How They’ll Get the Buses Rolling Again
Re-Capping “Connect with Domestic Tour Operators” Almost 300 travel and tourism professionals watched and listened to Connect Travel’s recent webinar featuring a discussion with two well-known domestic tour operators: Julie Gagnon, general manager, Jolly Tours and Travel, which is a predominantly senior group leisure operator is headquartered in Cornwall, Ontario, about 65 miles southwest of Ottawa; and Dennis Lyons, assistant vice president-coach & tour group, for New Britain, Connecticut-based DATTCO, best known for its presence in the student travel market.
“These are motorcoach companies,” explained moderator Shari Bailey, vice president, Connect Travel and general manager, Connect Travel Events. “There are different challenges that both of these companies ae facing when they trying to figure out how they’re going to roll again.”
Top Takeaways: Following is a summary of the principal themes or messages that came out of the session.
1. Promote Consumer Confidence
Customers will need to feel safe before choosing to travel again. Tour operators feel cleanliness and safety messages will help promote consumer confidence.
“We’re going to be driven by consumer confidence, and I don’t know when we are going to see the return of that,” Gagnon noted. “Consumer confidence It is going to be at the crux of all of this. When do people feel comfortable to travel, how far do they feel comfortable to travel to?”
Added Lyons: “That’s where our focus has to be. How do we get the consumer confidence back? … We’ve got to do the things that give them confidence to travel.”
2. Get Involved
The U.S. Travel Association, American Bus Association, and Ontario Motor Coach Association are advocating for policies that will advance our industry on the national level. Unrealistic regulatory issues for motor coach tour operators, border regulations, travel insurance, and varying rules for individual states and provinces are concerning. Work with your tour operator clients and industry associations to get the tools, research, and resources needed to influence change at national, state, province, and local levels. “Motorcoaches Rolling for Awareness” will be held on May 13 in Washington, DC. For information on how to get involved visit www.BusesMoveAmerica.com.
Said Lyons, “One voice is stronger in Washington,” make sure we have one very loud voice in Washington DC.”
Bailey also suggested to the nearly 300 people who attended the webinar: “ If you do want to get involved, go to the ABA site (www.buses.org) , go to OMCA (www.omca.com) or go to US Travel.org (https://www.ustravel.org/); they have a great tool kit set up so that you can download information for your local area.”
3. Find the Right Tone
When and how to begin promoting your product or destination can be tricky. Consumers represent varying tourism verticals and geographic markets so they prioritize differently. Tour operators and suppliers can share messaging to help promote each other. Ultimately, keep pushing the travel message.
“We don’t have to continue to beat the horse with a stick,” observed Gagnon. “We’re talking about people’s leisure dollars. They don’t have to go on vacation. They choose to go on vacation, and allocate dollars in that way. We don’t need that vacation to be a continual, stressful event. … That’s what we have to do as an industry—we have to cover all the rules, but keep them having fun or they’ll choose not to spend their leisure dollars with us.”
4. Connect and Communicate
Tour operators need information. Send messaging related to opening your business or community, updated contacts, hidden gem itineraries, or special offerings for tour and travel providers. Create virtual product training, site inspections, and fam trips.
Asked to what extent she welcomes such information, Gagnon said, “I always say yes. Like many people in our position, I have decades of worth of ABA conference binders and OMCA binders, but that information is only as good as that time frame. So, yes. We welcome new information. We don’t want to miss something good.”
To view and listen to the webinar, click here.
Just One of 50 Countries Shows Q1 Increase in Arrivals
Were it not for Poland’s new-found flush position as a new-found, growing European source market for visitors, last year, 2019, all of the Top 50 international source markets—except for neighboring Canada and Mexico—registered declines in their number of arrivals to the United States for the First Quarter of 2020.
What accounted for the Q1 success of Poland? The answer: Last Nov. 11th, it became the latest (No. 39) nation to be a part of the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, which means that Polish citizens and nationals are now able to travel to the United States for up to 90 days without obtaining a U.S. visa. By the thousands, travelers from Poland came to the USA as 2019 ended and 2020 began. It is doubtful that Poland can sustain the pace, given the restrictions on travel and near zero percent in flights to and from America these days. However, the country has already improved its rank as a country source market—it improved from No. 39 to No. 27 during the first quarter.
