From the Kansas City Star
The tourism Industry’s long-term future is bright, but it will be different. Trends suggest the tourists of the future will be older and more ethnically diverse, Suzzane Cook, a senior vice president of the Travel Industry Association of America, told delegates to the 2004 Missouri Governor’s Conference on Tourism meeting in Kansas City on Wednesday. Increasing numbers of them will have physical disabilities, including obesity, which is becoming the nations top health concern, Cook said. “The travel industry has a great opportunity to improve the quality of people’s lives,” Cook told an estimated 200 who attended the meeting, which continues today at the Muehlebach Tower of the Kansas City Marriot Downtown.
As the U.S. baby-boomer population ages, Cook said, the popularity of various vacation destinations will gradually shift from “traditional family experience” spots, like theme parks and canoeing expeditions, to more sedate activities, like sightseeing and health spa visits. Casinos can also expect a business bump from the boomers. Cook said research polls found shopping and family events the top two vacation activities among all age groups of travelers. But that list changes significantly for travelers older than 55, said Cook. Gambling jumps from the ninth-most-popular activity for all groups to fifth for older travelers. Outdoor and beach recreation plummets from numbers three and six to eight and nine. Amusement parks drop off the list altogether, while travel to seminars and other educational opportunities jump to number six for older travelers. Meanwhile, Cook said U.S. leisure travel this summer was on pace for 3.2 percent growth to 960 million total trips by Americans, up from 2.8 percent growth last year. Those positive numbers are holding in Missouri. “Summer is going to be up,” said John Robinson, Missouri Division of Tourism director. Early trends show tourism spending statewide up around 3 percent, while hotel and lodging receipts are up 7 percent, Robinson said. “The indicators are strong” and the travel industry’s recovery appears to be for real, he said.
Cook projects domestic travel spending this year to finally return to pre-Sept. 11, 2001, levels. Tourism is the nation’s third leading industry, with 2000 spending hitting a record with 580.8 billion. That figure fell to $550.9 billion in 2001 and $540.3 billion in 2002 before climbing to $554.5 billion last year. Cook said that it is projected to hit $587.2 billion this year. “We’ve really had one challenge after another in this industry,” said Cook, after the Sept. 11 attacks, recession, war, SARS and weather calamities ranging from Missouri’s unusually wet and cool summer to the recent hurricanes. Also at the conference, seminar speakers and trade show exhibitors pitched their wares to Missouri’s travel industry providers, including local tourism bureaus and attraction operators. Melrose Kelly, Kansas City-based sales and marketing director for CTM, was hoping to sign up more clients to rent space in the company’s tourism brochure racks that are found in more than 200 area hotel lobbies and other locations. “Business has been very good this summer”, said Kelly. In fact, “I’ve had to turn people away” in the Lake of the Ozarks marketing area.
In Kansas City, Kelly said, brochures that disappeared off the shelves the fastest included Worlds of Fun, the Kansas City Zoo, local restaurant guides and the statewide guide to Missouri wineries. Matt Hussey, an executive with Olathe-based Ruf Strategic Solutions, a database marketing firm, said one good sign the travel industry was bouncing back from three years of decline was that his clients were budgeting more spending for marketing. “They know it’s getting better, but it’s still a challenge,” he said. Long range, one of the next big things in U.S. tourism will be the sesquicentennial observance of the Civil War in 2011. “Seven years isn’t really a lot of time” to plan and prepare, said Alexander Wolk, president of St. Louis-based Insite Advice, which runs the www.mocivilwar.org Web site for the nonprofit Missouri Civil War Heritage Foundation. The foundation already is proposing four Civil War-themed routes across the state for auto travelers. The proposed “Grey Ghosts” and “Western Border” trails encompass Kansas City and include area attractions like the Jesse James birthplace and the Battle of Westport. “Missouri is very unheralded” as a Civil War state, said Wolk, who noted the state boasted the third most Civil War engagements, after Virginia and Tennessee. “Nationally, the Civil War is going to be a big event, and Missouri should jump on the bandwagon now,” he said.
Email this Article