January 1, 2008
 
The staff of Marketing & Tourism Trends extends its best wishes to all in the worldwide travel and tourism industry for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2008!
 
'Tourism Of Doom' On Rise For 2008
Dennis and Stacie Woods, a married couple from Seattle, choose their vacation destinations based on what they fear is fated to destruction.
This month it was a camping and kayaking trip around the Galápagos Islands. Last year, it was a stay at a remote lodge in the Amazon, and before that, an ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro. "We wanted to see the islands this year," Dennis Woods, a lawyer, said last week in a hotel lobby here, "because we figured they're only going to get worse."
The visit to the Amazon was "to try to see it in its natural state before it was turned into a cattle ranch or logged or burned to the ground," he said. Kilimanjaro was about seeing the sunrise on the highest peak in Africa before the ice cap melts, as some forecasters say it will within the next dozen years.
The Woodses are part of a travel trend that Ken Shapiro, the editor in chief of TravelAge West, a magazine for travel agents, calls "the Tourism of Doom." "It's not just about going to an exotic place," Shapiro said. "It's about going someplace they expect will be gone in a generation."
Even the sinking of the Antarctic cruise ship Explorer, which hit an iceberg last month, has not cooled interest reports the International Herald Tribune. Other Antarctic tour operators say they have received frantic calls asking for last-minute berths from those who had been scheduled to take future Explorer voyages. Since most trips are already full, would-be customers are being turned away.
What these travelers are chasing may be a modern-day version of an old human impulse – to behold an untrammeled frontier. Except this time around, instead of being the first to climb a mountain or behold a glacier-fed lake, voyagers like the Woodses are eager to be the ones to see things last.
Almost all these trips are marketed as environmentally aware and eco-sensitive – they are, after all, a grand tour of the devastating effects of global warming. But the travel industry, some environmentalists say, is preying on the frenzy. This kind of travel, they argue, is hardly green. It's greedy, requiring airplanes and boats as well as new hotels.
 
Travelers Should Look On The Bright Side Of 2007
My Aunt Gertrude Jones, writes Catharine Hamm of the Los Angeles Times, a lovely woman with a heart as pure as the saint for whom she was named, always said you sometimes count the good days by what doesn't happen and not by what does.
It's tempting to look at the year in travel and note how we, as travelers, took it on the chin. Fuel prices increased, hotel rates crept upward, quality of airline service tumbled downward, traveler patience slipped noticeably and we used even less of our paid vacation time than ever.
I won't speak for all of you, but just looking at that makes me borderline hostile. Until I look at it the Aunt Gertrude way.
With that frame of reference, here are the five most important things that happened in travel in 2007. Thank you, Aunt G.
Isn't that what Aunt Gertrude wanted us to do?
 
New Website Tracks The Trends
Are you constantly tearing out travel blurbs from trendy magazines ─ and then lining your agenda book with them? If so, says the International Herald Tribune, the new Web site www.fabsearch.com might come in handy. The site, which made its debut last month, calls itself a "private secretary who reads glossy magazines, speaks with local trendsetters, then reports valuable information back to you" about where to stay and eat all over the world.
Users can search by location (Loire Valley, Peru, Shanghai) or by publication (Vanity Fair, Town and Country, Vogue), store their digital clippings on the site free, or write their own comments or posts. There is also a "hot off the press" section for breaking hospitality and dining news.
 