Otherwise, there aren’t any real surprises in the latest quarterly posts of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Nation Travel & Tourism Office (NTTO). Figures for Canada and Mexico—they come from sources other than NTTO—were not yet available.
The Top 50, then, follow:
Inspiring Your Audience—After Travel & Tourism Week
Just before the launch last week of National Travel and Tourism Week, a panel of senior DMO officials got together as a part of Connect Travel’s Staying Connected Series of webinars to discuss what the travel and tourism industry could do to inspire Americans to travel in a post-COVID-19 pandemic world. Some 250 attended the virtual roundtable discussion.
Panelists included:
Gathan Borden, vice president of marketing, VisitLEX;
Melissa Gogle, vice president of marketing, tourism & communications, Visit Phoenix;
Wes Rhea, CEO, Visit Stockton;
Becca Smith, senior director of marketing and events, Connect Travel; and
Josh Collins, director of destination activations and marketing, Streetsense, who moderated the session.
Key Takeaways Included the Following:
—Work with and engage others—locals and influencers—to help them increase the awareness of tourism’s importance and value to your community.
—While restaurants are an integral part of the tourism infrastructure, we can do more to emphasize how important a part of the travel and tourism industry locally.
“We know that restaurants are heavily impacted but do we understand how much of our restaurant spending locally comes from visitors and not just locals,” Wes Rhea said, adding “we may even some of that when restaurants reopen, they may not be as busy as they usually are, because it’s not only locals that support them.”
—Turn challenges into opportunities tin order to help those industry workers who are victims of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, or because of other traumatic events. In many communities, DMOs are playing a key role in providing food and/or meals to affected families—by contributing food, money, time, their kitchens or expertise to such efforts.
Gathan Borden told attendees that VisitLex in Lexington, Kentucky launched such an effort, Josh Collins said that nearly 7,000 meals had been distributed, as well as 2,500 school lunches.
—DMOs, trying making locals a key component of your market path to recovery. That’s what Phoenix is doing. And some others, too.
Explained Melissa Gogle: “I think that will help us as we do go into summer—which is typically our low season—because it is a slower season for our out-of-town visitors, and our resorts have always marketed to locals. Our locals really understand what a vacation means. To them, it’s truly like enjoying a hotel or resort in their own backyard. … We are hoping that locals can help jumpstart things and that, maybe, they’ll be ready to visit local properties before travelers are.”
—Co-op, co-op, co-op! Partner, partner, partner! Many DMOs have had to make staff reductions. And nearly every DMO has had, or will have, their funding reduced for the current and upcoming fiscal year, which starts on July 1st. Co-operative marketing projects—with locals, with associations, with in-state and out-of-state programs—and partnership activities will help leverage limited marketing budgets. Share your business and industry contacts with small businesses. Traditionally, small tourism businesses or tourism-dependent businesses haven’t had access to the research and marketing intelligence that DMOs have. DMOs will likely share this information.
—Shift to using virtual information and meeting tools to reach out and communicate with visitors and stakeholders. Already, some DMOs are replacing the traditional Visitors Guide, which is usually laden with ads, and which are handled and touched by many people in most instances, with online tools.
VisitLex two years ago shifted its guide from its role as a business guide to one that is more of an inspiration guide—a product heavy on imagery, but without ads, Gathan Borden told webinar attendees. And it’s possible, he said, that his organization might eliminate the guide altogether. But right now, there is too much uncertainty over the future …”
To see and hear the recording of the webinar, click here.
Parks Service Withdraws Entrance Fee Increase
Midst the dire dialogue and discussion that has come with the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic on every sector of the U.S. population and its economy, the travel and tourism has scored an unqualified victory as the U.S. National Park Service has announced that it has withdrawn plans to increase commercial tour entrance fees at U.S. national parks—the most popular generic destination for international visitors to the United States—and will not implement a nationwide commercial use authorization (CUA) requirement for road-based commercial tours* in national parks.
The NPS proposal had called for a $20-per-person fee and, originally, was to have gone into effect on April 1, 2020. (Its implementation was twice delayed) Individual parks may still charge CUA fees, which differ from park to park, with some charging nothing, while others, such as the Grand Canyon National Park, have a schedule of fees that can still make it a costly venture for a tour operator.
