November 15, 2007
 
A Travel System In Crisis? U.S. Arrival Figures Grim Despite Decline In The Dollar
The Discover America Partnership pointed to the U.S. Department of Commerce's forecasted visitor arrivals as a sign of a travel system in crisis, reports ModernAgent, noting that the agency does not expect overseas arrivals to reach 2000 levels (26 million travelers) until at least 2010 ─ despite the crumbling dollar.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the United States has experienced a 17% decline in overseas travel, costing America $94 billion in lost visitor spending, nearly 200,000 jobs and $16 billion in lost tax revenue. In contrast, global international travel has increased nearly 20% since 9/11.
"The Department of Commerce projections are further evidence of the extraordinary decline in overseas visitors to the United States," said Stevan Porter, president of InterContinental Hotels Group and chairman of the Discover America Partnership. "While we struggle for a decade to return to where we were in 2000, our competitors continue to welcome thousands of new visitors. This has serious consequences for our economy and public diplomacy efforts."
 
TIA Projects Modest Growth In Travel In 2008
The U.S. travel industry is expected to post moderate gains in nearly all sectors again in 2008, according to the annual Travel Industry Association (TIA) forecast.
Travel spending by domestic and international visitors in 2008 is forecast to increase 5.2%, to $778.2 billion, up from projected full-year 2007 travel spending of $740 billion, which would be a 5.7% increase over 2006.
Domestic leisure trips are expected to continue an upward trend of modest growth in 2008, climbing 2% to 1.6 billion trips. Domestic leisure trips are expected to finish 2007 up 2.5% over last year.
Travel for business in 2008 is expected to remain stable, increasing by 0.4%, registering nearly 502 million trips. This slight increase will offset a projected decline of 1.7% in business travel for 2007, compared with a year ago.
International travel (including visitors from Canada and Mexico) to the United States is expected to rise 3.7% in 2008 to 55.6 million visitors, following a projected 5.1% increase for 2007.
However, the year-over-year data mask an 11% decline in overseas visitors to the U.S. from 2000 – 2007. Overseas travelers, primarily from Western Europe and Japan, represent the United States’ top inbound visitors and spend the most money. Although overseas travel is expected to increase slightly in 2007, it has yet to surpass the 2000 level, despite the weak dollar making the U.S. a travel bargain.
 
Goodness Gracious! Singapore Airlines Warns Against Sex In The Sky (Podcast)
Singapore Airlines has taken the unusual step of publicly asking passengers on its new Airbus A380 plane not to engage in any sexual activities. The airline considered the warning necessary because the gigantic planes offer some passengers the chance to sleep in their own cabins which include beds roomy enough for two.
You can hear National Public Radio’s humorous newscast on this subject by clicking here.
                                                                                                                    
South Florida Cruise Business Hits Rough Seas
About 3.4 million passengers came through Fort Lauderdale in the year ended Sept. 30, slightly fewer than the number five years ago. And next summer, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, only one large ship will sail from of the world's No. 3 cruise port, down from three this past summer.
Port officials attribute the falloff to a decline in the day-cruise business, competition from new gambling venues on land and consumer clamor for European rather than Caribbean vacations. "The Caribbean in the last 12 months has not been as attractive as it has been in the past," said Carlos Buqueras, director of business development at Port Everglades.
Cruise ships play a key role in South Florida's economy. They employ nearly 5,000 people at Port Everglades, according to a recent study, and nearly half of all passengers stay overnight in Fort Lauderdale. The industry also generates jobs in local businesses that supply the cruise ships.
The biggest bang comes from the very largest ships that spend many days at sea. That business is becoming more important to Port Everglades as its single-day cruise business struggles. The number of day-cruise passengers has declined by half from its peak of 1.4 million in 2004. The exit of the St. Tropez gambling ship in mid-2005, combined with new competition from land-based casinos such as the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, has taken a toll.
 
