March 1, 2007

 Research - Travel And The Internet
One of the greatest impacts the Internet has had on consumer behavior is the planning and purchase of travel. The impact has been so great that researching or purchasing travel outside of the Internet is an unknown (and impossible to fathom) experience for many consumers.
The rush of travel consumers to the Internet has led to an online travel marketplace estimated at $68 billion – and that is in the US only. Furthermore, in a new report from PhoCusWright Research, this year for the first time online transactions will account for over half of all U.S. travel bookings. To better understand the Internet’s impact on travel planning and purchasing, Burst recently surveyed over 2,100 web users 18 years and older who plan to travel in the next three months about their use of the web as a travel resource.
The Burst study focused on the use of the web as a travel research tool and a means to purchase travel products. The study found that four out of five (79.0%) respondents will use the Internet to plan their upcoming personal travel. There is no difference in the number of men (79.9%) or women (78.1%) who will use the Internet to plan their travel; and similar numbers of all age as well as income segments will use the Internet for trip planning.
Among respondents who will utilize the Internet to plan their upcoming travel, nearly half (47.2%) say the Internet will be their primary travel resource. Among age segments, respondents 25-34 years are most likely to say the Internet will be their primary travel resource (53.2%); and respondents 55 years and older are least likely (41.4%).
Additionally, half (51.8%) of respondents reporting household income (HHI) of $75,000-$99,999, and nearly two-thirds (63.1%) of respondents reporting HHI of $100,000 or more say the Internet will be their primary travel resource.
 
Hotel Trend: Leave The Kids At Home
So here it is, says Smart Money, and right in front of us lies the perfect Caribbean cliché: The sun sparkles on the pool as a calypso band plays and waiters circulate trays of rum punch. The air is full of the gentle clinking of Corona bottles and the murmur of lounging couples comparing the day's tan lines. But one sound is conspicuously missing here at the Renaissance Aruba Resort & Casino's Marina Hotel ─ the pitter-patter of little feet.
There's a reason for that. Starting this year, not just the pool but the hotel itself was declared off-limits for the underage set. In fact, the entire resort has been split in two, with its pools, beaches and rooms divvied up between families and child-free adults like so many slices of pie. The adults come out of the deal with the glitzy Marina Hotel, its fitness room, the spa and even Flamingo Beach, part of the hotel's private island. Families, on the other hand, get the more low-profile Renaissance Ocean Suites, where perks like the Marina's infinity pool and martini menu have been replaced by swing sets and barbecue buffets.
You don't have to go to Aruba to find this latest travel trend. In a stunning reversal of the family-friendly travel movement, hotels are starting to take the opposite approach when it comes to children: banning them. While few have gone as far as the Renaissance, hotels from Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage, Calif., to Vermont's Topnotch Resort & Spa are adding adults-only amenities.
Even Atlantis, Bahamian granddaddy of the family-friendly movement, is adding a sleek new adult-oriented hotel, complete with kid-free pool and bar areas. Visitors to Cambridge Beaches in Bermuda, meanwhile, are welcome to bring kids under five ─ provided they have a full-time nanny in tow.
 
Hispanic Ad Growth To Outpace General Market
According to a new study from Kagan Research, Hispanic advertising growth is expected to outpace that of the general market, reaching $5.5 billion in gross advertising revenue by 2010. The study forecasts bigger revenue growth curves for cable nets in the next several years, with projected growth of 32% from 2002 to 2010, versus 12.5% for broadcast networks.
Deana Myers, senior analyst for Kagan Research, says "The rapid rise in population and purchasing power has made the Hispanic TV and radio audience a highly desirable market for networks, content owners and advertisers..."
According to MediaPost some of the key findings of the report include:
U.S. Tourism Rises To Pre-Sept.11 Levels
International tourists spent a record amount in the U.S. last year, according to government data, beating the previous high set before the 2001 terrorist attacks, Associated Press has reported.
International travelers spent more than $107 billion last year - an amount that includes food, lodging, recreation, gifts, plane fares and cruise fares, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. That's up from an earlier record of $103 billion spent in 2000.
"We have seen full recovery in spending by visitors to the United States since September 11," Ana Guevara, the Commerce Department's deputy assistant secretary for services said in a prepared statement. "This is good news for the U.S. travel and tourism industry, which employed 8.3 million Americans last year."
 
