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Is China Tightening the Screws on Outbound Travel to U.S.?

Chinese hi-tech researchers have been told “not to travel to the U.S. unless it’s essential.” According to a report last week in the South China Morning Post, the newspaper cited a source indicating that staff for research agencies have also been warned to clear their mobile phones and laptops of sensitive information if they have to go to the U.S.

These actions were announced following the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies. Meng was taken into custody in Vancouver, Canada, on Dec. 1, at the request of the U.S. She faces extradition to the United States, where she is accused of helping Huawei, a major electronics manufacturer, evade American sanctions on Iran.

China’s foreign ministry has already summoned the U.S. and Canadian ambassadors to China to protest the arrest of Meng.

The arrest shows that, despite the agreement between world’s two biggest economies for a 90-day truce in the trade war between them, tensions between Beijing and Washington have continued to escalate over technology and security … and, as result, tourism.

“China is likely to have a travel ban.” The Chinese protest, as well as the warning to hi-tech Chinese researchers about travel to the U.S. seemed to be a possibility as far back as last April when Yiling Pan, associate editor of Jing Travel—a publication that covers trends among Chinese travelers, especially luxury travelers—told delegates to NAJ’s RTO Summit East  in New York that “if it keeps up, China is likely to have a travel ban on the United States.”

 “Imminent Cooldown” Seen for Chinese Market: At about the same time as that China warned hi-tech researches about visiting the United States, Jing Travel told its readers, “There’s an undeniable slowdown across the entire Chinese travel market right now, with travel-related retailers and destinations both struggling. Even executives at China’s biggest online travel agency Ctrip.com International have signaled that they expect an ‘imminent cooldown’ in the market. Right now, the slump mostly has to do with anxiety surrounding economic fears, but the numbers are not looking good for a lot of Chinese travel industry players.” Read the whole article here.

Germany: DER Restructuring in 2019– High Level Management Turnover + 10% Staff reduction

INBOUND readers who regularly visit our HODGE PODGE section might have noticed last week’s news that René Herzog, head of DER Touristik’s Central Europe division—it is the company’s largest—is leaving the company with no particular place to go. At the same time, Ingo Burmester has left the top job at Thomas Cook UK to take the top position at DER Touristik in a handover that will be effective next May.

The movement is part of a restructuring by DER Touristik of its German tour operator business that will also include a 10 percent cut in the company’s work force. Planning for the move has been underway for some time. It was first announced in March 2017.

The DER Touristik Group comprises four divisions: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe along with Destination Management Companies & Hotels. The largest division is Central Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), which is the one that Burmester will lead.

The restructuring takes place in the wake of a fairly aggressive expansion on the part of DER Touristik that included the acquisition of the European tour operator businesses of Kuoni in 2015, as well as the acquisition of Kuoni France earlier this year.

According to a report in the German travel trade publication FVW, the restructuring will address DER Touristik’s under-performing German tour operating business, which covers six brands: Dertour, Meiers Weltreisen, ITS, Jahn Reisen, ADAC Reisen and Travelix. The restructuring is designed to make DER Touristik Deutschland “leaner, more efficient and faster” in order to respond more quickly and better to the wishes of customers, sales partners and suppliers.

In an interview with FVW, CEO Sören Hartmann explained that the DER Touristik Central Europe business accounts for two thirds of the group’s revenues but only one third of its profits. However, the international businesses (outside of Central Europe) have been successfully and profitably restructured over the past three years, and now generate two thirds of group revenues although only one third of revenues.

DER Touristik is Germany’s third largest tour operator and one of the largest producers of Visit USA business in Europe. According to the company’s profile in the delegate registry for this year’s IPW trade show in Denver, the company indicated that it sends more than 100,000 visitors a year to the U.S.

From Hotelbeds.com—The Year in Review + Outlook for 2019

Consolidation in the global hotel sector will continue: In a fairly comprehensive dispatch from Hotelbeds, Sam Turner, the company’s global director of sales and sourcing, discussed the top issues that the tour and travel industry and, in particular, the accommodations sector dealt with in 2018, and what we can expect in 2019 and, in some cases, beyond. Following are the key points made by Turner.

—The intermediary market for hotel sales strengthened in 2018 and the trend will continue. This has been yet another year where growth in the intermediary market for hotel sales has outstripped the growth in the direct channel for the hotels. This is in part because the three largest OTAs globally–Expedia, Booking.com and Ctrip are growing at double the rate of the direct channel

—The trend for intermediaries growing their share of hotel sales versus the direct channel will continue into 2019 and beyond. It shows that consumers are generally more comfortable–for a range of reasons– with buying from intermediaries and on balance favor that over going to a hotel dot com.

—Consolidation has been a key part of the accommodation sector over the last twelve months and will continue in 2019. Both investors and owners have recognized that the sector is just way too fragmented. How many other industries can you name where the top 10 brands generate less than a quarter of revenues?

—This explains not just the mega deals of recent years, but also the medium sized chain deals of this year such as Minor Group acquiring NH and Accor acquiring Mövenpick– as well as the constant acquisition of smaller brands and start-ups by Accor and other major chains.

— “The bedbank sector too remains highly fragmented and this explains the rationale behind our acquisition of both Tourico Holidays and GTA last year

 

Other points of note:

• Last year everyone was still assuming that the alternative accommodation sector would just keep growing exponentially. But this year has seen a massive slowdown in growth and we expect that to continue.
• The Chinese outbound market remains largely untapped.
• Strong increase in hotel distributors offering re-seller content is unsustainable and bad for consumers
• Over the last few years we’ve seen a trend for airlines approaching us to start selling hotel accommodations on their website. In 2018 this has increased, but we predict that in 2019 it really will begin to snowball.
• Service will slowly become the key differentiator for hotels, not price – helped by technological innovation
• Trend for greater price transparency driven by metasearch is leading to a technological arms race

 

Mergers and Acquisitions

• Travelport is Acquired: Siris Capital Group and Evengreen Coast Capital, private equity affiliate of Elliot Management Corp., have announced completion of their buyout of the UK-based GDS operator Travelport. The price tag was $4.4 billion. The headquarters of Travelport, which once owned GTA, Travelport’s headquarters will remain in Langley, Berkshire, following the acquisition, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2019and is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by Travelport shareholders and receipt of required regulatory approvals. Once the transaction is completed, Travelport will become a privately held company and Travelport common shares will no longer be listed on any public market.

 

• LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, better known as LVMH, a French multinational luxury goods conglomerate headquartered in Paris, has entered into a definitive agreement for LVMH to acquire UK-based Belmond, a hotel and leisure travel products company that operates luxury hotels, trains and river cruises in 24 countries around the world. The company was formerly known as Orient-Express Hotels Ltd.The deal—LVMH is paying $2.6 billion got the acquisition—is expected to be completed in the first half of 2019.

 

• Adventure tour operator G Adventures has acquired small-group youth travel specialist, UK-based TruTravels. Its customers are mainly young travelers ages 18 to 25. Joe Fallon and Mark Pope, who founded the company in 2012, will continue to run TruTravels as partners and minority shareholders. G Adventures founder and owner Bruce Poon Tip says that he views TruTravels as a “complementary business.” TruTravels has 25 employees in southwest London plus 40 tour guides across Asia. With the G Adventures acquisition, TruTravels now plans to expand its sales team. G Adventures will support TruTravels in extending its supply chain access, as well as with shared resourcing in technology, talent acquisition and finance.

 

• Double Deck Tours in Niagara Falls has been purchased by Ambassatours, a sightseeing tour company from Eastern Canada. With the purchase, Ambassatours says it has become the world’s largest owner-operator of vintage routemaster double decker buses. Bert Watson, whose family owned Double Deck for 54 years sold the company after having it in his family for three generations. He said that “from the start, we felt we could trust Ambassatours to honor our half century commitment to presenting Niagara Falls through the vantage points afforded by our classic, British double decker buses.” Double Deck Tours will continue to operate under its already established brand and with the new owner-operator in place they will be looking to expand its sightseeing tours and charter buses. Ambassatours has also announced that its founder’s grandson, Dustin Watson, will be the new service manager for Double Deck Tours and Terri McCulloch will be the team’s general manager starting in the spring of 2019.

 

LET’S GET PERSONAL: Sedona’s Sachiko Sado on How a DMO Deals with Too Many Visitors

We happened to visit Sedona, Arizona last month and, as is our wont, decided to stop in for a visit with the local tourism bureau. While the CEO, Jennifer Wesselhoff, was out of town, we visited with Sachiko Sado, director of tourism development. What we found was a small but mighty team of highly motivated marketers passionate about the destination they love. During the interview, Sado touched upon the thorny issue of “over-tourism,” which has been a hot topic in parts of Europe, but not a top-of-mind issue among U.S. destinations—until now. Following are excerpts from our interview with Sado.

 

INBOUND: How did your travel career begin?

Sado: As a Japanese student at Northern Arizona University (in Flagstaff) 17 years ago, I applied for an internship with the Sedona Chamber of Commerce’s Jennifer Wesselhoff, who was then involved in a junior marketing role, who was then communications and public relations manager, and is now the president and CEO of the chamber and tourism bureau.

 

INBOUND: How did you end up staying 17 years?

Sado: I met Arizona’s Japanese representative, Osamu Hoshino, who was conducting a media tour in Sedona that year, which included a writer, a photographer, and a Japanese celebrity from Cosmopolitan Japan, who wrote a very positive article about the surprising uniqueness of the red rock vistas—which are not found elsewhere—as well as the destination’s spiritual appeal and location between Phoenix and the south rim of the Grand Canyon. At the time, Cosmopolitan was one of the magazines that influenced other Japan journalists and opinion leaders and I began using the article as way to convince the Japanese trade to include Sedona in its programs.

 

INBOUND: Who is the target audience today?

Sado: Internationally, our top three targets are the UK, German speaking Europe and Japan. Our sweet spot is a traveler who appreciates outdoor adventure and sustainability. In the past year or so Sedona has developed an “over-tourism” problem with an abundance of day trippers traveling between the Grand Canyon and Phoenix coming to Sedona during our primary seasons clogging traffic and (causing)  complaints from locals who find themselves in lines for restaurants, and streets clogged with traffic.

 

But, since tourism is Sedona’s main industry, we needed find a way to address this so we decided we had to evolve from a Destination “Marketing” agency to a Destination “Management” chamber that focuses on marketing only during low seasons and investing in areas that will disperse tourists to a wider array of attractions away from the center of downtown.

 

INBOUND: How do you do that?

Sado: In 2014, our CEO Jennifer Wesselhoff worked with the Sedona lodging industry to increase the hotel tax that enabled us to achieve formula funding. This increased our public funding from $500,000 to $2.1 million in three years and allowed us to attend more trade events and market more aggressively. As Sedona’s hotel ADR and occupancy grew, so did our budget.

 

But to manage the flow of tourism, we decided in 2018-19 that we would freeze our marketing budget at the same level as the prior year and use the additional funds only to drive tourism during our summer and winter need periods. We also refocused our marketing efforts to the trade and have chosen the three target markets based on their propensity for multiple overnight stays with midweek arrivals.  We would rather have 100 visitors staying three nights than 300 visitors for one night.

 

Additionally, to help mitigate the traffic issue, we purchased a property in Uptown Sedona where we were able to add additional parking and invested in wayfinding signage and we followed up with “Walk Sedona” initiative.

 

INBOUND: What else?

Sado: In order to disperse visitors from the popular areas where we see concentration of visitors, we developed Sedona Secret 7 (www.SedonaSecret7.com) that introduces seven locations under seven categories —Hiking, biking, star gazing, vista for sunrise and sunsets, arts & culture, spiritual, and picnicking, which we hope will disperse travelers and will offer local experiences for them. The Chamber & Tourism Bureau gives back part of its public funding for “Sedona in Motion” which was developed by the City of Sedona to mitigate traffic congestion.

 

INBOUND’s Conclusion: The fact that Ms. Wesselhoff was able to retain tourism marketing staff for 17 years was an example of an instance in which the destination, the leadership and the staff all were able to grow into their roles at a similar pace.