Girl Meets Ploy
An avid traveler, Danielle's usually heading out on a vacation of some sort roughly every other month ─ to Miami and L.A., to the swish Beaver Creek Ski Resort just outside of Vail, Colo., and to some of her favorite beach towns in Mexico. She spends her downtime reading magazines like Details, Colors and Go, checking out the latest posts on her MySpace page or just tooling around in her Toyota 4Runner. Last week, Danielle dropped $100 on a pair of Diesel sneakers; she indulges herself in purchases like that about twice a month. It's safe to say that most marketers would regard Danielle as a seriously savvy consumer.
But ask Danielle if she sees women like herself portrayed in print advertising, TV spots or other marketing materials ─ or even if she just feels like some brands would want to reach out to her ─ and you'll hear an immediate and emphatic, "No." Which seems more than a little odd. After all, Danielle is the ideal customer for a plethora of consumer products.
But Danielle isn't just an ideal customer, she's also a lesbian consumer ─ and that's the rub says BrandWeek.
"No one is advertising to me," she said flatly. "Most advertising for gay consumers is directed at gay men," she continued. "I mean, there are ads in Go that are obviously for lesbians, but even in that magazine, there aren't any ads for the professional lesbian. It's all just T-shirts and stuff. You can't be taken seriously if you wear that."
That Danielle is not taken seriously as a consumer stands in sharp contrast to larger social and economic trends. In the 15 years since Newsweek took the controversial step of putting a lesbian couple on its cover, lesbian Americans are highly visible and knocking on the door of the cultural mainstream, buoyed by the success of network programs such as The L Word and openly-gay female celebrities including Rosie O'Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres.
What's more, new research on brand loyalty and spending power is showing that consumers like Danielle represent a tremendous, untapped opportunity for marketers. Their consumer behavior is clearly distinguishable from the historically more publicized discretionary spending of gay men, a demographic umbrella that lesbian consumers have historically found themselves stashed beneath, even though few brands would use the same marketing strategy on heterosexual men and women.
"There's always been this sense that lesbians were considered 'also-rans' alongside gay men, and that's reflected by the fact that they're not featured or focused on in advertising," said Stephanie Blackwood, partner and co-founder of the New York-based, gay-directed marketing agency Double Platinum.
Today, she added, "The lesbian marketplace appears to have suddenly exploded. There's a greater realization that lesbians do have buying power, [and] the marketplace is demanding that marketers address them both specifically and materially with an authentic message."
Surely, some of them have. Brands like Orbitz.com, insurance giant Nationwide, Subaru, Svedka Vodka and Macy's have all run ads this year that directly targeted lesbian consumers. For the most part, however, the estimated 15 million lesbians in America remain a consumer group ─ with plenty of cash in hand ─ waiting for brands to notice that they exist.
 
Avoiding Hotel Bandwidth Breakdown
The days of hotel guests simply being satisfied with connecting their laptop to an Internet port in their room and checking their e-mail are long over says Lodging.
These days, travelers show up with large-scale presentations to work on, large amounts of research to conduct, and countless music, video and gaming entertainment options. So, slow connections, long waits for downloads and interruptions for buffering videos just won't cut it anymore. Guests aren't simply grateful to have an Internet connection; they need one that is productive.
It's not just business travelers that are clamoring for better bandwidth. Children have video games they want to play. Travelers have interactive sites they want to visit. They want to share their vacation pictures right away with friends.
Managing bandwidth has become a top priority for hotel operators. Since Internet connectivity is at the top of the list as far as room amenities for most modern travelers, hoteliers must get up to speed or lose out on business.
"The guest's expectations have changed dramatically," says Trevor Warner, president of Warner Consulting Group, an independent technology and telecommunications consulting company. "Guests now, for $79, can have an 8 MB by 1 MB DSL or cable [connection] at home. At work, they have tremendous access, and then they go to a hotel where they share a T1 line. If you get 80 or 100 users caught up in one or two T1 lines, [the connection rate] is significantly less."
The sharing of T1 lines decreases the connection rate so much sometimes that it hardly qualifies as high-speed Internet. It creates a disparity between what the guest is used to at home or at work and what they are getting in a hotel.
Another factor in poor performance is that T1 lines aren't necessarily built to handle today's applications. "It used to be that a T1 could handle up to 500 users because they were just doing general browsing and e-mail," Warner says. "Now, they're routinely downloading 150 e-mails with attachments. And there's a lot more VPN connections and file sharing, which are heavy bandwidth connections."
 
