It was officially announced in Washington, D.C., around the same time Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told a packed news conference at ipw that the agency was in talks with 10 airports worldwide to implement pre-clearance facilities where USA-bound travelers could go through the clearance process before even entering the U.S.  And after they did, arrival at a U.S. airport would be not different than if a passenger had arrived on a domestic flight.

Kerlikowske said that pre-clearance helps identify threats to the U.S. and speeds up entry into the country for almost all passengers. Las year, it worked for some 17 million USA-bound air passengers. Currently available in just a handful of overseas airports and Canada, the list of potential sites includes some major international points of departure—especially from Europe—to the United States.

Ten Foreign Airports Identified by CBP for Possible Preclearance Locations

Country Market	Airport
UK	London Heathrow
UK	Manchester
Belgium	Brussels
Spain	Madrid-Barajas
Netherlands	Amsterdam Airport Schipol
Norway	Oslo
Sweden	Stockholm Arlanda
Turkey	Istanbul Ataturk
Dominican Republic	Punta Cana
Japan	Narita International

Current Pre-Clearance Locations

Country/Market	Airport
Ireland	Dublin
Ireland	Shannon
United Arab Emirates	Abu Dhabi International
Bermuda	L.F. Wade International
Aruba	Queen Beatrix Internationa
Bahamas	Nassau
Canada	Lester B. Pierson International
Canada	Winnipeg
Canada	Vancouver
Canada	Victoria (Port Angeles, Wash.)
Canada	Montreal Trudeau
Canada	Halifax Stanfield
Canada	Edmonton
Canada	Calgary
Canada	Ottawa McDonald-Carter

The numbers in the June 11 year-to-date financial update by Zurich-based Kuoni were mixed, but the two numbers most closely watched for the company, which earlier this year stunned the tourism industry by announcing that it would sell off its tour operator-related businesses in 2015, were down. That is:

 

• Bookings for the tour operating activities that are up for sale, were down 8 percent in the first five months of the year.
• Sales for destination management specialist Global Travel Services fell by 7 percent year-on-year.
• Meanwhile,
• Bookings made on the GTD Division’s booking platforms for room nights in hotels and destination services were up 12 percent in local currency terms
• Sales were up 11 percent for its visa business VFS Global.

In the statement that accompanied the report on the key figures, the company, which is the oldest tour operator in continental Europe, said, “The business environment remains ‘challenging and highly competitive.”

“In a persistently difficult market environment in Scandinavia/Finland, the booking trend improved slightly, but sales fell mainly because of a significant decrease in flight capacities,” the statement added, noting that business out of Switzerland, its home market, suffered because of the “removal of the floor on the euro/Swiss franc exchange rate” earlier this year.

Kuoni—it owns NYC-based receptive tour operator AlliedTPro, which is a few blocks away from Kuoni-owned GTA offices— said that it still expected the sale of its tour operator-related activities in Europe will take place this year.

In a special ceremony on Saturday night at ipw, the U.S. Travel Association and Brand USA recognized the top international buyers at the inaugural chairman’s circle honors ceremony. The awards event honored 52 of the world’s highest volume tour operators and buyers of the U.S. travel product from 16 different countries. Honorees were nominated by members of the US Travel’s Chairman’s Circle level, which includes some of the largest U.S. travel companies and top U.S. destinations. Following is the list of honorees

Company (Country)	Company (Country)
Abercrombie & Kent (UK)	H.I.S. Co., Ltd. (Japan)
Adventure World (Australia)	Hana Tour Service, Inc. (Korea)
Air Canada Vacations (Canada)	House of Travel Ltd. (New Zealand)
Alidays (Italy)	Infinity Holidays (Australia)
America As You Like It (UK)	Jalpak Co., Ltd. (Japan)
America Unlimited (Germany)	Jan Doets America Tours (Netherlands)
amerikareisen.at (Austria)	Jetset Voyages (France)
Audley Travel (UK)	JTB Corporation (Japan)
Best Day Travel (Mexico)	Kintetsu International Express, Inc. (Japan)
Bon Voyage Travel and Tours (UK)	Maison des Etats-Unis (France)
British Airways Holidays (UK)	Meier's Weltreisen/DER Touristik Frankfurt GmbH & Co KG (Germany)
CANUSA Touristik (Germany)	Miki Travel Ltd. (UK)
Compagnies du Monde (France)	MMTGapnet Tour (Brazil)
Comptoir des Etats-Unis (France)	Nascimento Turismo (Brazil)
Creative Holidays (Australia)	Newmarket Air Holidays (UK)
Cvc Brasil Operadora E Agencia de Viagens S/A (Brazil)	North America Travel Service (UK)
DER Touristik Frankfurt GmbH & Co. KG (Germany)	Nyhavn Rejser A/S (Denmark)
Designer Tours (Brazil)	Shanghai Ctrip International Travel Services Co., Ltd. (China)
Evergreen Tours (Australia)	Swanson's Travel AB (Sweden)
Flight Centre Ltd. (Australia)	Tam Viagens (Brazil)
FTI Touristik (Germany)	Thomas Cook Tour Operations UK (UK)
Galaxy Tour, Inc. (China)	Trailfinders Ltd. (UK)
GOGO Worldwide Vacations (Canada)	TravelBrands, Inc. (Canada)
GTA UK (UK)	TUI Deutschland GmbH (Germany)
H.I.S. Co., Ltd. (Japan)

