The Travel and Tourism Research Association

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TRAVELOCITY UNVEILS DIRECTORY OF GREEN HOTELS, DESTINATIONS. Travelocity has launched its Green Directory, offering information on sustainable hotels and top eco-destinations around the globe. The directory spotlights about 250 eco-friendly hotels, and Travelocity itself has followed suit by calling for global sustainable tourism criteria, which would set down standards for earning an "earth-friendly" label. (The Full Story)

"PRACTICAL" REPLACES "MEMORABLE" FOR BUSINESS EVENTS The "AIG effect" is the latest trend in business travel as companies pare down their meetings from splashy events in exotic locations to more modest events in less-expensive destinations. The shift is affecting employees as well as travel planners, hoteliers and other travel suppliers who form their business models on these types of trips. "There's not many companies out there that want to see their name on the reader board in a four-, five-star hotel nowadays," said Bjorn Hanson of New York University. (The Full Story)

VISIT FLORIDA URGES VETO OF BUDGET CUTS. Visit Florida, the state's tourism marketing arm, is facing a severe mid-year budget cut after the Legislature's emergency deficit slashing session earlier this month. The budget on Gov. Charlie Crist's desk calls for $9.9 million of the public-private partnership's dollars to get axed. Visit Florida President Bud Nocera says he is lobbying for the governor to at least partially veto the proposed cut to his organization. Crist has until Thursday to use his veto pen. If the cuts go through, Nocera said, his board is considering cutting executive pay and will make it a priority to keep welcome centers open.

Visit Florida's total budget this year, including state money, private dollars from the group's members and the donation of theme-park tickets, hotel-room nights and rental cars, totals about $99 million, Nocera said."Without the state's dollars to put together marketing programs, those programs won't exist," he said. "It doesn't work without the state dollars." And the Legislature could cut even deeper into state dollars for the cause when it meets in March to tackle next year's projected $4 billion deficit. (The Full Story)

HOTEL VACANCIES NEAR 20-YEAR HIGH The downturn in the U.S. hotel industry is becoming so acute that it has thrust the sector into a crisis, leaving vacancies at a year-year high and putting many properties in danger of missing payments to lenders, says The Wall Street Journal. In the wake of cutbacks by business and leisure travelers alike, U.S. hotels this month are expected to post their 15th consecutive month of declining occupancy, longer even than their 12-month losing streak after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. That occupancy drain, coupled with declining room rates as hotels compete for customers, is expected to result in the hotel industry's steepest decline in revenue per available room since 2001, according to PKF Consulting Inc.

The report, released at the American Lodging Investment Summit in San Diego, says that RevPAR will fall by 9.8% this year. PKF expects the average occupancy among U.S. hotels to drop to 57.6% this year, falling by 3.2 percentage points, to its lowest level in the 20 years that Smith Travel Research has tracked the figures. The speed and depth of the industry's decline is "unprecedented" said Bjorn Hanson, a lodging and tourism professor at New York University. (The Full Story)

Features

1. Register for TTRA 2009 by 4/1/2009, Save $50!
2. International Visitations up 7% through 10/08
3. US Travel Association Calls for Measures to Stimulate Travel

Register for TTRA 2009 by April 1, Save $50!

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International Visition Up 7% through October 2008

October International Arrivals Down 2% Compared to 2007

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced that 43 million international visitors traveled to the United States during the first ten months of 2008, an increase of seven percent over the same period in 2007. In October 2008, total visitation was 4 million, down two percent when compared to October 2007.

International visitors spent $120.3 billion from January through October 2008, an increase of 21 percent over the first ten months of 2007. In October 2008, visitors spent $11.9 billion, an increase of seven percent over October 2007.

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US Travel Assn Calls for Two Additional Measures to Stimulate Travel in Recovery Act

U.S. Travel (formerly TIA) supports the major provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and called for two additional measures to stimulate America's travel economy and protect 20 million U.S. jobs. Click here for the release.

TIA, now US Travel Association, released the Travel Price Index, TIP, for December. The TIP decreased 5.5 percent compared to December 2007, and 3.7 percent from November 2008. Airfares decreased 3.3 percent over the previous month and were up 1.4 percent from twelve months earlier.

Lodging price was down 3.5 percent from November and 3.8 percent over a year ago.

Developed by TIA, The Travel Price Index (TPI) measures the seasonally unadjusted inflation rate of the cost of travel away from home in the US. The TPI is based on US Department of Labor price data collected for the monthly Consumer Price Index. (See details)

The Travel and Tourism Research Association is an international professional organization comprised of providers and users of travel and tourism research which serves as a primary resource to the travel and tourism industry. As the global leader, TTRA promotes the education, application and integration of quality travel and tourism research and marketing information.

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