Welcome
 I'm delighted to introduce four new contributors to this edition... Roy Graff, Director of New Business Development at Expedia Affiliate Network, outlines the key considerations for destinations that are planning to enter the emerging Chinese market; and marketing specialist, André Vrydagh, suggests an innovative new approach to the challenges of destination branding.
Also, we bring you articles by two TEAM Tourism Consulting Associates... Peter Varlow offers advice on developing a visitor management toolkit for your destination and Andreas Hauser takes a new look at defining the phenomenon known as mass tourism.
All this, plus links to the latest research and industry news, e-business innovations and upcoming events for the travel and tourism professional.
I hope you enjoy this edition.
Roger Carter
Managing Editor If you have been forwarded this e-newsletter and would like to subscribe, click here. To unsubscribe, or to change your e-mail preferences, or to view our privacy policy, please use the links at the bottom of this page.
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Mass Tourism Defined: Everyone is familiar with the term 'mass tourism'... but what does it really mean? Andreas Hauser, tourism lecturer and TEAM Associate, offers some insight into the phenomenon and presents us with his own definition of the term.
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Visitor Management Planning: TEAM Associate, Peter Varlow, offers some advice on developing a visitor management toolkit for your destination and draws on TEAM's recent experience in creating a Visitor Planning Toolkit for the London Development Agency.
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Research and Reports - What's New?
US travellers, who choose and book their destination online, spend almost twice as much as those who book offline, according to PhoCusWright's Consumer Travel Report. This publication provides a clear and up-to-date understanding of the travelling US consumer and is available for download from the PCW website at a cost of USD 1,695.
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The value of the European travel online market versus offline sales figures are revealed in the European Online Travel Report 2009 from EyeForTravel Research. The report includes more than 150 pages of exclusive EyeForTravel data and in-depth strategic analysis and is available online at a cost of GBP 795.
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Hospitality websites are struggling to convert on booking intent, according to online analysts, iPerceptions. Their research, published in the Hospitality Industry Report Q2 2009, reveals that 4 in 10 would-be bookers click away without completing a transaction. The full report can be found on the iPerceptions website.
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The steady loss of market share by tour operators to online travel agencies is detailed in a new report from PhoCusWright. The US Packaged Travel Landscape: 2006-2010 is the first definitive and comprehensive study of the tour operator and packaged travel market in the US. It can be bought online at a cost of USD 699.
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 Detailed results of a global survey asking online travel consumers what they want from online travel sites before, during and after booking a holiday have now been published by Frommers Unlimited. The results identify the varying information needs at each stage of the booking cycle and show that consumers are still primarily influenced by price when deciding on a holiday. The survey results are available free of charge (registration required) from the Frommers website.
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PhoCusWright's Asia Pacific Online Travel Overview offers a comprehensive review of the Asia Pacific travel market, its size, growth and online sales potential. It is available from the PhoCusWright website at a discounted price of USD 750 if ordered before October 16th.
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A new survey by online research specialists, eDigitalResearch, shows that the online travel sector must work harder to compete for customer loyalty. The results of the eTravel Benchmark Survey recommends that online travel sites look beyond the 'wow' factor and work harder at improving the entire end-to-end website experience if they are to build trusted, long term relationships that encourage customers to buy from them time and time again. The report is available online free of charge (registration required).
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The Return on Investment of US Business Travel, a study by Oxford Economics USA, establishes the bottom-line value of business travel and suggests that, for every dollar invested in business travel, businesses experience an average USD 12.50 in increased revenue and USD 3.80 in new profits.
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The National Business Travel Association ( NBTA) and Egencia, the corporate travel arm of Expedia, have published findings from a study that quantifies global business travel spend and projects business travel growth through to 2013. The report is available online.
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 India is one of the fastest-growing outbound travel markets in the world, with international tourism expenditure increasing from USD 1.3 billion in 1997 to USD 8.2 billion in 2008. Recognising the importance of this market, the European Travel Commission ( ETC) and the World Tourism Organization ( UNWTO) have undertaken detailed research which is now available in the Indian Outbound Travel Market report, available online at a cost of EURO 75.
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The World Economic Forum has published a new report - Towards a Low Carbon Travel and Tourism Sector - as a contribution to the Copenhagen Climate process. The report, part of a longstanding move by the travel and tourism sector to respond to climate change and prepare for the shift towards the Green Economy, is available on the UNWTO website.
