Welcome
 I'm delighted to introduce two new contributors to this edition... Banyan Tree chairman, Mr KP Ho, on the anticipated rise in Asian travel, and Bob Offutt, Senior Technology Analyst at PhoCusWright, with his predictions for the future of travel distribution industry. Also, you'll find presentations and audio, available for download, from the recent ODI conference on pro-poor tourism and the World Tourism conference on marketing innovation, plus links to all the latest research and reports and, of course, dates of key upcoming conferences and events.
Please keep sending ideas and contributions for future editions. They are much appreciated.
Roger Carter
Managing Editor
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The Coming of the Asian Wave... are we ready? As travel and tourism enters its third phase, the period when masses of Asians will begin to travel, are we prepared for the massive growth ahead? Banyan Tree's chairman, Mr KP Ho, shares his thoughts...
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The Future of the Long Tail in Travel: The Long Tail is a positive force, holding great promise. Yet, it also has the potential to become a major market disruptor. Bob Offutt, Senior Technology Analyst at PhoCusWright offer five predictions for what the future holds...
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How Reliable is Your Destination Brand? Reputations in our destinations are easily made, and often just as quickly lost. This is ever more apparent in the age of information, where we all are bombarded by the minute and caught in that data web, the internet.
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Research and Reports - What's New?
 As millions more travel abroad each year, the competition to attract these visitors becomes ever fiercer. Yet the money spent by destinations on capturing their interest can be easily wasted if not properly channelled, according to a comprehensive new report on tourism market segmentation by the World Tourism Organization ( UNWTO) and the European Travel Commission ( ETC). The Handbook on Tourism Market Segmentation can be bought online for EUR 45.
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Tourism Research Australia has 100 research publications now available free of charge including: International visitor profiles on 21 countries, quarterly results for the International Visitor Survey (IVS) and National Visitor Survey (NVS) since 2004. Snapshots on specific market sectors are also available such as bed and breakfast, food and wine, culture and heritage and backpacker accommodation.
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Online travel sales increased by as much as 31% from 2005 to 2006 and reached EUR 38.3 billion in the European market last year, according to a new report by Carl H. Marcussen, senior researcher at Denmark's Centre for Regional and Tourism Research ( CRT).
Trends in European Internet Distribution of Travel and Tourism Services predicts a further increase of around 22% during 2007 to about EUR 46.8 billion, or 18% of the market, and suggests that the European online travel market could increase by another EUR 8 billion or 18% in 2008 to approach EUR 55 billion. Findings of the research are available online.
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Last month's edition of eviivo Tourism Tracker includes key news and travel trends from around Europe, focussing on online developments and customer behaviour. Visit the eviivo website to sign up for this free monthly e-bulletin.
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Two new white papers from online marketing analysts, WebTrends, are now available...
Focus on Results: The Essential Guide to Web Analytics offers insights into using web analytics to maximise results from online campaigns and increase marketing return on investment. The report can be downloaded free of charge from the WebTrends website (registration required).
Engagement Marketing: The Essential Guide to Building Loyalty Using Web 2.0 Best Practices provides an in-depth understanding of Web 2.0 marketing opportunities and best practices for measuring success. The publication has been produced by WebTrends in conjunction with eMarketer.
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Today's online traveller is more complex, savvy and knowledgeable than ever, spending more money on the internet overall, and even more on their trips than offline buyers, according to the PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Survey Ninth Edition.
 The report provides an insight into the behaviour of online travel consumers with the aim of helping industry professionals to make informed strategic decisions. The report can be bought online at a cost of US$2,495.
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The International Congress and Convention Association ( ICCA) has released a new report: The International Association Meetings Market 2006. The report lists the top destinations, venues used, preferred months, size of meetings, and highlights the latest trends in the international association meetings market. The report is available for download free of charge from the ICCA website.
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A new white paper on the growing trends in internet by today's travellers has been published by internet marketing company, e-Site Marketing in collaboration with the International Association of Online Communicators ( IAOC). The document reveals the growing importance of social networking sites, consumer generated content and web applications that facilitate content and media syndication, such as MySpace and YouTube. A copy of the white paper can be obtained by e-mailing e-Site Marketing.
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A free white paper from online business optimisation specialist, Omniture, provides a guide to search engine marketing. The 7 Advanced Steps to More Effective Search Engine Marketing is available online, registration required.
