Articles tagged “skiftstats”

While some European destinations suffered last year from travelers' fear of terrorism, Iceland and other countries in Northern and Eastern Europe benefited from the short-term, decreased interest in Western Europe — and more favorable exchange rates.

November was the third consecutive month that U.S. arrivals to South America decreased or were flat from the previous year and the fourth -- albeit non-consecutive -- month of declines in U.S. arrivals to the Caribbean in 2016. Travel brands are monitoring demand for Latin America following zika virus outbreaks across the region during the past year.

While fewer international travelers visited the U.S. last year based on available data, the travelers who did visit made trips in spite of a stronger dollar and likely had higher spending power or more disposable income to flirt with for international travel.

With more airlift from the U.S. to Mexico, and the country's increased focus on luxury travel, combined with a stronger U.S. economy, it makes sense that U.S. travel growth to Mexico became robust in 2016.

Nine months in to 2016, outbound U.S. tourism is confirming our earlier position that this was going to be an excellent year for foreign travel. A strong currency helps outweigh fears of violence and even Zika.

Google is an even mightier king in 2016 when it comes to what leads travelers' to brand websites and, ultimately, what gets them to make a purchase. But direct website visits shouldn't be overlooked: These were the next largest source of site visits and revenue.

For some states coming in under budget is good news and for others the smaller spending signifies problems that marketing organizations are having. For now, most provisional tourism budgets increased for fiscal year 2016 and we'll soon see what impact that's had on travelers.

Rich travelers, or those with multi-million annual incomes and assets, are getting richer and they're also getting more loyal and becoming stronger advocates for hotels. They also expect value from loyalty programs like every other kind of traveler and choose programs accordingly.

Many foreign currencies may not be as strong against the U.S. dollar as in years' past but the exchange rate is still favorable for many of the international travelers visiting the U.S. The overall increase in international visitor spending certainly helps but researchers feel domestic U.S. traveler spending will become even more essential for the rest of the year.

While short-term rentals and ride-sharing are becoming more used and accepted by Asia-Pacific travelers, the survey points out that many of these travelers are also highly brand-sensitive as they want to experience iconic hotel brands when they travel abroad.