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It is no secret that air lines, in an effort to keep the cost of flights low, began adding a-la-carte fees to previously free services. Want to bring luggage to your destination? That’s an extra $25.00. Want a seat someone larger than midget stature can fit in? Well, that could be an extra $100.00 each way – depending on your distance. Want something to eat or drink on your flight? That is an extra $6.00 for the beer and who knows how much they will price-gauge you for the bag of chips or sub-par sandwich. There is almost no service most of the regional air lines won’t give you for an additional price including a day in their red-carpet lounge. While this has become common practice for air lines, it appears that hotels are trying to jump on this a-la-carte fee bandwagon. Does this mean it is good for business, probably not!

According to the Wall Street Journal, there have been reports of hotels adding surcharges for safes in room, minibar restocking fees, baggage holding fees for guests leaving luggage with bell staff after checking out, and a “tray charge” on room-service bills on top of a service charge and an automatic gratuity. Facility use? Shouldn’t the pool and the fitness center be included in the price of the hotel room? Imagine showing up to a hotel to find out the room rate you negotiated does not include the safe in the room, or the TV they provided, and they are charging you $5.00 a day for toilet access. Even worse, you don’t find most of this out until check out.

The main reason this is a bad idea for hotels is because adding a-la-carte fees for services people may not want, or use, to begin with is a sure-fire way to lose customers. The airlines have a completely different business model that allows them to charge additional fees based on right-of-use. If you don’t want luggage handlers, who could possible lose your luggage, food or drinks on the plane or don’t mind sitting in a seat with less leg-room you have every right to opt-out of these services. However, providing you a service or amenity and then later coming to you with a hefty bill for it is certainly no way to win repeat business – particularly in a recession and especially when charging for services or amenities that guests may not have even taken advantage of.
 
I think businesses of all-types should be up front about costs. Don’t get me in the door by offering me a room at one price and then add a plethora of fees for things regardless if I use them or not. If I want to add in a massage, that’s fine, but don’t charge me $5.00 at check-out because the hotel decided to install safes, mini-fridges or TV’s in all the rooms. What do you think about hotels adding on hidden fees to their offered room rate?

Anyone who has seen the movie “The Holiday” with Cameron Diaz, Jack Black, Jude Law and Kate Winslet knows how the home-exchange works. Upon experiencing small personal trauma you look online for attractive place to escape current problems. Next, you stumble upon person (who happens to have extremely attractive, single brother) in the exact same situation as you and make the switch. The results: save money on travel accommodations, immerse yourself in local culture and fall madly in love with said attractive single brother.

All joking aside, home exchanges are a growing trend in the travel world. To many people the thought of swapping houses for a week with total strangers is absolutely terrifying. To others, it is no different than renting out a second home during peak travel times, or even staying at a bed and breakfast. During this time of economic uncertainty, it is especially attractive to people looking to still travel and experience the world, but now on a tighter budget. With airfares at record lows, and then adding in free house swap, one could come up with a very economical vacation package.

What do you think about this? Are you willing to give up your bed for a free week in Maui? I suppose the only kicker is that you have to live in a location that people want to come visit, equally as much as you wanting to visit their place. For example, my family in Omaha, Neb. might not be able to switch with someone in Maui…but I guess you never know, you could always be on the better end of the deal! Do I sense a Wife-Swap-esq reality show in the works?!

If this is something that interests you check out the full article that appeared last month in the Wall Street Journal for popular Web sites and other tips and tricks. While you may not fall in love with a Jude Law lookalike, or hang out with the funny Jack Black neighbor all week, you will have an insider’s look into the culture of a destination, without giving up all the things you love about home.

What is couch surfing? No, it is not spending your vacation hopping from one friends house to the next to watch the new Gossip Girl or daily hot show on Primetime TV. According to their Web Site, “it’s a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit” with 1,473,790 members.

Basically, you make connections with people online and they invite you to stay ‘on their couch’ (proverbial or literal) when you are traveling. The site is full of testimonials and the ‘CouchStories’ are both heartwarming and full of amazing couch surfing experiences. To date surfers have claimed 2,742,009 positive couch surfing experiences.

