Tourists walk down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, France. Ayhan Altun / Flickr

The streets of Paris are getting a reputation of being unsafe for tourists and is threatening the great brand names of French fashion.

A leading association that counts Chanel and Dior as members urged the authorities to take action on the climate of insecurity which it said could keep cash-flush tourists away.

Several recent incidents have tarnished the image of Paris – the world’s most visited city – including muggings and thefts targeting tourists and street violence.

France’s luxury industry makes a large portion of its profits from tourism, particularly from the newly rich from emerging countries such as China,

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Wallace and Gromit star in VisitEngland's new tourism ad campaign encouraging Brits to vacation at home this summer. / VisitEngland

The summer tourism season is heating up in the Northern Hemisphere, sparking a wave of new ad campaigns. Not all destinations have a beach and sunshine to flaunt, but those without have found creative ways to attract travelers whether it be via culture or cartoons.

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VisitEngland wants to keep Brits at home this summer and is turning to lovable claymation start Wallace and Gromit to help. The first ad in the £4m tourism campaign shows Gromit feverishly pointing out all there is to do in the UK as Wallace attempts to shoot them both abroad from a cannon.

This 40-second spot from Virgin Holidays takes the Harlow family from a parking lot to a superstar resort where they excel in every vacation activity they try. Virgin Holidays isn’t selling a vacation in its summer promotion ad; it’s selling an attitude that urges the traveler to “unleash your mojo.”

Qatar Airways uploaded this video created by the Omani Ministry of Tourism, which shows the Middle Eastern country’s largest attractions, including Aflaj World Heritage Sites, the Hajar mountains, the Royal Opera House Muscat, and the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. It also highlights the nation’s natural attractions, including the desert and homegrown Frankincense. The slow-moving video is enough to entice any tourist that hasn’t  considered Oman.

In an effort to show that there’s more to Switzerland than its outdoors, Switzerland Tourism created a summer tourism ad that focuses on the country’s oldest traditions. Starring the same mountain men as its winter campaign, the video shows visitors taking part in festivals with flag throwing, wrestling competitions, and dancing halls.

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The airport was forced to cancel 193 flights on one of the busiest days of the year after closing both its runways when the service to Oslo turned back following an engine fire.

Heathrow was due to handle 225,000 passengers, about 35,000 more than normal. Its operation was thrown into disarray by the shutting down of the southern runway, which was used for departures from 8.24 to shortly after 9 am.

The northern runway, which was handling arrivals was closed from 8.43 until 10.38 am.

While the closures were comparatively brief they had a devastating impact on Heathrow’s operation.

British Airways cancelled all short-haul flights until 4pm in an attempt to contain the chaos and enable it to salvage its operation for the rest of the Bank Holiday weekend.

Worst hit were passengers flying to European airports at a time when demand for weekend city-breaks was high for destinations such as Amsterdam, Dublin and Geneva.

Thousands of passengers milled around the terminals trying to find alternative flights. With many services full, hopes of a short getaway were dashed.

Three people who had been on the plane were treated for minor injuries after it was forced to return to Heathrow shortly after taking off, after what a British Airways spokesperson said was a ‘technical fault.’

A number of eyewitnesses reported seeing smoke billowing from the back of the plane. Clive Cook was walking with his daughter and saw the plane crossing the Thames near Battersea Bridge. He told Sky News: “I looked up and saw the plane coming through the clouds and the right engine was on fire. It wasn’t smoking, it was on fire.

“This plane was coming over and suddenly the tone of the engine changed dramatically. I can almost say it sounded like it was a blow-out or an explosion.”

British Airways said two pilots and three crew members had been on board the flight, which took off from Heathrow at about 8.16 a.m.

They said they could not confirm the cause of the incident and that the Air Accident Investigation Branch at British Airways would now be conducting a full investigation.

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Sri lankan Airlines on its final descent to London Heathrow Airport. Dilantha / Flickr

Loss-making national carrier Sri Lankan Airlines has signed a provisional deal with Airbus worth $1.3 billion to buy six A330-300 and four A350-900 aircraft between 2014 and 2023 to replace ageing aircraft, the state-run firm’s CEO told Reuters.

The airline, seeking to modernise its fleet to cut fuel costs, will opt for Rolls-Royce Plc engines and use a lease-back arrangement to conserve cash, Chief Executive Officer Kapila Chandrasena said in an interview.

