Short on time? Here’s an overview of pivotal business insights excerpted from in-depth interviews with a variety of expert sources that appeared in the March issues of Travel Weekly PLUS.
James Carville wants to help out with inbound tourism
“I would love to work on a project to get more people to come here. Because you’re not going to grow your business just getting people from Texas to come to Louisiana, or people from Louisiana to go to Florida, or people from Florida to go to Colorado. Where you’re going to grow your business is getting people from around the world to come here.”
Excerpted from The Middle Class Blues and the Travel Industry’s Bottom Line, an interview in the March 27 issue with political strategist James Carville, co-author of It’s The Middle Class Stupid.
Your brand versus Google, Apple or Facebook
“When the day comes when the 20-something generation can book a hotel room or an airline or a cruise through a Facebook app or a Google app, even though they know what airline they’re going on and what hotel they’re staying at and what their destination is, who is their brand? Where’s their loyalty? Is it to where they’re going, how they’re getting there, and where they’re staying? Or is their loyalty to Facebook, Google, or Apple?
Excerpted from Online Marketing: Get Rid of the Scattershot Approach, an interview in the March 20 issue with travel distribution expert Mark Lomanno.
Women as breadwinners: the new economic order
“More and more women are emerging as the breadwinner in their households. In the cases of married women, the federal government keeps track of how many wives out-earn their husbands. Among working wives the percentage has steadily increased over the past 25 years, and close to 40% of working wives now out-earn their husbands.”
Excerpted from Women’s Rise to Economic Dominance, an interview in the March 20 issue with Washington Post reporter Liza Mundy, author of The Richer Sex.
Plan to do business in an enduring slow-growth economy
“The key is how do we devise policies that best allow us to adapt to a world of slower growth rather than continuing to keep our foot on the accelerator trying to get 0% interest rates and a trillion dollar budget deficit to do what $20-per-barrel oil used to do for the U.S. economy.”
Excerpted from The Slow-Growth Economy, Travel, and a Kinder, Gentler World, an interview in the March 6 issue with economist and energy expert Jeff Rubin, author of The BigFlatline.
Find the right fit; match the blogger to your brand
“It’s really important to find those people who are a good match, who are going to be really excited about your product or your destination. If it’s not the right match, the information might not be communicated correctly. Also, readers are not stupid. The audience is going to notice if the blogger is not passionate about what they’re writing. That's why I think it's important for bloggers to create relationships with brands that they already use.”
Excerpted from Spencer Spellman on How Brands Can Work with Bloggers, an interview in the March 6 issue with ‘the traveling philosopher’ blogger Spencer Spellman.
Carville to Congress: ‘We need to spend more marketing the U.S.’
“Why don’t we double what we spend on marketing the U.S. in terms of tourism? When a tourist comes here, we generally get the pick of the litter … we get the most affluent, law-abiding, best-spending people. If I was the president or I was the Congress, I would quadruple the tourism budget. There’s almost a direct line between what you pay for marketing and what you get.”
Excerpted from The Middle Class Blues and the Travel Industry’s Bottom Line, an interview in the March 27 issue with political strategist James Carville, co-author of It’s The Middle Class Stupid.
Booking not needed: online giants eye big buck potential in travel referrals
“The intermediary between a consumer and their ultimate purchase is getting a piece of the fee the consumer is paying. And you have big companies like the Googles and Apples and Facebooks of the world who look at that and say, ‘Well, that’s a pretty significant revenue stream, with not a lot of work for us. We don’t have to create the booking engine. We don’t have to create anything, except to become a referral. And we have lots of eyeballs on our site to help with that.’”
Excerpted from If Apple, Google and Facebook Rule the (Travel Distribution) World,an interview in theMarch 13 issue with distribution expert Mark Lomanno.
Get used to it: triple-digit oil prices are here to stay
“World oil prices are in the triple-digit range. And they’re in the triple- digit range precisely because of the places that we’re now looking for oil, whether it’s shale oil in the Bakken, bitumen in the tar sands, or oil in the Arctic deep water. None of that stuff is going to flow at $40 a barrel, apart from the environmental costs that they all bring.”
Excerpted from How the High Price of Oil Is Reshaping the Travel Industry, an interview in the March 13 issue with economist and energy expert Jeff Rubin, author of The BigFlatline.