Variety of posts have talked about where travel business is headed. As it impacts hotel demand:
-Resorts popularity among traveling public is rebounding. Corporate meetings may be another story.
-Budget travelers like all-inclusive resorts. Good opportunity for traditional resorts to offer few all-inclusive programs.
-Prognosis on airline travel is whatever you want it to be. Resorts can minimize impact of airlines by concentrating on customers within easy drive.
-Luxury properties continue to drop price, but find that they don’t get “spend” from other outlets. We talked with one luxury resort that dropped rates to drive occupancy. Many locals booked resort to see what it was like, but they ate in coffee shop, skipped spa, skipped golf, and spent next to nothing in the shops. Hope had been guests would come and “splurge.” Didn’t happen.
-People will “splurge,” but they will splurge on things that interest them, and those things may not follow traditional offerings of resorts.
-Traveling public will continue to travel. Trend toward more frequent, shorter vacations will continue. Easier to plan for vacation that is short and only requires saving few hundred dollars than vacation involving several thousand dollars. People can save for shorter vacations in less time…quicker gratification.
Commercial hotels can benefit from these trends as well.