Las Vegas Wins Big
The sparkling gambling palaces that line the Las Vegas Strip are intended to disconnect visitors from the realities of ordinary life.
But nowadays, says The New York Times, s Las Vegas is even managing to sever itself from a jittery economy causing conniptions among retailers, restaurateurs and other consumer-oriented businesses — including the rest of the casino industry.
Gambling revenues on the Strip are up this year ─ way up in recent weeks. Despite higher energy prices, a volatile stock market, a slumping housing market and fears the economy may be heading into a recession, some of the city’s largest casinos are on pace for a record-setting year. In October alone, gambling revenues on the Las Vegas Strip were up 19.8% over the same month last year.
By contrast, casinos elsewhere are not proving so resilient. From the riverboats of the Midwest and tribal casinos scattered across the country to gambling halls in less exotic parts of Nevada, operators are reporting slowing growth rates in recent months. In a number of places, revenues are actually down, sometimes by 5% or more.
The differences reflect a wider disparity within the economy. Businesses in a variety of sectors that attract the most affluent customers and take advantage of foreigners from countries with strong currencies who are drawn to the glitter of Las Vegas and Manhattan are doing very well, while those dependent largely on middle-class buyers are having a harder time.
In Las Vegas, one extra factor has been a booming Chinese economy, as wealthy Asian players are risking ─ and losing ─ money in record numbers inside the city’s most exclusive V.I.P. lounges.
And the whole industry enjoys one advantage over its counterparts among discretionary spending activities: the propensity of people to gamble despite harder times, or perhaps because of them. But even there, Las Vegas appears to be the big winner, perhaps because many gamblers prefer an occasional big splurge in the city where “what happens here, stays here,” to a routine evening of playing the slots.
“We’re seeing slowing growth in many markets across the country,” said Joseph R. Greff, a gambling industry analyst for Bear Stearns. “But I’d still say gaming is in far better shape than retail, restaurants or other discretionary consumer spending areas.”
 
U.S. Airlines Spruce Up Their Luxury Offerings…
Now that they're again earning profits after five years of industry losses, American, United, Delta, Northwest, Continental and US Airways are finally forging ahead with upgrades to take on foreign rivals. The six are plowing millions into tired, business-class cabins to win back former customers such as Anderson, earn new ones and justify higher fares says USA Today.
United, for instance, is spending $156 million solely on business-class seats for 97 jetliners. The seats collapse into fully flat beds, making it the first U.S. airline to offer them.
American this year has started upgrading most planes in its international fleet. And Northwest recently installed near-lie-flat seats on its international jets and began taking delivery of small 70-seat jets with a premium cabin to give international business fliers who connect to flights at international hub airports a more seamless experience.
Delta next year will start installing flat bedlike seats similar to United's on its 75 aircraft that fly to Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Full installation will take until 2010.
"We have a great (business class) now, but we think that it is a very competitive market, and we'd like a higher share," says Delta executive Glen Hauenstein, who promises more "big announcements" for premium-cabin upgrades over the next several months.
Profound changes in the competitive landscape are forcing the U.S. carriers to splurge while times are good. Not only have foreign airlines heightened travelers' expectations, but entrepreneurs behind boutique carriers Silverjet, Eos and L'Avion gave them new options. The new breed of airlines fly all-business-class jets from New York to London, Paris and Dubai for cut-rate fares.
Michael Baughan, CEO of B/E Aerospace, (BEAV) a leading maker of aircraft seats, says the U.S. carriers have no choice but to make big investments in cabin upgrades.
"The U.S. carriers are competing head-on on their most profitable routes with international carriers that have been making these kinds of investments for years, so they have to react," he says.
 
…As Hotels Joust To Provide Priceless Experiences
Most hotels offer enticing packages and programs, but just imagine if they could organize private after-hours shopping trips, days of deep-sea-fishing with a world-class chef and the hottest Lakers tickets? That’s exactly what some luxury hotels are offering in order to attract guests who demand the most for their money says MSNBC.
Courtesy of the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand, guests can visit the world-famous Dior the same way celebrities do: When it’s closed, with champagne. At the St. Regis Bora Bora, Jean-Georges Vongerichten not only goes deep-sea fishing with guests, he also prepares their catch that evening at his restaurant, Lagoon, at the hotel. And the St. Regis Resort, Monarch Beach, is offering Magic Johnson’s personal Lakers tickets ─ the ideal spot for cheering alongside diehard fans Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson.
In order to make the most indelible impression imaginable, more hotels are racing to provide ultimate insider experiences. “People have so many material things, they’re often looking for an experience,” explains Julie Saunders, concierge supervisor at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington D.C. “Once you’ve eaten the meals and slept in the bed, what do you have?”
Saunders and her staff have fulfilled some wild requests. They recently expedited the purchase of the flag that flies over the Capitol, and even arranged access for a family who wanted to watch the July 4th fireworks from the Capitol building’s steps. (Of course, with timing and security issues, there are no guarantees). “How great to give guests something intangible to take with them. So they can say, “'do you remember when we did THAT?'” says Saunders. “It’s a memory that you can hold for the rest of your life.”
It’s also about bragging rights. “The client wants their experience to be a total wow so they can come back from their trip and be the best,” explains Ruthanne Terrero, editorial director of Luxury Travel Advisor and Travel Agent Magazine. “If everyone is doing the same thing, like going to Mustique, these kinds of programs really make you feel extraordinary.”
 
