Travel Wise: Local hotel rates rise, but tourists still coming

Hotel occupancy rates in Seattle and around Washington state inched upward in July, a sign of a slightly improved economy. The flip side was higher room prices.

Smith Travel Research reports the average room rate for July in the Seattle area was $126.50, up 5.3 percent compared to July 2010. That doesn't appear to be deterring tourists, however.

If the city feels crowded this weekend, there's a reason. The online travel agency CheapOair reports Seattle is among the nation's top 10 destinations for Labor Day. Los Angeles is No. 1. New York City didn't make the cut.

Cyber travel

Anyone who's tried to plan a trip into Eastern Europe knows there's a dearth of up-to-date travel information. New hotels and restaurants are opening all the time, yet most guidebook authors do their research a year before the books are published, then update only every two or three years.

My favorite online resources for this part of the world are the In Your Pocket Guides and apps (www.inyourpocket.com). Now there's another. Argophilia (http://argophilia.com/Albania/) launched last month with an online guide to Albania, the first in a planned series of guides for 30 Eastern European destinations.

I would have loved to have had an online guide for Albania when I traveled there in 2010. The country is truly a hidden gem, filled with medieval towns, beautiful beaches and historical sites.

In the meantime, when it comes to printed guidebooks, the slim Bradt Guides (www.bradtguides.com) still top my list for info about foreign destinations most tourists know little about.

Closer to home, the Snohomish County Tourism Bureau has come up with four free, self-guided cyber tours for smartphones and tablets such as the iPad.

Use them on the ferry, in a hotel room or while standing in front of a historic theater or scenic trailhead. The tours cover Granite Falls, the Mountain Loop Highway, local aviation-related attractions and the Snohomish antique district. Details at www.snohomish.org.

Airline refund policies

Following up on an August column on airline refund policies when fares drop, I heard from Bruce and Olga Sutherland, who booked flights to Frankfurt from Seattle in August on Condor Air.

"We checked the airfare on tickets we booked for Europe in May," they wrote in an email. "Sure enough, the fares had dropped significantly, nearly $1,000 for the two of us. We called the airline immediately but were told they could do nothing, no voucher, no upgrade. 'Sorry!' What can you advise?"

How to be a tourism billionaire

Tourism is the world’s biggest and most exciting industry. Last year, more than a billion tourists spent over $1 trillion gallivanting around the planet. The top 10 destinations, according to the United Nations-affiliated World Tourism Organization, are (1) France, (2) the United States, (3) Spain, (4) China, (5) Italy, (6) Great Britain, (7) Turkey, (8) Germany, (9) Malaysia and (10) Mexico.

Bottom dweller. Note that among the 10 topnotchers are two of our Asian neighbors. China had 51 million visitors who poured in $39.7 billion into the Chinese economy, and Malaysia had 23.6 million visitors who spent $30 billion –much more the remittance of $18.7 billion of all our OFWs last year. I am not surprised by the Chinese performance but the big wow is Malaysia.

Among the bottom-dwellers was the Philippines with 3.5 million visitors who spent $2.49 billion. The tourist attractions of Malaysia are similar to ours. But it received almost 10 times more tourists and earned 10 times more dollars than us. If we can replicate just half of the Malaysian performance, our economy will boom. And perhaps, our people need not go abroad to find jobs.

How can the Philippines become a tourism multi-billionaire? Our Department of Tourism pinned its hope on its “action-oriented” National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP), which aims to “attract about 6.5 million foreign tourists and generate 2.9 million new jobs in the next five years.”

Without preempting the new tourism secretary (Ramon Jimenez), I think any tourism program should consider at least five basic things: (1) product, (2) transportation, (3) accommodation, (4) facilitation, and (5) marketing.

Stress the positives. On the first, our “product,” I think we should learn to capitalize on our “positives,” like our naturally hospitable, smiling and English-speaking people; and the very reasonable prices of our food, hotels, shopping and entertainment. We need to stress our multi-culture heritage and natural attractions like beaches (nothing in the world beats Boracay).

We have to attend to basic infrastructures. Let’s improve the Manila airport pronto; it is the worst capital airport in Asia. Let’s solve the Piatco imbroglio that has lingered for over 10 years now. If San Miguel can create a miracle in the Caticlan airport as the gateway to Boracay, we can do it anywhere.

And let’s plan long term for the Diosdado Macapagal Airport in Pampanga. It may be “far” from Manila, but so are the huge Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur airports. Yet, with proper rail and freeway links, these new international gateways are admired everywhere. Did you ever wonder why cruise ships practically ignore our country? Well, let us provide better facilities for them!

