New Orleans’ tourism industry has achieved a major milestone, welcoming 8.3 million visitors in 2010, a 10.7 percent increase over 2009, and the first time to reach 8 million visitors since Katrina. Those 8.3 million visitors spent $5.3 billion, a $1.1 billion increase over 2009 and the highest spending in the city’s history, according to a study released today.
“Fuel costs more”: It’s the “dog ate my homework” excuse for the travel business.
It certainly seems handy. With the price of gas reaching record-breaking proportions, who can argue? In fact, unlike the dog-homework analogy proffered by today’s excuse-makers – travel businesses from airlines to tour operators — it actually seems plausible to travelers
With the deadline for filing individual U.S. tax returns nearing next week, Americans are planning how they will spend their refunds and more than half plan to use at least some of the money on travel. About 57 percent of the nearly 1,000 people questioned in a national poll said part of their refund would be used for a trip, and despite the sluggish economic recovery, 83 percent said they will spend as much or more on travel this year as they did in 2010.
Brilla Group, a real estate private equity firm focused exclusively on the luxury beachfront hotel and resort asset class, today announced its sponsorship for the second consecutive year of the Caribbean Hotel & Resort Investment Summit (CHRIS). Brilla Group is also sponsoring the first edition of CHRIS’s sister event, the Hotel Opportunities Latin America Conference (HOLA).
The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) is inviting students to enter its Tourism Essay Competition 2011, which is part of a continued thrust to heighten awareness about the tourism product.
The crown prince of Thailand has one. So do the presidents of Peru and Chile. The Chinese Air Force relies on it, as do airlines in Russia, Indonesia, Australia and Romania. The Boeing 737 is a workhorse of international aviation. And the accident in which the roof of Southwest Airlines jet ripped open at 34,000 feet has brought scrutiny to the hundreds of older-model 737s around the world that could be similarly vulnerable because of tiny, hard-to-find stress fractures in the aluminum skin.