Fitting In A Workout On The Fly Is Getting Easier
Fitness-oriented road warriors often fantasize about jumping out of bed at the crack of dawn and rushing to a gleaming hotel gym for a pep-inducing workout. The reality is that the crack of dawn arrives way too early. And the hotel "gym" often turns out to be nothing more than a wobbly stationary bike, a worn treadmill and a mismatched pile of free weights.
If your travels take you to the right place, the airport could turn out to be the place you get your dream workout on the road, says USA Today.
About half a dozen airports have fitness clubs either right in the terminal or in hotels attached to a terminal. Offering day passes at $15 or less, these clubs can include everything from the latest workout equipment to lap pools, whirlpool tubs, saunas and spa and massage services. All have showers and a few sell T-shirts, shorts, swimsuits and other items travelers may need for their workouts.
Right now, Las Vegas McCarran seems to be the only airport in North America with a stand-alone on-site gym.
 
Japan's Powdery Slopes Emerge As Hot New International Ski Magnet
American skiers have the Rockies, Europeans the Alps. But for increasingly affluent Asia, Japan's powdery slopes are emerging as the top international draw from Shanghai to Sydney, reports Associated Press.
Even as skiing wanes in popularity at home, Japanese mountain villages like Niseko are trading on their fabulous snow, high-tech infrastructure and reasonable prices to thrive as snowbound boom towns. International investors are also taking a keen interest in Japanese resorts as the region's skiers increasingly eschew the likes of Aspen and Davos for the pure powder next door. "Japan is at the top in Asia in terms of skiing. For good skiers, they know that," said Patrick So, a 40-year-old Hong Kong financier spending a week on the slopes of Niseko's 3,924-foot Mount An'nupuri.
Certifying its winter sports pedigree, Japan has twice hosted the Winter Olympics and offers some 620 ski resorts. While the country lacks the stratospheric peaks of Europe or North America ─ Mount Fuji is the tallest mountain at only 12,385-feet ─ Japan has no shortage of good snow.
 
Ferry Travel On The Upturn
Ferries operating from the UK saw a 400,000 increase in passenger journeys last year over 2005, stemming a long period of decline. According to TravelMole almost 36 million passenger ferry journeys were taken between British ports and the continent, Ireland and British islands in 2006, according to the Passenger Shipping Association.
"This is a significant upturn for the ferry industry considering that there have been several consecutive years of falling numbers travelling by sea," the PSA said. Car journeys on short sea routes from Dover increased by almost 4% with the three main operators Norfolk line, P&O and SeaFrance all showing increased carryings.
Ferry travelers particularly like the advantage of having no baggage restrictions especially as more airlines begin to charge for extra luggage, according to the association. 
 
Hotel Lobbies Get A Luxury Makeover
Hotel guests really shouldn't miss the next big thing in lodging: the lobby. Having added softer beds, baths with two shower heads and loads of marble to rooms, hoteliers now see their oft-neglected biggest room as the new draw says CNN/Money. The level of luxury in the average guest room has risen in recent years as hotels compete for guests willing to pay top dollar for a good night's rest in a sweet suite.
With the industry now recovered and growing well, hotel executives say the search is on for new ways to stand out, from urban-style loft accommodations to self-service kiosks that let guests zip past lines and straight up to their rooms. At least two major chains want customers to spend more time in their lobbies, turning low-income, unfriendly caverns into money-producing advertisements for their brands.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide already refers to the lobby at its W hotels as the living room and urges guests to stay awhile. "Why should they be leaving the hotel and hanging out at the nearby Starbucks?" Starwood Chief Financial Officer Vasant Prabhu said at the Reuters Hotels and Casinos 2007 Summit in Los Angeles this week. Next, Starwood wants to make technology a feature at Sheratons with an Internet lobby lounge concept - "Link + Sheraton."
Rival Marriott is thinking along the same lines. "Those lobbies have been too quiet," Chief Financial Officer Arne Sorenson told the summit. The hotel chain is considering open-plan lobbies with restaurants, for instance. Like Hilton Hotels, Marriott is considering self-service check-in booths.
But Sorenson argued that service would still be the top criterion, and that even a quick response to a plugged toilet could build loyalty, if the customer felt taken care of. "The first point here is, it is all about service," he said. One area of debate is technology. "We don't think technology of itself can make money, because it is expected," said Laurence Geller, chief executive of luxury hotel owner Strategic Hotels & Resorts. Geller said younger "Generation X" guests and Baby Boomers viewed shopping as a major leisure activity. "You are trained to spend," he told a group of relatively youthful reporters.
 