The Hotel Room Of The Future Is Here
The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware reports that in Room 114 at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel at the University of Delaware, it takes more than reaching over and pressing the snooze button to silence the alarm clock. In addition to bleating an ear-splitting tune at the designated wake-up time, the gadget jumps off the dresser and hides in a corner, forcing sleepy users to get out of bed.
The showerhead in the bathroom has 70% stronger water pressure than the average fixture, but uses 70% less water.
When visitors arrive, there's no looking through a peephole. Instead of glass, the hole in the door contains a digital video camera connected to an LCD screen mounted on the inside of the door.
Room 114 is unique for now, but researchers at the University of Delaware hope it won't always be that way. They're using the experimental "guest room of the future" to test new technology in a real hotel environment.
Visitors and UD students studying hospitality can try the products. Their feedback helps industry insiders figure out which gadgets should be rolled out at hotel chains worldwide and which need more work.
"It's a living learning lab of lodging technology," said William Sullivan, managing director of the hotel.
 
Frequent Traveler: How To Get A Good Night's Sleep
Hotels have woken up to the challenge of ensuring guests get a good night's sleep, a challenge well known to stressed-out road warriors in a strange bed in a strange town, however luxurious the hotel may be says the International Herald Tribune.
Following Travelodge's concern about growing numbers of sleepwalking guests, Crowne Plaza has teamed up with the sleep expert Dr. Chris ("Dr Sleep") Idzikowski, director of the Edinburgh Sleep Center, to come up with a formula in a bid to halt the sleepless epidemic during which travelers are losing a night's sleep a week.
"Work-related stress is a major factor causing a sleepless night; checking your work emails before bed on any electronic device is essentially the equivalent to drinking double espresso last thing," Idzikowski said. "We have shown that light from a laptop or Blackberry is concentrated enough to signal the brain to stop secreting melatonin, the natural hormone that produces sleep."
Idzikowski's recipe for a good night's sleep is to allow at least an hour of non-work-related activity, to empty the mind, to wind down, however late it is, along with silence, darkness and comfort.
"After a business meeting, go to your hotel room, sort out the results, what you're going to do, put that aside," Idzikowski said. "A hot bath can be relaxing, especially for women; there is no point in going to bed and not sleeping. Caffeine: a general rule is to avoid it for six to seven hours before you turn in. I am pro-alcohol; a nightcap is not a bad idea, but low doses basically. Above 80 milligrams it is catalyzed down, the brain reacts to lack of it, you get a rebound effect, and three to four hours later you wake up again."
 
Would You Care For A Cabernet Or Merlot With That Guinea Pig?
Ever wonder whether a cabernet sauvignon or merlot would best complement your childhood pet?
It might be a dilemma if you visit the coastal Peruvian capital, where chefs have turned guinea pig, a staple protein of the Andes, into a gourmet dish.
Associated Press says that five years ago, chef Marilu Madueno added cuy, as guinea pigs are locally known, to the menu at La Huaca Pucllana, an exclusive Lima restaurant popular with tourists that overlooks a pre-Inca temple.
When she created the restaurant's menu, Madueno correctly guessed that by chopping off the unsightly head and paws ─ cuy is traditionally served whole in the Andes ─ it would sell better.
"We're seeing cuy ordered more and more," said Madueno, who estimates she sells about 30 a week at about $14 a plate.
 
