Hawai i Tourism Europe Newsletter December 2011 Mele Kalikimaka and A Happy New Year 2012! Mahalo for your outstanding support throughout 2011 and we look forward to working with you on 2012. Your Hawai i Tourism Europe Team Send us your product news! Please feel free to keep us posted on any news and updates regarding your product in 2011 which may be of interest to the European market and we are happy to include it in our quarterly newsletter to the European trade partners and consumers. The next issue will be sent out on December 15, 2011! Market Trends & Travel Trade News United Kingdom Travel news roundup: Visits to North America increase from the UK The estimated number of visits abroad by UK residents, seasonally adjusted, in the three months to September 2011 decreased 5 per cent to 13.8 million compared with the previous three months. They decreased 5 per cent when compared with the three months to September 2010. The total number of visits abroad by UK residents, not seasonally adjusted, remained broadly the same during the 12 months ending in September 2011 compared with a year earlier ( from 55.9 to 55.7 million). Visits to Europe remained broadly the same (at 43.2 million); visits to North America increased 3 per cent (to 3.6 million); and visits to other parts of the world decreased 4 per cent (to 8.9 million). 1 UK Consumer Confidence at an all time low Consumer confidence continued to slide in October, falling by nine points to a new all time low of 36. The Index has now fallen for five months in a row, leaving it languishing two points below the previous low of 38 recorded in February this year. The confidence index, which began in May 2004, is now more than forty points below its long run average of 78. There have been a number of factors holding back confidence in recent months. A wave of disappointing economic news at home and ongoing uncertainty surrounding the Euro crisis has dealt a heavy blow to sentiment. Pressures on household budgets have also intensified, with underlying wage growth running at less than half the rate of inflation and the jobs market showing renewed signs of weakness. employment dropped by a substantial 197,000 in the three months to September. 1 www.ons.gov.uk Nov 10 th 2011 1
Thomas Cook Turmoil Thomas Cook Group suspended the announcement of its full year results as it entered talks with its bankers in the face of a serious slump in business. Europe s second largest tour operating group, which suffered from three profits warnings in the space of 12 months, stressed that it currently remains in compliance with its financing covenants. But Cook said that it intends to seek agreement from its lending banks to adjustments that will improve its resilience if trading conditions remain difficult. Cook delayed the announcement of its annual financial results until the discussions were concluded. Thomas Cook shares bounced back by more than 25% after seeing 265 million wiped off the company s value in November. The embattled tour operator s shares rose from 10.2p to 12.9p in early trading on the London Stock Exchange. Cook saw its share price fall 75% from 41.2p to 10.2p on Tuesday after announcing that it was in talks with its banks to secure around 100 million in extra funding to see it through to the end of the year. Based on yesterday s closing price, Cook is valued at just 87.1 million despite having an annual turnover of 8.9 billion and employing more than 30,000 people worldwide. The operator has seen its shares fall by 95% since January when its stock price reached a 2011 high of 2.07 but three profits warnings this year have taken their toll and shaken the faith of investors. Thomas Cook must act to immediately restore consumer confidence in its brand or it could affect customers trust in other travel companies. The key thing now is to restore consumer confidence, John McEwan, Abta s chairman and Advantage s chief executive. 2 New York voted the top destination for the UK New York was the top overseas destination for UK travellers in the first six months of 2011, despite a 6% rise in hotel rates. New York was one of the six cities in the top 20 list, with Las Vagas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orlando and Miami also featuring. American cities generally have been big draws for foreign travellers cashing in on the relative strength of their currencies against the dollar. 2 Ttgdigital.com Nov 22 nd 2011 2
