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In an action that reflects the reality first conveyed to Inbound four months ago by U.S.-based receptive tour operators, Munich-based Studiosus, the top study tours and cultural tour operators in Europe, has said it expects a tough year for long-haul cultural trips next year due to the weak euro but, at the same time, expects a good year for European destinations. Studiosus, reported FVW, has reduced USA capacity by one-fifth in response to a 15 percent price increase and has revised its overall program to include additional product beyond Europe—but not America. Checking out the Studiosus website, one will notice no new USA product in the inventory.
Olimar, which specializes in Southern Europe, is adding more hotels on the Canary Islands and more tours for the Cape Verde islands this coming winter alongside more than 100 hotels in its core destination of Portugal.
While the operators are juggling 2015-16 product offerings, German consumers seem to be turning away from the traditional travel agency, which has been more of a staple in the country than in other European markets. Consumers have been slow to go offline.
The results of a just-released study the study by VIR† (Verband Internet Reisevertrieb, or Internet Travel Sales Association) and market researchers FUR, noted that, in 2014, about 11.6 million Germans researched their next package holiday (of five days or more) on the internet. Of these, about 37 percent (roughly 4.3 million people) then also booked the holiday online while only about 33 percent booked offline, for example, in a travel agency.
When it comes to individual components of the travel product, the shift to online is even more marked: Over half of consumers (52 percent) are researching accommodations online, while 49 percent are doing so for flight bookings.
VIR president Michael Buller commented: “The study shows a very clear trend. Ten years ago the internet was mostly a research tool for countless customers but today bookings are increasingly taking place online as well. We expect that this trend will intensify significantly in the coming years.”
† VIR represents eight of the largest German online travel agencies: ebookers, Expedia, HolidayCheck, HRS, L’Tur, Lastminute.de, Travelchannel.de and Weg.de.
Has Brazil’s Economy Fallen into a Black Hole?
The bad news came in waves last week. But first, the good news:
The country’s central bank reported that, global, the country registered a current account deficit of $38.28 billion in the first half of 2015, down 23.39 percent from the same period of last year, when it totaled $49.97 billion. A lot of this deficit was made up by direct foreign investment. Now, the rest:
• The central bank attributed the significant improvement to Brazil’s shrinking economy. During the year’s first half, the dollar appreciated 19.3 percent against the real, raising the cost of air travel and lodging and food expenses abroad for Brazilians, substantially reducing Brazilian tourists’ spending abroad.
Spending by Brazilian international travelers fell from $12.44 billion in the first six months of 2014 to $9.94 billion in the first half of this year, a decline of 20.1 percent.
A report from Forbes magazine said that Banks are now forecasting economic contraction into 2016. If so, it will be the first time that Brazil’s economy shrank in back-to-back years since the Great Depression. (On July 24, Credit Suisse’s economist Nelson Teixeira put out a note revising his forecast for Brazilian GDP this year to -2.4% from an already bleak -1.8 percent.)
Annual China Outbound Travel Trends Report from Chinese International Travel Monitor: Part 1
In the year ending May 2015, half of all Chinese outbound travelers used their mobile phones to plan and book trips, compared with just 17 percent the previous year.
The above is just one of the findings to come out of the closely followed Chinese International Travel Monitor (CITM). Now in its fourth iteration, the 2015 CITM, produced by Hotels.com, which came out a week ago, is filled with data, trends and results used by tour and traveler marketers and researchers. Following are highlights from the report, which involved surveys of Chinese consumers as well as hoteliers worldwide.
Overall—Millennials are Changing the Averages: Twenty-five to 34-year-olds are expected to make up 35 percent of the estimated 174 million Chinese outbound tourists who are anticipated to spend $264 billion by 2019.
Gen Y travelers , i.e. “Millennials” aged 18 to 35—are making more international trips, according to hoteliers surveyed, and, as they become more affluent, they’re becoming better informed.
91 percent consult price comparison websites when researching their trip,
55 percent use loyalty program points for accommodation (compared with 47 percent of all travelers surveyed.)
Most respondents eschew travel agents and the landline phone, preferring some form of digital device to book and plan.
Travel bookings via mobile phones are soaring—Half of all Chinese outbound travelers (and 61 percent of Millennials) refer to their mobile phones to plan and book trips, compared with just 17 percent the previous year.