And we need to improve our negatives, like our peace and order in certain areas. Let’s not bring tourists where we cannot assure them of safety. In tourist havens, let’s have visible tourist police. Let’s improve our vanishing sidewalks. One of the first things tourists do is to walk around their hotel. Can that be done in Manila where sidewalks are used as garbage dumps, repair shops and parking lots?

Review open skies policy. On the second item, transportation, almost all our tourists arrive by air. And yet, we still have a confusing air policy. On April 3, I wrote on “open skies” and will not now repeat my thesis. Suffice it to say that no country in the world succeeded in its tourism program by sacrificing its national air carriers.

Perhaps, at a distant past when Philippine Airlines did not have sufficient capacity, it made sense to think of open skies. But now, PAL’s capacity has been greatly improved. And we have new carriers, like Cebu Pacific, that can fill whatever capacity gaps there may be.

Aside from international carriers, we need to review our domestic air links, shipping lines, tourist buses, taxis, and our crude railroad tracks. Years ago, the DoT was advertising the Banaue Rice Terraces. The big question was: How do we get there?

Facilitation refers to government formalities, like visas, immigration, customs and security checks. Our ragtag Manila airport is one of the few in the world that still charges an “airport terminal fee.” Melvin Cruz, a successful Filipino hotel executive in the United States, sadly told me recently that cruise ships avoid us because of difficulty in dealing with immigration and customs personnel.

On accommodation, we have great hotels here that charge reasonable rates. But we need many more hotel rooms of the kind and price range that complement the NTDP’s aim to double our tourist arrivals in five years. It is not easy to build hotels. We need feasibility studies, visionary entrepreneurs, resources, time and stable government policies.

Finally, our marketing must be synchronized with our product. If we decide to sell mainly beaches, then we need to find foreign tourists who want them. We cannot sell beaches to mountain climbers or to non-swimmers. Also, the world is a huge market. We need to segment it and focus on the tourists who want our attractions.

Sports and tourism would be big for city

For the past two years, Demopolis has played host to two Cal Ripken Youth Baseball Tournaments, which have pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash onto the streets of Demopolis and through local businesses.

Hotels, restaurants, local retailers, probably a few doctors and many other things have benefited from what has become an annual event.

On the heels of that influx, Art Evans, Cal Ripken League Administrator and Alabama Babe Ruth District 10 Commissioner, asked the Demopolis city council Thursday night to consider creating a full-time position whose sole purpose was to secure sporting events that could be held in the City of the People.

According to Evans, for the past two years, in excess of $380,000 was spent in the city during the two tournaments. That, he said, equals approximately $17,000 in taxes paid to the city.

That’s a lot. Especially considering those dollars are transient. They weren’t something we were just going to get. We had to find it.

Creating a position whose sole purpose is to market the sports environment in Demopolis is a good move. However, I think Mayor Mike Grayson’s estimated startup cost is somewhat conservative.

A good salesman, which is what we need in a potential “sports commissioner”, can earn a hefty salary in the private sector. There’s not a lot of room for an attractive salary and benefit package at an all encompassing $68,000.

I believe, that position in the right hands could justify a salary of $50,000 plus, which would likely push startup costs to around $90,000.

That’s a chunk of money, but you have to plan big to make it big.

Look at the money already brought into our city based on the work of Art Evans, Rob Pearson, Charles Singleton and a handful of volunteers.

I think it’s more than reasonable to think that an aggressive push put forth by a full-time employee could more than cover his or her own expenses within 18 months or less.

Evans noted that the potential Demopolis will serve as a host site for a Cal Ripken World Series in the near future is at least a possibility. Again, that’s roughly another $45,000 in taxes.

Jay Shows and the local hotel contingent have agreed to implement a 50 cent per bad tax on their occupants if it will help bring more people and tourism dollars to the community through this employee.

Our natural resources, our hunting and fishing, are extraordinarily marketable. One good size bass tournament – maybe a stop on the FLW Tour or something of that size – would easily pump in another very conservative $20,000 to the tax base, not to mention the dollars spent at Parr’s, and Vowell’s, and the Best Western and a host of other local businesses that could use the boost.

Art and Rob have clearly shown there is potential for success in this venture, and have done so with their own sweat, own time and in some cases, their own money.

They deserve to see this idea put on the street in the form of a master marketer who can sell one of the easiest things there is to sell on the planet – the quality of the sports facilities in Demopolis.

