German Tour Operators Headed for more Consolidation
The stable, slow-to-change tour and travel market in Germany last experienced a shakeup in the wholesale side of the distribution system earlier this decade, reaching its apogee in December of 2014 when TUI Travel merged with its parent company, TUI AG, to create the TUI Group. While there were some acquisitions and mergers after that, the industry has been relative quiet, except for the June 2015 of Kuoni’s tour operator business by DER Touristik’s parent company, the REWE Group. The latter is known primarily as the owner of thousands of supermarkets, operating under different brands, throughout Europe.
But now, according to a leading industry analyst in Germany, the country’s tour operator market is ripe for the next round of consolidation. This was the outlook projected by Dr. Markus Heller, managing director of market researchers Dr. Fried + Partner, who told delegates to last week’s FVW Congress in Cologne that the next episode of consolidation would be due to increasing financial pressures in the industry.
Heller said that technology-driven price transparency is putting extreme pressure on the package holiday margins of traditional tour operators. Also, tour operators, especially the country’s top three—TUI, DER Touristik and Thomas Cook—are growing less than the overall tourism market, which is being driven by online sales, he pointed out in a presentation of an exclusive study based on interviews with 20 German travel industry executives.
The playout of this situation is obvious, he said: “In the coming months we will see strategic investments by large tour operators who take over smaller ones.” he predicted.
The outlook is different, though, for the travel agency market which, Heller suggested, is unlikely to see major changes in the coming years as long as the sector retains its legal status as sales agents, However, tour operators will try to steer travel agency sales more than in the past, he forecast.
The most significant structural change, Heller noted, will come from consolidation of the online travel market. Google, her predicted, will start to play a more prominent role by placing itself more and more at the front of the booking process for flights and hotels, he predicted.
At the same time, Booking.com could create a ‘travel ecosystem’ by linking its various acquisitions, including flight metasearcher Kayak and restaurant portal OpenTable to its core accommodation booking portal, Heller suggested, which turn the Booking group into “the Amazon of travel” in future.
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Note: Heller based his presentation on interviews with more than 20 leading tour and travel industry executives.
Wanna Have Fun? The U.S. Destination with the Most Fun is …
Sooner or later, someone was bound to try and quantify just what means “fun” in a destination. The researchers at WalletHub have done it and, in doing so, have declared Las Vegas to be the U.S. destination with the most fun. (A complete list of the Top 100 cities in the U.S. is below.) WalletHub, a personal finance website that, in its travel sector portfolio, rates travel credit cards, compared more than 180 U.S. cities based on 65 key metrics. They range from fitness centers per capita to movie costs to average open hours of breweries.
In order to determine the most fun cities in the U.S., WalletHub compared 182 cities — including the 150 most populated U.S. cities, plus at least two of the most populated cities in each state — across three key dimensions: 1) Entertainment & Recreation, 2) Nightlife & Parties and 3) Costs.
Researchers evaluated those dimensions using 65 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the greatest number and variety of fun and cost-effective activities.
Finally, they determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order their sample. The sample considers only the city proper in each case and excludes the surrounding metro area.
Some Fun Stats:
New York has the most restaurants (per square root of population), 7.5828, which is 31.5 times more than in Peoria, Arizona, the city with the fewest at 0.2410.
New York has the most playgrounds (per square root of population), 0.6645, which is 19 times more than in Hialeah, Florida, the city with the fewest at 0.0350.
New York has the most bars (per square root of population), 1.5580, which is 71.5 times more than in West Valley City, Utah, the city with the fewest at 0.0218.
San Francisco has the most dance clubs (per square root of population), 0.1638, which is 86.2 times more than in Plano, Texas, the city with the fewest at 0.0019.
To view the full report, along with an explanation of the methodology used in determining the rankings, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/most-fun-cities-in-the-us/23455/
People We Love: Visit Rochester’s Greg Marshall’s Opinions on the Value of Associations, Tour Operator Relationships and Mustard.