While it might be awkward to stay with someone you meet over the internet, think how cool it could be. Not only do you get to stay somewhere for virtually free – although I am sure it would  probably be proper etiquette to buy your host a dinner or at least a few drinks – you get the unabashed guidance of a local who’s willing, and free spirited enough, to let a complete stranger stay in their home free of charge. What more could you ask for?

I don’t know about you, but it makes me want to make a connection, buy a plane ticket and surf a couch!

The seventh annual Fall Travel Trends Survey conducted by Travel Leaders was released this week. The survey was conducted with information from 452 Travel leaders agents, managers and owners from August 4-28.

So what are the favorite destinations for fall? Las Vegas and Caribbean cruising – again. They are continuously ranked number one in the survey and this year is no different. They are warm (something us northern dwellers look for in fall vacations), fairly easy to get to, provide a myriad of things to do for people from every walk of life, and have a seemingly endless supply of rooms that are discounted this year like you would never believe. New York knocked the revolving Hawaiian destinations off their #3 spot as travelers look to take advantage of the Big Apple’s rock bottom prices, which are certainly not going to be around forever.

Other good news to come from the survey is that many more Travel Leaders are more optimistic about their business then they were last year and there is even speculation from Piper Jaffray at Citibank the travel industry may have already bottomed out. Nearly 60% of Travel Leader respondents were optimistic about their business in the upcoming year. Maybe because, according to Christopher Elliott, 2010 is supposed to be the year of travel deals .

What are leisure travelers doing to take full advantage of the good deals? According to the survey they are staying at all-inclusives (69.9 percent), using frequent-flyer miles (64.1 percent), being flexible with dates (62 percent), booking only if there is a promotion/deal (54.9 percent), shortening trips or vacations (traveling fewer days) (51.5 percent). With all the fun things to do and see out there and the amazing prices things are being offered at, it’s worth shopping around, and then taking advantage, of the best deals.

Most of my work in communications involves policy advocacy for global health and  development issues. Last week, I served on a panel at the Corporate Council on Africa’s bi-annual conference in Washington. The subject of the session was how to reposition Africa as a tourist destination.

At first glance, tourism and development  might seem to have little in common. But nothing could be further from the truth. For many African countries, tourism provides a major source of foreign exchange and foreign direct investment, and it is a major money earner in the “formal sector” (i.e., the sector of the economy that provides wage employment, is “on the books,” and generates tax revenues that can fund development).

The challenge is that Africa currently earns very little from tourism relative to other world regions.  (Go to the web sites of the UN’s World Tourism Organization and the World Travel & Tourism Council for more information.) While some African countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and South Africa enjoy significant proceeds from tourism, the scale of their revenues just doesn’t compare to destinations in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Latin America.

How can African countries turn this around? I think the solution requires a mixture of tried-and-true approaches to destination marketing, as well as a  disciplined approach to: (1) recruiting a broader array of brand ambassadors, and (2) getting the bulk of African news off the front page. (More on that second, seemingly counterintuitive, point below.)

The tried-and-true approach includes a combination of proactive marketing and reactive crisis communications.  This means that African national tourism boards still need to invest in marketing their countries via multiple media channels, trade shows, and events, but they also need to develop effective crisis communications plans that empower brand managers to respond to crises when they arise and take steps to reassure the public and the tourism industry.

In regard to recruiting a broader array of brand ambassadors, I believe that there are four key markets to engage.  First, there are high-net-worth Americans, Europeans, and Asians who are looking for the vacation of a lifetime.  The African tourism sector can target this group with vacation packages that highlight the five-star quality of many African vacations and the unique qualities of a holiday in the Serengeti, or Kruger, or by the boiling waters of Victoria Falls.

Second, African tourism boards can target what I will call - for lack of a better expression - the “backpacker set.”  These are the twenty-something experiential tourists, the returned Peace Corps Volunteers, the American and European university students who pick Ghana or South Africa for their semester abroad, and medical and nursing students who want to practice their professions in communities that need access to primary health care.

