Complete Issue April 04, 2019

**A Note from INBOUND’s Editor-in-Chief**

A Letter from INBOUND’s editor-in-chief, Jake Steinman: Last week, we announced that the entire NAJ portfolio—Active America China, Active America China Receptive Edition, TourOperatorland.com, INBOUND, and the RTO Summits—was sold to Connect Travel as part of a plan that that will allow me gradually scale back to Chairman Emeritus status by the end of 2021. (Please see the news release below).

Many of you have had questions you have sent my way—questions that I’d like to try to address here:

Q: Why did you sell?

A: I’ve been working with Will Seccombe and his team at Connect Travel for the past year and found that we shared the same business values. The money didn’t hurt either as it will enable me to retire without drastically reducing my lifestyle.

Q: Does Connect Travel plan to close down any NAJ events?

A: Not at all. Their preference has been to use the events as “anchors” around which to add other events, similar to what they have done with Digital Marketing for Sports Travel and Thrive for LGBT travel running side by side by side with eTourism, which Connect Travel purchased last year. I’ve learned that we share the same values of creating value for our partners.

Q: What will happen to the NAJ staff?

A: Everyone on the NAJ staff has been offered, and has accepted, the same positions with Connect Travel to produce the products they purchased. Our attendees can still contact them directly about any questions they may have.

Q: What changes will be made to the NAJ portfolio of products?

A: Initially none, but there will be a transition that will be focused on delivering more appointments and more value for our attendees. Again, I want to stress, Connect Travel and my NAJ team will combine to insure that we are adding real value to our partners

Q: What will be your role?

A: I will continue full time work with Connect for the next twelve months while I build the TravelAbility Summit, a new b2b event designed to make travel easier for people with disabilities.

Q: What will happen to the NAJ brand?

A: It will be the umbrella brand that will own 80 percent of TravelAbility, a new event created to help make , while Connect Travel will own 20 percent.

And remember, our focus will be on integrating the teams and making sure that we are producing the type of events that generate business for our partners.

Will and I will be announcing a “town hall” type conference call where we will be available to answer any questions about the event.

Connect Travel Expands Tourism Industry Offering with New Acquisitions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Connect Travel Expands Tourism Industry Offering With New Acquisitions

ATLANTA, March 29, 2019—Connect Travel, LLC, a division of Connect (a Tarsus Group company), has acquired multiple assets from North American Journeys, Inc. Connect Travel works with destinations, resorts, hotels and attractions to increase their domestic and international leisure travel business by connecting them with the right people, at the right time and in a format that will expedite the sales process and help them close business.

Three RTO Summits (East, West and Orlando), Active America China as well as the Inbound Report and TourOperatorLand.com will join the Connect Travel portfolio, which includes the Connect Travel Marketplace, Connect Tour and the Connect THRIVE Summit.

“North American Journeys has been an innovator in B2B tourism marketing since 1996,” said Will Seccombe, president of Connect Travel. “We look forward to working with Jake Steinman and his team to continue to deliver extraordinary opportunities for our travel industry partners.”

“I’ve enjoyed working with all of the tour operators, suppliers and destinations who helped us build the preeminent sources of inbound tour and travel information and most innovative boutique shows in the industry,” said Jake Steinman, founder of NAJ Group. “By teaming up with Will and Connect Travel, Sophia, Betsy, Liz, Tom and I will have additional resources to bring even more value to our incredible clients.”

Connect Travel, LLC, a division of Connect (a Tarsus Group company), has acquired multiple assets from North American Journeys, Inc. Connect Travel works with destinations, resorts, hotels and attractions to increase their domestic and international leisure travel business by connecting them with the right people, at the right time and in a format that will expedite the sales process and help them close business.

Three RTO Summits (East, West and Orlando), Active America China as well as the Inbound Report and TourOperatorLand.com will join the Connect Travel portfolio, which includes the Connect Travel Marketplace, Connect Tour and the Connect THRIVE Summit.

“North American Journeys has been an innovator in B2B tourism marketing since 1996,” said Will Seccombe, president of Connect Travel. “We look forward to working with Jake Steinman and his team to continue to deliver extraordinary opportunities for our travel industry partners.”