 

Receptive Tour Operator of the Month

 

Founded only a decade ago, WORLD2MEET is 100 percent owned by the IBEROSTAR GROUP, which is headquartered in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. W2M offers travel services in more than 175 countries, accommodation, transfers, excursions and tours, handling services. W2M’s main clients are tour operators, wholesalers and agencies. A global accommodation and travel component provider with more than 245,000 properties worldwide distributed via API or Web Interface, the company can point to the following facts: It has a global turnover of more than $500 million; has had 5.1 million passengers served; 9,500 directly contracted hotels; an inventory of more than 245,000 properties, 5,000 clients connected. Long-time tour and travel industry veteran Roselle Masse is W2M’s contracting manager for the U.S. West Coast

The TourOperatorLand.com website by the NAJ Group (it also publishes the INBOUND Report) has introduced both receptive tour operators, U.S. tour operators and international tour operators to travel product and services of U.S. travel suppliers and DMOs. Visitors to the website can use its exclusive Receptive Finder™ to find the right RTO.  It is designed to help both the travel trade and travel suppliers find the right U.S. based receptive tour operator to sell their products on the international travel market place.

The receptive operators listed on TheTourOperatorLand.com, who are vetted and qualified by the NAJ Group, also take part in at least one of NAJ’s RTO Summits series. The Summits take place annually in Los Angeles, New York City and Orlando.

If you would like to make personal contact with World2Meet, check out the RTO Summit at the West in Marina del Rey, California, February 13-14, 2019. Roselle Masse is W2M’s contracting manager for the U.S. West Coast, will be there. For more information, visit: www.rtosummit.com, or www.TourOperatorLand.com.

 

Wrinkle in Visa Waiver Program—Visitors to USA Need to Apply at least 3 Days in Advance

A new requirement for the Visa Waiver Program says that international travelers to the United States will now need to apply for their U.S. ESTA (Electronic System Authorization) for at least 72 hours before travel or risk being offloaded from their flight, with the U.S. Government no longer granting “real-time” ESTA approvals.

Although most air passengers flying to the U.S. from the 38 countries that comprise the list of countries that make up the Visa Waiver Program—especially those in pre-formed groups—apply for and receive their ESTA well in advance their flights, there are occasions when busy business travelers or some leisure travelers simply forget, or don’t realize their previous ESTA had expired, and they were able to apply at the airport, get speedy ESTA approval and board their flight as they normally did. (ESTA authorization is generally valid for multiple trips over a period of two years starting the date that one receives approval or until their passport expires, whichever comes first.)

Under the change, effective immediately, “arriving at the airport without a previously approved ESTA will likely result in being denied boarding,” says the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

ESTA costs a traveler to the U.S. $14.

Travelers would only need to apply for a new ESTA if their previous approval has expired or they’ll be using a new passport to enter the United States, as each ESTA is linked to a passport, not to the traveler themselves.

It wasn’t clear from the notice given by CBP why the change was implemented, but that does matter. What does matter is that U.S.-based receptive tour operators and international tour operators overseas make their clients aware of it.

1 – Citizens with Taiwanese national ID number only.

2 – Only British Citizens are eligible to participate in the Visa Waiver Program.

 

NEW AIR SERVICE

—First: What effect will the bankruptcy of Avianca Brazil have on service to and from the USA?

According to a statement from the company, which declared bankruptcy last week, operations are not expected to be affected and “passengers can have complete peace of mind to make reservations and buy tickets, since all sales will be honored and flights will be operating.” Currently, the carrier serves 37 destinations—all but five are within Brazil. Of those five, only two are long-haul: to Miami and New York JFK. However, it serves as a feeder into Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, from which passengers can make international connections. It should be noted that Avianca Brazil, a brand of Oceanair Linhas Aereas SA (Oceanair), is not part of the group Avianca Holdings S.A, based in Colombia. The airline recorded net losses in the first half of the year of 175.6 million reais ($44.9 million), up 24.4 percent from the same period last year.

 

—Starting June 1st next year, TAP Air Portugal will run five return flights per week from Lisbon to Chicago O’Hare. On 16 June 2019 the airline will additionally add five weekly trips from Lisbon to Washington-Dulles. The new Chicago route will leave Lisbon at 1:05 p.m. and will arrive at Chicago O’Hare at 4:05 p.m.; the return leg will depart Chicago at 6:05 p.m. and will arrive in Lisbon at 7:50 a.m. on the following day. To Washington-Dulles; the flights will leave Lisbon at 4:30 p.m. and arrive at 7:20 p.m. and the return will depart at 10:40 p.m. and will arrive in Lisbon at 10:50 a.m. the next day.

 

—Also from TAP, the carrier will fly five weekly nonstop round-trips year-round, between San Francisco and Lisbon starting in June next year. The SFO flights will operate Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, from June 10, departing SFO on at 4:10 p.m., and arriving in Lisbon at 11:25 a.m. the following morning. Returning flights leave Lisbon at 10am, arriving into SFO at 2:40 p.m.  Economy fares from SFO to Lisbon start at just $380 one way, all-inclusive of taxes, or from $800 round-trip.

 

—Air India has returned to the Mumbai to New York JFK route after an eight-year absence. On Dec. 1st, it began three-times-a-week service on a route it last flew in October 2010 when it offered a daily rotation. Flights to JFK will leave Mumbai at 1:00 a.m. on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, returning from JFK at 11:05 a.m., landing back in Mumbai just after midnight the following morning.

 

—Air New Zealand launched its longest non-stop flight on Nov. 30th, beginning three times weekly service between Auckland and Chicago O’Hare. The route measures 13,176-kilometers (8,187 miles). With this launch, the New Zealand flag carrier connects Auckland to five US destinations, with it already flying to Honolulu, Houston Intercontinental, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The airline also operates a daily service to Vancouver in Canada from New Zealand’s largest city and its home base.

 

—Eurowings began operations on its latest transatlantic route on December 1st, with the carrier taking over from Lufthansa on the 6,035-kilometre link between Düsseldorf and New York Newark). Eurowings already offers six times weekly service between Düsseldorf and New York JFK. No other airline will link Düsseldorf and New York this winter, giving Eurowings a monopoly in the market where it will offer 11 weekly flights.

 

TourOperatorland.com in 2019: Retooled for “Group Tours for Independent Travelers”*

A new design to make customizing tailor made tours for more intuitive. As baby boomers age one of the most profound trends will transition from fully planned itineraries to Group Tours for Independent travelers and TourOperatorland 3.0 has been redesigned so that buyers can create tailor made tours for their clients AND marketing collateral for their sales teams, that will ultimately result in free advertising for our TourOperatorLand partners. Check it out here.

Additionally, new “business development” aspects have been added as follows:

 —A “Receptives Who Sell Us” call to action features. To make it easier for international buyers to purchase TourOperatorLand.com attraction or a hotel partners, the site will include two call to action options:

1. A link on each destination, attraction or hotel portal page to a selection of five receptive operators from which buyers can purchase your product or destination. OR…
2. TourOperatorLand.com will send a one-time e-mail on behalf of TourOperatorland clients to operators in their top three source markets. Additional Cost to TourOperatorland.com partners? $0; included in the annual contract. Cost to TourOperatorland partners: $0

—To Help Destinations Convince More Hotels to Sell Receptives: The NAJ team has developed a Power Point presentation deck, “Educating the Independent Revenue Manager,” which explains the benefits of selling through the receptive operator distribution network from a revenue manager’s perspective. During 2019, a series of one-minute video testimonials with revenue managers will be developed.  Cost to TourOperatorLand partners? $0. Included with annual contract.

—Exclusive Tracking system: NAJ knows how important tracking is to DMOs and supplier partners; only TourOperatorLand.com sends a notification to a partner’s inbox whenever a buyer downloads images or even views or enters a partner’s portal.  Cost to TourOperatorland partners: $0.  Included with the annual contract. For those interested in lead generation:  Operator names and contact information are available for those who opt for an enhanced package.

 —Special Photo-tracking service for attractions and hotels.  To help suppliers learn who’s downloading their hi-res images, we have built a dedicated trackable portal micro-site at TourOperatorLand.com—it is used by more than 4,000 international and domestic operators as well as travel agents and MICE planners (more information here)— that sends notifications whenever your images are downloaded.  The attraction/hotel portal includes the following:

• An overview of their products
• The company’s tour and travel sales contact, photo, e-mail address and website
• 9 high resolution images of their choice
• Trackability—each time an operator downloads one of their images, they receive an e-mail alert with their company’s name, industry segment, base country, and it shows if they plan to attend.

* This is Part Two of three in a series of items showing how NAJ can help its partners at TheTourOperatorLand website increase their business. Part Three will appear in the next issue of the INBOUND Report.

 

At a Glance: Corning Museum of Glass

 

 

For full information click here.

 

HODGE PODGE: Shifts, Shakeups and Occasional Shaftings in the Tour and Travel Industry

 

Sally Berry Davis is leaving her position as global sales and marketing manager at the Corning Museum of Glass at year’s end. Davis, who has been with the attraction for more than eight years, plans on devoting her efforts full time to growing her tourism training and consulting company and on helping others become China ready marketers. Her website is SallyDavisBerry.com.  (You can read last month’s interview with Ms. Berry here.)

 

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Christine Valls has been named by American Airlines as its new general sales director for Florida, the Caribbean and the Hispanic market in the United States. A native of Miami, Valls has been with American, and operating out of Miami, for more than 28 years. She began her career at the carrier as a management intern, advancing over the years to her current post.

 

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Kane Webb will resign his position as head of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism at the end of the year, as the department prepares to merge with the Department of Arkansas Heritage. The departure was announced in a press release from Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s office, which said that Webb is taking a job as the director of executive communications at Walmart Inc. Hutchinson tapped Webb to head Parks and Tourism in October 2015. Webb served various tenures as an adviser and speechwriter for the Republican governor.

 

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After more than eighteen years, Lucille Yokell is leaving her position as director of sales and marketing of the Wellington Hotel in New York City. A long-time veteran of the tour and travel industry, Yokell had previously operated her own hospitality and consulting firm serving hotels, restaurants, tour operators and shopping venues.

 

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Mark Mitchell, has left Affinion International Travel, where he was senior business director, “to pursue other opportunities.” Mitchell, who joined the company from TUI in 2008, was part of the team which set up Affinion and progressed through the organization to his most recent role as senior business director.

 

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David Peterson is leaving his post as interim director of the Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs to join the Carson City Culture and Tourism Authority as its next executive director. At the Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Peterson started as chief operations and finance officer in September 2014 before becoming deputy director in January 2017. Prior to that, Peterson was director of research at the Nevada Commission of Tourism, Nevada Department of Tourism, from September 2001 to August 2014.

 

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Haley Ward  has been named sales director at Hudson Yards Experiences in Manhattan, New York City. She joins the organization from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she was head of tourism sales and marketing. Ward was with the Museum or four years.

 

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J.D. O’Hara has been named president of Travel Leaders Group, the parent company of  19 major travel agency brands, including Altour, Barrhead Travel, Colletts Travel and others. O’Hara joins from Certares Management, LLC, where he served as senior partner. He was also part of the original management buyout of Carlson Leisure Group from Carlson Companies in January 2008.

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Brad Jones, recently left his post as executive director of Visit Rochester (Minn.) to take over as executive director of Visit Bellevue. He had been with Visit Rochester for 13 years. Prior to that, Jones had been executive director of the Macknaw Area CVB.

 

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Zachary Holifield has been named director of leisure business development for Visit Mississippi Gulf Coast. He joins the organization from the state’s Visit Mississippi DMO, where he served for more than four years.

 

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Anita Nuñez Cepollaro has been name national sales manager at Visit Baltimore. A veteran of nearly two decades in sales and business development, she joins the DMO from the Hiltons of Washington D.C., where she was senior sales manager. Nuñez Cepollaro has also served as brand sales manager with Meet Puerto Rico.

 

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Bob Harris has been appointed executive vice president of sales for the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, which also serves as the area’s DMO. Harris brings significant CVB sales and marketing experience to the Myrtle Beach area. Harris has worked at the Greater Williamsburg Chamber & Tourism Alliance in leadership roles since 2007. Previously, Harris worked at the Georgia Department of Economic Development as director of global sales and marketing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Buck for 27 years at AgriTours North America

 

Donna Keren for 16 years at New York City & Company

 

Lori Timony for 14 years at Smart Destinations, Inc.

 

Scott White for 8 years at Greater Palm Springs CVB

 

John Stine for 5 years at I-Drive 360

 

Tim McAlpin for 5 years at City of Prescott Department of Tourism

 

Claudio Liondi for 3 years at Quetal Travel

 

Source: LinkedIn

Former Ft. Lauderdale CVB Official Improperly Steered Business to Boyfriend, Report Says

The recent Oct. 1 resignation of Fernando Harb as senior vice president of tourism sales for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and VisitorsBureau after nearly 12 years with the organization coincided, as it turns out, with the completion of report of an investigation by the Broward County (Fla.) inspector general that named Harb as one of those who, in effect,  allowed a colleague to channel more than $250,000 in business to her boyfriend.