Germany Travel news roundup: 3 Market Trends & Travel Trade News Golden October for holiday bookings Summer 2011 holiday bookings are ending the season with good late sales but winter bookings are slowing after a strong start. The summer 2011 season now has a cumulative 10% increase in revenues, the September survey of German travel agents by market researchers GfK showed. Sales in September were 4.3% higher than one year earlier, mostly due to strong demand for holidays in October. About 25% of bookings last month were for this month (1.1% more than last year), and a further 25% were for early winter holidays in November or December. However, winter bookings have slowed after a dynamic start in August. Winter sales last month were just 3.6% ahead of last year. As a result, the 22% overall increase in winter bookings recorded in August has fallen back to a cumulative 15.6% rise. Next year the early Easter is likely to impact bookings for March and April. March sales are currently 51% higher while April is 24% lower. Combined sales for the two months, which cover the Easter holiday period, are 2.3% lower and there are no signs yet of an early bookings trend for summer 2012. German travel agents prefer TUI TUI is once again the tour operator preferred by German travel agents, according to a survey presented at fvw Kongress. The market leader made a strong comeback in this year s GfK survey of the image of tour operators among German travel agencies. One year ago the company s sales chief Hasso von Düring was shocked at the poor performance as TUI ranked below Rewe for importance, ranked third from last for its commissions policy and scored only average points for overall satisfaction, ending fourth out of the eight largest tour operators. This year, however, TUI topped the votes in the online survey completed by 644 agencies. In contrast, the leading cruise operator Aida, last year s winner, suffered because of its much-criticised commissions policy and slumped in the popularity of travel agents to fifth place. Rewe s individual holidays and package holidays divisions were in second and third place, ahead of Schauinsland which dropped back this year. Thomas Cook was sixth place ahead of FTI. Alltours remained in last place but improved its scores in all categories. 3 www.fvw.com 3
Activities in 4. Quarter 2011 The Travel Corporation Consumer and Trade Advertising As part of the on-going joint campaign with The Travel Corporation, Milestones featured a series of adverts in the consumer national press including the Times and The Daily Telegraph. The trade dedicated brand launched the promotion of the Book to Win familiarisation trip incentive in the Travel Weekly (leading trade press publication with readership over 15,000), and they hosted the first of two Agent Evenings sponsored by Hawaii Tourism Europe. Team Hawai i in the training quiz! The Winners with their leis! 4
Activities in 4. Quarter 2011 TUI Be a Specialist TUI printed a Hawaii dedicated page promoting the new Festivals of Hawai i i-phone application, the new agent online training and Mahalo Month. The quarterly newsletter gets sent to all Thomson and First Choice retail agents across the UK Waterfront Consumer Magazine North American Travel Services printed a double-page spread dedicated to Hawai i in The Waterfront Magazine. This is a high quality monthly regional publication with a distribution of 22,000 copies. They are delivered, free of charge, to homes with a market value in excess of 750,000 throughout Lancashire, North Cheshire, Wirral and Merseyside. The magazine is also viewable online at www.waterfrontmagazines.co.uk 5
Great Media Coverage, Germany Activities in 4. Quarter 2011 Kaua i was highlighted in the monthly Lufthansa Magazine which is provided in the seat pockets on board of all Lufthansa aircrafts. The average circulation is 580,507 copies with 1,548,000 readers on board/europe/month. The media value of the article is USD 374,400. The article is bilingual (German and English) and a good example of how an airline such as LH actively promotes the destination Hawai i in cooperation with their Star Alliance members: Great Media Coverage in consumer travel magazines, Germany The quarterly consumer travel magazines, Urlaub Perfekt and Reise & Preise, featured Hawai i on in total 7 pages with a total readership of 357,200 resulting in a total media value of USD 61,830. 6
Activities in 4. Quarter 2011 Great Media Coverage in people Magazine Die Aktuelle, Germany The weekly people magazine Die Aktuelle featured Hawai i on 4 pages with a total readership of 413,556. The article has a media value of USD 205,800. Thank you for reading the HTE Newsletter. Should you have any comments, suggestions or information please feel free to contact Rachel Booker (rbooker@aviareps.com) or Christine Klein (cklein@aviareps.com). Mahalo! 7