Zimbabwe Tourism Grows
Zimbabwe's tourism sector is on the path to full recovery and poised to reclaim its place as one of the country’s top foreign currency earners.
As of last month, tourism was said to have raked in US$59,7 million this year with safari hunting contributing 36% of the earnings, the report said.
During the first half of the year, the number of tourists arriving in the country was estimated to have grown by 34% from 1,1 million to 1,4 million as compared to the same period last year.
Growing numbers of tourists were coming from other African countries and the Far East. Visitors from African countries accounted for 90% of tourist arrivals.
"According to official statistics, the share of African tourists increased by 23% from 917,472 last year to 1,132,575 this year," says Hotel Travel News.
The country also signed a memorandum of understanding on tourism with Angola to promote tourism co-operation between the two countries and the tourism authority was signing up international artistes to sign up as tourism ambassadors in their various countries.
 
Indonesia Launches VIY 2008 To Promote Tourism 
The Indonesian Culture and Tourism Ministry has launched "Visit Indonesia Year (VIY) 2008" in an effort to attract more foreign tourists to the country, BVOM reported.
It is projected that 7 million foreign tourists will visit Indonesia during the VIY 2008, and the VIY 2008 was aimed at improving the people's welfare through the development of the tourism sector, the report quoted the minister as saying.
Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik said although the tourist arrivals in Indonesia in 2006 was 5.5 million less than its target of 6 million, he was still optimistic that the 7 million target for 2008 would be reached.
"We have prepared more than 100 events across the country in a bid to increase the foreign tourist arrivals," Jero Wacik said before striking a gong marking the commencement VIY 2008.
He called all tourism business people and the public in general to become a good host by being hospitable, help maintain security, and keep their regions clean.
Jero Wacik said his office has prepared 15 million U.S. dollars which will be used to promote the VIY 2008 all over the world, among others, through advertisements on overseas TV stations.
 
Record Year For Irish Tourism
The Irish Emigrant reports that in its annual report for 2007, the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation estimated that a record 7.8 million people visited Ireland during the year. That was 4% up on the previous year.
Almost half the total came from Britain but that 3.8 million total was the same as the previous year. In percentage terms the big increases in visitor numbers came from Scandinavia, (+47), Spain (+28%) and France (+13%). Visitor numbers from the US were up by 3.35%. Spending by the 7.8 million visitors was put at €4bn and it was claimed that this generated €2.5bn for the Exchequer in taxes.
 
Rich Media Trumps Traveler Reviews In Influencing Travel Bookings
When it comes to making travel purchasing decisions, most American travelers would rather see the options for themselves than simply act on the recommendations of others. In fact, says ehotelier, travelers want to view the options in detail via pictures, online maps and video.
"For travel shoppers, seeing really is believing. The fact that travelers find these visual tools to be so influential suggests that online rich media, including content-rich, three-dimensional maps, will be an increasingly important part of the travel-planning process," said Cathy Schetzina, director, research at PhoCusWright. "Traveler review sites that incorporate these visual elements are likely to be more appealing."
The growth of Web 2.0 technologies has garnered a great deal of attention in the past several years and has been accompanied by a parallel phenomenon in travel, known collectively as Travel 2.0. The term Travel 2.0 was first coined by PhoCusWright Inc. in late 2004, and The PhoCusWright Travel 2.0 Consumer Technology Survey is part of the organization's ongoing efforts to trace Travel 2.0's development throughout the travel industry.
 