The report, released last week, said that Christine Roberts, the CVB’s former vice president of convention sales, used her position to select the event management companies of her boyfriend, Marcus Michaud, for all but one of eight events under her control during a period that extended from July 2012 to June 2015. The companies in question were Marcus Clovis Productions and Marcus 4 Productions.

The investigative report also found that Nicki Grossman, former president and CEO of the CVB, operated outside of the county’s procurement protocols and that Harb helped Roberts achieve her goal of hiring Michaud “while knowing that the selection was wrongful.” Roberts resigned in July of last year. Grossman had resigned in June 2016 after heading the CVB for 21 years.

Some other specifics the investigation, as reported by the South Florida Sun Times, included the following:

—Roberts used her authority to increase the overall budget for a 2012 International Association of Venue Managers event by $123,275 to account for services provided by Michaud — services that had not been requested by the host group.

—Roberts was able to steer business to Michaud was through her ability to set the specifications for a contract. For one event she required a specific pair of large prop sunglasses that Michaud’s company already owned. Officials said other vendors did not bid because the sunglasses were “too restrictive or too expensive to meet.”

—Roberts tried to give Michaud as much business as possible, and when the tourism agency made that harder to do, “she simply operated more covertly.”

—A selection committee created by the bureau violated the state’s Sunshine Law on at least two occasions in December 2014 by not publicizing its meetings and not having the meetings be open to the public.

—“Even after CVB managers reported the relationship and misuse to Ms. Grossman,” the report said, “she continued to allow her subordinates to operate outside the county’s procurement process and failed to ensure that her unauthorized practices were working to stop her agency’s imprudent spending of taxpayer money.”

The Inspector General’s Office is forwarding its report to the Florida Commission on Ethics and the Broward State Attorney’s Office “for whatever action those agencies deem appropriate.”

According to the report, the conditions that led to the problems no longer exist. Stacy Ritter, who succeeded Grossman as president and CEO two years ago, oversaw an overhaul of the bureau’s financial administrative practices.

The Mayersohn Law Group, attorneys for Roberts and Michaud, said that the report was biased, left out key facts, and that the two did not break any laws. “Roberts and Michaud ‘made absolutely no efforts to conceal their personal relationship’,” said a statement from the law firm. The loan to Michaud, which was needed because he (Michaud) required surgery and didn’t have health insurance, was “an arms-length transaction” that was publicly recorded as a loan against his property, it said.

The statement said the report overstated the authority of Roberts to influence budgets. For example, it noted the International Association of Venue Managers event extras were decided by an event committee — not Roberts — and they were needed because the committee “sought to augment its welcoming/opening presentation.”

Larry Davis, who is representing Harb, told investigators that his client was following established tourism agency policies and that Michaud received contracts despite Harb’s dislike for Michaud and a previous attempt to cut Michaud off from bureau business.

“If Mr. Michaud was improperly engaged by the CVB on any occasion, it was in spite of Mr. Harb, and solely due to Ms. Roberts’ machinations,” Davis said in a statement.

Grossman suggested that she bears some of the blame, saying, “I regret that I did not follow-up on my directives regarding Ms. Roberts, but accepted and relied upon the reports and assurances of my colleagues. As soon as I was advised that such problems were going on, despite my attempts to avoid them, I acted in good faith to ameliorate them. It was, apparently, not enough, and for that, I am truly remorseful and disappointed in myself.”

TUI wants to Enter U.S. Travel Market

Perhaps buoyed by a projected 10 percent increase in full-year earnings for the company, TUI’s CEO Fritz Joussen has announced that Europe’s largest tour operator plans to increase its presence worldwide by expanding into Asia and the United States.

Joussen’s confirmation of the forecast—it came as a surprise to many tour and travel industry analysts who expected it to be flat or down because of northern Europe’s extremely hot summer—preceded the discussion of expansion plans during an interview with Joussen by the  German business magazine Bilanz.

As reported by the German travel trade news publication, FVW, he indicated that TUI wants to become “a global internet group” with customers not only in Europe but also in China and the USA in the future.

“We are going with our offer to China and the USA,” said Joussen, explaining that that the German company will not open any brick-and—mortar travel agencies in these new markets, but will sell online through its international portal TUI.com.

On previous occasions, Joussen has addressed the subject of TUI’s ambition to sell holidays in countries such as Italy and Spain along with emerging markets in Asia, especially China, and Brazil. However, the Bilanz interview marketed the first occasion in which he has mentioned the U.S. market as well.

TUI already has a small presence active in China through a tour operator venture but is not yet  a major player. (You can get an indication of what the company offers in China by visiting http://www.tui.cn/en/ or http://tui.cn/en/B2B/Travel-China.)

TUI’s footprint outside Europe already includes its 49 percent share in the CanadianSunwing Group. Sunwing already sells holidays to U.S. customers.

In the interview with Bilanz, Joussenalso emphasized that TUI will invest heavily in digital technology and marketing in order to develop more personalized offers to travelers in the future. He also noted the financial importance of the company’s own hotels and cruise ships for profits as well as the strategy to expand sales of destination activities. (Last month TUI acquired Musement, a Milan-based online travel agency that specializes in tours and activities.)

 

Second Tier Markets Growing U.S. Inbound Numbers with New Routes, Infrastructure & Services

Tiny Ireland and Dominican Republican Sending Nearly a Million Visitors Annually: For anyone who read the revised inbound arrivals report recently issued by the U.S. National Travel and Tourism, the rankings contain no surprises—until one goes down the list and comes to the end of the Top 20 Overseas Source Markets.

There, one sees this:

 

The unusually high numbers for Ireland (est. population 4.8 million) and the Dominican Republic (est. population 10.8 million), which together brought 927 million visitors to the U.S. last year contrast with the 992 million sent by Venezuela (est. population 32.4 million) and Taiwan (est. population 23.6 million), which together have a population of more than three-and-a-half times that of Ireland and the Dominican Republic.

Here are several reasons for the high numbers of the two smaller countries:

—Ireland has pre-clearance facilities for U.S. Customs and Border Protection to pre-clear international passengers heading to the USA. And the Dominican Republican will soon be able to provide the same convenience. Luis Ernesto Camilo, president of the Dominican Republic’s Civil Aviation Board, the pre-authorization system for passengers traveling to the United States from the Punta Cana International Airport in the Dominican Republic will enter the service in early November. Camilo told the news site REPORTUR that the modules where the U.S. officials will work are already being prepared and will be finished soon.

—Both Ireland and the Dominican Republican benefit from their locations, which already make them facilitators of international travel. A little-known fact is that the Punta Cana International Airport is the Caribbean’s second busiest for international traffic—behind only Puerto Rico’s Luis Muñoz Marin Airport in San Juan. Punta Cana already has service from the major U.S. carriers—United, Delta and American—as well as the Panamanian carrier Copa, which has connections through Central and South America.

 —In Ireland, officials at Dublin International Airport will shortly begin a formal consultation process on a nearly billion-dollar capacity investment plan which will allow Ireland’s Aer Lingus and all other airline customers at the facility– to continue to grow their business at Dublin Airport. That plan, which includes provision for a 30 percent increase in aircraft parking stands, new boarding gate piers, enlarged immigration and CBP areas, and modifications to the two existing terminals at Dublin Airport, is complementary to its North Runway project.

 —Also, low-cost carrier Norwegian is using Dublin’s airport to increase European connections to the U.S. As well, Norwegian has launched some inventive routes that include a service introduce last February that takes travelers on a one-day shopping trip that uses Stewart International Airport —it’s 60 miles north of Manhattan—to take shopper to Woodbury Common, a popular shopping mall within shuttle bus distance of the airport.

 

Acquisitions and Mergers in the Travel Trade

A trend apparent in the tour and travel industry throughout Europe has continued apace during the past six weeks. The one common denominator to the activity seems to have larger travel sellers and suppliers acquiring smaller companies in order to fill a niche market segment or to add the same to their portfolios. Here are several examples based on recent activity on the tour and travel industry market place:

 

• The TUI Group has strengthened its position in the excursions, tours and activities business, as the world’s leading tourism group acquired Italian technology start-up Musement.TUI Group is already one of the leading providers in this market through its Spanish subsidiary TUI Destination Experiences. The acquisition will allow TUI to grow this high-margin segment, to expand its portfolio of travel experience products and to better customize them for clients and potential clients.

 

Founded just five years ago, Musement has become one of the leading online platforms for activities, tours and excursions. The Italian start-up currently offers travelers some 35,000 products in 1,100 cities around the world. Its collection ranges from admission tickets for museums, events and attractions via guided tours all the way to boat and bicycle tours. Musement has 130 employees and one million users.

The unit will initially be managed as an independent unit within TUI Destination Experiences.

TUI Destination Experiences is one of TUI Group’s three growth areas, along with cruises and hotels & resorts. The company had acquired the unit from Hotelbeds last March. TUI Destination Experiences’ portfolio primarily comprises excursions, tours and activities in all major travel markets worldwide.

• Dubai-based Dnata, whose portfolio of products includes provider of ground handling, cargo, travel and flight catering services for 300 airline customers in six continents, has acquired German tour operator Tropo. Dnata is part of the Emirates Group; its Emirates Airlines is the largest carrier in the Middle East. Tropo provides low-cost travel packages, last-minute holidays and hotel reservations in destinations such as Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Italy, Greece and Dubai. Dnata purchased Tropo from German entertainment company ProSiebenSat.1 Group, which has held a majority stake in it since 2012. The purchase agreement also includes TV media worth several million euros for 2018 and 2019. Dnata also owns the UK-based online travel agency Travel Republic.
• Frosch Travel, which is headquartered in both Houston and New York, and was ranked as No. 15 in Travel Weekly’s2018 Power List of the largest travel agencies doing business in the U.S.—it has more than $2 billion in sales last year—has acquired 50 percent of Corporate Travel Management (CTM), a major Irish firm with locations in Cork, Shannon and Westport. Founded in 2000, CTM says the investment offers an advanced suite of technology, including the addition of mobile applications and comprehensive passenger tracking.

Study Explores Emotional Motivation for Marketing of Half Dozen European Markets

While emotion-based marketing is a subject that has been thoroughly explored as it applies to consumer goods, automobiles and appliances, it has been left to scholars and researchers—especially in the area of proprietary research—to explore the subject in the area of travel and tourism.

Now, however, a new study by eDreams ODIGEO* has produced a report that details some areas of emotion-based marketing through a series of findings of easy-to-understand findings that might be both instructive and helpful to the marketer.

The research, part of a study called The Meaningful Journey, is based on an IPSOS survey of over 3,600 people across Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Sweden, and is combined with data from eDreams ODIGEO’s user experience laboratory.

Motivations and the reasons for travel: “In the world of travel, motivations explain why travelers decide to discover a new place as well as the way they feel before, during and after their trip experience,” the report says. Although each traveler is unique and motivations vary based on the type of trip taken – long holidays versus weekend breaks – eDreams ODIGEO has identified the key motivations affecting most trips which have been grouped into six major categories:

Pleasure-Seeking:Seek to maximize personal pleasure, fun and spontaneity. They want to feel alive and let themselves go, sometimes impulsively, without thinking about the consequences. Travelling means adventures, either as a couple or with friends.

Personal Connection:Travels to spend quality time with the family and feel that interpersonal ties are strengthened. Seeks to relax and escape from the daily routine. Always travels in family, with their partner and children.

Uniqueness:Travels to test themselves, break boundaries and live new adventures beyond their comfort zone, which allows them to feel unique. Travel allows them to feel socially recognized. They prefer exotic places that make them feel unique and to have a positive impact on their community. Travels alone or with friends, but rarely with their family.

Sense of Belonging:Want to feel part of a group. Travels to feel part of the destination, living like a local to experience the culture and everyday life. They let themselves go and prefer urban or rural destinations where they can interact with locals. Travelling alone or as a couple, but rarely with children.

Chill and Relax: Look to disconnect from their routine and get rid of stress. They need to feel safe at all times and look for comfort away from any obligations. They travel as a couple, especially to beach or wellness destinations.

Control and Discipline: They seek to disconnect from their routine… but with a new routine. They plan the trip in a very rational way, as a discipline that must be followed with rigor and order. Their goal is to feel totally safe, in control of the situation, trying not to show their emotional side.

