international standards.
According to ehotelier, a standard double room at a former hospital in London was selling this month for $1413 a night - excluding breakfast. The building overlooking Hyde Park is now the Lanesborough Hotel, and is one of the priciest places to stay in Western Europe's most expensive capital.
The annual Hotel Price Index from the online agency hotels.com surveyed 20,000 hotels in 1,000 European locations. It found the average nightly room rate in London during the last quarter of 2006 was $296. That compared to Britain's national average of $271.
Last year the average cost of a hotel room in New Zealand was $153 a night, according to the chief executive of the NZ Hotel Council, Mark Oldershaw. That was an increase of just $2.94 on the previous year's rate. Auckland's average room rate of $157 was below that of Wellington's $164.
Higher demand drove higher prices, Mr. Oldershaw said, but despite the large influx of international visitors to New Zealand over recent years, the hotel industry remained "static".
 
Hotels Shake Up Time-Share Act
As the prices of second homes move out of reach for many Americans, reports The New York Times, older couples are buying time shares as an alternative. Baby boomers account for about half of time-share buyers, according to the American Resort Development Association, a trade group in Washington.
Long known for its high-pressure sales tactics, the industry has attracted many soon-to-be-retirees with new products that avoid the term “time share” in favor of “vacation club” or “fractional ownership,” and offer more flexible options for owners. At the same time, the industry’s image of here-today, bankrupt-tomorrow, has changed: the biggest companies in the time-share market now are well-known hotel brands, including Hilton, Marriott and Starwood, which combined account for one-third of domestic time-share sales.
“The hotel companies have legitimized the industry,” said Bill Rogers, founder of the Time Share Users Group, which operates the Web site tug2.net. “Marriott cannot afford to have unhappy people, and they’re still going to be around in 20 years.”
Not only do the hotel companies offer more variety than traditional time shares by often building their vacation properties next to existing hotels with spas, fitness centers and restaurants, but they have also eliminated a major flaw of traditional time shares: a fixed week at a fixed location.
“Boomers like to travel,” said Mr. Rogers, himself one at 55. “They don’t want to be stuck going to one location year after year.”
 
Major Marketers Get Wise To The Power Of Assigning Personas
Are your customers Jills, Luises or Nicks, asks AdAge.  Harried moms, budget-conscious small-business owners or tech-savvy tinkerers?
Most marketers can reel off scads of qualitative information about their customers -- ages, levels of education, where they live and how much they earn. But far fewer have a firm grip on customers' attitudes and behaviors, let alone their emotional needs while shopping for certain products. And as the importance of targeting specific customer groups grows, all agree understanding the latter is crucial.
That's why some marketers, including FedEx, Fidelity and Daimler Chrysler, are turning to personas, a concept born out of site design, in which archetypical characters represent specific consumer segments. It was introduced in a book, "The Inmates Are Running the Asylum," by Alan Cooper.
"Knowing someone is 29 doesn't tell you their motivation for buying," said Harly Manning, VP-research director, customer experience, Forrester Research. "Personas fill in the holes and bring insights."
That was the goal of Best Buy, which has long organized its marketing efforts around customer insights and information. It used personas as a key element in the redesign and relaunch of GeekSquad.com, the online site of its national computer-support service -- a fast-growing line of business. "We wanted to create an online brand presence that originated from our customers' needs," said Ruby Anik, senior VP-marketing communications, such as easy access to information on how to get help. But at the same time, the retailer also intended to use the site to fulfill some requirements of its own, such as recruitment of geeks.
For the GeekSquad project, personas served as a unifying factor between customer, client and agency. "The website needed to serve multiple functions ... had to be useful for a broad range of customers," said Michael Heughens, group director of engagement management at Organic.
'We wanted to create an online brand presence that originated from our customers' needs,' said Ruby Anik, senior VP-marketing communications.
 