Earlier this month, Greg Marshall, senior vice president and director of marketing for Visit Rochester, celebrated his 40th anniversary with the organization. Marshall is a rarity—a lifelong resident of the city he represents who has a sense of intellectual curiosity, combined with a youthful sense of wonder at what it is he has learned over the years. INBOUND’s editor-in-chief and managing editor spoke with him not long after his 40th anniversary date in what turned out to be more of a colloquy in which he exhibited a wide breadth of knowledge about such matters as relationship marketing, receptive tour operators and the role of associations in the tour and travel industry. All along, he invited dialogue and discussion. To see what we mean, we present the following excerpts from our interview/discussion.
INBOUND: So, how did you get started in the business?
Marshall: I started when I was 15 at a hotel. (He explains that visitor traffic to the city had grown because of its corporate reputation. In 1970, Rochester was world headquarters of Eastman Kodak and Xerox, along with a number of other major companies.)
We had built a 500-room Holiday Inn. It was the third largest Holiday Inn in the world. My mom was in the accounting office before it was opened. And they needed somebody to build some cabinets. As you remember, like everybody in the hotel business, you had to hold folios for seven years for the IRS and all that kind of stuff. And my job was to come in after school for a few hours–I was in the 10th grade—and build cabinets. Eventually, I ended being the on-site resident manager at 23 years old.
And then, what happened was, I worked my way up through the ranks there and I loved Rochester. The person that hired me was Rick Rivers, who had just taken over at the bureau—it was called something different then—and Rick said to a friend of his “I want to start a tourism department,” because there had never been a focus on tourism before.
So, anyway, Rick said to somebody “I want to start a tourism program,” and they said, “you’ve gotta talk to Greg Marshall. Nobody loves this community more than Gregg Marshall. He’s over at the Holiday Inn. I was hired three months later—forty years ago yesterday. That’s how I got it.” We had four employees at that time. I was the fourth. Actually, I was the fourth and a half. And now we’re a big organization. We have close to 30 people.
INBOUND: Wow. It’s pretty incredible what you’ve seen, and you’ve been very active all along. You’ve been really active with Visit Rochester. And you’ve given Rochester a bigger presence than most destinations your size. For sure.
Marshall: I guess. You know, a big part of it is perception. Perception is great. But the reality is, you think that because I’ve been present. And we have this program that I was one of the founders of called Wine, Water & Wonders. (WW&W is a five-day itinerary featuring made and natural attractions of upstate New York State, ending with the Niagara Falls.) But, the fact of the matter is we are not as engaged in the international market as you might think. And I would not ever want anybody to be misled on that. We’re very proud of this Wine, Water & Wonders program of which we’re a part, but that’s kind of our sole engagement with the international market.
INBOUND: It’s more that you had the curiosity—
Marshall: Well, we had the curiosity, and we understand that international overseas inbound business – not counting Canada—is an important part of the market. And it doesn’t hurt that we’re 87 miles from Niagara Falls. Right? With people moving from New York City as a gateway or Boston as a gateway over to Niagara Falls, we’d be idiots to not try to get a share of that. But our presence overseas – we really tie in to the I Love New York program and what they’re trying to do overseas. And to a lesser degree, the New York City programs. Those two programs are not totally aligned, but they’re better than they used to be. New York State has a nice program. They have offices in six cities and we mirror those.
In fact, we have engaged the French M.I.C.E market. We have one of the foremost M.I.C.E guys coming in tonight for dinner. And we hosted a luncheon at IPW for 17 operators that are involved in the MICE market. But, I want to make sure you understand that international marketing is indeed part of the marketing mix.
Do Travel Associations Deliver Value?
INBOUND: INBOUND alludes to a recent travel trade article in Skift where the founding editor wrote that associations “do nothing” to help people increase their business.. ”Given this—the contention that associations don’t deliver value … that associations like NTA, ABA and US Travel don’t deliver value—what’s your take on this?
Marshall: I didn’t see that article, so I am just now digesting what you said. I have a different perspective because I pride myself on having a few skills here and there with association management.
