Brand USA Travel Week Europe Scratched
BUSA launches a digital Brand USA Global Marketplace: In a move that had been anticipated for several some time as the COVID-19-driven global pandemic essentially brought activity on the world’s international travel market to a halt, Brand USA last week formally announced that the second annual version of its Brand USA Travel Week Europe, scheduled to take place Sept. 21-25 in London, has been canceled. It was also announced that the inaugural Brand USA Travel Week India, slated to be held October 5-9 in India, will not be held this year. Both events will be rescheduled to take place during the fall of 2021. (Already scheduled is Travel Week 2021; it will be held Oct. 25-29 at County Hall in London.)
“Today we are in a position to formally announce that Brand USA Travel Week Europe will not be held as a face-to-face exchange in London. And that our inaugural Brand USA Travel Week India will be postponed until 2021,” said Brand USA President and CEO Chris Thompson, who also announced that the organization is “Bringing forward a brand-new digital platform—Brand USA Global Marketplace. This will allow us to continue those really important face-to-face relationships with our travel trade partners around the world, while we’re dealing with the inability to meet face-to-face.”
Global Marketplace Launches Next Month: In explaining the logic of the new venture, said Tom Garzilli, Brand USA’s chief marketing officer, the agency is “trying to score a couple of challenges.”
“First, and the biggest one,” he told those attending the board meeting, “our partners have left the international marketing space, understandably, to focus on local recovery in the crisis.”
“At some point soon, hopefully later in the fall, they will be wanting to head back into the international market, and it’s on us at Brand USA to develop a re-entry vehicle so that we can all return globally,” Garzilli added, noting that the new Brand USA Global Marketplace is “one that is dynamic, ever growing and ever improving.”
Starts with Europe: Starting in late September, The Brand USA Global Marketplace will start in Europe, said Garzilli, “but will ultimately spread out around the world … an innovative solution which will replace inefficient, inertia-driven methods—a virtual version of Travel Week 2020 and beyond.”
He emphasized that the new Global Marketplace “will be efficient, lowering the barriers for participation, which really just means that every partner no matter how small or large, no matter the budget, will be able to participate.
Essentially the new platform will allow for the creation of a virtual version of Travel Week for 2020 … “so that, at the end of the day, even when we return to face-face meetings, a virtual solution will remain part of the experience going forward,” noted Garzilli.
The fully virtual platform, will also:
—Be available for buyers and sellers 24 hours a day, seven days a week indefinitely, once it is launched in late September.
—Have content that is evergreen, but will offer opportunities to refresh.
—An “Activities” location that can be accessed through a number of rooms off of the main lobby, which will include partner pavilions for both exhibitors and buyers (destinations, attractions, hotels, airlines, tour operators, etc.)
—A “Main Stage” for programming enrichment
—Virtual “partner pods”—each pod, which can be used individually and be re-purposed for a U.S. destination or attraction pod that will feature logo branding, clickable links, virtual business card drop off and pick-up, and the ability to schedule or request an appointment.
Observed Garzilli, “Once it is built it will have both international and, potentially, domestic applications. And at some point, the platform will be used or consumer shows.”
He said that the first event will be the virtual Brand USA Travel Week Europe Oct. 26-30, explaining that “It will replace our live Travel Week plan and it will be the first of many events that we will hold on the Marketplace.”
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The Lost Year: Perhaps the most sobering notice in the Brand USA board meeting was this line-and-a-half displayed during the presentation of Brand USA’s financial update: “FY 2021 Headwinds: Recovery date of international travel is unknown, we are currently anticipating recover to begin April 1, 2021.”
98% of Travelers to USA Plan Return Visit!
Just-released NTTO 2019 data reveal rich treasure lode of Info on those who visit USA. The U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) recently completed posting of the 2019 states, cities, and regions visited by overseas travelers, as well as in-depth profiles and statistical portraits on the NTTO website’s the “Inbound Travel to the U.S.” page. (Click here) The data are now available in an Excel format, and go back to 1997.