Air Canada May Have Passengers “Self Tag” Their Bags
Air Canada persuaded you to check yourself in and print your own boarding pass. Now the country's largest airline wants you to take care of your own bags says The Globe and Mail.
Consumers will save time by "self-tagging" luggage after using electronic check-in kiosks at airports, says Air Canada chief executive Montie Brewer. He envisages travellers embracing the concept, similar to the way bank customers gravitated to automated banking machines in the mid-1980s to avoid lineups at bank wickets.
The same kiosks that spit out boarding passes have been reprogrammed to also print baggage tags as part of a trial project in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
By the end of 2008, pending approval from Transport Canada and various airport authorities, Air Canada's self-tagging option is scheduled to be unveiled in Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Halifax.
 
Boeing To Test Aviation Biofuels
The blog Wired reports that Boeing ill begin testing jet fuel derived from algae and other biomass and says biofuels could become a feasible alternative within five years.
Faced with soaring fuel costs and the threat of tighter emissions regulations on both sides of the Atlantic, the airline industry is scrambling to find a cheaper, cleaner alternative to fossil fuels. Boeing says biofuel may be the answer.
Bill Glover, the company's director of environmental strategy, tells Flight Global Boeing's laboratory tests confirmed the practicality of producing jet fuel from a wider variety of feedstocks than previously believed and it thinks aviation biofuel can be mass-produced affordably.
The company plans to test the fuel during demonstration flights of 747s by Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand.
 
Study: Hispanic Consumers More Receptive To Email Marketing 
Hispanics welcome email communication from companies they know up to 11 times a month, while non-Hispanic consumers tolerate such emails only up to 7.4 times a month, according to new research from Mintel Comperemedia.
"This population is certainly more receptive to marketing and offers," says Carmen Curran, senior email analyst at Chicago-based Mintel Comperemedia. Hispanics tend to spend more time online while at home than the general population (9.2 hours per week versus 8.5 hours), so receiving information and offers through email makes sense to them, she says.
The same holds true regarding receiving emails from companies they do not know, Curran tells Marketing Daily. The company has conducted the research regarding email receptivity for two quarters. While the number of Hispanics who are receptive to email marketing increased overall, the number of non-Hispanics who are receptive to email marketing decreased from quarter to quarter, she says.
When a relationship with a company was established, 26% of non-Hispanics said they would never want to receive "new offer notifications" compared to only 17% of Hispanics, she says. The same holds true for "special rewards/incentive opportunities" ─ 23% versus 13%; "newsletters" ─ 25% versus 13%, and "coupons/discounts/special promotions" ─ 21% versus 13%.
Marketers are beginning to pay heed, with more offering Spanish-language options on their Web sites and in other communications. But most of these are verbatim translations of the English versions. Forward-thinking marketers may want to consider new communications targeted specifically to Hispanics, she says.
In addition, the Hispanic population is young, with a median age of 27.2 years compared to the overall population at 36.2 years. Younger consumers gravitate toward Internet-based services and communications like email.
 
Merger Creates Fifth Largest Travel Site
The merger of the two biggest brands in travel search could mean more comprehensive rates and availability data, a larger portfolio of products and services and an overall improved customer experience, according to Kayak.com and SideStep.com.
Kayak, the world's largest travel search engine, said it will use $196 million in new financing to complete the merger. The move will create the fifth largest travel site.
Kayak.com's merger with SideStep.com reshapes the largest sector in online commerce," said Michael Moritz, a partner at Sequoia Capital, who is joining Kayak's board of directors.
As the fifth largest travel brand, says TravelMole, the site will have more monthly visitors than Price and every airline except Southwest. The site will also beat out every hotel and rental car brand. Consumers will conduct more than 33 million searches on Kayak.com and its affiliates in January 2008, up from 16 million in January 2007, according to the company.
 
