Canada 2010 Construction Pipeline Outlook

With 153 projects/19,181 rooms at the end of Q4 2009, the total Construction Pipeline has fallen 42% by projects and 44% by rooms from the peak in Q1 2008. The total project count is the lowest LE has recorded, while the room count is at its lowest since Q4 2004. ...more

Atlas 2009 Year End Hotel Survey and what it means - By Jim Butler, author of www.HotelLawBlog.com

Hotel Lawyers with grim reports from the field. If lenders are looking for some encouraging news on their distressed hotel asset sales prospects, they are not going to get it anytime soon. That is what the Atlas 2009 Year End Hotel Survey shows, but it does offer some valuable tips for dealing with continued distress in 2010. ...more

Online Travel Agencies Step Up Efforts to Feature Green Hotels - By Glenn Hasek

Experian recently listed its 'Top 20 websites in the 'Travel' online industry for the month of December 2009, based on visits.' Among those sites - which include such well-known stops as Priceline.com and MapQuest-only three attempt to highlight green hotels ...more

Treasure Mountain Inn Now Generating Own Solar Power - By Glenn Hasek

The 56-suite Treasure Mountain Inn, Park City's only 100 percent wind powered and 100 percent carbon-neutral 'eco-tique' hotel, has taken an additional step towards sustainability by adding solar power to its host of green initiatives. ...more

Restaurant Trends - Growing And Emerging Concepts - Data reflects change and activity from September 25, 2009 to January 25, 2010

Update from Restaurantchains.net on growing and emerging restaurant concepts ...more

Food & Beverage - Alternative Food Cost Benchmarks - By Joe Dunbar

Certainly, most restaurants use food cost as a % of sales as a key performance indicator. This week, an anonymous reader asked about tracking food cost in a different environment - a health care facility. He asked if it was advisable to use cost per patient per day in lieu of a percentage. I strongly recommend using the cost per patient day over a percentage benchmark. ...more

Small Businesses Continue to Show Decline in Same Store Credit and Debit Card Sales Despite Holiday Push

Brick and Mortar Retailers and Restaurants Post Year-Over-Year Declines ...more

Quick 'Critical' Tips and Latest Trends in E-Mail Marketing

Re-cap of presentation 'Critical Email Prospecting Strategies for 2010' ...more

Hotel Social Media Perspective

Social Media engagement techniques and benefits are all about creating interest and engaging with people online that share a common interest with what you talk about on your social media pages. As a hotelier, you need to talk about more than just your hotel. ...more

Spanish Online Travel Declines Only Slightly, While Other Channels Struggle

As one of the premier leisure travel destinations in Europe, Spain's economy suffered from the decline of both inbound and domestic travel amidst the global recession. The overall travel market fell 12% in 2009 according to PhoCusWright's Spanish Online Travel Overview Fifth Edition. Online travel sales, however, declined by only 1%. ...more

China's online travel market booming

China's online tourism market is booming as an increasingly wealthy middle class travels for pleasure and the use of credit cards and the Internet soars, analysts say. ...more

Pegasus View - 2009 Ends on a Positive Note

All the indications that Pegasus has analyzed over the past couple of months indicate that the market has bottomed out and bookings are returning to hotels. This was confirmed by strong performance in December in both the GDS and ADS channels. ...more

The Gentle Leader - By Gregg Thompson

James Kavanaugh once suggested that there are 'those too gentle to live among the wolves'. I hope this is no longer true in today's organizations. I believe that the 'wolves' have had their day and need to make way for a new breed of manager: The Gentle Leader. ...more

The Reset Button - Innovation for Hotel Sales in 2010! - By Carol Verret

While demand probably isn't coming roaring back in 2010 it is returning. It's time to shake off the 'battle fatigue' of 2009 and hit the 'reset' button for 2010 to take advantage of the positive opportunities that present themselves going forward. ...more

The Evolution Of Best Practices In Hospitality And Tourism (Part 2 Of 2) - By John Hogan

The first part of this series outlined a number of service management issues I felt would influence the hospitality and tourism industry over the next decade. Recognizing that the hospitality industry in many ways has become a mature industry, that column suggested major areas of research and execution to address those issues in global trends and competitors: ...more

