From 1 January to 30 June 2010 spending by international visitors to the U.S. on their Visa-branded payment cards was up 20 percent over 2009 levels. At the same time, Americans are spending at higher levels when traveling internationally: spending by U.S. travelers abroad on Visa cards was up 9.3 percent in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009.

"The United States continues to be a major source market for international tourism and a popular destination for travellers around the globe. The growth in inbound spending in early 2010, particularly from source markets such as China and Brazil, reinforces how Asia-Pacific and South America are seemingly the first to emerge and rebound from the challenging environment that defined 2008 and 2009," said Bill Sheedy, president, North America, Visa Inc.

In 2009, spending by international visitors declined 12 percent from $32.9 billion in 2008 to $28.9 billion based on a challenging socio-economic environment. Read More...

'KNOTT'S SCARY FARM'S HALLOWEEN HAUNT' MONSTERS GIVE FAN VIP TREATMENT IN BUENA VISTA, CALIFORNIA

A 13-year-old boy who had been promoting the park's Halloween event through YouTube videos was rewarded by a visit from "Haunt" monsters. They arrived at his school in hearses and took the boy to Knott's Berry Farm for a preview of "Halloween Haunt." Read More...

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SAN FRANCISCO ZOO ATTENDANCE CONTINUES TO DROP IN CALIFORNIA

Attendance fell 10 percent during a cold, wet summer, and is projected to reach 865,000 by year's end. Visitation has been declining since the zoo opened "Grizzly Gulch" in 2007 and attracted 1.1 million visitors. Faced with financial burdens related to a fatal tiger mauling in December, 2007, zoo officials cut hours, events, and staff members in recent years. Read More...

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Approximately 400 annual pass holders were introduced to Duffy Sunday at Walt Disney World in Orlando and Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. The concept began with a plush bear created at Tokyo DisneySea that was so popular it became a walk-around mascot. A Disney manager said it is the first time the company has developed an entertainment character from a piece of merchandise.  Read More...

USTA LAUNCHES 'VIRTUAL TRAVEL TOWN HALL' FOR CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES
To engage the travel industry's 10 million employees in the 2010 Congressional elections, the U.S. Travel Association has launched a "Virtual Travel Town Hall" where candidates are asked to respond to the most significant travel-related questions facing the industry, it announced today.

Issues at play include jobs - the travel industry has lost more than 400,000 jobs since 2008 - the BP oil spill, the discouragement of corporate meetings and events, the H1N1 flu outbreak and enactment of the Travel Promotion Act reports Successful Meetings.

"As Washington plays an increasingly active role in our business, it's critical that our employees play a more active role in Washington," U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow said in a statement. "Our industry must become a force in all elements of the political process, not just when times are tough or when we need something from policymakers. Our 10 million employees can be tremendous allies to those who recognize the power of travel to create jobs, fund essential services and stimulate local economies."

USTA has invited more than 150 Congressional candidates to participate in its travel town hall by submitting a video or written answers to three questions chosen by travel industry employees. The questions will be submitted to participating candidates by Sept. 13 and answers will be posted online on Oct. 4, one month before the national election. Read More...

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According to the Miami Herald an estimated 20.8 million people visited the state between April and June, a 3.4 percent increase from the same time period last year.

Tourism officials say they're glad to have seen even a small increase -- but bemoan the bigger gains that were lost due to the oil spill.

``The good news is that obviously, the numbers are up and that speaks to in some ways the strength of the Florida tourism brand for sure,'' said Will Seccombe, chief marketing officer for Visit Florida, the state tourism bureau. ``I think that the bad news is that we're not up nearly as much as we should be up.''

State and local tourist offices, buoyed by a total of $32 million from BP, created marketing efforts to assure potential visitors that the state was not awash in oil.

BP paid $25 million to Florida for tourism campaigns -- more than half of which was distributed to county bureaus -- and sent another $7 million to Panhandle counties. Read More...

Numbers just released by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority show the city is on the rebound. Here are some highlights:

• Through July, Vegas logged about 21.9 million visitors, up 2.3% from the same period last year.
• Room inventory was up 4.9% through July (CityCenter is responsible for much of the increase).
• Though hotel occupancy was down 2.6%, the average room rate rose 2.5% to $95. That's good news for hoteliers, not so good for bargain hunters.
• Gaming revenue on the Strip through July was a whopping 3.26 billion, up 2.2% from the same period last year. The numbers weren't so good in downtown casinos, where the high rollers aren't as plentiful; revenue fell by 8.5% there.
• Conventions and meetings, typically planned far in advance, were down 6.7% through July compared with the same period in 2009.