Revealing X-Ray Scanner Makes Its Debut
The nation's newest airport-security machine scanned traveler John DeSoto this weekend and found something that had eluded metal detectors in the past: the thin gold chain and cross he wears under his shirt.
Backscatter X-ray, which photographs passengers under their clothing, could close a major security loophole by finding plastic bombs strapped to a terrorist's chest or other hidden non-metal weapons reports USA Today. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) began testing the advanced technology on Friday at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and vows to find items elusive to metal detectors and more consequential than jewelry. "It's a new day in aviation security," said TSA technology chief Michael Golden.
Advanced scanners became a higher priority in August after authorities foiled an alleged plot by terrorists in Britain to bomb U.S.-bound airplanes with liquid explosives. Similar machines will be tested this year at Los Angeles International Airport and New York's Kennedy International Airport and could be installed in airports across the USA.
The test, slated to last several months, will determine how well the machine finds weapons, how quickly it scans passengers and how people feel about a device the American Civil Liberties Union has branded a "virtual strip search." The TSA ordered the machines modified to produce cartoon-like sketches of passengers instead of the graphic photos backscatter ordinarily generates.
 
VisitBritain To Vet UK Spas
VisitBritain has used the Professional Spa Show in London to launch its new National Spa Accreditation Scheme says TravelMole.
Supported by the Spa Business Association and the British International Spa Association, the scheme measures spa facilities against a quality benchmark and ensures consumers get reassurance and confidence that spas have met minimum standards for health and safety, cleanliness and service.
Spas that outperform will be granted a gold award at the end of the year.
Seventeen spas in the UK have participated in a pilot of the scheme, which has now gone nationwide.
 
Central & South America Hotel Performance Review
Will the real Latin America please step forward – in one corner, political instability, boom and bust economics and severe social problems, in the other, vibrant multi-ethnic cultures, cosmopolitan cities and unrivalled natural beauty.
In 2006 the region was finally stepping out of the shadows of 2001-02. With both the Central American (+8.7%) and South American (+8.1%) regions exceeding the global average for tourist arrivals by some distance, the hospitality industry is happy.
Investors’ confidence levels are also rising reports HotelBenchmark™. South American nations are enjoying an influx of capital from Western Europe, while Central America is benefiting from its proximity to the USA, often in the form of large high-end projects such as golf resorts and residences. International hotel chains are also setting up home, with cities such as Buenos Aires, Caracas and Santiago seeing the supply of the four and five-star rooms swell.
While no Latin American city makes the top 20 of the revPAR GRI, many cities are climbing back from their post-Millennium lows. Only two cities – Santiago and Lima - have overtaken 2000 levels while other cities continue to move up the index. Rio de Janiero leads the region in 61st place, followed by Buenos Aires and Mexico City, at 62nd and 70th place respectively.
 
Big U.S. Airlines Face Obstacles Updating Fleets
The nation's biggest airlines, back on firmer financial ground after a five-year slump, are eager to start replacing their aging aircraft fleets, but they face some major obstacles reports The Wall Street Journal.
Among their biggest challenges: finding enough new airplanes to meet their needs, figuring out a way to pay for them and deciding how long they can afford to wait in line for delivery. If they don't succeed, the consequences could include more delays for air travelers. (See related article.)
During the slump that began in 2001, the major U.S. carriers sat on the sidelines, focusing on cost cutting, while their foreign rivals went on a buying spree. Now, production at Boeing Co. and Airbus, the world's leading aircraft makers, is sold out until 2011.
Moreover, the nation's biggest potential aircraft buyers -- AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, UAL Corp.'s United Airlines and Delta Air Lines Inc. -- would prefer "new-generation" single-aisle planes that Boeing and Airbus haven't even designed yet, rather than derivatives of 737s and A320s that have been available for decades.
Another potential hitch: With their balance sheets battered by years of financial crisis, the big airlines aren't in a position, at least for now, to commit billions of dollars to buying planes over the next few years. But if they don't start buying them soon, many of their planes will be nearing 25 years of age, when it typically makes more economic sense to replace them than to keep operating them.
Though those older planes can still fly safely, they are less reliable, developing more mechanical problems that can lead to delays and cancellations. The older planes also tend to have noisier engines and lack passenger entertainment systems.
 