Destination Brand Watch
 Recognising the value of successfully building and managing a destination's brand, the European Travel Commission ( ETC) and the World Tourism Organization ( UNWTO) have commissioned a new guide for both marketing novices and experienced destination managers.
The ETC-UNWTO Handbook on Tourism Destination Branding provides a step-by-step guide to the branding process, accompanied by strategies for brand management. Case studies are featured throughout to illustrate various concepts, present best practices from destinations around the world, and provide fresh insight into destination branding. The handbook concludes with a section on evaluating brand impact and a set of practical recommendations.
The handbook can be bought online from the ETC website and from the UNWTO website at a cost of EURO 75.
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100,000 yuan (approximately GBP 9,000) of prize money is on offer for the person who can come up with the best logo and strapline for Xiling Snow Mountain in Sichuan province, China. The Chengdu Cultural and Tourism Development Group came up with idea to run a competition as part of their plans to market the resort as an international tourism destination.
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SPECIAL FEATURE: An Imaging Language for Place Branding by André Vrydagh
 Place branding is the new marketing frontier but, according to destination marketing specialist André Vrydagh, it needs a new language to answer today's challenges of global trends, competitive differences and tribal affinities. Read more of André's insightful article in our special feature...
Dates for Your Diary
Some key events for tourism destination professionals taking place over the next few months:
The 18th Session of the UNWTO General Assembly, held in Kazakhstan from the 5th to 8th October, will bring together tourism ministers and senior officials from national tourism organisations. The meeting will provide a platform to debate and agree upon UNWTO's position on the current global economic downturn and the industry's role in both recovery and the emergence of a more sustainable, greener global economy.
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The twinning of IT&CMA (Incentive Travel and Conventions, Meetings Asia) and CTW Asia-Pacific (Corporate Travel World) offers a platform for highlighting MICE destinations and corporate travel products and services as well as a chance to negotiate procurement and keep up-to-date with industry developments within Asia Pacific, a region which is expected to receive more than 100 million MICE tourists by 2015. The events will be held from the 6th to 8th October.
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Are you up to speed with the latest innovations in branding, search and social media? Do you know as much as your competitors about how to use sites like Twitter to engage consumers? If not, you might want to attend the Sales & Marketing in Travel Summit Europe 2009 which is being held in the Czech Republic on the 13th and 14th October. The event consists of two interactive conferences - Social Media in Travel Strategies and Online Marketing in Travel Strategies.
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 This year's Adventure Travel World Summit will be held in Quebec, Canada, from the 19th to 22nd October. The event offers workshops and forums alongside business and professional networking and development opportunities.
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ITB Asia, the trade show for the Asian travel market, will take place from the 21st to 23rd October in Singapore. The event offers industry professionals of the MICE, leisure and corporate travel world a chance to meet with international exhibitors of all sectors of the travel-value chain.
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The Web in Travel conference, organised in association with PhoCusWright, will be held in Singapore from the 20th to 23rd October alongside ITB Asia. The event is one of Asia's leading travel distribution, marketing and technology conferences.
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The 5th African Diaspora Heritage Trail Conference will take place in Tanzania from the 25th to 30th October. ADHT aims to establish heritage trails linking Diaspora traditions in Africa, South and Central America, Bermuda, the Caribbean, Europe, the United States and Canada by developing a network of collaborators to identify, build, finance, promote and market memorable heritage destinations.
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Hosted by Dubai, the Middle East Tourism Marketing Summit ( METMS) is a specialist event aimed at providing a platform for focus on travel and tourism trade and consumer marketing in the Middle East. This year's event will be held on the 5th November.
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Sydney, Australia, is the venue for the third annual instalment of the EyeForTravel Sales and Marketing in Travel Asia Pacific. The event will take place on the 18th and 19th November and offers in-depth discussion, challenging debate and critical analysis on the best use of marketing spend in softened economies.
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TIDES is one of the tangible outcomes of a long term commitment and engagement by the European Union to support tourism as an industry in the South Pacific. The TIDES Samoa 2009 conference will take place from the 25th to 28th November.
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 This year, the World Travel Market will be celebrating its 30th anniversary. Staged annually in London, UK, WTM is a unique four day business to business event presenting a diverse range of destinations and industry sectors to UK and international travel professionals. This year's event takes place from the 9th to the 12th November and includes a packed programme. Here are some of the highlights:
- The 3rd Annual UNWTO Ministers' Summit - Roadmap for Recovery: Sustainable tourism in challenging times.
- November 11th is the WTM World Responsible Tourism Day, a global day of action aimed at promoting, preserving the world's heritage and cultures.
