The Inbound Report

Covering the Inbound Tourism Industry Since 1996

NYC Starts Move to Being One Huge WiFi Hot Spot for Visitors

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New York City will soon be taking the first steps toward becoming one huge WiFi hotspot for visitors as contracted crews will begin sometime this fall the process of dismantling and/or retrofitting some 10,000 telephone booth shells throughout the city’s five boroughs and turning them into Wi-Fi hotspots that have a range of about 45 meters. This reach is enough so that a visitor who sees one of the stations will be able to connect from the other side of New York’s widest streets or avenues.

LinkNYC-FeaturesThe massive project—Link NYC—will take several years to complete, Fred Dixon, president and CEO of New York City & Company, told delegates to NAJ’s just concluded DigMe conference on travel technology at the Affinia Manhattan hotel, with about 100 converted booth spaces finished by the end of this year. The high-speed service will outstrip anything the visitor is used to in his or her travel experience, Dixon added.

As for the phone equipment in the booths, he said that they will all be replaced with devices that will enable users to plug in their ear buds and make free long-distance phone calls to anywhere in the USA.

But what about people who want to see those once-familiar telephone booths for reasons of nostalgia? Dixon, who explained that some people may recall that the Superman character of comic book, movie and television fame used to go into a phone booth to change from his street suit to his blue-and-red Superman costume, told delegates that a few booths in key location will be maintained as “antiques” for the curious and/or nostalgic visitor.

Which States and Cities Are Gaining or Losing Share of International Market?

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coverOne has to be cautious about making any definitive statement regarding increases or decreases in percentage year-over-year gains or losses in travel volume or declines in market share when reviewing the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office report, Overseas Visitation Estimates for U.S. States, Cities and Census Regions: 2014. There are always exogenous factors, such as calamitous weather or a loss of airline service, that might explain the arrivals number. And market share changes are deceptive, too. For instance, in the second table below, one will see that New York City’s share in the total overseas visitors market declined, even though its number of visitor arrivals increased. The latter could mean that additional destinations are beginning to enjoy a share of the growing overall market.

There are some signs that travelers to the U.S. from overseas are beginning, ever so slightly, to go beyond the gateways in the destinations they are choosing to visit. Here are some notes on the tables that follow.

—States Increasing share: Florida, Massachusetts, Arizona, Georgia, Washington, Utah, Colorado, North Carolina, Virginia

—States Losing Share: New York, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Texas, Illinois, Guam, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland

—States Maintaining Share at Same Level: Louisiana

—Cities/Population Centers increasing share: Miami, Los Angeles, Orlando, Washington DC, Boston, San Diego, Flagstaff-Grand Canyon-Sedona, Ariz., Atlanta, Anaheim, Seattle, Tampa-St. Pete

—Cities/Population Centers Losing Share: New York City, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Honolulu, Chicago, Houston, Fort Lauderdale, , Philadelphia, Dallas, San Jose, Calif.

Note: Not included are cities, population areas or states for which there was an inadequate sample size per the standards of the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office

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Chicago in Denial? CMO Shana Lee Gone as Fewer Overseas Visitors Choose Chicago

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KwpqAldyThe falloff in the number of international visitors from 2013 to 2014 for Chicago did not cause much of a ripple in the tour and travel industry when the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office released its report on overseas visitors numbers to U.S. states and cities during ipw in Orlando (see following article), but interest in the city itself was high, especially when a subsequent item in the Chicago Business Journal seemed to link it to the earlier, quiet departure from Choose Chicago of the agency’s chief marketing officer, Shana Lee, after less than a year-and-a-half on the job. Lee had joined Choose Chicago from Travelport.

From 2013 to 2014, overseas visitor arrivals to Chicago dropped by 5 percent, and its share of the overseas visitors market also fell by a half percentage point. To be fair, Chicago could not have done anything to change the brutal 2013-2014 winter that might have had something to do with the numbers. Still, the departure of Lee—she has not been replaced—and the apparent move by Don Welsh, the agency’s president and CEO, to assume a greater role in the marketing aspect of Choose Chicago’s international program, has caused others in the city to take notice.

Among them, the Business Journal suggested, is Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who “started tightening the screws a couple years ago and demanding ever-higher tourism counts to burnish his reputation and generate more income for a severely cash-strapped city.”

Inbound tried to see if Welsh had any response to the Journal article by leaving a message with Meghan Risch, vice president, corporate communications for  Choose Chicago, but received no response. So we asked Lewis Lazare, the reporter who wrote the Business Journal article, if Welsh had any response to the item. “Are you kidding!?” he told us, adding, “Welsh and his crew have been in denial for years — that’s on orders from Rahm Emanuel of course!”

(Inbound Insight:  Last fall,  just a few months following what was a considered by most a successful ipw 2014 performance, Choose Chicago restructured their international department by laying off four key veteran sales executives and reducing their European representation groups to focus on building China.  That reduction occurred too late in the year to have an effect on 2014 international arrivals; however, the polar vortex and extreme weather conditions and/or the downtown properties refocus on corporate and convention business over leisure may have reduced travel to the destination.)

 

 

The Most Expensive Tourist Attractions in New York City

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Broadway TheatreIt now costs more than $100 for a ticket to a Broadway show, making the experience, by far, the most expensive ticketed attraction there is for a visitor to New York City. This is the determination of the list of the most expensive tourist activities in the city that is repeatedly ranked as the most popular or desirable destination to visit in the USA. Be aware that the list navigates around all sorts of qualifications—such as the daily cost of a two-day ticket or seven-day ticket, or what a ticket might cost if bundled into a package—and footnotes a  number of exceptions, including those in the list as we’ve prepared it.

