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Consumer confidence: Of consumers polled in
BIGresearch's October Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, 39.8
percent answered the question, "Which one of the following best describes your
feelings about chances for a strong economy during the next 6 months?" with
"very confident" or "confident" -- up from 39.1 percent in September and almost
a full 14 points higher than October 2002's reading of 26.0 percent. […] Of
consumers who say they're "confident" or "very confident" about the economic
outlook in the next six months, nearly 19 percent said they'll be purchasing
vacation travel during that timeframe while more than 11 percent plan to buy a
car or truck. "If you look across the results of the survey, consumers for the
most part are purchasing only what they need instead of what they want,"
explained Joe Pilotta, Vice President of Research for BIGresearch. "Consumers
are choosing vacations closer to home, and seem to be using their cars to get
there."
Online bookings: By 2005 an estimated 1 in 5 hotel bookings will be made
online, up from 1 in 12 in 2002, explains a new
report by Bill Carroll and Judy Siguaw, both affiliated with The Center
for Hospitality Research (CHR) at Cornell's School of Hotel Administration.
Hotel chain web sites will control only half of those bookings, say the
researchers, with online third-party intermediaries capturing the other half.
And that's not counting bookings based on Internet research but made via a
phone call.
Road Warriors Redux: Travelocity Business™ sponsored the
Travelocity Business Traveler Poll finding that business travelers show
more similarities to today's leisure traveler, with purchase decisions being
led by price and overall value. The research revealed that comfortable bedding
tops the list in terms of hotel amenities that matter most, surprisingly above
high-speed Internet access and other seemingly important corporate amenities.
43.5% of all respondents researched their hotel stay online
When asked how often they extend their business travel for leisure purposes, 70
percent said they did not extend any trips in the past year (meaning almost one
in three people did extend their trips)
The top five ranked cities respondents prefer to visit on business travel
include: San Francisco; Chicago; New Orleans; San Diego; Las Vegas and Orlando
(selected by equal number of respondents)
Women business travelers: A new survey of women business travelers,
conducted by New York University (NYU Tisch Center) and sponsored by Wyndham
International, Inc., found that the in-room amenities respondents look for have
less to do with business and more to do with personal needs. The top three
amenities women "must have" to be productive on the road are a mini-bar (71%),
brand-name bath amenities (56%) and spa services (47%), with long-standing
items such as a fitness center (24%), high-speed Internet access (25%) and an
in-room coffee maker (31%) ranked as the three lowest of the survey.
More info
Boomer Travel Booming: According to TIA's newly released
Domestic Travel Market Report, 2003 Edition, Baby Boomers (age 35 to
54) generate more travel than any other age group in the U.S., registering more
than 241 million household trips last year. Baby Boomer households spend a
substantial amount on their trips, with 14 percent paying $1,000 or more for a
vacation, excluding the cost of transportation. This group is also more likely
to stay in a hotel or motel, travel for business and fly to their destination.
Mature travelers (age 55+) took 31 percent of all household trips; Generation X
and Y (age 18-34) took 26 percent.
Family travel: If you haven't done your research you should - according
to the annual survey of outbound travelers conducted by the U.S. Department of
Commerce's Office of Travel and Tourism, 9% of all outbound U.S. leisure
travelers last year were adults with children. Sixty percent of these travelers
sought a hotel accommodation for an average stay of 8 nights. And the average
income of these travelers was $133,600.
More info
Multicultural Marketing: The University of Georgia's Selig Center
recently published
The Multicultural Economy 2003, America's Minority Buying Power.
The Selig Center's estimates and projections of buying power for 1990-2008 show
that minorities -- African Americans, Asians, Native Americans, and
Hispanics-together wield formidable economic clout. In 2008, it's estimated the
combined buying power of African Americans, Asians, and Native Americans will
be more than triple its 1990 level of $456 billion, and will exceed $1.5
trillion, a gain of $1.1 trillion or 231 percent. […]The combined buying power
of these three groups will account for 14.3 percent of the nation's total
buying power in 2008.
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