So, I’ve always been fond of associations, generally. I have a bias towards associations. The question then becomes, I guess, one of relevancy. Right? I guess that’s what they’re talking about. Are they relevant in this day and age? I suppose, if a parallel were to be drawn, one could say that actual travel could be achieved by going online and virtual reality, etc. If actual travel is still delivering value, then why wouldn’t associations, in terms of bringing people together for that personal interaction and the aggregation of ideas and priorities and synergy, why would that not still be incredibly valuable?
Have either of you read “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community,” by Robert Putnam?
It talks about the relevancy of associations, and do people still need togetherness more–not so much on a professional level, but on a social level. I see my staff, that I send to these conferences—whether it’s Destinations International or US Travel’s ESTO—come back incredibly energized, and having an entirely new perspective on the purpose of their work. I believe that that can only be delivered in some type of a forum.
Now, associations as they relate to Greg Marshall are still very, very relevant. Having said that, I would say there is without question duplication. And there needs to be a reality check among organizations about …. Are they as aligned with each other as they need to be to make the best uses of resources that are available to fund them? So, you have two organizations—Destinations International and US Travel—that probably could talk to each other a little bit more-as well as ABA and NTA. And it’s been going on for decades.
I think it’s time, maybe, for a transformation of associations, but I disagree with the rap that they are not relevant and that they have no purpose. In sum, you said that whoever did this article was that they (associations) don’t help anybody with business. That would be like saying that institutions of higher learning don’t have a role. I think they do. I believe that they have a role in education, business exchange and in aggregating opinion and… That’s my opinion.
The Role of the Receptive: Don’t Ask them to Create Demand
INBOUND: So, what’s your take on the domestic tour operator market—from the perspective of a DMO that has had to sell to them for 40 years?
Marshall: I think what is more evident to me than ever before is that tour operators do not have the ability to create the demand for a destination and that the destinations are responsible for creating the demand. They are always going to work to meet demand vs. create demand. So, the whole concept of introducing new destinations and new travel options is a long drink of water. The fact of the matter is that people have so much information available to them about where they can go and what they can do and how they can do it and the role of the media of driving demand and awareness are increasing the ability of the domestic tour operator to help a destination create demand.
Now, there is a way around that, and that is a strong collaboration between destinations and tour operators. The problem is there are more tour operators than any destination has money or resources to enter into cooperative agreements with. I‘d probably enter into cooperative agreements with 50 tour operators tomorrow if I had the money. I don’t have it.
So, what does that mean?
I think the tour operator is always going to mirror the popular destination, unless these tour operators are doing more segmented tours. I’m probably one who is crying into the wind here, but I’ve always said that tour operators have to get away from geography and get into experiences. They’re doing it more and more. I still don’t think it’s that much, though. People and their time and resources are dedicated to what they want to do, not where they want to go. I think it’s an ongoing thing. I don’t think it’s a sea change or a tsunami washing over; I just think it’s an evolution of all the factors—
INBOUND: Yes, but it’s at a snail’s pace—
Marshall: Well, yes. It’s at a snail’s pace. Maybe I should know this a little bit more, but I’d be interested in seeing some amazing new tour operators that are doing some really, really innovative stuff to create some new markets. Right?
INBOUND: They’re out there, but they’re not really part of the associations. You don’t find them at ABA and NTA. These are people who you find through Airbnb, who are creating experiences in cities that can be customized. They’ve been unearthing really unique attractions that have come into the market. What’s happened is that none of the tour operators that go to the shows (we’re not the party being interviewed here, so interjecting our opinion perhaps shouldn’t even be noted), but from what we see—there are three companies that organize meals in people’s homes. These are ideal companies to partner with for unique experiences that would make a week-long trip that’s been sold basically the same umpteen years, but make it different if you just added that element. There are all these other things out there.
So, give them unique experiences.
