Hospitality Insight

As an example of niche tourism, medical tourism involves people travelling abroad in search of cosmetic enhancements or surgical solutions to serious medical conditions. Medical tourism benefits, but also challenges, local healthcare providers, and contributes to regional economies and the tourism industry.

The rise of medical tourism emphasizes a number of contemporary themes including the privatization of health care in post-industrial economies, the growing dependence on technology, uneven access to health resources, the accelerated globalization of health care and tourism, rampant consumerism, and body image.

The Nestlé Library contains a variety of resources for the emerging field of medical tourism. Contact the library staff for more help with research related to medical tourism.

This 23nd annual Corporate Travel 100 benchmarking report shows a 21 percent decline in overall spending, to $8.1 billion in 2009 from $10.3 billion in 2008. The bottom fell out for the Corporate Travel 100 this year, as the threshold for inclusion among the biggest U.S. business travel spenders fell not only below the $40 million mark, which constituted the lowest volume on the list for the past several years, but the last five companies on the list this year were below the previous longtime low-watermark of $30 million.

The Corporate Travel 100 is compiled by Business Travel News and reflects company market share for travel management companies. Click the image below to view the detailed report of each Corporate Travel 100 company.

The Office of Travel and Tourism Industries (OTTI) recently published its annual United States Travel and Tourism Exports, Imports, and the Balance of Trade report for 2009.

The OTTI report shows that total international visitor spending for the United States declined dramatically in 2009, resulting in a record-setting year-over-year decline of nearly $21 billion (15%). International visitors spent $121.1 billion in the United States in 2009, averaging nearly $1.7 billion less a month than was spent in 2008.

Americans curtailed their travel-related spending, too, spending nearly 12 percent less while traveling abroad in 2009. This produced a $22 billion trade surplus for travel and tourism, about $7 billion less favorable than in 2008.

View the full report (PDF) for more details about international visitor spending.

The Traveler Sentiment Index, a derivative of six individual measures of perceptions that affect travel, has remained essentially unchanged since October of 2009. Of the six components from which the index is derived, two reflected sizable gains over the previous 90 days: “money available for travel” and “time available for travel.” “Interest in travel” and “perceived affordability of travel” both declined slightly. The most significant change was in the “perceived safety of travel,” declining from 93.8 in October 2009 to 84.8 in February 2010.

Traveler Sentiment Index, March 2007 - February 2010

The Traveler Sentiment Index is a quarterly measurement of consumer attitudes toward leisure travel based on the following factors:  available time and finances, interest, affordability, safety of travel and quality of service. Data used to develop the Index are captured on 2,200 responses from U.S. adults through the travelhorizons™ survey, a joint project of the U.S. Travel Association and Ypartnership. Each of the six indicators is indexed to the baseline of 100 and then combined to create the overall Traveler Sentiment Index.

The 22nd annual Corporate Travel 100 benchmarking report shows a decline in overall spending in 2008 to $10.3 billion, from $11.2 billion in 2007. Drastic cuts in corporate travel spending are evident in the latest numbers, produced by Business Travel News. The Corporate Travel 100 report can be found in the Nestlé Library reference collection.

Top 10 ranked companies in travel spending:

The Travel Promotion Act (H.R. 1035) has been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives by a 358 to 66 vote. The legislation creates a public-private partnership to promote the United States as a premier travel destination and better explain U.S. security policies.  The Senate passed identical legislation earlier in September.

Once it is enacted into law, the program is estimated to create 40,000 U.S. jobs and drive $4 billion in new consumer spending, according to Oxford Economics, and reduce the federal budget deficit by $425 million in the next ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Overseas visitors spend an average of $4,500 per person, per trip in the United States.

To see detailed statistics on the economic impact of travel, visit the Power of Travel web site created by the U.S. Travel Association.

More than 300 convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs) currently have Twitter accounts that they’re using to market their destinations to potential visitors and community partners, according to a new report from New York-based destination marketing firm Development Counsellors International (DCI).

DCI, which analyzed and compared nearly 3,000 Tweets posted by the country’s largest CVBs during a 30-day period in May 2009, chose five destinations—Baltimore, Fort Lauderdale, New Orleans, San Francisco and Tampa Bay—as its so-called “Tweet Elite,” which are CVBs who not only have the largest number of followers and updates, but also the highest rankings when it comes to connecting with visitors, partners and constituents.

