The Inbound Report

Covering the Inbound Tourism Industry Since 1996

S. Korea, Will You Still Visit Tomorrow?

by

Latest market profile—before COVID-19—shows a Glidepath that Still Has Promise: With the devastation of the overseas tourism market for the United States now in a state of Limbo, we at INBOUND wondered if the full-year 2019 data, along with the last long-term forecast of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) had much validity or use.

The blunt answer is “Yes,” because the full year data for 2019 are all we’ve got. The 2020 data, once completely tallied, will be almost meaningless because they will serious skewed by the fact that this is a lost year. And the full-year data for 2021 (as filtered and fleshed out with an analysis of the Survey of International Air Travel to the United States) won’t be ready until the spring of 2022. 

So, what follows are some of the key component parts of NTTO’s Market Profile of South Korea—one of a series that we have assembled since the completion several months ago of the NTTO profile series for all major U.S. source markets.

There are some subtle differences in the way South Koreans, now a Top 5 overseas source market for tourism to the USA, are planning the travel, what their purpose for traveling is, and what they do when they do visit.

South Koreans, it seems, are ready to pick up where they left off prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic bringing global travel and tourism to a near halt. Ever since the nation was approved as a member of the Visa Waiver Program at the end of 2008 (2009 was sluggish, because the world was still in the throes of a global financial crisis), South Korea has experienced steady growth.

What problems the country is experiencing are internal, or involve its relationship to North Korea and China, and don’t seem to affect its ability insofar as travel to the U.S. is concerned. As for the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, only a few nations have responded as effectively as South Korea. With a population of more than 52 million people it has, at the time this was prepared, experience a little more than 300 deaths attributable to the virus. This means that South Koreans, are and will be ready to resume their overseas travels.

So, while we all wait for the pandemic to pass, it might be worth your while to review the following numbers on South Korea.

Note: Only country and world region destinations having a sample size consistently of 100 or more are displayed. (Ergo, no Las Vegas, which had totals for just two years of the above table.) Visitation incidence was rounded to two decimal places in NTTO source files beginning in 2014 to reduce artificial ‘jumpiness’ in the data caused by rounding to only one decimal places, especially for destinations having incidence of less than two percentage points.  Due to quarterly data weighting by country and port of entry, some unreported destinations may have a higher proportion of total than those reported.

Notes on some of the changes above:

—Shifts in purposes of trip by Korea travelers to the U.S. since 2015 show that vacation/holiday is the top purpose of trip. It has moved up and down slightly over the years peaking in 2018 and then dropping slightly in 2019.  Visiting friends and relatives has dropped each year since 2015.  Convention travel had dropped three straight years before rebounding in 2019.  Education increases then declines every other year whereas business travel peaked in 2017 and then has dropped sharply the last two years. 

—Koreans rely upon personal recommendations for their top information source used when planning a trip and saw its peak use between 2015 and 2019 in 2019.  Travel agency use has increased the last four years and the use of airlines as an information source also peaked in 2019. 

—Koreans leisure activity participation is dominated by sightseeing and shopping.   Water sports has posted gains for the last three straight years.  Fine dining and visiting National Parks/Monuments peaked in 2016 and has since dropped slightly each year since.  Most of the other activities are up and down over the years, but you can see the downward trend in most of the activities since 2015. 

General Notes on NTTO material: Only country and world region destinations having a sample size consistently of 100 or more are displayed. Visitation incidence was rounded to two decimal places in NTTO source files beginning in 2014 to reduce artificial ‘jumpiness’ in the data caused by rounding to only one decimal places, especially for destinations having incidence of less than two percentage points.  Due to quarterly data weighting by country and port of entry, some unreported destinations may have a higher proportion of total than those reported.

For additional information, visit https://travel.trade.gov/

Will U.S. Reaction to Pandemic Affect 2021?

by

For more than four months tour operators representing all elements of the leisure/group travel sector—international tour operators, domestic tour operators, student and senior tour operators, as well as those who specialize in customized product—who have taken part in the Connect Travel “Staying Connected” series of virtual roundtables have acknowledged that 2020 is, essentially, a lost year for the travel and tourism industry.

So, as buyers and sellers of the U.S. product are already working on the 2021 travel season (and, in some cases, beyond that), the question is begged: How will changes that address the health and safety concerns, and which have been brought about by the coronavirus global pandemic, configure themselves into U.S. travel products? And will such actions be a permanent or temporary part of the way in which the industry markets, sells and services these products.

Here to Stay—Same-State Stays, Road Trips and Greater Flexibility: Although global surveys of traveler intentions and responses associated with pandemic-related changes and attitudes, there have been a sprinkling of consumer surveys that provide the greater travel industry some key insights as to what travelers are doing, and what they want.

“Summer travel inarguably looks different this summer,” reported Expedia® in its recently released 2020 Summer Travel Report. The report, which sheds light on the emerging priorities and behaviors of Americans looking to vacationing, includes the following highlights from the survey.

—85 percent of survey respondents said that they were planning or likely to go on a road trip this summer, driven primarily by the need for a change of scenery (43 percent) and the desire to enjoy the outdoors (36 percent).

—As travelers venture away from home and destinations open back up to tourism, health and safety takes priority over price when trip-planning. More than seven out of ten (72 percent of) survey respondents said they’re opting for a road trip this summer because it feels safer than flying

—Seventy-two percent of people listed health and safety and avoiding crowds (68 percent) as top concerns over budget (60 percent).

—With so much uncertainty impacting vacation plans this year, many travelers were opting for plans that could be easily adjusted, canceled or rescheduled. Expedia data showed that 97 percent of hotel stays booked in June were refundable rates, a 20 percent increase from the year prior.

—Traveling within the U.S. is always a popular option for Americans, but international travel restrictions coupled with health and safety uncertainty has led to a 10 percent increase in domestic summer travel searches, according to Expedia.com data.

—Nearly 85 percent of hotel searches on the site in June were for accommodations located within the U.S. Furthermore, about a quarter of June bookings were for same-state stays, a slight increase from last year.

—Last-minute getaways were also on the rise, with more travelers booking trips 0-7 days out this summer than in previous years.

“While the desire to get away is still going strong for many of us, how and where we’re choosing to go this summer looks different,” said Nisreene Atassi, director public relations and social for Expedia.com. “Beaches and national parks remain popular, but more Americans are choosing destinations that are closer to home and drivable, versus going somewhere more exotic. Interestingly, we’ve seen that travelers are making these plans at the last minute. Things are so unpredictable right now with COVID-19, so it’s possible that travelers feel more comfortable making travel plans for the near future vs. planning too far ahead.”

Note: The Expedia survey leveraged search and demand data and a national poll of 1,000+ Americans.

Inbound Travel to USA Hits Another Low

by

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.

U.S. Residents Uneasy about Flying

by

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.

Is Smaller Better for Tour Groups?

by

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.

An industry service provided by

Staff

Tom Berrigan, Managing Editor/Producer
Contact us!

Connect Travel

15 Technology Parkway South
Suite 205
Norcross, Ga 30092

Accessibility by WAH