Marshall: I’m just saying that, for a certain segment of the business world, they (associations) are relevant, And I think one of the great areas of relevancy is in-person education and interaction. But the challenge is, inevitably, they are going to need to adapt and they are, inevitably—probably, going to get a little bit smaller, and the way to counteract the challenge that they face is to combine resources. And there are not a lot of people in this world who love the idea of talking to somebody about a merger or an alliance or a takeover prospect—
INBOUND: Or there’s a financial desperation …
Marshall: Oh that’s for sure. But, sometimes it doesn’t need to get to a point of financial desperation. If financial desperation comes about, it usually is because nobody was proactive and projected far enough out of what the future held. The winners are the ones that are looking at the inevitable future.
Why the Mustard Doesn’t Make the Cut
INBOUND: One of the things we’ve noticed about the industry that we wanted to ask you about quickly is: When you’re dealing with the tour operator trade—domestic and international—and travel agents, there are different phases. The first phase is awareness; you’re just trying to create awareness, but there’s gotta be some way that you help them sell the product through.
Marshall: I want to take it away from the travel and tourism industry for a second and put it in another industry that we know very well here in the East: supermarkets. We have a nine-billion-dollar family-owned supermarket chain on the East Coast that Forbes says is the best place to work in the United States for years running called Wegmans.
I use this as an example. Here’s the grocery store model. “ I’ve created a brand new mustard. Would you put my mustard on the shelf? This beautiful mustard. Here, taste my mustard. Taste my mustard. Wegman says, ‘all right, that’s good mustard. We’re going to put it on the shelf.’ Nobody buys the mustard, because nobody’s ever heard of the mustard. Nobody has ever seen the label. There’s no brand recognition. There’s no logo recognition. And, even if you’re paying for shelf space, nobody’s ever heard of you, Wegman finally says, ‘You know what. We’re throwing away a lot of your mustard on the expiration date because nobody’s ever heard of your mustard. We love your mustard, but unless you tell the market about your mustard, we don’t have room for you on our shelves. And we’re not part of your chain of distribution.’ “
That exact same thing happened, unfortunately, over here, with New York state wines although it’s getting much better. Restaurants say, “We would love to serve New York state wines, but the public has no demand for New York state wines. They don’t know about them.” And the wineries say, “We don’t have enough money to push the brand out.”
Take it out of the travel industry, but the element remains. Unless the consumer is aware and desires it, it is not the travel trade’s goal to create the market. So, that’s the issue that destinations need to realize. And once destinations and products understand that, the tour operator can be much more helpful.
How Do You Help Lesser Known Destinations?
INBOUND: Let’s talk about the budget that these destinations have that they can dedicate to this kind of consumer marketing. Domestic marketing is one thing, because you know where your core markets are and how you market to them. When you get beyond the core markets—you’re talking about tour operators now—how do you help them market. Take Rochester, for example. I am not aware of Rochester itself. But It’s close to Niagara Falls and you have a corporate niche. Right? You have this proximity to the Falls. You have the Finger Lakes area. With the limited budget you have to help tour operators, the question is: How do you help them? The answer is: Your social media department has to be involved.
What I see happening with Faisal Sublaban, president and CEO of the receptive tour operator Bonotel Exclusive Travel, who puts out a regularly broadcast blog on YouTube called “The Hotel Boss”—where he helps promote their hotels. He’s got a model that DMOs can use as well, because he is creating awareness among the international trade—tour operators and their constituents—about upscale hotels and what they have for international travelers using social media tools. It has to be through free channels, because very few have the money to do consumer advertising, and the tour operators don’t know how to do it themselves. This is how I see DMOs helping the trade. You have a tour operator coming to your area, and you start doing Facebook marketing in the regions that he or she is selling—instead of giving him money, you basically promote the hell out of their tour program on social media for about $300. And then the operators becomes the call to action.