“I’ve enjoyed working with all of the tour operators, suppliers and destinations who helped us build the preeminent sources of inbound tour and travel information and most innovative boutique shows in the industry,” said Jake Steinman, founder of NAJ Group. “By teaming up with Will and Connect Travel, Sofia, Betsy, Liz, Tom and I will have additional resources to bring even more value to our incredible clients.”

—RTO Summits
Conference and marketplace bringing together receptive tour operators with destinations and suppliers. The summits are hosted in cities with the highest concentration of RTO offices: New York, Los Angeles and Orlando. rtosummit.com

—Active America China
An annual product development show that brings together top Chinese tour operators with invited suppliers and destinations to develop new tour opportunities. activeamericachina.net

—TourOperatorLand
The only travel site designed to be used by international, domestic and receptive tour operators, travel media and travel agents researching new ideas for products. touroperatorland.com

About Connect Travel
Connect Travel is the leisure travel division of Connect. Connect Travel creates efficient and effective environments to expedite the sales process by connecting tourism professionals with the products, services, people and ideas that allow them to thrive in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive global marketplace. For more information, visit connecttravel.com.

About Connect/Tarsus Group
Connect/Tarsus Group is a leader in the meetings, travel and tourism industry. Specializing in destination marketing, the company produces a full suite of digital programs, online and mobile solutions, meetings business and travel magazines, trade shows and consumer events, travel guides for newspapers and leisure magazines and destination information, which is distributed through broadcast and custom programs. More information about the company’s brands and services is available at connectmeetings.com. Connect is part of U.K.-based Tarsus Group, a business-to-business exhibition company with more than 150 events worldwide.

About North American Journeys
North American Journeys is the leading event and media company offering a suite of products for the tourism and travel industry. Visit northamericanjourneys.com for more information.

Contact: Director of Content Marketing Mindy Hylton, mhylton@connecttravel.com

The First Full-Year Numbers for 2018 are in, and It’s Official: Brexit Hasn’t Really Impacted UK Travel to North America

In the last issue of INBOUND, we ran an article, The Hell with Brexit—Brits Want to Travel this Year, in which we cited a couple of recent surveys showing that the people of the UK would rather give up most near anything if it meant they could take their holiday. And not only that: midst a ceaseless drumbeat of speculation on the part of news media outlets that UK travel would fall off this year because of discontent over the impending implementation of the decision by UK residents to exit the European Union (“Brexit”), it looks as if Brits are prepared to travel more in 2019 than they have in five years.

And since that article, the UK’s Office of National Statistics (ONS) released figures showing that the June 23, 2016 referendum in which a narrow majority of Brits voted to “exit” the European Union (ergo, the word “Brexit”) did not slow UK outbound travel last year. Since 2015, the year before the referendum, Brexit doesn’t seem to have had any real impact—insofar as travel to the key barometer of North America is concerned.

But more important to the whole of the UK outbound tourism industry, ONS data confirmed that 2018 was a record year for all outbound holidays from the UK with the number of overseas holidays hitting 47.15 million, up 1 percent on 2017—which was also a record year.

While outbound travel to the U.S.—it usually accounts for about 90 percent of UK holiday traffic to North America—and Canada did decline five percent in 2017, most tour and travel observers attribute the decline to the currency exchange rate, not Brexit per se. The British pound sterling dropped 17 percent against the U.S. dollar from the day before the June 23, 2016 Brexit vote to the end of October that year. Since then, the pound has recouped about half its value against the U.S. dollar.

More important, the actual number of UK visitors to North America increased 6 percent, year-on-year, in 2018 vs. 2017, virtually matching 2016, the year of the Brexit vote. And for the fourth quarter of 2018, visitation to the North America by British travelers increased 21 percent, year-on-year. Below, INBOUND has arranged British travel to North America on a month-by-month basis from the year before the Brexit vote through 2018.