E.U. Seeks Data On American Passengers
The Washington Post reports that American travelers' personal data would for the first time be exported to all European Union states by airline carriers flying to Europe under a proposal to be announced this week.
The data, including names, telephone numbers, credit card information and travel itinerary, would be sent to E.U. member states so they could assess passenger risk for counterterrorism purposes, according to a draft copy obtained by The Washington Post. The European Commission proposal would allow the data to be kept for 13 years or longer if used in criminal investigations and intelligence operations. It would cover all passengers flying into and out of Europe, not just Americans.
Airlines already share data with U.S. authorities on passengers entering the United States. A handful of countries, including Canada and Australia, have similar laws. The European proposal was apparently modeled after an agreement signed in July between the United States and Europe dealing with passenger data from European flights entering and leaving the United States.
 
My Flight Is Delayed Again And Oh, That Feels So Good
Ricky Yngsdal flies at least twice a month, but lately he has been spending more time in airports than on planes because of the soaring pace of flight delays, cancellations and missed connections. So how does he cope?
"I eat and shop at the airport," said the Glendale resident and shipping manager for General Mills Inc. Other passengers are getting manicures, pedicures, massages, haircuts and even "revitalizing" aromatherapy – a way of relaxing by breathing in botanical oil scents.
In this year of record-setting air travel delays, many passengers are resigned to getting stuck at the gate longer and more often says the Los Angeles Times. And they're getting a little desperate to find different ways to whittle away their time.
The average passenger now spends 108 minutes at the airport, more than double the amount of so-called "dwell time" passengers in 2000 spent waiting, according to Airport Interviewing & Research Inc., a market research firm.
There is money to be made in having captive consumers with nowhere to go. So fancy restaurants and upscale retailers are setting up kitchens and shops next to slot machines and "oxygen" lounges.
"The sheer number of people at airports is growing exponentially and the time they're spending at the airport is growing," said Ira Weinstein, president of Airport Interviewing & Research Inc. "I know of no concessionaire that has gone into the airport and has not done well."
 
Breaking from Tradition
Like spring itself, spring break is a story of growth and change. The persistent image of drunken students swarming to the beach for wet-T-shirt contests, while still a force, has faded in the face of a huge surge of families, couples and other more lucrative travel segments vacationing during the March-April period, which has become a mini-summer in terms of heavy traffic and high rates.
For hoteliers, says Lodging, the goal has evolved into one of reaching out to these markets to maximize what for many is already a strong period. According to an Expedia.com survey early this year, 82% of U.S. adults planned to travel by air as much or more during March and April this year than in 2006.
For a microcosm of what might be called the new spring break, look to Panama City, Fla., one of the few domestic destinations that has continued to actively market to the traditional crowd of students. Even there, things are changing.
As Bob Warren, president and CEO of the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau, says, "While we are one of the largest destinations in terms of dollars as far as traditional student spring break, we are making a transition. We have reduced the lodging inventories that cater to students, but added 8,600 rooms that appeal to a different, more affluent market."
Warren points out that, "as long as you have a beautiful beach and mom-and-pop lodging that caters to students, you will get them, but that is not where our marketing will go."
This past year, Panama City spent a whopping $400,000 ($300,000 of its own and the rest in co-op funding) to attract about 250,000 students during spring break; the students poured $60 million into the local economy. That's a nice piece of business. However, as Warren noted, "Our new resorts are more upscale, we have a new international airport breaking ground soon and our market is changing organically."
 
Hotel Furnishings Go High-Tech, Eco-Friendly
Wyndham Hotels' new "Smart Chair" aims to do for in-room lounging and working what Westin's Heavenly Bed did for sleeping says USA Today. The Westin pillowtop-mattress bed, introduced in 1999, was an instant hit and is credited with starting a revolution in hotel bedding.
The Smart Chair, designed by Michael Graves & Associates, is currently ensconced at select Wyndams (the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, downtown Atlanta, and Princeton, N.J., to name a few). It is due chainwide by the end of 2008.
The chair has integrated pivoting tables that provide surfaces for dining, writing and computing as well as a built-in power source and Internet port. It comes in fabric, vinyl and leather and has pockets for newspapers and magazines.
"We felt the 'bed wars' were over and turned our focus to signature products that would appeal to a new generation of travelers, namely the Gen Xers," says Evy Apostolatos, a Wyndham spokeswoman. Other Wyndham room upgrades in the works include brighter lighting and a Michael Graves-designed alarm clock/radio with a music-player adapter and built-in tray for spare change. A "Wyntunes" option lets guests listen to a preprogrammed selection of songs from emerging artists.
 
