Travel Industry Hopes for Takeoff
1/28/2010
By Lisa M. Larranaga
It’s no secret that companies and consumers tightened their purse strings in 2009. The impact can be seen beyond budget sheets and bank accounts; it stretched into the lives of nearly every American, monopolizing thoughts, controlling spending and making its way into almost every corner of culture.
Nina Willdorf, editor in chief of Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel, explained, “If anything, the ‘it’ [vacation] has been accessing places and hotels and destinations that have been out of reach in the past. The dollar gained strength against the Euro and all of a sudden, you can find stylish boutique hotels in Paris for under $150. Las Vegas has 14,000 more hotel rooms this year than last — five stars are discounting to fill their rooms. These are now Budget Travel ‘it’ trips. I’ve said many times in 2009 that you couldn’t afford not to travel this year.”
But Willdorf doesn’t sidestep the trying conditions and dramatic changes for the industry and consumers as a whole. “I think there’s been a psychological shift in American consumers over the past few years, and I’d say it’s the most dramatic change I’ve seen in the past 5-10 years. We’ve gone from bragging about luxury to bragging about being savvy. People are looking for values, internal and economic.”
Justin Bachman, deputy news director for Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s online edition and blogger at Traveler’s Check, said the trials of the corporate travel industry started in early 2008.
“[The industry] changed dramatically in early 2008 when the Lehman Brothers collapsed and from there, credit was tight and businesses really clamped down and nobody was traveling,” he said. “There was one executive that said it wasn’t an issue of price, people were not traveling no matter what the price was and that really, really hurt the airlines.”
Bachman also noted that 2008 was the year of the fuel spike, which was followed by the recession hitting and business completely retrenching.
“At the end of 2009 a lot of people were feeling like there were indications that this year would be better and [corporate travelers] were starting to come back,” Bachman said. “The trouble is, they probably are not going to come back and pay what they had been on the walk-up fares and that’s where a lot of people are nervous, and you’re seeing a lot of reliance on baggage fees and seat assignment fees and fuel surcharges. Airlines are looking for all these ancillary revenues because they don’t think they’re going to get business fares back, in the near future at least, where they had been.” Bachman said.
In the midst of all the economic changes, some airlines kept pace with their customers and became available on social media platforms, which has been the most notable sales trend this year, Willdorf said.
“Airlines like Southwest and JetBlue have Twitter-only offers that seem irresistible and sell out almost immediately. In addition to reaching out through a new medium, companies are smart for doing this in that they’re tapping a new social, and younger, market as well.”
With the serious blows the industry has faced this year, whether due to drops in business travel or rising fuel prices, Willdorf thinks it’s a little early to tell how soon it will turn around.
“Airlines have hit back with extra fees and hotels have strategized by dropping rates,” she said. “They’re both suffering for sure, and for the sake of the industry as a whole, we all hope this is a year for recovery.”
Bachman doesn’t think the downturn is lasting, although he feels it won’t be business as usual.
“Business is going to fly,” he said. “They may not have to pay what they used to pay, though. They’ll fly but I think a lot of companies have told themselves they don’t want to spend the money they used to spend.”
Making the Pitch
Since Budget Travel already focuses on thrifty travel tips, they didn’t make many modifications to their coverage to accommodate consumers’ new spending habits.
“We, at Budget Travel, have always embraced travel that has some kind of meaning or payoff,” Willdorf said. “We always look for the experiences that connect us to locals, because in addition to being insiders, they also happen to deliver the most unique experiences. What this all means is that over the past year, we haven’t had to change much of what we’re covering, or how we’re covering it. Rather, the world has come around to the Budget Travel way of life.”
Unfortunately, she says, this doesn’t always mean public relations professionals understand the Budget Travel way of life.
“To be honest, I get very few pitches at Budget Travel that are right for the magazine. Mostly, I find that the best ideas are generated through conversations in-office with some of the smart PR people and heads of tourism that I work with regularly, those who really get what we do.”
For Bachman, coverage is less about deals and sales and more about issues in business travel that real people care about, like security, hassles and fees.
“Deals and sales and stuff come and go so fast,” he said. “That’s not the first thing business thinks about. The focus needs to be on the experience: where are the hassles, where are the savings and where are the potential headaches? They’re traveling on a mission and they want to get it done.”
Willdorf said she’s most interested in real news, openings, trends and the people driving the debates in travel. She wants to hear about stylish hotels costing under $150, as she feels they are a gem to the magazine, as are suggestions for Extra-Mile Awards, Essentials and Coolest Small Towns in America. She does not want pitches for the defunct Budget Living magazine, blanketed releases that don’t fit the magazine’s coverage or releases for festivals.
Bachman said PR professionals don’t call often and for that, he’s grateful. “I used to get a lot more phone calls when I worked at the Associated Press and that was a real nuisance because you don’t have time for phone calls at the AP. I think people migrated to e-mail and it’s a lot easier to delete an e-mail than to deal with a phone call or call someone back,” he said.
He continues to get inappropriate pitches, he said, for resorts in Tahiti and honeymoons in New Zealand, and he knows those people don’t read the blog.
Most importantly, Bachman said PR professionals should shorten their pitches.
“I notice that they write a letter and then paste in the news release or write a really long pitch and it’s gotta be wasting a lot of their time to do that. I think shorter is better for everybody.”
Willdorf’s top advice is to turn back to the basics, like studying the magazine.
“Generic ‘affordable’ angles won’t really wow me,” she said. “We’ve made some changes. I will be impressed and responsive if you pitch ideas that actually have a home in the stories and pages we’re doing now.”
Contact Information
Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel
530 Fashion Ave
Fl 2
New York, NY 10018
646-695-6700
Nina Willdorf, editor in chief
Bloomberg BusinessWeek and Traveler’s Check
1221 Avenue Of The Americas
Fl 43
New York, NY 10020
212-512-2511
Justin Bachman, deputy news director and blogger