The Tour Operators Technology Summit—an RTO Summit Day Especially for Receptives

Receptive tour operators who plan to be a part of the business appointments on Day Two of the RTO Summit East later this month (April 24) now have the opportunity to pick up on the latest technological developments in “How to Use Travel Technology and Increase Your Business” with a day-long program developed just for receptives.

Presenters include tech companies experienced in the tour and travel industry, such as Charley Troggio, granddaughter of Charlene Troggio, founder of Breakaway Travel, an ABA operator now Pittsburgh who, with no background in computer science, built their group reservations and operations system for free using Google Drive.

For the latest updates to the TOTS agenda, as well as a list of presenters who will be taking part in the Summit, click here.

IPW Anaheim Now Offering Language Translation for Appointments through Jeenie

Last year in Denver marked the first time that Jeenie™, a real-time, real-person, face-to-face translation app made an appearance at IPW. The new start-up product, which was a hit demo at the most important international trade show for Visit USA business, featured Chinese-English at the time (both Mandarin-English and Cantonese-English) and found itself in immediate demand.

This year, both the popularity and presence of Jeenie have grown—so much so that IPW is partnering with the service so that US travel suppliers and exhibitors will able to use discounted packages of Jeenie for immediate, on-the-spot interpreters.

More on those packages later. Right now, here’s a quick refresher of what Jeenie is and how it will work for IPW delegates—from Kirsten Brecht Baker, Jeenie’s founder and CEO.

What It Is: Jeenie is a peer-to-peer marketplace for on-demand video or voice calls with human language and cultural concierges. Our mobile app, with the tap of a button connects customers to live—this is human not machine—a language help and cultural advice, in less than 60 seconds.

How Did It Come to be IPW’s Translation Service? Baker told us that at the company’s first IPW last year, Jeenie shared a booth with North American Journeys, it ended up with about 90 appointments—almost all of which were international, mainly from Asia.

“We used our appointments to demo what was a very new product at the time,” explained Baker. “We were just launching our Jeenie product, and still working on the app in the background.”

“What we noticed was that, in the midst of doing a demo, our linguist was kind of taking over and facilitating a conversation between us, the exhibitor, and the attendee. It was quite obvious that, before we had the linguist pop up, and before we had somebody in front of this attendee who spoke their native language, there was minimal communication; there was minimal relationship development. They often had their own interpreter with them but, quite frankly, either the interpreter didn’t have super strong skills or they were also a little, kind of trepidacious—maybe a little embarrassed to ask too many questions.”

At first, conversations with tour operators and others were limited, Baker explained. “Then, as soon as they had this person in front of them who was clearly bilingual and bi-cultural, they immediately started engaging … gushing questions like ‘Can I use it here?’ ‘How would we use it there?’ ‘Is it commissionable?’ All these different kinds of questions started coming out. We were like, ‘Oh my God!’”

She added, “It’s so interesting that simply by introducing this three-way conversation, if you will, the appointment is so much more productive. On the second day at IPW people started coming from other booths, saying “Could I borrow your app for an appointment that I’m having, because we’re having challenges with language?” That kept picking up over next two days, and we thought: “You know what? There’s a very interesting use case here.”

That’s when we spoke to Jake Steinman (founder and CEO of the NAJ Group, Jeenie’s boothmate), who then introduced Baker to Malcom Smith at US. Travel, senior vice president of business development, US Travel and IPW general manager) and Susan Sandberg (US Travel’s senior director, meeting and event services), and we had a conversation about what it would be like to have a service like Jeenie at IPW.

“We talked with them about what we hoped would be a mutually advantageous engagement, mostly because, from US Travel’s standpoint … the objective of an exhibitor when they come to IPW is that they want to promote their destination or heir service, and they want to do that effectively,” said Baker.

US Travel picked up on the notion and is now partnering with Jeenie by offering different translation packages. (See table below) And now, Jeenie™ is the Official Language Assistance App of IPW 2019.

Available Languages: Jeenie is available for English to: Cantonese/Mandarin; Japanese; Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian and Korean. (Look for more languages in the future.)