- The WTM Get Funded Show, organised by EyeforTravel, is a high-profile platform where the innovators of the industry will present the ideas that will shape the future of travel. The show takes place on the 11th and 12th November.
- Also on the 11th and 12th is the EyeForTravel Travel Technology Summit, a conference which includes presentations by some of the most innovative senior executives in travel on key technology in travel issues.
- To celebrate 30 years of WTM, the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research at Bournemouth University (ICTHR) will be organising its annual WTM forum with the theme Tourism Frontiers 3030. The session will reflect the past 30 years and provide an insight into the future dimensions of the tourism industry.
For more information about WTM's programme of seminars, conferences and events, visit the WTM website.
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Billed as the 'travel industry event of the year', the PhoCusWright Conference brings global travel executives together to discover, debate and capitalise on the latest trends and opportunities in travel. The conference takes place in Florida, USA, from the 17th to 19th November.
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The China Travel Distribution Summit, organised in partnership with PhoCusWright, will be held from the 2nd to 3rd December in China.
Key Article
Are We Making Sure Our Tourism Officials Understand How to Market a Destination in China?
A guest comment by Roy Graff:
I am asking this question because, since I started advising on market entry to China, I have come across many examples of destinations throwing money at the Chinese market with useless campaigns and ineffective marketing.
So many new destinations became 'approved destination' (ADS) in the last few years that there was a scramble to prepare Chinese language information, Chinese brochures, websites and go on public and trade road shows in China. Inevitably a host of agencies and companies started offering their services and charging rates that were decided by how much the client was willing to pay rather than how much the service was actually worth. In a free market, this takes time to stabilise but in these cases we are talking about public money coming from tax payers.
I think that the private sector should hold officials accountable for how they spend their budget, especially in a new volatile and sensitive market like China. It is obvious that China cannot be tackled like any other developed tourist economy. But foreignness of culture and language make it especially susceptible to hasty and uninformed decisions by tourism promotion officials.
They should be researching the online and offline marketing channels to understand how search engines work in China, how different demographics use the internet and how to engage the travel trade. This may take more effort than just getting some marketing blurb translated, but surely those paying want a job done properly? It is easy to lose control of your marketing if you don't understand the market for yourself. China is not easy, granted. But it is not an alien culture and you can know enough to make informed, rational decisions.
Roy Graff has been involved in Asian business and culture since 1994 and speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese. He was previously MD of ChinaContact and is currently Director of New Business Development, Expedia Affiliate Network. This comment was previously published in TravelMole.
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International News
Sustainable Tourism:
Creating a global green economy
The World Tourism Organization ( UNWTO) has made a strong commitment to ensure tourism stakeholders support the Seal the Deal! campaign and lobby for a fair, balanced and effective agreement in the climate change summit in Denmark in December.
Speaking at the UN Leadership Forum on Climate Change at the UN General Assembly earlier this month, Secretary-General ad interim Taleb Rifai reinforced the potential of sustainable travel and tourism and called for businesses to be at the centre of the transformation to a low-carbon economy with sustainable enterprises creating green and decent jobs and providing new and better opportunities for the poor.
He said: 'As the world shifts to a low-carbon economic regime, the industry can be a lead change agent by encouraging green employment in sustainable tourism initiatives. These jobs will create wealth and local economic growth, especially in poorer countries, helping to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.'
The potential of tourism to provide sustainable and decent work has been highlighted in UNWTO's Roadmap for Recovery which underlines the role of tourism in contributing to a more inclusive green economy.
Swine Flu:
UNWTO co-ordinates tourism preparation
In response to the current H1N1 flu pandemic, UNWTO held a two-day review and preparation exercise on Travel and Tourism under Pandemic Conditions last month. The workshop was convened to anticipate the challenges the virus will bring over the next few months and ensure that the travel and tourism sector is fully prepared for the evolving pandemic.
The event brought together representatives from 33 public administrations, the private sector (transport, hospitality and travel services) and relevant international organisations to increase preparedness for the second wave of the pandemic, expected to coincide with the beginning of the flu season in the Northern Hemisphere this coming autumn.
'This review was timely and exceptionally helpful to strengthen our sector's preparedness and to ensure that tourism and travel continues to be effectively embedded in the global pandemic response', said UNWTO Assistant Secretary General Geoffrey Lipman.
Further information is available on UNWTO's emergency response portal.