Air France Denies Report It May Buy Into Delta, Northwest
Franco-Dutch airline Air France-KLM denied on Thursday a report it may acquire minority stakes in U.S. partner carriers Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp.
According to Reuters, French newspaper La Tribune reported in an advance copy of an article to be published in its Friday edition that Air France-KLM was studying such a move amid fears of sector consolidation following a failed bid for Delta by U.S. Airways Group Inc. earlier this year.
"Air France-KLM denies any possibility of taking a stake in Delta and Northwest," an Air France-KLM spokeswoman said.
 
Milan Hotel Aiming For Ultra-Deluxe Seven-Star Rating
If you can't live without a personal butler, a chauffeur-driven Bentley to take you out shopping and a pianist to entertain you in your suite - and you don't mind spending up to 4,000 euros ($5,300) per night - then Milan's Town House Galleria is the right hotel for you.
Located in a 19th-century palazzo in the heart of Italy's financial capital, near the La Scala opera house and the city's main cathedral, the hotel is the world's first to have applied for the ultra-luxury seven-star classification provided by Swiss-based certification company SGS.
'Milan has lots of beautiful hotels, but none of them provide adequate services to the rich,' Alessandro Rosso, the hotel's chief, said in a recent interview to daily La Stampa and reported by ehotelier.
In order to be classified as ultra-luxurious, a hotel must provide a series of exclusive services to their clients, says SGS spokesman Matteo Aiolfi.
'These include a chauffeur who collects the guest from the airport with a luxury car playing his or her favourite music during the transfer; check in directly in his suite where his luggage awaits and a private butler for every superior suite,' Aiolfi told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The hotel should also offer a full range of amenities, such as exclusive furniture, flat screen, satellite TV, PC, cordless telephone, fridge, a selection of the best wines and liquors and tailor-made slippers and bathrobe.
'Nothing should be left to chance,' Aiolfi added.
 
Tourism New Zealand And Google Join Forces    
Tourism New Zealand has teamed up with the world's biggest internet search engine to showcase what the country has to offer reports newswire.co.nz. The satellite mapping service, Google Earth, will include information from Tourism New Zealand's website including local attractions and information. Google Earth provides satellite photos of the earth's surface and allows internet users to zoom in to specific locations around the world.
While the website incorporates information from sites such as National Geographic and the United Nations Environmental Program, this is the first time a tourism body has been included.
Dr Craig Nevill-Manning from Google says Tourism New Zealand now has the ability to reach the search engine's 200 million registered users. He says New Zealand is a trailblazer and has set an example for others to follow.
 
USA Today Introduces Scented Label At Omni Hotels
USA Today has announced its first national campaign using scent technology, says ehotelier. Omni Hotels has become the first hotel chain to use scent as a feature of their USA Today label. The promotion will run for at least six months, starting today.
Approximately 10,000 copies of USA Today are distributed to Omni guests each day. The hotel chain has decided to use the 2" x 1," two-ply stickers to promote their Starbucks coffee program to guests. The top ply of the label is coffee-colored and reads, "Start your day with a freshly brewed cup of Starbucks coffee and ..." When the top layer is pulled back, guests are greeted with the aroma of berries and the picture of a muffin with the following words, "...pair it with a fresh muffin. Available at Omni Hotels."
 
Disney Relaxes Its Rule On Gay Weddings
According to the Los Angeles Times, Walt Disney Co. has changed its policy to allow same-sex couples to participate in a popular Fairy Tale Wedding program it runs mainly at its two U.S. resorts and on its cruise line, a Disney spokesman said Thursday.
Burbank-based Disney previously had allowed gay couples to organize their own weddings or commitment ceremonies at rented meeting rooms at the resorts but had barred them from purchasing its Fairy Tale Wedding package and holding the event at locations at Disneyland and Walt Disney World that are set aside for weddings.
"We are updating our Fairy Tale Wedding guidelines to include commitment ceremonies," Disney Parks and Resorts spokesman Donn Walker said. "This is consistent with our policy of creating a welcoming, respectful and inclusive environment for all of our guests." Walker said the change was prompted by "an inquiry from a guest that asked about this service."
Disney had allowed gay couples to take part in its vow-renewal program but excluded them from buying wedding packages by requiring a valid marriage license from California or Florida, which do not permit or recognize gay marriages.
 
