New York Hospitality by Vijay Dandapani

Multi-platform marketing

The phenomenal success story of Crocs, a billion dollar company that went from $1 million in revenue in 2003 to over $300 million last year needs no introduction and the company shows why its trajectory is likely to remain nearly vertical. The company has now unveiled a travel guide website called "citiesbyfoot.com" that serves as a "one-stop travel site that gives you the lowdown on some of the world’s best cities".

For now, the website, which epitomizes an exemplary multi-platform marketing strategy on the part of Crocs, includes three cities, Aspen, Vail and Denver in Colorado perhaps owing to its having started out in Boulder, CO and San Francisco and New Orleans. A press release from the company states that the guide offers "features fun walking guides to help leisure and business travelers easily find unique places to shop, eat, and play. An on-camera host steps out in style to discover each cities’ best kept secrets, interviewing local business owners and elaborating on the experience and ambience that each location offers, all while enjoying the comfort of their favorite Crocs™ shoes".

Hopefully the company will not be long in coming out with one for New York, the ultimate walking city in the world and even international destinations such as London that are conducive to walking.

Extra long beds: a tall order?

The New York Times today has an article on the plight of those with extra height. Headlined the "Coping With the Tall Traveler’s Curse" the article notes how "the discomfort continues long after the flight, as their feet dangle off the edge of hotel beds".

While the report spends a fair amount of newsprint on the travails of the vertically superior in airlines and taxis it notes that "The only hotel chain that seems to have staked out the tall traveler niche is Kimpton Hotels, which introduced its “tall rooms” with 96-inch beds, higher showerheads and higher door frames in 1995. Each hotel in Kimpton’s Hotel Monaco chain has about 20 tall rooms". That represents an enormous unfulfilled opportunity for hotels as according to the most recent survey by the National Center for Health Statistics "Five percent of men ages 20 to 74 in the United States are 6- foot-2 or taller".

The Times also reports that "Other hotels that have tall-friendly rooms are the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, which has 48 rooms with 96-inch beds in its Palms tower and fantasy tower. (The owners, the Maloof family, are sensitive to the height issue because they are the majority owner of a National Basketball Association team, the Sacramento Kings".

For now, destinations that make overt steps to accommodate tall travelers are few and far between with the Netherlands (Holland) leading that list.

MICE in Europe - Going East ?

Go West Young Man!, the exhortation penned by an Indiana newspaperman, John Soule in the middle of 19th century to look for a new life of promise may have to be turned 180 degrees for the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and events) market. The Financial Times reports in its May 12th edition that "Meetings industry looks to the east". Some of the principal reasons have been the "US credit squeeze and travel limitations within the financial and pharmaceutical sectors". Mice has been moving towards "Central and Eastern Europe, because of improved infrastructure and transport links - and in particular to Poland, Hungary and Lithuania."

An interesting observation in the FT article is that "Airport destinations are becoming more popular because people are struggling with transport and, providing these hotels are of the right quality and venue, that will continue. Using airport venues often means that organisers can reduce the length of an event by a night - and that is cost-effective too." While the US still leads the world in the MICE market, airport hotels in the US are less equipped to step-in a softening economic environment and capture some of the business which may otherwise contract. The US should also take note of the success of Dubai as one of the fastest growing meeting destinations in the world as the recently concluded IMEX show in Frankfurt, Germany showed.

Climate change: winners and losers in tourism

The May issue of Yale Global online, a publication of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization has an interesting article entitled "Climate Change and Tourism’s Winners and Losers". The report details how climate change will bring about "a series of long-term of adjustments (that) is bound to leave some winners and losers" around the world.

It has some startling conclusions beginning with "tourism industries will improve in the countries of the northern hemisphere that have contributed the most carbon emissions into the atmosphere leading to climate change. And the tourism industry of countries throughout the southern hemisphere, which have contributed relatively little by way of carbon emissions, will suffer".

The article states that the industry has been one of the most resilient in the globalization era and notes that besides external shocks such as 9/11 and SARS "the travel behavior of many consumers has changed considerably, and some key factors characterizing this change include late bookings, increased price-consciousness, shorter holiday trips, the desire for more flexibility and individuality, and the trend towards special and theme holidays. On the supply side, notable changes include the major success of the low-cost carriers and new distribution channels such as the internet". It goes on to note that the industry is in for more turbulent times.

But it is the forecast (with a time horizon of 2030) of winners and losers that is of particular interest. "Canada, New Zealand and the USA are the only three further countries outside Europe whose tourist industries will be on the winning side. The reverse conclusion is that the tourism sector in all countries surveyed in Africa, Latin America and Asia will more or less suffer from climate change in the next few decades". The Caribbean , among others, is slated for decline.

The analysis concludes by noting that in "plain language, if prices for air trips increase, for example, because of their inclusion in emissions trading and if – as a result of that – fewer people travel to faraway destinations, the negative economic impact would be perceptible, especially in the poor countries. This means that measures taken by industrialized countries to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions and thus their contribution to climate change can cause negative economic effects in other countries".

The author of the report does provide some suggestions that could mitigate the economic consequences for those on the losing side. These include new technologies "to substantially increase the energy efficiency of the transportation sector so that its impact on the earth’s climate can be reduced and traveling will not become a luxury good" and "direct transfer payments to the countries most affected by climate change". In other words, high transportation costs together with climate change is shaping up to be a witches' brew for tourism in areas that are less able to withstand those negatives.

In the end human ingenuity may well effect change that forestalls some of the gloom in the forecast, a fact the author barely manages to acknowledge.

Free internet and new Wi-Fi technology

The New York Times reports on the tussle between proponents of free versus paid Wi-Fi in hotels and other commercial and public places noting that it "is starting to look like a draw. Or more accurately, a third variation is winning — a combination of the two".

Select service hotels around the country - though not overseas - have, for years, offered Wi-Fi as a free amenity but oddly, if predictably, the more upscale brands continue to charge customers for internet use whether via Wi-Fi or ethernet cable. The Times reports on an explanation for that divergence from a Marriott spokesman who says that "When you’re talking about a 1,000- or 1,500-room hotel, there are many more complications involved. The infrastructure is more expensive to install and more expensive to maintain." But with the advent of new Wi-Fi technology (wi-fi, 802.11n draft 2.0) and a decline in new equipment prices, it should be easier to handle large buildings as well and, perhaps, enable larger hotels to offer what is viewed by most lodging customers as just as necessary as bath towels or TV service, neither of which has a special charge. In the interim, customers who want to know what locations - including hotels - offer free Wi-Fi sites such as WiFifreespot.com give a listing by state they can go to.