The Do-It-Yourself Spa
At the Pearl Spa in suburban Baltimore it's a full-body mud pack you apply yourself. The Townhouse Spa, off Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, offers a massage treatment delivered by a robot. And coming soon to Canyon Ranch's Las Vegas outpost: self-serve stations for salt scrubs and aloe rubs.
In opulent marble halls and jasmine-scented rooms across the country, the $9.7 billion spa industry is pushing an unusual new form of pampering: do-it-yourself. Saddled with costly overhead from a building spree that has seen the number of U.S. spas climb 35% in two years, operators are devising a new generation of treatments that save on labor costs by getting customers to do more of the work. The result is a variety of self-service treatments -- with some spas explicitly touting their solo options in hope of tempting shy spa-goers and others playing up the social aspect of packages where friends or spouses paint each other with exfoliating clay.
Spas say rising competition -- combined with a growing mini-industry of spa consultants who scrutinize costs -- has even the most renowned names looking at this approach. Demand isn't keeping up with the industry's expansion: Over the past two years, the number of spa visits rose only 20%, according to ISPA, the industry trade group. Expansion has also driven up labor costs, with trained massage or facial therapists now earning upwards of $50 an hour. Overall, labor was up 8% in the past year alone, estimates Robert Mandelbaum, a research director with hospitality consultant company PKF Consulting.
The Wall Street Journal says the self-serve approach helps trim those labor costs and has some novelty appeal for frequent spa goers obsessed with trying the newest treatments. But it's also risky. For luxury spas "the point of difference is human interaction," says Craig Reid, senior vice president of operations, Americas, for the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. A full day at a top spa can cost upwards of $1,000. At prices like those, some consumers say they want other people to do all the work.
 
Ads On Board
They're already plastered on subway turnstiles, bathroom stalls and school buses. They almost made it onto tollbooths at the George Washington Bridge in New York.
Advertisements are now increasingly appearing in the world of aviation. Think tray tables, cocktail napkins and, yes, even motion-sickness bags says the Rocky Mountain News.
The moves come as carriers look to boost revenue amid higher fuel costs and historically low fares, which have chipped away at the industry's bottom line. Even the government is getting in on the game, unrolling a pilot program that allows airports to sell ads on the plastic tubs at security checkpoints. As part of the deal, participating advertisers pay for new bins, tables and carts at the security checkpoints.
"The industry is clearly loosening up," said Travis Christ, vice president of marketing at US Airways. "There are still some carriers that are nervous and concerned about the effect these types of ads might have on passengers. But as every day goes by, we continue to see the barriers come down."
US Airways has been a key force in helping the industry chip away at advertising barriers. The Tempe, Ariz.-based carrier, which recently merged with America West Airlines, has been perhaps the most aggressive U.S. carrier.
It runs ads on its tray tables from such companies as Mercedes-Benz and the History Channel, and the carrier promotes its partners on cocktail napkins and cups. It has painted some of its planes with the colors and logos of National Football League teams, and it recently opened up its motion-sickness bags to ads - although the carrier has yet to strike a deal with an advertiser.
US Airways has said the moves generate millions of dollars annually. "It's been a nice source of ancillary revenue in an industry where costs have gotten so out of control," Christ said. US Airways hasn't seen a customer backlash, Christ said, and in fact has received more positive than negative comments from its passengers.
 