Marshall: OK. Yes, there is a social media component. But there is also something like what we’re doing with Wine, Water & Wonders. We have an RFP to tour operators in overseas markets that says: “Give us access to your consumer base. Tell us something where we can meet your consumer base, through you. We’re paying you. And we’ll do that.” And to be honest with you, that’s probably a very good format. It says, OK, you’re out there doing direct marketing and social media. So, let us buy into that information stream for your consumer market and we will create awareness of New York state together.” That is our approach; it’s relatively new—a couple of years—and I’ll tell you what: We can’t keep up with the operator interest in doing that, because there’s money in it. Right?
When I think about my conversation on the mustard, it was really about the domestic market. My philosophy is that the overseas visitor coming to the United States who has the proclivity or tendency to want to see things that they don’t know about are pretty open to suggestion. They will use the travel professional and recommendations, and direct media, etc., to buy into. I know I do. I’m a little bit of a different kind of a traveler but I’m somebody who seeks advice.
Does Anyone have Time for Relationship Marketing?
INBOUND: You go by their advice, for sure. So, what’s your take on relationship marketing—the importance of it?
Marshall: The big issue is that time has superseded money as a commodity now. Relationship marketing is a wonderful concept, but you’re up against a time restraint. We have a very interesting thing we’re doing here in Rochester. I was so tired of putting out co-op opportunities for our hotels and attractions to sell with us—Come on this sales mission. Come to this convention with us. Etc.—and we heard: “We don’t have the money. We don’t have the money.” We even abolished our travel and tourism department. A major component of that reality was money. We said, “We’re eliminating the argument of we don’t have money. We’re now paying now for you to go.”
Visit Rochester is the only city I know in the United States that has a fund that, if a hotel or an attraction says “I want to go to ABA,” or “I want to a sales mission in New York City,” that we have money to pay for them to go. Now, there are some criteria, but we’re not saying that we’ll give you 50 percent. I’m saying we pay for their airfare, their hotel, their registration. All of that. They have to share leads with us.
Guess what? I still don’t have a go. “We can’t afford the time,” when say, “We can’t afford the time.” So, that’s the elephant in the middle of the room. Because relationship selling would take time. I can provide financial resources, but I sure can’t give someone more time.
I’m going through a transition here at Visit Rochester now. I’m leaving my position at the end of next year. What am I gonna do? The best thing I could do for Visit Rochester is to say I’m gonna be out of town 80 percent of the time showing my face and raising the Rochester banner. So, I’m a true believer in relationship selling, but the fact of the matter is that, in the corporate structure, the time allocation is not there.
So, I think relationship selling is great. And for those that allocate the time to do it, it’s even better. The question is—and I’m way too old to know the answer to this—can relationship marketing be accomplished through intimate social media? I am not the one to answer that. But that would be a good question: Can relationship marketing face-to-face in creating a professional relationship be accomplished through elevated social media?
Taming the Big Apple
INBOUND: By elevated social media, you mean FaceTime and Skype and things like that?
Marshall: Yes. Yes. I don’t see it, but maybe that’s something that somebody else could respond to.
We have a program called New York City Presence. It goes directly to relationship marketing. New York City, you know, is a hotbed for meetings and conventions, film, sports, media, everything—tour and travel, all of that.
We were intimidated by New York City for … forever. Can’t break into New York City. And we used to do receptions down there. It was like — Oh, meeting planners. $10,000 receptions for meeting planners … and media. And, you know, you’d get a few, but you would never get the ones you want. There would be a million reasons. They got other obligations, or they don’t know anybody.
Five years ago, I said, “The heck with this!!” We’re going to start buying tickets to where we wanna be. So, instead of us ever doing functions in New York City, we just go. So, next week, I’m going to three Chamber events in New York City, a luncheon at the Broadway Association, which is comprised of real estate owners and others, and I end up knowing more people when I walk into a room in Midtown Manhattan in a business environment—not only the travel and tourism environment; I mean a business environment—I know so many people. “Oh Greg” someone will say, and my name has become synonymous with Rochester. And it’s costing me a fraction—a fraction of what it used to cost me.