If we can target this set when they are young - using the social media channels that are their most credible source of information - we can convert them to the cause and create lifetime brand ambassadors.  This younger set can also sing the praises of destinations that are stilll off the beaten track for high-net-worth tourists - like the beautiful hillsides overlooking the Zambezi inland delta in Mongu, Zambia or the rugged shores of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya.

A third critical target audience are African Americans who are seeking to reconnect to their heritage.  The west African tourist industry in particular can benefit by working with African American destination marketers to create tourism packages that highlight 500 years of cultural connection between west Africa and the Americas.

A fourth target audience is the sizable population of first- and second-generation African immigrants to America who maintain strong connections to their countries of origin and can broaden the conversation about Africa beyond landmarks, flora, and fauna to contemporary conversations about music, food, fabrics, and art.

This brings me to my counterintutive observation.  People who think about Africa’s image in the world often say that Africa never makes front page news unless the story relates to war, disease, hunger, or hardship.  While this statement oversimplifies matters (and is a definite reflection of the specific tone and focus of media coverage in the U.S., UK, and Germany), it also bears real elements of truth.

I believe that we need to change the image of Africa by investing in a rebranding process that features more stories - stories that appear in the Food Section, the Business Section, the Style Section, and, yes, the Travel Page.  We need to start telling new stories - based on credible facts - about Africa’s economic growth over the past decade, about Africa’s unrivalled biodiversity, about Africa’s potential leadership in the production of organic foods and materials, about Africa’s diverse cuisine and innovative music scenes (in Mali, Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya).

Telling new and surprising stories is key to repositioning Africa as something other than front-page tragedy.  Front pages are normally reserved for crises, wherever they happen, and it’s time to get the bulk of African news off the front page.

Luxury travel in the 1980’s was all about materialism - where did you holiday? How expensive was it and what famous faces had been there before you?

In the 90s materialism - the number of restaurants in the hotel and how you demonstrated your wealth - in the lounge bar or in the casion - were still examples of holiday success.
 
As we reach 2010, luxury travellers still want the finest things in life and spending is definitely still in, despite the financial crisis but it is being shown in a more discreet and conservative fashion.

Consumers may still want to spend thousands of dollars on their holiday but, its less crass, mass market stampede and more private, understated niche.

New global research by TNS has shown consumers today are redefining luxury - it is now about your holiday experience and how this meets your emotional needs rather than the product or physical offering.

Some Australian experts are terming today’s approach to travel - luxury prudence - rather than middling mass-stige.

lebua Hotels & Resorts’ luxury Lake Okareka Lodge, is tapping into this new customer trend.

The award-winning Lodge in Rotorua, New Zealand attracts high rollers from Europe, Asia and North Amercia and offers a bespoke, unique experience. Guests can enjoy a 24-hour butler and concierge service and relax in an environment which evokes timeless classicism. It is proving to be very popular.
 
The question will be - is this new luxury phenomenon a product of our global financial crisis or will this be the norm for many years to come? Only the success of those businesses which are focusing on this new breed of luxury customers will tell.

This entry was originally posted on Flagged for Follow Up.

Disclaimer: Don’t worry … I have no intention of fashioning myself as the next Gary the “social media sommelier” Vaynerchuk [for those of you who are not familiar with Gary, check out http://tv.winelibrary.com/ for a truly unique experience].

I recently returned from my first-ever trip to California wine country [specifically Sonoma].  In addition to pristine weather, post-card vistas, incredible wine and some of the best food I’ve ever had, I also picked up a few lessons that might be useful for any marketer.

Lesson 1 - In sea of uneducated consumers, free is a good starting point: If you’re like me you haven’t the faintest idea why one winery is better than the next.  The ones we ended up visiting our first day were largely based on free tasting passes [a $10-$20 value] passed on by our concierge.  Not the most sophisticated method of choosing, but a starting point.  I’m not advising marketers give away their product [who do you think I am, Chris Anderson?] but I do think trial is crucial, and free is as powerful driver of that behavior.