Deloitte French Hotel Performances, December 2009

Monthly French Hotel Statistics ...more

U.S. hotel performance for the week ending 23 January 2010

he U.S. hotel industry reported decreases in all three key measurements during the week of 17-23 January 2010, according to data from STR. ...more

STR reports Canada performance for week ending 23 Jan. 2010

The Canadian hotel industry posted decreases in all three key performance measurements during the week of 17-23 January 2010, according to data from STR. ...more

Canadian Occupancy, ADR, RevPAR - Week Ending January 23, 2010

Published in conjunction with STR (Smith Travel Research) and endorsed by the Hotel Association of Canada. This publication summarizes weekly occupancy and average room rates from major cities in Canada. ...more

Hotel industry leading indicator shows promise

Economic research firm e-forecasting.com in conjunction with Smith Travel Research announced that their U.S. hotel industry leading indicator - HIL - increased during December, the ninth consecutive monthly increase for the indicator. ...more

STR reports U.S. hotel industry performance results for fourth-quarter 2009

The U.S. hotel industry reported decreases in all three key performance metrics for fourth-quarter 2009 in year-over-year measurements, according to data from STR. ...more

What to do when things go wrong in a hotel - By Daniel Edward Craig

People often corner me at social functions to tell me about a problem they've had in a hotel. It doesn't matter if I've never worked for the hotel or the incident occurred seventeen years ago; apparently, it's my duty to listen. Sometimes I get the impression they think I'm somehow to blame. ...more

Next Year in Havana? - By Timothy Ashby

Ending the U.S. travel ban should be first step in normalizing relations with Cuba ...more

EContent Subscription

EContent is a valuable industry resource that focuses exclusively on content. Content is the engine that drives commerce, collaboration, and community. EContent covers the people, products, and services that make content happen! ...more

VIDEO - Increasing the Relevance of Your Hotel's Content Using Personas

VFM Leonardo, the leader in online visual content distribution for hotels, has launched a new episode on VTV Channel - Increasing the Relevance of Your Hotel's Content Using Personas. ...more

2010's Upside-Down Pyramid: All Hail King Consumer - Luxury Travel and Lifestyle Trends - By Karen Weiner Escalera

No one knows for sure what 2010 will bring. Most economists say the global recession has probably peaked, but what will the recovery look like? In some sectors, consumer spending is on the rise, and we're spotting more and more post-recession flowers blooming. Whether their pocketbooks were squeezed or not, many affluents are now transformed. They want value, quality, and products with a 'moral conscience.' ...more

Bing Travel Spring Break Forecast: Airfare Increases 9 Percent

Reduced domestic hotel rates mean more value for travelers and could help balance total trip cost. ...more

Asia Pacific: Challenges and Opportunities - Intra-Asia Market Eclipses North America as World's Largest

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that in 2009 intra-Asia-Pacific travel had eclipsed the number of travelers in North America as the world's largest aviation market. Asia-Pacific's travelers numbered 647 million compared the 638 million who travelled within North America (including domestic markets). By 2013 an additional 217 million travelers are expected to take to the skies within Asia-Pacific. ...more

2009: Worst Demand Decline in History - Encouraging Year-end Improvements

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported December and full-year 2009 demand statistics for international scheduled air traffic that showed the industry ending 2009 with the largest ever post-war decline. Passenger demand for the full year was down 3.5% with an average load factor of 75.6%. Freight showed a full-year decline of 10.1% with an average load factor of 49.1%. ...more

Aviation Industry Take Flight Again, Says Frost & Sullivan

The turmoil surrounding the aviation industry is finally expected to calm and prepare itself to soar once again. The past two years have been a tremendous challenge to the industry and all its stakeholders. Escalating fuel prices followed by the economic downturn has pushed the aviation industry to revisit their business and financial models just to sustain their presence in the industry. ...more

Business travel expected to match, surpass 2009 levels

Business travel in 2010 will match or surpass last year's levels and more executives will be opting for first class seats, according to a survey. ...more

Managing Hotel Revenue and Everything That Drives It - Five Considerations Worth Repeating - By Neil Salerno

I first started writing about revenue management in 2001 and, frankly, I haven't seen overall business conditions change too much since then; markets are highly competitive and many hotels are still openly discounting rates to drive business. ...more