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Wisconsin gets $16.8 billion tourism boost in 2012, thanks to regional visitors
DestinationsTravelers contributed $16.8 billion to Wisconsin’s economy last year, up 5 percent from the year before, according to a state tourism report released Friday. The Wisconsin Department of Tourism said direct spending on food, lodging, transportation and other services accounted for $10.4 billion. Lodging was the biggest money-maker in 2012, accounting for 26 percent of [...]
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Thai tourists invade Japan for cheap thanks to a fantastic exchange rate
DestinationsThe Thai baht’s biggest quarterly gain against the yen since 1998 was enough reason for Kornkarun Cheewatrakoolpong, a 32-year-old economics lecturer in Bangkok, to change her honeymoon destination to Japan from Italy. “It’s more affordable,” Kornkarun said in an interview from her home in the capital on April 17, after returning from a business trip [...]
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New Hampshire government borrows state’s popular tourism slogan
DestinationsThe new tourism campaign New Hampshire rolled out a year ago is working so well, state officials are planning to expand it to other areas, including economic development. The “Live Free and ….” is a fill-in-the-blank play on the state’s longstanding “Live Free or Die” motto. The state has used variations including “Live Free and [...]
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The vacation gap: Rich Americans take 18 days; the average American gets 3.8
DestinationsAn American living in a household that makes more than $150,000 is estimated take 4.7 times the vacation days of an average U.S. consumer. Affluent Americans take an average of three six-day vacations a year, according to The Resonance Report 2013. This looks like a global expedition in comparison to the 3.8 vacation days taken by [...]
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Scotland tourism says its been hit hard by economic recession and air tax
DestinationsScottish tourism leaders have issued a stark warning that the lucrative industry is facing its toughest period since the start of the economic downturn. Dwindling consumer spending, the soaring cost of travelling to the UK from overseas and prolonged bad weather is said to be badly hampering businesses and operators. Visitscotland chiefs said high air [...]
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Greece passes new law to boost tourism and investment
DestinationsThe Greek parliament approved legislation late on Thursday to boost private investment, a key condition to get the crisis-struck country out of its worst-ever peacetime recession. The new investment incentive law aims to cut red tape by making a broader range of projects eligible for fast-track licensing and by creating a new one-stop-shop agency for [...]
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SkiftStats: The troubled travel industries of Italy and Spain, in numbers
DestinationsSome more country data goodness, this time returning to WTTC for the health of tourism economies of two of the traditional giants of European and indeed the World tourism: Italy and Spain. Both of these countries, like many others in Europe, had gone through the worst during the 2008-2009 recession, and came out on the [...]
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NYC cruise industry slumps after Sandy, but still attracts nearly $200 million
TransportFewer cruise passengers went through New York City in 2012 than in 2011, according to a report by the New York Economic Development Corporation. In a release, the NYEDC and Mayor Michael Bloomberg emphasized the industry’s reported $196.3 million economic impact on the city. However, the 587,727 passengers who came through New York in 2012 [...]
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The world’s most tourism-dependent countries
DestinationsWhen you’re a remote island, about the only means of building up an economy is tourism. World Travel & Tourism Council has come out with some data — along with its overall 2012-2013 numbers — that shows the extent to which these top tourism-dependent countries rely on that flow of tourists and the money they [...]
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Saved from the wrecking ball, New York’s Hotel Penn readies for renovation
DestinationsNew York’s famed Hotel Pennsylvania is safe from the wrecking ball, rescued by the economy rather than preservationists. Plans to knock down the nearly century-old hotel, where jazz great Glenn Miller and his orchestra broadcast in the 1940s, and replace it with a 67-story office tower are “on the shelf,” said Steven Roth, chairman of [...]
