Tourism News

While tourism board funding has been a mixed bag around the world in recent years, it's evident tourism boards aren't losing focus on strategies like video and more deeply engaging with the local community.

It can be easy to forget that most U.S. business travelers aren't road warriors hitting multiple cities in a week. Sometimes we fixate too much on those who travel the most instead of the majority, who spend a day or two visiting clients or potential customers.

This week's tourism news included a debate on human interaction. Business travelers want to be left alone, but millennial leisure travelers attend events compulsively because they're dying of FOMO, or fear of missing out.

Brand USA has a difficult task these days of appeasing a White House with unfavorable views of foreigners while still spreading a welcoming message in key international markets.

With the federal government deadlocked in intractable partisan debate, mayors across the U.S. are stepping up to drive progress by cultivating their innovation economies. A growing number are developing innovation districts to elevate their cities' brands.

So far it seems that London's tech scene hasn't suffered any negative impact from last June's Brexit vote. The bigger test will come when the results of the negotiations are known. Only then will entrepreneurs and investors find out where they stand.

Some U.S. travelers will always want to stay close to home, regardless of the state of the world. Road trips to visit nearby friends and family continue to be the foundation of most American trips, and that will likely be the case again this year.

The Chinese outbound market is booming yet travelers still find low acceptance of their typical payment methods. As travel becomes more accessible to the Chinese lower and middle class offering payment methods such as AliPay and WeChat Pay will be a definitive competitive advantage.

Some destinations are still early to the party in harvesting data from residents and travelers on tourism trends and impacts. Many have plans with how to use the information they've gathered but how that information is shared with local politicians and residents is still a work in progress.

This week in tourism, Trump's travel ban demands "bona fide" connections in the U.S. In other government news, mayors tell Skift how they deal with undesirable tourism identities.