Nice dispatch from Conde Nast Traveler contributing editor Susan Hack, who found bedouin families in Egypt took a huge interest in Barack Obama.
"Can individual [American] travelers play a role in Obama's call to listen and engage?" she asks.
All of this is closely related to the interview Obama gave to Al Arabiya this week:
Obama has far bigger fish to fry than the reception of Western tourists in Muslim countries, of course. But reading this you realise that his potential influence on travel goes well beyond the 'feelgood factor' and new Kenya tours...
If you're following the Activities Abroad'chav' saga you'd be forgiven for thinking travel and class fell out of the sky yesterday.
But it's a bit more complex than that, as the long-standing term 'first class' suggests.
In the early days of commuter travel (and until well into the 20th century), 'first class' and 'middle class' were near synonyms.
Now both rail and air travel operate on broadly the same model, where first is for the business aristocracy - uber-successful but traditionally middle class people who earn more than proper bluebloods.
Meanwhile plumbers, whose manual job makes them traditionally working class, earn more than most of the supposedly middle class office workers who employ them - and both sit in economy.
So much for the phrase 'middle class', now only employed, as by Activities Abroad boss Alistair McLean in a comment on travel blog A Different Voice, as a kind of Daily Mail-ish synonym for 'well behaved'.
It helps to factor in major shifts in average income and buying behaviour that have taken place since class structure's rigidity went to hell in the mid-1900s.
Here's a rough outline:
Travellers were long segregated according to class, with segregation enforced by income
Travellers are now more likely to be segregated according to their interests, with segregation driven by choice
The question of interests becomes crucial when group travel is involved. I was once part of a press group on a Rhone river cruise, and two of us were well below the average passenger age. That made some passengers visibly uncomfortable, and I perfectly understood why.
In fact, the base insight Activities Abroad seems to have worked from - that travel is an emotional purchase, and marketers do well to play to consumers' self-definition - isn't wrong.
No, all the operator got wrong was the tone, the language, and the century.
Finally, it's a big lesson on the danger of shock or tongue-in-cheek tactics: if you end up being the bad guy, you just give someone else - like Travel Republic - a chance to ride to the rescue.
Update: A friend read this as a defence of AcAb's email. It isn't. I'm just trying to diagnose what I think they were trying to do and where it went wrong.
Agents vote for most of them, but eight are decided by consumers. Where awards overlap, consumers and agents sometimes come to different conclusions.
When reading these, bear in mind that agents and consumers inevitably have different angles - consumers may be basing their decision on a single holiday, agents on an ongoing record of support and complaint resolution.
So on the understanding that this isn't about one party being right and the other wrong, take a look and comment away...
Rail operator
Agents chose: Eurostar
Consumers chose: Virgin Trains
Long haul operator
Agents chose: Kuoni
Consumers chose: Virgin Holidays
(Though agents did name V-Hols best US, Canada and Caribbean operator.)
Cruise company
Agents chose: Fred Olsen, Royal Caribbean International, Hurtigruten and Silversea
The Globes are our annual awards for the best travel suppliers in the business.
Mostly they're voted for by agents, but one or two - such as the innovation award - are decided by a panel, and the eight consumer awards are voted for by, er, consumers.
What's going on?
Kevin will be twittering the winners as they're announced, reception permitting
Video, photos and the rest will appear first thing on Wednesday
There'll be three videos: a highlights package (presented by your blogger*, with TW staff interviewing award winners); a look at the best dressed guests; and - all going according to plan - a chat with travel broadcaster Simon Calder.
Social media evangelists were slammed; straw men were created; naysayers were assaulted and came back fighting. It was tremendous fun.
My colleague at Travolution has posted his own response, but I think two useful questions came out of reservations voiced by Murray Harrold, so I'm just going to put them out...
We know who is Twittering, but what are the categories of Twitter use in travel? E.g.
- Short bursts of activity based on current offers - Engagement with customers - Complaint resolution
Related questions: Who does them, and with how much success?
Is there evidence of Twitter delivering high-value customers?
Related questions: For which categories of product?
We'll inevitably see shorter breaks and lower spend ... For top destinations such as Spain, this creates a dilemma. Cut prices to compete more effectively, or position the product as more upmarket? The answer has to be a bit of both.