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What will it cost? IPW and Jeenie™ are partnering to provide suppliers/exhibitors with on-demand language assistance. IPW has negotiated exclusive discounts for exhibitors at IPW 2019. Choose the package that is right for you and your booth based on the number of international appointments you anticipate:

Exhibitors establish a single account log-in which can be installed on multiple devices, and minutes may be shared. MINUTES DO NOT EXPIRE. If you do not use all your minutes at IPW, you can use them for follow-up meetings. Above discounted package prices are valid through May 31, 2019, only. Pricing will increase for purchases made on-site at the trade show.

* Any usage in excess of the minutes included in a package will be billed at our standard rate of US$1.00 per minute.

If you have any questions, or would like more information on the IPW Jeenie service, visit https://www.ipw.com/translation-app

If you have any questions about Jeenie itself, contact the Jeenie team at: info@jeenie.com.

Also, Jeenie’s IPW booth number is 3123.

IN MEMORIAM

Mel Tye, founder and president of Tye’s Top Tour & Travel in Merrimack, N.H., died March 22nd after fire fighters at his residence discovered his body and tried to revive him, to no avail. Tye won many local awards for his innovations in developing tour programs. He was a fixture at tour operator trade shows where his predisposition to what some would call unabashed candor, would leave suppliers with an impression of rudeness. We once witnessed him on the floor of the ABA Marketplace show telling a supplier who was trying to arrange an appointment during the open period that he had no interest in her product and didn’t want to waste her time or his. But Mel was unquestionably bright, often offering piercing insights into the business and how to package tours. Additionally, while Mel may not have been an early adopter of the Social Internet, he was certainly one of the few tour operators who had the vision to use it as a sales tool. In 2015 he signed up for a digital marketing course at a local community college and regaled his Facebook followers, many of who were his customers, with tales of an aging (he was 58 at the time) student trying to keep with the Millennials who grew up with a digital existence. Tye was 62 years old when he died.

Gale Carlill, co-founder and joint managing director of UK-based travel trade representation company Worldwide Attractions, passed away on March 20th, following a long battle with ovarian cancer. Gale, who worked at her company for 16 years, was an exceptional person who touched so many people with her thoughtfulness, intelligence and professionalism. She will be immensely missed by her colleagues, clients and all her friends in the travel industry.

New Product

—Hudson Yards Retail Launches: More than a million square feet of retail space opened last month in Manhattan’s West Side—the massive Hudson Yards development. The shops, which were built by two of the world’s largest real estate developers, Related Cos. and Oxford Properties Group, are meant to appeal to shoppers of every scale. They range from apparel retailers Uniqlo, H&M, Zara and Athleta to luxury shops Dior Fendi, Cartier and Tiffany. The property is anchored by Dallas-based department store chain Neiman Marcus. So far, a lot of the visitor action seems to revolve about the Yards’ 16-story Vessel. Comprised of 154 intricately interconnecting flights of stairs, nearly 2,500 individual steps and 80 landings comprising almost one mile of vertical climb above the Hudson Yards Public Square and Gardens, the landmark offers incredible views. At $25 billion, Hudson Yards is the most extensive real-estate development in in US history. It’s also one of the largest, at more than 18 million square feet, including 14 acres of public space. The entire 28-acre project is set to be completed in 2024. For more information, write hello@hudsonyardsnewyork.com, or call 646.954-3100.

—Getting a lot of attention recently is the National Comedy Center, which is located in Jamestown New York, at the southwestern tip of New York State and not far from Lake Erie. Its week-long Grand Opening celebration late last summer featured Amy Schumer, Lily Tomlin, a tribute to the original Saturday Night Live cast with Dan Aykroyd, Laraine Newman and writer Alan Zweibel, Fran Drescher and Lucie Arnaz, daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. It was Ms. Ball—Jamestown was her home town—who first suggested the idea years ago. The $50 million facility has been mentioned in major publications, TV late shows and placed 2nd in the final ranking of the 20 “Best New Attractions” in the USA Today 10 Best Readers’ Choice travel award contest. The museum features immersive exhibits, interactive stations and, of course, live performances by popular comedians. Retail ticket prices range from $11 for youths aged 6-17 to $25.50 for adults. For more information, visit https://comedycenter.org/, or call 716.484.2222.

