The tourism industry appears to come across major dificulties for the first time in recent years, writes the Chicago Tribune. Hotels likely will see occupancy rates downtown and nationally drop by 2 percentage points this year, though prices should hold strong.
Some observers see a potentially harsher scenario.
“This is the bow wave, and the rest of [...]

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TripAdvisor has acquired VirtualTourist.com, a pioneer in user-generated travel content since 1999, and OneTime.com, a travel booking comparison site.
Including VirtualTourist and OneTime, the TripAdvisor Media Network now attracts nearly 32 million unique monthly visitors.
“VirtualTourist pioneered the concept of an online travel community, and with the help of over a million enthusiastic members, has created a [...]

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Lastminute.com is to upgrade its dynamic packaging technology so any product on the online travel agency’s platform can be sold as a single product, writes Travolution.
The new system will allow users to combine flights, hotels and package holidays with other destination services such as restaurants, activities, attractions and theatre tickets. Until now users have not [...]

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We have come a long way in the world of Internet Marketing. From the age of information (think glorified electronic brochure) on the web to the world of snappy online transactions…we’ve now moved into the age of an experiential and social Internet, all great leaps in a relatively short space of time.
Hotel eMarketers can lay [...]

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Sabre Travel Network and PhoCusWright announced the availability of new research discussing strategies and tactics to optimize travel procurement. The findings of the study are presented in a whitepaper, Best Practices in Travel Business Intelligence, which is based on two years of interviews with business travel managers and buyers, as well as detailed reviews of [...]

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The Travel category online is an example of how the Internet has made our lives both easier and more complicated. It very clearly exemplifies “the paradox of choice.” Indeed, there are hundreds of travel sites that provide booking services and travel content of one sort or another. You’re “empowered” with information but also potentially overwhelmed [...]

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Expedia released the findings of a global survey seeking to crown the world’s best tourists and measure travelers based on their best and worst travel traits and habits. The Japanese won top prize and are considered by hoteliers across the globe as overall the best tourists. German and British tourists tied for second place, followed [...]

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It’s a dramatic shift from traditional hotel marketing, where hotels were controlling the content and the communication with customers. The new strategy aims to capture the attention of Internet-savvy guests and get customers to talk among themselves on sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, promoting word-of-mouth advertising.
Hotels are becoming more serious about using online [...]

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This summer hotel sales forecasts are mixed but industry analysts predict that the summer 2008 will not be as successful for hotels as previous ones. About finding opportunities in hospitality industry and tactics to drive business and sales in a ‘Not So Hot’ Summer, writes hospitality industry consultant Carol Verret.
There are markets that will perform [...]

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