Since the NPS announced a couple of years ago its intent to establish a uniform fee at all parks, the U.S. Travel Association, NTA, the American Bus Association, and U.S. domestic tour operators as well as U.S.-based receptive tour operators lobbied incessantly against the move. But the response of the NPS was, essentially, to ignore the industry’s pleas.
To illustrate, this is how the NPS last November summarized the industry’s comments on the proposal during the open-comment period for the changes:
“This is a huge win for NTA and all of the travel associations that lobbied against the proposed changes to the CUA program. While the word standardize sounds positive and efficient, the significant expense and extra paperwork for tour operators would have been anything but positive,” said NTA’s president, Catherine Prather, “and the twice-delayed rollout of the plan reflects the confusion that surrounded it. To those of you who shared your concerns about the plan with the NPS and your legislators, thank you. Our voices were heard.”
“But our work continues,” she added. “There still exists a patchwork of CUA costs and requirements for the many national parks that require road-based commercial tour CUAs. Parks that issue road-based commercial tour CUAs may continue to do so and will charge current CUA fees. But we can at least take comfort in knowing that parks that have not issued such CUAs before cannot start doing so now.”
* According to the National Park Service, the definition of a “Road-based Commercial Tour” is one or more persons traveling by vehicle on an improved roadway:
—On an itinerary that someone has packaged and sold for leisure/recreational purposes, and which,
—Provides no other services except those incidental to road-based travel in an area unit of the National Park System (on-board interpretation and incidental stops at visitor centers, restaurants, wayside exhibits, etc.).
Note: Transportation-only services such as taxis and shuttles do not meet the definition of Road-based Commercial Tours because those services are not prepackaged.
Operators from Mexico and Canada Toughing it Out
But They Need Your Help: There was a sense of urgency tempered with a degree of confidence, determination and hope as a panel of tour operators who sell Visit USA product in Canada and Mexico met late last week in Connect Travel’s “Staying Connected” series of virtual roundtables to discuss travel to the United States from Mexico and Canada during and after the COVID-19 driven global pandemic that has brought international tourism to a grinding halt. Remember that Canada and Mexico account for half of all international inbound travel to the U.S.
Panelists for the roundtable included:
Kristine Geary, president and CEO, Maple Leaf Tours;
Karla Urias, owner, PasswordTravel.com/ViajaTravel.com;
Alberto Cervera, head of Mexico, TUI Destination Services; and
Shari Bailey, vice president, Connect Travel and general manager, Connect Travel Events.
Here, INBOUND highlights the key takeaways from the session:
—For the moment, many operators are in a survival mode.
Explained Kristine Geary: “We’re In survival mode. It’s been refund, refund, refund. When this all began, the motto was ‘don’t cancel, rebook.” As time has progressed, we’re finding that more and more of our clients want refunds.”
—Think about survival, yes. But also think beyond survival. Now is a time to refocus your products and thinking about how you are going to implement a new normal.
As Alberto Cervara put it, “I think the survival mode for us is gone. It was real during the first weeks. Yes, we still have problems. We still have to refund. But right now, we are focusing 150 percent of our energies in re-inventing ourselves and re-inventing our business – trying to figure out what this will look like within one week, within one month, within one year, trying to use this not as a tragedy … but as an opportunity to see things in a very different way, to try to do things in a different way: How do we want to really want to satisfy our clients. What products do we want to sell What services do we want to sell?”
—Once the environment for travel has improved, there should be a strong surge of activity, as there is already a buildup of pent-up demand, and people will want to travel, will want to reconnect with the travel experience.
—In order to help the tour operator segment recover, DMOs, travel suppliers and hotels should be flexible—flexible with rates and, flexible with space.
—Now is the time to refresh your online content, image and videos. Operators have time to review them and to update their materials. When the industry re-starts, they will probably be too busy to take the time to review these materials.
—Expect travelers to change their spending habits.
All panelists agreed with what Kristine Geary said: “When we are through this, people are going to come out of this with different spending habits. They are not going to be collecting ‘things’ or buying ‘stuff.’ They are going to be wanting experiences and they will never take their free time for granted again.”
—New health and safety protocols will raise questions about physical and other changes to the tourism product and infrastructure: that is, will the all-inclusive resort experience remain as they were? Will the 500-seat restaurant stay? Will health tests and other costs be a part of the travel package?
To view and listen to the session, click here.
