CalTIA Ticker
Vol. 7 #5 July, 2010 |
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Greetings!
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Please enjoy this edition of the Ticker newsletter brought to you as a service of the
California Travel Industry Association (CalTIA), under the direction of CalTIA's Communications Committee,
and Ted Molter, CalTIA 2010-11 Chairmain of the Board.
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TOURISM - MARKET RESEARCH
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 POLL: 50+% OF TRAVELERS SHARE VACATION INFORMATION ON SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
Travelocity's most recent poll shows more than half of all
travelers share vacation information through social media sites. With summer
vacations in full swing, many travelers are looking forward to sharing the
details of their trips with friends and family. In today's world, the easiest
way to share is through social media, but people should be conscious of when
and what they share to avoid giving away too much information about...Read More...
SUMMERTIME BRINGS EVENTS TO THE FOREFRONT
It's summertime, which means many people will
be spending their leisure hours on outdoor activities, leaving them in prime
position for marketers' sponsorship and event marketing programs.
According to Scarborough Research, the top
events attended by adults in the past year include: professional sporting
events (attended by 35% of adults), zoos (25%), live theater (20%), high school
sporting events (16%), art museums (13%), rock concerts (11%), New York's Times
Square (8%), and amusement parks such as Six Flags or Disney World (7%). Read More...
SURVEY: AMERICANS WILL SPEND MORE FOR EXCELLENT SERVICE
A majority of Americans report
that quality customer service is more important to them in today's economic
environment (61 percent) and will spend an average of 9-percent more when they
believe a company provides excellent service. However, reports hotelworldnetwork, in a challenging economy where
growth is harder to achieve, many businesses are...Read More...
3 STEPS TO ETHICAL SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Marketers know the most effective advertising
is word of mouth marketing. The smartest marketers know word of mouth works
best when it's credible.
Unfortunately, trust is on the decline. The percentage of people who view their friends as credible sources of
information about a brand has fallen from 45% in 2008 to 25% in 2010, according
to Edelman's 2010 Trust Barometer study. Read More...
SURVEY: MORE PEOPLE WATCHING ONLINE VIDEO
Entertainment video portal Metacafe received
some good news with the results of its annual sponsored study on online-video
consumption: Research conductor Frank N. Magid Associates found that one-half
of respondents watch online video at least once per week, up from 43 percent in
2009, with the 18-24 age group accounting for the largest increase. Read More...
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TOURISM -
CALIFORNIA
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 SIX FLAGS MAGIC MOUNTAIN'S NIGHT JOBS FEATURED IN VALENCIA, CALIFORNIA
After dark, approximately 100 employees work on jobs ranging from cleaning sidewalks to maintaining rides. Several workers discuss their nighttime duties. Read More...
KNOTT'S BERRY FARM DESIGNERS DISCUSS 'HALLOWEEN HAUNT' IN BUENA PARK, CALIFORNIA
Designers begin working on
the theme park's annual fall event in January, according to Lara Hanneman,
Knott's director of entertainment. More than 150 people help create 13 mazes
filled with 1,000 ghouls, demons, and zombies. Read More...
CHILDREN'S FAIRYLAND CELEBRATES 60 YEARS IN OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA
The park opened in 1950
with nursery rhyme-themed attractions and talking "story boxes" as well as a
miniature train, seals, monkeys, and farm animals. It became a nonprofit
organization in 1994 and was renovated with community assistance. Fairyland
features a 54-year-old puppet theater and the new Bay Area Children's Theater. Read More...
VISITATION UP AT SANTA CRUZ BOARDWALK IN CALIFORNIA
Boardwalk operator Santa
Cruz Seaside Company said attendance is up 4 percent this year, but spending is
down. Social media is helping to attract visitors to some events without
advertising. The comments were made at a local chamber event analyzing local
business trends. Read More...
FEWER QUIRKY MUSEUMS IN LOS ANGELES
The Banana Museum, which
is moving to North Shore, California, is the latest off-beat museum to move or
shut down in the last two decades. Others include the Weird Museum, the Foot
and Toe Museum of Long Beach, and the Poodles Museum. Read More...
SAN DIEGO ZOO'S WILD ANIMAL PARK TO CHANGE NAME
The California zoo's board
of trustees approved changing the name to San Diego Zoo Safari Park to help
distinguish it from the zoo in Balboa Park.The change will take effect in the
spring. Read More...
DISNEY CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE TO INTRODUCE 'GOOFY'S SKY SCHOOL' ROLLER COASTER IN ANAHEIM
When it debuts next year,
"Goofy's Sky School" will be a rethemed version of the former "Mulholland
Madness" family roller coaster. It is part of a "Disneyfication" strategy
designed to add more classic Disney characters to California Adventure.