“The most seismic change during this period” said Richard Champley, senior analyst & program manager National Travel and Tourism Office/Industry & Analysis,”was the proportionate increase in the number of females who visited the United States. In 2019, 48 percent of all overseas visitors were female compared with 34 percent in 1997.”
Champley also noted that “89.3 percent of all visitors rated their U.S. entry experience as ‘average/good/excellent.’ As well, 97.1 percent of visitors indicated their overall trip experience in the United States ‘met or exceeded expectations’ and 97.7 percent indicated they expect to visit the United States again.”
The 2019 data presented by NTTO have a special significance for the international travel marketer in the U.S., as they comprise the last full-year set for several years, with this year, 2020, a wash, due to the coronavirus-driven collapse of the international market for what looks like most of the year. Also, numbers for 2021, provided that NTTO has received data counts as well as information from the Survey of International Air Travelers* in a timely fashion, are a good two years off.
NTTO’s material includes profiles of overseas visitors containing characteristics from the Survey of International Air Travelers passenger responses. Profiles include a comprehensive view of overseas travelers, followed by segmentations by regions (9) and countries (Top 25) of origin. In addition, there are ten sector/activity profiles and special reports on U.S. states and cities visited in 2019.
Other Key Takeaways:
—While the 2019 overseas arrivals data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security I-94 records totaled 40.393 million visitors, marking a 1.3 percent year-over-year increase, total visitation to the 11 U.S. regions declined slightly by 1.2 percent.**
—Spending (travel and tourism exports, preliminary) estimates totaled $211.4 billion, down slightly from 2018. Revised estimates will be forthcoming. Country and regional spending estimates are included, when available, within the profiles. For example, the Italy profile shows that spending for total travel (all purposes) and passenger fares on U.S. carriers was estimated at $4.3 billion.
—Among the traveler Characteristics observed in 2019 versus 1997 (the first year that data were made available in Excel format), business-convention travel in 2019 was slightly lower than it was in 1997
Leisure-VFR (visiting friends and relatives) travel segments demonstrated sustained growth over the last two-plus decades, from 18.8M in 1997 to 33.1M in 2019 [see graph below]
Other Traveler Characteristics observed in 2019 versus 1997:
—The average number of states visited in 2019 was 1.4 states vs. 1.6 states in 1997. Also, the percentage of travelers visiting only one state was 75.9 percent of visitors in 2019, up from 63.1 percent in 1997.
—Length of stay in the United States averaged 16.9 nights, up from 15.4 nights in 1997.
—Average travel party size increased to 1.7 persons from 1.6 persons in 1997. A 6.3 percent increase in party size may have influenced other visitation statistics, i.e. lodging, as would changes in length of stay and number of destinations visited.
—The share of visitors using a ‘conventional’ tour package (including, at minimum, air and lodging)
declined to 13.3 percent from 22.5 percent in 1997. Tour packages were used mostly in Asian, European, and Brazilian markets. A growing number of ‘independent’ travelers utilized internet booking services to virtually assemble air and lodging reservations.
—The number of repeat travelers has increased over time, from 75.3 percent of all travelers in 1997 to 78.7 percent in 2019.
—Transportation usage in the United States: For inter-city travel the usage of bus travel increased while domestic air travel declined.
—The use of cruise, ship/river boat, for one or more nights, and ferry and scenic cruises has been holding at four percent since NTTO started to measure those modes in 2012.
For more reports, specific details, and information on these and other travel segments, please visit: https://www.trade.gov/national-travel-and-tourism-office. The “profile’ format and content of these reports were completely redesigned last year making them much more useful and user-friendly. Instead of a static PDF format providing only year-over-year data, NTTO expanded to an Excel format spanning more than 20 years of data. Please contact NTTO with questions/comments at 202.482.4753 or ntto@trade.gov.