“The total cost altogether is going to be around $1.3 billion. But deliveries are progressively from 2014 to 2023 on a staggered basis,” he said. The carrier signed a memorandum of understanding on the purchase with Airbus last Friday, he said.

Sri Lankan Airlines now operates with a 22-aircraft fleet including seven A320-200s, seven A330-300s, six A340-300s and two Twin Otters.

Chandrasena said the national carrier needs to replace all six A340-300s with A330-300 aircraft and all seven A330-300s with A350-900s.

Sri Lankan, which had been managed by Dubai’s Emirates Airline for a decade until 2008, aims to achieve a modern and fuel efficient twin-engine fleet by 2023.

The A340 has lost favour with airlines due to the cost of running four engines in an era of high fuel prices. Airlines are switching to lightweight new-technology airplanes such as the carbon-fibre A350 and Boeing Co’s 787 Dreamliner, but sales of the older A330 have held up better than expected due to its availability and competitive pricing, aerospace analysts say.

Boeing offer

Chandrasena said the airlines considered offers by both Airbus and Boeing.

“We looked at who is giving more value for us. In that discussion, it was apparent that the Airbus offer of A330-300s in the interim and long-term A350-900 is much more favourable than the Boeing,” he said.

“Boeing did not have interim aircraft. They were only interested in the long-term offer, which was the 787.”

Sri Lankan Airlines estimates that it incurred a loss of $134.8 million in the 2012/13 financial year to March 31, similar to the previous year, and is finding it difficult to finance new aircraft purchases.

“We don’t have cash,” Chandrasena said. “So what we are doing is a sale and lease.”

He said the airline would work with either a financial institution or a leasing firm that would buy the aircraft and lease them back to the carrier.

He said the national carrier would be looking at a lease period of 10 to 15 years, with a shorter period for the A330-300s and a longer period for the A350-900s.

“We are talking to various (leasing companies) right now about the sale and lease-back on the six 330-300s,” he said.

The airline operates about 253 flights a week out of Colombo to European, Middle Eastern and Asian destinations.

Chandrasena said in February that, with fuel comprising half the airline’s costs, its ageing, inefficient planes were a heavy drain on profit.

It has the extra burden of having to operate unprofitable European routes, because the country’s economy, hard-hit by a 26-year war that ended in 2009, relies heavily on tourism.

The airline, which is 51 percent state-owned, is expected to break even, or be close to that point, in the 2015/16 financial year.

Additional reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris. Editing by Edmund Klamann.

Copyright (2013) Thomson Reuters.

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A sign is seen for high-end retail store Versace along 5th Avenue in New York May 19, 2013. Eric Thayer / Reuters

Most men might balk at spending $600 on a pair of Dior sneakers but for U.S. shoppers like Ephraim, an upbeat 30-year-old, such indulgences are becoming increasingly commonplace.

Ephraim is the kind of man who gives luxury goods makers high hopes that the U.S. market can fuel future growth, as China runs out of steam and demand in Europe sags.

“There is a cultural shift,” Ephraim says while browsing at Saks Inc’s New York City flagship. “Men are becoming more fashion forward.”

The growing appeal of luxury goods to men and increased confidence among affluent spenders as the U.S. economy and asset prices recover have boosted sales and encouraged luxury brands to step up their investments in the United States.

More foreign shoppers are also thronging stores as the U.S. government eases visa restrictions to attract more tourists.

Luxury spending in the United States collapsed after the 2008 financial crisis but roared back to pre-crisis levels by 2012. Last year, the world’s No.1 and No.3 luxury groups LVMH and PPR saw higher growth rates in the United States than in China for the first time in years.

Sales in the Americas are expected to grow 5-7 percent this year, compared to 6-8 percent in mainland China and 0-2 percent in Europe, according to consultancy Bain & Co.

Evidence is already showing through. Ralph Lauren this week forecast U.S. sales growth of 4-7 percent while high-end department store Saks reported quarterly sales up 5.9 percent, almost double what analysts had forecast.

“(There is) renewed confidence, a genuine rebound in fashion and luxury consumption”, said Sidney Toledano, head of French fashion house Christian Dior, part of LVMH.

Growth spurt

Major brands like Prada, Hermes, Burberry, and Hugo Boss are opening shops or expanding existing ones in the United States, and are stepping up their advertising spend.

