Hotels in Tbilisi

Posts Tagged ‘Recession’

1) Stamina. Arrive early. Sounds like common sense, but when polled in 2010, most Americans admitted to starting off at least 3 of their last 4 journeys late. Whether you’re traveling by air, sea, bus or taxi- be early. Nothing starts a trip on a more frenetic note than having to catch your breath during the first leg.

2) Air Travel. Tired of traveling coach class? Then consider traveling with an All Business Airline. There are more and more of these options becoming available and believe it or not, their fares are cheaper most of the time, than the big brand airlines. What you get: Business class service throughout the airplane, larger seats, 12volt power, DVD rentals, TV, better food and service and bigger overhead compartments (real size space that can actually hold your business carry on.) And, most offer expedited TSA security lines to minimize the pat-downs.

3) Hotel. Used to be that 4 and 5 star luxury hotels would cost exactly what you would think they should. But nowadays, the business model is evolving. Research on the web search engines, luxury hotels on fifth avenue, or third party luxury hotel management companies and you will find the latest insider. These third party companies often own rooms inside brand hotels or manage rooms for owners of fractional, timeshare and condo hotels- thus they can set their own pricing independent of the large hotel. And thus, a much better deal for the consumer.

4) Rental Car. When booking, choose an economy or size down model from what you would normally reserve. Then, when you get to the counter, charm the employee into asking for an upgrade, free of charge. With rental car companies being hard quite hard by the recession, internal memos have gone out informing employees to offer upgrades whenever available. This way you get the car you want, at the price you want.

5) Overall Experience. Make it a positive one. Realize as you sit on the plane, that there are literally millions of people below you that may never get a chance to jet set to where it is you’re going. (Even if it’s the grand Hyatt conference room in Tucson). Remember to always give your blessings for where you are, remain grounded, centered and calm- and in the end, travel karma will come back to you. Most of the time, in ultra luxurious or surprising ways.

The current recessionary environment sweeping the world has been notable for both its severity, and also its wide ranging scope. Travel, and in particular luxury tourism, is sentiment-driven consumption, and is therefore highly susceptible to the current recessionary mindset.

The decision to travel requires the means and the will. In a recessionary environment, both of these factors can be affected. The effects of a recession on the means are obvious: jobs are lost; investment portfolios are compromised and devalued. What is less obvious however is the effect of a recessionary mindset on the will to travel. Tourism is all about feeling good. People take luxury tours to enjoy themselves. Even though a recessionary environment might not affect the personal means of certain market segments, the general negative environment surrounding a recession is often enough to take away the feel-good factor, and therefore the will to proceed with a sentiment driven purchase.

The inbound New Zealand tourism industry is in a unique position in that our distance from almost all of our major markets makes travel to this country expensive. The cost of getting to New Zealand further encourages travelers to stay longer, thereby making their vacation even more comparatively expensive. Recognizing this paradigm, the New Zealand Tourism Industry has through the years focused on the value added segments of the tourism industry, including the luxury sector. This is an understandable position to take but does the inevitable high cost/value positioning of our tourism product make us more susceptible to recessionary down-turns? The answer to this question is complex. Our high cost/value tourism product feeds directly into a boom-bust cycle of demand. The higher cost aspect of our tourism makes us highly susceptible to the downturn of an economic cycle -the bust! Ironically however, while the distance to New Zealand underpins our high cost tourism product, it also makes the demand for the same high value product non-perishable. Put simply, a trip of this magnitude is anticipated so much that the desire to do it remains for many years even if current economic circumstances do not allow it. Any demand that is unfulfilled does not perish, but is simply deferred until circumstances improve, with a resulting deferred boom in the industry.

In summary then, the relatively isolated location of New Zealand makes it highly susceptible to a boom-bust tourism cycle. In a recessionary phase, the high comparative cost of our tourism product exacerbates a drop in demand. However the high comparative value of our luxury tourism product often results in that drop in demand being deferred until the recessionary cycle is over, with a resulting tourism boom.

It is critical for the success of tourism businesses to understand this boom-bust cycle, and use a planning horizon that covers both the boom and the bust parts of the economic cycle.