"Mickey's Fun Wheel" and "Silly Symphony Swings" were the first to be revamped. Read More...
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TOURISM - NATIONAL
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 ALONG GULF COAST, RELENTLESS NEGATIVE NEWS DETERS TOURISTSHotels, resorts, and tourist offices along
the Gulf Coast are on the offensive says Travel Weekly. Many have been battered this
summer season, but they are not giving up the fight against oil, tar balls and
relentless negative coverage in the news media. However, recent signs indicate that the
tourism impact of the still-growing oil slick might not be quite as bad for
some hotels as it seems in the region generally. Read More...
HARRY POTTER CASTS MONEY SPELL ON ORLANDO HOTELSAs the Wizarding World of Harry Potter gets
ready for its June 18 official grand opening, local hoteliers expect the
20-acre, $200 million-plus addition to Universal's Islands of Adventure to lure
carloads of tourists with money to spend. Read More...
VISIT BALTIMORE'S BUDGET GROWS TO $11MAn extra $2 million raised by Baltimore's
higher hotel room tax will enable the city's tourism bureau to avoid layoffs
and go after big conventions. Read More... |
TOURISM -
INTERNATIONAL
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 PHILIPPINES SEEKING TO DOUBLE TOURISM
The Philippines is aiming to double tourism
revenues in six years while avoiding the mass-market route taken by some of its
Southeast Asian neighbors, according to the country's new tourism minister. Read More...
TERRA BOTANICA FEATURES PLANT LIFE IN ANGERS, FRANCE
Described as "the first
theme park in Europe devoted to plant life," the 27-acre (11-hectare) Terra
Botanica features 5,500 tropical trees and plants plus thousands of other
plants and a restaurant. Visitors can also ride an "aerial pedalo" through the
tree canopy and follow a water drop in the 3-D "Journey to the Centre of the
Plant." The attraction opened in April in the Anjou region known as the Garden
of France. Read More...
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LODGING |
 SURVEY: HOTEL MANAGERS OPTIMISTIC, WITH CONCERNS ABOUT MEETINGSA small sampling of hotel managers by
Greenbelt-based Chesapeake Hospitality shows cautious optimism for the rest of
2010, with the biggest concerns about business meetings. Read More...
FROM HOTEL RIVALS TO ALLIES
Amid signs that their industry
has finally turned a corner after two dark years, hotel executives have begun
to plot strategies for better times ahead. But those strategies differ,
depending on whether they are running a big chain or independent hotel says The New York Times.
Major chains like Marriott and Starwood are
increasingly focusing on expanding abroad, as tight credit markets make it
tough for developers to build hotels in the United States. They are also
experimenting with teaming up with independent hoteliers... Read More...
STARWOOD LAUNCHES ONE-STOP TRAVEL SITE
TravelAgentCentral reports Starwood Hotels &
Resorts Worldwide and ezRez Software, Inc. have launched Starwood Hotels
Plus (www.SPGHotelsPlus.com), a one-stop travel site where guests can book
Starwood hotel rooms packaged with flights, car rentals and trip activities,
through one single transaction provided by ezRez. Read More...
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TRANSPORTATION
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 SOCIAL NETWORKING TAKES TO THE AIR
On a flight from Newark to the
West Coast not long ago, Jeff Jarvis, author of the book "What Would
Google Do?" fell into a conversation with a fellow passenger familiar with
his work. But it was not a face-to-face chat. Rather, it started as an exchange
of Twitter posts at the boarding gate. Read More...
BACKLASH GROWS AGAINST FULL-BODY SCANNERS IN AIRPORTS
Opposition to new full-body
imaging machines to screen passengers and the government's deployment of them
at most major airports is growing reports USA Today. Many frequent fliers complain they're
time-consuming or invade their privacy. The world's airlines say they shouldn't
be used for primary security screening. And questions are being raised about
possible effects on passengers' health. Read More...
VIRGIN AMERICA OFFERS FREE FLIGHTS TO TWITTER INFLUENCERS
Mashable has reported Virgin America has partnered
with Klout, an analytics service that tracks users' influence on Twitter (based
on variables such as the quality and number of followers and retweets), to
extend free flights (plus tax) to influencers in Toronto. Read More...