Commenting on the study, Dana Dunne, CEO of eDreams ODIGEO, said “By conducting this research and improving our understanding of traveller motivations through Artificial Intelligence and User Experience, we can continue to hone and improve our offering to ensure we provide our customers with a truly personalised travel experience, and one that empowers them to see more of the world.”

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* eDreams ODIGEO is a Spanish online travel company that was formed in 2011 as the successor of eDreams with the merger of online travel agencies eDreams and GO Voyages, and the acquisition of Opodo.

 

All the Trips That Are Fit to Take: The New York Times Partners with Urban Adventures

In one of those “Why-didn’t-we-think-of-this-before” moves, The New York Times is bolstering its tours and activities product by partnering with Urban Adventures with a brand called City Tours, based on its 36 Hours series.

Both partners bring some daunting numbers to the initiative. As of December 2017, the New York Times had a total of 3.5 million paid subscriptions in both print and digital versions, and more than 130 million monthly readers. Its annual travel show, held every January in New York City, is one of the largest of its genre in the world. Last January, attendance included 10,268 travel trade and 22,130 consumer attendees during the three-day event that took place from Jan. 26-28, 2018.

Meanwhile, Urban Adventures—known globally for its day trip products—is part of the Intrepid Group, which includes such brands as Peregrine, Adventure Tours, Peak Destination Management Company and others, which offers more than 2,700 itineraries in 120-plus countries.

The new City Tours will last an average of four hours each. It builds upon the Times launch in in 2013 of Times Journeys, a multi-day tour product. The tours will be co-branded as New York Times and Urban Adventures tours. Urban Adventures will handle all bookings and customer service.

Starting off, there will be nine tours will initially be available in Budapest, Marrakech, New York City, Tokyo, Toronto, Paris, Philadelphia, Prague, and Mexico City—all of which have all been featured in 36 Hours.

All tours are hands-on, include interactions with locals, and have a behind-the-scenes element; group size will be limited to 12 people. Some of the features include: going into a family’s home in Marrakech to have lunch; interacting with humanoid robots in Tokyo; and learning how to make a Philly cheesesteak.

 Usually, a New York Times journalist in Times Journeys tours, but the compressed schedule of the Urban Adventures tours will make this less likely; however, journalists have already participated, in a sense, by providing the content that serves as the basis for much of the tour itinerary

For example, a Paris tour will cover about 50 percent of places featured in the corresponding 36 Hours column and will blend elements from both the Times’ and Urban Adventures’ tours.

Anyone who books a City Tour gets access to a one-month free trial of the Times with an email and password. Once the trial ends, tour participants get a 50 percent discount off the standard rate.

Tours will be marketed on both the Times Journeys and Urban Adventures’ sites, but if someone clicks on a tour on Times Journeys they’re taken to Urban Adventures to complete the booking. Tours will be offered multiple days a week and multiple times a day, and Hanson anticipates that the majority of bookings will occur within 48 hours of a tour.

The average cost of a tour is around $100 and are available for as little as $75, which the Times feels is a competitive price point.

 

Surprise: UK Consumers have Little Regard for Travel Brands

The London-based marketing and advertising agency FKC says that the travel industry has less consumer loyalty than any other sector of the economy. In a just-released report on research that covered 18 major economic sectors including food and drink, fashion, retail, beauty and motoring, found airlines ranked the worst for loyalty.

The study, “The Truth Report: The Trouble with Real People,” indicated that 51percent of consumers are unable to identify a favorite brand at all and 74 percent often feel confused by brand advertising and messaging.

Some key findings of the report:
● Some 42 percent of consumers said they weren’t loyal to any airline;

• 40 percent of said they weren’t loyal to a particular hotel
• Questioned about tour operators, 39 percent said they didn’t have a favorite; and
• 37 percent didn’t have a preferred destination.

Why the lack of feeling for the industry and its brands. According to FKC?
● Customers said the amount of competition and infrequent or irrelevant communication from brands was the reason for their lack of loyalty.
● Findings revealed that consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide them with relevant offers and recommendations but 74 percent of consumers said they often felt confused by adverts.

But, surely, there were some favorites. Yes, so to speak:
● TUI was the favorite travel company consumers, but it was placed only 67th in the league table of preferred brands, which was topped by Amazon. The giant online retailer gained 5.5 percent of the votes.
● Terrestrial and broadband television comes out trumps as the most trusted and credible channel for fostering consumer interest and loyalty, with 22 percent voting it the most powerful source of brand.

 

About the results, chairman Stephen Fox said,”The research validates that we find it easier to be loyal to brands that we either use or connect with every day, so the big challenge is how can those in the longer-term purchase category like tour operators and car brands increase loyalty when they are not always on our minds.

 

At a Glance: San Antonio, TX

 

 

For full information Click Here

 

 

HODGE PODGE: Shifts, Shakeups and Occasional Shaftings in the Tour and Travel Industry

Alexia Vetter has been appointed executive director of the M56 Group, the firm that operates the One Liberty observation deck in Philadelphia and 360 Chicago, as well as the Berlin TV Tower; the Montparnasse Tower Panoramic Observation Deck in Paris; and La Ferme Aux Crocodiles, an animal park in Southern France. A professional with a varied career, Vetter’s career includes a 10-year tenure with Club Med, lastly as vice president, Switzerland.

 

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Hotelplan has appointed Julie Franklin as head of agency sales. Franklin, who spent nearly four years as agency sales manager at Mark Warner, will oversee Hotelplan UK’s agency sales teams for its brands Esprit Ski, Ski Total and Santa’s Lapland, as well as Inghams.

 

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Meanwhile, Simon McIntyre, Hotelplan’s group head of sales for Inghams, Ski Total & Esprit is leaving the company after nine years to join Iglu’s operations board in the newly created role of general manager, ski, overseeing sales, marketing and commercial teams.

 

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Debbie Evans has been named president of the travel trade show organizer Reed Exhibitions U.S., Evans is currently president of Reed Exhibitions South East Asia and Australia, based in Singapore. With her new role, she will be moving to the U.S. Several senior vice presidents will be departing with responsibilities shifted to other executives. Reed has been with the company since 2000, starting as group exhibition director for Reed Exhibitions Australia.

 

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Gary Oster is retiring from the U.S. Travel Association, where he has served most recently as executive vice president of member services and managing director of Project: Time Off, the association’s  campaign to persuade U.S. workers to use all of their vacation time and travel. A veteran of more than four decades in the industry, Oster was one of a number of Marriott executives who joined U.S. Travel shortly after Roger Dow, who came to US Travel as president and CEO after serving for a dozen years as Marriott’s senior vice president, global and field sales.

 

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Michelle Laverick has been named head of sales, marketing and membership for joins HF Holidays, an operator that specializes in walking and recreational activity holidays. Laverick is former head of marketing for Collette. She has also held senior sales and marketing roles at Silver Travel Advisor, Wendy Wu Tours and Explore Worldwide

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Mark Scheller has been named group sales director at Snowmass. He comes to the post from GlobauxSource, a Dallas, Texas-based meetings resource management firm. He has also worked in senior sales and marketing positions at major resort destinations in Scottsdale, Palm Springs and Orlando. Schiller succeeds Alan Palmer, who left the post last April.

 

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Canada’s Air Transat, a leisure carrier,has named new UK and Ireland commercial and marketing chiefs.Adrian Keating (left), formerly Malaysia Airlines UK, Europe and North America regional manager, is the new UK and Ireland commercial director. Adam Clarke (right), formerly TUI Group head of brand activation, Adam Clarke (right), has been named UK and Ireland head of marketing.Keating started his career at British Airways in 1999, where he held a number of sales positions, before roles with easyJet as sales manager, Europe and Etihad Airways as global sales manager.Clarke previously worked across ancillary revenue and partner marketing at easyJet and held a marketing role at Flybe.

 

Lisa Brasgalla for 12 years at Travel Leaders

 

Maria Elena Kaldani for 11 years at Unique Hotel Solutions

 

Sevil Arnavutoglu for 6 years at Hotelbeds

 

Ian Ross for 5 years at Travel Spike

 

Molly Blaisdell for 5 years at Alcatraz Cruises

 

Sheena Yu for 4 years at the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board

 

Grace Li for 4 years at Trip2p

 

Source: LinkedIn

UK: Will this Year’s Summer of Discontent Mean Trouble in 2019?

 

Reviewing the basic numbers and trends that are fundamental in measuring the strength or weakness of the inbound market from the UK—it is still the number one overseas source market for the United States—one gets the feeling that the tour and travel industry is sliding down a slippery slope just as it approaches that time of the year when brochures are prepared and prices are set for the summer of 2019. In the past two-and-a-half months, the UK travel trade has had to endure five major challenging developments:

1. A continued decline in value of the pound sterling against a strong U.S. dollar that has resulted in a nearly 10 percent drop in the past six months. Right now, as we near the end of August, the pound sterling is at or near its lowest point this year vs. the U.S. dollar and the euro. Keep in mind, as you review the following tables, that, three years ago, in August 2015, the pound was trading at or near $1.55 vs. the U.S. dollar and €1.40 vs. the euro.

2. A sharp decline in all international travel by Brits during soccer’s month-long (June 14-July 15) World Cup in Russia kept huge numbers of Brits home to watch the competition on TV. What made it certain that Brits would be watching was the presence of England’s team up to the semi-final round before it was eliminated. And then it competed in the playoff for third place on July 14th. The UK holiday season was, in effect, cut short by a month.

 

3. A near disappearance of the “lates”—that is, late or last-minute holiday bookers, who have helped to keep August the number one month in UK outbound travel to North America. The importance of “lates” to the overall outbound travel by Britons to North America (about 90 percent of the traffic goes to the USA) is evident in the table below. During the beginning of this summer, the travel trade in both the UK and Germany, travel sellers were told not to worry—that the “lates” were coming in August. But they did not come.

What is happening to the “lates”? Welcome to the “earlies.” “Lates” are gone, according to one veteran British tour operator, Noel Josephides, chairman of Sunvil, which sells Mediterranean product. In an interview with TTG, Josephides said, “to put it bluntly, there is just too much out there – too much choice, too many flights, too much accommodation – and the public is making full use of the opportunities.

“The no-frills carriers launch with some very low seat rates, and the public now realizes seats can be bought – even in the peak – for very little, so the numbers now booking overseas holidays in this way have increased dramatically.

“We are therefore about to witness the coming of the age of the earlies market, and we all need to understand how to capture it and avoid losing it to the public’s appetite for self-packaging. This despite the total lack of financial protection, or of anyone taking responsibility for serious accidents in-destination, which could cost the holidaymaker dear.

“The entry of the generally unregulated, non-tax-paying American giants like Airbnb, booking.com, Expedia and TripAdvisor into the UK market has enabled the public to self-package to a degree the traditional industry never thought possible.

“If it wasn’t for the cruise market and the growing appetite of the middle classes for long-haul, tailor-made holidays booked well in advance, there would be far more travel agents in financial difficulty.”

4. A searing heat wave that kept many Brits home where they visited their own beaches. Most overseas travel by Britons is to short-haul destinations such as Spain, Greece and Cyprus, and involves spending a good deal of their time lying in the sun or splashing in the waters of the Mediterranean. In the UK, it has been the hottest summer in more than 40 years. And so, a significant number of Brits have stayed home and hit the beaches of Britain.

 

5. Intensified anxiety over the formal arrival of Brexit on March 29, 2019. So little progress has been made in reaching agreement with the European Union—the UK voted in June 2016 to exit the EU—on trade and transport issues that there are fears that the UK government will go for a “do nothing” option. This could create havoc at airports in the Eurozone and in the UK. It’s unclear, for instance, if travelers who originated their trip in continental Europe will face delays when connecting in London to the USA (or some other long-haul destination) and/or are unable to get European Commission safety certification to take off.

Reports earlier this month indicate that, by the end of August, the UK government is to release detailed guidance to businesses on how to deal with a “do nothing” option. In the meantime, financial markets are likely to become more skittish in investing in a UK that is no longer a part of a 28-nation trade compact.

To be continued …

 

People We Love: Fourth in a Series

INBOUND’s editor-in-chief, Jake Steinman, recently had the opportunity to speak with Enzo Perretta, CEO of Teamamerica, one of the largest privately-held receptive tour operators in the eastern United States; it specializes in North American and Caribbean product. Perretta founded the company 21 years ago and jointly operated until not long ago with long-time business partner Veronique Hubert. Following is an excerpt from their conversation. Known for its upscale tours and a multilingual staff (Perretta graduated from the University of Naples with a degree in Oriental Language and Literature, with an emphasis on Arabic), Teamamerica also has a reputation for highly personalized customer service. Following are excerpts from the conversation between Steinman and Perretta.

