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Mobile Travel Analysis Mobile travel represents the next major wave for travel applications and its influence will be enormous. Waiting for mobile technologies that will impact the way that travel is sold, marketed and experienced has been a long process. More...

Study finds online reviews a powerful tool Do travel and other consumers use online reviews? Yes. Are they willing to pay more for high ratings? Yes. So says a recent study that found consumers were willing to pay at least 20% more for services receiving "excellent" or 5-star rating opposed to those receiving "good" or 4-star ratings. More...

US tour groups action-oriented Americans are increasingly looking for action on vacation, according to a new informal poll of leading tour operators. Nearly two out of three tour operators responding to a recent member survey conducted by the U.S. Tour Operators Association said that adventure travel is on the rise. More...

Analyzing New Media — Part 1: Untangling a "Web of Confusion" Over Travel Websites After receiving about the fifth request from a client to “get our materials on yet another website,” I started to question what makes a good website. How do you analyze them? How does the consumer find a particular travel site? The questions continued to mount, so I decided to call the experts. More...

Analyzing New Media — Part 2: Untangling a "Web of Confusion" Over Travel Websites This month, we finish the series with a look at some of the key criteria, how you should weigh them and why they’re important. We’ll also take a brief look at search engine optimization. More...

Medical Tourism Market Gaining Ground Globalization has made it possible to get just about any product, made just about anywhere. But what if the product you need is a nose job, hip replacement or major heart surgery? Increasingly, Americans are looking beyond U.S. borders for healthcare. More...

Making inroads: Have Kiosk, Will Travel Last month at Orlando Airport, Hertz rolled out Simply Wheelz, an economy rental car brand that is unique in its most notable feature: The customer does not encounter a single human being in the process of renting or returning a car. The agent of record is a kiosk. More...

New Study Highlights Growth of Student Travel Market A new survey shows the average spent by young people on a trip abroad is now $2,600, a 39% rise since 2002. That's a rate of 8%, which is more than inflation and slightly higher than the growth in travel expenditures across the population, says the World Youth Student & Educational Travel Confederation (WYSE). More...

Top Ten Travel and Tourism Trends for 2007-2008 The US travel industry is reporting excellent news for 2006 after accomplishing a complete recovery from the downturn in travel since 2000. Demand was up and US travel expenditures rose 7.7% in 2005 according to TIA. TIA has predicted a slowing of the U.S. growth trend in 2007 based on outside forces (natural disasters, health scares, world hostilities, etc.) and the nation’s overall economy. More...

Urbanites Prefer Tours To New Areas Urban dwellers are more likely than their non-metro counterparts to explore a new destination with each vacation, according to a recent consumer survey conducted for the US Tour Operators Association (USTOA). Urbanites are also more likely to buy a tour or vacation package in order to see new or unfamiliar places, and to find out more about the history or culture of an area. More...

American Bus Association Announces Top 100 Events in North America for 2007 It’s the year to celebrate motorcoach and group travel, with the release of the American Bus Association’s (ABA) 25th Anniversary of the Top Events in the U.S. and Canada. In its 2007 edition, the annual guide to professional travel planners and the general public highlights the top fairs, festivals, parades, exhibits, theater and shows across the U.S. and Canada. More...

Families Jumping on Motor Coach Bandwagon Motor coach travel is picking up in popularity as weary travelers are looking askance at airline delays and cancellations, as well as higher gas prices and congested highways, industry data shows. But at the same time, group travel has become more appealing to what in the past was unlikely customers: entire families. More...

Online-Offline Fusion Marketing The time has come to stop talking about online in isolation of offline. Any separation between the two is a thing of the past since we, as consumers, already live in a fused world. More...

Surprising American Travel Trends Revealed in New Study Americans are traveling more during the spring and summer months and less in the winter months than last year, says a new FunJet study on the average American vacation. "While June, July and August remain the most popular travel months for both years, each month was up six percentage points in 2007 than in 2006," the study said. More...

The Vacation’s Going To The Dogs More and more, US travelers are not leaving home without their pets. TripAdvisor polled 1,100 pet owners and found more than half said they would only stay at accommodations that were animal-friendly when traveling with their pets. More...

Eco-Awareness Now Hottest In Travel Trends What's the single hottest travel trend today? Eco-awareness, say some experts. "A couple of years ago, you didn't hear about this as much, but now upscale travelers want to do whatever they can to be eco-conscious," Alexandre Chemla, president and owner of Altour International, told Forbes. More...

Ten Top US Airline Trends 1. Internet airline tickets sales have been around since the mid 1980s, but this year they will be more popular than ever, representing more than half of all travel bookings, according to various sources. More...

STS Marketing College 2007 - Business-to-Business Marketing Presented by ITI Marketing B2B Marketing: Easy Strategies for Effective Tourism Marketing. You already possess core marketing skills. But the B2B world is a more complex marketing arena that requires a new way of thinking and a different set of skills. This seminar provides techniques for developing and applying effective B2B marketing strategies to create a competitive advantage. Powerpoint Presentation Presentation Handouts with Notes & Research

Customer engagement now 'an essential', study finds The survey report, entitled 'Beyond Loyalty: Meeting the Challenge of Customer Engagement', suggests that, while most executives believe that the ability to engage customers is increasingly critical to business success, very few think that their company is doing it well, and many believe this failure has an impact on the company's bottom line. Many also viewed technology as having an increasingly vital role in customer engagement strategies. More...

Online Travel: Slower Speed Ahead Signs are everywhere that the once-hot online travel business is beginning to slow down. Bookings from Expedia's North American Web sites rose by only 1 percent in the first quarter of this year, for example. There were reports as early as last year that the online travel industry could be heading towards a serious slow-down in part due to consumers' desire to hunt for the cheapest priced holiday. More...

Girls Gone Vacationing Guys taking trips with their buddies is so last summer. Now it's Moms who are banding together and leaving the family behind to mountain bike, climb rocks or visit a spa. Call it the Momcation - the evolution of girls' night out. This year, more than 24 million women will vacation with a group of other women, according to I'm In!, a new travel-planning. More...

European Travel Commission identifies new Tourism Trends for Europe World tourism has undergone significant changes over the past few years. While these are in large part attributable to external factors - such as the economic and political situation, environmental issues, terrorist attacks and safety and health scares - many of them in fact stem from the changing consumer, as a result of demographic shifts and lifestyle changes. More...

TIQT special report: How operators can avoid failure Tour operators need to adapt their business and widen their geographical spread in order to avoid the risk of failure, according to industry exerts. Focusing on just one destination or region lays operators open to external factors that could impact their business, said the panel at yesterday's Travelmole Travel Industry Question Time. More...

Internet and budget airlines fuel package holiday decline The number of people taking foreign package holidays has declined by 14% in four years as the level web-booked independent travel has grown. More...

US sets new records for travel abroad in 2005, ITA reveals The United States Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) on Wednesday revealed that US outbound market grew by three percent in 2005 when compared to annual 2004 figures to post a new record for total US outbound travel. More...

World cruise popularity steaming ahead It was almost a half century ago when the Holland America Line started its first Grand World Voyage. But now, with world cruises catching on, Holland America is expanding its program. More...

International travelers returning to US Higher-spending International travelers to the US are making significant gains and are at their highest level in a decade, according to new research. More...

Forty percent of all European travel to be booked online by 2008 Travel research and strategy firm PhoCusWright Inc. found that almost 40 percent of all types of travel purchased in Europe will be booked online by the end of 2008. The findings are part of a major study conducted by PhoCusWright across five major European markets in summer 2006. More...