Lesson 2 - Get your story straight, then tell it with passion: My wife and I were fortunate enough to visit with a guy called Stewart Dorman who runs a winery called Adrian Fog.  Stewart has a great story [former wine writer ... left to pursue his passion ... spends his days toiling in the vineyards or perfecting his blends ... only makes 1,000 barrels a year ... etc.].  It’s not so much Stewart’s story [which is awesome] but the passion with which he tells it.  We walked away from our conversation with two bottles of relatively expensive wine - I wanted to take part of Stewart’s story home with us.

Lesson 3 - Create a captivating and differentiating experience: Of all the places we visited, we only joined one wine club - and it wasn’t necessarily the best wine we had [but it was damn good].  Rather, it was the winery that did an elegant snack pairing with their tasting flight, spent an hour talking us through the flight, answered our questions, told us their history … they were the anti-wine snobs.  And it made their tasting room different than the others, and a really fun experience.  The winery is Williamson Wines.

Lesson 4 - “Limited edition” can be a powerful sales tool: I quickly realized that most wine for sale was not available for distribution [meaning only sold direct or via a wine club]. So the pitch is: You can’t get this anywhere else other than buying it right now.  Wouldn’t it be a shame to get home and think to yourself, ‘too bad I didn’t get that wine when I had the chance’?

Lesson 5 - Search is king: Found on every street corner in the town of Healdsburg.  Charming, no?

In light of the fact that travel trends seem to revolve solely around the recession these days, I wanted to explore a new travel theme appearing in the news quite often – bus tours. Bus tours are popping up with new deals every day and new companies such as Boltbus and Megabus are competing with more established companies like Greyhound and Trailways. Prices are usually one way and recent deals from these companies include $5 trips, $2 trips and $1 trips! Also, sites like BusJunction now exist to help travelers find the best deal with a reputable company.

As travelers are looking to save money and more often choosing locations closer to home, buses seem to be a more relevant option. But one question remains in my mind…Why take a bus instead of driving? Since I’ve never gone on a bus tour and haven’t been on anything other than a city bus since high school, I created a list below of what I think the pros and cons of bus travel would be:

Pros:

• You can sit back and relax instead of having to navigate and keep your eyes on the road…read a book or take a nap. This is a big pro.
• It doesn’t matter how much gas costs per gallon…because you’re not paying.
• Less hassle and less security than an airport
• Wi-fi! – Much more likely that your bus will have wi-fi than your plane.

Cons:

• One of the great things about road trips is stopping wherever you want, and I’m guessing this isn’t an option on a bus tour. What if you see the world’s largest ball of twine and want to stop and take a picture?
• A bus isn’t as glamorous or fast as a plane. I would say they’re probably only relevant for trips that are three hours or less

Has anyone gone on a bus tour, instead of driving on a road trip or flying somewhere? What are your opinions?

I was a sixteen year old working in the city’s libraries at weekends when the idea of my hometown, Liverpool, bidding for 2008 European Capital of Culture was first suggested. From the start the people of Liverpool got behind the bid in true scouse style, seeing it as an amazing opportunity to show the world what they and their much maligned city has to offer.

And it seemed to work; 10 million people attended Capital of Culture events which included everything from a homecoming concert by Paul McCartney to an art installation featuring a giant mechanical spider roaming through the city. Key attractions like the Walker Art Gallery and Museum of Liverpool saw a 70% increase in visitor numbers. Over a quarter of visitors in 2008 were new to the city and 75% of all visitors said that the Capital of Culture was the reason behind their visit.

But now we are well into 2009 the question on everyone’s lips is ‘What next?’ how, especially in a recession, can Liverpool maintain the momentum from 2008 and continue to grow the local tourism economy?  The world is littered with cities that once upon a time hosted a big event, whether it was a City of Culture, World Cup venue or Olympic city, some have used these events as springboard for success, while other have been forgotten before the confetti from the closing ceremony has been swept up.