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WORLD WIDE WEB
& TECHNOLOGY
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 57% OF AMERICANS READING NEWSPAPERS ON THE WEB
According to a new comScore release,
more than 123 million Americans visited newspaper sites in May, representing
57% of the total U.S. Internet audience, as the New York Times Brand led the
category with more than 32 million visitors and 719 million pages viewed during
the month. Read More...
50+% OF COMPANIES USING SOCIAL MEDIA WITH NO STRATEGY
While 78% percent of corporate respondents
say their company is using social media, only 41% say they have a strategic
plan in place to guide such activity, according to a new study from marketing
firm Digital Brand Expressions. Read More...
TRIPADVISOR GETS FRIENDLY WITH FACEBOOK
TripAdvisor launched the travel industry's
first major implementation of the Facebook Open Graph. TripAdvisor's Trip
Friends feature allows travelers to tap into their social network to find
friends that can offer advice about a destination. Read More...
SURVEY: MORE BUSINESSES USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO GAIN CUSTOMERS
More than one-third (35%) of U.S.
businesses have had success using social media to attract new business,
according to a new survey from Regus.
The U.S. lags slightly behind the
global average, reports WebProNews, with 40 percent of businesses globally
having successfully used social media for business development.
Globally, social networks are
still used for their original purposes. The most popular use of social networks
is staying in touch with business contacts, with 58 percent of respondents
globally indicating they use networks in this way. Joining special
interest groups is also popular (54 percent). Read More...
SOCIAL MEDIA USE IN THE WORKPLACE ON THE RISE
A new study from Trend Micro shows that more
workers around the globe are using social networks while in the office and on
the clock.
According to Mashable the survey took a look at the habits of
1,600 Internet users from the U.S., UK, Germany and Japan and found that over
the past two years alone, social web use in the workplace has risen from 19% to
24%. In Germany specifically, social media use at work saw a 10% increase. Read More...
'MILLENNIALS' LEADING THE WAY ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Online information-sharing tools will still
play an integral role in the lives of so-called Millennials by 2020, even as
they grow older and assume more responsibilities, according to the predictions
of a majority of technology experts recently surveyed. Read More...
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SOURCES
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E-Turbo News and Travel Wire News
Publisher: Thomas
Steinmetz , Editor-in-Chief: Nelson Alcantara,
Copyright © 2006 eTurbo News, Inc. All rights reserved.
eTurboNews, Inc,
PO Box 208, Haleiwa, Hawaii 96712-0208 USA
PH:
+1-808-521-2800 US/Canada toll-free : 1-888-884-8822 Global toll-free : ++800-520-02800
FAX:
+1-310-362-8973 www.eturbonews.com
www.travelwirenews.com
TravelDailyNews
International is a project of Travel Media Applications. TMA is the travel industry's leading technology company,
assisting travel companies to take advantage of the Internet and new
technologies. TMA owns and operates TravelDailyNews Greece & Cyprus &
Travel For All, offers communication tools and services for the tourism market
and represents major tourism exhibitions such as International Luxury Travel
Market (ILTM).
Travel Media
Applications
47 & 49, Byzantiou Street 171 22 N.Smyrni, Athens, Greece
Tel: +30 210 93 74 050, +30 210 93 74 052 Fax: +30 210 93 74 051 E-mail: tma@tma.gr
U.S Travel Association
U.S. Travel Association's
U.S.Travel News Brief
1100 New York
Avenue, NW, Suite 450 Washington,
D.C. 20005-3934 ustravel.org
To contribute
news to the U.S. Travel News Brief, contact Colby Horton, Director of
Media & Content, 972.402.7001.
Ferri & Partners Marketing & Tourism Trends is provided
free-of-charge to leaders in the industry by Ferri
& Partners, a communications and public relations agency specializing in
strategic communications and marketing. newsletter@ferriandpartners.com.
International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) member-newsletter
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The
California Travel Industry Association (CalTIA), incorporated in 1981, is
the official voice of the California travel industry. It is an independent,
nonprofit association unifying California's many travel-related businesses to
ensure the future health of tourism through our collective strength and
corporate activities.
CalTIA's mission is to serve
as a catalyst and a voice for the various elements of our industry. It is
dedicated to increasing our educational standards, articulating our political
concerns, and promoting the economic well-being of California tourism. CalTIA is
a partnership of action, in action! The Association serves as a vehicle to
provide a united voice in support for our industry. Only through our
willingness -- yours -- to become involved, can we effect the necessary changes
and ensure the future health of our businesses, the California economy, and the
California travel industry.
The organization
appreciates your continued support. For
more information about upcoming CalTIA activities and events and opportunities
for you and your California business to get involved visit our website at www.caltia.com or call (916) 932-2580.
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