Tweet

Taking Flight- The Travel Industry Rebounds

Guest post by: Jocelyn Chavez

Article Overview: After years of “staycations,” and video conference meetings, families and business travelers are once again embracing travel. The travel industry rebound is benefiting numerous businesses and having a positive ripple effect on the U.S. economy as a whole.

Taking Flight- The Travel Industry Rebounds

After years of "staycations," and video conference meetings, families and business travelers are once again embracing travel. More than six in 10 Americans say it's important to get away from home this year, according to a recent USA Today/Gallup poll. And hotel bookings in popular vacation destinations are up from last year. The rebound in the leisure and business travel markets is benefiting not only airlines, hotels and car rental companies, but also the restaurants, stores and attractions that travelers frequent during their trips. From vacationers filled with wanderlust, to corporate road warriors, the growth in the travel industry has a positive ripple effect on the U.S. economy as a whole. Domestic and international travelers spent $758.7 billion in the U.S. in 2010, an increase of 7.7 percent over 2009, according to the U.S. Travel Association.

The travel industry also has a powerful impact on the employment market. Total travel-related employment consisted of 7.4 million direct tourism jobs and 6.8 million indirect travel-related jobs, for a total of 14.1 million jobs in 2010, which translates into one in nine U.S. non-farm jobs directly and indirectly relying on the travel and tourism industry. And, according to 2009 data from the U.S. Travel Association, travel is among the top 10 industries in 48 states and the District of Columbia in terms of employment.

Meetings are Big Business

As the emphasis at companies shifts from cutting costs, to growing the business, video conferencing and virtual meetings have fallen by the wayside. Face-to-face meetings foster relationships that are crucial to boosting a company's performance and bottom-line. In fact, a study by Oxford Economics USA, entitled, The Return on Investment of U.S. Business Travel, establishes the value of business travel, particularly when workers travel for meetings, conventions and exhibitions, training and incentive programs. The report finds that for every dollar invested in business travel, companies realize $12.50 in incremental revenue and $3.80 in new profits; and curbing business travel can also reduce a company's profits for years.

In an increasingly competitive environment, companies are once again spending on travel, and more professionals are taking to the skies. In 2010, corporate travelers accounted for 36 percent of the aggregate domestic travel industry revenues from airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, trains and cruises, with spending totaling $255 billion, according to the travel research firm, PhoCusWright. By comparison, in 2009, corporate travel spending totaled $233 billion, when corporate travelers accounted for 33 percent of the total market. And PhoCusWright projects that the corporate travel market will continue to grow by six percent in both 2011 and 2012, reaching $288 billion.

The corporate travel sector is closely linked to the meetings industry, which also plays an important role in the U.S. economy. A recent study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) U.S., entitled The Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy, found that the U.S. meetings industry directly supports 1.7 million jobs and $263 billion in spending.

Franchises Offer Travelers Familiarity, Predictability and Consistency

When traveling for business or for pleasure, consumers frequently seek familiar products and services. Franchises offer people consistency, convenience and predictability when they're close to home and on the road. So, whether you'd like to own a restaurant or retail franchise, a hotel or motel franchise, a car rental concept, or a cruise travel business, numerous travel-related franchise opportunities provide you with the chance to tap into the momentum of the travel industry rebound.

Related Articles
  Travel Consultant – A Necessity or A Waste Of Money?
  How OS Travel Buttons (iTravel, Google Travel) Will Change the Mobile Travel Landscape
  Aeroplan mileage redemption levels to increase
  Reasons Why YOU Should be Traveling More
  Best Travel Agent Programs
  The Ground Rules for Taking Off on International Travels
  Generating Leads through Internet Marketing For Travel Professionals
  Travel Agent Programs
  I Need to Fly More in India and Korea
  Become an Online Travel Agent
  How to Become a Travel Agent Online
  What is an Adventure Travel Agent
  How To Handle Complaints
  Travel Agent Business Opportunity
  Business Travel Made Easy
  Who's Got Your Power?
  Becoming a Travel Agent Online
  Home Based Travel Agent – What You Need To Know
  How to Become a Home Based Travel Agent
  Become A Travel Agent – Reap The Benefits

Article Tags: air travel, business travel, business travelers, car travel, corporate travel, destinations, leisure travel, meetings industry, taking flight, travel franchises, Travel industry, travel industry, vacations, video conference



Related Forum Posts
Re: New Video - Should I Get A Job Or Start A Business? - Hi Evan, I was curious to know what you'd suggest and I think you gave excellent advice. Taking a year out to try and start your own business is a great idea. Taking a year out after college is a well established option so I guess it doesn't prejudice your chances of getting a job should you wish to do so later on; it probably improves your chances if you've been getting valuable experience of managing a business and of course, if all goes well, you won't need to find out. Definitely a video for my website. Thanks! David
Re: Looking for business partners in travel and telecom areas - Michael, In order to help I would need more detail. Travel and Telecom are pretty broad categories. I develop and design websites and I could help but not without a lot more information on what niche's your targeting. For example are you trying to just target people in and around Chicago or the whole United States.
Where do you buy cheap airplane tickets? - When you book a flight for business or vacation, is it better to do it yourself online with the actual airline or do you go through a "discount" agency like FlightCentre.ca, CheapFlights.com, etc? I was at Flight Centre today and while the price looked ok, I was surprised they wanted to add a $50 service charge for booking the flight. As such, I decided to hold off on buying tickets from them for the time being.
Money I made while in School - While in university I did have a Student Loan (still paying that bugger off) and had a part-time job as a Call Center agent (inbound). *Canada* I also designed websites (outsourced all the work). I just worked on getting new customers, managed the projects to completion and helped create Marketing Plans for my clients (Online and Offline). *Canada* When I was studying the in the States I also made some money as a Part-time Flight instructor. *USA*
Re: looking for experienced affiliate feedback - Hi Chris, That's a great tip. The real benefit to running an affiliate marketing is getting other people to promote your business for you. Taking a pro-active approach as you suggest will certainly help.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

BUILDING A HIGH PERFORMING TEAM

The Pure FUN of Learning & Using NLP

Five keys to business success

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.