 

Most Expensive Tourist Attractions in New York City

Attraction, Event or Activity and RankBasic Ticket Price for Adults†
1. Broadway Show$103.88 (ave.)†
2. Gray Line Double Decker Bus$59
3. Circle Line Tour around Manhattan$41*
4. Madame Tussauds$37
5. The Bronx Zoo$33.95
6. One World Observatory$32
7. Empire State Building$32**
8. INTREPID Sea, Air & Space Museum$31††††
9. Rockefeller Center Skating Rink$27
10. Museum of Modern Art$25 (suggested donation)

†Prices are, In effect, “rack rates”

* The list notes, but does not include, an air tour with a somewhat similar route—the Liberty Helicopter Ride—which starts at “around $150”

** $52 if a visitor wants access to the smaller interior viewing area on the building’s 102nd floor

†† Includes access to the Space Shuttle Pavilion; regular admission is $24

Source: Mashable.com

 

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Beyond the Gateways—How Virginia Beach Expects to Attract Chinese Tourists

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cvb Portrait / Ron Kuhlman

While Virginia Beach, Virginia is a well known beach destination on the Atlantic Coast and throughout mid-Atlantic states, we wondered why Ron Kuhlman, vice president of tourism marketing and sales  for the Virginia Beach CVB has showing up for the past several years at NAJ’s Active America China Summit to promote a destination that is  not a gateway destination—it is 215 miles from the closest major gateway airport, Washington Dulles (IAD)—and how he is managing to attract Chinese visitors to Virginia Beach. We spoke with Kuhlman not long after the Active America China summit last month in Las Vegas. Following is an excerpted version of our conversation.

 

INBOUND:  You’ve been with the Virginia Beach CVB for nearly 25 years. To what extent has the balance of your marketing changed between domestic and international—that is, what percentage of your overall market is international now? And what was it 25 years ago?

Kuhlman: The international market in Virginia Beach includes both our Canadian market and our overseas market. Our research indicated that almost six percent of our 5.9 million annual overnight visitors are international. The bulk of them are visitors from Canada which is our largest international market. It’s difficult to know what percentage of our market was international 25 years ago as our methodology for tracking international has changed to include overseas visitors. Also, 25 years ago our international marketing efforts were targeted at our Canadian market. We have had a contracted office in Montreal for nearly 30 years and Canada continues to be our number one international market. Until recently our overseas marketing consisted of exhibiting at WTM and ITB.

 

INBOUND:  What are your top overseas markets?

Kuhlman: Our top overseas markets are the UK, Germany, Italy, and France. If our growth from China continues, the market from China will break into this list by 2017.

 

INBOUND: As, a non-gateway destination, you have different challenges, of course, than a New York, Miami, Los Angeles or San Francisco.  Is there anything special you have to do to get your visitors go “beyond the gateways”?

Kuhlman: To market globally, we rely on our partnership with the Capital Region USA (CRUSA) which is the international marketing consortium of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Destination, D.C., the State of Maryland, and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. We feature the international air service going into Dulles International Airport and seek opportunities to partner with tour operators using the Washington gateway and extending their itineraries to include Virginia Beach as a relaxing stopover at an authentic and unique American seaside resort.

 

INBOUND:  When you started at Virginia Beach, there was no such thing as the Chinese market. And now, you’re actively pursuing it. When did this start, and what kind of progress have  you made? Any visitor numbers? Do you have any in-country representation? Chinese-speaking staff?

Kuhlman: My first exposure to the market came when I attended the China-U.S. Tourism Leadership Summit four years ago in Hawaii. It was there that the chairman of the China National Tourism Administration and the China Tourism Academy leadership projected Chinese visitation numbers in the millions of visitors to the U.S. … Fast forward to the Sixth Annual China-U.S. Tourism Leadership Summit held this year in China that I had the opportunity to work with Haybina Hao in the NTA Office in Lexington and with the NTA Shanghai office. Their expertise and willingness to assist me on my first trip to China were invaluable. NTA set up two days of sales calls on Chinese operators who were featuring Capital Region USA as a region combined in their East Coast itineraries.

The following year, 2013, Capital Region USA conducted its first sales mission to China with calls in Beijing and Shanghai. In the meantime I attended Active America China 2012 and got a first-hand look at the scope of the Chinese Tour Operator network and the potential for Virginia Beach in China. I have attended Active America China each year since including Las Vegas last month. In the not too distant future, we will want to have representation on our own in China … by the beginning of 2017.

 

INBOUND: Are there any special challenges that the Chinese market presents that you don’t encounter with other markets?

Kuhlman: One special challenge is the Chinese language barrier. We have been successful in recruiting Chinese speaking residents who want to become step-on guides to assist when needed. We also have the services of a Chinese travel strategist at our ad agency who has been invaluable to us with her knowledge of the industry and her bi-lingual language skills. She manages our Weibo pages and this year, she accompanied me to Active America China this year as my interpreter. Our hotel partners are working hard to become more China ready and through our International Marketing Committee we are making headway in this area.

 

INBOUND: About the role of operators: Do you connect directly with Chinese operators? Or do you work through U.S.-based receptive? Or both?

Kuhlman: We approach the market both ways. We connect directly with the Chinese operators and we also work with Chinese receptive operators. We are always looking to the Chinese RTO community to partner with us in this market where it makes sense for the RTO to work with us given we are in the growth mold. Unlike our RTOs who handle Europe we have yet to reach critical mass for Chinese business.

 

INBOUND: Any idea of a percentage breakdown on group vs. FIT for international travelers?

Kuhlman: That’s a question we don’t have on our intercept surveys but at this point based on our hotel feedback the vast majority of our overseas visitors are individuals, couples and families.

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Tom Berrigan, Managing Editor/Producer
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