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.

-Exhibitors along the Federal Row section of the show were a little startled by the presence of U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, who was on the floor of the show personally thanking each Federal employee for their service with a kind greeting. Must have been her hospitality genes coming out.

 
-Shopping maven Kathy Anderson will be moving into semi-retirement, gradually phasing out by giving up all of her shopping supplier clients with the exception of Fashion Outlets in Newport Beach, Calif.

 

–Mary Twomey, former director of sales for Chicago Essex House, now under renovation, has been appointed to open the Cellet PR office in the US. It will be based in Chicago.

 

–Craig Parsons, who retired from Disney three years ago, showed up at the Sunday night party at Disney World. He came out of retirement last year to be a part of an Orlando-based consulting firm, Fouche, Parsons & Associates

Oregon leverages the hit movie “Wild” into niche product that may resonate with UK tour operators: Travel Oregon held a screening of the movie, based on the best-selling book, “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” by Cheryl Strayed and, according to research, nearly 35 percent of visitors participate in some form of hiking activity.  On a separate note, Author Cheryl Strayed will be one of the keynote speakers at U.S. Travel’s ESTO Summit Aug. 25-28 in Portland.

India: In 2013, arrivals to the U.S. from India grew by 18.6 percent due to expedited visa interviews and in 2014 the growth settled back at 11.9 percent reaching just under 1 million visitors.  By 2019, according to Sheema Vohra, managing director of Sartha Global Marketing, Indian arrivals are expected to grow by 47 percent. Hottest destinations for Indian travelers to the USA are: NYC, California, Las Vegas, Orlando and Miami. Fastest growing segment is Custom FIT and honeymoons for upscale travelers.

Australia: More than 60 percent of U.S.-bound travelers are repeat visitors; they averages 20 days in the U.S. last year,  and grew 6 percent year-over-year in 2014 to 1.27 million visitors. Trends: Growth in escorted tours by mature travelers, increased interest in individuals traveling alone, culinary experiences and adventure and outdoor. Hottest destinations: California, Hawaii, New York, Nevada and Florida.

UK: Among the top five activities in the US are fine dining, visiting national parks and visiting small towns and the countryside. Trends: Brand USA’s focus on national parks will resonate with UK visitors as well as a desire to have “authentic” American experiences. Hottest destinations: In addition to the usual top three—NYC, Orlando, and Las Vegas—there has been tremendous interest in the South, focused more on music culture, as well as bourbon, continues to generate interest.

Hotelbeds: Had it sister brands at Orlando—JBS, which serves as a receptive that works with the Chinese tour operators, and its newest brand, Travel and Activity Bank. Top Selling cities in the US: 1. Orlando 2. Las Vegas 3. NYC 4. Miami 5. Los Angeles

GTA Renews Focus on USA: Flavia Alzetta, senior vice president, global sales and marketing, GTA, told IPW Daily that the company, now owned by GTA, will make a significant investment in its business-to-business activities.  Other snippets: UK, USA and Australia were GTA’s top source markets for North America … GTA had triple digit growth from Thailand to the USA (probably from a small base) … NYC, Orlando, Las Vegas and Honolulu are the most popular cities overall … The company predicts continued growth from the following emerging markets: Brazil, Russia, India, China, Indonesia, and Turkey