Trade and PR report Italy and Spain July 2012

Transcription

1 Market Overview Italy & Spain Trade and PR report Italy and Spain July 2012 Italian visitors to US in May were 59,319 a decrease of 6.9% over last year. YTD visitors were 272, % over % business and 77.7% leisure. Spain visitors were with a decrease of 6.5%. YTD 211,038 a 5.6% over % business, 81.2% leisure. Total visitors from Italy and Spain in May were 103,120; total YTD 483,293. An informal survey conducted by US Commercial Service and VUSA Italy during the month of June reveals that for this Summer the USA, despite a slight decrease, is among the long-haul destinations in good demand compared to others with significant decrease. FITs leisure travelers are stable, while groups are declining. Luxury to up-scaled product are doing better than medium or low cost packages. Families or small groups of friends are the majority of bookings together with honey moon packages. Receptive travel agents in USA reduced Summer departures of escorted tours in Italian and Spanish by at least a 15%, while individual fly&drive, fly&train and also fly&ride packages are increasing. Outdoor experience are more and more popular, new for this year are some sporadic requests for glamping accommodations. (Glamping being the contraction of glamour and camping i.e. luxury camping, motorhome, tents, tree houses, etc. etc.). English as a second language courses in USA this Summer are on pair with last year. These students will be good ambassadors for tourism to the Country in the next years. The devaluation of Euro vs the USD added to the airlines baggage limitations are reducing European s shopping frenzy. Conclusions: after 3 years of strong growth 2012 will certainly not post a new record of arrivals, nevertheless the quality and spending of Italian visitors will not decrease. Press releases 6 Press releases - What s new in California San Francisco & Bay Area - What s new in California Central Valley, Gold Country & High Sierra - What s new in California San Diego - What s new in California L.A., Central Coast & O.C. - What s new in California Deserts & Inland Empire - OTP update Follow up with journalists

2 Inquiries from consumers Several inquiries about maps and guides received from consumers. VisitCalifornia.it Continuous translation, update and localization of the content of VisitCalifornia.it In July 2012 visits were 1,950 (+25%); unique visitors 1,716 (+27%); pages viewed 9,889 (+25%)

3 TRADE Ongoing relationship with major tour operators to update them with news about California. Very interesting package promoted by NAAR TO, among the big players to USA in Italy: California for Kids is intended to capture the family segment of Italian travellers with a special offer in co-op with BW.

4 OTP Online Training Program After one year from the official launch of the OTP we have 1775 travel agencies registered, 420 completed, a 25% of total registered. I Viaggi del Delfino tour operator supported California Expert program with a nice newsletter to travel agencies. An additional on-line campaign on L Agenzia di Viaggi was launched in June and we expect an increase of registrations from both actions. We also uploaded some more recent press releases in the OTP.

5 TRADE FAM ITALY MEETS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA The JV secured 50 seats to California for this mega fam trip, from October 23 rd to 27 th. Participants will be major Italian tour operator, mice and media representatives. They will have the opportunity to discover San Francisco and Northern California on a 4 days trip; draft of the itinerary: 2 nights in San Francisco, 1 night in San Mateo and last night in Monterey area. Conference call on July 17 th with Lilly and Tiffany to coordinate and discuss the mega fam. On July 20 th we sent out the Save The Date to a selected mailing list of potential participants, asking to reply by August 3 rd. Torna il mega fam trip Italy Meets... Dopo New York, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia e Southern California, l'edizione 2012 sarà dal 23 al 27 ottobre Seguirà invito e programma preliminare I posti disponibili sono limitati, le adesioni saranno confermate sulla base "first-come-first-served". Sei interessato a partecipare? clicca quì entro il 3 agosto

6 CARRIERS Ongoing relationship with carriers to evaluate marketing campaign, press trip cooperation and partnerships. Meeting with new US Airways Country Manager for Italy and Greece, Angelo Camilletti and Senior Account Manager Corrado Ceccarossi. They informed that California and San Francisco are their best selling destinations. Unfortunatly US Airways do not support fam trips but may consider special travel agents fares during the low season. Meeting with British Airways Sales Manager Leisure, Emanuela Manduchi, discussed support for trade fam trips and special fares for IPW 2013 in Las Vegas since BA is the only European airline with direct services to LAS.