Hospitality Industry Soars As Dollar Drops
With the euro and the pound at record highs, visitors are flocking to New York City, making the hospitality industry one of the fastest-growing segments of the commercial real estate market.
According to an article in ehotelier, local and international investors are searching all areas of the city for sites to build hotels, and existing hotels are trading at record prices. According to information compiled by the brokerage CB Richard Ellis, at least 15,000 rooms are under development or in planning stages for more than 100 new hotels in the five boroughs, with the majority of rooms planned for Manhattan.
"The hospitality industry in New York is rolling toward setting new records for average daily rate and revenue per available room in 2007," the senior managing director of the Hospitality & Gaming Group at CB Richard Ellis, Daniel Lesser, said.
According to Smith Travel Research, the average daily rate for New York City hotels through June 2007 was $268.82, up 12.2% over the same period in 2006. The revenue per available room was $225.49 for the same period, reflecting a 13.5% year-over-year increase. "Considering that these figures do not include New York City's historical 'busy season' of September through mid-December, it is interesting to note that the city has already surpassed the $267 ADR for all of 2006," Mr. Lesser said.
 
Marriott Expands In Scandinavia
Marriott International will vastly expand its presence in Scandinavia over the next six years, which will result in the opening of 15 hotels in the region says Hotel Travel News. This comes after a multiple franchise agreement was struck with the Scandinavian Hospitality Group.
The agreement is expected to see the Marriott, Renaissance, Courtyard and Marriott Executive Apartments brands expand in Sweden, Norway and Finland through 2013. Marriott's first hotel in Scandinavia is the Copenhagen Marriott which opened in 2001.
The first two properties to open under the agreement are scheduled for 2009. They are the -272-room Courtyard by Marriott Stockholm-Kungsholmen in Sweden and the 155-room Courtyard by Marriott Kristiansund in Norway.
 
Fiji Tourism Drops
Fiji's tourism industry has not rebounded during its traditional peak tourism season, the Reserve Bank of Fiji says. In fact, reports the Pacific Islands Report, it fell by 5.4% in the first eight months of 2007, the bank says in its monthly economic review out today.
The bank says that given lower visitor arrivals and reduced activity in the tourism industry, tourism earnings were lower by an annual 9.0% in the first two quarters of this year.
 
Taiwan Looking To Generate More Medical Tourism
Taiwan is to promote medical services to generate medical tourism to the tune of NT$7 billion (US$215.52 million) within three years, an official said yesterday.
Wu Ming-yen, chief executive officer of an international medical services project, was speaking after a team, comprised of the Taiwan Nongovernmental Hospitals and Clinics Association, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research and 20 prestigious hospitals, announced the inauguration of a project management center.
The Taipei Times reports that Wu said after the Executive Yuan approved a program to promote medical services, the team was formed at the commission of the Department of Health to carry out the project. The program is also expected to create 30,000 job opportunities by boosting development of related industries, such as tourism, Wu said.
The center will promote five medical areas; ectogenesis, liver transplants, hip joint replacement, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery and craneofacial surgery.
Wu said that the country's medical services have won international recognition and that they are very competitive compared with those of Singapore and Thailand.
 
Aussie Tourism On The Rise
A strong Australian dollar has not dented the country's tourism industry, according to new figures. Australian Bureau of Statistics arrival trends showed overseas visitors were up 3.7% for the first nine months of 2007, compared to the same period last year says The Epoch Times of Australia.
Tourism groups last week warned the high dollar could be a "double whammy" for tourism - making Australia more expensive for foreign tourists and encouraging more Australians to holiday overseas. But fears were allayed with the figures showing the trend had changed little compared to last year.
Figures which compared visitor arrivals from September 2007 to September 2006 found tourists from China were up 14.9%, German tourists had increased 6.6% and 6.1% more New Zealanders had visited.
 
Delta Queen Might Just Keep Rolling Along
A few months ago it looked like the end was near for the Delta Queen, the nation's most famous paddlewheeler. But the 81-year-old Mississippi River icon may yet win a reprieve reports USA Today. A grass-roots campaign to get Congress to extend the boat's exemption from a government safety rule is gaining steam.
"We all want the same thing: the Delta Queen to continue operating as an overnight passenger boat," says Nori Muster, a steamboat fan who runs steamboats.com, one of several sites organizing "Save the Queen" signature drives. "The Delta Queen is safe."
More than 100 cities and towns, mostly in Middle America, already have passed resolutions calling on Congress to extend the boat's long-standing exemption to a 1966 U.S. Coast Guard fire safety rule. The rule forbids wooden structures on vessels that carry more than 50 passengers on overnight trips.
Along with Tiffany stained-glass windows and crystal chandeliers, the 174-passenger Delta Queen is famous for its confection-like wooden superstructure, which includes historic teak handrails and rare ironwood floors.
 
