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By The Numbers

According to an August 22nd press release from Tauck:

EXOTIC DESTINATIONS SEE 21% SURGE IN TWO YEARS
“…The new itinerary is the 24th trip in Tauck's line of exotic Asia, Africa, South Pacific and Latin America tours. The collection includes land tours, safaris, ocean cruises, and three land/river journeys, and it represents one of the fastest-growing segments of Tauck's business. In the past two years alone, Tauck has launched new trips in Egypt, India, Jordan, the Galapagos Islands and Japan, as well as Tauck Bridges family adventures in Tanzania and Australia. The past two years have also seen a 21% increase in the number of guests traveling on Tauck's exotic journeys.

According to an Aug. 9th story, “Adventure travel for families snowballs,” in USA Today, written by one of its top adventure travel reporters and a 2005 Adventure Travel World Summit speaker, Gene Sloan:

“…Launched in 1989, Backroads' line of family-focused hiking, biking and multisport adventures, dubbed Backroads Family Trips, has been growing at a rapid pace. Bookings this year alone are up 35%. Similar increases are being reported in family offerings from other leading outdoor tour companies such as Mountain Travel Sobek and Butterfield & Robinson. Luxury tour operator Abercrombie & Kent, with a 30% rise in families booking adventure tours this year, created a website especially for family adventures, akadventurecrew.com.” For the full story, visit:  http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2007-08-09-family-adventure_N.htm

According to an Aug. 10th piece in Forbes.com by Lauren Kerensky:

“…Not only do air passengers today face traffic, security procedures and lengthy check-in lines, but they're also experiencing more delays. From January through May 2007, the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics tallied 728,071 delayed flights, compared to 608,214 during the same period in 2006.”

According to an August 9th report by Simon Burns of vnunet.com:

China's leading online travel agent, Ctrip.com, reported stronger than expected second quarter results this week, indicating growing interest in online flight, hotel and vacation package bookings in the world's most populous nation. Ctrip's Net revenues jumped 52 per cent year-on-year to $37.8m.

As reported by Dwight Sholes of Quotient Marketing ahead of the Sept. 12th ATTA Tune-In Webinar series for ATTA Members:  

In a recent study by Forrester Research, 90% of the marketers at leading travel companies named e-mail as their most successful marketing channel.  In spite of its proven track record in developing customer relationships and driving sales, e-mail continues to be a mis-used and poorly understood marketing medium.  Most marketers rely on “load-and-blast” methods, sending large volumes of untargeted messages to anyone who is willing to receive them—and sometimes even to people who aren’t.

According to excerpts from a July 31st story, “Clouds gather over Caribbean Tourism,” by the Associated Press:

• “Decline in visitors from U.S. is raising fears of a hit to the economy.”
• “Americans who flocked to the islands in record numbers until recently are finding new destinations or staying home, leading to declines of more than 10 percent this year in islands including Jamaica, St. Lucia and Grenada.”
• “The number of Americans visiting Puerto Rico dropped 9 percent in January compared with the same month last year, and the U.S. Virgin Islands saw a 7 percent drop.”
• “A strong Euro helped boost European visits by 22 percent through April...”

According to a release in TravelPress.com:

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released traffic results for the first six months of the year showing 6.3 per cent growth in year-on-year international passenger demand, slightly higher than the 5.9 per cent full-year rise recorded for the year 2006. However, passenger demand growth weakened to 5.3 per cent for the month of June, the lowest growth rate in nine months. Average passenger load factors were 75.7 per cent during the first half of the year, up 0.6 per cent over the same period in 2006. “A focus on efficiency, with careful capacity management, is keeping load factors at record levels. But the challenge will get tougher. Over the next 18 months almost 1,800 new aircraft will be delivered -- equal to 10 per cent of the existing fleet,” says IATA director general Giovanni Bisignani.

Asia-Pacific’s carriers will receive the biggest share (35 per cent) of the new aircraft, to meet demand in the fast-growing Chinese and Indian markets. With a stronger emphasis on fleet replacement, but also to meet demand growth, European airlines will take delivery of 26 per cent and North American airlines will take on 25 per cent. “The new aircraft, operated efficiently with high load factors, will keep us on target to improve fuel efficiency 25 per cent by 2020,” says Bisignani. The Middle East led all regions with passenger demand growth of 17.8 per cent that outpaced capacity growth and boosted load factors during the first half of the year. Africa followed with 9.9 per cent thanks to improving links with Asia and the Middle East.