Now, I’ve got people saying, “Hey, would you sponsor the beverages. We just need some wine and beer” … for 200 mega-millionaire real estate people down there. Several of them came up to me and “hey, we’re looking for a distribution center. Do you have available upstate?” So we’re doing some crossover.
INBOUND: You’re probably right about the whole time structure issue, but the travel industry itself has been built on relationships—it’s basically relationships and turf wars. That’s what I see. It’s all about that and showing up. I know that after the financial crisis hit in 2008. I had been looking at other industries to get into in 2007. I was bored. Things were going well, even with me. I was looking at clean energy, for instance. Suddenly, the financial crisis hit, and I said, Damn! This is going to be really tough for people.
I decided that I was going to go to everything. So, for two years, I went to 22 shows a year—to places I’d never been. All these group tour operator shows, international shows. And do you know, that in that time, our business increased 25 percent—just by me showing up at these places. Because I knew that our competitors wouldn’t be able to travel to do that. Everybody was cutting back on all that. There were fewer people to do all this. So, I know that relationships are important.
Marshall: It’s interesting to hear that, you know, because I wonder if an emerging tendency is emerging in the banking industry. Don’t the people at Chase banks now call their people “relationship managers”? Isn’t that their title?
INBOUND: Yeah, that’s a euphemism for a sales person.
Marshall: Well, whoever came up probably knew what the hell they were talking about. Relationship is like accessibility. Relationship is in the eye of the beholder. What’s relationship marketing? Who decides what the definition of that is?
NEW AND INTERESTING PRODUCT
“High Line Nine” opens in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. Located at 527 West 27th in the heart of Chelsea, and sitting adjacent to 520 West 28th Street designed by the late Zaha Hadid, the neighborhood’s newest art gallery has now opened beneath the High Line, and has been dubbed the “High Line Nine.” Inspired by European gallerias, the new attraction presents a new concept of mixing a museum, a gallery, an exhibition space, and a cafe within a continuous interior space created by Markus Dochantschi’s international design team at Studio MDA. Paul Kasmin is the main anchoring gallerist for the project site, and will occupy 5,000 square feet. There are five other gallery spaces, with San Francisco-based Burning in Water serving as the curator. For more information, visit https://newyorkyimby.com/category/studio-mda.
Rail service between LA and Las Vegas coming in 2022. Brightline, the privately owned rail company that brought rail service between Florida’s West Palm Beach and Miami (and has plans to connect the line with Orlando International Airport), has announced plans to connect Las Vegas and southern California via a high-speed rail connection that would make the 270-mile trip in two hours. Miami-based Brightline has acquired XpressWest, which has existing rights to build a high-speed rail corridor between Southern California and Las Vegas. Brightline hopes service on the new line will begin in 2022. The company is buying 38 acres of land adjacent to the Las Vegas Strip to a the terminus which plans to develop into “a major intermodal hub with access to taxis, buses, shuttles and limousines.” For more information, visit: https://gobrightline.com/
The Getty Villa Galleries re-opened in Malibu, California—just north of Santa Monica—several months ago completing a major upgrade and reorganization of nearly all of the art on display at the Villa—primarily the Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities in the Getty collection. Prior to the reinstallation, the Villa arranged its art according to themes, such as ancient theater, athletes and competition, and gods and goddesses. The new displays, installed gallery-by-gallery over a period of a year-and-a-half, have arranged the works of art by place of origin. With almost 3,000 square feet of additional gallery space, the new installation was designed to enhance and showcase the most important objects in the collection. A major highlight of the reinstallation is a newly renovated gallery on the first floor dedicated to the age of Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic world (336-330 BC). Admission is free, but a ticket is required. Tickets can be ordered at http://getty.edu/visit/villa/ , or by calling 310.440.7300.
