maletas

Lets face it, fewer tourists will visit Europe because of the exchange rate. This has to effect the tourism business in Europe.
Hopefully, there will be some deals offered for on par payment. Perhaps countries like England and Ireland might make these offers. I am not holding my breath on this happening but wouldn't it be great!!

Anonymous

Honey, you need to go re-take Econ 101.

JonJon

Do you honestly believe there is any chance of this happening?

During a very recent European hotel experience the manager told me that initially, post 9/11 when American tourism dropped off drastically there was a downturn in business. However, shortly thereafter the American places wer filled with Europeans who otherwise couldn't get space due to far-out planning Americans.

Realistically, what I think we WILL see is airline fare sales and perhaps hotel room rate deals. I just don;t think we'll see Europeans accepting American dollars on a "par" with a much stronger Euro.

Keith

Oh, I think you might see some places try that as a marketing tool. The resulting cost will probably be no lower than if they had offered a lower room rate to begin with, but may appeal to some.

Keith

Patrick

I don't think this is such an outrageous idea at all! Yes, in the past I've had a couple of those deals in London. A room normally costs 220 pounds a night, but to spur business they advertise in the US that they would accept 220 dollars instead. Accepting dollars instead of euro is currently somewhere around a 20% discount, a lot less than those UK hotels were offering.

rex

Count me also among those who suspect that this will happen, perhaps infrequently - - but it probably will happen at some hotels or other tourist-oriented vendors.

Re-take Econ 101? Well, this would come straight out of Marketing 101. If you have a product or service that you think will sell better (and sometimes more profitably) at a discount, then think of something to make your discount stand out from others doing the same thing.

Discounts and sales will always exist, from time to time. Buyers would sometimes do well to think carefully about why a product or service is being discounted. It can refelct a misjudgment in pricing, in the first place. Might it reflect a misjudgment in other management matters?

If nothing else, I predict that this thread will eventually get at least SOME commentary on the length of its message header!

Best holiday wishes,

Rex

Hee_hee_hee

Why the assumption that only Americans visit Europe?

Tat

Based on size of the country ... ???

AAFrequentFlyer

No, it's not only Americans, but they are probably the biggest one group to visit Europe amd the UK in particular. So, the hotels do miss Americans if for some reason they are not visiting.

I've stayed on these GREAT rates in 2002 and even earlier this year, but to be honest with you, I would not expect this promo to show it's face anytime soon. Thistle Hotel Chain was the leader in this promotion.

I was in London and Manchester just couple of weeks ago and the major hotels are doing very well for themselves. The occupancy levels were high. I'm going to Manchester again in couple of weeks, and while the rates are somewhat lower than December rates, they are not giving the house away. Since moest of the last trip was leisure and I couldn't find anything reasonable the normal way, I tried Priceline and I was happy with the results. I scored the Sherlock Holmes Hotel on Baker Street and I was very happy with the room, public areas and the location. I paid $125 at a time were the average Hilton wanted around 175BP(about $275). So there is another great option.

Keith

>Why the assumption that only Americans visit Europe?

Why do you assume that we think only Americans visit Europe?

The northern Michigan golf courses that take Canadian money at par one day a week don't assume that American don't golf there. In fact I bet many Americans pay with Canadian money on that day.

Keith

rex

Well, of course, Americans are not the country of origin from which the most foreign tourists visit - - this is just a guesws, but I think that for France it would be England, for England it would be France; for Italy, it might be close between France and Germany.

Now, as to which foreign CURRENCY is the most common to show up in the euro zone, I think that the pound would exceed the dollar, but not perhaps by a huge margin.

Anyway, if these promotions are used, they would undoubtedly be used in TARGETED coomunications (magazines, brochures, mail, e-mail and other advertising).

Isn't that part of Marketing 101 also? Deliver the most relevant message audience possible to various subpopulations of your intended audience of prospective buyers?

AAFrequentFlyer

Rex,

The facts are the facts. This is straight from Britishcouncil.org website in regards to tourism in 2002.