Destination Brand Watch
Tourism Ireland has announced the appointment of brand strategy consultants, Enterprise IG, to undertake a major review of the Ireland brand, despite winning the Advertising Campaign of the Year at the Marketing Institute of Ireland's ( MII) awards ceremony.
Tourism Ireland, the organisation responsible for overseas marketing, won the award for its €50million three-year global advertising campaign. The campaign, incorporating TV, print and online advertising, was run across ten international markets to an estimated audience of 200 million and resulted in a record year, with 8.8 million visitors in 2006, an increase of 8.5% on 2005.
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Leading tourism industry experts from more than 20 African countries, North America, Europe and Asia have given the Africa Travel Association ( ATA) a mandate to develop the African tourism brand.
Ethiopian President Girma Wolde-Giorgis, speaking at the 32nd ATA Annual Congress, called for more efforts to advance Africa's tourism development. ‘The tourism industry involves the participation of billions of people of all walks of life,' he said. ‘Yet irrespective of Africa's diversified wealth, the continent's world share of receipts from international tourism from international tourism is below four percent. This requires governments and leaders in the industry to concertedly mobilise their efforts towards sustainable tourism development and poverty eradication.'
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The Uniquely Singapore destination branding, launched in March 2004, won Best Tourism Branding at the inaugural TravelWeekly (Asia) Industry Awards 2007, held in Hong Kong recently. Mr Ken Low, Assistant Chief Executive (Brand & Communications), Singapore Tourism Board ( STB), said: ‘We are delighted that our branding efforts have been recognised and will look ahead to keep our brand vibrant, relevant and focussed.'
In July last year, the STB unveiled a new campaign, Beyond Words', aimed at taking the destination branding to a new level.
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Tourisme Montréal has announced plans to counter the ongoing drop in American visitors. Charles Lapointe, President and CEO of Tourisme Montréal, said: ‘In 2006, the increase in the international and Canadian clientele and the staging of large scale events shielded Montréal from the ill effects of the slump in tourism. However, the game is not yet won because there is every sign that the downturn in the American clientele, which plunged by 5.5% in 2006, will continue in 2007. In this difficult context, Tourisme Montréal has initiated a major strategic turnaround that will shape its upcoming advertising and promotional campaigns.'
The plans include campaigns costing more than $9 million during the latter half of 2007 and a $1.5 million upgrade of its website to incorporate social networking elements.
Dates for Your Diary
Some key events for tourism destination professionals taking place over the coming months:
The Travel Weekly Leadership Forum offers travel professionals and suppliers a chance to explore key issues facing the industry. The forum will take place in Las Vegas, USA, on the 2nd August.
* * * Destination Online is the theme of this year's TRAVELtech, one of Australia's key online travel marketing and distribution events. This year's conference takes place in Sydney on 28th August.
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Learn how to sell travel to the online Chinese consumer at the EyeforTravel, a leading travel distribution conference. This year's event will be held in Shanghai between the 29th and 30th August.
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The 2nd Edition of Advances in Tourism Marketing Conference ( ATMC) will take place in Valencia, Spain on the 10th - 12th September. This year's conference takes the theme of Destination and Event Marketing: Managing Networks.
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UNWTO will host the Second International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism in Davos, Switzerland, from the 1st to 3rd October. The conference is organised in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP) and supported by the World Economic Forum ( WEF).
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 The Travel Distribution Summit North America will this year comprise three separate conferences, covering a variety of subjects including search, online marketing and distribution, revenue management and pricing in travel, CRM from a technological perspective, performance measurement, segmentation and data management. The event will take place in Las Vegas, USA on the 9th - 10th October.
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The ICCA Congress and Exhibition, incorporating the ICCA General Assembly, has been scheduled for the 27th - 31st October, in Pattaya, Thailand. More information on the International Congress and Convention Association is available from the ICCA website.
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The PhoCusWright Conference aims to challenge the status quo for travel industry executives and bring the most important topics impacting on the industry into focus. The conference will take place in Orlando, USA, between the 12th and 15th November.
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Staged annually in London, UK, the World Travel Market is a business to business exhibition for the global travel industry. This year's dates are the 12th - 15th November.