Market Update – UK
What do the final data for 2019 tell us about a Post-Pandemic British Travel Market? If we have learned anything about the UK traveler from the past two decades, it is that UK travelers are resilient and, yes, stubbornly determined, to enjoy their holidays. Taking a look at the latest Market Profile for the UK recently released by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO), one can see that—prior to the coronavirus-driven global pandemic—outbound travel from the UK to the USA market had been on a steady decade-long path of recovery through: the Great Recession that lasted through June 2009; a mid-decade decline in the value of the British pound sterling against the U.S. dollar; and the June 23, 2016 vote of the British to exit (“Brexit”) the European Union.
And now, with inbound international arrivals figures for the first quarter of 2020 showing the sharpest year-on-year decline ever, scattered surveys tell us that some Brits would still like to take a holiday sometime this year—even as UK tour operators and receptive tour operators in the United States who sell to the UK market seem to have forsaken 2020 for 2021 because of the global pandemic.
NTTO’s Market Profile for the UK has a treasure lode of data that tell us where Brits like to visit, where they arrive in the U.S. and their reasons for coming to America: almost nine of every 10 UK travelers come to the USA in order to vacation or to visit friends and relatives (VFR). Below, INBOUND has highlighted some of the key numbers from the NTTO Market Profile. For more information, visit https://travel.trade.gov/.
Notes:
Traveler volume is based on the I-94 arrival and departure record, in either electronic or paper format, issued by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officer to a foreign visitor entering the United States. The I-94 record is the only source for overseas (air, land, and sea) and Mexico-Air non-resident arrivals to the United States.
Traveler profile characteristics are based on the Survey of International Air Travelers (SIAT), a primary research program that provides visitor travel, trip and demographic characteristics.
Only country and world region destinations having a sample size consistently of 100 or more are displayed. Visitation incidence was rounded to two decimal places in NTTO source files beginning in 2014 to reduce artificial ‘jumpiness’ in the data caused by rounding to only one decimal places, especially for destinations having incidence of less than two percentage points. Due to quarterly data weighting by country and port of entry, some unreported destinations may have a higher proportion of total than those reported.
German Trade Hit by Virtual Halt in Sales
Data for April showed that travel sales were grinding to a halt while, at the same time, the government extended until mid-June its warning on outbound travel.
First, the latest numbers pertaining to the condition of the travel and tourism industry in Germany show that it is far from healthy. As reported by the German travel trade publication fvw, which were based largely on results of the monthly survey conducted by TATS (Travel Agency Technologies & Services), reveal the following:
—Travel agencies in Germany experienced suffered a 93 percent decline in revenues in April as they shut down due to a COVID-19 lockdown.
—The 93 percent decline in April followed a drop of 81 percent in April.
—Tour operators continued to cancel holiday bookings following announcements worldwide of a de facto cessation of international air service because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. travel warning.
—Sales have decline for all types of travel as tourism revenues crashed by 87 percent in April, following a 53 percent decline in March.
—Flight ticket sales fell by 99 percent following the cancellation of most international passenger flights.
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—As April came to a close, advance bookings for departures up to the end of October 2020 were almost 140 percent lower than they were for the same period last year. Such a dumber shows that more holidays have been canceled than actually booked.
Second, the German foreign ministry extended its warning against private travel to any other country to June 14th. (It had been in effect till May 3rd.) As a result, German tour operators who had so far cancelled bookings through until May 15th began canceling bookings with departure dates up to June 14th. It seems that many operators have forsaken the notion of booking for long-haul travel for the remainder of the peak summer travel season, and ae focusing on packages for 2021.
Third, Despite the travel cancellations, an item in Touristik Aktuell reported this: “TUI (the market leader in Germany) is by no means losing the summer. ‘The season will start later this year and the focus will shift to late summer,’ says Hubert Kluske, managing director sales and marketing. The interest of people to travel or to make up for canceled vacations was great, as the search on the TUI website and the redemption of travel vouchers showed.”
Would Travelers Give up Medical Information in Order to Travel?
Notwithstanding lockdowns in many countries because of the COVID-19-driven global pandemic, many travelers would like to take a trip this summer, and they are willing to share their personal medical history and travel plans in order to help keep themselves and those around them safe.