The visitor uptick is reflective of a nationwide trend. One benchmark: hotel bookings. Smith Travel Research just reported that U.S. hotel occupancy was up 6%-8% in August, vs. last August, according to preliminary numbers. Read More...

By funding up to 50 percent of the country's promotion activities, the Travel Promotion Act will allow the United States to advertise itself for the first time as a tourist destination to travelers in foreign countries. As the governing body in charge of spending the country's travel promotion dollars - which will be secured through private donations and matching public funds, collected through a new $10 fee on select foreign travelers - the CTP will be tasked with creating advertisements and information for overseas travelers, focusing in many instances on communicating America's security policies, which have been perceived as a challenge to international tourism since Sept. 11.

According to the U.S. Travel Association, which cites data from Oxford Economics, a well-executed travel promotion program could attract 1.6 million new international visitors to the United States and create $4 billion in new spending every year. Read More...

Two years on from the Olympic Games and the city-wide frenzy of hotel building that went alongside it, Beijing hoteliers are celebrating a strong recovery despite fears of oversupply and competition from the Expo in Shanghai.

The hotel market in Beijing and China as a whole has improved significantly since late 2009, which has helped galvanise the global hotel sector from crisis mode to slow growth. STR Global report occupancy rates in Beijing nearly doubled during June 2010 from the previous year, up 33.5% to 66.3%, while revenue per available room was up 41.2% to US$63.52 during the same period.

"The increase is due to a number of factors: the recovering Chinese and world economy, the stabilising supply increase and an increase in demand," said Konstanze Auernheimer, director of marketing and analysis at STR Global.

With that recovery has come development. There are a total of 23 hotels in development in Beijing, comprising 6,267 rooms, according to STR Global. Read More...

While growth was modest in April because of the situation in Europe, results were strong in May and June - when international tourist arrivals grew by 10 percent and 8 percent, respectively - and steady in July, according to UNWTO. Growth was strongest in Asia (14 percent) and the Middle East (20 percent), it said, and weakest in the Americas (7 percent), Europe (2 percent) and Africa (7 percent), although no regions experienced declines.

"This result confirms the recovery trend beginning in the last quarter of 2009 and is expected to continue in the second half of the year at a somewhat more moderate rate," read a UNWTO statement.

Overall, says Successful Meetings, international tourist arrivals totaled 421 million during the first six months of 2010. Although that was up 7 percent over 2009, it was still 2 percent below that of 2008, when there were a record 428 million arrivals in the same period. Read More...

STR Global figures show hotel occupancy in Australia for the year to May 2010 were 73 percent, up 4.7 percent. In the same period, revPAR was up 34.8 percent to US$108.86, considerably higher than the averages for Asia Pacific (24.2 percent), Central and South America (18 percent), Europe (5.3 percent), and North America (1.9 percent). The Middle East remains the only region in the red (-9.4 percent revPAR drop). Read More...

"For the first time we are in a dialogue to build public policy on cruise ships," said Alfredo Moreno, undersecretary of tourism operation of the Mexican Secretariat of Tourism. Last year the Mexican ports had five million cruise passengers and this year expect to receive nearly six million, according to projections by the Ministry of Tourism.

Moreno noted that Mexico is investing nearly US$40 million in all cruise ship destinations, with the idea to increase that amount by 2011 with a focus even more timely in these areas. Read More...

THE HOTEL AS ART GALLERY
The James, a sleekly designed hotel rising over Grand Street in SoHo, will open for business on Wednesday with all the support staff a guest could expect: a concierge, receptionists, bellhops, chambermaids, parking valets.All that, says The New York Times, and one helping hand a guest might not expect: a hotel art curator.

Hotels have been hanging fine art on their walls for decades now. Ian Schrager commissioned a series of Robert Mapplethorpe prints for what is considered the original boutique hotel, the Morgans, in 1984; the Roger Smith, a small property in Midtown Manhattan, transformed its lobby into an art gallery and performance space as part of a 1991 renovation.

But few have gone so far as the James, which hired a young artist, Matthew Jensen, to select original artworks to adorn each of its 14 floors of guest rooms.

"Hoteliers are not only trying to come up with a theme or a style that attracts customers, but they are approaching it in a much more professional and involved way," said Sean Hennessey, chief executive of Lodging Investment Advisors, a consulting firm in Valhalla, N.Y.

