Year: 2017

Raise your hand if you knew that 2017 was the International Year of Sustainable Tourism. Good for you! Now, how many of you did something about it? It’s understandable if your sustainability efforts took a backseat to this year’s more urgent problems: natural disasters, terrorist threats, disease outbreaks. But sustainability remains one of the greatest long-term challenges faced by the tourism industry. In fact, it underlies all three of the issues I named above, each of which can be tied directly to climate change, globalism, tourism’s impact on communities, and other pieces of the sustainability puzzle. This holiday season, as I reflect on the past 12 months and look at the year ahead, I’ve been thinking about sustainability a lot, and whether the travel industry is doing enough to address…

Hurricanes, earthquakes, and terrorist attacks. Over the past month, the travel industry has had to react swiftly to get the word about the effects of such natural and man-made disasters. The challenge for hotels, resorts and cities is to ensure they have a strategy in place to clearly communicate with customers, travel agents and tourists who book or visit them. These places need to frequently convey what damage has occurred and when they expect to be back online or cleared for travel. Some might say that a resort seems a frivolous consideration compared to the devastation experienced to homes and businesses from these disasters or attacks. But travel and tourism are virtually the lifeblood of many in the affected regions, so effectively communicating one’s status may mean everything to the…

What’s the impact of the Chinese luxury traveler on the overall luxury travel market? “The Chinese Luxury Traveler 2017” survey by ILTM and Hurun Report Inc., shows how these travelers could have a dramatic effect on the overall luxury travel market worldwide in terms of demand and pricing. What’s the Size of the Market? In 2016, according to a report issued by Ctrip and the China Tourism Research Institute, Chinese tourists made 122 million overseas trips, up 4.3 percent compared with the previous two years. An increasingly larger portion of those travelers are in the luxury category (according to the new ILTM survey), with the number of yuan billionaires hitting 1.34 million last year, up 14.1 percent from the previous year. How Much Do They Spend? The ITLM survey found…

For a number of years now, top hotels and cruise lines have been forming partnerships with celebrity chefs to boost their culinary offerings. They’ve developed these alliances as a way to turn their hospitality products into true destinations for food lovers, as well as to drive revenues and increase rates. In a straw poll of hospitality providers, we’ve found that the celebrity chef is alive and well, as hotels and cruise lines continue to partner with them. The reason is they still see value in such partnerships, both to their hospitality products and their customers. Value of the Celebrity Chef Tom Kaplan, senior managing partner of Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, which has restaurants at a number of top hotels around the world, including at MGM Resorts in Las Vegas,…

Strategic Vision's 2017 Pulse of the Industry Survey reveals that top travel management firms expect to see growth. But security, political stability, and Zika remain pockets of concern. The U.S. luxury travel industry is predicting a strong year for 2017, citing the resilience of the post-election economy and increased consumer confidence as main factors. But it does expect some areas of softness and concern, particularly around international travel. These are the conclusions of the Pulse of the Industry Survey conducted this February by Strategic Vision, a global marketing communications firm servicing the luxury travel and lifestyle industries. Survey respondents, which include senior executives of the nation's leading luxury travel management firms, bridging the leisure, corporate and meetings & incentives sectors, are largely optimistic about their clients' 2017 travel sentiments. "The…