Among both the Tweet Elite and other CVBs, DCI found that the most common—but not necessarily most effective—types of Tweets are:

• Announcements about upcoming local events/news (54 percent)
• Social Tweets (28 percent)
• Replies to followers (20 percent)
• Deals (17 percent)
• Re-Tweets from community partners (13 percent)

View the full Tweet Elite report.

In the last ten years, cruising has become one of the fastest growing segments of the tourism industry, and many believe its reputation as a value-for money option will help protect it against the effects of recession.

Cruise Lines International Association statistics show that from 1980 to the present, the industry in North America grew by an average of 7.4% each year.

John Zamora, global cruise sector leader at Deloitte, thinks that while operators will undoubtedly feel the effects of the harsh climate this year, they could have a better experience than other areas of tourism and hospitality. “The cruise sector is not recession-proof, however, the health of the industry is strong, particularly given the value that consumers receive for their dollar,” he says. Furthermore, cruising has already shown its strength in challenging circumstances. “If you look at the post-911 period, it held up pretty well. In 2002, the industry grew by 4%, even in a downturn. As it emerged, the global cruise sector went on to grow by 15% the following year.”

For more information about the state of the cruise industry, read this recent article from World Cruise Network. The Nestlé Library has also created a library guide for the cruise industry.

Over the last year, Google Maps has inched ahead of MapQuest as the top travel web site in the United States, according to Hitwise. The following table shows web sites for the travel industry, ranked by visits for the week ending May 9, 2009.

According to recent projections from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), losses for the global airline industry could reach $2.5 billion in 2009. In a recent press release, IATA said the airline demand environment has deteriorated significantly since its previous forecast, released in December, and now estimates passenger traffic to fall by nearly 6 percent this year.

One area that appears brighter than others is the U.S. − the only global region for which IATA predicts a profit this year. IATA called U.S. carriers the only sector in global aviation “to have been able to shrink capacity in line with the fall in demand.” However, carriers in other regions are “unable to keep up with the demand slump.”

Read the full article from the Business Travel News web site. Cornell students have access to current and past issues of Business Travel News in print in the Nestlé Library or electronically.

Currently, more than half of travel is purchased online in the United States. Social networking tools are being employed by travelers more and more every year. Today’s generation of traveler is clearly different from past generations. But what can we tell about the next generation of travelers? To answer this question, PhoCusWright and Ypartnership have published The NEXTgen Traveler, a market research report that explores the technology and travel preferences of the next generation of travelers.

Sample data from the report reveals that NEXTgen travelers:

Are losing interest in traditional media.
NEXTgen travelers are less influenced by travel offices, travel agenst, media coveage, or advertising for travel decision-making. But half report being influenced by information found on a destination Web site or through an online travel intermediary.

Want to see if for themselves.
Nearly three fourths of respondents are interested in viewing photos of hotel/resort facilities and 60% are interested in virtual tours.

Are primed for mobile travel applications.
One third access the Internet via their cell phones or mobile devices and a fifth view maps on these devices.

Like to share.
Nearly half have written a review of some kind (movie, book, travel) on a social networking site. More than half regulary visit MySpace and a third share videos on YouTube.

The full report can be found in the Nestlé Library, located in the course reserves collection (call number G155 A1 N439).

PhoCusWright, the travel industry market research firm, announced the six highest scoring demonstrations from the three categories of the Travel Innovation Summit at the recent PhoCusWright Conference in Hollywood.

The Travel Innovation Summit showcases the travel industry’s hottest, most innovative Web and mobile-based applications by innovators from around the world. Six winners (two from each of three categories: startups, emerging companies and established companies) were selected by real-time audience voting.

This year’s winner’s were:

• Fogglight: Fogglight – a free platform that enables travel businesses to integrate trip planning and booking tools into their online service offerings. It allows users to create a travel Web site from scratch.
• Interactive Mobile @dvertising LLC: iM@ (I’m at) – a geographically-aware content management platform providing travelers on-demand access to destination-specific information on accommodations, transportation and entertainment on a variety of mobile devices.
• TripIt: An online platform that builds a travel itinerary from various booking confirmation emails and integrates travel information, weather, maps, and city guides to an itinerary that can be shared via social networking.
• Triporati: Offers an online platform which assists customers in selecting a travel destination by matching the needs and affinities of the traveler with the unique character of over 1,000 global destinations.
• Wandrian Inc.: Wandrian API-integrates global rail booking systems and allow travelers to search, shop and book global rail travel from a single platform.
• Yapta.com: Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant-a travel shopping Web site delivering a unique combination of price assurance and transparency to consumers who have purchased air travel online. It also alerts customers of price changes and changes to rewards redemption values.