Consumer marketing copy has to be two things: first, it has to be aspirational (to make you want a product of this kind); second, and much harder, it has to be persuasive (to make you want this product).
If you fail at the second, you fail to inspire a purchase decision. It's here that much of the travel marketing copy I read is falling down.
It handles aspiration - to be blunt, some of it reads like the writer was handed a trowel and a bucket marked 'POSITIVE ADJECTIVES' - but it stops short of telling readers why this paradise/gem/hideaway and not another.
I'm conscious that not everyone can afford specialist copywriters, so for anyone tasked with filling a brochure or media pack, here's one big tip that will help firm your stuff up:
For every value or attribute you want to get across, provide at least one proof point that is rooted in the destination or product.
Say we're selling whale-watching in Madeira. Yes, the whales are majestic. Yes, the sun is gleaming on the water. But more interestingly, Madeira's volcanic landform means its waters get very deep very quickly, meaning you can get your cetacean fix without going too far from the harbour.
If you can't think of one, do some desk research or make some calls. If you still can't find one, you're trying to push the wrong attribute. Ditch it, move on to the next one, rinse and repeat.
You can't blame airlines. Naturally, they want to remind us of the days when being an air hostess was an impossibly glamorous career, airline brands were style icons and you could take mineral water through security.
Wait - does anyone else feel worse after thinking about that?
Quick heads-up - there will be a genteel-sounding climate change protest at Heathrow Terminal 1 this coming Monday (January 12).
According to Londonist, participants will be having a picnic in domestic departures from 7pm. And they'll be wearing Edwardian dress. And there'll be a string quartet.
Our argument is not with those who must fly... we shall do our utmost to allow airport users to go about their business. We will keep pathways clear for everyone.
It sounds more colourful than disruptive, but bear it in mind if you or your clients are passing through Heathrow 1 on Monday evening.
I'm exaggerating. But premium seat sales are suffering as the economy tightens, and Virgin has just launched a sale that sees some Upper Class fares slashed by 40%.
Over at BA, first and business traffic has plunged 12% (year-on-year, based on December 2008) compared to a 3.5% decrease overall.
The pattern is obvious, and frankly there are few surprises here - stakeholders, and most importantly shareholders, don't want to see evidence of profligacy while profits are taking a beating.
What's the endpoint? As premium fares plunge and budget sheets come under close scrutiny, will we see opportunistic backpackers quaffing free champagne while guilty-looking company directors fork out for crap coffee in the back?
Of course not. But premium cabins aren't going to sell as easily as they used to, and something will have to give...
Gordon Brown today urged the tourism industry to grasp the "huge opportunity" that globalisation will present over the coming decades
Inevitably, political rivals quickly pointed out that it isn't that easy, and that grabbing opportunities can cost money.
Don Foster, tourism spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said Brown's words were "hollow", pointing to the Government's decision to slash VisitBritain funding by nearly 20%
It's all very well to point out the irony of Brown's statement, but doing so only highlights the elephant in the room: the economic crisis prohibits VB's budget being beefed up again, and it prohibits it regardless of who is in power.
Perhaps it would be more productive to talk about making the money that is available count. That's a question of getting the creative right and leveraging new (and potentially very cost-effective) media.
You might find it interesting, you might not. Personally I'm surprised at how little overlap there is - there are stories in the TTG list I'd have expected to see in ours, and vice-versa.
One thing the lists have in common is a distinct lack of good news. Unless you count Celebair. Which I don't.
Travel Weekly
BA London City flight to New York will require fuel stop
TUI to close 100 agencies
Three found guilty of travel agency fraud
Four in court over holiday fraud
Online Travel Group confirms failure
Libra Holidays Group changes name to Allbury Travel Group
Virgin Holidays buys Travel City Direct
Fraudsters jailed for a total of 18 years
Agents told to take second jobs as forward sales suffer
Antigua shooting: ABTA advises tourists to be vigilant
The new TV ad for Qantas' A380 certainly looks the part - slick, bright and aspirational. But what's that music? Surely not a polished-up version of this...
I don't think they'd even let those guys on board...