So says the results of a survey conducted by New Hampshire-based Global Rescue, which provides medical, security, intelligence, and crisis response services on a global scale—it has offices and operations centers throughout the world. It recently conducted a survey of its members and also found that many would be willing to take measures that they would not necessarily have been prepared to take previously, in order to restart travel.
“Many travelers are planning to hit the road again this summer and they are willing to share personal medical history and travel plans to help keep themselves and those around them safe,” Global Rescue CEO Dan Richards said in a statement announcing the survey results.
Based on 1,300 responses collected from its members on April 23-24, including government agencies, corporates, universities, nonprofits and tour operators, the company’s survey found that, for starters, 77 per cent are expecting to make a trip by the end of October, while 41 per cent expect to make their next trip by July or earlier and 36 per cent are planning their initial trip sometime between August and October. Other survey findings include the following:
—91 percent of those surveyed are willing to subject themselves to screening and testing.
—73 percent are willing to disclose medical conditions related to a compromised immune system.
—93 percent are willing to share their past 14-day travel history.
—58 percent are willing to have their physical location tracked and traced with data temporarily retained.
—77 percent are expecting to make a trip by the end of October
—41 percent expect to make their next trip by July or earlier
—36 percent are planning their initial trip sometime between August and October
—Less than 9 percent believe their earliest post-pandemic trip will be during the holiday months of November and December
—Fewer than 7 percent expect to make their first trip sometime between January and March 2021
—7 percent predict their next trip won’t be until sometime after April 2021.
—Asked for the reason for their first trip, domestic trips were favored by a two-to one margin.
—75 percent of initial trips are expected to be family holidays, leisure trips to visit friends, or destination getaways.
—less than 10% expect their first trips to be for business only.
—15 percent say their initial travel plans will be for both business and pleasure.
—Queried about trips booked during the global travel restrictions, more than 42 percent reported they were forced to cancel their travel plans, 16 percent said they voluntarily abandoned trips and 27 percent postponed their trips.
—Nearly 60 percent of those who canceled or postponed travel expect to book another trip as soon as they feel safe.
—13 percent report they will reserve another trip to take advantage of travel discounts and deals.
—Fewer than 1.5 percent plan to spend their money on other things unrelated to travel.
IAAPA Produces Guide for Reopening
Just recently made available is “Reopening Guidance: Considerations for the Global Attractions Industry,” a fairly comprehensive, 36-page document produced by the Orlando-based International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, which is “intended to provide information to those in the industry and other interested parties and to assist in operating attractions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic”
Focusing primarily on the needs of attractions sector, IAAPA says that “not all of these considerations will apply to your operation or facility type; however, the information outlined is intended to help you develop or review the plan that will work best for your attraction,” and cautions readers that the guide is “not intended and is not designed to serve as an industry best practice and should not in any manner be considered a best practice for the attractions industry.”
Still, it is a valuable document that those for the travel and tourism industry, of which the attractions sector is a part, and it is worth reviewing. Here, INBOUND shares the document’s introductory summary.
Summary of Topline Considerations for Reopening
These considerations regard operational adjustments for facilities to consider before reopening prior to the development of a treatment or widely accessible vaccine for COVID-19. They will be adjusted and simplified as time goes on, conditions improve, and new best practices are identified.
These considerations are designed to be a rough outline, subject to discussion and adjustment as needed with input from the local government agencies and health authorities where the attraction operates. If government guidance is more stringent than this document, you should follow government guidance. You may want to share this document with government officials to assist them in developing their guidelines for unique attractions.
Topline Considerations for Reopening
1. Allow healthy people to enjoy the facility and encourage the use of masks/face coverings for guests and staff.
2. Provide means to wash/sanitize hands frequently.
3. Manage density of people within the facility to keep people or family units that have been isolating together 6 feet (2 meters) apart. Physical distancing guidelines may vary by region and can be reduced by wearing of masks/ face coverings—ensure your plan is aligned with local official guidance.
4. Reduce touch areas where possible and sanitize high touch surfaces frequently.
5. Protect employees with various approaches, including barriers, protective coverings, and distancing.
6. Communicate with employees and guests effectively on how to prevent the spread of germs.
7. Have a plan in the event a guest or employee falls ill on site.
For the complete report, click here.
Safe Space 2020. August 17-19. New Orleans.