Philadelphia Tourism Officials Try To Shake Blue-Collar Image
Associated Press reports that Philadelphia's image as a gritty, industrial city, solidified in the "Rocky" films, remains intact in many parts of the country, despite efforts by tourism officials to change perceptions, according to a report released Thursday.
The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. has a multimillion-dollar ad campaign touting Philadelphia's history, nightlife and cultural events. People living in cities that don't directly see the ads continue to harbor images that center around cheesesteaks and rowdy sports fans, according to the tourism group's report.
The blue-collar image is understandable "if all you knew were movies like 'Rocky' and 'Invincible' where people are getting beat up, or 'Sixth Sense' where you see a bunch of creepy people," said Meryl Levitz, the group's president and chief executive. "That's an image that's hard to shake."
But the group, funded by the government and private donors, is trying. It is spending over $12 million this year in advertising, marketing and promotions, more than four times what it spent a decade ago.
There are signs of success: A record $10.4 billion in direct and indirect spending by visitors to Philadelphia and its four suburban Pennsylvania counties last year, the report said. That's up 3.6% from 2005 and up 8% from 2004.
The number of domestic leisure visitors staying overnight also reached an all-time high of 9.3 million. Overnight hotel visitors ─ measured on a per-visiting-group basis ─ spent an average of $932 last winter, up 7% from the previous winter. Visitors with incomes of over $150,000 spent the most ─ an average of $923 per group.
 
Midwest Airlines Launches Cookie Dough Line 
Airlines aren't usually in the packaged goods business, unless those goods are passengers. But Midwest Airlines has launched a line of cookie dough says Marketing Daily.
The company's Genuine Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough went on sale recently. The cookies, based on the ones it serves in flight, bowed as frozen cookie dough at the opening of a new Sendik's Food Market in Franklin, Wisconsin.
 
Travelers Survey
Travelers are checking in from home, checking more luggage, using different airports and trying to economize on hotels and car rentals in response to higher prices, increased flight delays, and other changes in the travel industry, according to Orbitz.com's quarterly Traveler Update Report says the Los Angeles Times. The survey, which looked at changes in travel behavior following a record-setting summer for flight delays, found that:
 
China’s Home Inns Aims To Quadruple Hotels, Raise Market Share
The Wall Street Journal reports that Home Inns & Hotels Management Inc. said Thursday it plans to increase the number of hotels it operates to 1000 in three to five years time, from 201 now, as part of an aggressive plan to expand its share of China's budget hotel business
Fueled by rising incomes and rapid growth in domestic travel, China's economy hotel sector has grown furiously in recent years, attracting foreign brands and new local entrants alike.
Home Inns Chief Financial Officer May Wu said the Nasdaq-listed Chinese hotel operator is hoping to increase its market share to more than 30% in five years, from 20%-25% now. The firm may also move into other Asian countries in two to three years, she told reporters on the sidelines of a financial forum in Shanghai.
 
South Dakota Starts Black Hills Travel Blog
South Dakota tourism advocates have started a Web blog to attract visitors to the Black Hills. The Black Hills Travel Blog went online in mid-October at http://www.blackhillstravelblog.com/.
It's updated six times a week with feature stories, personal travel experiences, site profiles and tips. Posts will be written by Black Hills residents and travelers, says USA Today.
Billie Jo Waara, director of the South Dakota Office of Tourism, said the blog "will be a powerful tool in showcasing the Black Hills to the rest of the world."
 
Starwood Ramps Up Presence In Latin America
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is rapidly expanding its presence in South America, announcing plans to open three new properties in Peru says ehotelier.
In a franchise agreement with Inmobiliaria Inversiones Nacionales de Turismo S.A., Starwood will open its first Westin hotel in South America in Lima, Peru as well as two Luxury Collection properties - one in Cusco, the capital of the ancient Inca Empire, and the other in the sacred valley of Urubamba, near the Inca trail to Machu Picchu.
 