In July, Alexander McQueen will open a 3,900-foot store on New York’s Madison Avenue. Next year, Burberry plans to launch a new flagship on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.

LVMH and PPR, soon to be renamed Kering, are also expanding in the United States while putting the brakes on China, which had been the major driver for luxury sales until last year.

“I think the U.S. holds a lot more potential than people believe while the focus has very much been on the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries,” said Robert Chavez, head of U.S. operations at Hermes.

The French group, which opened its only shop dedicated to men on Madison Avenue in 2010, now makes about 15 percent of its sales in the United States, up from 10 percent five years ago. China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao account for 20 percent.

“We have noticed a rise in men’s purchases, particularly in the last two years,” said Chavez. Ties, shoes and $8,000 custom-made three-piece cashmere suits are all doing equally well.

In the 212 billion euro luxury as a whole, the United States outguns China, even before the new growth spurt. Bain & Co. values the U.S. market at 59 billion euros, Europe at 74.2 billion and China-Hong Kong around 22 billion.

Tourists are coming

PPR boss Francois-Henri Pinault reckons that rising numbers of tourists to the United States will enable it to narrow the gap with Europe, where visitors account for about half of luxury sales. That contrasts with 15-20 percent in the United States.

“We will never have as many tourists as in Europe but I think that ratio could reach 30 percent over the next few years,” said Milton Predaza, chief executive of Luxury Institute, a U.S. consultancy.

In 2010, 6 million tourists from Brazil, India and China flew to Western Europe compared to 2.6 million to the United States. Travel agents say U.S. visa approvals require more proof of employment history and finances than for France or Italy.

The United States would earn $20 billion more from luxury sales if it had as many tourists from emerging markets as Europe, New York-based brokerage International Strategy & Investment Group (ISI) estimates.

The U.S. State Department says it has cut the wait for a visa-related interview in Brazil, where most U.S. luxury shopping tourists come from, to two days. Clerks at Saks said they had noticed an increase in Brazilian tourists.

The State Department also plans to waive interviews for some visa applicants and is expanding or building new consulates in China and Brazil.

Tourism from China is expected to more than triple to 3.9 million people by 2017 from 2011. Tourism from Brazil is forecast to rise 83 percent to 2.8 million, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

“We have not had a major breakthrough yet. However, it is moving in the right direction,” said Omar Saad, senior managing director and head of the luxury team at ISI.

The appeal of America to Brazilians is twofold – it is closer than Europe and prices are much lower than at home. A Burberry man’s coat costs $3,100 in Sao Paulo against $995 at the New York flagship on 57th street.

Rise of “Henrys”

Pam Danziger, president of marketing consulting firm Unity Marketing and author of studies on the U.S. luxury industry, believes growth is also being driven by what she calls HENRYs – “high earning, not rich yet” Americans making $100,000-$249,000 a year. She estimates about 24.2 million households are HENRYs.

To capture those buyers, brands are now expanding beyond New York, which accounts for a third of U.S. luxury sales, and the next two main cities of Los Angeles and Miami.

Last month, Hermes opened in Greenwich, Connecticut – an area popular with financial professionals and their families – and plans to expand in cities like LA, Miami, Houston, Dallas and Boston over the next two years.

PPR’s brands, which include Balenciaga, Gucci and Stella McCartney, are looking at Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, Orlando and Philadelphia.

“The U.S. is an emerging country when it comes to luxury,” said Boston Consulting Group senior partner Jean-Marc Bellaiche.

Additional reporting by Pascale Denis in Paris and Dhanya Skariachan in New York. Editing by Sophie Walker.

Copyright (2013) Thomson Reuters.

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A hot sunny Memorial Day at Rockaway Beach in New York. Dan DeLuca / Flickr

The forecast for summer travel, 2013: Partly sunny.

Airlines, hotels and campgrounds are commanding higher rates and seeing more customers than a few summers ago, and luxury hotels are selling out. Local businessmen and state officials are optimistic.

But for a travel industry still stinging from the Great Recession, the best it can likely hope for is another summer of steady, but slow, recovery. The blockbuster crowds seen in 2007 have become a distant memory.

Americans’ plans for summer travel mirror the current state of the economy. Rising home prices and a soaring stock market are encouraging those at the top of the income ladder to take more lavish trips. But large segments of the population are staying close to home because wages are stagnant, rents are high and the end of the payroll tax holiday has shrunk their take-home pay.