Connect TOUR to be Launchpad for “Safe and Clean” this August in New Orleans: Designed and developed by Connect Travel, the “Safe and Clean” brand, or Safe Space 2020, debuts August 17-19 in New Orleans. It will be a part of Connect TOUR, which will be the first major travel marketplace and conference event to showcase a new normal for the trade show formula.
“Connect TOUR is a hosted-buyer event that brings together the most active tour operators, suppliers and experts in domestic tour and travel for preset appointments,” said Will Seccombe, president of Connect Travel, adding, “it combines the right timing for product development, a unique format that creates an efficient and effective environment to expedite the sales process and close business and a robust educational track to inspire and inform industry leaders in a rapidly evolving market.”
Connect TOUR will be the first major U.S. tour and travel event since the de facto shutdown of travel trade meetings and conventions in the United States in early March 2020. It will employ both one-on-one business appointment sessions between travel buyers and suppliers, as well as offer an agenda of educational programs, and networking opportunities.
What will make Connect TOUR unique will be the omnipresent reminder that “Safe and Clean” are now, and will continue to be, the signature of a Connect Travel event. For example, a sampler of some of the elements of the emphasis on this feature include the following:
• Temperature checks will be conducted before entering the event.
• Cloth masks will be required for attendees and staff at a minimum. KN95 masks will be provided for any attendee or staff who wants one.
• Glove and hand sanitizer stations will be available throughout the event. Disinfectant foggers will be placed in the exhibit hall area.
• New appointment design allows for social distancing measures and plexiglass shields will be placed on appointment tables.
• Indoor/outdoor spaces will be used as much as possible.
• Larger aisle ways and one-way only aisles in the trade show and appointment areas help manage traffic.
• Education sessions will be set up to allow for a six-foot space between chairs.
• Food and beverage will be provided in a no-contact way (i.e. pre-packaged food, no self-serve buffets).
For a more complete PDF version of “Safe and Clean,” click on ctrl + here for a copy.
For program and registration details for Connect TOUR, visit TOUR | Connect Travel.
Chinese Are Ready to Travel—if Only Close to Home
The numbers were understandably well below those of last year’s event, but the 2020 edition of China’s Labor Day holidays (May 1-5) was still able to produce a total of 115 million trips over the holiday—down 41 percent over the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. But the figure exceeded expectations of about 90 million trips and was a hopeful sign, according to the Chinese travel trade.
More than half of bookings for holiday packages from Trip.com—one of China’s largest travel companies—were made by travelers born in 1990 or later, known as China’s post-90s and post-00s generations. Overall, Trip.com said it saw bookings made on April 29 for air, rail and car transport for the holiday were 130 percent higher than all of the bookings for the week of April 24-29.
A common theme to most of the coverage of the Labor Day holiday period was that it would signal how well the Chinese people were ready to travel in the shadow of the COVID-19-driven global pandemic, and if most Chinese would likely favor a trip nearer to home than outside China or overseas.
The answer? A new survey conducted just before the holiday began by the global research and analysis firm Oliver Wyman indicated that, when it concerns destination selection, almost four out of five respondents to the survey said that they would prefer a domestic destination for their first trip after the epidemic subsides. Other than the reduced time and/or budget available for travel, “the unfriendly attitude of foreign governments and/or foreigners during the epidemic” were also cited as other reasons for travelers’ preferring “to go to domestic destinations,” is also being cited a reason for domestic tourism. Yunnan, Beijing and Chongqing were among the top 10 most popular domestic destinations on travelers’ wish lists.
HODGE PODGE: Appointments and Changes
Carsten Staat has been named chief sales officer of the German Allianz Partners companies and is widely known as a provider of travel insurance—a commodity likely to grow in both importance and usage in the Post-COVID 19 global pandemic. Staat, who has been with the company for nearly 19 years, will be responsible for the sales of the travel and assistance business areas, in addition to other areas. He was previously global transformation manager for the company.
Jerad Bachar has been appointed as the new president and CEO of VisitPittsburgh. Bachar, who had been serving as interim CEO of the organization, succeeds Craig Davis, who left last December to become CEO of VisitDallas. He has been involved in tourism and economic development for more than 30 years. Bachar was hired by VisitPittsburgh in January 2019 to be its executive vice president.