Vietnam To Build More Hotels To Meet Growing Demand
Vietnam plans to have 170,000 new hotel rooms by 2010 to meet the demands of growing numbers of foreign and domestic tourists says a report by Yahoo! Finance. The new hotels would help in catering to six million foreign visitors and 21 million domestic visitors travelling across the nation during the next three years, said deputy head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), Hoang Tuan Anh.
The administration estimates that the number of visitors will be higher than initially expected, said Anh. The VNAT has invested in infrastructure construction and has called for more investment into the hotel sector. In 2006, the country spent a total of VND620 billion $US38.7 million) on improving tourism infrastructure. The figure was set to rise by VND110 billion across 2007, said Anh.
Vietnam has 142,000 hotel rooms at 7,065 places of accommodation, including 25 five-star hotels, 64 four-star hotels and 135 three-star hotels. Demand for three-five star hotels had increased in recent years, due to the great growth of foreign and domestic visitors, said Anh.
 
Hotel Group To Invest In South Africa
A joint venture between German hotel chain Arabella Holdings International and US-based Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide planned to invest billions of rands in South Africa, Heinz Grubb, its new chief operating officer in South Africa and Namibia, said this week.
The joint venture already owns the Arabella Grand Hotel in Cape Town, the five-star Western Cape Hotel and Spa on the Arabella golf estate near Hermanus, the Blaauwklippen wine farm and agricultural estate at Stellenbosch, and the Paulaner Brauhaus restaurant at Cape Town's Victoria & Alfred (V&A) Waterfront.
According to South Africa’s Business Report Grubb said it aimed at eight or nine new hotels in South Africa and Namibia, with the first two in Johannesburg and Durban. At current prices, the venture would invest an average of between R1 million and R2 million for each room.
 
Travel Web Sites Clamp Down On Bogus Reviews
Travel Web sites, such as Priceline.com Inc. and Expedia Inc., are clamping down on fake online consumer reviews of hotels, which could undermine a growth area says the Washington Post. Trustworthy sources of information are sometimes difficult to find on the Internet, and user reviews have become a way for many sites to offer apparently unbiased opinions -- at a low cost to the Web companies. But the authenticity of the opinions has not always been reliable.
"We have certainly seen instances with other properties where insiders have put reviews up for a particular hotel or a particular thing and it's not a legitimate review," said Jeff Boyd, Priceline.com's Chief Executive. "It's somebody who's in effect been paid to make the property look good." Boyd said, speaking at the Reuters Hotels and Casinos 2007 Summit in Los Angeles this week.
There's a lot at stake. About $69 billion were spent last year at online travel sites, up 13% from a year ago, according to research firm comScore. Expedia's TripAdvisor, the largest hotel review site with more than 5 million reviews, says that 97% of reviewers return to the site to plan their next trip.
Priceline.com says it addresses the problem of bogus reviews by only allowing users to post opinions if its records show that the person has stayed at the hotel.
Every review on TripAdvisor is read by a person trained in fraud detection. If a fake review does slip through, it is taken down immediately, and hotels seeking to "game the system" are penalized, said TripAdvisor spokesman Brooke Ferencsik.
 
More Tour Operators Highlight Educational Travel
Universities and museums have organized learning-oriented trips in the past, but the trend has been booming in recent years and is now becoming part of the mainstream business of the travel industry, reports USA Today.
For universities, alumni travel programs offer another method of fundraising and a means of tightening bonds with their alumni and encouraging future donations. For travel companies, extra features like lectures from scholars help sign up customers for group travel, especially sophisticated baby boomers and people who have ever more options for booking discounted flights and hotels online.
Boutique tour operators have been rolling out more educational trips to exotic lands, and large well-heeled operators like Abercrombie & Kent say they have seen a surge in interest in that kind of travel.
Abercrombie & Kent runs educational tours for Harvard and other universities, but has also seen growth in non-university sponsored tours that it markets directly to the public. It recently announced a series of educational trips done in conjunction with The Nature Conservancy.
The trips aren't necessarily for those on a budget: Abercrombie's 13-day trip to Brazil with The Nature Conservancy costs $7,840, and an 11-day trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos costs $9,350.
Companies that traditionally operated basic package tours are also finding their way into offering more value-added services like educational trips, says David Cogswell, a senior editor at Travel Weekly, an industry publication.
First Choice, a large package holiday company based in Britain, found profits under pressure as more people book cheap flights and hotel rooms on their own. That led it to purchase more than 10 operators of more hands-on, "experiential" travel, Cogswell said.
 