 

INBOUND: You recently bought out Veronique Hubert, your longtime partner.  What drove that sale?

Perretta: We have been great friends and partners for over 20 years;  however, our lives took different courses, Veronique started a new life recently—got married and had a wonderful baby—so, she decided that was time to dedicate her life to her new family. I treasured the years we spent together and the “American Dream” that we lived over these years, she is family to me.

Before Teamamerica, I had already started about two years prior a transportation and sightseeing company, VOLATOUR, that that proved to be very successful and definitely the leader in the Italian market. Now, owning solely both companies allowed me to have an even better synergy between the two resulting in offering great unique perks to our clients.

 

INBOUND: In these uncertain times, how is your business this year?

Perretta: We’ve invested a lot of time diversifying our base. Italy was our largest market, now is about 25 percent of our market.  For the past years we joined over 25 trade shows picking up new clients and presenting our different lines of business: Our “Elite” tariff program is very strong. Our Escorted Tour programs running about 80 tours all over the U.S. and Canada in Italian, Spanish and German almost doubled for 2018. Group business is also up but FIT, which represent the largest part of our business, is suffering a bit for a variety of reasons, so, overall,  2018 will  be slightly down but, looking at  2019, we are extremely positive as the  potential is humongous and  numbers  too good to tell!

Meanwhile, Volatour is up double digit and services are more and more in demand with request from new markets as well. While we were conceived to supply land services for non-English speaking countries (Italy and Spain), our largest clients now come from the UK, simply because our clients really want someone on site to take care of them regardless of language barriers. We offer unique services in our New York office, conveniently located minutes away from Times Square and open seven days a week. In our private conference room we organize meetings each morning in several languages where we even offer light breakfast, coffee or tea and even personalize the welcome reception according to client nationality or to the specific request of each Tour Operator that may want to create his own experience for his clients while traveling to New York.

 

INBOUND: What are you finding at the various trade shows you are attending?

Perretta: Well, as I said, we participate in several trade shows all over the globe—always looking for the new emerging market; this year we started to explore Africa and we are getting already decent results. We try to add a certain amount of new accounts from new markets every year, I am extremely focused on diversification. In traditional markets where we have been for two decades—like Fitur in Spain, or TTG in Italy—we host dinners and roundtables events that functioned as Town Hall-style meetings where I moderate a debate in either Spanish or Italian over tourism from that region to the USA. These meetings are usually attended by some of our leading tour operators, as well as partner hotels from U.S. airlines and software houses, so we have all the components of the “package” available to our clients to enable a well-educated discussion.

We always invite the local trade press and, all together, we can debate all the issues and get answers from the professionals all in one spot. When in Milan and Rome, I immediately brought up the biggest elephant in the room by asking their thoughts about our new president.  Although they commented that he was “different” and hated his arrogant approach we had a lively discussion that went both ways and I answered a lot of questions. I told them he is a businessman and he does a have huge personal interest in tourism, so we should just focus to bring business to America and to be patient and open minded and, as a matter of fact, results are coming in already. After all, Italians endured Silvio Berlusconi as Prime Minister for nine years and Spain went for years with no government.

 

 INBOUND What, if any, impact is Trump having?

Perretta: Some people are requesting Trump properties out of curiosity. They think they might see him or his family there. At an event at a hotel in Dubai, they’re serving an Ivanka salad on the menu. The reaction is quite different from country to country—I noticed a bit more resistance from north Europe while south Europe is quite intrigued.

 

China International Travel Monitor 2018 Sees Millennials Driving Market Changes & Preferences

Over the past seven years, the economic and social changes in China have been dramatic. Every year more and more Chinese residents travel overseas. In 2017, there were 130 million outbound tourists, 7 per cent more than in 2016 and 85 per cent more than in 2011, when Hotels.com first published its China International Travel Monitor (CITM).

In the latest 2018 edition of CITM, Hotels.com tells us Chinese travelers have benefited this year from a rebound in the Chinese economy and strong results from stock markets in mainland China and Hong Kong, putting more money in the pockets of Chinese travelers through increases in both salary and non-salary income.

In addition to having more to spend, travelers have increased the amount they spend on travel by 40 per cent this year, compared with last year. The increasingly influential millennials are spending unprecedented amounts on travel, with those born after 1990 increasing their travel spend by 80 per cent this year.

(In analyzing their responses, the researchers who prepared CITM divided travelers into four age categories, those born after 1960, 1970, 1980 and 1990, to provide further insight into the choices and preferences of different generations. Those born after 1980 and 1990 are referred to as millennials throughout the report.)

 

This year’s CITM reveals the far-reaching influence of the younger generation of Chinese travelers: Their growing sophistication and affluence is inspiring them to learn more about other cultures and to travel widely, leaving their footprint across the globe, from Latin America to Oceania and Europe to the Middle East. It is a trend with powerful momentum and next year will see millennials traveling even further afield. Some notes:

—These younger Chinese travelers are also inspiring their parents and other travelers born post 1960 and 1970 to do the same. The number of travelers wanting to travel independently instead of in group tours continues to rise, as does the demand for edgier, boutique styles of accommodation.

—The change over the past decade has been massive, with the per capita disposable income of Chinese urban households increasing by 164 per cent between 2007 and 2017. In the past year, there has been a rise of 8.3 per cent compared with the previous year. This follows a rise of 7.8 per cent in 2016 compared with 2015

—Overall income of the survey’s participants, the majority of whom (86 percent) come from Tier 1 and 2 cities, increased by 30 per cent this year compared with the previous year.

—The income of post 90s travelers in the survey increased by 73 per cent compared with the previous year. This is likely due to many of them entering the workforce upon completing their studies or moving up the pay scale after being in the workforce for several years. These travelers have used their increased income to travel further from home and stay abroad for longer.

—This year travelers extended their trips by an average of one to two extra days compared with the previous year.

—The trend towards long-haul destinations that emerged last year, has grown even stronger this year. Europe, North America, Latin America and Australia were favorite destinations over the past 12 months.

—In the next 12 months, only 49 per cent of travelers plan to travel to Asia. Instead, 60 per cent of Chinese travelers intend to travel to a country they haven’t yet visited.

—North America will continue to be a hot favorite, and Latin America is also emerging as a popular choice, with 26 and 13 per cent of travelers planning a first-time visit to these destinations in the next year, respectively.

 

Where Markets Could Do Better: The increase in education and income of Chinese travelers means greater demand for more authentic experiences in accommodation, services and activities.

CITM has identified key areas where services could be improved. A standout area where Chinese travelers would like better service is payment methods such as payment by mobile phone and QR scan via WeChat.

Spending Power or Power Spending? The data show that:

—Chinese travelers are big spenders. In the past 12 months, Chinese travelers increased their spending by 40 per cent and next year the majority (60%) intend to spend even more.

—Millennials are driving this trend, spending big, seeking novelty, adventure and local flavor wherever they go, and influencing their parents to do the same.

—Millennials have upped their travel spend dramatically, by 73 per cent for those born post 90s and 50 per cent for post 80s. They also spent a larger proportion of their income on travel than other age groups—more than one third (36 percent) for post 90s compared with around a quarter (28 percent for Chinese travelers overall.

—Post 80s millennials spent 5 per cent more of their income on travel compared with last year. They also spent the most each day when traveling –$346 (¥2204) per day vs $320 (¥2038) for Chinese travelers overall.

Loving Local: When it comes to spending choice, Chinese travelers want local flavor and colorful experiences. Gone are the days when most Chinese focused on their own cuisine when traveling. Tasting local delicacies was a favorite pastime for 69 percent of travelers in the last 12 months, followed by visiting local landmarks (65 percent). Shopping for authentic local items was also popular (43 percent).

The Quest for New Experiences: Chinese travelers want new experiences, not more of the old. They are traveling further afield, staying away longer and spending more money. This trend emerged last year and became even stronger over the past 12 months. Europe, North America and Australia were favorite destinations.

USA Shrinks in Popularity: Six of the top 10 countries where Chinese travelers feel most welcome are in Asia. Japan tops the list, moving up from the number two spot in 2017. Australia comes in fifth, slipping from third place last year. New Zealand in tenth place makes the top 10 for the first time.

Big on Bleisure: Bleisure—combining business travel with leisure—has also become more popular, with 80 per cent of travelers saying they would stay an extra four days after a business trip. This is particularly strong in long‑haul destinations such as Australia and the United States.

—The USA is the most common destination for bleisure.

—The common denominator is novelty. While Chinese travelers still want to visit Asia for the local cuisine (56 percent) and shopping (52 percent), there was a 6 percent decline in the amount visiting Asian destinations. When traveling to Asia they like to visit new cities.

 

“Out-of-the-Box” is the New Kid on the Block: Chinese travelers are not only looking for more out-of-the-box travel experiences, they are also broadening their accommodation choices. When asked what makes a great travel experience, 56 per cent of travelers said “living in atypical accommodation.”

Over the past 12 months, 68 per cent stayed in a hotel and 48 per cent stayed in a serviced apartment.

—The number of trips this year was 3.9, unchanged from last year but travelers are staying abroad longer. Millennials traveled slightly more, with 4 trips for post 90s and 4.2 for post 80s.

—Traveling further from home means longer trips. This year travelers increased the number of days per trip to 8-9 days, 1-2 days more than the previous year. They visited three cities per trip on average – one city more than last year.

—How long travelers stay is particularly influenced by the amount of annual leave they have (62 percent), the season (50 percent) and what sort of activity they are seeking (50 percent).

New and Improved: New and distant locations are also on the agenda for the next year. Asia is no longer the preferred destination, with only 49 per cent planning to travel there next year. Instead, 60 per cent of Chinese travelers intend to travel to a country they haven’t yet visited.

While new destinations are definitely the focus, more than one third (37 percent) of travelers still intend to visit countries they’ve been to before but will go to different cities. Key locations in Asia are top of the list for these travelers. Japan is the standout, with 46 per cent planning to revisit but traveling to different cities there. South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand are also high on the list.

Digital Dominates as Agencies Decline: Travelers continue to move away from traditional booking methods, preferring digital booking. The most popular booking method for accommodation is through the mobile website of an online travel agency, using a smart phone or tablet (43 percent). More than half of 90s millennials (51 percent) prefer this option versus 36 per cent for post 60s travelers. This is a slight increase on last year. Only 11 per cent of travelers prefer to use a desktop computer to book online.

Using mobile apps of online travel agencies is preferred by 13 per cent, while only 1 per cent book via social media platforms such as WeChat. Visiting a nearby travel agency is a thing of the past, with only 4 per cent of travelers choosing this option.

Notes on Methodology: The report is based on research involving Chinese international travelers, combined with proprietary data from Hotels.com and other research.

Hotels.com engaged Ipsos, a world leader in market research, to conduct interviews during May 2018 with 3,047 Chinese residents, aged 18-58 years, who had traveled overseas in the past 12 months. A computer-assisted web interviewing technology was used for the different-tiered cities.

Chinese cities are classified into different tiers based on population, economic size and political ranking. Tier 1 includes cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, Tier 2 provincial capitals such as Chengdu, Tier 3 medium-sized cities such as Zhuhai and Tier 4 smaller-sized cities.

Travelers were asked about their spending patterns, travel preferences, booking methods, accommodation choices and future plans, along with many other aspects of their travel.

Unless otherwise indicated, the ¥/$ exchange rate used in this survey is $1 = ¥ 6.37, the rate on 20 May 2018, the mid-point of the field research.

 

USA’s Inbound Traffic Hurt by Trump’s Trade War with China

 

According to the latest findings from the research firm ForwardKeys, which predicts future travel patterns by analyzing 17 million booking transactions a day, U.S. President Donald Trump’s tit-for-tat trade war with China appears to have caused a significant slump in Chinese visitors to the United States that could cost the American tourism sector this year.

Key findings in a brief report issued by ForwardKeys include the following:

—Weekly bookings from China to the US were up 2 percent from the last week of February (after the Chinese New Year holiday) to March 23 when the first tariffs took effect.

—Since March 23, ForwardKeys’ data shows the year-on-year figure to August is down by 8.4 percent, falling further as new rounds of tariffs have been announced. Beijing about US travel security risks, have likely further influenced the trend.