That’s why AAA isn’t expecting a resounding start to summer this Memorial Day weekend. Citing the “up and down economy,” AAA expects 31.2 million Americans to hit the road this weekend, virtually the same number as last year. Throw in planes, trains and buses, and the number of travelers will drop about 1 percent, AAA says.

As vacationers set out this summer, here’s what they can expect:

• Gas prices about the same as last year. The national average price of gasoline was $3.66 a gallon Thursday, 2 cents higher than during last year’s Memorial Day weekend. Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at GasBuddy.com, expects prices to drift lower after the holiday and fall close to last summer’s low of $3.33 per gallon before hurricane season starts to drag them up again.
• More expensive hotel rooms. The average hotel will cost $112.21, before taxes and any other add-on such as resort fees. That’s up 4.4 percent from last year’s $107.52, according to hotel research firm STR. Hotels are also expected to be slightly fuller, with occupancy rates climbing from 69.3 percent last summer to 70 percent this year.
• Packed planes, steady airfare. Airlines for America, the industry’s lobby group, expects 208.7 million people to fly, up 1 percent from last year. About 87 percent of airplane seats will be filled with paying passengers. Domestic fliers will pay $421 on average for a round trip ticket, down $6 from last summer. International fliers will pay $1,087, up $8, according to the Airlines Reporting Corp.
• Amtrak expects to meet or exceed the 8.3 million passengers it carried last summer. But the taxpayer-backed railroad wouldn’t disclose how fares compare with last summer’s average one-way ticket of $66.39.

Mike Klopp, a commercial insurance salesman in Irvine, Calif., is starting to feel better about the economy. He and his wife plan to take their three kids on a vacation up the coast to Monterey in August — a trip they skipped last year.

But Klopp says local trips are the limit because they’re cheaper. Like many others, he’s not yet willing to splurge on a dream vacation.

“The kids would love to go to Hawaii, but there’s no way I’m going to do that. We’ve been hunkering down, money is tight right now,” he says.

“I’m not sold that things are better,” he says.

Other Americans likely agree. Although the unemployment rate has dropped to 7.5 percent, compared with a post-recession high of 10 percent, the Federal Reserve doesn’t see it falling below 7.3 percent this year. And economic growth still isn’t as strong as it has been after previous recessions. The economy grew at an annual pace of 2.5 percent from January to March. Economists expect the rate to slow to 2 percent from April through June, partly because of the federal budget cuts that started taking effect March 1.

Those with higher incomes never stopped traveling, but thanks to new highs in the stock market they now feel secure enough to take longer vacations.

Patrick Veling, the owner of a California real estate data analysis and consulting business, says he’s taking his “most expensive vacation ever” this year. Instead of the normal one-week vacation, he and his wife Susan are taking their two adult kids on a three-week vacation through northern Europe that will include a 12-day cruise. They’ll see Denmark, Norway, the Shetland Islands, Ireland and the Netherlands.

“My confidence in the economy and my business is now strong enough that my wife and I have pretty much insisted we make this trip,” says Veling.

Others are benefiting from rising home prices and low interest rates. Their homes are finally worth more than they owe on their mortgage, and they are finding it easier to refinance. That leaves them more money to spend.

“The improvement in confidence is all in the upper income brackets,” says Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial.

During the worst days of the recession, travelers mostly stayed home. Hotels desperate to fill rooms started marketing “staycations” to families who couldn’t afford to drive or fly somewhere. Summer air travel fell by nearly 8 percent in two years, from 217.6 million passengers in 2007 to 200.3 million in 2009. Luxury hotels saw their occupancy levels plummet during that period from 72.5 percent to 59.3 percent. More than half the rooms at economy and midscale hotels sat vacant.

There has been a slow and steady climb back, but not all parts of the recovery have been equal.

Luxury hotels such as Four Seasons, Park Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton and Mandarin Oriental are filling 73 percent of their rooms on average, surpassing their pre-recession peak, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from hotel research firm STR.

But budget hotels like Days Inn, Econo Lodge and Motel 6 are still below their 10-year occupancy average and more than 3 percentage points below their peak.

The same pattern holds for fliers.

Domestic traffic is projected to grow 0.7 percent this summer, while the number of people buying more expensive international tickets will climb 2.6 percent, according to Airlines for America.

