Bill Geist's Zeitgeist

Airline Cutbacks Expected to Hurt Hotels

It only makes sense. Fewer arrivals at your airport means fewer travelers looking for hotel rooms.

But PKF Hospitality has released a report that identifies a direct correlation between a reduction in airline seats to hotel stays. And, if the reduction in routes hits the anticipated 10%, PKF estimates that occupancy will drop 3.9%.

MeetingsNet's Sue Pelletier surmises that this decrease will be felt mostly in leisure travel...and not in the meetings market.

I'm not so sure...as the reduction in flights will increase fares. Add the increasingly inane add-on fees and hassle...and I'm thinking a lot of potential attendees will say, "screw it" and stay home.

In any case, hotels in air markets are in for a rocky ride. As are the DMOs upon which they depend.

Saving an Icon

Urban Legend has it that McDonald's was the first large-scale hamburger chain.

But, in the 1940s, there was Mammoth Orange. These quintessential fast food joints, shaped like fruit and painted a blazin' shade of orange, served hamburgers and orange juice all up and down California's Central Valley.

There were hundreds of them...and the last Mammoth Orange closed last summer when the California DOT fenced it off from vehicular traffic as it began to renovate the adjacent intersection.

But, according to our friend Dan Carter, "the City of Chowchilla has purchased the Mammoth Orange burger stand on Highway 99 (California's Route 66) and is moving it intact to the City yard until they can refurbish it and put it at the Hwy 99 exit (gateway) to their community as an information booth and kiosk. Kudos to the Chowchilla City Council for saving a historicstructure and putting it to work informing visitors about their community."

Kudos indeed...and a great example for communities everywhere.

Image Credit: crazy4citrus

Get Your Head out of the Sand

When the first ever Palm Beach County Tourism Summit was being designed, organizers expected Dale Brill, Duane Knapp and me to be the speakers that challenged and provoked the audience.

While I'm sure we three did our fair share, it was Berthia Parle (former Chair of the Caribbean Hotel Association) that tossed the real gauntlet before the 300 that gathered last week.

"Make no mistake," she said (in that delightful St. Lucian lilt), "we're a sleeping giant that has awakened, and we're coming after your business."

And, as she closed her presentation, she exhorted the audience to "take your heads out of the sand. Get up, wake up and make it happen."

Berthia, you rock...and it was such a pleasure to meet and work with you last week. And I can't wait to visit you at the Bay Gardens Beach Resort.

American Samoa is Ready to Rock

As subscribers to our Z-News service may have noted yesterday, American Samoa has just launched its own Visitors Bureau in order to "tab into a multi-million dollar tourist industry that has benefited other Pacific Island countries."

The island country hopes to increase its existing visitor count which, in 2006, was a mere 7,762.

There are just 200 rooms on the island. But, the potential for generating up to an additional 65,000+ room nights is simply incredible.

I so like the opportunity for this DMO....

Couldn't You Have Put That Someplace Else?

There are times when I think the height restrictions on buildings here in Madison unnecessarily promote sprawl. Designed to keep buildings from overshadowing our magnificent Capitol, the rules effectively keep most buildings under ten floors. Of course, as I drive into downtown and see the gleaming dome from miles away, I quickly forget my sprawl notion and silently thank the City’s early planners for their foresight.

I’m sure that my friends in Jackson MS wish somebody had proffered similar rules there. And, as I shot this picture of their way cool Capitol, I feel their pain.

And You Think Your Hotel Sucks

As Lewis Black says, he knows the North Koreans are evil because they have no color. That is fairly well represented by the biggest hotel in the capital city of Pyongyang.

Construction started on the 3,000 room Ryugyong Hotel twenty years ago. North Korea has poured more than two percent of its gross domestic product into the project. And, the hotel remains unfinished, unopened, and unoccupied. Probably forever.

Chris Clarke's commentary is perfect. And, strange...I can't find the North Korean Office of Tourism either.

Although tourism to the country is possible. Just don't ask why Kim Jong Il is the only fat man in the country while you're there.

A Smack Upside the Head

Travolution editor Kevin May's keynote at the ABTA Conference last week in Tenerife ruffled feathers. And that's a good thing.

Check his blog post here for his key points.

That chill you feel...is probably the realization that he's right.

Ride the SLUT

My friend Beth Anne McPheeters of the Asheville CVB pointed this gem out to me last week.

Due to commerce service in December, Seattle's new South Lake Union Streetcar service has been renamed by locals who think the ride is less of a streetcar and more of a trolley. Of course, changing the "s" to a "t" (as in the South Lake Union Trolley) changes the acronym.

Sure 'nuff, a local coffeeshop began selling "Ride the S.L.U.T." T-shirts...and promptly sold out.

Too funny.

Photo from the HeyRocker collection on Flickr.

The Moline Renaissance

I had the opportunity to work with the Quad Cities CVB earlier this year and got to know the cities of Moline, Davenport, Bettendorf, Rock Island...and the other communities that make up the destination.

These communities are all reinventing themselves...and the renaissance is exciting to watch. In the recent e-mail newsletter from Revitalization Online, the Moline approach to recreating itself is described...a process that has resulted in an amazing $250 million of private sector reinvestment in the city.

The inspiring story (and unique approach) are worth a read HERE.

Don't Let the Sign Department Create the Signs

Seen on I-494, approaching MSP (the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport).

And, I'm supposed to know which terminal I want....exactly....HOW?

I've been to some confusing airports before...but this one is simply beyond me.

And don't say it's because I'm not from there. I asked a friend if locals knew the difference...and she said, "no, I end up at the wrong one all the time."

Besides, signage is never for locals. It's for the visitor. And, er, the visitor doesn't understand.