Bill Geist's Zeitgeist

Short Term Rentals & the Housing Crisis

The basic tenets of Supply and Demand would certainly support the concept that transferring homes and apartments into Short Term Rentals would cause remaining housing prices to increase. To be fair, Airbnb responds: "There are a number of complex factors driving today's housing affordability crisis — from growing income inequality, to decades of exclusionary zoning, and even changing location preferences post-pandemic, including the rise of remote working from home — but many experts agree the primary driver of the affordability crisis is chronic underproduction of housing, not short-term rentals. Unfortunately, short-term rentals, which in most cities make up a tiny portion of local housing stock, have become a convenient but misguided scapegoat for a housing crisis that started long before the founding of Airbnb."

Rebuttal accepted...but then, there is what has happened in Irvine CA since that community banned STRs: Within two years of the ban, long-term rents decreased significantly; roughly 60,000 rental units in the city saw a 3% rent decrease, on average.

It's a fascinating read in the ongoing conversation of how to balance the needs of all sides.

Image Credit: Tristen Rouse / St. Louis Public Radio

Pushing Back on Extremism

Destinations International has been fairly vocal in its opposition to travel band and boycotts. While some have been successful in reversing political policy initiatives...they all hurt the very residents and workers that depend on a robust visitor economy. 

Many of this blog's regulars will remember Charles Jeffers, a DMO pro that served, for a time, at Destinations International. He currently serves as the interim executive director of the American Occupational Therapy Association, an organization that is poised to welcome 10,000 attendees to its next annual convention...in, of all places, Florida.

Check out this op ed piece on why they're coming to Orlando. It's an angle that clearly supports the concept that we can do better than boycotts.

The Other Side of Ai

Earlier this year, we dropped an episode of the DMOU Podcast featuring PCMA's Sherrif Karamat, encouraging DMO pros to engage with Ai, as a growing number of his members (our clients) were well ahead of us in utilizing this new technology.

Then, there is the other side. Richard Turen owns Churchill & Turen, a luxury vacation-planning firm based in Naples FL. He is a frequent contributor to Travel Weekly. And, he has recently been on a tear against the negative and harmful side of Ai in travel. First, he shared results from a New York Times investigation that the top travel guidebooks on Amazon are "written" by non-existent authors.

In today's opinion post, he goes even further, saying that, once again, travel agents will likely sit passively by as a dehumanizing technology takes another bite out of what makes travel advisors so vital to consumer satisfaction.

Both are fascinating takes.

So Long, X

Over the past few months, I've simply ghosted my presence on X (formerly known as Twitter). I didn't proclaim my extraction. I just walked away...so far from its origin had it strayed.

But, as I was reminded on my recent trip to Jackson MS to keynote the STS Connections conference, to be silent is to be complicit.

Industry icon Corbin Ball carries the ball for so many of us with his final post before departing the arena.

Or, should we stay and fight?

New on DMOU: PCMA's Sherrif Karamat on AI

PCMA CEO Sherrif Karamat is one of the deepest thinkers in the business events space on the planet. And, not unlike those old EF Hutton commercials, when Sherrif talks, I listen. So, when he said that DMOs were falling behind his members in the adoption of AI at Destinations International’s Annual Conference this summer, that was more than enough to earn an invitation to DMOU. Join us for a fascinating discussion of how he believes AI can reduce the mundane and better connect us to our clients…and where Sherrif believes the future of DMOs lies.

It's just one of over 120 powerful conversations you'll find in the DMOU Vault.

They Can't Afford to Live There Anymore

While it is certainly getting better, hospitality businesses (in general) have been notorious in paying entry-level workers less than a living wage for decades. And, as we've been saying since the reopening of America after COVID, we don't have a workforce problem...we have a housing problem. Especially in highly attractive places to live.

A recent study by the Economic Innovation Group shows, among other things, that inbound residents into Arizona's Maricopa County and Florida's Lee County earn significantly more than those residents departing those communities. In Lee County's case, that differential was roughly $50,000/year.

Those with the means are displacing those without, who are being forced to move to be able to afford living expenses. 

Like I said...it's not a workforce issue. But it certainly impacts our industry's ability to hire qualified talent.

New on DMOU > Lviv's Olena Pavlyuk

When the moderator went to the audience this year at the Annual Convention of Destinations International asking, "what keeps you up at night," Lviv's Olena Pavlyuk held out her mobile device and replayed a recording of an air raid siren. In this fascinating episode of DMOU, Olena shares how war has changed her community into one of volunteers, how Lviv has become a hub for medical tourism through UNBROKEN...and how the DMO secured and serviced over 600 events last year, despite the constant threat of missiles and power black-outs. It's a spirited conversation of inspiration, selflessness and the power of the human spirit. Listen in...and catch up on 120 other compelling conversations in the DMOU Vault.

The Pendulum Swings Toward 2024

Those that follow this blog (and I never thank you enough) know that I am a fan of the 40-Year Pendulum concept espoused by Roy Williams. It holds that everything...culture, music, politics, support (or not) of institutions operates on a 40-year pendulum, swinging back and forth.

According to Ray, we've just zenithed in one direction and are beginning to transition back...but the next few years promise to be chaotic. And, that means the 2024 Presidential Election.

And, as I watch the predominant messages coming from the GOP...I have an odd reminiscence of the late 60s and early 70s when the "youth vote" changed America. Because what the GOP then supported (the Draft, the War in Vietnam, the War on Drugs and anything "counter-culture") wasn't in the best interests of our newest electorate.

And, here we are (OK, it's 50 years on, not 40)...and the same cultural evolution is occurring. And after decades of 20-somethings generally forfeiting their vote, the GOP has again crossed the line of what tens of millions of young voters believe and with what tens of millions are ready to activate.

I recently saw a quote I can't verify...but it rings true: There is a massive number of voters "who are young people who are not interested in the party of climate denialism, marijuana criminal drug enforcement authoritarianism and anti-choice reproductive tyranny. The GOP has nothing for the young people of America."

Will the GOP recognize this and shift course? Doubtful...as both parties have become cults of personality.

So...will, like they did in the 70s, young voters say, "enough?"

Should be fascinating to watch.

 

 

On Artificial Intelligence

Each year at the Annual Convention of Destinations International, we roam the halls asking a single question. This year, that question was how DMOs were beginning to utilize Artificial Intelligence (or AI). On this episode, you'll hear from a handful of DMO pros on how they are using AI to jump start ideation and save time in the composition of written communiques. And, as you'll hear, this is just the beginning for our sector.

One More Moment

Of all the moments from this year's Destinations International Annual Convention last week in Dallas...there is one I will never forget.

It happened in Julie Hart's CEO Lounge in a panel facilitated by our friend John Lambeth entitled "What Keeps us Awake at Night." Politics, funding and destination development initiatives consumed most of the panel discussion...but, when John went out to the audience, the room grew silent when Lviv's Olena Pavlyuk stood and held out her iPhone.

"This is what keeps me up at night," she said quietly, as she pressed the replay button...and the room was filled with the sound of air raid sirens from the ongoing conflict in her home country of Ukraine.

That pretty much put everything else in our world into perspective.