Millennials’ Main Reasons for Traveling Abroad
3. Visiting friends and relatives
6. Beauty treatment/Cosmetic surgery
8. Participation in Charity/NGO projects
Spending by Chinese Travelers:
Top 10% of Travelers
Top 5% of Travelers
Where They Want to Go & Where They Go
Or The Wish List vs. Real Choices
Amenities: What They Most
Prefer as Hotel Guest
In-House Mandarin Speaking Staff
China Union Pay facilities
Top Overseas Destinations by Number of Searches during
Jan-May 2015 on the Hotels.Com Chinese Website
Millennials’ Most Favored Activities When Traveling
5. Taking Part in Eco-tours
More than 640 million people in China are “wired.” The use of mobile phones for planning and booking has skyrocketed in the past 12 months, 80 percent of travelers have used an online source including mobiles, desktops and laptops to book and plan their travel, compared with only 53 percent last year.
Methods Used as Source for Travel Arrangements
Travelers who have used online source over past 12 months
Used smartphone apps to plan and book travel
Used land line for making travel arrangements
Used a travel agent via phone call or physical visit
A Note on the methodology: The research was conducted during May 2015 using an online methodology, with a sample of 3,074 eligible respondents across China. Minimum thresholds were set on key demographics such as age, gender and region to ensure a representative sample that would allow analysis of sub-groups. The questionnaire covered topics including, but not limited to, travel behavior, booking methods and accommodation choices.
For the opinion of hoteliers, Hotels.com carried out a global survey of more than 1,500 Hotels.com hotel partners during May 2015. Responses were received from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the UK and the USA.
Crappy Economy? No Problem. New Travel Start-up from Greece Will Explain How They Did it at NAJ’s eTourism Summit 2015
From Athens, Greece—the cradle of western civilization, midst the culture that created  mythology—comes TravelMyth.
Stefanos Vasdekis and John Nousis, TravelMyth.com’s two creators—whiz kids and friends since high school and now 35 years old—who launched their first venture more than 15 years ago and have begun more than a half-dozen others, have agreed to come to San Francisco Oct. 22-23 to take part in NAJ’s annual e-Tourism Summit where they will discuss their latest venture, Travelmyth.com, as well as the non-traditional business culture that is thriving in Greece in spite of the nation’s dystopian economic environment.
The two entrepreneurs launched Travelmyth last fall, and it is already a profit-making entity. Operating at what seems like an abnormally high-speed , Travelmyth is a referral platform that, different from other hotel search engines, arranges several hundred thousand properties according to personal interests and activities. One can search for hotels that are dog friendly or near kayaking sites, to adults-only properties and former castle hotels.
Vasdekis and Nousis have become symbols of the type of entrepreneurs who are looked to in order to help Greece find a way out of its economic infirmities, and were recently highlighted in an article in the business section of the New York Times: https://lnkd.in/efhgdfn .
“It’s really an honor for us to have Vasdekis and Nousis agree to come from Greece to present and discuss at the e-Tourism Summit the challenges they face every day at the e-Tourism Summit,” said Jake Steinman, CEO of the NAJ Group, which also publishes the Inbound Report. “One would think that the market for hotel websites would have been completely saturated by now, but these two found a completely new way to filter the search process so users can discover hotels based on their interests and passions.”
Steinman indicated that additional presenters and program elements for the e-Tourism Summit will soon be posted on the event’s website. An early sellout for 11 consecutive years, this year’s Summit takes place at San Francisco’s Parc 55 Hilton.  (For more information about the summit, visit:
http://www.etourismsummit.com/ ) Below: Stefanos Vasdekis (left) and John Nousis.
When it comes to individual components of the travel product, the shift to online is even more marked: Over half of consumers (52 percent) are researching accommodations online, while 49 percent are doing so for flight bookings.
VIR president Michael Buller commented: “The study shows a very clear trend. Ten years ago the internet was mostly a research tool for countless customers but today bookings are increasingly taking place online as well. We expect that this trend will intensify significantly in the coming years.”
This trend could actually aid or stimulate more travel to the U.S. for, as Inbound experienced in its own (admittedly not very scientific) survey of German travel agencies in Berlin through in-person visits several years ago during ITB: None of the staff at the agencies were really familiar with the U.S. or had visited the country. By going online and increasingly foregoing the in-store “assistance” of a travel agent, the German travel consumer might find his/her way to the USA more quickly.
† VIR represents eight of the largest German online travel agencies: ebookers, Expedia, HolidayCheck, HRS, L’Tur, Lastminute.de, Travelchannel.de and Weg.de.
New Attractions—What’s New in Tour Product for Your International Clients
Out of This World: Virgin Spaceport Opens Based to Tours: While test flights at the $219 million site have been put on hold, Spaceport America, home base for the Virgin Galactic space flight enterprise, has opened its facilities for tours. The Spaceport America Experience includes life-size replicas of some of Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft, including SpaceShipTwo, views of the 45,000-square foot terminal’s hangar from a massive “Gateway Gallery,” a ride down the 12,000-foot runway and a “G-shock simulator.” Tours start off at a visitor center a short distance from the actual facility, and then a bus trip takes guests on-site. According to news reports, the move to make Spaceport America into a tourist attraction is largely an attempt to offset costs of running the place, which is located near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, about 150 miles south of Albuquerque. Retail ticket price for an adult is $45. For more information, visit:
http://spaceportamerica.com/experience, or call 844.727.7223.