Chic Boutique Hotels
Back in the '90s, guests knew what to expect when checking into a "boutique" hotel: cutting-edge design, gorgeous staff, fewer rooms than the big chains, and the city's hottest bars and restaurants no farther than the lobby.
Today, with the travel industry slapping the "boutique" label on mid-market franchises and 200-room boxes, it seems to have become little more than a marketing gimmick. Companies such as Starwood Hotels and Resorts and Canada's Germain Group are taking style to the masses with the launch of their new cheap-chic chains, Aloft Hotels and Alt Hotels, respectively, but that doesn't do much good for the boutique hotel's exclusive image.
"The term ‘boutique' is greatly overused and, as a result, is often confused and misconstrued," said Imran Hussain, media relations manager for London-based myhotels, which operates small-scale, design-focused hotels in the city's fashionable Chelsea and Bloomsbury neighborhoods. "Unfortunately it seems to have become a buzzword of sorts, no longer meaning quirky or independent but now served with a more mass-marketed approach."
What's more, says Forbes, plenty of customers have grown leery of the original boutique concept, usually credited to hotel impresario Ian Schrager, who opened the Morgans Hotel in New York City 1984. Why? Those minimalist rooms often turned out to be cramped and uncomfortable, the cooler-than-thou bars sometimes turned away hotel guests, and the comely staff could be clueless about service.
Luckily, rumors of the boutique hotel's demise have been greatly exaggerated. You can still find hotels that are small enough to create an intimate feel, genuinely stylish and luxuriously comfortable to boot. In fact, a slew have opened in the last year, and more are on the way.
 
Intercontinental Hotels Signals Sale Of 'Trophy Asset' Hotels
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC today signaled the sale of its top four 'trophy assets' -- the London, Paris, New York and Hong Kong hotels -- and that further cash returns to shareholders were likely as further disposals and the group's strong cash generation continued to strengthen its financial position.
Forbes reports the hotels group also announced the return of 850 mln stg of surplus cash to shareholders, bringing the total amount returned since its demerger from Six Continents in March 2004 to 3.6 bln stg. 'We'll look at each hotel in turn,' group chief executive Andrew Cosslett told AFX News in a telephone interview this morning.
'We currently own 25 hotels with a book value of 1 bln stg, the bulk of which is represented by our top four InterContinental Hotels. Provided we can get additional brand representation in these key cities and the financial numbers added up, then we would consider selling them,' he added.
 
Major Expansion At London City For Air France
Air France is adding eight new routes to its network out of London City Airport. Five of the new services will be run by its partner CityJet to Geneva, Madrid, Milan Linate, Nice and Zurich. The other three will be operated by niche carrier ScotAirways to Edinburgh, Dundee and Belfast Harbour Airport reports an article in BusinessTravelEurope.
The new routes are in addition to CityJet’s existing services for Air France to Paris Orly and Dublin.
The new routes will open on March 26 and use Avro RJ 85 aircraft seating 95 passengers. Air France boosting of its London City network follows similar plans by both BA and Lufthansa/Swissair both of whom are increasing their routes out of the London Docklands airport. Many of the new services by the three major carriers are aimed at capturing the lucrative premium class business out of London City.
 
Top Ten Technology Issues In The Hospitality Industry For 2007  
At the recent ISHC Annual Conference in Miami, Florida, ISHC members held a series of roundtable discussions to identify the ISHC Top Ten Issues in the Hospitality Industry for 2007. According to Hotel-Online the debate reviewed over 100 different topics in depth, and "Technology" was identified as #3 of the Top Ten Issues expected to have the greatest impact on the hospitality industry for 2007.
Although the challenge of keeping up with technological change was nominated as the most important single issue, the discussions identified several other significant aspects of technology's impact. Following the conference, ISHC members with specialty technology expertise convened to review these topics further, and have developed them into the following ISHC Top Ten Technology Issues for 2007:
1. Need to Move Off Legacy Systems
2. Data and System Security
3. Need For Still Tighter Integration
4. Software on Demand Increasingly Attractive
5. Making Data Mining and BI Effective Amidst Data Overload
6. Better User Interfaces, Ease Of Use
7. Impact of Mobile Devices
8. Impact of Growing Use of Rich Media
9. Affordability/ROI
10. Appropriate Use and Level of Technology
 