* The Survey of International Air Travelers is an on-going primary research program which gathers statistical data about air passenger travelers in U.S.-overseas and U.S.-Mexican markets. Survey data provides information on passenger trip planning, travel patterns, demographics and spending for two separate populations—non-U.S. residents traveling to the U.S. and U.S. residents traveling from the U.S.
** While total overseas arrivals are captured via the Department of Homeland Security I-94/Arrival and Departure Information System records at U.S. ports of entry, each one of those arrivals can visit multiple destinations in the U.S. (Captured by Q.17 in the Survey of International Air Travelers). So, in essence there appears to have been fewer destinations visited. This is supported by the statistic in “Select Traveler Characteristics,” row 374, “% visiting one state only” = 75.9 percent, a high compared to previous years.
Is Smaller Better for Tour Groups?
In a COVID-19 World, Smaller Group Sizes are Emerging as a Traveler Option—if not Favorite. Among the emerging trends that became apparent as a result of the tour operator discussions that have taken place over the past four months during the “Staying Connected” series of virtual roundtables organized by Connect Travel is the emergence of a smaller tour product, a development driven by the need to offer smaller tour products that will accommodate the desire to maintain improved hygiene standards and greater social distances between guests and, at the same time, maintain the uniqueness of the group travel experience. For the moment, this means either smaller groups on large buses or still smaller group sizes requiring smaller buses or vans for transportation. While the standards are still an emerging work in progress, here is a sampling of the type of products that are being marketed to travelers for whom less is more, or that smaller is better.
—Insight Vacations is launching small, private group journeys for 12-plus guests that are typically part of its Fall, Winter & Spring itineraries to Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean and North America. Guests can now create their own “travel bubble” on their selected Fall, Winter & Spring journey with a new Private Group Options for an additional benefit to their journey. Select from 38 specific itineraries included in its 2020-2021Fall, Winter & Spring collection. This offering is a brand innovation, says the company, “keeping guests’ well-being and comfort in mind while truly understanding the current traveler’s needs around re-connecting with their families and friends in a post-COVID-19 world.” The new Small Private Group option will be available in destinations that are expected to make a strong comeback such as North America Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Egypt, Morocco, Israel, Jordan, and European Christmas Markets.
—Discover Your Italy, a small boutique operator based in Perugia, Italy—about 105 miles north of Rome—which has previously only offered customized private tours, is dealing with the situation by offering a new line of seven small-group tours to debut in 2021. Scheduled to be launched next spring, these tours will be limited in size to 20 guests and will feature a new collaboration with Autentico Hotels, a collection of 16 upscale family-owned and operated boutique hotels located in the destination. The group is an associate member of U.S. Tour Operators Association and will be adhering to safety and hygiene protocols set in place with the TourCare guidelines established this past spring by the Canadian Association of Tour Operators (CATO), the European Tourism Association (ETOA), and USTOA.
—G Adventures, a global adventure travel operator—it is based in Toronto, Ontario, with 28 offices worldwide, is offering its Travel with Confidence Plus Collection, a new portfolio of small-group tours with physical distancing in mind. In addition to smaller group size, the Travel with Confidence Plus Collection also offers increased hygiene and sanitization across all its tours. (G Adventures is also partnering with the Adventure Travel Association to create a set of industry safety guidelines, including rules for trekking, biking and rafting, created in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic.)
All trips will have between eight to 10 travelers, down from the average group size of 12, and will feature the exclusive use of private vehicles on land, with distanced, assigned seating; a My Own Room option for 50 percent-off across all tours in the collection; and more personal guestroom space and guaranteed in suite bathrooms.
—Global tour operator Trafalgar (It has headquarters offices in Geneva and London) is offering private trips for groups of 12 or more. The option is available for most of the company’s winter and spring itineraries throughout Europe and North America. The company tells us that the trips include all the benefits of the company’s traditional guided itineraries such as guides and the company’s new well-being directors. The pricing includes a per-person surcharge on top of the normal group rates, with the additional charges varying based on the size of the group. For instance, the rate would be 30% above advertised prices for groups of 12 to 15. That would drop to 20 percent for groups of 16 to 19, 10 percent for groups of 20 to 25 and no additional cost for groups of 26 or more.
