“We are on the cusp of a new golden age of travel,” proclaimed Starwood CEO Frits van Paasschen upon last month”™s announcement that the global hotel conglomerate would relocate its headquarters to Dubai for a monthlong immersion.
While Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. and many of the region”™s travel companies consider international growth with the industry in the midst of a boom cycle, the focus is closer to home for Connecticut hoteliers, who made the trip to midtown Manhattan for a sales mission late last month.
The Connecticut Convention and Sports Bureau met with 70 tristate hotel managers and event planners March 21 in Manhattan in hopes of bringing back new business from New York and New Jersey.
Since the CTCSB launched in July, industry representatives and state marketers have been busy seeking new leads and trying to convince companies to hold their events and meetings in Connecticut.
Funded in part by the state Office of Tourism”™s $15 million marketing budget, the group hopes to encourage people to stay in Connecticut”™s hotels, eat at its restaurants and shop in its stores.
The CTCSB”™s first sales mission was held at The Campbell Apartment, a restaurant within Grand Central Terminal. Just seven months in, the bureau has secured 120,000 hotel night-stays out of its year-end goal of 200,000.
“We”™re filling hotel rooms, we”™re selling business,” said Michael Van Parys, president of the CTCSB. “We”™re getting people aware ”” first of all ”” of Connecticut and that we”™re open for meetings. There really wasn”™t anyone doing what we”™re doing for quite awhile.”
The bureau plans to host several more sales missions in the upcoming months for its members and Van Parys said the group wanted the first to be in New York City. Members have identified the New York market and corporate meeting planners as focal points.
Since the bureau formed, Van Parys said its growth has been on target and that CTCSB has been successful in securing new business opportunities for its members.
The group features a sales team that actively works on drawing meetings, conventions and sporting events to the state, and refers the leads, depending on their size and requirements, to venues that can support their needs.
“We”™re building a name for ourselves all over again,” Van Parys said. “We”™re getting calls now and we”™re seeing leads being sent to us because they know that we”™re there and will be able to help them out.”
“We”™re starting to reap the benefits now,” he said.
In Stamford alone, the five largest hotels have 790,000 hotel room reservations to fill each year.
Holly Anderson Bender, director of sales and marketing for the Hilton Stamford Hotel & Executive Meeting Center, credits an average of two or three sales leads a week to the CTCSB.
“You need this type of organization to promote Connecticut,” she said. “They”™re an extension of our sales team and bring awareness of what we have to offer.”
Tourism ”˜touches all of us”™
In Connecticut, “Tourism is a huge industry,” Van Parys said. “It touches all of us in a way.”
The tourism industry is among Fairfield County”™s more prominent employers, with the likes of Starwood in Stamford and priceline.com Inc. and Tauck Inc. in Norwalk.
Over the next five years, Starwood plans to open 50 new hotels in the Middle East and Africa, 50 new hotels in Europe and dozens more in China, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
The company hopes to fuel new demand and capitalize on a growing Middle East market with its monthlong Dubai immersion, which comes after a similar program in China in 2011.
Travel bookings are expected to continue to rise over the coming year, according to priceline.com.
In its most recent earnings report, priceline.com said the Priceline Group ”” which also includes Booking.com,
agoda.com and rentalcars.com ”” saw gross travel bookings increase more than 31 percent in 2012 to $28.5 billion.
For the first quarter of 2013, priceline is projecting its gross travel bookings will increase between 30 and 37 percent compared with the first quarter of 2012.
Notably, the company said it was targeting international travel booking growth of between 36 and 43 percent.
Tauck, a family-owned business that offers vacation and tour packages in the U.S. and overseas, is coming off a record year for bookings. So far in 2013, bookings are up by more than 10 percent compared to this time last year, said Tom Armstrong, manager of corporate communications.
“I would say it”™s definitely reflective of the economy. I think that we”™re definitely a premium brand, and I would suggest that our clients are perhaps a bit more insulated from the short term fluctuations in the markets,” Armstrong said. “We”™ve also added new destinations.”
Armstrong said Tauck recently launched a new cruise in Southeast Asia and a new tour that includes northern India and Nepal. The company has also expanded its Tauck Bridges offerings ”” geared toward families with children ”” to include a tour in Peru, a riverboat cruise on the Rhone River in France, and a new tour in Ireland.
“European river cruising for us has really been the single hottest category,” Armstrong said, noting that those bookings are closely followed by Tauck Bridges bookings.
In the U.S., Tauck has partnered with film producer Ken Burns to produce travel experiences based on the themes of Burns”™ projects.
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