Visitors to the UK 2002
Numbers: 22.8 million visitors from overseas
Main countries of origin (in order): The USA; France; Germany; The Irish Republic; The Netherlands; Belgium; Italy; Spain; Australia; Canada; other countries
Main forms of transport to the UK: Air (70%); Sea (18%); Channel Tunnel (12%)
Main tourist season: June to September
Top towns visited (in order): London; Edinburgh; Manchester; Birmingham; Glasgow; Oxford; Oxford; Bristol; Cambridge; Cardiff; York; Bath

AAFrequentFlyer

Rex,

Just as an afterthought. You also have to take into consideration the number of nights your average visitor will stay for. I remember somewhere where Americans going to the UK are averaging 7 nights per stay, whereas The French or Belgians are usually overnighters or in many instances day visitors. So even if the numbers are close in the number of visitors from different countries, the lack of American tourists really hurts hotels in particular, but restaurants and stores as well. 1000 American x 7 nights = 7000 paid hotel nights. 1000 French vistors x 1 night = 1000 paid hotel nights. You could see how quickly one group would be missed as opposed to another.

flanneruk

It really doesn't matter whether Americans rank no 1, 2, or 3 in the list of foreign tourists.

What matters is that they aren't very important.

They accounted for about 10% of UK tourists this year, for example. In the past year, Britain has become better value for almost all the other 90%

Marketing 101 tells you - or should tell you - that you're in business to make a profit. If one group of customers can't afford your services, and there are 6 billion others whose currency isn't going down the toilet, you target the other 6 billion.

Expect British tourist ads in the Bulgarian press before the Tube starts offering half price fares for Americans.

AAFrequentFlyer

You could fantasize all you want but tourism is a very big business for UK and thus the British Tourism Authority will pick who to target according to their own statistics:

Inbound Tourism to the UK:
The 24.2 million overseas visitors who came in 2002 spent £11.7 billion in the UK.
Total visits for 2002 are 24.2 million visits, a 6% increase compared with 2001, and an increase of 4% in spending to £11.7 billion.
In 2002 the UK ranked seventh in the international tourism earnings league behind the USA, Spain, France, Italy, China and Germany.
The top five overseas markets for the UK in 2002 were:
Country
Visits (000)

USA
3,611

France
3,077

Germany
2,556

Irish Republic
2,439

Netherlands
1,419


Country
Spend (£m)

USA
2,443

Germany
743

France
733

Irish Republic
674

Australia
531

As you could clearly see, US visitors spend just about as much as the next 4 nationalities combined. Guess who is VERY important on their list?

If you need more convincing check out their site at:

http://www.tourismtrade.org.uk/uktra...PageID=11370#1

Phil

AA:

The site you quote offers a few more data to put earnings by the British tourism industry from American tourists in perspective:

The £ 11.7 billion spent by foreign residents is spent on *business* and *pleasure* trips. There is no way to judge how much is spent by tourists in contrast to busines travellers.

Internal tourism generated almost £61 billion in revenue.

To a grand total of £72 billion in revenue, Americans (business and pleasure travellers) contributed c. 3.4%. Considerable, but no real incentive widely to offer par payment.

Enjoy your next trip, the Dollar notwithstanding.

Phil.

AAFrequentFlyer

Well, first this all started with the discusiion about getting a hotel deal. Then we went to foreign visitors to the UK. Please let's not drag internal travel into the discusiion. Hotels add rooms as needed for the whole market, so when a group of tourists are not showing up the hotel may only have 50% occupancy average, bnot let's say 60%. This has a domino effect, construction is down, travel industry is hurting, service industry gets hurt, etc... And my point in all of this was a simple one. Out of all the nationalities, US tourist represent a VERY big chunk in the puzzle as evudenced by this inside note from the BTA:

FORESIGHT


Issue 1: November 2003


FORESIGHT is a monthly commentary on significant issues within the tourism sector. Each month, there will be a market focus that will discuss economic, social and political factors that underlie demand for tourism now and in the future. In addition to the market factors, there will be a spot light focused on significant tourism issues. This month, the markets USA, Canada and Mexico and we consider the impact of the ageing UK population and how this will affect tourism patterns in the future.