Survey: Agents Deliver Higher Margin To Hotels
TravelCLICK's quarterly eMonitor results indicate continued steady health for the hotel industry based on electronic distribution performance for the second quarter of 2007.
Travel agents continue to be a key source of higher rate business for hotels: the average rate for room nights booked through travel agents for the second quarter of 2007 was 45% higher than the average rate for room nights booked via the Internet for the same period.
According to ModernAgent travel agent bookings represented 78.4% of total room nights. The travel agent component of GDS bookings showed a 10.1% increase in ADR and a 15.3% increase in revenue versus the second quarter of 2006.
Internet room nights, sourced from consumer online transactions on third-party websites powered by the GDS and Online Distribution Database (ODD), showed a gain of 3.5% compared to the second quarter of 2006. ADR was up 7.7% for Internet bookings, and revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same period last year.
 
Casinos Bounce Back In Biloxi Building Boom
The casino floors are full in Biloxi, Mississippi, and construction is on the rise, but there's a dilemma amid the economic revival in this storm-battered Gulf Coast city.
USA Today asks should casinos and the condominium projects they draw be allowed to sprawl across the city? Or should city leaders and residents rein in the development surge?
Eleven of the city's 13 casinos have reopened since Hurricane Katrina, and an additional eight casinos are likely to sprout in Biloxi in the next six years. As casinos return, condo projects have followed. The number of proposed condo units has risen from 4,000 before Katrina to 12,000 today, said Vincent Creel, a Biloxi city spokesman.
The boom in construction makes Biloxi one of the few Gulf Coast cities battered by the hurricane in 2005 that may actually be recovering too fast. "We'd like to be a city with casinos, not a casino city," Creel said.
 
Balancing Brand Building And Promotion
 While marketers are jumping on the marketing accountability bandwagon and are using ROI to determine where best to spend their marketing dollars, they still need to keep an eye focused on pricing. Otherwise, a pricing misstep could deflate the impact of marketing efforts and hurt the overall business opines Marketing Daily. It may seem obvious that you need to focus on pricing, but developing a pricing strategy is far from easy.
That's because building a premium brand and meeting short-term sales objective are often at odds. A premium brand brings along the benefit of equity that allows companies to charge a premium price while providing insulation from competitors. But equity doesn't come overnight; it requires an investment in brand-building activities over a long period of time and many companies just don't have the patience to wait or are unwilling to invest.
As pressure continues to mount from shareholders and senior management to "make the numbers," marketers may surrender to the quick fix of promotion-driven marketing. The result is the downward spiral of eroding brand equity and the creation of a consumer base that is trained to buy on deal and extremely price-sensitive.
For many brands, not promoting is not an option, but there is an opportunity to optimize promotional cadence and better manage discounts. The key is striking a balance between brand building and discounting/promotion.
 
Survey: Age, Gender Make Much Difference In Tour Sales
Do age and gender make a difference for motivation in selecting packaged tours? Yes, for sure, says a survey conducted for the US Tour Operators Association.
"The survey found that men are less price-conscious than women, while women are more concerned with value offered by a given tour or vacation package," said the survey.
Women also respond to more inclusions such as meals and sightseeing in the price, while men prefer a broader choice of side trips.
Safety is another drawing point for women. Men, however, cite companionship and meeting new friends as reasons for buying a tour or vacation package.
"Contrary to popular belief, younger people — 18 to 34 year olds — may be more likely to take a tour or a vacation package than their older counterparts," the survey said.
Younger respondents scored highest across the board for potential to take a tour or vacation package, while surprisingly, those aged 65+ scored the lowest.
According to the survey, travelers aged 18-34 are more likely to buy a tour or vacation package for the following reasons:
 
Dallas Airport Launches Campaign To Attract International Travelers
The Dallas Morning News recently reported that officials at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport are trying to attract more international flights by wooing the passengers who would use them .
The airport and officials from the Dallas and Fort Worth convention and visitor bureaus plan to announce today a nearly $5 million marketing campaign to tout the North Texas airport as a convenient gateway to key markets in Latin America and Asia.
The campaign includes hiring sales representatives in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; and Mexico City. In January, the campaign will be extended to Seoul, South Korea, and a salesperson hired there.
Themes of the campaign include D/FW's designation as having the best customer service in North America, its two-year-old international Terminal D and Skylink train, and its speedy immigration processing.
"Everyone knows about [connecting in] Miami and Los Angeles, but not everyone knows about D/FW," said Jeff Fegan, the airport's chief executive, in a phone interview from Buenos Aires.
 