Warner Bros. Studios Creates New “Script to Screen” Tour: While not as well-known as the neighboring Universal Studios Tour nor anywhere near as popular as the different attractions at Disneyland in Anaheim, the Warner Bros. Studio Tour in Burbank, California has remained a popular staple for years—particularly for those interested in inside views of the movie-and-television-show production process which, from time to time, might include an actual filming of a scene in the studio’s lot. But now the studio has added a $13 million upgrade—Stage 49: Script to Screen, which will offer visitors a more comprehensive look at production process, from script to casting to visual effects, post-production, sound mixing and on to awards season. Highlights include the Central Perk coffeehouse from Friends and a green-screen setup that let guests fly on Harry Potter’s broomstick. Other enhancements include recorded messages from the stars of 2 Broke Girls, Pretty Little Liars, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The tours have a degree of intimacy to them, as they are conducted in oversized, multi-passenger golf carts, and patrons get off and on at different tour stops in the studio lot. For more information, visit:  www.wbstudiotour.com, or call 877.492.8687.
Pedi-Cab Art Among new Experiences available in Philadelphia Next Year: For the summer of 2016, an experiment in kinetic art will be a highlight of the new visitor experiences that Philadelphia will offer “pedicabs-as-art” that will actually be movable, illuminated kinetic sculptures will circulate along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway as the interactive public artwork, Fireflies. The Parkway serves as the major thoroughfare that connects Philadelphia’s cultural collection of attractions, art museums, civic institutions and public spaces.
Specifically, in collaboration with guest curator Lance Fung of Fung Collaboratives and support from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the Association for Public Art (aPA)—it  commissions, preserves, promotes and interprets public art in Philadelphia—a is commissioning artist Cai Guo-Qiang to create Fireflies for an installation on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in the summer of 2016.
Fireflies will be made up of 27 glowing kinetic sculptures. Each sculpture will be developed around a pedicab, and those 27 pedicab-sculptures will travel around the Benjamin Franklin Parkway from City Hall to the Philadelphia Museum of Art carrying passengers for free. Participants will be able to view and photograph the Parkway and its environs from a new and unique perspective by taking a ride inside the kinetic sculptures. For more information, visit: http://associationforpublicart.org/, or call 215.546.7550.
Evel Knievel Daredevil Museum to Open in Harley Davidson Dealership in Kansas: Sure to appeal to a slice of the U.S. population that remembers the motorcycle riding daredevil Evel Knievel—he and his souped up Harley-Davidson bikes gained much national attention in the 1970s for his jumps over canyons, fountains, rivers and trucks lined up in a row—an Evel Knievel museum is set to open, likely sometime next year in Topeka Kansas. The new attraction will be situated in a 16,000-square-foot addition to a Harley-Davidson dealership, and will house all sorts of memorabilia, including six of Knievel’s bikes, more than a dozen costumes, pinball and slot machines and other items related to the late dare devil famous for the motorcycle stunts. Knievel died in 2007.
The location of the new attraction grew out of a friendship between Mike Patterson, the Harley-Davidson dealership owner and Lathan McKay, a professional skateboarder and actor, who had acquired Knievel’s custom Mack Truck (used to transport Knevel’s bikes and other regalia around the country) and other items and had been taking them around the country as a traveling exhibit. McKay took the truck to Patterson’s shop for a restoration job and the two bonded. Before long, they made the decision to open the museum. The announcement of the museum was warmly received by Brett Oetting, president and CEO of Visit Topeka, who said, “This puts us right up there with Elvis museum, the Johnny Cash Museum …This could be a very big deal.”
New Kentucky Attraction Features Retired Thoroughbreds: The Georgetown, Ky., Thoroughbred Retirement Facility and the Franklin, Ky. racetrack have joined together to establish Old Friends at Kentucky Downs and have created a tour that showcases retired racehorses, several with a history of running at Kentucky Downs and Kentucky tracks. The tours are coordinated by the Simpson County Tourism Commission. Some of the retired thoroughbreds featured in the tour include:
Ball Four, the 14-year-old son of Grand Slam who earned more than $730,000 in his 31 starts. His wins included the Kentucky Cup Classic Stakes and the Tejano Run Stakes at Turfway Park.
Sergeant Bert, who won the 2005 and 2006 Woodford Stakes at Keeneland, where he set a track record for 51/2 furlongs. The bay son of Confide, he earned more than $350,000 in his career.
Thornfield, a 21-year-old son of Sky Classic, who, was Canada’s Sovereign Award winner and Horse of the Year in 1999.