—TRUE STORY! LURID DETAILS! THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER IS OPENNG UP IN … Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Branson, Missouri. The National Enquirer, the supermarket checkout tabloid that thrives on gossip and weird headlines, has announced that it is planning an interactive family attraction, National Enquirer Live, in Pigeon Forge this spring, then open a second attraction this summer in Branson. “We are super excited,” Renee Johnson, GM for the Branson location, told the Springfield (Missouri) News-Leader. “This is a long time in the works.” He indicated that the two National Enquire Live locations will cost a total of $25 million. Although Johnson said FrontPage Attractions wasn’t ready to discuss what was going to be displayed yet, the 30,000-square-foot Branson location is at 3115 W. Missouri 76, in the former Starlite Theatre. In Pigeon Forge, the 20,000-square-foot National Enquirer Live will be located at 2115 Parkway, in the Pigeon Forge Attraction District, according to a press release.

Ticket prices, displays and more will be announced at a later date. For more information, visit www.NationalEnquirerLive.com, or, call 865.366.1609.

—CLEAR Introduces Simplified Biometric ID and Boarding Pass Verification: The company, which specializes in identity verification, has launched a new experience enabling CLEAR members who have provided a Delta SkyMiles number to simultaneously confirm their identity and boarding pass information with the touch of their finger or blink of an eye at the airport security checkpoint. CLEAR’s patented biometric solution, a first of its kind for domestic travelers in the United States, eliminates the need for these members to show ID or scan a boarding pass at nearly all of the airports in CLEAR’s nationwide network, although TSA may still ask some passengers to show their ID and Boarding Pass. CLEAR says it is changing the way consumers experience the world by transforming the cards in their wallets into a single biometric ID.

After a one-time enrollment, CLEAR members enjoy “secure, frictionless experiences” at 41 airports and venues nationwide. Says CLEAR President Ken Cornick, “CLEAR appreciates the support we’ve received from our partners at TSA, Delta Air Lines and airports across the country in making our latest innovation available to members.” CLEAR’s biometric identity platform is certified as Qualified Anti-Terrorism Technology by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and complies with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards. The company has also been awarded numerous patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), including for biometric systems and methods used to determine a person’s identity and access. For a list of major airports in the U.S. that use the CLEAR system, visit https://www.clearme.com/where-we-are/.

German Trade so far in 2019—Small Steps Backwards, Small Steps Forward

As far as one could tell—based on the trade and business news media coverage of this year’s ITB early last month—the outlook for the German tour and travel industry’s overseas outbound sector this year is one that is, at best, modestly hopeful. This was very much the same as it was last year and, if the forecasters at the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) are on target (and they usually are), it is very likely what it is going to be for the next several years, insofar as arrivals in the U.S. are concerned. A recap from NTTO’s most recent long-term forecast for inbound U.S. visitor traffic from Germany shows the following.

In Germany itself, as reported by the travel trade publication fvw, bookings of summer 2019 holidays in travel agencies and online grew by 1 percent this February compared to February 2018. The cumulative decline for all bookings since last November was reduced to -1 percent as a result, the market researcher GfK’s analysis of sales by 2,000 representative travel agencies, OTAs and tour operator websites showed. Other points noted from the GfK report:

—About one quarter of all bookings in February were for trips in May and June and a further quarter for July and August.

—However, the two peak summer holiday months are still in negative territory overall. Bookings for July are currently 1.9 percent behind last year while August is 1.6 percent lower than at the same time last year.

—The latest data should bring some relief to the tourism industry following three consecutive months of negative growth for summer 2019, including a 9 percent decline in January. However, it is still unclear whether the slight rise in February signals the start of a stronger recovery or just a brief respite.

Source: GfK Travel Insights

—Meanwhile, there were strong late bookings of winter holidays in February with a 7 percent increase that cancelled out a 6 percent decline drop in January. Growth for winter 2018/19 remained at 4 percent on a cumulative basis.