PATA:
Gold Award winners
The Pacific Asia Travel Association ( PATA) has announced the winners of the 2009 PATA Gold Awards which recognise this year the achievements of 24 separate organisations and individuals.
The Korea Tourism Organization won the title of Primary Government Destination in the Marketing category, the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation in India won the Heritage category and the Hong Kong Tourism Board was awarded best Consumer Travel Brochure in the Marketing Media category.
For a complete list of award winners, visit the PATA website.
Sustainable Tourism:
Tourism for Tomorrow Awards
The World Travel and Tourism Council ( WTTC) is inviting tourism companies and organisations from around the world that can demonstrate best practice in sustainable tourism development to submit their applications for the 2010 Tourism for Tomorrow Awards. The deadline for applications is Wednesday 2nd December 2009.
Jean-Claude Baumgarten, President and CEO of WTTC, said: 'The awards, now in their sixth year, exemplify the WTTC's multi-stakeholder vision set that looks beyond short-term considerations and focuses on benefits not only for the people who travel, but also for people in the communities they visit, and for their respective natural, social and cultural environments.'
Categories include a Destination Stewardship Award, a Conservation Award, a Community Benefit Award and a Global Tourism Business Award.
Marketing:
Innovative NZ campaign
A new marketing campaign, launched by Tourism New Zealand, has been launched. The Great Kiwi Invite campaign calls on all New Zealanders to support the tourism industry and become ambassadors for their country. It encourages New Zealanders to get in touch with friends and family overseas and invite them over for a visit, with an added incentive of the chance to win return Air New Zealand flights.
Just three days after the campaign website went live, 10,000 New Zealanders had registered to send invites to their friends and family and 3,500 of these invitations had been accepted.
'This campaign is about using one of our best assets, good old fashioned Kiwi hospitality, to help New Zealand's economy in these tougher times,' said George Hickton, Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive.
e-Business News
Expedia:
Links with TripAdvisor
Online travel site, Expedia.com, has joined forces with TripAdvisor to launch a new interactive ideas tool.
Drive Getaway provides users with ideas for driving-distance trips accessible from their starting city on a single tank of fuel or less. Using the tool, people can access lists of TripAdvisor's top-rated destinations and area attractions, as well as Expedia's highest-ranked hotels that are a specified driving distance from thousands of origination cities worldwide. This is the first time that TripAdvisor destination content has been made available on Expedia.com.
Online Booking:
New tool launched
A major pan-European project designed to enhance online tourism services has been successfully completed by the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research ( ICTHR), based at Bournemouth University, UK.
An online tool, known as iSeT, has been designed to support Small and Medium Hospitality Organisations (SMHOs). The project has been co-funded by the European Commission to support the continent's tourism industry by providing online services.
Customers using the service will have access to tourism and reservation information, a virtual concierge service providing local information, plus customised information and loyalty offers once the booking has been made.
Professor Dimitrios Buhalis explained: 'This European project enabled us to do research with both small and medium tourism enterprises, tourism boards and other stakeholders and develop a powerful technological solution to support their operations, networking with other organisations and increase customer satisfaction. We look forward to take the results forward in other regions and to support small business around the world to take advantage of the internet revolution.'
Corporate Travel:
Decline forecast in US
The economic downturn is impacting across the travel industry, but few segments are as challenged as corporate travel, according to analysts at PhoCusWright. Amid double-digit declines in traveller demand and revenue, the corporate travel landscape is undergoing a major realignment.
Recessionary trends are driving a steep contraction in business travel in 2009, resulting in a 15 percent decline in the US corporate travel market to USD 85 billion. While corporate travel has historically comprised approximately 40 percent of the total US travel market, this share will decrease as the fall-off in corporate travel demand far outpaces the decline in leisure / unmanaged business travel. For more information, visit the PhoCusWright website.
Travel Websites:
Performance remains strong
Travel websites are performing well in the midst of the broader travel industry downturn, according to a new study by PhoCusWright which reveals that monthly traffic and conversion are up in almost all travel categories. Despite the downturn, transactional websites such as online travel agencies showed strong growth in monthly visitors, with cruise lines up 19 percent and hotel chains up 13 percent.
'The reliance that consumers have on travel websites has not weakened one bit,' says Carroll Rheem, director, research at PhoCusWright. 'Online channels are attracting, engaging and inspiring travellers who recognise that this year is actually a fantastic time to take a trip. Consumers are certainly spending less, but they are not giving up travel, nor are they turning away from the websites that offer them the selection and convenience they value.'
More information is available from the PhoCusWright website.
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