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The World Tourism Organization's ( UNWTO) General Assembly takes place in Colombia, November 22nd - 29th.
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And a look ahead to next year...
PATA, the Pacific Asia Travel Association, has announced plans for a new event aimed at motivating industry leaders, policy makers, destination marketing officials to co-operate on major global challenges. The event will take place in Thailand, on April 23rd and 24th. More information is available from PATA.
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Next year's ITB Berlin will take place from the 5th - 9th March.
Conference Highlights
The recently held World Tourism Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, focussed on the best ways to market tourism destinations. The three day Tourism Success Stories and Shooting Stars conference brought together over 800 participants from 72 countries including government ministers and officials, leaders of tourism organisations, non-governmental organisations and representatives of the private sector.
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Over the past year, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Tourism Programme - together with donor agencies, NGOs and other organisations - has been exploring a new and innovative way of understanding the links between tourism and poor people.
Last month, their one day conference - Pathways to Prosperity? Mainstreaming Pro-poor Approaches in Tourism - brought together stakeholders from around the globe, with the aim of making tourism work for the poor. Participants included leading donors, development practitioners, private sector operators, non-governmental organisations and researchers.
The ODI has been kind enough to share their presentations and findings of this conference with DW readers. The rest of the material is too detailed to be included in this newsletter but can be accessed via the ODI website.
Session 1:
Mainstreaming pro-poor approaches in tourism: How did we get here and where are we now? Caroline Ashley (ODI) and Professor David Harrison (London Metropolitan University / ODI) discuss the emergence and convergence of ideas around pro-poor tourism.
Session 2:
Pathways to Prosperity? Shaun Mann ( World Bank) and Jonathan Mitchell (ODI) look at ways to understand links between tourism and poor people.
Session 3:
In what ways do the poor participate in the tourist economy? Caroline Ashley (ODI), John Hummel ( SNV Netherland Development Organisation) and Jonathan Mitchell (ODI) present two early case studies from SE Asia and West Africa.
Session 4:
From analysis to action: Increasing the impact of tourism on poverty reduction? Case studies from Ethiopia, Vietnam and the Mekong presented by Jonathan Mitchell (ODI), Le Chi Phuc (Management Consulting, Hanoi), Shaun Mann ( World Bank) and Kate Lloyd-Williams ( International Finance Corporation).
Session 5:
Short presentations on The challenge of mainstreaming pro-poor tourism from Chris Thompson ( Federation of Tour Operators), Sue Hurdle ( Travel Foundation), Jane Ashton ( First Choice Holidays), Harold Goodwin ( International Centre for Responsible Tourism), Tricia Barnett ( Tourism Concern), and Neel Inandar ( Conservation International).
For related material, visit the ODI Tourism Programme website.
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International News
Accreditation:
More DMOs achieve standards
Twelve more destination marketing / management organisations (DMOs) have achieved accreditation through the DMAI (Destination Marketing Association International) accreditation programme, bringing the total to 27. The scheme is an industry-wide programme set up to establish a consistent standard for DMOs.
To become accredited, a DMO must successfully provide evidence of compliance with 54 mandatory standards and 33 voluntary standards, covering a broad range of topics such as governance, finance, technology, brand management, destination development, research/market intelligence and more.
Tourism Innovation:
UNWTO awards knowledge application
Results of the Ulysses Awards for Innovation and Knowledge Application in Tourism have been announced by UNWTO. Tourism KwaZulu-Natal ( TKZN) was recognised for its use of tourism as a tool for development and for its high level of community engagement. Spain's web-based Directory of Reservation Centres and the European Network of Village Tourism also received awards.
India:
Marketing campaign success
Despite its low overall share of 0.5% in the global tourism market, India's worldwide marketing campaign seems to be reaping dividends, with visitor figures up by around 13% on the same period last year.
The Incredible India campaign, launched five years ago, is expected to continue until the tourism authority has reached its target of 10 million tourist arrivals by 2010. In the 2006 / 07 period alone, the organisation spent nearly $70 million on both domestic and overseas marketing.
Women:
Tourism opens doors
The theme for the World Tourism Organization's (UNWTO) Nations World Tourism Day 2007 is 'tourism opens doors for women'. For this year's celebration, UNWTO has launched a campaign aimed at increasing public awareness of the interrelation between tourism and its beneficial role for women.