Hilton Unveils Aggressive Limited Service Growth Goals
Hilton Hotels Corp. has told its limited service owners, meeting at the La Quinta Resort & Spa in La Quinta, California that it plans to open 1,000 hotels in North America by 2012 says HotelBusiness.
Hilton, meanwhile, has even more aggressive development goals outside North America. By 2017, the company said it intends to open another 1,000 properties. The vast majority of these would carry the flag of one of its three limited service brands--Hampton Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, and its extended stay product, Homewood Suites by Hilton.
In his opening remarks, president/COO Matthew Hart told the assembled owners, developers, and corporate personnel that 2006's strong growth in distribution at Hampton, Hilton Garden Inn, and Homewood Suites was a bellwether for growth prospects in the coming years. "Hilton Garden Inn opened its 300th hotel in 2006 and has 150 properties in the pipeline," Hart said. Especially relevant is the fact that the 300th property is located in Rome, an international market Hilton wouldn't have had access to had it not acquired Hilton International in early-2006, a deal valued at $5.7 billion.
 
Developers Bet On Red: Casino Planned For Vietnam
An international group of developers hopes to make a remote stretch of beach in Vietnam into the next Asian gambling hotspot says The Wall Street Journal.
Asian Coast Development Ltd. of Toronto, with partners Fontainebleau Resorts, a U.S. resort developer; and Paul Steelman, a Las Vegas-based casino architect, are slated to take part in the planned resort, which awaits approval by the Vietnamese government. The group is proposing a $4 billion resort and casino in a single-party Communist state that tends to attract more backpackers than high-rollers. It would encompass an undeveloped stretch of beach and forest in Xuyen Moc, Ba Ria Vung Tau province. The project, dubbed Ho Tram, would be situated on the South China Sea, a two-hour drive east of Ho Chi Minh City.
"We want to bring the best of America to Vietnam," says Michael Aymong, chairman of Asian Coast. Fanciful plans for the project's first phase feature 10 restaurants, a Greg Norman designed golf course, an 8-acre swimming pool, 1,200 hotel rooms and an 80,000 square foot Las Vegas-style table games casino. The resort's theme would be a "lost city of Vietnam," he says.
During the Vietnam War, the area was mostly out of the fighting and served as a seaside recreation area for American and Australian troops. Later, the capital of the region, Vung Tau, was a launching place for the Vietnamese "boat people" who fled the communist regime in the 1970s and 1980s for places such as Hong Kong.
 
Survey: Insights on Food and Wine Travelers
A first-of-its-kind national survey on the popular culinary travel niche market shows that 27 million travelers, or 17% of American leisure travelers, engaged in culinary or wine-related activities while traveling within the past three years, based on a new report from the Travel Industry Association (TIA), in partnership with Gourmet and the International Culinary Tourism Association. The future is bright for the culinary traveler market, as the share of U.S. leisure travelers interested in culinary travel in the near future (60%) is significantly larger than those currently engaged.
These travelers are younger, more affluent and better educated than non-culinary travelers. They are clearly motivated by unique experiences, reinforcing the benefits of focusing on a destination’s individual environmental and cultural elements. The survey was conducted by Edge Research among a representative sample of 2,364 U.S. leisure traveler respondents.
“The study demonstrates that a sizable proportion of the U.S. leisure market does indeed make travel decisions based on a desire for wine and culinary experiences. In fact, it confirms that wine and culinary experiences are a driver of destination choice,” said Laura Mandala, Vice President of Research for the Travel Industry Association.
Culinary activities participated in while traveling include cooking classes, dining out for a unique and memorable experience, visiting farmers markets, gourmet food shopping and attending food festivals. Wine activities included participating in winery tours, driving a wine trail, tasting locally made wines and attending wine festivals.
“These travelers are also more likely to take local foods and wines back home with them, providing a secondary opportunity for destinations to spread the word about their unique offerings,” said Mandala.
 
Mile High City Reaching New Convention Heights
The major coup for Denver recently was attracting the 2008 Democratic National Convention but the so-called mile high city is also bringing in a lot of other meeting groups according to TravelMole.
This year, a broad mix of groups -- from sellers of fly-fishing gear to storm chasers and science teachers to Japanese animé artists -- picked the Denver area for meetings, conventions and other events for reasons that are just as diverse, said the Denver Business Journal.
Some will come because they've never been here before, and others because of something unique to this area. Still other groups -- from the Rocky Mountain Division of the Train Collector's Association to the Rocky Mountain Animé Association -- will meet in metro Denver because it's a hub for their members.
The area CVB says the city is on track for another record year for conventions. Downtown Denver's Colorado Convention Center was doubled a few years ago. As of late January, 58 conventions with total estimated attendance of 211,395 people had made reservations.
 