—Meanwhile, Globus, a global operator based in Zurich, and which has been in business for more than 90 years, is promoting is European Private Touring Program; although it is not a new product, it is being repositioned as particularly pandemic-friendly. As part of the program, groups in sizes from two to 24 can create their own private version of any Globus Europe tour and tinker with it according to the interests of the group. Tours include the services of a dedicated tour director, private transportation and private guides.
What? Brazil Poised for Comeback?
Despite taking a pummeling from COVID-19 and a weak national economy, it could be worse: One thought among those who follow the course of the Brazilian economy and, in particular, its travel and tourism industry, is that the well-worn assessment of “it could be worse” is—believe it or not—an apt description of the situation for Brazil’s outbound tourism industry, especially as it compares to the United States.
On the Global charts for COVID-19, the USA is Number One, and Brazil is Number Two. China, interestingly (84,300 cases, 4,600 deaths) is No. 29.
Into the mix of factors that might warrant further pessimism is/was the state of Brazil’s economy. In April, it seemed as if the nation was about to experience another economic recession—just four years after the end of the country’s worst recession (called simply, “La Crise”) that hung around from 2014 into 2016.
But then, on July 22, as reported by Reuters, Brazil’s economic policy secretary, Adolfo Sachsida, speaking during an Exame Research online event, said all the forecasts for a decline in gross domestic product of 6.5 percent or more this year will have to be revised, and the downturn will be much closer to the government’s projected minus-4.7 percent. (The following week, the world learned that the U.S. economy had contracted by a record-breaking 32.9 percent annual rate for the second quarter of 2010.)
At about the same time, the monthly Brazilian Overview put pit by the travel trade publisher PANROTAS and the business publication FecomercioSP showed that the economic were spotty, but not woeful—inflation and interest rates were low for the month of June, and there was a small increase in one consumer confidence measure.
Could international travel resume in October? Also, on July 23, during a virtual panel discussion of steps that the tourism industry should take in order to maintain consumer confidence, José Guilherme Alcorta, CEO of PANROTAS, had a cautious, yet confident response when asked about the issue of when travel by Brazilians will resume. He said, “The perfect time to travel will only come when we have a vaccine. In the meantime, everything will depend on the risk that each one is willing to take. But I believe that the resumption of international travel should start in October.” (Travel from Brazil to the U.S. was banned May 25. On July 29, Brazil reopened international air travel to foreign tourists, which had been banned since March.)
U.S. Residents Uneasy about Flying
A couple of reports on surveys from the end of July seem to affirm a point that has been made over and over during the past three months at virtual roundtables held weekly by Connect Travel (the parent company of INBOUND) in which travel and tourism industry experts generally agreed that the any recovery from the de facto shutdown of travel brought on by the coronavirus global pandemic of travel to and within the United States would be in the domestic sphere of the industry.
Travel would be closer to home with a preference for destinations that are not in or close to major metropolitan areas. Also, it was suggested by some tour operators that group sizes and, possible, smaller buses that would be leading the travel recovery.
While the above points might give some director to tour operators on what and how to package product for what remains of 2020 and for 2021, there was little sense of direction on the question of whether international travelers would forgo a long-haul visit to the U.S. for something else. The numbers from the two survey reports suggests that U.S. travelers are skittish when it comes to the question of “to fly or not to fly.”
According to one of the surveys, by The Manifest—a business services and marketing firm with offices in New Yok, Chicago, Phoenix and Washington, D.C.—two-thirds (67 percent) of Americans were at least somewhat uncomfortable with flying in the next month, limiting summer travel possibilities.
One will notice that, in the above, about the same percentage of people (67 percent) said they were uncomfortable with air travel in May and July 2020.
Seniors are Most Skittish: The survey found that more people 55 years old and above were very uncomfortable with air travel than people 18-34 years old in both May (59 percent vs. 45 percent) and July (56 percent vs. 44 percent).