Hospitality, Tourism, and Leisure

What courses? A plethora of options covering the three fields, including: tourism and leisure; tourism management; hospitality management; events management; travel and tourism; activity tourism management; adventure tourism management; airline and airport management; cruise industry management; culinary arts management; food tourism management; heritage management; nature tourism management; international tourism management.

What do you come out with? BA or BSc

Why do it? Because they are glamorous fields of work which allow you, in many cases, to see the world and learn new languages. Hospitality, leisure and tourism give you the opportunity to work in fast-paced, people friendly environments where you can develop skills in sales, management and lots more. Tourism is a valuable part of the world economy and for many small countries around the world it’s a massive chunk of their GDP. Tourism is also booming in the UK, with many staying closer to home for their holidays during the recession and the inevitable draw of the 2012 London Olympics on the horizon. The employment prospects are great for such vocational courses and you’re in with a good chance of getting to work abroad if you fancy some time in the sun.

What's it all about? Courses in these three fields are highly vocational and industry-focused – not to mention incredibly popular. You will study the basics of human resources, marketing, finance and operations, all geared towards your career preferences. For example, a tourism degree tends to focus on travel and management in the context of local economic, environmental and social issues. When it comes to hospitality, expect to learn about industry-specific issues, such as food hygiene and nutrition, as well as getting hands-on experience in the kitchen and on the restaurant floor. Events courses focus on the ever-expanding big business of events (surprisingly), whether these are music festivals, comic conventions or massive corporate conferences. Due to the massive vocational emphasis of these courses, a sandwich year (particularly appropriately-named for catering courses) is compulsory in nearly all cases. With many universities building strong links with the industries’ major players – University College Birmingham students can work with Whitbread or Holiday Inn – graduate prospects can be greatly benefited in this placement year.

Study options: Courses are three years, but the addition of the sandwich makes most four. You will also have to do four years if you are at a Scottish university or taking the part-time option at Greenwich. There is often the option to study alongside a foreign language, in which case, you’ll also be spending an additional year working or studying abroad.

What will I need to do it? Anything goes, generally, although some places recommend business, economics and geography A-levels. If you’re doing hospitality management, an A-level in food technology might also help on the practical side of things. Offers range depending on the university – it’s ABB at Surrey, BBC at Northumbria, or CDD at UWIC and Greenwich.

What are my job prospects? As a group of fairly vocational degrees, they generally have a well-established route into graduate jobs either in the UK or overseas. Some graduates go on to work in travel consultancy, tour operations, destination marketing, visitor attractions management, hospitality provision, events programming and small business development. Others work in hotel management, on cruise ships or in marketing. If you decide the tourism, hospitality and leisure industries aren’t for you on completion of your degree, then you should have acquired a host of business and interpersonal skills that will leave you open for a range of jobs in various other sectors. However, due to the large number of courses now offered across the UK, graduates are slowly outnumbering jobs, meaning employment figures don't look overly positive. According to The Times' Good University Guide 2012, just under 40 per cent of leavers went straight into graduate-level jobs, while 46 per cent were in non-graduate positions andnine per cent were unemployed, which is about the national average. Average graduate salaries are £17,680.

Firm expands hotel chains in Nigeria

Thornberry Africa, which prides itself as Africa’s premier hospitality management and marketing company, has recorded more positive strides in the Nigerian hotel and tourism landscape with the recent addition of Penthouse Hotel by Americas Best Inns and Suites, Ikoyi.

This is coming shortly after the recent addition of Juanita Hotel in Port Harcourt and the expected launch of Lekki Oxford Hotel, WestPoint and Savannah Suites later this month and October respectively.
Briefing newsmen in Lagos, the Managing Director of Thornberry Africa, David Church, said this new deal broadens the array of hotels that the Thornberry brand represents; a portfolio of lodges, resorts and other tourist concerns situated in strategic destinations throughout Africa.
The Penthouse Hotel and Suites, which is originally owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), according to Church, is also modelled after the Americas Best Inns and Suites, in the US, which has over 100, 000 properties.
While commenting on the unique selling points of the Penthouse Hotel, Thornberry boss, who trained in the UK, said, among other things, it has executive suites, 24-hours internet access and has a Lady’s Room, which is one of the flagship products of Thornberry.
The General Manager of Penthouse Hotel, Jannie Lombard, who took journalists on a tour of the facility said the hotel is a business-oriented hotel, targeted at serving upwardly mobile executives and other high end individuals.
He, however, hinted of plans by the hotel to partner with the Ikoyi Club, to allow customers easy access to outdoor facilities like the gym, swimming pool, among others.
Church, who claimed that his firm has taken over the management of Tinapa resort, in Cross River, said the resort has grown in the last six months since they assumed its management.
The hotelier who said his company only selects hotels which meets or exceeds its extensive minimum standards and value experience for both travelers and bookers, further added that each property on the Thornberry list is treated with specific; almost signature approach, "This flows through culinary experience, furnishings and interiors and staff attitude to the highly placed guests."
The company, which currently overseas over 21 projects across the continent including Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa, among others, first came to Nigeria a little over a year ago and now manages hotels and resorts including Citilodge, Citipark, Tinapa Lakeside and Aqua Vista. While recent deals are Penthouse by Americas Best, Sommerset Hotel, Westpoint Hotel, Lekki Oxford and Savanna Kennan Country Lodge.