Market Focus ? USA, Canada and Mexico

Despite a drop in visitor numbers of almost half a million between 2000 and 2002 the US is still by far the most important market for inbound visitors to Britain. Some 3.6million Americans came to Britain in 2002 (half a million more than from France in second place) and earned the UK economy some £2.4bn. Almost 600,000 Canadians and 70,000 Mexicans came to the UK in 2002, generating a further £0.4bn for the UK economy. The number of Mexicans visiting Britain has doubled since the mid 1990s. The decline in visitors from North America has continued into 2003 with the period from January to August seeing a fall in visitor numbers of 10% compared to the same period of 2002 according to provisional IPS data.

A combination of factors have brought about this sharp decline, none more so than a fear of travelling overseas among US citizens due to the threat of international terrorism, especially following the US led war in Iraq. The situation has been further hampered by sluggish economic growth in the US and a host of corporate accounting scandals resulting in concerns about the value of private pension funds. Confidence in Canada has been hit by the SARS outbreak in Toronto and in Mexico there is growing unemployment and the Government is increasingly unpopular.

The big question is whether we are approaching a turning point that will see the resumption of strong year-on-year growth in travel from North America to Britain.

The USA
Many of the more quantifiable ?fundamentals? look increasingly promising in the US. The US economy grew at an annual rate of 3.3% in the second quarter of 2003, compared to 1.4% in the first quarter, a rate somewhat higher than experienced in most EU countries. The Institute of Supply Management announced its manufacturing production index grew for the third consecutive month in September while overall economic activity grew for the 23rd consecutive month. However, ISM noted that further significant growth would be necessary before firms would be willing to rehire staff. The Federal Reserve?s Industrial Production Index rose in September, but remains 0.6% lower than its level a year ago.

President Bush in a recent speech to trade unionists defended recent tax cuts, and with Presidential elections barely a year from now it is unlikely that there will be any fiscal tightening in the immediate future. The US stock market has been experiencing a modest improvement recently standing at around 9,600 in late October compared to 8,341 at the end of 2002, a rise of some 15%.

US consumers are becoming increasingly willing to spend money, with consumer credit increasing at an annual rate of 5.3% in August but they would appear to be nervous about the future, as the consumer confidence index fell from 81.3 in August to 76.8 in September, (1985=100). The US Conference Board believes that this uncertainty is driven by the continuing lack in improvement in the labour market.

The ?leading indicator index? gives a clue about the probable direction of the US economy in the near future. After four consecutive months of growth the index fell back slightly in September, but still remains some 5% above its level this time last year.

The US Department of State has recently published data showing that the number of passports issued in the year to 30 September 2003 was a record 7.3 million, taking the total number of US citizens who own a passport to a new high of 59 million (21%). This is a strong indicator of a continued intention to undertake overseas travel among a significant proportion of the US population.

All of these indicators are pointing pretty much in the right direction, however an area where there is less reason for cheer is the labour market. Unemployment rose sharply when the hi-tech boom ended during 2000 and 2001 and has not recovered very quickly, with latest figures suggesting an unemployment rate of 6.1% in the US.

Even with a strengthening economy there are still hurdles to overcome before Americans will start travelling to Britain in the numbers seen a few years ago. First and foremost it will be necessary for US citizens to feel it is safe to fly. Willingness to fly across the Atlantic appears some way off according to recent US Department of Commerce figures that suggest the number of US citizens travelling to Europe was almost 10% lower this summer than a year before, and some 25% down on 2001. The most recent ?Worldwide Caution? issued by the US Department of State warned US citizens of potential terrorist attacks that ?may also involve commercial aircraft? ? advice unlikely to encourage American?s to consider a long-haul overseas destination for the next vacation.

On the positive side, the number of US visitors to most other European destinations have experienced steeper declines than seen in Britain ? a likely consequence of the support given by Britain to the US in recent months. British Airways and American Airlines have recently reached a code-sharing agreement, making it easier, and potentially cheaper, for Americans from a number of cities to reach Britain.

Yawn_boring

One could travel to the ends of the earth and not find a more annoying title than this one.