Survey: Online Preferences Of Journalists
MediaPost reports that according to the Arketi Group 2007 Web Watch Survey, 84% of journalists say they would or already have used blogs as a primary or secondary source for articles.
100% of those (journalists) surveyed say they rely on the Internet to help get their job done. One-quarter of journalists say blogs make their job easier, while 18% say instant messaging makes their job easier.
Mike Neumeier, principal of Arketi Group, says "In an era exploding with user-generated content, social media, and Web 2.0, it's important for those in business-to-business communications to understand how journalists are using technology..."
Ninety-seven% of journalists surveyed say they enjoy using new technologies. And 30% of journalists say they use some type of instant messenger for professional communication.
Sixty% of journalists say they spend more than 20 hours a week on the Internet. When asked how journalists use the Internet:
Dr. Kaye Sweetser, APR, assistant professor of public relations at the University of Georgia's Grady College, said "...this survey shows that business journalists are embracing user-generated content like blogs, webinars and podcasts... in their day-to-day reporting..."
Ninety% of journalists say they turn to industry sources for story ideas, an equal number get story ideas from news releases and a nearly equal number say they tap into public relations contacts:
 
Orient-Express To Build Hotel In Manhattan
Orient-Express Hotels, Ltd., plans to open a 150-room hotel on the site of the Donnell Library in midtown Manhattan in 2011.
According to HotelBusiness included in the $200 million construction project will be a new home for the library. The site on West 53rd St. is behind the 21 Club restaurant, which Orient-Express also owns. As part of the construction, the two buildings will be linked and the hotel will be called the 21 Hotel.
 
U.S. Online Leisure Travel Market Growth Outstrips Overall Travel Market Expansion
The U.S. online leisure/unmanaged business travel market continues to grow at a pace that far exceeds the overall travel market's rate of growth, according to the new report, PhoCusWright's U.S. Online Travel Overview Seventh Edition.
PhoCusWright finds that the online leisure/unmanaged business travel market will surpass US$94 billion in 2007, to comprise more than one-third of the total travel market. The total travel market encompasses offline leisure/unmanaged business and on- and offline corporate travel.
"It's interesting to note that while online travel's growth continues to exceed that of the market as a whole, that growth has slowed compared to recent years;" notes Lorraine Sileo, vice president, research at PhoCusWright. "This is especially true for online travel agencies, which have seen their packaging sales slow considerably."
PhoCusWright's U.S. Online Travel Overview Seventh Edition is widely considered the most comprehensive look at travel distribution and marketing trends in the country. Also among its findings about the trends and competitive efforts that are driving change in the industry:
 
The Eyes Have It As A Hotel Key
At Nine Zero, a luxury boutique lodging in Boston, those checking into the Cloud Nine penthouse suite enter with a blink of an eye.
Their irises — the colored part of the eye — are digitally photographed at check-in, a hotel spokeswoman says (it's painless). To enter the suite, says USA Today, guests simply eyeball a scanner at the door.
The iris scan already is in place at the hotel's employee and vendor entrances, and plans are to extend it to more guestrooms. The privacy minded can rest easier knowing that templates of irises are destroyed at checkout unless repeat guests want them on file.
This technology also is used at JFK and Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.
 
Newspaper Readership Dropping, Internet Consumers Rising
Two stories hit on the same day as I browsed the Internet as part of my usual, paperless media monitoring routine begins an article in PR Tactics and The Strategist Online.
The New York Times stories reported that “circulation declines of American newspapers continued over the spring and summer, as sales across the industry fell almost 3% compared with the year before.” These figures were from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). A “growing shift of readers to the Internet” was blamed for the drop in circulation.
The other story was from Reuters, which reported a Harris Poll revealed that four out of five adults in the United States now go online. According to the survey of 2,062 adults, 79 percent, or about 178 million, spend "an average 11 hours a week on the Internet.”
In 2000, 57% of adults said they were online. By 2006, the total was 77 percent.
There’s not a dotted line but a pretty straight and bold line between these two stories — the Internet is taking over as the primary source of information for a growing segment, if not the majority — of Americans.
Here are some key items from the reports:
 
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Ferri & Partners LLC
1111 Brickell Avenue 11th Floor Miami, Florida 33131 USA
Tel: (305) 913-7191
www.ferriandpartners.com

building brands
and driving market share in the
travel and tourism industry

 

 

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