Civic Center, tourism officials disappointed by Marriott decision

PEORIA —

People interested in seeing the Downtown Marriott Hotel project go forward were disappointed about the possible cancellation of the redevelopment agreement for the project.

"It's unfortunate," Jim Wetherington, general manager of the Peoria Civic Center, said Friday, two days after City Manager Patrick Urich and Mayor Jim Ardis told developer Gary Matthews that they were canceling the redevelopment agreement. "We were hoping for the shovel to hit the ground sooner than later."

Civic Center officials last spoke with Matthews about the particulars of a skywalk connecting the Downtown sports and entertainment facility with the Marriott about 1 1/2 years ago, Wetherington said. The last drawing, presented by PSA Dewberry, showed the skywalk connecting from the hotel at the Civic Center's Fulton Street entrance.

"It limits the amount of shows we can do," Wetherington said. "It's not a deal breaker nor ends our business, but it doesn't give as many options as we have."

The Civic Center completed its $55 million expansion in 2007, with the hopes of attracting more conventions if an attached hotel surfaced. Officials in the past have estimated there has been about 52,000 hotel room nights lost because the Civic Center is not attached to a hotel.

"(The Marriott Hotel project) was a major focus not only on what we hoped was a major urban renewal but a marketing story with potential clients," said Bob Marx, president/CEO of the Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Financially, that's a huge loss."

The cancellation also will probably hurt the Hotel Pere Marquette, an aging hotel that was built in 1927 and is in need of an upgrade.

The hotel, according to Marx, had a 44 percent occupancy rate in July, which is low compared to the other Downtown hotels, which are doing business in the mid-50s.

"Typically, it's said in the industry that between the mid-50s and 60s is where a hotel starts to make money," Marx said.

Marx was not sure of the viability of the Pere Marquette now that the redevelopment agreement is likely to be canceled. The hotel's general manager, Bill Carter, did not return calls for comment.

Also in limbo is the fate of state historic tax credits that would be used to renovate the Pere Marquette.

In June 2010, Gov. Pat Quinn, during a signing ceremony at the hotel, authorized the credits to assist in reducing the public's share of the hotel's financing.

State Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, said the legislation has since expired and that it would take a vote again by the General Assembly to renew the tax credits. He said the biggest obstacle, though, would be getting it endorsed in the Illinois House, where state Rep. Jehan Gordon, D-Peoria, would be the chief sponsor. She could not be reached for comment.

Admiral House Hotel awarded three star rating

ADMIRAL House Hotel in Douglas has been awarded a three star rating by Quality in Tourism.

The independent assessment body, contracted by Isle of Man Tourism, has increased the hotel's rating by a star for displaying a high standard of service, food and accommodation.

Quality in Tourism works in conjunction with Visit Britain to award independent gradings and adheres to national standards known as the National Quality Assessment Scheme (NQAS).

Rachel Camilleri, general manager at the Admiral House Hotel, said: "The Quality in Tourism inspectors are renowned for having incredibly high standards but we were quietly confident that the review would go well.

"We work very hard to make sure that all of our visitors receive the same high level of service all day every day and it is fantastic news that we have been recognised for this."

Geoff Corkish MHK, political member for Isle of Man Tourism, said: "Admiral House Hotel has clearly strived hard for this significant achievement. We view the hotel as a valued partner in our efforts to drive up quality and service to visitors and residents alike and their hard work reflects on their investment and effort."

Admiral House Hotel was also recently awarded two rosettes by the AA for its restaurant JAR which is the maximum possible rating for a restaurant on its first inspection.