Travel &
Travel & Tourism Surfside Lifeguard House The Americas – Facts and Figures International arrivals in the Americas grew by 4% in the first half of 2015, consolidating last year’s strong results. All four subregions recorded positive growth, although with variations across destinations. The strong US dollar fuelled robust outbound demand from the United States. The Caribbean (+7%) and Central America (+6%) led growth. In North America (+3%), arrival numbers were strong in Canada and Mexico (both +8%), while for the United States indications point to more modest growth. Most destinations in South America (+4%) reported sound results, in spite of Brazil’s outbound travel stalling. terms with 8% growth, welcoming an additional 14 million international tourists and raising the total to 182 million. Growth was driven by North America (+9%), and the Caribbean (+7%). Arrivals to Central America and South America grew at double the rate recorded in 2013 and well above the world average. Results were slower in terms of receipts – total receipts in the Americas were up by 3% contrasting with the 8% growth in arrivals. Meanwhile, according to IPK, The most visited travel destination in the Americas is USA with a market share of 46%, followed by Mexico (18%) and Canada (11%). 13% for a business purpose. The main motives to visit the Americas are therefore on the one hand sunbathing, swimming, relaxing and good dining and wining and on the other hand sightseeing, visiting interesting cities, knowing new landscapes and getting to know the people and their way of life. 74% of the international visitors to the Americas come from America itself. Thereby, the most important source market is the USA with a share of 30%, followed by Canada (19%) and Mexico (11%). Further 17% of the demand comes from Europe and 8% from Asia. In 2014, in terms of arrivals, the Americas was the best performing region in relative 87% of the international visitors to the Americas come for holiday / leisure and 26 Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport / Worldwide Edition N°28 / November 2015 - February 2016
In The Field - with Tim Hentschel The “inside line” on what’s hot in reservation trends RESERVATION TRENDS IN UNITED STATES Trends in the USA towards group bookings - under the microscope Tim Hentschel is CEO of Hotelplanner. com and Meetings. com – the world’s top platforms for group bookings. In this edition, he delivers the first of what will be a regular commentary on reservation trends in different regions. The use of technology by hoteliers for reservations in the US market is about four or five years ahead of Europe. Right now there’s a lot of investment in RMS (Revenue Management Systems). One that comes to mind is PriceMatch, which helps revenue managers calculate what revenue a hotel can get on a TREV-PAR basis (Total Revenue Per Available Room) by taking more group bookings than individual bookings. TREV-PAR is becoming a key element in four and five star segments – as it includes F&B, Spa, and other peripheral revenues. In the States, it’s very different to Europe through the fact that on the “old continent”, you get a lot of historic buildings being converted into hotels. This is tough; as often not all rooms are the same, meaning one colleague might well get a suite while the other gets a tiny single. In the States, the majority of hotels are built to purpose, and they have group travel in mind when they do it. One out of every three rooms today in the States is booked in a group block. So Revenue Optimisation is better honed in the US market? Absolutely. They even look at how many passengers are forecast to come into the city, what kind of traffic’s going into the brand-direct website and how much traffic the major OTAs are getting to that hotel over those dates, all to forecast a rate. Then our systems tie-in to forecast what the average group discount is for that area so they can optimise group rates – groups on average spend two times more on F&B than they do on their hotel room spend keeping in mind that groups on average spend two times more on F&B than they do on their hotel room spend. There are differences as well in the way the hotels are staffed. US hotels can afford more staff, and often have multiple group sales people on property dedicated to specific markets. I suggest that hotels in Europe should start spending more for staffing in the group market. Your average group contract of 20-30 rooms for a couple of nights is going to bring in at least 30-50,000 Euros. If an employee costs 40-50,000 Euros a year and they book three or four of those a month, that works out to 2.4 million Euros, extra revenue thanks to that one employee. The math is simple. www.cleverhotel.org Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport / Worldwide Edition N°28 / November 2015 - February 2016 27