Conversely, Americans ages 18-34 are also more likely to be at least somewhat comfortable with the idea of plane travel than those 55 and older.
There is Some Unease over Staying in a Hotel or on a Cruise Ship: Released early last week, a new survey of 3,500 people by Azurite Consulting (it is located in Holmdel, N.J., about an hour south of Manhattan) found 49 percent of people not at risk will wait less than two months to stay overnight in a hotel for leisure or business compared to 23 percent of people who are at risk. Among those at risk, 47 percent will not stay in a hotel for leisure until there is a treatment or vaccine, compared to only 19 percent of not-at-risk individuals who feel the same about waiting.
Other key survey findings include:
—More than two out of every five (44 percent) international air travelers won’t fly again until there’s a vaccine, 38 percent won’t fly domestic, and 33 percent won’t stay in a hotel until there’s a vaccine for the corona virus.
—The news is worse for the cruise industry, with 25 percent of survey respondents saying that they’ll never cruise again and 43 percent of respondents indicating that they won’t cruise until a vaccine is available.
—Customers prioritize and expect a range of items when flying: 61 percent want planes to be sanitized between flights; 60 percent said all passengers must wear masks; 43 percent want one-seat spacing; 21 percent would seek fully refundable tickets if at capacity; and only 11 percent are willing to fly with no new measures in place
—Just less than half (49 percent) of individuals who went to a casino in 2019, won’t go again until there is a vaccine. Among those at-risk individuals, 64 percent will wait for a vaccine while 36 percent of those not at risk are expected to return to casinos within two months.
Trying to Make Sense out of China Market
In our last issue of INBOUND, we posed the challenge to those in the U.S. inbound tourism industry interested in the Chinese market with the headline: “Chinese Want to Travel. But to the USA?” Two weeks, later, most of the signals point to a continued expansion of sales and bookings for travel within China. But as far as the re-opening of China as an important overseas source market to the United States … well, think 2021.
From a dialogue we had with some staff at Dragon Trail Interactive, a global marketing firm headquartered in Beijing, we’ve digested some of the discussion into the following takeaways:
1. Growth of Domestic: China’s domestic tourism market is continuing a steady recovery, and the lifting of the ban on inter-provincial group tours in mid-July – after nearly six months – is a significant milestone. The announcement led to a surge in traffic to travel websites. Fliggy, Alibaba‘s online travel agency platform, more than 100,000 trans-provincial group tours, air tickets and accommodation reservations were sold in a little more than a week. By July 23rd, the number of daily passenger flights in China had rebounded to 80 percent of pre-coronavirus levels, reported China’s aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
2. Why is an increase domestic travel in China relevant to the USA? “While it might not seem related to outbound tourism, the recovery of the domestic market is actually an important first step to reigniting interest in travel, and for consumers to feel comfortable traveling again,” Matt Grayson, president, Americas, told us.
3. What the industry is doing in China to nurture a recover: Chinese tourism businesses, including OTAs, airlines, and hotels, have all helped this recovery to happen with huge discounts, rewards to incentivize travel (such as extra loyalty club points, for example), giveaways, and experimentation with new sales channels such as live streaming sessions. Another example is that of the Trip.com Group, which is taking advantage of “pent-up wanderlust” by livestreaming sale events of heavily-discounted hotel stays around the world, all of which come with flexible arrangements that allow travelers to cancel or postpone the reservation with no penalty.
4. Any indication of re-start of travel to the United States? Grayson said that, “at this point, there is still almost no outbound tourism from the Chinese mainland, and this is unlikely to change before there is a relaxation of the policy that requires all incoming arrivals to China to quarantine for 14 days at a quarantine center, and to pay all expenses for this.” He noted that, in a recent consumer survey that Dragon Trail conducted, it found that the quarantine-on-return was the leading reason that respondents would not travel outside of China.
