VIRGINIA BEACH AT A GLANCE
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Covering the Inbound Tourism Industry Since 1996
by Tom Berrigan
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by Tom Berrigan
by Tom Berrigan
DLR trains will not stop at Custom House station until late December 2017: One of the main railway stations for London’s ExCeL Conference & Exhibition Centre, the venue for the upcoming (Nov. 6-8) World Travel Market (WTM), will be closed during this year’s show, disrupting travel plans for thousands of visitors.
Transport for London said Custom House on the Docklands Light Railways (DLR) , which WTM visitors use to enter ExCel via the West Entrance, has shut as part of the station’s infrastructure improvement for the new Elizabeth Line. In the meantime, DLR tells us that, for WTM:
• Visitors are advised to use DLR Prince Regent station, serving ExCel’s east entrance, instead.
• DLR will operate an increased frequency to Prince Regent and Royal Victoria stations between Tower Gateway and Becton, and Stratford and Woolwich Arsenal. Trains will serve both Royal Victoria and Prince Regent stations every 2.5 minutes throughout the duration of WTM London.
• For the West Entrance delegates are advised to use DLR station Royal Victoria (the stop before Custom House), the station is a seven-minute walk to the venue. Alternatively, dedicated WTM London buses run by Big Bus Tours and TfL will also transport delegates from Jubilee Line Station Canning Town to the West Entrance of ExCeL.
• Also, Emirates Air Line cable car, which goes to the West Entrance of ExCel is offering all WTM London delegates free travel for the duration of the event. It has an interchange with North Greenwich Underground Station on the Jubilee Line. The Cable Car can also be accessed from the Thames Clipper boat service, which sails from Westminster, stopping at Embankment, Blackfriars, London Bridge, Tower, Canary Wharf and The 02 (for the Emirates Airline).
• Delegates for the Travel Tech Show at WTM, Global Village, UK & Ireland, Africa and North Africa, Middle Eastregions and the International Media Centre are advised to access WTM London via the West Entrance of ExCeL.
• Delegates for Europe & Mediterranean, A Taste of ILTM at WTM, the Wellness Lounge, Asia Pacific/ Indian Ocean, the Americas and Caribbean regions and the WTM Global Stage and Networking Area are advised to use DLR stop Prince Regent to access ExCeL via the East Entrance of the venue.
• WTM London said it has previous experience of managing a successful event with a DLR station with access to ExCeL being closed. In 2009 Prince Regent Station and the East Entrance of ExCeL were shut due to the venue being extended. This meant all delegates used DLR station Custom House and the West Entrance of ExCeL.
by Tom Berrigan
A new analysis by Phocuswright Research seems to suggest to anyone genuinely interested in marketing their travel product or their destination to China—now the world’s largest source of outbound international travel—that the use of mobile app tools is a must. The latest numbers show that the share of online gross bookings made via mobile devices is growing rapidly worldwide. As such, it is critical for travel sellers of all stripes to understand where their audience prefers to book and how that preference is evolving. While the USA and most countries in Europe are experiencing promising growth in Mobile Booking Penetration (MBP), China is setting its own mark that is far beyond the world standard.
(Note: The Phocuswright analysis was released shortly after a new study sponsored by Jing Travel, which says that 95 percent of China‘s internet users use mobile to connect online, spending 2¼ hours every day on their phones—a total that equals, for the first time, for the amount of time they spend watching television.).
The Phocuswright analysis notes that China had already achieved 40 percent mobile booking penetration MBP by 2015. It now stands at 59 percent and is expected to climb to 77 percent by 2020, far outpacing the rest of the world. At the same time, the United States, which is far behind China at 22 percent MBP is expected to reach 30 percent by 2020; this will place the U.S. ahead of only France among key developed countries, and it will comprise less than half of China’s expected MBP.
What accounts for China’s lead in MBP is the size of its population (1.4 billion), which generates large user numbers regardless of share: China now hosts over 1 billion mobile subscribers, the majority of them on smartphones. In India (it also has a large population, with about 1.34 billion and a correspondingly large population of mobile subscribers), the majority of consumers only have access to basic mobile devices, which contributes to a relatively low MBP, explains Phocuswright.