A Room With Nothing To Sneeze About
Slowly, ever so slowly, hotels are recognizing that travelers who suffer from severe asthma and allergies triggered by dust mites, mold, smoke, pollen, chemicals and animal dander might like to stay in hypoallergenic rooms -- for a price says the Chicago Tribune.
With as many as one in four travelers coughing, sneezing and wheezing their way through the day, or night, the thought crossed a few minds to develop hotel rooms that are free of all the nasty stuff that causes guests to feel as if their airways are clogging. Not that many didn't feel that way before checking in. But to find relief in a hotel room, what a surprise.
The fact that a cat or dog stayed in the room you are about to occupy is not as far-fetched as you would think. A survey by the American Hotel & Lodging Association showed that 50% of all responding hotels allow pets. And AAA's "Traveling With Your Pet" lists more than 13,000 pet-friendly lodgings.
For the asthmatic looking for relief and not a surprise at a hotel, Pure Rooms or Enviro-Rooms are the answer. Both are cleansed by different processes to rid a room of disgusting germs and keep it allergen-free, but finding a bacteria/virus-free, mite-free, pollen-free, dust-free, chemical-free, dander-free room is a challenge because the number of hotels that offer these special rooms is minuscule.
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, which has tested a full floor of Pure Rooms in Chicago-suburban Lisle, and in its Miami Airport and Peachtree City, Ga., properties, plans to have a number of Pure Rooms installed in its 20 company-managed hotels in 2008, and then in 200 franchised hostelries in 2009.
Wyndham is the largest chain to commit to Pure Rooms. "We received favorable comments when we test-marketed the rooms so we decided to roll it out for all our properties, about 10% of the rooms as well as conference rooms," said Faith Taylor, Wyndham's vice president of product development and innovation. "Guests will pay from 7 to 10% more for these rooms"
 
Questions Arise As Airlines Introduce Internet In Flight
Seat 17D is yapping endlessly on an Internet phone call. Seat 16F is flaming Seat 16D with expletive-laden chats. Seat 16E is too busy surfing porn sites to care. Seat 17C just wants to sleep.
Welcome to the promise of the Internet at 33,000 feet and the questions of etiquette, openness and free speech that airlines and service providers will have to grapple with as they bring Internet access to the skies in the coming months.
"This gets into a ticklish area," said Vint Cerf, one of the Internet's chief inventors and generally a critic of network restrictions. "Airlines have to be sensitive to the fact that customers are (seated) close together and may be able to see each other's PC screens. More to the point, young people are often aboard the plane."
A recent article in The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that as technology providers and airlines are already making decisions. Some will block services such as Internet phone calls altogether, while others will put limits and install filters on content. And traffic management tools that are frowned upon on terra firma could be commonplace in the air.
Panasonic Avionics Corp., a Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. unit testing airborne services on Australia's Qantas Airways Ltd., is designing its high-speed Internet services to block sites on "an objectionable list," including porn and violence, said David Bruner, executive director for corporate sales and marketing.
He said airlines based in more restrictive countries could choose to expand the list.
 
Poll: The More People Travel, The Less They Like TSA.
Hand sanitizer makes it through security in one airport, then it's confiscated at another. Screening lines back up because only two of six lanes are open. And then there's the occasional all-too-intimate patdown. Those complaints and other frustrations make the nation's airport security agency about as popular as the IRS.
Indeed, only the Federal Emergency Management Agency, still suffering from its mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, ranks below the Transportation Security Administration among the least-liked federal agencies, according to a new Associated Press-Ipsos poll.
TSA tied with the perennially unpopular tax collectors in a favorability ranking of a dozen executive branch agencies. "I am so frustrated with TSA that I am ready to stop flying," one traveler wrote in a Sept. 7 complaint filed with the agency. "I'm sure this doesn't matter to you because my tax dollars are already paying you."
The AP poll, conducted Monday through Wednesday, found that the more people travel, the less they like TSA. But it also found that 53% of air travelers think TSA does a "very" or "somewhat" good job.
The inconvenience of security was the top complaint of air travelers, mentioned by 31% of those who had taken at least one trip in the past year. That figure rose to 40% for those who have taken five to 10 trips.
TSA's parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, also ranked at the bottom of an index of consumer satisfaction released this week, supplanting the IRS as the prime subject of grumbling in that survey. The authoritative American Customer Satisfaction Index questioned 10,000 people about their experiences with the federal government.
 
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