HODGE PODGE: Shifts, Shakeups and Occasional Shaftings in the Tour and Travel Industry

The recent announcement by Caesars Entertainment that it was cutting costs by laying off some of its corporate employees included among its victims Bruce Bommarito, who had served for the past six years as vice president of international marketing for the high profile Las Vegas-based company. In announcing the layoffs, Caesars said the move could save it $40 million per years. Before joining Caesars, Bommarito had operated his own consultancy for several years. Previously, Bommarito had served for five years (2006-2011) as executive vice president and chief operating officer at US Travel.

Pam Inman announced at the NTA tour operator retreat last week in Tucson that she will step down from her role as NTA president at the end of the year and, at the same time, Paul Larsen, chair of the NTA board of directors, announced that long time Executive Vice President Catherine Prather “will take the reins in 2020.” A long-time tour and travel industry leader Inman—she has served as NTA president for five years and, before that, she was executive vice president and chief operating officer of the American Hotel & Lodging Association for 10 years—said that, next year, she planned on doing “something entrepreneurial in this hospitality and tourism space where I’ve been working in since the early ’80s.” Prather has been with NTA for more than 25 years. (Above: Inman, left, and Prather at an event during IPW 2017 in Washington, D.C.)

The Madison Square Garden in New York City recently hired tour and travel sales specialist Dan Keller, who will be dedicated to group and FIT sales, with a specific focus on developing international partnerships. Keller will be offering inbound visitors access to tickets for all MSG properties including New York Knicks, New York Rangers, the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes, as well as tours of both Madison Square Garden & Radio City Music Hall.

Zachary Holifield was recently named director of leisure business development at Coastal Mississippi. He joined the DMO from the Mississippi Development Authority, where he was international travel trade program manager.

Rachel Ferguson was recently appointed vice president, innovation & diverse marketing at Visit Philadelphia. She joined the organization from CBS New York, where she was director of communications and public affairs for nearly seven years. Prior to that, she was media relations for Visit Philadelphia, when it was known as the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation.

Jerry Lepping (left) president and chief operating officer of Visit Bucks County, the county’s tourism promotion agency, is retiring from the post June 30th. Current vice president Paul Bencivengo has been tapped to replace him. Lepping joined the organization a dozen years ago. Bencivengo, meanwhile, has been a part of the agency for 10 years.

Brian Whitaker has been appointed director of sales for at CHICAGO CLASSIC COACH LLC. He joins the company from Windy City Limousine & Bus Worldwide, where he was part of the charter bus sales and operations team. Prior to that, he was vice president of Chicagoland Transportation Solutions.

Charlotte Dumesnil has been named managing director, France, for Vueling Airlines. Along liaison with David García, Vueling’s sales manager, she will lead the company’s activities in France. Prior to her appointment, Dumesnil spent most of her career in the Air France-KLM group, which she joined in 2004. Over the years, she held various positions within the group until becoming sales manager of Transavia in 2017.

Bedsonline has strengthened its senior leadership team with the appointment of Tomeu Gili as director of sales for Asia, the Middle East and Africa. In this newly-created position, Gili will be responsible for supporting Bedsonline’s existing travel agency customers in the local markets to drive growth while further expanding and diversifying the number of agencies working with Bedsonline’s booking platform. He will be based in Dubai and lead a team of 70. Gili brings with him over 20 years of experience in the travel industry, where he was spent time in leadership positions for companies such as Destinations of the World, RTS and Gowaii Corp. Prior to these, Gili worked for Bedsonline in senior leadership roles for 12 years following the brand’s launch in 2003. This latest appointment follows Hotelbeds’ integration of both GTA and Bedsonline under the refreshed Bedsonline brand.

Online operator Ski.com has appointed Devra Glynn as its new director of travel agency sales. Glynn joins the company from Vail Resorts, where she served as leisure sales manager for seven years. Her tasks at Ski.com will include managing travel agency and consortia relationships.

Emerson Camilo is the new CEO of consolidator Sakuratur. A familiar figure in Brazil’s tour and travel industry, Camildo comes to the post with 25 years of experience in the industry, having served tenures with Dimension, Alitalia, Advance, Rextur Advance and Flytour Gapnet.