5. Any authoritative sign of just when might travel to the USA resume? The full return of international travel is unlikely, according to James Liang, chairman of the Trip.com Group, who said that travel between Asia and Europe, and Asia and the U.S. will not resume until next year. Mr. Liang said that travel stocks have regained 30-50 percent of their losses. And within the next six months, they would probably go up to 80-90 percent of their pre-pandemic levels. (Liang is chairman and co-founder of Trip.com Group, which operates four of the top platforms in China: Trip.com, Ctrip, Skyscanner and Qunar.)
Also, latest ITB China travel trends report which examined the impact the coming recovery phase will have on the planned travel behavior of Chinese outbound tourists, indicated that the largest group of those surveyed expecting recovery in this market in 9-12 months. The 2020 China Market Recovery Special Edition is based on an annual survey among 200 Chinese outbound travel agencies and travel companies, including interviews with industry experts. When asked about the recovery of the Chinese outbound travel market, respondents indicated the following:
—43 percent of those surveyed expect that outbound travel will recover within the next nine to 12 months;
—A third (33 percent) think it might take six to nine months,
—One fifth (20 percent) of survey respondents believe it will take three to six months; and
—4 percent expect to see a recovery within the next three months.
6. So, what, if anything, should U.S. suppliers and DMOs be doing? Dragon Trail Interactive put it this way: At this point, although outbound travel from China is not happening, it’s still a good idea to stay engaged with the market. This includes B2C content – a good example here is Switzerland Tourism, which has kept posting as usual on Chinese social media channels, with lots of content promoting Switzerland’s landscapes and natural beauty. They increased their followers on Weibo by around 16,000 during the second quarter of 2020. B2B engagement is also important at this time, and the Chinese travel trade is very receptive to training and ways to communicate through online events and platforms. Keeping them well informed of any updates, as well as new products, will help them to make the recovery process as smooth and speedy as possible, once international travel is possible
Inbound Travel to USA Hits Another Low
If you are a part of the inbound U.S. travel and tourism industry and you have survived the first half of 2020 then, in the words of the Artful Dodger in “Oliver,” the stage play and movie, “Consider yourself at home; Consider yourself one of the family.” As measured by the number of inbound arrivals from overseas source markets, you have made it through the worst quarter in the history of the record-keeping by the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) or its predecessor organizations.
The Q2 downturn in business officially started in the second part of March 2020 as nations began banning international travel, in most cases, to and from their borders. Now that a number of countries have nervously opened up to international travel and airline lift capacity is now nearing half of what it was before the coronavirus-driven global pandemic hit the travel and tourism industry.
One can massage the data in any variety of ways, but the obvious keeps coming back, no matter what numbers one deploys. Consider these, for instance: June 2020 arrivals from the UK to the USA totaled 1,905—down from 381,000 for June 2019. Year-to-date (through June), the UK has sent 701,000 visitors to the U.S., a decrease of 68 percent from the 2.2 million arrivals for the same period last year. For all overseas travel to the USA, there were 39.5 thousand arrivals last month, compared to 3.5 million for June 2019, and there 6.2 million YTD arrivals for the first six months of 2020, compared to 18.9 million for the same six months of 2019.
The rest of the basic statistical portrait for inbound travel for June 2020 and for the first half of the year follows.
Inbound to Canada is Stagnant
As it looks to recoup leisure inbound, Canada seeks permanent visitors, including U.S. citizens. With numbers so low that one might even consider them an asterisk, the data for international inbound visitation from the other major North American receptive market, Canada, are nonetheless a little better than they are for the United States.
One reason, generally understated in tour and travel industry parlance, is that Canada has actively promoted (and is still promoting, to the extent that a de facto shutdown of travel of all sorts due to the COVID-19 global pandemic will allow it) permanent visitation, or immigration, to the country, which has a population of 37.7 million and an economy that the government wants to strengthen and grow. A major challenge to this goal is that fact that skilled jobs in numerous sectors have been hard to fill.
