USTOA会议庆祝变革性旅行
经过大卫·科格斯威尔(David Cogswell)/
The U.S. Tour Operators Association opened its 40th“Annual Conference and Marketplace” Wednesday at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Phoenix, with the theme of “Be Transformative.”
USTOA主席Dana Santucci也是EF Education First的副总裁,在开幕式上对观众表示,会议出席者代表212个国家 /地区,计算活跃的会员旅游经营者和同事成员,包括旅行社的供应商,例如目的地营销等旅行社。组织,航空公司,酒店经营等。
Santucci分享了她对主题“变革性”的热情,因为她说,由会议参与者代表的社区“真正的变革性”。
桑图奇说:“我受到变革性旅行的主题的启发。”“对我来说,这意味着要找到一种方法来团结人们,跨文化和边界,建立有意义的联系并激发相互理解。”
对于许多与会者,Santucci在向与会者担任协会主席的第一次正式演讲时正在介绍自己。
她说:“我很幸运地生活和研究和工作在国外。”“像你一样,我选择了旅行职业。在过去的23年中,我一直在一家名为EF教育的公司工作,并在这个房间里有很多变革性的经历,许多经验与您同在。我们的任务是通过教育开放世界,对我而言,这一使命比以往任何时候都更加重要。”
To illustrate her point, Santucci described a recent trip to Kenya with her sons, and a time when her kids visited some Kenyan kids at a school. They talked about their respective “challenges, goals and dreams,” danced together in the schoolyard, and took selfies together. And during that interaction, all cultural barriers seemed to dissolve.
她说:“这一天对我来说,我的男孩们有了新发现的理解,尽管有不同的观点和来自完全不同的文化,并且在不同的情况下生活,但他们确实有共同的愿望,并与这些学生分享了很多。
谈论变革性旅行,这确实是这样。
“作为这两个人的父母,我真的可以看到它们在我眼前转变,并且他们的观点在改变。因此,我很高兴能成为这个Ustoa旅行社区的一部分。对我来说,这是一个社区,现在,在国家,人民和沟通变得越来越封闭的时期,我们是一个通过继续建立跨境和文化来真正将世界转变为更美好的社区。”
Santucci说,随着2018年的结束,USTOA值得感谢。该协会今年欢迎两个新的活跃成员:真实的Vacations.com和Yankee Leisure Group,以及118名新的合伙人。
USTOA by the numbers
USTOA President and CEO Terry Dale used the opening session to recap the trade association’s accomplishments in 2018 in a presentation he called a “2018 ROI Report.” He summarized the organization’s milestones over the past year.
戴尔(Dale)报告说,该协会完成了其Price Waterhouse Coopers(PWC)审计,现在每隔一年就进行每隔一年的审计,以使外部权力确定其经济影响。
普华永道的研究发现,USTOA成员每年产生近190亿美元,比两年前上一次审计增长了26%。会员购买了价值130亿美元的商品和服务,包括2100万夜间酒店之夜和580万航空公司座位。
The survey had the advantage of participation by 91 percent of the group’s members. One hundred percent of those surveyed expect more growth in 2019.
Overtourism
Though tour operator concern over terrorism and political instability has gone down, this year’s list of concerns included a new category: overtourism, which took its place among terrorism, political instability, economic disruptions, etc. With some local communities in tourist destinations rising up to protest tourism, the subject has become a matter of concern for USTOA and its membership.
USTOA和美国今日
Dale spoke about the results of a two-year marketing partnership with USA Today in 2018 that has far exceeded the expectations of the association at the time it entered into the arrangement.
通过合作伙伴关系,四个目的地与四个Ustoa活跃成员旅游运营beplay银行卡商合作,创建了《今日美国》分发的视频和其他内容。戴尔说,该项目产生了10亿个媒体印象,比最初的目标比最初的目标29%。这项努力产生了近600万个社交媒体印象,比目标高98%。
“This partnership far exceeded what we had hoped for,” said Dale. “It really resonated with the customers out there that we are all trying to connect with.”
倡导
2018年是乌斯托亚(Ustoa)第七届国会努力的一年。由50多名成员组成的代表团在华盛顿特区联合起来,游说旅行社和旅游行业的利益。与立法者讨论的问题包括前往古巴;国家公园;旅行基础设施;以及影响旅行的政府法规。
USTOA幽默进攻
总是在寻找新的方式来促进它self, the USTOA decided to harness the power of humor in an all-out offensive to promote USTOA tour operators. The marketing committee had a brainstorming session with both associate and active members.
“We wanted to try to get our arms around what can we do that will stand out in the marketplace today,” said Dale, “that will provide us with a platform for us for telling our story, but will rise above so much clutter that exists out there today in our industry. After several hours, we realized that we need to smile more. And the way to get people to smile is through humor. So, what if USTOA partnered with a comedian and created some storytelling around our core messaging, but in a very different kind of way?”
As a result, the association formed a partnership with Harrison Greenbaum, a recent finalist on “America’s Got Talent” who also recently appeared on “Conan O’Brien,” to create a series of six, humorous travelogues.
Travel agent initiatives
Two thirds of USTOA active members’ sales come through travel agents, so it is in the interests of the organization to take action to bolster the retail segment to help insure their own continued success.
The USTOA’s travel agent training program now has produced 2,600 graduates and 5,700 enrollees. The association also publishes a quarterly newsletter for travel agents and is planning a special promotion for travel agents for next September.
“We want that partnership with the travel agent community to not only survive, but thrive,” said Dale.