—The negative impact on the Chinese currency, which has fallen 7.5 percent against the U.S. dollar since tariffs were introduced – meaning tourists’ money buys less – and warnings from and warnings from Beijing about US travel security risks, have likely further influenced the trend.

 

ForwardKeys’ data reveals that for the rest of the year, Chinese outbound bookings to the US are 9.6% behind where they were at the same time last year, whereas Chinese outbound bookings worldwide are ahead by 5.5 percent. This pattern of growth worldwide but slowdown to the U.S. is consistent in every month except October. A general setback in October is due to this year’s mid-autumn festival falling at the end of September, which draws departures at the start of the busy National Day Golden Week holiday into September from October.

 

—The biggest impact has been on bookings for group travel (six or more passengers) from China to the US, currently behind for the rest of 2018 by 34.4 percent compared to last year.

Bookings by FIT travelers are behind 3.9 percent, with leisure travel being worse affected than travel or business or travel to visit friends and relatives.

 

By way of a benchmark, Chinese bookings for travel to Canada were up 4.8 percent to the end of July and are currently ahead 8.0 percent for August to December.

ForwardKeys CEO and co-founder, Olivier Jager, said: “Our findings strongly suggest that President Trump’s trade war has had a significant impact on Chinese tourism to the US. Looking at the year to date, we see a setback in Chinese tourism arrivals of just under 5 percent. If that continues to the end of the year, we estimate that the cost to the US economy will be north of a half-billion dollars in 2018. Chinese spending in this sector is significant – it amounts to the largest category of US services exports to China. It is unquestionable that the Chinese appetite for visiting the USA is diminishing, and that is bound to worry the U.S. travel industry.”

 

Near-Term Outlook for Japan Improves

 It took about a month longer than it usually does for the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) to process the results of its quarterly of Survey of Travel Market Trends for the travel trade in the country. But the wait might have been worth it for U.S. travel suppliers as the country’s travel agents and tour operators indicated that they are confident that travel to the United States will be better in the current quarter (July through September) and the final quarter (October through December) of 2018 compared to a year ago. In fact, the increase in survey’s Diffusion Index, or DI (See Note on Methodology below) was more than 25 percent for the final quarter.

This marks a significant increase in the JATA survey regarding outbound travel to the U.S., a measure which has been flat to negative for some three years.

In its own language, the JATA survey analysis said, “The overseas travel DI has improved steadily since the level of two years ago. The DI which was at standstill for two consecutive quarters has grown as Europe gained 12 points, South Korea 11 points, the USA & Canada 8 points, and China 6 points.” In reviewing specific market segments, JATA anticipates a boost in honeymoon travel, female officer worker travel and education travel through the end of 2018.

Before You Review the Tables: It is important to understand the methodology behind the compilation and preparation of the Survey of Travel Market Trends. JATA asks all member companies to register as survey monitors. It conducts the quarterly Survey of Travel Market Trends that involves more than 600 registered companies and publishes the results. The Survey of Travel Market Trends is designed to grasp trends in the travel market based on responses to questions on current conditions and those anticipated over the next three months. The survey asks participating companies to rate their sales results for each destination and customer segment by choosing from three categories: “good,” “average,” and “poor.” For items outside their business scope, respondents select “do not handle.” Each share of “good,” “average,” and “poor” is then divided respectively by the denominator, which is equal to the total number of responses minus the “do not handle” (including “no reply”) responses. Finally, each share is processed into a Diffusion Index (DI) by subtracting the percentage of “poor” from the percentage of “good.” The highest possible index figure is +100, and the lowest is -100.

NOTE: The Internet survey that produced the above results was conducted from May 2, 2018 to June 8, 2018. The number of registered companies that received the survey was 632. The number of responding companies was 299, for a response rate of 47.3 percent.

 

DFW Airport to Change Pick-Up and Drop-Off Rules at Terminals

 Sponsored Content

Active Loading and Unloading Designation to Improve Customer Service and Safety: Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport is changing curbside areas at all five terminals to active loading and unloading zones, part of a comprehensive program designed to improve the flow of traffic and enhance safety and security for customers, employees and business partners. DFW has added nearly 1,200 one-hour parking spaces and will encourage customers to use the terminal parking garages at no extra cost when picking up or dropping off passengers. Full enforcement of active loading and unloading zones will begin Sept. 8.

“There are more vehicles than ever at the Airport, and we want to keep traffic moving, while providing safer access to our terminals,” said Sean Donohue, CEO of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. “These necessary changes will improve the overall customer experience as it relates to traffic flow, efficiencies and ease of navigation.”

Signs indicating the new policy will be posted at the terminal curbsides in July, designating the areas for active loading and unloading only. Previously, customers could idle in attended vehicles along the curbside, while waiting for arriving passengers. DFW Department of Public Safety and Parking teams will inform customers of the change throughout July and August, directing parked or standing vehicles to nearby terminal garages with 1-hour and 2-hour parking zones.

Comparing September 2015 to February 2018, vehicle traffic for the month increased by more than 245,000 visits at DFW. At peak times, there can be congestion along the curbs at all terminals, impeding the flow of traffic. The changes reduce the number of vehicles on the upper level and will bring DFW in line with other large airports which have not allowed curbside parking since 2001, including Dallas Love Field.

 

Featured Partner of the Week—Alabama Tourism Department

 

The USA South is known for its music and Alabama is in the center of it all. Its American Music Tour itinerary highlights the music aspect of Alabama; but it is also a great way to experience food, history and outdoors. Come hear gospel in its churches and sing Sweet Home Alabama in its music halls.

http://www.touroperatorland.com/destinations/alabama_tourism_department

 

 

 

 

 

New Air Service

—On Aug. 1, Avianca, the flag carrier of Colombia, started services from Lima, Peru to Orlando and on Aug. 2 from Guatemala City and San Salvador, El Salvador to Orlando.

—WestJet’s low-cost Swoop airlines is entering the U.S. market, announcing flights from Canada to Las Vegas, Mesa (Phoenix), Tampa Bay, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale. The schedule includes routes from Edmonton to Las Vegas and Mesa; Hamilton to Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa Bay; and Abbotsford B.C. to Las Vegas. Flights are available for booking from Oct. 11, 2018 to April 27, 2019. Sample prices include $99 flights from Edmonton to Las Vegas (one-way), as well as $99 flights between Hamilton and Orlando.

—Korean Air is launching a non-stop route between Boston and Seoul Incheon airport next year. Beginning April 12, 2019, the airline will operate five flights a week on its new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. The flights are part of a new joint-venture between Korean and Delta Air Lines.
The Boston route is second Seoul route added by the airlines since their joint venture partnership launched in May. The two carriers have already confirmed plans for flights between Seoul and Minneapolis/St. Paul next year.

—JetBlue has announced new and expanded Mexico City service with daily nonstop flights from both New York City and Boston. Service between New York JFK and Mexico City, as well as service between Boston and Mexico City beginning Oct. 25, 2018. JetBlue is offering fares starting at $150 one way from New York and $153 one way from Boston. JetBlue currently operates two daily flights between Mexico City and both Fort Lauderdale and Orlando. JetBlue first landed in Mexico City in 2015 and by this October will operate more than forty weekly flights between the U.S. and Mexico’s capital city.

—American Airlines has launched its latest international route from Philadelphia with daily service to Mexico City. The Mexico from Philadelphia, with it already operating to Cancún 15 times weekly this summer. American already serves Mexico City from Charlotte Douglas, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Miami.

—United Airlines is again strengthening its Washington Dulles hub network with a new international route to Tel Aviv starting next May 22nd. It becomes the third direct service to Israel after Newark Liberty and San Francisco. The Washington Dulles-Tel Aviv service will connect easily with more than 70 domestic routes in the United network.

 

At a Glance: Ithaca, NY

 

 

For full information Click Here.

 

HODGE PODGE: Shifts, Shakeups and Occasional Shaftings in the Tour and Travel Industry

Gisel Vidals has been promoted to the position of head of global sales at Big Bus Tours. Previously, she served as head of global sales, Americas. Vidals joined Big Bus four years ago. Prior to that, she held senior sales positions for several different New York City-based tour and travel companies, including Skyline Sightseeing, Super Shuttle and Liberty Helicopters.

 

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The board of directors of Visit KC has selected industry veteran Jason Fulvi as its new president and CEO. He succeeds Ronnie Burt, who resigned following the settlement last January of a lawsuit that alleged harassing and bullying behavior toward female employees on Burt’s part. A veteran of more than three decades in the tour and travel industry, Fulvi comes to Kansas City from VisitPITTSBURGH, where he has served for 16 years and most recently as the organization’s executive vice president. Fulvi starts his new job at Visit KC on Sept. 12.

 

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Deana Ivey has been promoted by the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. (CVC) to the post of executive vice president. A veteran of 21 years at the CVC, she was most recently chief marketing officer.

 

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Timothy Zahner has left his post as chief operating officer at Sonoma County Tourism to join the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau, now known as Experience Sonoma County, as its new executive director. Zahner had been with Sonoma County Tourism since December 2006. Prior to that he was public relations media manager at San Francisco Travel.

 

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Sarah Schaffer has been named chief marketing officer for Visit Baltimore. A tour and travel industry professional for more than 20 years, Schaffer succeeds Sam Rogers, who left the post last January to become interim president and CEO of Visit Norfolk. She comes to the organization from her post as managing director of HZDG, a communications and marketing agency with offices in Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles and Baltimore. Previously, she was chief of marketing and communications at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.

 

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Wendy Haase has been promoted to the position of senior director for Destination Irvine in Orange County, California. Previously, she was director of tourism marketing. In her new role, Haase, who has been with the chamber since 2010, will be responsible for the organization’s destination sales and marketing divisions.

 

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CVB veteran Monica Smith has been named the new president and CEO of the 12-state Southeast Tourism Society (STS). She is only the third chief executive in the 35-year history of STS. Smith took over the upon the retirement of Bill Hardman after his 21-year tenure in the position. Smith, who has more than 26 years’ experience in the hospitality and tourism industry, most recently was vice president of sales and services for Visit Jacksonville. She previously was president and CEO of the Macon-Bibb County CVB in Macon, Ga. She also has worked at the Pasadena CVB and the Newport Beach CVB in California and for Destination Cleveland in Ohio. Smith has also served on the STS board of directors through her positions in Jacksonville and Macon.

 

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Terry Dale has signed a new three-year contract extending his role as president and CEO of the U.S. Tour Operators Association through 2021. Dale began as president in 2011 and assumed the additional role of chief executive officer in fall 2012. Prior to Dale’s appointment, the late Bob Whitley served as USTOA’s president and CEO from 1978 to 2010.

 

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Sara Otte Coleman of the North Dakota Tourism Division has been named national State Tourism Director of the Year for 2018. Coleman was announced as the honoree at the U.S. Travel Association’s recent ESTO conference, held this year in Phoenix. Candidates for State Tourism Director of the Year are nominated by a panel of state and territory tourism directors. A slate of three finalists is presented for selection by ballot.

 

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As of September 30, Christoph Führer, managing director of the business travel division of DER Touristik, is leaving the company at his own request. Führer has been a member of the management team since 2010. He was first spokesman for the management of Derpart Reisevertrieb. Since November 2016, Führer has been managing director of DER, where he is responsible for the business travel division, DER Business Travel. Führer’s responsibilities in the management of DER Deutsches Reisebüro will be taken over by interim managing director Mark Tantz in addition to his duties as managing director of DER Touristik Deutschland.

 

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Marcelo Kaiser is the new manager of Aviareps, the global tour and travel PR and representation company, for all of Latin America. In parallel, Kaiser will take care of the operation in Brazil in the next five months and a new director for the national market should be announced. The company has offices in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Mexico.

 

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Fanato Incentive, a Brazilian corporate-focused brand from tour operator Fanato, has just announced that it has hired Barbara Fertonani to be part of its incentive travel team. Fertonani comes to her new job with 15 years of experience in the M.I.C.E. segment. She can be reached at barbara.fertonani@fanato.com.br

 

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Specialist tour operator Hotelplan’s Simon McIntyre is leaving the company and joining online travel agency Iglu. The group head of sales for Inghams, Ski Total & Esprit, McIntyre will leave after nine years at the company and join Iglu’s operations board in the newly created role of general manager, ski, overseeing sales, marketing and commercial teams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kelli Hilliard for 17 years at Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks & Tourism

 

Sarah Willoughby for 14 years at Greater Wilmington Convention & Visitors Bureau

 

Oswaldo Freitas for 3 years at JTB Americas Ltd

 

Court Upholds Travel Ban—It’s Likely to Impact Inbound Tourism Industry

Although it had been in place under a previous order that had stayed a lower court decision that struck it down, the ban on travel from citizens from certain, mostly Muslim, nations has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Because of its timing, it was too soon for INBOUND to get a full reading on the decision’s impact from leaders in the inbound tour and travel industry. It seems to make little difference, however, as the prevailing opinion that we have detected among tour and travel marketers for the past year is that the damage has already been done.