“Expect luxury travel to continue to rebound — consistent with luxury across all industries — while the rest of summer travel will be flat” as the economy still weighs heavily on middle-income families, says Adam Weissenberg, who heads the travel and hospitality consulting group at Deloitte.

But some less-expensive destinations are seeing a recovery.

Campgrounds fared well during the downturn because they are relatively affordable. Some are now doing better business than ever because the operators have retooled their facilities to entice visitors beyond the typical outdoor types.

Steve Stafford, general manager of North Texas Jellystone Park Camp-Resort in Burleson, Texas, has attracted a broader swath of people with “homesteads.” These are recreational vehicles that look like cottages. Now the camp can accommodate campers with tents who only have to pay $32 a night for an empty patch of ground and those who want to stay in the comfort of the largest homesteads for $209 a night.

The 37 existing homesteads were booked solid last year. So Stafford is adding a dozen new ones. Those are already booked, even though they are still being installed.

In recent years, the campground has added activities such as arts and crafts, live bands, laser tag, outdoor big-screen movies and theme weekends to try to lure people back. On the schedule for Memorial Day weekend: A chocolate pudding slip ‘n slide.

The moves appear to be working.

“The way it’s looking so far, we are going to be way up,” Stafford says. “No matter how bad things get, people are going to take a vacation.”

The hunt for inexpensive vacations is helping companies that recreational vehicles, too. Traveling by RV means families don’t need to pay for hotels and can cook most of their meals. Families may not be ready to buy one — sales are only up slightly — but more are choosing to rent one this summer for as little as $100 a day, or $300 during peak weeks.

At El Monte RV, one of the country’s largest RV rental companies, summer bookings from domestic customers are up 20 to 25 percent compared with last year.

“It has stunned us,” says marketing director Joe Laing. “We’re looking forward to this year. We think it’s going to be a good one.”

Businessmen and state officials on the Gulf Coast of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi are also hoping for a good summer. The tourism industry there was devastated by the BP oil spill of 2010. As part of a settlement, BP has been financing large advertising campaigns to get tourists back to the region.

“This is going to be the best summer season we’ve ever had,” predicts Tish Williams, executive director of the Hancock County Chamber of Commerce in Mississippi.

Williams has spent $962,000 in BP grants to market her county and a new science center there to tourists in northern Mississippi and neighboring Louisiana.

In Florida, the Pensacola Bay Area Convention and Visitors Bureau says lodging tax revenue is up 7.5 percent this year. The tourism industry has spent BP money as far north as Chicago — a 14-hour drive away — to lure new visitors.

But the most pampered vacationers this summer might not even be human.

The Barkley Pet Hotel & Spa in Westlake Village, Calif., is booked solid this Memorial Day. After a recent 18,000-square-foot expansion — another doggie day camp area for small dogs, another grooming salon and spa and another wing of luxury suites — there is now room for 250 pets.

This summer, they can attend ice cream socials, surf in a beach-like pool or play in the day camps, which are shaded by cabanas and cooled by misters.

Some might say the pets have it better off than their traveling owners.

With reports from Melissa Nelson-Gabriel in Pensacola, Sue Manning in Los Angeles and Paul Wiseman in Washington.

Copyright (2013) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Tourists take pictures of the Mount Rushmore National Monument in South Dakota. Eric Fredericks / Flickr

South Dakota tourism officials expect a good summer season despite high gas prices that are putting a slight damper on travel over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, generally considered the kickoff to summer.

Travel nationwide is expected to drop about 1 percent from the 2012 holiday, according to Triple AAA.

“Gas prices will have an impact. They have already cut into people’s budgets,” AAA South Dakota spokeswoman Marilyn Buskohl said.

Gas prices across South Dakota have jumped by about 50 cents over the past month, and AAA expects about 1 percent fewer travelers this holiday weekend. But many of the expected 110,300 South Dakota travelers are expected to stay close to home.

“This weekend is bigger than Labor Day, because it’s really the first time to get out with the family and go,” Jacquie Fuks, executive director of Southeastern South Dakota Tourism, told the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan newspaper. “People have been trapped all winter and are ready to get out.”

The state Tourism Department says early indications are that South Dakota will have a good summer season. There is strong demand for vacation guides and e-newsletters from a digital marketing campaign, and traffic on department-run websites also has been on the increase, department spokeswoman Wanda Goodman told the Capital Journal.

