Bill Geist's Zeitgeist

It Gets Worse

Not to completely bum out Destination Marketing Pros...but the number of people that say they expect to travel less for leisure pursuits in the next 12 months has nearly TRIPLED to 28.8% from the same period response rate of 9.2% in 2007. 29.8% expect to spend less on leisure travel, up from 10.9%.

Like yesterday's bad news, the data again comes from The State of the American Traveler study from David Bratton and Destination Analysts. If you're going to be at DMAI in Vegas next week, look for him to learn more.

Staycations? It's Not Funny Anymore.

Yeah, I know that DMO Executives have gotten lots of media mileage over the past few months, touting their efforts to encourage locals to enjoy "staycations" because of high fuel prices.

Of course, I'm happy for them...but, they're just encouraging the behavior.

Our friend Dave Bratton (Destination Analysts) points us to the brand new version of his State of the American Traveler study...which reveals that 24% of Americans now admit to taking a Staycation over the past 12 months.

OK...you can stop now.

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.

Now THAT'S Regionalism

Facing sharp airline service cutbacks and a sagging U.S. economy that threatens travel to the islands,  the Caribbean Tourism Organization last week voted to launch a $60 million advertising campaign to market the region as a single destination.

So Smart...and so amazing that the tourism leaders of 32 distinct brands could agree that the resonant message to most travelers would be the overarching concept of the Caribbean.

It's also another not so subtle reminder that American policy leaders should ask themselves a simple question. If these nations can figure this out...why can't the only industrialized country without a tourism marketing budget?

Dot Whatever

ICANN recently approved an overriding policy that will allow hundreds (if not thousands) of TLDs.

For the uninitiated, TLDs aren't like STDs. TLD stands for Top Level Domains. Or, in another language, domain "suffixes"...like .com, .org, .net..and the troubled .travel.

Now, it appears that anybody (with cash) can register a TLD. So, according to an AP article by Anick Jesdanun, "new names could cover locations such as '.nyc' and '.berlin' or industries such as '.bank.' The hefty application fees could curb a rush for individual vanity names, though larger companies might claim brands like '.disney.'"

An interesting strategy, to be sure. But let's not forget that search and .com are the default actions for virtually every web user. And, despite its availability for a number of years, most consumers still don't automatically think to add .travel to the name of a destination to reach the website of that area's DMO.

The Bright Spot is One We Can't Measure

After putting on the stoic happy face this spring, more and more tourism talking heads are admitting that this year is gonna be a challenge. As noted in Travel Weekly, new indicators suggest that total travel in 2008 will be flat.

The bright spot, they say, will be an increase in Leisure Tourism this year...before tanking next year. Reading between the lines suggests that business knows there's a large pothole ahead, but American consumers are whistling past the graveyard.

So, if the opportunity this year is Leisure, how will Destination Marketers prove their effectiveness in landing it?

Quote of the Week

"If I had shown a fat woman and her husband by her side ... I don't think this controversy would have come up."

So said Roberto Gaudelli, the man behind a new advertising campaign for Hidaldo, Mexico that superimposed historic monuments on the apparently nude figure of Mexican soap opera star Iran Castillo. Officials from the National Institute of Anthropology and History cried foul, saying the ad violated the dignity of the historic sites.

And, like Australia's "Where the Bloody Hell Are You" campaign, grabbed a bunch of earned media coverage...

The Future of Meetings and Conventions?

When Guy Kawasaki saw this, he said "I'll Never Get on a Plane Again."

Three speakers, one in Bangladore and two in San Jose...on the same stage, interacting in real time.

Too freaking cool. And while a few conference attendees avail themselves of the opportunity to meet the speakers, let's be honest. The majority don't. So...do the speakers even need to be there? Can the Meeting Planner save on all those transportation and hotel costs by utilizing this technology?

The answer is, of course, yes.

However, given the ability for the speakers to stay home, will attendees do likewise, preferring to consume conference content online and on their schedule?  A convention and meeting version of TiVo, if you will.

True, the networking aspect of meetings suffers...but the content portion? One might say that being able to consume content online could be more effective than onsite. And, it saves us all the hassle of getting on a plane.

This should make for a wild ride....

You Can Fly United, but They'll Tell You When You Can Come Home

In the race among the legacy carriers to see who can annoy their customers most, United has regained the lead by requiring minimum night stays on virtually all of its domestic coach seats. For instance, on its Chicago-Minneapolis hop, United customers will be required to stay three nights before they can fly home.

No, I'm not kidding.

While they tried to explain the bizarre concept away by saying that it is designed to keep corporate travelers from snapping up all the cheap seats, almost all travelers have to come home some time. Does it really make any difference when? Will it really make the airline more profitable if I come home tomorrow instead of today?

I'm sure hoteliers everywhere (except those that fly) are tickled pink. But, for those of us that often must string three destinations back-to-back-back (or just need to get back to the office to, ummm, I dunno, work?)...United has just lost another subset of its customers.

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