Lori Timony was recently named senior vice president, new market development, at the Leisure Pass Group. Timony, who is also the group’s senior vice president of global trade sales, has been with the company since 2017. Previously, Timony, who is based in London, was vice president of channel sales and strategic accounts for Smart Destinations, Inc.
Deli Koki Matsuo, a U.S. resident, has been named vice president of CVC, Brazil’s largest tour operator/travel agency. His selection came last week as part of the election of a new board of directors for the company, which made Silvio José Genesini Jr. chairman of the board. Matsui is founder of Appus Appus Tecnologia em Softwares e Gestão Ltd. He had also been serving as an independent director at CVC. The board of directors election was done remotely. The new board will serve through 2021.
UFI, the global association of the exhibition industry, has named Mina El Fazazi as head of global marketing and communications. She brings over 15 years of communications and marketing experience to her new position. She has a lengthy background within the exhibition industry (in both BtoB and BtoC trade shows) through her previous roles at Reed Midem, Reed Expositions France, Comexposium and SAFI. El Fazazi takes over the role from Justine Evans who previously managed UFI’s Marketing and Communications activities.
Richard Andrew has been named managing director, Southeast Asia and Australia for the AI marketing platform EternityX. He is responsible for driving Southeast Asia and Australia’s strategy and business expansion, helping marketers to target the China digital market, as China begins its post-COVID-19 recovery. Also, Armay Guo has been named regional business development head-SEA. The two will be based in Singapore for the company, which is headquartered in Hong Kong, has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and New York. EternityX’s premium media inventory reaches more than 90-percent of China’s netizens through such partners as ByteDance, Tencent, Alibaba and WeChat.
Posted Industry Jobs
ATTN: Those recently furloughed or laid off in hotel, CVB or DMO sales
Connect is looking to pay furloughed or laid off hotel, CVB and DMO sales representatives who can help strengthen and grow our planner community at Connect live events. The response to the announcement last week that we are 100% moving forward with our event in August and our Safe + Clean Connect Plan has been overwhelmingly positive. It just solidifies that the entire industry is hurting and wants to get back to business. We are looking for a “win-win” solution that will help grow our events while helping our partners when they need it most.
How Connect live events work:
Connect hosts meeting planners from the Corporate, Sports, Luxury, Association and SMERF categories.
We look for planners who:
– Are decision makers
– Have business that moves regionally or nationally
– Book various peak rooms – based on category
– Are actively sourcing (Post COVID-19)
The win-win:
You stay engaged with your customers
You earn extra money during a trying time
New planners that may not be on our radar discover the great shows that Connect produces
If you are interested in hearing more about the opportunity, please contact Mark Wong, Director of Planner Sales, or Derek Rodriguez, Vice President of Sales.
Mark Wong, mwong@connectmeetings.com, 404.819.4898
Derek Rodriguez, drodriguez@connectmeetings.com, 770.826.2463
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From SearchWide Global:
—Travel Marquette is looking for a group marketing/sales manager. For more information, visit here.
—Meet AC (Atlantic City) is seeking a new to find their next President & CEO. Click here for more details.
—The Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau is seeking a new president and CEO. More details here.
—The Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau has an opening for a senior national accounts director in Washington, D.C. Click here for more details.
—Visit Topeka has an opening for a new president, who will also serve as senior vice president of the Greater Topeka Partnership. You’ll find more details here.
—Visit Santa Clara is searching for a president and CEO. Click here for more information.
—Destination Ann Arbor is looking to hire a vice president of sales. For more information, visit here.
—The Port Aransas & Mustang Island Tourism Bureau & Chamber of Commerce is searching for a president & CEO. For more information, click here.
—The Galesburg Area Convention and Visitors Bureau in Illinois is looking for an executive director. For more details, click here.
—The Spartanburg (S.C.) Convention & Visitors Bureau is seeking a chief tourism development officer. Visit here for more information.
—Discover Lancaster is searching for a new president and EO. Click here for more details.
—The Monterey County CVB is searching for a new president and CEO. Click here for more details.
—The St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission (Explore St. Louis) has an opening for a vice president of sales. Click here for more information
—An international hotels & resorts company has an opening for a regional director of sales and marketing; the position is based in Vancouver, B.C. Visit here for details
—The Saugatuck Douglas Area Convention & Visitors Bureau is searching for a new executive director. Click here for more information.