California Eyes French High-Speed Train
Agence France-Presse reports that the state of California is eyeing France's high speed train for a planned link between San Francisco and San Diego, the speaker of its state assembly said on Tuesday during a visit to France.
"We are contemplating in California the possibility of a high speed train that would go from the San Francisco Bay area to Los Angeles and San Diego, in South California. We're here to study the rail system," the speaker Fabian Nunez said.
Nunez, who was holding talks with the Alstom company and French railway officials, said California was also looking at other trains, but had a particular interest in the French model.
"We've had several meetings with industrials. We are looking at the other models, but we are particularly interested in the French model," he said. "California is more adaptable to the French experience. The example of the Paris-Lyon liaison is an experience that is very similar to what we want to do in California between San Francisco and LA."
The planned high speed train link would go from Sacramento in the north to San Diego in the south via San Francisco and Los Angeles, covering a distance of 683 miles. The time of the trip between San Francisco and Los Angeles would be reduced to two and a half hours.
Nunez said the timeline for the plan was early 2009.
 
Philly Reaching Across The Pond For Niche Travelers
More destinations ­ Chicago, Dallas, Pittsburgh, San Diego and Washington, D.C. ­ are billing themselves as gay friendly to tap a market that spends about $55 billion annually, according to Community Marketing Inc., San Francisco. But as more travel brands reach out with the same message of being inclusive, the challenge for marketers is making their sales pitch distinctive when the competition is saying the same thing says BrandWeek.
“Before gay tourism became hot, historically gays and lesbians went to places where they found like people ­ San Francisco and Key West,” said Bill German, vp-strategic services for Altus Group, Philadelphia. “Now the market is more challenging and cities like San Francisco are saying we have to start looking and not assume that gay and lesbians travelers are coming, we have to push out. Gay people are traveling for the same reasons everyone else is.”
The CVB launched a mainstream international marketing campaign in 2003. That same year, Altus Group developed the domestic gay campaign for the Greater Philadelphia Tourism & Marketing Corporation (GPTMC). Starting Friday, the CVB launches its largest international effort targeting gay men in the U.K.
Through satellite radio network GaydarRadio, more than two million unique listeners every month will hear Ben, a 30-ish gay character from London, report every Friday about his travels in four-minute snippets. Ben initially intended to stay in Philly for three weeks but because he’s finding so much to do and talk about in the “birthplace of America,” he’s staying for ten weeks. The campaign wraps on June 6.
 
Nightclub Owner To Launch Hotel Brand
It's not your father's luxury hotel. That's the pitch entrepreneur and nightclub owner Sam Nazarian ­ the mastermind behind Hollywood hot spots Hyde Lounge and Area ­ is making for his latest venture, a new brand of luxury hotels.
SLS Los Angeles, formerly Le Meridien at Beverly Hills, will be the first hotel in the SLS Hotels brand, expected to debut in early 2008. Nazarian said he hoped to launch five hotels in five years, in New York, Mexico, the Caribbean and other destinations. The hotel will be managed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., which operates more than 850 properties worldwide, including the St. Regis, Sheraton, Westin and W brands.
Nazarian, chief executive of SBE Entertainment Group, said his hotels would be positioned between Starwood luxury chains St. Regis and W. "There's a space between those two worlds," he said.
As Chief Creative Officer Theresa Fatino described it: "There was room for a very chic, quality, luxury-minded brand that didn't take itself so seriously."
Philippe Starck, who redesigned the Mondrian Hotel in 1996 and has paired with Nazarian on the trendy Brentwood restaurant Katsuya, will design the look and feel of the hotels. Under a 15-year agreement, Starck "can't design hotels, restaurants, bars, lounges with anyone else," Nazarian said.
 
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