Time For A Smile

Late for the wedding? 

A police officer in a small town stopped a motorist who was speeding down Main Street. "But officer," the man began, "I can explain."

"Just be quiet," snapped the officer. "I'm going to let you cool your heels in jail until the chief gets back."

"But, officer, I just wanted to explain!"

"And I said to keep quiet! You're going to jail!"

A few hours later the officer looked in on his prisoner and said, "Lucky for you that the chief is at his daughter's wedding. He'll be in a good mood when he gets back."

"Don't count on it," answered the fellow in the cell. "I'm the groom."

Source: Aha! Jokes

Only In America 

1.     Only in America......can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance. 

2.     Only in America......are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink. 

3.     Only in America......do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front. 

4.     Only in America......do people order double cheese burgers, large fries, and a diet cola. 

5.     Only in America......do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters. 

6.     Only in America......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage. 

7.     Only in America......do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't want to talk to in the first place. 

8.     Only in America......do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight. 

9.     Only in America.....do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning bloodsucking creatures'. 

10.  Only in America......do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

Source: 101FunJokes.com

Travel Trends

Niche marketing: According to HotelMarketing.com, only 12.2% of US hotels had occupancies higher than 80% in 2004 and in 2000 it was only 17.4%, according to PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR). Even at 80% occupancy, revenue managers at the most exclusive properties have plenty of opportunities to increase their RevPAR, brand awareness, loyalty and most importantly their bottom line through niche marketing.

Holiday travel: Record holiday traffic was anticipated for July 4^th weekend: According to the Boston Globe, the American Automobile Association of Southern New England forecasts that, despite high gas prices, 5.7 million people will drive at least 50 miles this weekend in New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. That's a 6% jump from the 2004 holiday. […] The Independence Day holiday period is the deadliest time to be traveling on US highways, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. More Americans die in vehicle crashes July 4 than any other day of the year. July 3 ranks second.”

Price not always king: The latest study from the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), Leisure Travel Planning: How Consumers Make Travel Decisions, shows that leisure travelers decide where they want to go and for how long before they even consider the price tag. “Based on the responses of over 5,000 consumers who had taken at least one overnight leisure trip in the past year, leisure travelers most often decide on the trip destination before other decisions are made. Also, travelers tend to make the key decisions of destination and trip duration before deciding on a trip budget.” […]  Many factors affect leisure travel decisions: The trip occasion has the greatest influence overall (52% reported this as very or extremely influential). Travel companions (46%), time available (43%), and available finances (42%) also were important influencers. The time of year (38%), travel prices (32%), and information sources (21%) played lesser roles.

”The most popular leisure trip occasions are: entertainment (for vacation or short getaways), family-centered, outdoor recreation, and combined business/pleasure. Findings suggest that money may not be travelers’ first concern when planning travel. In fact, more than half (55%) do not stick to a rigid budget as they travel, allowing themselves to stay flexible with their spending. Only about 14% of travelers stick to an exact budget while they are taking a leisure trip and 31% of leisure trips do not have a budget at all.

”[The study] also takes an in-depth look at the accommodation and transportation choices among U.S. leisure travelers. The study shows that location (60%) and comfort (57%) are priorities in choosing accommodations. Also important are the cost of the room (47%) and privacy (42%). Of slightly lesser importance are amenities (32%), the ability to accommodate the size of the travel party (28%) and special deals/promotions/discounts.”

Got to have Wi-Fi:  HotelMarketing.com reports that wireless Internet access is fast becoming a necessity. “It’s becoming as common in hotels as “cable TV and a free newspaper on the doorstep,” reported The Washington Times. In 2002, only 1,000 hotels had Wi-Fi. But nearly 25,000 hotels are expected to offer it by 2007, according to Pyramid Research.”  Some chains offer free Wi-Fi, others charge a daily use fee; B&Bs offering free Wi-Fi should promote this key amenity.