Trump To Build $2 Billion Luxury Resort In Dominican Republic
Bloomberg reports that real estate investor Donald Trump and Cap Cana SA will spend more than $2 billion to develop a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic. Cap Cana spokeswoman Melanie Brandman said the project will involve 68 estates built on 1.5 acres of land each. She wouldn't disclose Trump's contribution to the project.
Located on the Eastern tip of the Dominican Republic, Cap Cana spans more than 30,000 acres with over three miles, according to a Cap Cana statement. The completed project will include 5,000 residential units and at least four luxury hotels, as well as three Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Courses, the statement said.
 
Swiss Hotel Industry Association Says Country's High Prices Harm Tourism
Switzerland's high prices are damaging the country's tourism industry, the country's hotel industry association Hotelleriesuisse warned.
According to AFX News the association called for some wide-ranging deregulation and liberalization measures, including an opening of the market to foreign competition.
In a bid to drive down prices, Hotelsuisse also asked the government to lower VAT, a liberalization of the Swiss labor market and a free-trade agreement with the European Union for the agriculture and food sector.
 
UK Survey Reveals Business Travel Growth
Barclaycard reports environmental concerns, budget pressures and advances in communications appear to be having little effect on demand for business travel says ehotelier.
According to the company’s 11th annual Business Travel Survey of 4,000 corporate travellers across the UK, 44% travelled more on business last year than in 2005, with a further 34% travelling the same amount. Of the 44% who had travelled more, 47% cited business expansion either in the UK or abroad as the reason for doing so.
Despite the enlargement of the EU and the rise of the Asian economies, business travel to these regions remained relatively low in 2006. Just 10% of respondents said Eastern Europe was their most frequently visited destination, the same as in 2005, while 6% cited China (2005:7%) and 3% India (2005:4%).
In contrast 73% travelled to the UK and Ireland most often last year, although this was down from 75% in 2005, 51% to Western Europe (2005:56%) and 21% to the US and Canada (2005:23%). Asia Pacific was cited by a further 10% (2005:10%), the Middle East by 6% (2005:2%) and Africa by 5% (2005:3%).
One in five respondents travelled more than 500 miles per week in 2006, with 16% travelling up to 1000 miles. Nearly three-quarters (73%) said the majority of their business travel was within the UK.
 
Westin Hotels Launches Nightly Social Events In Lobbies Worldwide
Westin Hotels & Resorts has debuted a new signature social experience, Unwind… A Westin Evening Ritual, featuring the tastes, sights and sounds of each destination reports ehotelier. From lessons on mixing a Bellini in Venice to learning about fine Scottish Whisky in Turnberry to whipping up a spicy batch of guacamole in Tucson, each of the Westin brand’s 129 hotels worldwide have carefully curated social experiences which are rolling out in hotels over the next month. 
Designed to bring new energy to its hotels, the Westin Unwind events transform each lobby into a gathering spot, encouraging guests to socialize and helping to combat the loneliness many travelers sometimes experience on the road. In fact, a recent study by Westin Hotels & Resorts found that 34% of frequent travelers feel lonely away from home.
 
A New Way To Prevent Lost Luggage
A high-tech baggage-tagging system already in use in Las Vegas and Hong Kong is showing promise for reducing lost airline baggage, and this summer, an industry airline group will decide whether to force airlines to deploy the technology world-wide.
In June, the board of governors of the International Air Transport Association, which sets standards for airlines, will vote on whether to mandate a phase-in of Radio-Frequency ID baggage tags. The tags, which transmit a bag's identifying number much like a toll-road pass, reduce lost luggage an estimated 20%, according to industry estimates. They improve accuracy in the grimy world of baggage sorting, making sure more bags get on the right airplane. They also can be used by airlines to track the location of a delayed bag -- so airlines don't have to confess they have no idea where a bag is says The Wall Street Journal.
 
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