Golf-Hotel-Resorts AND CASINO News: Weekend Review: U.S. Tourism Declines + Spirit Air Wants to Be Loved

September 9, 2017

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The glass is half empty after all. Reports earlier this year said that the feared Trump Slump – the notion that the U.S. president would frighten off visitors – were misplaced and visitors were still coming. Turns out, they weren't.

While there are some bright spots (like inbound Chinese visitors), this will continue to be an issue for the U.S. as long as its leaders continue to spread the message that outsiders are not welcome and then make it more difficult to obtain visas at embassies and consulates around the world. No amount of tourism marketing can overcome this. And while industry leaders are indeed speaking out against the administration's anti-travel policies, we need to do more.

— Jason Clampet, Editor-in-Chief

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Trump Slump Fears Are Realized as Revised Findings Show Tourism Drop

U.S. Travel's initial forward-looking travel projections seemed too optimistic. Hopefully the industry can have a more serious conversation about averting a prolonged slowdown instead of hoping for the best and staying the course.

Hurricane Irma Leaves Travel Agents and Cruise Lines Extremely Concerned and Hoping for the Best

Hurricane Irma is a monster storm the likes of which the Caribbean and United States haven't seen in a while. While tourism usually rebounds after major storms, we haven't seen an active Atlantic hurricane season like this for nearly a decade and many travel brands will need to think long-term to recover.

Spirit Airlines Wants to Win Back Customers by Being Nicer

Spirit Airlines spent years angering customers with shoddy customer service. Now it wants those travelers to return, promising they'll find a kinder, gentler airline with an increased emphasis on on-time arrivals. But will they come back, or will they opt for deeply discounted fares from full-service airlines?

Expedia IPO and Spin-Off History Sets Up Uber for a Deal-Making Era

Khosrowshahi's financial acumen will be crucial to Uber's turnaround, especially after just giving Uber an 18- to 26-month window to go public. The first step is to find a way to become profitable.

4 Tourism Website Trends Highlighting User Experience and Design

Tourism board websites in 2017 exist in an increasingly diverse world of platforms that have also been readily adopted by travelers as trip-planning resources. Here are some trends we noticed from our review of the world's best tourism websites this year.

Trivago Concedes It Overspent on Advertising and Lowers Forecasts

Trivago says this was just a hiccup. But they're vague about why they were surprised and what precisely happened. We suspect a Priceline sucker punch.

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Digital

HotelTonight Essentially Pivots to Become Hotel Whenever

HotelTonight's pivot into a 100-day booking window is a concession that the last-minute market was too small. Yet the company's swing to profitability is remarkable.

Oracle Hospitality Stumbled in Micros Integration But Says It Has Recovered

Oracle Hospitality doesn't fold sheets, bus tables, or stock shelves, but its software does keep hotels in order. It's taking a few years for the company to get itself in order, too.

Artificial Intelligence Is Becoming a Priority for Airline IT Chiefs

Airline chiefs are more likely to moan than talk optimistically about leaps in artificial intelligence. But a new SITA survey suggests they're realizing that it can be the bedrock of their futures.

Airlines

Emirates Considers Adding Budget Economy Section to Lure Frugal Flyers

Consumer groups may criticize Clark for even considering adding a "budget economy" section on the Airbus A380. But a sizable segment of passengers continue to demonstrate they want only one thing — cheap fares. Why shouldn't Emirates create a cabin that will allow it to compete for these customers?

United Blames Hurricane Harvey for Major Revenue Decline

There's a reason they call it an act of God. Every airline in the world is going to lose money when a massive hurricane hits one of its largest hubs. United will be fine. It'll just take some time.

Ryanair Says It's Serious About Alitalia but Only the Short-Haul Routes

Ryanair does appear serious about taking over Alitalia. But it still seems odd that Ryanair would want to take over one of the world's most dysfunctional airlines. Wouldn't it just be better for Ryanair to keep growing organically?

Hotels

Rosewood's New Ad Campaign Tries to Make Luxury Guests Its Stars

With everyone talking about experience curation and creating a sense of place, can a glitzy advertising campaign focusing on those characteristics actually differentiate a luxury hotel brand?

Short-Term Rental Ban in Berlin for Airbnb and Others Appears to Be Eroding

Despite the latest court ruling loosening restrictions on short-term rentals in Berlin, there are still plenty of questions left regarding what the city's laws on home-sharing really mean.

Taj Hotels Has a New CEO

Taj Hotels has been around for more than a century but the company remains a smaller player. No doubt The Indian Hotels Company hopes Chhatwal can help the group become an even bigger global player by growing its portfolio and brand recognition worldwide.

Tourism

10 Biggest Tourism Headlines of the Summer Travel Season

This was anything but a sleepy summer. The Trump administration, Brexit, and overtourism — to name a few tourism topics — definitely kept us on our toes during the past few months and we expect more news on these fronts in the months ahead.

Travel Habits of Americans: Gen Xers Lead Hotel-Mobile Bookings Among U.S. Travelers

It's not a tsunami, but it's been clear for some time that the tides are turning: Skift's data show 23 percent of U.S. consumers who booked a hotel in the past year used a smartphone to do so. The waters – or mobile hotel bookings – will only keep rising.

What Eclipseville, USA Learned From Hosting a Once-in-a-Lifetime Event

For a small town, Hopkinsville, Kentucky has some big-time lessons on how to plan and host a mass tourism event that will only happen once. The town is still figuring out how to use the positive PR to its advantage and how it can convince some of the eclipse chasers to come back.

Business Travel

Behind the Rise of Chatbots in Meetings and Events

Chatbots offer the first glimpse into a future where meeting and event planners can deliver mass personalization at scale using artificial intelligence.

Hipmunk Goes After Unmanaged Business Travel Market

Despite the initial denials, we always knew Concur would bring Hipmunk into business travel. It'll be interesting to see how the Hipmunk brand changes once it becomes known for more than just leisure travel.

Certify Buys Booking Tool in Latest Travel and Expense Tie-Up

Expense providers, which have typically connected with clients and their travel management companies, are moving deeper into the business travel booking arena.

Business of Restaurants

Last year, with the acquisition of Chefs+Tech newsletter, we began looking more closely at the restaurant world. We are getting ready to reveal some changes soon, but in the meantime catch up on coverage from this week — and don't forget to subscribe.

Chefs+Tech: This Summer's 4 Hottest Restaurant Trends

You don't need to paint your restaurant millennial pink to attract customers (I promise), but these four summer trends are worth your attention.

Chefs+Tech: Will Artificial Intelligence Make Restaurant Reviews Obsolete?

If bots can generate fake reviews that pass as real, the entire online review system will be completely useless. This is our future.

Social Dining Service VizEat Scoops Up Rival EatWith

VizEat's business has gotten stronger with this acquisition. But it still faces an uphill slog to expand its total addressable market beyond travelers to include locals looking for activities, especially in Asia.

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