Most of those we’ve talked with believe that the imposition of the ban, along with the Administration of President Donald Trump’s current “tariff war” with China and Europe, could only spell trouble for the industry.

Shortly after the decision was announced, the U.S. Travel Association released a statement that put the best face on the situation. US Travel’s  Executive Vice President for Public Affairs Jonathan Grella issued the statement, which said the following:

“Now that the U.S. court system has set guidelines for the president’s executive orders on immigration, we are hopeful that a coherent and durable set of policies can be put into place by the administration.

“Today’s decision should enable the White House to move on to a new messaging phase: making it clear that keeping bad actors out remains a priority, but making it equally clear that legitimate business and leisure travelers are as welcome and desired as ever in the United States.

“The economic stakes around strong and healthy international travel are too high—and speak too squarely to the president’s priorities of growing exports, jobs, and the GDP—for the welcome message not to become a featured part of the administration’s calculus.”

 

Orlando Ambassador Program Hopes to Deal with Panhandlers and Help Tourists

The Orlando city government has given its approval to a project that will revolve about an ambassador program that will address downtown issues, including panhandlers whose presence has become a bane to local businesses and to the tourists who visit the most visited destination in the United States.

The measure approved by the city government establishes a contract with Block by Block, a Louisville, Kentucky-based organization that operates programs in more than 100 locations in the U.S. and calls for “downtown ambassador services”  for an initial term of two years in an annual estimated amount of $725,000. The scope of work provides for ambassadors to circulate throughout the city’s Downtown Community Redevelopment Area (CDR) according to a schedule that will be set by CRA staff providing safety, hospitality, and other ambassador related services as outlined in the scope of work. The deployment schedule can be adjusted to accommodate special events, holidays, inclement weather and other circumstances. The CRA staff will have daily interaction with an on-site operations manager provided by Block by Block, which oversees the entire Ambassador Program.

Several downtown business owners have been asking for something to be done about panhandling for months.  “The only problem we had was the panhandlers, and the homeless situation,” said Jay Manji, a 7-Eleven owner in the 55 West Building, told Channel 13 news, adding, “We are open 24/7, so we have seen it all.”

Manji has owned his business downtown for eight years now. He said he is worried for his employees and customers, because he said the panhandling is overly aggressive these days. “This customer was disorderly,” he said, pointing to a yellow carbon copy of an Orlando police record. “They had to be trespassed. And I have hundreds of these, really in just here in the last six months.”

Monica McCown, from the nearby Artisan’s Table understands, agreed: “I think the biggest effect on our business is that it makes our guests that come to visit us feel a little less comfortable when they are walking the streets,” she said. “But they also harass my guests when they are actually at the restaurant on our patio, and I have even had staff assaulted.”

Another perspective came from Andrew Gooden, a self-identified homeless person, who said that all of the places he has been in the U.S. had ambassador services, adding, “if a homeless person goes to them and says, ‘I just got here, I don’t know my way around,’ they’ve got information, pamphlets … They helped me when I first got to one city. They gave me the information, and not only did I get off the street, I got housing, thanks to that one ambassador.”

“Much like Disney and Universal have their greeters and their information people, and they have a face to show when you go to CityWalk, or Disney Springs, I think downtown Orlando should be treated the same way,” said McCown.

 

German Operator FTI Creates Virtual Airline for Real Customers

FTI, the fourth-largest tour operator in Germany, has developed what is essentially a virtual airline to help it compete better with its competitors, some of whom operate their own airlines. While the operator has no aircraft, it has managed the feat through a new subsidiary—FTI Flight Trading GmbH—that is dedicated to procuring and selling flight capacity.

Established last October, the new unit and has taken on a team of experienced airline staff to develop the new business, which has offices in Berlin and Munich.

According to FTI’s official papers, the subsidiary’s business purpose is “the worldwide procurement and sale of flight capacity in the B2B and B2C areas as well as all activities connected with this.”

What this means is that FTI has, in effect, established a “virtual airline” that could act as a broker and provide capacity for the in-house tour operator as well as for third-party customers. FTI already has some experience in this field, reports the German travel trade publication fvw, by contracting full-charter flights to Egypt and then selling some capacity to other tour operators.

Directors of FTI Flight Trading are the group’s chief Dietmar Gunz and Anja Ruppert, head of flight procurement. They were joined by the ex-Niki manager Nicola Gregor, who previously sold Air Berlin and Niki capacity to tour operators, including FTI. (Both Niki and Air Berlin went bankrupt last year.) Gregor now managing a team of 20 staff, including many other former Niki employees.

 

How Georgia Uses Marketing Visuals in its China Campaign

Georgia is chipping away at its long-term goal to tap into the Chinese market in greater numbers by working with CrowdRiff, a Toronto-based firm with a self-described “quirky and diverse crew” which works with a number of destinations in using visual media to promote their brands and products.

In a recent piece by CrowdRiff’s Sandra Rzasa, one gets an idea of how Georgia has begun to make and secure its niche as a USA destination for the now and future.

In 2008, a year after the Chinese government gave the U.S. Approved Destination Status—it allowed U.S. tourism businesses and DMOs to market and promote leisure tourism in China—the Georgia Department of Economic Development created the Greater China Region Initiative. This took place at roughly the same time that Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines to begin direct flights to and from Atlanta and a gateway city in China. The mandate of the Initiative was to increase economic opportunities with the Chinese market and named Stella Xu as its director.

The effort stalled a little when Delta stopped the under-producing route within a year and, after trying again, stopped them again. Now, Delta is scheduled to begin non-stop flights between Atlanta and Shanghai on July 20.

“We started hosting conferences to bring Chinese buyers and tour operators to Atlanta for business meetings as well as to experience our city,” says Xu. For much of the past decade, however, leisure tourism as a priority stayed in the shadow of efforts to attract Chinese business and trade to Georgia.

“As of this moment, our leisure travel is still a very small percentage; a majority are business travelers coming for trade shows, as well as students and their families,” Xu explains. “Hopefully, with the direct flight, we can bring more leisure travelers.”

Now, after years of focusing on developing key relations with Chinese businesses, and with the direct flight soon to be reinstated, the Georgia Department of Economic Development has taken proactive steps to show prospective Chinese leisure travelers what southern hospitality is all about.

One such step was its sponsorship this past March of the Active America China Summit, a trade show sponsored by the NAJ Group (publisher of the INBOUND Report) that brought more than 50 Chinese tour operators to Atlanta to meet with U.S. travel suppliers and DMOS—many of them from Georgia.

Highlighting key American Icons in Marketing Materials to Appeal to Chinese Tourists: When it comes to the state’s overall tourism marketing strategy, Xu notes that it’s all about showcasing the sounds, smells, tastes and hospitality of southern culture, highlighting how it differs from America’s coastal cities. While much of the marketing materials produced for the Chinese market follow along the same themes, Xu says it’s her job to tailor Georgia’s marketing materials and visitor’s guides to appeal to travelers from the region.

“We look at the overall strategy and then we pick and choose things that we think will resonate with the Chinese, mostly culturally-centered,” said Xu, explaining that there’s extra emphasis on quintessential Americana, like World of Coca-Cola, Stone Mountain or the state’s many movie sets from iconic American films like Forrest Gump.

 

Many Chinese tourists are also familiar with classic novels like Gone with the Wind, and they are intrigued by Georgia and the South described in the novel, which Explore Georgia tries to bring out in their marketing.

“We add a special touch, and wording language and the style of the pictures for what the Chinese would like to see,” she added. “We tend to choose content that Chinese people do not get to experience in China on brochures and branding materials.” For example, this page of Explore Georgia’s 2018 Chinese visitor guide, set against a stunning photo of Georgian wetland, explores different places in a traveler can experience the wonders of the state’s unique natural terrain.

 

Another page in their visitor guide is an exposé on Georgia’s rich music and film culture. Here they tie back international American culture icons, like James Brown and R.E.M., to the state where they originated. This page also reveals filming locations of well-known movies, such as The Hunger Games, that took place in Georgia.

Xu notes that this strategy extends from the visitor’s guides to the website to the social media campaigns and blog posts that the tourism department creates in Mandarin for the Chinese market.

Helping tourism partners to prepare for accommodating Chinese travelers

Essential to facilitating the flow of tourism from China is ensuring that visitors have all the resources and amenities they have come to expect from major American cities, such as tour guides that speak their language and hotels that are accustomed to hosting Chinese guests.

“We help the tour operators to develop marketing collateral and to hear their concerns, their feedback, what they’re looking for, what their clients are looking for,”  Xu points out, explaining that their goals extend beyond getting travelers to Georgia, but then also making sure they have a great experience in their state. That means supporting “our partners, like the CVBs, hotels, retail stores and everyone who wants to attract visitors, we help them become China-ready.”

Result—Explore Georgia’s Targeted Efforts See Consistent Yearly Growth in Chinese Visitors: Since its creation 10 years ago the Greater China Region Initiative—which recently hired its second full-time employee—has seen the number of Chinese visitors gradually increase over time.

“When I joined the department in 2008, China was not on the top 10 international visitors list,” Xu tells us. Today the country is fifth behind Canada, the U.K., Germany and India. “For the past four years the number of Chinese visitors has increased every year by twenty or thirty percent, as well as their spending power.”

Xu’s overarching advice when it comes to engaging with the Chinese market is to put in the time to facilitate connections and deeper relationships, both online and in person. “The Chinese market is a relationship-driven market, so you have to be there all the time and establish relationships and make friends with people,” she said. “It takes a long time to do that.”

It may be a while before they can compete with America’s major states, concludes Xu, but Georgia is becoming recognized to the Chinese market as a gateway to the southeast and a perfect starting point for a second or third visit to the country.

 

Brand USA Reveals Top 10 Trends in the Chinese Travel Market

Following its recent release, we reviewed Brand USA’s China Market Update and have condensed it for our readers. Spoiler alert: the really good material is in the section that lists the 10 Trends in the market.

 

China Market: Size

Source: Brand USA China Research, CIA World Fact Book

 

• China’s GDP is greater than the combined GDPs of India (#3); Japan (#4); Germany #5; Russia (#6)
• China’s economy is 20 percent greater than that of the U.S. on a Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) basis.

 Source(s): Brand USA China research, IMF, World Bank

 

25-Year Trend Line:

China Outbound Travelers

(Millions)

Source(s): Brand USA China research: Travel China Guide

 

Timeline: Chinese Travel to the U.S.

 

Chinese Airlift: U.S. Gateways

16 U.S. Non-stop Gateways to China

Los Angeles                                        Chicago

San Francisco                                     Houston

New York                                            Dallas

Honolulu                                              Detroit

Seattle                                                  San Jose

Washington, D.C.                             Saipan

Boston                                                  Guam

Las Vegas                                            Atlanta (this summer)

Current annual seat capacity between the U.S. and China stands at 5.1 million regularly schedule seats—a capacity jump of over 500,000 seats in the last 6 months alone.

Source(s): Brand USA China research     

 

Chinese Airlift: China Gateways

(17 China Non-stop Gateways to the USA)

(China has 206 airports and is now building another 66 major new airports – a 32% increase in number of airports in China in just the coming 5 years.)

Current                                                New China Gateways inThe Past 12 Months

Beijing                                                        Shenyang

Shanghai                                                    Shenzen

Guangzhou                                                Qingdao

Chengdu                                                    Fuzhou

Wuhan                                                       Chongqing

Nanjing                                                      Jinan

Xian                                                            Tianjin

Hangzhou                                                  Zhenzhou (New 2018)

Changsha

Source(s): Brand USA China research

 

China—Trend #1: Online Bookings

• 20 percent growth in online purchases of travel in 2017.
• Over $800 billion in tourism products bought online in China 2017.
•  Online tools are key in both destination selection and actual booking.
• Online platforms are the China outbound travel purchasing channels of the future.

