Tourism Trends | Blog

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.
 

If the economy wasn’t bad enough, now we have the swine flu (H1N1) nipping at our heels which could cause an even greater slowdown to our nation’s tourism economy as we head into our busy summer season. U.S. hotels have been hit hard by 16 months of recession. With the recovery forecasted to begin in the summer of 2010 many wonder how much further hotel occupancies will fall; how many more restaurants will close and which businesses will survive this very difficult path we are on right now. We all hope that the H1N1 virus can be contained quickly, but health officials have reported that we are all in for at least a 10-week ride.
 

This past week I attended the 2009 Destination Marketing Association International CEO Forum in Savannah, GA. Peter Yesawich, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell, America's leading marketing, advertising and public relations agency serving travel, leisure and lifestyle clients served as our keynote speaker. Below is a recap of a portion of his presentation…

On Friday, April 3 the Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau launched our spring Tourism Road Show or as we’re calling it, the “Takin’ it to the Streets Bus Tour.”. The reasoning behind this endeavor is to do all that we can to stimulate, influence and increase leisure travel into Louisville this summer. National reports strongly indicate that an automobile vacation is regaining its popularity in America, and with gas prices projected to hover between $2.25 and $2.50 a gallon, automobile vacations are expected to surge. So our plan is to be on the front end of that curve by getting out there and asking 100,000 people to visit Louisville this summer.
 

Last week I attended the inaugural Green Travel Summit held at the Fairmont Hotel in Newport Beach, Calif. American Express Business Travel and the National Business Travel Association served as co-presenting sponsors of the two-day Summit. There has been a national emergence regarding Green Travel (or as some refer to it as sustainable travel) so I wanted to hear and learn from the experts at the Summit some of the best practices being implemented in the hospitality industry. After filtering out all the issues, ideas and, yes, rhetoric, it is important to note that Louisville’s hospitality industry should work together to support “best green practices” for all Louisville businesses, not just hospitality businesses. We will be impacted soon rather than later.