The Zombie Den: Bar of the Living Dead is scheduled to open Oct. 3 in Pittsburgh’s Market Square. The timing of the watering hole’s grand opening is to help observe the 50th anniversary of George A. Romero’s cult-status film, “Night of the Living Dead,” which has some scenes that were filmed at the 147-year-old Original Oyster House, which has been transformed into a darker place for “undead” patrons. According to a press release making the announcement of the bar’s opening, “guests will enter a bunker-like environment designed to be a ‘safe house’ during a vicious zombie outbreak in Pittsburgh,” where guests will encounter a band of survivors who staff the bar while serving up potent cocktails — and pitch-dark humor to match—to ease the pain of the city’s impending doom as hordes of the undead engage in a relentless attack. For more information, visit: www.zombiedenpgh.com.
Latest Sales Figures Suggest that German Market is Ready for a Strong for 2019
Following what the German travel trade news media called the “Lost Year” of 2016, when outbound travel to the United States dropped by more than 10 percent over the previous year, the market began a recovery in 2017—as confirmed by the recent release of full-year figures for the year from the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office—and, on the basis of the latest figures by German travel agencies through last month, sales for 2018-19 winter holidays (which usually have a sizable long-haul component) are outstripping those for last year.
Image: GfK/FVW
Part of the optimism that one detects in demand from German lay in the fact that more than a much-feared “Trump Slump” in 2017 due to German distaste for U.S. President Donald J. Trump, there was a comfort level on the part of the consumer driven by the fact that the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the euro has been stable for the last year—at or near $1.17 for the past 12 months. This has meant stable prices for all parts of the distribution system, including the German consumer, German travel agencies, German tour operators and U.S.-based receptive tour operators who sell product to Germany.
As reported by FVW, some highlights of the latest monthly report put out by the Nuremberg market research organization GfK (Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung, or Society for Consumer Research), which analyzed sales by 2,000 representative travel agencies, include the following:
- German travel agents and online travel agencies (OTAs) had a good month in August, with total sales up by 6 percent compared to the same month last year thanks to solid demand for all three seasons (summer 2018, winter 2018/19, summer 2019) that are currently on sale. There were diverging sales trends between online and offline sales channels, however.
- Total sales revenues for summer 2018 trips grew by 3 percent in August. Overall, summer 2018 is 12 percent ahead of last year in revenue terms while the number of bookings is 7 percent higher than last year’s total. With two months still to go, this means that summer 2018 will clearly close showing strong growth compared to 2017.
Summer sales last month were clearly driven by OTAs selling late holidays while travel agents’ revenues for the summer season declined.
- Summer bookings made up 73 percent of OTA revenues in August but only 44 percent of travel agency sales.
- In contrast, travel agents were busy selling winter holidays as well as taking early bookings for next summer. Sales covering the forthcoming winter season (November to April) made up 40 percent of their revenues last month while summer 2019 accounted for 16 percent, according to GfK.
- Overall, winter 2018/19 accounted for more than one third of total sales in August, pushing cumulated growth up to 9 percent. In terms of departure months, more than half of winter sales revenues to date are for trips in November (+8 percent) and December (+11 percent).
- With Easter in April next year (Easter Sunday is April 21), there is a typical seasonal trend in the relatively low booking numbers, with April revenues up by 7 percent but March is down by 11 percent.
Receptive Tour Operator of the Month
Rey Royal is a local/regional receptive tour operator based in New Orleans with a multilingual staff and operations throughout the southern USA and parts of Texas and the mid-west (Chicago and St. Louis). The reason the company offers only this region of the USA? Because, it says, concentrating its operations in this location assures its clients the most up-to-date selection of accommodations, tours and restaurants. Rey Royal’s tag line is “Travel Like a Local,” believing that its clients want a truly authentic experience. The company says that it known as the specialist in the areas it serves, offering the most competitive rates in the industry. Rey Royal also offers multilingual escorted group tours designed specifically for its high-end clients.
Rey Royal is a local/regional receptive tour operator based in New Orleans with a multilingual staff and operations throughout the southern USA and parts of Texas and the mid-west (Chicago and St. Louis). The reason the company offers only this region of the USA? Because, it says, concentrating its operations in this location assures its clients the most up-to-date selection of accommodations, tours and restaurants. Rey Royal’s tag line is “Travel Like a Local,” believing that its clients want a truly authentic experience. The company says that it known as the specialist in the areas it serves, offering the most competitive rates in the industry. Rey Royal also offers multilingual escorted group tours designed specifically for its high-end clients.