1. The impact of the strong U.S. dollar is already being felt in the following ways:

• Shopping and attractions in New York City are reporting lower numbers of European and Brazilian visitors.
• Some of the effect has been neutralized by lower airfares from the European destinations to the USA.
• Retailers are reporting that tourism spend has been lower this year; while hotels report that visitors are spending fewer days in the destination or scaling back hotel quality.
• Changing itineraries to include free or low cost options such as U.S. National Parks that will lower the overall price of a trip.

2. Regardless of pressure applied by American carriers Delta, United and American Airlines over government subsidies and the unfair advantages they may have, it is the Gulf carriers—Emirates, Qatar, and Etihad—that are driving the greatest amount of new lift into North America by connecting India and European countries to the North America through their hubs in the middle east.

In 2014, the Gulf network carriers – Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways – offered 2.7 million seats into the U.S. with barely a peep of public antagonism. But now the U.S.-Gulf carrier dispute is a loud topic. Is the sudden attention to Gulf airlines clouding judgment? In recent weeks Emirates and Qatar Airways have announced growth in the US: Emirates adding Orlando as a destination and increasing Boston and Seattle services while Qatar will open Atlanta, Boston and Los Angeles while growing New York JFK, with plans including A350 deployment.

The U.S. axis is asking for a freeze on Gulf carrier capacity, making some to suggest Gulf carriers are expanding “while they can” or are growing to antagonize U.S. carriers. Atlanta may be a good market, but Qatar’s announcement of service 14 months in advance will ruffle Delta feathers. Qatar Airways announced plans last month to add three U.S. destinations in 2016: Atlanta, Boston and Los Angeles. This will bring Qatar’s U.S. network to 10 points of entry, the same as Emirates. Etihad serves six points. The addition of Los Angeles brings to five the number of U.S. cities to be served by all three Gulf carriers.

U.S. Destinations for Emirates, Etihad and Qatar: 2016, as of May 2015

City	Emirates	Etihad	Qatar
Atlanta	-	-	X
Boston	X	-	X
Chicago	X	X	X
Dallas/Ft Worth	X	X	X
Houston	X	-	X
Los Angeles	X	X	X
New York JFK	X	X	X
Miami	-	-	X
Orlando	X	-	-
Philadelphia	-	-	X
San Francisco	X	X	-
Seattle	X	-	-
Washington Dulles	X	X	X

Source: CAPA—Centre for Aviation and OAG

 

3. Receptive operators continue to pursue the right balance between being a hotel resource and a service provider.  For example, even the three hotel aggregators–GTA, Tourico and TUI-Hotelbeds—have established distinct attraction and experience divisions not only to “sell the fun,” but also to package hotels and attractions dynamically in one rate to circumvent hotel rate parity restrictions.

 

4. Brazilian operators survive by being scrappy. Specialist RTOs dependent on Brazilian business are already down between 20-30 percent in 2015. Several have reacted by cutting staff. At ipw, we spoke with Tereza C. Reis. president of Personal RKG, an Orlando-based receptive focused on MICE from Brazil, who told INBOUND that her Brazilian business was off 30 percent this year, but she was able offset the loss by diversifying into Peru, Paraguay and Chile where she is receiving consistent group business.  Other insiders at ipw reported that Colombia is seeing strong growth to the USA this year with a stable government and buoyant economy.

5. Large European operators are demanding coop support from second- and third-tier destinations, who need brochure inclusion to prove they.ve achieved distribution.  One major Western European product manager intimated to INBOUND that such activity was the purpose with 50 percent of her appointments.

6. While everyone expressed gratitude for Brand USA … and applauded US Travel’s herculean campaign that culminated in an 11th hour re-authorization that kept the agency alive, there was grumbling during the show about the bureaucracy that has been created around the organization, the slow response time to get questions answered even on the simplest matters, and the elimination of many of the co-op advertising programs that Brand USA had been offering in the past and not giving much attention to smaller niche destinations.  What some may not realize is that the agency is under intense scrutiny from legislators who would still like to eliminate it; so, staff is acting more like a governmental agency.

7. The South is now a hot destination for repeat visitors from Europe, especially the UK where, for example Memphis and Nashville are in 106 of the 126 UK tour operator brochures, and Louisville’s bourbon program is in half of them.