This year's host country is Sri Lanka, a member of UNWTO for over 30 years. The day will be celebrated on 27th September.
Asian Tourism:
Rapid rise in women travellers
Asian women are travelling like never before, according to Abacus CEO and president Don Birch. Currently making around 125 million trips and rising, Asian women are expected to play a decisive role in the development of the travel, hospitality and tourism sectors for at least the next ten years.
Latest travel figures from Mastercard indicate that around 4 in every 10 Asian trips are made by women travellers, up from just 1 in 10 in the mid 1970s. Analysts suggest that women travellers will soon dominate entire niches of the travel industry, possibly even overtaking the number of trips made by male travellers.
UNWTO:
Mapping future of sustainable tourism
More than 300 public and private sector representatives from 95 countries met at the Fifth International Tourism Forum in Tunisia last month to review the key factors affecting tourism and to map out the ways in which the industry interfaces with national and local governments.
Delegates examined the role of tourism in relation to evolving global trends, ranging from economic aspects to social, cultural and environmental issues, and set out their resolutions in the Hammamet Declaration.
Tourism Awards:
Best practice recognised
Winners of the 2007 Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, which recognise and promote best practices in tourism development across the world, have been announced by the World Travel and Tourism Council ( WTTC).
Winner of the Destination Award was the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority ( GBRMPA), Australia, with the Aspen Skiing Company, USA, picking up the Conservation Award. The Nihiwatu Resort in Indonesia won the Investor in People Award and the Global Tourism Business Award was presented to Lindblad Expeditions.
WTTC Chairman Geoffrey Kent said: ‘Over the past few years, we have witnessed a positive growth in environmentally sustainable business activity not only among the travel and tourism industry but also beyond. Consumer consciousness has encouraged companies, and especially WTTC companies, to engage in sustainable programs by delivering environmentally friendly products.'
European Cities:
Winners of first tourism awards
Gothenburg and York are winners of the first ever European Cities Tourism Awards. Gothenburg won the title of European City Tourism Organisation of the Year and York was awarded European Tourism City of the Year.
The competition, launched by European Cities Marketing ( ECM), also included a special commendation for Reykjavik, Iceland.
e-Business News
Europe:
Online sales are up
New research from eMarketer suggests that online travel sales in the five major travel markets of Europe - France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK - will total nearly $49 billion this year, up 27% on last year's figures. However, the report suggests that a number of major global trends will impact on European tourism over the next five years, producing a dramatic knock-on effect on the online travel sector.
Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the report, European Online Travel, commented that, over the next four years, as the European online travel market matures, the rate of growth in sales in the sector will steadily reduce. He said: ‘Conversely, that means competition for online travel dollars is going to increase.'
Silver Surfers:
Set to become largest online group
Internet users aged 55 plus, the so-called silver surfers, are set to overtake 35 - 44 year olds as the demographic age group with the largest representation online in the UK, according to new figures released by Hitwise, the competitive intelligence service.
Those aged 55+ accounted for 22% of UK visits, up 54% since 2005 and 40% since 2006. This compares to 23.5% of internet visits from 35-44 year olds. Heather Hopkins, VP of Research for Hitwise UK commented, ‘Silver surfers show a particular fondness for travel and news and media websites. Twenty seven percent of visits to travel websites and 24% of visits to news and media websites were from those aged 55 plus.'
Web Awards:
Western Australia tops list
Tourism Western Australia's campaign website has won the Tourist Board Website category at the fourth annual TravelMole web awards, beating more than 1,400 entrants across 13 categories. TWA was particularly commended for its site's virtual tour.
Other category winners included Virgin Atlantic, Ocean Village, Last Minute, MacDonald Hotels, and The Caravan Club.
Websites:
Sites encourage visitors
More than half of all visitors to travel destination websites eventually visit these destinations, according to new research undertaken by US Destination Marketing ( USDM). The 2006 Destination Website Survey questioned visitors to 11 destination websites operated by official tourism offices in the US and recorded feedback from more than 40,000 survey participants.
The research reveals that an estimated US$16.95 billion was spent during these visits on accommodation, dining, shopping, entertainment and transportation. The average visitor party size was 2.9, the average number of nights stayed was 3.3 and the average total trip expenditure was US$1,801 per party.
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