Email addicts? Emarketer.com reports that “in partnership with Opinion Research Corporation, America Online conducted online surveys with over 4,000 people over 18 in 20 cities across the country. They asked Americans about their e-mail habits, with the stress on "habit." The survey found that users rely on e-mail as much as the phone for communication, spend about an hour a day on e-mail and that 77% of them have more than one e-mail account. The survey shows:

• 41% of Americans check e-mail first thing in the morning
• 18% check e-mail right after dinner
• 14% check e-mail right when they get home from work
• 14% check e-mail right before they go to bed
• 40% of e-mail users have checked their e-mail in the middle of the night

More than one in four (26%) of us say we can't go more than two to three days without checking our e-mail. And we check it everywhere.

• In bed (23%)
• In class (12%)
• In a business meeting (8%)
• At a Wi-Fi hotspot (6%)
• At the beach or pool (6%)
• In the bathroom (4%)
• While driving (4%)
• In church (1%)

And we check personal e-mail on the job. A lot. The survey found that 61% of e-mail users who are employed outside the home check their personal e-mail at work, three times a day on the average.

• 47% check personal e-mail at work
• 47% check it sporadically throughout the day
• 25% check it first thing when they arrive at work
• 18% check it at lunchtime
• 8% during an afternoon break
• 2% right before heading home

Women are more likely than men to check their personal e-mail at work throughout the day (50% vs. 44%), while men are more likely than women to check their personal e-mail first thing when they arrive in the morning (28% vs. 21%). Of course, 20% of those who admit to checking their e-mail at work do feel guilty about it, and women are twice as likely as men to feel guilty about sending personal e-mails from the office (27% vs. 13%). Almost one out of every ten people who check personal e-mail at work (9%) have been busted by their boss for it, but, presumably, they are still working — and still reading personal e-mail while doing it.

Americans may steal time from work for personal e-mail, but they also read work e-mail while off the clock — 60% of all e-mail users check their e-mail while on vacation, 47% for pleasure, 13% for business.”

Travelers shop online to save time: According to The PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Survey Seventh Edition, “28% of those shoppers purchasing a combination of airline tickets and hotel accommodations from the same website said they did so to save time, compared to 27% who cited pricing discounts as their incentive. […]The study found that the number of adult Americans buying travel online increased by 14% in 2004 to 40 million. Among the 59 million adult Americans who said they had been online in the past month and had flown on a commercial airliner in the past year (defined as “online travelers"), 88% shop for travel online and 63% said they usually purchase travel via the Internet. Among other notable findings are:

•         There was a higher incidence of online hotel purchasing in 2004 versus 2003 (71% versus 60%), approaching that of air purchases (92% in both years).

•         Half of all online combination purchases consist of air and hotel, 24% are air, hotel and car, 23% are air and car, and just 4% are hotel and car.

Business travel rebound: According to Business Travel News,  “Most hotel executives and investors expect healthy occupancy and revenue levels to continue through 2007, according to a survey of more than 170 hospitality executives, investors and real estate professionals attending the New York University 27th Annual International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference. Optimism dominated the conference and survey results reflected the extent of continued expectations: 54% percent said the market will sustain occupancy and revenue levels through 2007, and 20% expect the momentum to continue through 2008. Just over half of survey respondents cited the business travel rebound, while 27 percent cited pent-up demand as the primary factors for a "faster than anticipated recovery of the U.S. hotel industry back to 2000 levels."

”Hoteliers have reason to be sanguine, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers projections released this week that point toward strong occupancy, record high room rates, revenue per available room growth and growing profits-in 2005 and beyond. ‘PricewaterhouseCoopers forecasts industry profits to reach $20.8 billion in 2005, the highest level since 2000, and only $1.7 billion below the record set in 2000. In 2006, profits are expected to reach a new record high of almost $25 billion.’”

Women online shoppers: According to The State of Retailing Online, an annual study conducted by Forrester Research, 2004 online sales rose 23.8% to $141.4 billion. The report predicts that online sales (including travel) will rise 22% to $172.4 billion this year. In addition, several categories are expected to receive at least 20% of their sector's sales from the Internet this year:

• Computer hardware and software (48%)
• Tickets (28%)
• Travel (26%)
• Books (20%)

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