Barcelona, once a grey industrial city, now a thriving cultural centre and top European weekend break destination, is widely acknowledged as an example of Olympic legacy done well. In the Barcelona case the city used the Games as an opportunity to change the way the city was seen by both locals and the wider world. The Games saw an area of industrial wasteland transformed into Barcelona’s beach, giving residents a space to be proud of and creating a whole new tourist district that paved the way for the Easyjet weekend break invasion. For Barcelona the Olympic Games was just the start, they had a plan in place for further development after the closing ceremony

Glasgow, another former Capital of Culture, used its special year in 1990 as a springboard for urban regeneration. Again the key to success was to change the way outsiders and locals themselves think about the city. Glaswegians, like Liverpudlians had something to prove, that theirs was a great world city with an enviable culture. In the years following 1990 Glasgow firmly established itself as a cultural destination with the opening of the Gallery of Modern Art, now the most visited contemporary arts venue outside London, and the Norman Foster designed music venue the Glasgow Auditorium.

So if the recipe for success seems to be having a follow up plan and changing perceptions, how is my city doing? The finale of 2008 was not described as a closing ceremony, instead it was a ‘Transition Event’ and there has been no let up in activity, or in promotion since the start of 2009 with a calendar of events unrivalled by any other city in the UK, many drawing on the most popular elements from 2008. Although 2008 didn’t give Liverpool a beach, it did give us a fantastic new shopping district, cruise liner port and soon a new museum.  When it comes to changing perceptions, 2008 seems to have got the people of Liverpool excited about their own tourist attractions, with 70% of scousers claiming to have visited a museum or gallery in the last year compared to a national average of just 59%. As a Liverpudlian in London I personally have experienced a massive change in people’s reactions to my city. When I tell people where I’m from instead of getting jokes about car theft or hilarious attempts at an impression of a scouse accent, I get comments like ‘Wow, that’s such a cool city, it must be amazing to grow up there’ or ‘I saw all the Capital of Culture events, it looks amazing’. So it’s looking hopeful that 2008 could mark a real new start for a city with so much to offer!

 With the summer travel season quickly coming to an end, I’m leaving this weekend for my second camping trip of the summer. The constant news this summer about “staycations” (one of the very worst combination words ever) and how the recession is affecting travel made me curious if camping was included in the budget-friendly vacation trends of the summer. It seems like the obvious fit – there are campgrounds within a 50-mile radius of nearly everywhere – and camping is an extremely affordable method of travel. If you have a tent, a blanket and a cooler to store your hot dogs and beer, you’re basically set. You can even camp in the back of a truck, or under a tarp! With a flashlight to find the bathroom in the night and some bug spray, you’re completely packed. And what better way to relax than set yourself down in a woods, with nothing to do besides hike or read a book, listening to the sound of the crickets?

So, was camping a trend this summer? Yes, but not as big as one might think. Most budget-friendly vacation guides promote cheap flights and hotels to travelers instead of the great outdoors. Of course, there are tons of articles about the Obamas visiting the Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, but I’m willing to bet they were sleeping in the best lodges there. There were special promotions at some of the national parks for reduced entry fees and even a free weekend, but nothing specifically related to camping. But most surprising, an article in last Saturday’s Wall Street Journal about a new micro trend – “glamping.” (This is a word that makes staycation look almost poetic. Glamping?)

That’s right, glamorous camping… Defined as an “updated and upscale” visit to the outdoors, glampers may go places like “wilderness resorts,” equip their $100,000 RVs with satellite dishes, flat panel TVs, waterbeds and a traveling chef to make their outdoor experience more comfortable. To me, this sounds like a good way to make camping a lot more difficult and ruin the simplicity of this American pastime.

If the economy continues to be poor through next summer, promoting camping seems like the obvious way to bring tourist dollars back into a state. Instead of marketing cheap flights and cheap hotels, why not bring back a more basic form of travel? Call it what you will, camping has been around for ages, and now seems like a great time to celebrate it.

If money is tight, do you still prefer a resort, or would you consider camping a fun, low-cost, back-to-basics trip? Let me know – I’ll be in the woods, making s’mores.