Harris Poll Survey

Harris Poll conducted an online survey this past November. Over 2500 people responded to the poll and demographic information was weighted where necessary to make the survey a statistically valid sampling of American travelers. To no surprise the results show that Americans are still cutting back on some discretionary spending because the still struggling economy continues to breed fiduciary caution. The results only cover the first half of 2012, but the news that only 3 in 10 plan on taking a vacation longer than a week during that period of time is cause for concern. Hopefully the economy will show steady improvement in early 2012 so the summer vacation season can regain some of its strength it had before the great recession.

As we prepare our sales and marketing plan for FY 2012-2013 we will definitely take this and other trends in to account. The LCVB will continue to develop plans to build traffic visitation in the 2-4 night stay leisure travel segment. One of the key ingredients of driving length of stay in the leisure segment is definitely having a variety product that gives people things to do and experience. So as Louisville continues to add new product - like the Bourbon Row project - we will be well positioned to drive longer length of stays because of our growth in new tourism product that will fit in nicely with our diverse and abundant attractions already in place.