So, early last year, the Canadian government announced plans to bring a million immigrants to the country through 2021. However, it now appears that the it will fall short of this goal. In the meantime, it is estimated that 10,000 U.S. residents moved to Canada last year through the country’s Express Entry system, which considers a potential immigrants age, education, language skills and work experience.
Now, back to those who are coming to Canada on Holiday. May, the most recent month for which data are complete, according Destination Canada, the country’s national DMO, show the following impact of a de facto shutdown of international travel for the month, as well as for year-to-date (through May) for 2020. The following figures are for Destination Canada’s key inbound source markets.
Hodge Podge: Appointments & Changes
Adam Burke has been named president and CEO of Los Angeles Tourism (formally, the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board). Burke, who joined the organization as chief operating officer in 2016, was named interim president and CEO in April 2020, succeeding the previous president and CEO, Ernest Wooden Jr., who retired in June, 2020.Prior to Los Angeles Tourism, Burke served as senior vice president of customer loyalty for Hilton Worldwide. At Hilton, he oversaw a network of more than 90 strategic partnerships in the travel, financial services and retail sectors
Mary Kay Vrba (left) is stepping down after more than a quarter of a century as president and CEO of Dutchess Tourism, the DMO for Dutchess County, New York, which is just 80 miles north of Manhattan. Melaine Rottkamp, who has been vice president of the agency for nearly four years, has been named to succeed Vrba.
Kurt Koch (right), CEO of TLT Urlaubsreisen, has stepped down from his post after 16 years in office. The company, a subsidiary of TUI Germany, encompasses the Take-Off, Holiday Profis and Feria brands and has a mobile travel sales channel. Koch will leave the company on September 30, at his own request, and will be replaced by André Repschinski.
Randy Newcomb has been hired as the new executive director of the Galesburg Tourism and Visitors Bureau in Illinois, a relatively new operation that was spun off from the Chamber of Commerce. Newcomb starts his new job on September 1st. Last December, Newcomb took early retirement as executive director of the Kentucky Lake CVB in Benton, a post he held for 18 years. He joined the bureau 23 years ago. “Honestly, I was just going to take a break for a little while, but I decided retirement was not for me,” said Newcomb. Galesburg was part of the Underground Railroad in the 19th century and is one of the only remaining sites of the Lincoln-Douglass.
The Princeton Area Chamber of Commerce board has named one of its own members—Christine Davis, owner of a store that features upscale cosmetics—as interim director of the Princeton Chamber and Tourism. She replaces Autumn Kirk, who had been hired last January to replace former director Kim Frey.
In Brazil, the tour operator CT Operadora, which has a number of Canadian products in its portfolio, has announced the hiring of Thiago Rodrigues as a new member of its promotion and marketing team. The announcement comes at a time when the company focuses its efforts on resuming and seeks to increase its market share. A veteran of more than 20 years in the travel and tourism industry, Thiago has worked for companies such as Freeway, TGK and more recently Terramundi.
Ray Snisky has been named president of Apple Leisure Group’s vacations division. The appointment comes as ALG says it continues to take measures to both safeguard its core infrastructure and strategically position itself for future success. According to a company statement, Snisky’s plans for the future center around increasing advisor satisfaction and business recovery. Snisky joined ALG two years ago and had served as executive vice president and chief commercial officer, vacations prior to his appointment. Previously, he had served as executive vice president of La Macchia Enterprises and as president of Funjet Vacations.
Posted Industry Jobs
From SearchWide Global:
—The Explore Ashville Convention & Visitors Bureau is searching for a new president and CEO. For more information, clickhere.
—The Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention & Visitors Bureau, Florida’s Paradise Coast, is looking for a new deputy director. For more details, visit here.
—The Reno Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority is searching for a new chief executive officer. For more details, click here.
—The Park City Chamber of Commerce/Convention & Visitors Bureau is looking for a new president. Click here for more information.
—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 Spartanburg (S.C.) Convention & Visitors Bureau is seeking a chief tourism development officer. Visit 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.
