More than seven in 10 American and European adults took a leisure holiday in 2015. Yet despite their shared affinity for leisure travel, unique economic conditions, cultural and geographical factors in these markets influence consumers’ decisions about where to go, as well as their travel behavior and attitudes. This report explores how U.S. and European travelers manage the destination selection process and other key aspects of their trips. Analysis includes trip frequency and spend, preferences for domestic vs. international travel, primary motivators for travel, online vs. offline sources of information, and travel intentions for the coming year.Analysts: Brandie Wright, Mark BlutsteinTopics: Destination & Activities Marketing, Consumer TrendsSegments: Air, Hotels & Lodging, Online Travel AgenciesRegions: Europe, U.S. & CanadaResearch Type: Report
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Social DMOs: The State of Social Media and Destination Marketing analyzes social media practices and perspectives among destination marketing organizations. The report also provides benchmarks for DMOs to evaluate their use of social media, tracks which social networks DMOs use and value, and offers insight into key goals, challenges, tools and techniques related to social media.Analysts: Cathy Walsh, Bing Liu, John DiStefano, Chetan Kapoor, Deepak Jain, Douglas QuinbyTopic: Social & SearchRegion: U.S. & CanadaResearch Type: Report
Hotel products are inherently complex, and the ability to price and distribute rooms efficiently (at a reasonable cost) is fundamental to sustaining profitability. But in such a fragmented marketplace, any efforts to optimize rates and inventory will face a host of challenges: functional limitations in reservation systems and intermediary platforms, difficulty obtaining a complete picture of distribution costs, shifting OTA business models, loss of rate parity, and personalization. The future of channel management will focus on centralizing business rules across disparate systems, most likely with cloud-based reservation platforms. Until then, channel managers need to establish a total revenue management strategy across channels.Analyst: Robert ColeTopic: Technology InnovationSegment: Hotels & LodgingResearch Type: Report
Technology has so evolved that we can now use it to observe our own technology-related behavior. In real time, we can see how technology changes our lives, how we interact with it, and how it enables new business opportunities. As the gap between ourselves and our devices shrinks, connectivity and interoperability become more essential to our daily lives – and to commercial progress. For travel companies, competition has grown extremely intense, pushing sales to an all-time high in 2014. Before travel executives select tech investments for 2015 and beyond, they need to consider six major industry trends. All six share the same two focal points: the customer and the trip experience.Analysts: Bob Offutt, Colie HoffmanTopic: Technology InnovationRegions: Europe, U.S. & CanadaResearch Type: Report