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| Has the economic downturn affected your travel business?? | Views: 822 |
| Apr 30, 2009 12:23 am | | Has the economic downturn affected your travel business?? | # |
Ellen Schultz | | Hi,
I'm wondering what kind of travel business you're in and if the economic downturn has affected it?
If people are traveling, who are they? Are they cutting back on the amount of money they're spending?
I'm wondering if the travel industry is suffering a great deal? Is this the time to launch a special interest travel business?
Thanks for your input.
Ellen Schultz
NYCPrivate Reply to Ellen Schultz |
| May 05, 2009 4:14 am | | re: Has the economic downturn affected your travel business?? | # |
Ernie Martin | | Hi Ellen,
I am not in travel business, but, enjoy traveling on my own.:-)). Denise and I are planning a Northwest trip in August. (Oregon, Washington, British Columbia/Canada). It's much cooler in August compared to Vegas, which sometimes heats up to 115 degrees.
I think due to economic slowdown, many have cut back on their travel budget. Here in Las Vegas, many casinos have experienced over 10% reduction in tourists. Even the airport in Vegas say close to 13% fewer visitors arrived in Vegas, compared to last year.
To make matters worse, Vegas does not have rail systems to Los Angeles or to other cities. We do have Greyhound bus, but, not as comfortable as trains. We also have very high unemployment here, over 10%.
Cheers,
Ernie Martin
Get Control of Your Finances
http://www.moredebtfreedom.com
Positive Living and Belief Systems Network Co-Moderator
http://positivelivingandbeliefsystems-network.ryze.com/Private Reply to Ernie Martin |
| May 05, 2009 5:21 am | | re: Has the economic downturn affected your travel business?? | # |
Anand S | | Hi Ellen
The Travel and Tourism industry has taken a beating in the last 6 months to 1 year cos of recession.
People have reduced their travel and prefer to take the cheaper mode of transportation like train and traveling by economy class in flights and low cos carriers
Its the business people and the corporate who travel.
Hotels & Resorts across the globe have slashed their prices to fill up the rooms and beat the compettiton. My suggestion is to wait for the economy to pick up and then launch the special intrests.
Anand
Alshamel Travel & Tourism.
Qatar
Private Reply to Anand S |
| May 05, 2009 6:15 am | | re: Has the economic downturn affected your travel business?? | # |
Jennifer | | E
WHEN CUSTOMERS START COST CUTTING
VACATIONS AND LUXURY PRODUCTS ARE THE FIRST HIT
SEE
http://www.ryze.com/posttopic.php?topicid=1003160&confid=1317
Cheers,
JPrivate Reply to Jennifer |
| May 06, 2009 3:02 pm | | re: Has the economic downturn affected your travel business?? | # |
Sudha Gupta | | Hi Ellen
How are you?
You may find more details on my company in profile. But briefly, after working for over a decade in India's number one travel company, I parted 3 years ago and started Vedic Tours.
To reply to your post, yes, tourism biz has seen a drop. However real economic slowdown may or may not be, but its talked about so much that it seem to have created panic. The first thing people seem to cut down is travel expense and that has resulted in our business being affected.
Hotels and big operators are badly hit due to huge overheads in times of low business volume. Many are laying off staff.
At the same time, we saw some recovery in March & April. Had groups and FITs in many parts. In fact there are confirmed groups from July onwards thru till April'2010. So I am optimistic that things will improve faster than we may believe at this moment.
They are not special people, but very regular traveler but addicted :-) to travel and they travel in luxury so requests are for first class or 5 star hotels. Of course any one would like to save wherever they can, but some don't compromise on standards and quality.
Special interest tours are for those with specific interest so market size is reduced and more focussed marketing is required. We may specialise in few kind of tours, personally i feel its not the time for promoting special interest but be able to offer anything that any clients may ask you for.
I travel a lot to update myself on various destinations within India and around as we do ground handling for India-Nepal- Sri Lanka- Bhutan etc. My trips helped me a lot to keep all the biz, big or small, that came my way because I was ready with knowledge & experience and equipped to handle any tour anywhere.
Don't worry, if you are. Things would improve soon
Warm regards.......Sudha
Private Reply to Sudha Gupta |
| May 07, 2009 10:08 am | | re: Has the economic downturn affected your travel business?? | # |
Mary Smith marysmithjunior@googlemail.com | | If someone says they are not affected by the economic downturn, they have not checked their business figures for a long long time. Private Reply to Mary Smith marysmithjunior@googlemail.com |
| May 08, 2009 5:49 am | | re: re: Has the economic downturn affected your travel business?? | # |
Rupa Gandhi | | Please see my page for my introduction.
Our core clientele comprises families and groups on leisure, pilgrimage or adventure. The economic downturn has greatly affected corporate groups since leisure/offsite and outbound is the first area to undego a cut in expenses. I have noticed families taking more domestic vacations rather than spend a higher amount on international travel. The pilgrim segment has been the most affected, since the travel operators giving us groups for the season have themselves seen up to 50% reduction in queries and subsequent bookings resulting in fewer invetory allocated to this at our units.
We have still managed to achieve our sales targets for the FY 2008-09 by going in for tie-ups and by focussing on niche groups for adventure and birding.Private Reply to Rupa Gandhi |
| May 14, 2009 10:36 pm | | Has the economic downturn affected your travel business?? | # |
Ellen Schultz | | Hi,
I'm not entirely sure all segments of the travel industry have been adversely affected. I read an article in a friend's financial ezine specifically related to Argentina and his impression is that although their economy is suffering, the Argentine people are traveling as if it weren't so.
I also read a piece in an international ezine yesterday that profiled some properties that were truly luxe. I suspect the developers started work on the property before the economy slowed down, but they're out there and I suspect they may be getting guests.
Sure some people, perhaps even many people, will cut back on or halt vacation travel, however, I suspect some segments of society will continue to spend on travel, even luxury travel.
I think the important thing to remember is that instead of relying on what you think is going to happen or is happening, you need to research what's actually happening. You'll often find that things that seem counter intuitive exist in the world of travel and everything else. It's those things that seem counter intuitive to most of you are the very things people with vision latch onto and build their fortunes on. What I'm saying is don't be so sure that no one is traveling and spending money. Your targeted client might not be, so you need to change course and find some who will.
A friend of mine here in NYC told me that our mayor predicted a 5% reduction in tourists coming to NYC this year. On the surface that sounds bad, but when you look at the numbers from just a short few years ago and see they were below those numbers, the 5% reduction doesn't look so terrible.
Ellen Schultz
Private Reply to Ellen Schultz |
| Aug 19, 2009 12:15 am | | re: Has the economic downturn affected your travel business?? | # |
Randy DeVaul | | Actually, we have maintained this year with last year in our bed & breakfast. We have seen a change in guest travel but instead of long distance travelers we have seen more "local" - those within a 2-hour drive just trying to get away for a relaxing, restful time.
We are grateful for the continued business and look forward to it continuing. RDPrivate Reply to Randy DeVaul |
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