National News

Chicago's Navy Pier remains a favorite

Ten years after its $187 million rebirth as an entertainment district, Chicago's Navy Pier, the state's most popular tourist destination, is a bustling mix of restaurants, rides and retail stores, attracting nearly 9 million visitors a year. Yet despite the mass of visitors, many from the Chicago area still dismiss Navy Pier as an overpriced strip mall and a tourist trap. But the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which governs Navy Pier, estimates the attraction generates more than half a billion dollars a year in direct spending on hotels, restaurants and entertainment around Chicago. To draw more young people, officials are considering a water-based hotel and a water park.
Source: Travel Advance

Heritage tourism booming

Heritage tourism, the trend of transforming the annual family vacation into a cultural history lesson, is the second-fastest-growing market segment of tourism, says Rich Harrill, director of the University of South Carolina's Institute for Tourism Research. Southern states in particular are promoting their historical sites as they ride a wave of black tourism. Since May 2004 the Virginia Tourism Corp. has spent more than $300,000 trying the reach the black market. Tennessee has focused on upping its appeal to African-Americans and on proving it's more than just the capital of country music. The state's vacation guide mentions everything from galleries to historically black Fisk University in Nashville to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.
Source: Travel Advance

Business/leisure travel is up

A recent study commissioned by Deloitte & Touche USA LLP found that more business travelers are extending work trips. More than half (55%) of all business travelers reported taking at least one combined business/leisure trip last year. Seventy percent brought a family member or friend with them, and 54 percent had stayed at least one extra night at the same hotel or resort.
Source: Travel Advance

Workers travel less for business

Nearly one-half of U.S. workers are traveling less frequently for business than they did five years ago, according to a survey by Robert Half Management Resources, a unit of Robert Half International Inc. Of 1,000 employees polled, 48 percent said they travel for work less often compared to 2000. During the economic slowdown of the past few years, corporations trimmed travel allowances, and have continued to closely monitor expenses as the economy has improved. Nonetheless, 36 percent of employees polled travel more frequently for business, while the remaining 16 percent saw no change in the level of business travel, according to the survey.
Source: Travel Advance

Disability travel on the rise

The Open Doors Organization, in cooperation with the Travel Industry Association, recently released the findings of its 2005 research study on travel by the disabled. Over the past two years, more than 21 million adults with disabilities traveled for business and/or pleasure. The study highlights which domestic and international destinations are the most popular among travelers with disabilities, and shows that the average number of leisure trips and hotel stays among these travelers is up 50 percent from 2002.
Source: Travel Advance

U.S. sets new record for travel abroad

Some 61.8 million Americans traveled abroad last year, the largest number of U.S. outbound travelers ever, according to figures recently released by the Commerce Department's Office of Travel and Tourism Industries. The figure represented a 10 percent increase in outbound travel over 2003. Spending by U.S. travelers abroad also set a new record in 2004, at $89.3 billion, a 14 percent increase over 2003 spending. The top outbound markets were Mexico and Canada. Top overseas markets for U.S. visitors were the U.K., France, Italy, China and Germany.
Source: Travel Advance