Tourism Trends | Blog

On March 4, 2010 President Obama signed the Travel Promotion Act which was championed into legislation by Roger Dow, President of the U.S. Travel Association. This piece of legislation was a long time in coming as it now forms an agency to market America as a tour and travel destination worldwide.

Finally..The decline in international tourism has started to bottom out and lodging demand should start to recover next year, according to two new and separate studies.

International tourist arrivals declined by seven percent between January and August of this year, but the rate of decline has eased in the past few months, says the UNWTO World Business Barometer. The group expects "moderate" growth next year. In a nutshell the negative outlook for travel overseas is beginning to lift.

As talk about the United States slowly emerging out of the worst economic recession since the 1930's depression, I wanted to communicate to you all once again that the hospitality industry is by no means out of the woods. Our industry typically lags by at least six months once the economic indicators tell us we are out of a recession and the recovery is in full swing. But this recession is different than the others. Current economic projections state that we will emerge very slowly out of this recession instead of experiencing the usual bounce as we have in other post recession periods. Meaning: The hospitality industry will likely emerge very, very slowly out of this current recession.
 

The September 4, 2009 Kiplinger Letter (Volume 86, No. 36) has made some interesting forecasts for 2010. First off, the Kiplinger Letter forecasts for management decision-making. It covers a wide spectrum of topics especially economic trends in a variety of businesses. 

The LCVB is a tourism economic development agency and as such will do all that we can to grow Louisville’s economy through tourism. Especially in this difficult economic period we are in right now it is vitally important we adapt to the changing economic climate and remain flexible to capitalize on any new trends that likely will develop.
 

The CVB will introduce the Destination Marketing Plan for the new fiscal year July 20, 2009. A one-hour webinar will feature Jim Wood and the management staff providing in-depth information about the CVB's sales efforts for both convention and leisure travelers. Watch the webinar from the comfort of your own office at 2 pm. No reservations needed! Click here to view the conference.  Click here to view the Marketing Plan.

Just-released study says tourism site helping to generate revenue

In 2008, the Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau (LCVB) contracted with Destination Analysts, Inc., a research firm specializing in web site conversion studies to conduct an eight-month conversion study on the LCVB’s primary web site – www.GoToLouisville.com. The goal was to evaluate the performance and economic impact of the tourism site. Is the site influencing travel to Louisville? Are people getting what they want from the site? Is it having any impact on length of stays on visitors? What features do our web site visitors want that we aren’t currently providing? Etc. 

This summer the LCVB has developed multiple campaigns to attract more leisure travel to Louisville and now another market segment which was once touted as the one segment we could rely on this summer has now weakened. AAA predicted that the number of Americans traveling on vacation during the Fourth of July holiday will decline by 1.9 percent compared with last year. AAA predicted that about 37.1 million Americans will take a trip of 50 miles or more. That is down from 37.8 million in 2008 and 42.3 million in 2007, AAA said in a news release.

In February, President Obama said companies getting government bailouts shouldn't buy corporate jets or go to Vegas or the Super Bowl on the taxpayer's dime. The president, at the time, was trying to muster support for his government stimulus projects. That comment sent shock waves across corporate America and companies cancelled meetings left and right. That statement was on the heels of the auto industry executives who each flew on private jets to Washington, D.C., to testify about the need for a government bailout for the automotive industry.

The Recession, swine flu, airline capacity cuts…On the one hand, it seems like the odds are stacked against travelers and the hospitality industry. But on the other, there are a lot of opportunities out there if you look hard enough. The Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau is doing all that it can to get the word out so we are pouring our energy into getting tourists and vacationers to Louisville this summer. So in the first week of June 2009 the Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau is set to open two remote Visitor Information Center (VIC) kiosks. The first will be located in Indianapolis in the Circle Centre Mall downtown. Our second remote VIC kiosk will be located in Cincinnati in the Kenwood Towne Centre Mall.