"It used to be that you could get away with just slapping something up in the lobby," he added, "but more and more customers are looking and evaluating it much more closely." Read More...

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According to Forbes, Marriott is gearing up for what it predicts will be a huge influx of Chinese tourists to America--as many as a million a year within five years, double last year's numbers. J.W. Marriott Jr., chief executive of Marriott International, says he's planning to have Mandarin speakers at the front desks for some Marriott hotels in the U.S.

But as Confucius would agree, the real way to make Chinese feel at home is to "get some Chinese items on the menu," Marriott says. Read More...

A recent Cintas Corporation survey conducted by telephone by Harris Interactive® among 1,009 U.S. adults ages 18 and older revealed what is most likely to prevent a consumer from rebooking with a hotel. Eighty- five percent of U.S. adults said they would not rebook at a hotel if there are dirty floors in the guest room, lobby or entryways. In addition, 80 percent of adults indicated dirty lobby restrooms as a turn-off. Read More...

When the economy was thriving, developers were promoting environmental flourishes like roof gardens, floors of reclaimed wood, and solar panels. When the Orchard Garden Hotel opened in San Francisco in 2006, it featured furniture made from sustainably grown wood.

But now, with reduced operating budgets, hotel owners are putting off the kind of sweeping projects that were common during the bull market and instead focusing on smaller environmental initiatives that don't cost as much and may even save money at the same time.

"Big-ticket items that have long-term return on investment have definitely been put on the back burner," said Steve Faulstick, general manager of the Doubletree Hotel in Portland, Ore., and a board member of the Green Meeting Industry Council. "We'd love to be completely green and sustainable, but we're not going to do that at the expense of laying people off." Read More...

SIGN OF RECOVERY? BRITISH AIRWAYS, CATHAY RECALL JUMBOS FROM CALIFORNIA DESERT
Bloomberg reports Boeing Co. 747 jumbo jets are being brought out of desert storage as surging bookings spur carriers including British Airways Plc and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. to return their biggest planes to traffic.

British Airways will recall a 747-400 for flights to Dallas in its winter schedule starting in October, freeing a Boeing 777 for an extra New York trip, and Cathay Pacific has reinstated five freighters. United Airlines took a jumbo out of storage in California in June for use as a spare during the summer months.

Wide-body planes accounted for about 25 percent of the 200 aircraft retrieved from storage in May and June as carriers sought to tap rising demand for long-haul trips and a leap in cargo shipments. The number of 747s recalled in June exceeded those mothballed for the first time since January 2009, data compiled by aviation consultant Ascend Worldwide Ltd. shows Read More...

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SOUTHWEST TO OFFER WI-FI ON 60 AIRCRAFT BEFORE 2011
Southwest Airlines this week said it expects to have 60 of its aircraft outfitted with wireless Internet by year-end as the carrier makes its way toward a fleetwide rollout of Row 44's satellite-based Wi-Fi system.

Southwest last month announced it would bring the wireless Internet offering fleetwide next year, expanding a test it had been undergoing with Row 44. according to Business Travel News Row 44 last month received a permanent license from the Federal Communications Commission, opening the door for expansion, and this week gained $37 million in new equity, some of which came from former Continental Airlines CEO Larry Kellner, now president of private equity firm the Emerald Creek Group. Read More...

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Compared to July 2009, passenger revenue rose 20 percent last month, according to ATA. Meanwhile, says Successful Meetings, passenger demand fell 1 percent on the heels of a 17 percent increase in the average price to fly one mile.

"Demand for air travel remains well above last year's depressed levels, but the industry is mindful of cautionary notes about the health of the overall economy," ATA President and CEO James C. May said in a statement.

July traditionally is one of the busiest months for air travel due to summer holidays, as travel typically peaks in the summer and drops off in the fall. Read More...

Nearly 60% of more than 2,000 travelers polled by Skyscanner, a fare-comparison website, say they want airlines to create such a section. In addition, nearly 20% said they'd prefer child-free flights.

Skyscanner posted the poll on its site Aug. 11-23, after a confidential settlement last month between Qantas and a 67-year-old American passenger who sued the Australian airline after a 3-year-old screamed on her flight last year. According to USA Today the woman complained of excruciating pain in her ears and was taken to a hospital before the Darwin-bound flight departed from Alice Springs.

Most poll respondents in favor of creating a families-only section said they don't have young children and "want to sit as far away as possible" from them. Read More...