Case Study: the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Campaign to Welcome Chinese Travelers
One of the few cultural institutions to already have brand awareness in China when the country opened the sluice gates to outbound tourism in late 2007 (when China gave Approved Destination Status to the United States), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has launched a multi-channel, multi-audience campaign aimed at driving up the number of visitors to the city from China. The initiative involves: the creation of greater awareness and support from San Francisco’s sizable Asian American population with ties to China; the launch last year of “Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World,” the largest survey of Chinese contemporary ever presented; working with the San Francisco Travel Association and its in-country representation in China to promote the museum; opening SFMoMA’s own Weibo and WeChat channels in July and have hiring staff to operate the platforms and a consultant to create updated content for the pages; and the hire two full-time, Mandarin-speaking museum guides who will be available for all of the museum’s shows, not just the China show. For the complete Jing Travel article on the SFMoMA campaign, click here. (https://jingtravel.com/san-francisco-modern-art-museum-china-campaign/
At a Glance: Wine, Water & wonders of Upstate New York
HODGE PODGE: Shifts, Shakeups and Occasional Shaftings in the Tour and Travel Industry
Cheryl Kilday is resigning from her post as president and CEO of Visit Spokane, to take over as CEO of the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce CVB in South Carolina. Kilday, who has served in the position for eight years, officially leaves Visit Spokane on Oct. 12. TJ Hake, Visit Spokane’s vice president of strategic development and operations, will take over as interim CEO.
Delta Air Lines has reshuffled its leadership team in Latin America and the Caribbean. Nicolas Ferri (left) takes over as vice president for Latin America and Alliances for the Americas. Luciano Macagno (right), former director for Brazil, will be responsible for taking over the sales and will be the administrative director for the region. Ferri, meanwhile, will be responsible for leading the execution of Delta’s commercial agreements with its main partners in the Americas region. Ferri’s prior experience in the industry includes tenures with Aeromexico, Gol, Aerolíneas Argentinas and West Jet. Both moves are a part of Delta’s transfer of its sales from Latin America to Miami.
David Herrell has been named president and CEO of the Quad Cities CVB. Herrell succeeds Joe Taylor, who is leaving the position after 20 years. He officially begins his new job on Oct. 8. Herrell comes to his new post from Jacksonville, Florida, where he served as the city’s sports and entertainment officer for nearly four years.
Sibo Kuhlmann is leaving his job as director, franchise sales and assortment purchasing for TUI Germany. Kuhlmann, who has been with TUI for 17 years and has been responsible for franchise sales for seven years, is departing at his own request. No successor has been named. For the time being – Michael Knapp, sales director, is taking over the job in addition to his previous responsibilities.
Leticia Gonzalez-Alvarez has been appointed to the post of hotel manager, chains, at Hotelbeds Group. She joins the company from The Venetian/The Palazzo, Resort Hotel and Casino/Sands Corp. where she served for 10 years in several senior sales positions.
Elske Doets for 22 years at Jan Doets America Tours
Angus Bond for 7 years at Virgin Holidays
Chris Aguilar for 6 years at runDisney/Disney Created Sports, Disney Sports Attractions
Antoinette Eckert for 4 years at the San Francisco Travel Association
Brian Said for 2 years at Choose Chicago
Chris Ellis for 2 years at Brand USA
Patrik Birkhofer for 1 year at TBO Holidays
Great insights here, Tom. I think Greg Marshall’s mustard story is a great example of today’s marketing challenges as well as its opportunities. As a mustard company, or winery for that matter, you should have relationships with notable personas, market influencers, who can help get the word out for a fraction of the cost as, say, flooding the marketing with expensive, and potentially ineffective, advertising spots. There is no product too “small” or “simple” to take advantage of relationship marketing.