One explanation for the high MBP is that Chinese online users never had much of a chance to use desktops, PCs or laptops. This is because broadband Internet and affordable PCs arrived relatively late in China, many Chinese never owned a desktop or laptop computer; the smartphone was their first device, making them “smartphone natives” who are much more likely to embrace mobile e-commerce. This environment fostered the popularity of WeChat, the world’s most advanced mobile messaging and commerce platform, which many Chinese use for daily tasks including messaging, making utility payments and ordering food delivery.
While the share of travel bookings taking place within WeChat is relatively small, the ubiquity and widespread use of WeChat Wallet and Alibaba’s Alipay are helping Chinese travelers become much more comfortable making large purchases on their phones than the rest of the world. In addition, Chinese OTAs Ctrip, eLong and Qunar have successfully enticed travelers to book on mobile with deep discounts and a smooth booking experience. (According to yet another recent study, from the Amadeus IT Group, the top three travel apps used by Chinese travelers are from Ctrip WeChat and Tuniu.)
As far as travelers from other key Asian markets are concerned:
—MBP in Japan is driven by Rakuten, which generated more than half of its overall online retail sales (not just travel) via mobile in 2016.
—In India, MBP is being galvanized in part by the popularity of mobile wallet solutions such as Paytm.
Meanwhile, travelers in the U.S.—says Phocuswright— are hanging on to their ingrained habit of booking on desktop or laptop (or through a call center, for that matter).
by Tom Berrigan
Just out—2017’s Best U.S. Cities for Vegans and Vegetarians: The recent release of the report by WalletHub, a Washington, DC-based online company that offers credit reports, credit scores and credit and financial counseling services, prompted us to review the study and its key components as a possible planning tool for operators, travel suppliers and DMOs that cater to the overseas market from India, which has the largest population of vegetarians in the world. At the top of the list of 50 best cities, based on a ranking that includes a number of measures, are: New York; Portland, Oregon; Orlando, Florida; San Francisco; and Los Angeles.
How sizable is the vegetarian market from India? While some 70 percent of India’s population of nearly 1.324 billion people are not vegetarian, about 29 percent of the population over the age of 15 are vegearian.
This translates into a vegetarian population (over the age of 15) of some 273 million people, which means that India has more vegetarians than the rest of the world’s nations combined. China, with an estimated 30 million vegetarians, is a distant second. Below is a map that shows the breakdown of vegetarian and non-vegetarian population in the country’s 29 states.
To determine the best and cheapest places for following a plant-based diet, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 100 largest cities across 15 key indicators of vegan- and vegetarian-friendliness. The data set ranges from the share of restaurants serving meatless options to the cost of groceries for vegetarians to salad shops per capita. Some findings:—New York has the highest share of restaurants serving vegetarian options, 56.25 percent, which is 2.6 times higher than in Newark, New Jersey, the city with the lowest at 21.72 percent.
—Orlando, Florida, has the highest share of restaurants serving vegan options, 31.14 percent, which is 8.8 times higher than in Chicago, the city with the lowest at 3.52 percent.
—San Francisco has the most community-supported agriculture programs (per square root of population), 0.0139, which is 17.4 times more than in San Antonio, the city with the fewest at 0.0008.
—New York has the most salad shops (per square root of population), 0.2666, which is 33.7 times more than in Laredo, Texas, the city with the fewest at 0.0079.
—And now, the list:
A Note on Methodology: In order to determine the best cities for vegans and vegetarians in the U.S., WalletHub’s analysts compared the 100 most populated cities across three key dimensions: 1) Affordability, 2) Diversity, Accessibility & Quality and 3) Vegetarian Lifestyle.
Researchers evaluated those dimensions using 15 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for vegans and vegetarians. For metrics marked with an asterisk (*), we calculated the population size using the square root of the population in order to avoid overcompensating for minor differences across cities.
Finally, WalletHub determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its total score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the cities in our sample. In constructing our sample, we considered only the “city proper” in each case and excluded surrounding cities in the metro area.
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