The travel and tourism industry in the Hudson Valley is likely to be profitable even in a difficult economic era, according to a top industry consultant, since the region is well positioned in times of high gas prices and a general desire for recuperative vacations.
“As long as New York City has 8 million residents, you don”™t have any excuse to not do well in travel and tourism,” said Judy L. Randall, president and CEO of Randall Travel Marketing, addressing 70 attendees at the third-annual Top Trends in Travel and Tourism conference April 28 at the Emerson Resort and Spa in Mt. Tremper.
“We are fortunate that our Hudson Valley has an attraction for every traveler, from hiker to skier to history buff to arts aficionado and more,” said Joyce Minard, president of the New Paltz Regional Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored the event.
Prospects for travel and tourism are essentially positive, Randall said. “Generally speaking, 2008 is going to be OK, especially here in the Hudson Valley,” she said.
She traced the advent of the travel and tourism industry to post-World War II changes in social mores, with the introduction of vacation for workers along with automobiles and other transportation options. And while the industry peaked in July 2000 and then declined in the wake of 9/11, there is steady recovery and a continuing demand for recreation and leisure activity. “Once they got that one-week paid vacation, people liked it,” Randall said. “So they will go somewhere, maybe closer to home, maybe spending less money, but they will go on their leisure trips, period, end of statement. So you are in a good place and leisure tourism is your baby.”
Hotels in the Hudson Valley area, not including bed and breakfast facilities, mirror the national trend with about a 63 percent occupancy rate. 75 percent of travelers say they are staying closer to home and the same 75 percent are adults traveling without children. But to attract visitors and induce repeat visits requires tactical thinking and presentation, beginning with good information on the latest trends in the industry.
For example, attendance at tourist attractions “is plummeting” nationally, Randall said as travelers seek to get away from it all while on vacation. “Baby boomers and Gen Xers, all we want in life is one good nap,” she joked. She said, “Travelers want respite and healing for themselves and their relationships.” She said hotels should ensure their staff is well versed in answering questions about things to do in the area, and should also be trained to present a happy, welcoming greeting when guests arrive and orient them about the hotel or motel and the nearby restaurants and other attractions.
That effort is especially necessary for greeting tired business travelers. “Business travel today is nothing but a hassle for people,” she said, though they remain important to the industry because they make up about 33 percent of travelers staying at lodging. She noted an important change in business travel demographics: Nowadays, the majority of business travelers are women seeking different amenities than business men seek.
She also cited polls showing up to 90 percent of women say their dream vacation involves getting away with their best girlfriends for some quality time together that it is impossible to find at home. Along those lines, spas are more popular than ever, she said, for both men and woman. Overall 36 percent of travelers want to experience a spa while on vacation.
Conventions make up about 15 percent of the travel business, she said, but while it is a valuable business, the companies booking conventions are selective about facilities, seeking places where the attendees can eat, sleep meet and party without any driving.
Traditional tours are still viable mostly as niche markets. “It”™s all about affinity groups,” she said, such as church groups or youth groups. Successful tour operators in Europe are now using more of facilitated travel model, where visitors are met at the airport, their luggage handled for them to their rooms in the hotel, while they receive a tour packet with meal tickets and maps, and information about the area they explore as they wish, until the tour transports them to the next city.
While chambers of commerce and destinations spend on ads to attract visitors, Randall said the most important source of information consumers use in deciding where to travel is other travelers. Online services that allow a consumer to rate a hotel, an attraction or other aspects of the travel-tourism experience far outrank traditional venues in terms of their influence with would-be visitors. She said three-quarters of travelers polled said they used “social networks” such as Internet chat rooms to determine their destinations. “What the consumer is telling us is they trust each other more than they trust you,” she said. She urged proprietors of travel industry businesses to track what is being said about them on line.
She said the Web presence of the Hudson Valley area needs upgrading. During her talk at the Emerson, she typed in Hudson Valley into Google and found little relevant information. She said Las Vegas, Memphis, and Disney are the best models in fashioning a Web presence.