Source(s): Brand USA China research; C-trip

 

China—Trend #2: OTAs Dominating

•   2018 Chinese New Year OTA bookings up 60 percent v. overall outbound market up 10 percent.
•   Three OTAs dominate: C-Trip, Qunar and Tuniu, over 80 percent of China’s OTA sector.
•   Air tickets (#2 after OTA booking) and accommodations (#3) are increasingly being booked on service providers’ websites directly.
•   “Fly-Drive” and car rental are soaring in popularity

Source(s): Brand USA China research; C-trip; Agencies

 

China—Trend #3: Emerging OTAs

•   Zuzuche now dominates the online car rental market, with over 76 percent market share in just three years.
•   Fliggy, the online travel brand of e-commerce giant Alibaba, has gone from zero to 200 million users in less than three years and is now a key partner for many destinations.
•   Mafengwo, the “TripAdvisor” of China, launched in 2010 originally as a social travel website/blog, has now transformed itself into a travel booking app which is key to reach Chinese FITs.

Source(s): Brand USA China research; Zuzuche; Fliggy; Mafengwo; China Daily

 

China—Trend #4: Shift to Mobile

•   Mobile internet: 685 million users use their mobile to access the internet; 50 percent + 4G.
•   Mobile payment: 87 percent of Chinese consumers in China used mobile payments in 2017–up from 69 percent in 2016.
•   Dominant channel: media and entertainment in China are now primarily consumed on mobile.
•   TV: 71 percent of Chinese watch TV on mobile several times a day—27 percent in the U.S.
•   News: phone-based news apps have become the #1 source of information for Chinese social media is now the #2 source of information.
•   Travel search & planning: over half of destination search & planning is done on mobile
•   Bookings: 72 percent of online bookings on top 5 OTAs are done directly via mobile, and 81 percent of online hotel bookings are made on mobile.
•   Booking apps: OTAs lead the way, with traditional Tour Operators / Travel Agents playing catch up.

Source(s): Tencent; China Internet Watch

 

China—Trend #5: Booming FIT

•   Growing 10-20 percent per year, outperforming China’s overall outbound market.
•   In certain states, FIT represents 40 percent of China travel and rapidly rising.
•   Semi-FIT (air/hotel packages) represents an additional 40 percent of the market.

Source(s): Tencent; China Internet Watch

 

China—Trend #6: Beyond the Gateways Soaring

•   Converging factors: Increased Chinese traveler sophistication, increased disposable income, and increased frequency of travel to the USA means Chinese travelers are no longer satisfied with cookie-cutter itineraries and are now rapidly going beyond the gateways.
•   “Been there done that,” no more: Much like in the West, social pressure pushes sophisticated Chinese to “one up” their peers and classic itineraries/destinations are no longer enough.
•   Attractive to the trade: High-end Chinese travelers are less price sensitive– the higher margins of tailor-made travel beyond the U.S. gateways are highly attractive to the Chinese travel trade who are happy to develop tailor-made itineraries.
•   Opportunities for lesser known destinations: The tailor-made itineraries trend is a major opportunity for lesser-known destinations and attractions to boost Chinese business.

Source(s):  Brand USA research

 

China—Trend #7: Booming Luxury Market

•   Booming Chinese middle and upper class: is translating to booming luxury travel.
•   Demanding exclusive travel: 5 & 6-star hotels, limos, helicopter transfers, private tours.
•   New luxury travel agents: all major Chinese tour operators have created luxury travel subsidiaries
•   Meituan: in less than 2 years, it went from a group buying site to China’s dominant luxury hotel online. booking site, recording a 300 percent increase in bookings in 2017.

Source(s): Brand USA China research; Meituan, Jing Daily

 

China—Trend #8: Family Travel Soaring

End of One-Child Policy is Reshaping China’s Travel Industry

•   The end of China’s one-child policy resulted in 8.83 million newborn second children in 2017 (One-quarter of the entire population of Canada).
•   51 percent of all babies born in 2017 were second children for the first time ever in China’s history.
•   3-generation travel (boomers, millennials, babies) is booming.
•   One-quarter of Chinese millennials plan to travel with their parents and their children.
•   Even with children, 58 percent of Chinese travelers choose “fly & drive” options.
•   Educational tourism (families with college-age children) soaring.
•   Theme park visitation with younger children benefiting from the trend.

Source(s): Brand USA China research; China Daily

 

China—Trend #9: Rise of Tier Two Markets

Tier 1 Gateways

•   Five years ago, there were only 3 cities in mainland China with direct non-stop flights to the USA: Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

Tier 2 Gateways

•   Greater China now has 17 gateways with direct non-stop flights to the USA
•   China has 100 cities with a population of over 1 million – compared to just 10 in the USA
•   China’s future growth in outbound travel will come from these Tier 2 markets
•   This requires a 2-tier strategy to the China market: One targeting increasingly sophisticated FITs in tier 1 cities.
•   A second parallel strategy targeting first time long-haul group travelers from China’s tier 2 cities.

Source(s): Brand USA China research; China Daily

 

China—Trend #10: China Airport Growth

•   Airport Growth: Between 2006 and 2016, six of the world’s top 10 fastest growing airports were in China
•   Case Study: Tianjin grew from 2.7 million to 16.8 million passengers during the decade
•   New Airport Construction: China has 206 airports and is now building another 66 new airports; a 32% increase in number of airports in China in the coming 4 years

Source(s): Brand USA China research; Civil Aviation Authority of China

 

Receptive Tour Operator of Month

Personal RGE Tours was founded in 1990 in Orlando, Florida. Since then, the company says in its website, “our goal has been, and will continue to be, to provide our clients with personalized service.”

Though it has been an authorized reseller for some time of Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, and Disneyland California, these aren’t the only products Personal RGE provides. It handles individual and group reservations within the United States of America using its direct contracts with hotels in Florida, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Chicago Washington, among other cities.

Personal RGE also has transfer services in Portuguese and contracts with the main attractions at major cities. In addition to individual passengers, Personal RGE Tours handles many different types of groups including: tourist, incentives, shopping, and religious.

The TourOperatorLand.com website by the NAJ Group (it also publishes the INBOUND Report) has introduced both receptive tour operators, U.S. tour operators and international tour operators to travel product and services of U.S. travel suppliers and DMOs. Visitors to the website can use its exclusive Receptive Finder™ to find the right RTO.  It is designed to help both the travel trade and travel suppliers find the right U.S. based receptive tour operator to sell their products on the international travel market place.

The receptive operators, who are vetted and qualified by the NAJ Group also take part in at least one of NAJ’s RTO Summits series. The Summits take place annually in Los Angeles, New York City and Orlando. The next Summit takes place October 24-25, 2018 in Orlando.  For more information, visit: www.TourOperatorLand.com.

Want meet with Personal RGE Tours? You’ll find them at the RTO Summit Orlando in October.

 

Odyssey’s Chicago River Cruise Launches in Late Summer

Opening this summer, the new Odyssey Chicago River experience is Chicago’s first dining cruise of its kind, offering guests unobstructed views of the Windy City’s iconic riverfront aboard a custom-built, glass-enclosed vessel. Year-round lunch, brunch, cocktail and dinner cruises — with upscale menus and refined atmosphere— differentiate this experience from your typical riverboat excursion. Set to begin cruising in late summer 2018, booking is open now for visitors eager to find a unique perspective in the heart of Chicago. Ticket prices vary.

Chicago River Cruise Route: Departs from: Chicago River Esplanade, right in front of NBC Tower on the River (north side). Address: 455 N. Cityfront Plaza Drive

All river cruises will depart from our dock near NBC tower on Chicago’s revitalized River Esplanade, between Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive. Dinner cruises follow the longest route, which extends west on the main branch to Wolf Point, north to North Avenue, south to Ping Tom Memorial Park, east to Lakeshore Drive, then back to the dock.

The lunch, brunch and cocktail cruises will feature a modified version of the dinner route. If the river is seeing high traffic, or in rare cases of severe weather, the cruise route may be modified further to include only the main and south branches.

Every experience promises unmatched views of the city’s world-renowned architectural feats, from Marina City and the Merchandise Mart to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Willis Tower and more.

For more information, visit: www.odysseycruises.com , or call 866 391 8439.

Here is a partial route map for the new cruise:

 

Morning Drinking at Dublin Airport Bar Leads to Grounding in France of Ryanair Flight to Spain

 

An alcohol-infused disturbance involving some 20 passengers on a Ryanair flight out of Dublin International Airport bound for Ibiza led to its grounding in France. The episode, which took place on June 16, has triggered a call by some for limiting early morning alcohol purchases at airport bars and on morning flights. Read more:

http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articles/306064/ryanair-demands-early-morning-airport-alcohol-ban

 

 

 

From TourOperatorLand.com … Our Featured Partner of the Week: Seattle Southside Regional Tourism

Trek Around the Pacific Northwest: Seattle Southside is the ideal location for a breathtaking Pacific Northwest getaway. From the iconic Space Needle, to snowy Mount Rainier, to the largest private air and space museum in the world, you’ll be able to make the most of your three-day journey in Seattle’s Backyard.

http://www.touroperatorland.com/destinations/seattle_southside_regional_tourism_authority1

 

 

NEW AIR SERVICE

—On June 18, Delta Air Lines introduced two new routes to its network—transatlantic services to Paris CDG and Amsterdam from Los Angeles. The flight from Los Angeles to Paris will operate three times weekly. The Los Angeles—Amsterdam route will be flown four times weekly.

—Interjet has launched a new service between Mexico City and Orlando. In doing so, it moves its services to the Floridian city from Orlando Sanford, an airport which it has served since 2016. The Mexican carrier will operate the service twice daily.

—Air Canada has added two new transatlantic flights from Vancouver to its network. On June 7, the airline launched a three times weekly service to Zurich, and on June 8, it began four times weekly service to operation to Paris CDG.

 —Ethiopian Airlines has started a three times weekly flight from Addis Ababa to Chicago O’Hare. The outbound route stops in Dublin, but flies direct on the return from the Chicago.

—Air Italy has launched its second U.S. service with four-times-a-week service from Milan Malpensa to Miami. A week before the announcement, the carrier began service between Milan and New York JFK.

—United Airlines has introduced a daily transatlantic connection between San Francisco and Zurich. SWISS airlines also fly the same route on a daily basis.

And this: David Neeleman, founder of U.S. low-cost airline JetBlue Airways is planning to launch another budget carrier in the United States—to be called Moxy Airways. It will focus on point to point services between under-served secondary airports in the U.S. In addition to JetBlue, Neeleman also founded the Brazilian low-cost carrier Azul (Blue).

 

At a Glance: Richmond, VA

 

For more information click here.

 

HODGE PODGE: Shifts, Shakeups and Occasional Shaftings in the Tour and Travel Industry

The Bloomington (Minn.) CVB has retained Jason Kauflin to represent all international and domestic golf operator requests for the bureau’s Great Northern Golf Trail. Kauflin has a company that has been booking golfing groups for the past 20 years.

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Voopter, the four-year-old Brazilian flight search engine, has announced the appointment of Juliana Vital as general manager. Vital began her career at age 18 in the user experience area, focusing on product and business management. Prior to joining Voopter, she was chief operating officer at Scup.

 

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Alvaro Valeriani has been announced as the new global senior vice president of marketing and sales for the SBE group, which operates in the hospitality, gastronomy, design, entertainment and other sectors. He will be based in Miami and will be responsible for all portfolio operations. A veteran of more than 20 years in the tour and travel industry, Valeriani has served tenures with Explora, Aman Resorts and Hyatt, as well as being vice president of the Brazilian Luxury Travel Association (BLTA).

 

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Bourne Leisure has promoted Erman Housein to head of trade sales and marketing operations. Housein, who has been with the business for 15 years, will also be responsible for overseeing trade sales support, marketing and field-based sales teams.

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The Maryland Tourism Coalition (MTC) has announced that Ruth Toomey is its new executive director. Long active in the Baltimore/Anne Arundel County hospitality industry, she has been an active member and board member of the tourism/hospitality trade organization since 2009. She most recently served as the organization’s membership chair. Most recently, Toomey served as director of Sales & Marketing for An Extraordinary Limousine in Glen Burnie, Md.

 

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Steve Barrass has joined Holiday Taxis Group, the global airport transfer company, as a non-executive director. He’ll join the company from dnata Travel, where he was senior vice president. Holiday also promoted Ian Coyle as CEO.

 

 

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Happy Work Anniversaries to:

 

 

Lori Huffstutler for two years at The Guest House at Graceland

 

Tico Soto for two years at Tourism Tactics by Tico

 

 

Gail Orr for eight years at Go Global LLC

 

Bob Hofmann for 15 years at Broadway Inbound/The Shubert Organization