Tour of the Cat, a multiple graded-stakes winner of more than $1.1 million.
Other equine retirees are expected to arrive in the fall. In addition to the horse exhibit, an adjoining visitor’s center and an Old Friends gift shop, open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Monday, will be housed in a newly-renovated structure in the Kentucky Downs stable area. For more information, visit:
http://www.kentuckytourism.com/simpson-county-tourism-commission/4972/, or call 270.586.3040.
How I Got My Start in the Travel Trade
“How I Got My Start” is a regular segment in which we cull a couple of selections from our interviews with international operators, domestic operators, receptive operators, destinations, hotels and attractions to explore the path that led one to a career in the travel trade industry. One thing we have learned: the road to where they are is almost never the same. In this issue, we feature Brian Said, executive director of tourism, Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau; and Meg Winchester, director, Galveston Island Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Brian Said: “At age 15 I decided that the tourism industry was for me. After a 5 year Bachelors in hospitality and various training placements in luxury resorts around Europe and the US, I worked my way up the ranks. An opportunity to move back to Southern California opened doors to work as Tourism Sales Manager in luxury resorts from 2001 to 2006. In 2007 I took the plunge into the DMO world and never looked back.”
Meg Winchester: “I was fortunate to live in Japan in my teens and was offered a job after college at the New Otani Hotel in Downtown LA.  I was a catering assistant and from there became a catering manager in various venues. After 12 years in catering I was offered a position at the San Diego Convention Center as a citywide sales manager. After 7 years at the center I was offered a position with the Houston CVB/George R Brown Convention Center as a national sales manager. During that tenure the Galveston Island CVB recruited me as director of sales and then made me the CVB Director in 2009.  I have been truly blessed with this industry and love it every day!”
HODGE PODGE—Shifts, Shakeups and Occasional Shaftings in the Tour and Travel Industry
Abby Spatz has joined New York City & Company as chief marketing officer. She’ll lead the company’s marketing group and will oversee the in-house creative, digital, editorial, photography and video teams. Spatz comes to NYC & Co, from the spa and beauty brand Bliss, where she served as the head of integrated marketing and communications. Prior to that Spatz spent 20-plus years working across a range of marketing functions with global consumer lifestyle brands for several major global ad agencies and entities such as American Express, where she was senior brand manager.
Mufi Hannemann, the former mayor of Honolulu, is returning to the Hawaii Lodging & Tourism Association as president and CEO. He replaces George Szigeti, who was just appointed as president of the Hawaii Tourism Authority. Hannemann had previously served as president, and later, CEO of the association—in 2011 and 2012. Well-known in Hawaiian politics, he served as mayor of Honolulu from 2005 to 2010 and was an unsuccessful candidate for governor in 2014.
Amir Eylon has left his post as vice president of partner engagement for Brand USA to return to Columbus, Ohio and take over as president of the Longwoods USA operation. The company is the globally-known research firm that conducts Longwoods Travel USA®, the largest ongoing survey of American travelers, as well as advertising return on investment research in 12 countries around the globe. Before joining Brand USA in 2012, Eylon had served for five years as state tourism director of Ohio, based in Columbus. Prior to that, he had been executive vice president of the Ohio Hotel & Lodging Association.
Cindy Allen has been named chief marketing officer for American Express Global Business Travel. In this role, Allen will oversee the company’s brand positioning, marketing, product marketing and corporate communications and industry relations functions on a global level. Before joining Amex, Allen served as vice president, Travel Management Company (TMC) Services, at Concur.
Aimie Johnson has been appointed as business development manager for North America Western Region for Kuoni Group Travel Experts. Based in Denver, Colorado, Aimie will be responsible for developing group travel business for the Kuoni Group Travel Experts and Travel Bound brands.
Johnson brings to the position nearly a decade’s sales and marketing experience gained with the Globus family of brands.
Stacey Cohen moves from AlliedTPro, where she last worked in groups, to Travalco as senior market manager for the New York region.  She can be reached at [email protected].
Meanwhile, Miami-based Travalco has also hired two group specialists from the Russian Service Bureau, a receptive operator based in Florida that has been decimated by the precipitous decline in Russian inbound business due to effect of the collapse of the ruble as well as economic sanctions put into place by European nations following Russia’s annexation of the Crimea and its later, supporting role in the shooting down on July `7, 2014 of an Air Asia flight over the Ukraine. Aleksandr Sigalus has joined Travalco three months ago as manager of group and incentives; he can be reached at [email protected].  Also from the Russian Service Bureau,  has been hired as group specialist.
Annual China Outbound Travel Trends Report from Chinese International Travel Monitor: Part 1
Has Brazil’s Economy Fallen into a Black Hole?
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