One travel firm projects about 75 percent of Americans planning a vacation this summer, and “we certainly hope we are attracting a strong number of those people,” Goodman said.

The Tourism Department has launched an eight-state tour of Mount Rushmore mascots as part of the effort to draw people to not only the national memorial in the Black Hills but also to other parts of the state.

The 2,500-mile tour of the mascots dressed up as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln began this week. It will hit cities in South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The mascots previously made appearances at major league baseball games and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

“It doesn’t matter if they’re 2 or 102, everyone can relate to the presidents and they’ve been great in not only promoting Mount Rushmore but our whole state,” Tourism Secretary Jim Hagen said during a stop in Pierre on Thursday. “Our goal is to generate interest in South Dakota and to get people talking about our state.”

Copyright (2013) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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The hotel operator plans to carry out the offering next month, Loscos said in a telephone interview today from Mexico City, where City Express is based. About 75 percent of the offering will consist of new shares, with the remainder coming from current holders, according to Loscos.

City Express said in a regulatory filing that it has hired Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley and Corp. Actinver SAB to help manage the IPO.

The company is seeking to benefit from business travel demand as Latin America’s second-biggest economy is poised for a fourth year of growth, according to forecasts compiled by Bloomberg. City Express plans to use the proceeds to build hotels and buy stakes in some others, according to the prospectus.

Grupo Hotelero Santa Fe, a hotel operator part owned by private equity firm Nexxus Capital SC, is also among companies seeking to go public in Mexico this year, according to three people with knowledge of that transaction.

Editors: Bradley Keoun and Richard Richtmyer.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Levin in Mexico City at jlevin20@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net.

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Republican Governor Chris Christie will join Obama on the May 28 visit, according to a White House official asked not to be identified because the trip hadn’t been formally announced. Shore communities have been rebuilding since Hurricane Sandy swept through Oct. 29, leaving a trail of death and destruction.

The visit by Obama, a Democrat Christie embraced when he arrived to survey the damage days after the storm, may boost the governor’s bid for a second term in November — he has focused his campaign on the post-Sandy recovery. A voter survey in March showed that 44 percent of Democrats said he deserved another four years, and 45 percent of Democrats had a favorable view of him in another poll last month.

“We need to make sure that we rebuild the tourism industry in this state, at the Jersey Shore,” Christie said during a May 22 visit to the seaside town of Belmar. New Jersey’s travel and tourism industry employs more than 500,000 workers, or about 10 percent of all jobs in the state, according to his office.

Tourism Season

The president’s tour of the Garden State is set for the day after the long Memorial Day holiday weekend in the U.S., traditionally the start of the tourism season along the New Jersey shore. Christie has said he expects the state to be “up and running” to handle the influx of vacationers, which had been seen as a crucial milestone in the recovery effort.

Sandy, which came ashore near Atlantic City, killed dozens of people and destroyed 365,000 homes in the state. Christie, 50, has said it will cost $36.9 billion for repairs and to prevent devastation from future storms. During his visit, Obama will discuss the importance of offering economic opportunity to hard-hit families, according to the White House official.

The governor holds a commanding edge of more than 30 percentage points in recent voter surveys over state Senator Barbara Buono, a Metuchen Democrat. He refuted claims last week by Democrats that his appearance in a $25 million advertising campaign to promote the state to visitors was designed to advance his candidacy. He said the ads are to let people know that New Jersey and its communities are open for business.

Michael Drewniak, a Christie spokesman, declined to provide details about the visit, referring questions to the White House.

Editors: Ted Bunker and Pete Young.

To contact the reporters on this story: Margaret Talev in Washington at mtalev@bloomberg.net; Terrence Dopp in Trenton, New Jersey at tdopp@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net; Stephen Merelman at smerelman@bloomberg.net.

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ANA said in a statement that it will run five commercial 787 flights in May, before regular, scheduled services begin on June 1. The first will be a commercial flight late Sunday from Chitose, on the northern island of Hokkaido, to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

Smoldering batteries on two 787s, one of them owned by ANA, prompted authorities to ground the planes in January. The failure of Boeing’s newest, flashiest and most important plane embarrassed the company and its customers.

ANA said it has modified all 17 of its 787 aircraft and conducted 170 proving flights.

Copyright (2013) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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