Fun times in Cleveland today!

by Mike Barish on

Every town has a tourism bureau or chamber of commerce that is entrusted with the responsibility of selling the city to prospective visitors. Well, one comedy troupe in Cleveland took it upon themselves to make a promotional video for their hometown. It is, admittedly, hastily thrown together. But, it highlights all of Cleveland’s go-to destinations: the place where there used to be industry, the douchey part of town and both of the city’s buildings.

The song is catchy, the information is accurate and the city is portrayed in a flattering light. Looks like a perfect promotional tool to me.

Come on down to Cleveland-town, everyone!

Note: Some of the language in the video is NSFW.

Recession impact evident in January, foreign visits to U.S. down

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Foreign visits to the United States are down 9 percent year-over-year for January 2009, according to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Spending by this group of visitors reached $10.6 billion – down 7 percent from January 2008. So, it looks like the people who spend less aren’t coming, since cash isn’t falling as fast as visitation. Slightly more than 3 million people visited the United States from abroad this year.

This confirms the worldwide effect of what was once called a “subprime mortgage crisis.” The global recession has led to a decline in consume rspending that includes travel.

Half the traffic came from our neighbors. Canada sent 1.1 million visitors to the United States, but this is down more than 12 percent year-over-year. Land arrivals fell 16 percent, with air arrivals dropping by only 8 percent. Mexico had 405,000 visitors to the United States in January. This is a decline of 4 percent. Air arrivals fell 16 percent, with land arrivals actually up 2 percent.

Excluding Canada and Mexico, U.S. arrivals totaled 1.5 million, a fall of 8 percent. Four of the top 20 countries (by number of travelers sent to the United States) showed increases, and two of them had double-digit year-over-year growth.

Brazil: up 5 percent (and showing 32 months of consecutive increases)

China: up 37 percent (and showing 35 months of consecutive increases)

Italy: up 6 percent (showing 25 months of consecutive increases)

Argentina: up 19 percent (and showing 30 months of consecutive increases)

U.S. visitation from the 27 countries in the European Union fell 11 percent overall for January 2009 (relative to January 2008), and travel from Western Europe was down 12 percent. Western Europe accounts for 37 percent of all overseas arrivals to the United States. Travel from Eastern Europe to the United States was up 5 percent. Travel from Asia to the United States, on the other hand, fell 9 percent year-over-year but nonetheless accounted for 31 percent of overseas arrivals to the United States. Travel from Japan fell 13 percent, with South Korea down 17 percent. Visits from India plunged 12 percent year-over-year.

%Gallery-49923%

Visit Yellowstone this summer minus the crowds

by Jamie Rhein on

According to tourism officials, advance bookings at Yellowstone National Park are down 13% this year which means that this summer would be a great time to put gas into a vehicle and head west. Gas prices are half of what they were last year and lodging is not particularly expensive anyway. With less crowds waiting for Old Faithful or the other geysers to do their shows or seeking out wildlife along the park’s miles and miles of roads, a vacation to Wyoming and Montana sounds more relaxing than ever.

When we went to Yellowstone six years ago, I don’t remember having to fight off that many crowds or search forever for a parking lot, although we made reservations to stay at the Rough Rider cabins in February even though our trip wasn’t until July. We weren’t able to get spots on the horseback ride that included a steak dinner, but my daughter and I were able to snag a two-hour trail ride for the day we were leaving. The day we hiked on a trail leading from the back of the Roosevelt Lodge, we only saw a couple other hikers.

With the numbers being down, I imagine that taking advantage of Yellowstone’s beauty will be easier than ever, and probably cheaper as various tourist spots vie for your dollars. [Jackson Hole Daily]

Spring painting for the Eiffel Tower: It takes gallons

by Jamie Rhein on

Every 7 years the Eiffel Tower is painted by hand. Although this icon attracts people by the droves to Paris and prompts folks like Tom Cruise to use it as a romantic backdrop for a marriage proposal, the Parisians don’t have much to do with painting it.

Actually, they don’t have anything to do with it, but probably do what they can to avoid getting paint dropped or splattered on them when they pass by.

This year, Romanians and Greeks will wield hand-held, small circular brushes to coat every bit of it with fresh paint. The specialized paint called “Eiffel Tower brown” is Norwegian.

Although the paint color has varied over the years, the painting method has remained the same ever since 1889. The color has stayed brown, however, since 1968 when it was decided that particular color works best with the skyline in Paris.

The statistics for this paint job are impressive.

According to the AP article, twenty-five people will use 66 tons of paint, 35 miles of climbing rope, and 18 months to do the job.

I’d say that the people who will be doing the painting will have an excellent view of Paris from the top as long as they don’t look down.

Traveler sentiment up … reality not told about it

by Tom Johansmeyer on

In February, the U.S. Traveler Sentiment IndexTM climbed to 90.2 from 78.2 in October 2008. An increased in the perceived “affordability of travel” is the driver of this trend. Since travel companies are desperate to fill seats and guestrooms, potential travelers are showing a bit more optimism.

The index, which is part of the travelhorizonsTM survey conducted by Ypartnership gauges traveler sentiment and is benchmarked at 100 with a starting date of March 2007. It is derived from six statistical measures.

“We are very encouraged that more people are signaling a willingness to travel for leisure purposes,” said Peter C. Yesawich, chairman of Ypartnership. “This is the first increase we have observed in the Index since January 2008, which indicates that the discounts travel providers and destinations are offering are working to attract more travelers, even in this down economy. As it turns out, this is actually a terrific time to travel because some of these great deals are sure to disappear once the industry begins to recover.”

Yet, the outlook is far from positive. The U.S. Travel Association expects a 5.6 percent drop in business travel this year – revised downward from an initial estimate of 3.5 percent. And, the reason for the increase in traveler sentiment – aggressive price-cutting – isn’t sustainable.