On Sunday, Oct 31, 2010, the curtain finally came down on the Shanghai World Expo, but not before the 184 day world’s fair brought together 73 million visitors (3.5 million international visitors) and 190 participating nations, with a total of 264 participating organizations hosting visitors in 200 structures.

Shanghai World Expo 2010

By any standard, the size and scale is daunting and will be hard to replicate. The Expo clocked an average of 400,000 daily visitors and a peak of 1.03 million visitors on Oct 16.  China spent $4.2 billion on the event, and a mind-boggling $44 billion on infrastructure improvements.

They organized over 10,000 promotional events around the world and over 20,000 cultural events at the Expo, and over 2000 domestic & overseas media turned up to report on the Expo.  The massive coverage by international media resulted in over 19.3 million news mentions.

The same massive size and scale applies to the tourism impact of the Expo on Shanghai, not to mention the boost to the tourism economies of participating nations.

According to the CNTA (National Tourism Administration), the direct tourism income from the Shanghai World Expo runs to over $12 billion. In addition, the spillover effect to adjacent cities caused a 20% bump in tourism services demand.

All told, the number of inbound visitors reached almost 99.8 million in the first nine months of the year. Foreign exchange earnings from inbound visitors hit $33.7 billion – a 15.8% increase from last year.

Also, the benefit to the tourism economies of participating nations has been just as huge. Korea, whose Expo Pavilion attracted 7.25 million visitors, just came out with a report that says the number of Chinese who will visit Korea over the next three years will increase by 450,000, which adds another $562.4 million to the Korean tourism economy.

Canada is also gearing up for an onslaught of Chinese tourists. The Canadian Pavilion received over 6 million visitors, and Canada got itself listed as an ‘Approved Destination’ so that Chinese tourists can now visit Canada without any restrictions.

Individual destinations in the US, especially Hawaii, California and Texas, also did pretty well in ramping up their brand at the Expo. The San Francisco delegation led by Mayor Gavin Newsom got a very warm welcome and lots of publicity as Shanghai’s Sister City.

The very fact that the US had a country pavilion was sufficient to help improve perceptions. It attracted over 7 million visitors, and Jose Villarreal, the US Commissioner General, declared the mission accomplished. He says – quote “We were able to tell an America story in an interesting way to a large number of Chinese citizens, many of whom have had very little exposure to America.”

A study of Expo visitors conducted by Shanghai’s Fudan University before and after they visited the USA Pavilion seems to indicate that Villarreal could be right. According to the study, 95.2 percent of those surveyed said “they want to travel to the USA.”

At a meeting between China’s tourism industry and the CNTA, it was revealed that over two million Chinese tourists are expected to visit the United States by 2015. This year’s total of the number of Chinese tourists visiting the US may already have overshot the previous estimate of 556,000.

Photo – stefano meneghetti

Cambridge, MA based SCVNGR (pronounced ‘scavenger’) is going places with CVB and destination tie-ups for developing location and game-based smartphone app tours.

SCVNGR App

SCVNGR is both a game and a game platform, which in their own words can be summed up as “Go places. Do challenges. Earn points.”

It’s no surprise that the platform lends itself to customized game-based tours for destinations. What is surprising is that in short order the company has lined up an impressive list of CVBs and organizations that are now offering SCVNGR based destination tours.

The list includes both Explore Chicago (tourism) and Choose Chicago (CVB), the Philadelphia CVB, Norfolk CVB, Sarasota CVB, Boston’s Freedom Trail Foundation, and even the US Navy.

Way it works is pretty standard for location-based smartphone game apps – you download the free SCVNGR app, go to the spot mentioned and complete a certain task, which earns you points and discounts.

It has a social check-in feature, but it’s not a necessary part of the game. It doesn’t even necessarily need a smartphone, and can also be played by sending text messages.

The new twist here is that CVBs are using the platform to offer everything from convention center apps to themed tours of the destination, along with the requisite challenges and rewards to offer motivation.

For example, Choose Chicago is offering four distinct themed treks, from a Presidential Chicago trek which follows the Obama family’s Chicago faves to a McCormick Place show trek customized for large conventions.

Harvey Morris, Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau (CCTB) Director for Digital Marketing & Social Media, says that “SCVNGR’s flexibility in building out custom challenges allows the show organizer to help shape the attendee experience in a way that’s fun and engaging.”

On top of these custom tours developed for specific organizations, SCVNGR also has a broad city-wide program for Chicago that links Universities, the Metro and other places of cultural significance into the game layer. Also, the Norfolk CVB in Virginia is offering SCVNGR based city tours – a Norfolk driving tour, and another Explore Norfolk tour on foot.

SCVNGR was launched in 2008 and has secured $4.79 million in funding, including $4 million in Series B funding from Google Ventures and Highland Capital Partners. In the 22 weeks since the app launch, over 500,000 users have played the game and the company has around 1000 paying clients who are using the game as a platform for interactive tours.

More info: www.scvngr.com/

Related posts:- There’s An App For That?

A new study by Canada’s National Travel and Tourism Coalition (NTTC) blames Canada’s government policies and tax regime for the potential loss of the country’s status as a world tourist destination.

Future of Travel & Tourism in Canada

NTTC is a coalition of industry associations who collectively represent 180,000 businesses and employ 650,000 people directly in Canada’s $71.5 billion tourism, hotel and air transport industries.

The report (Looking to 2020 – The Future of Travel and Tourism in Canada) pushes their policy recommendations, which include fair taxation, immigration policies to help provide access to more skilled labor, more funding for the CTTC, and and getting the government to create a level playing field with the US.

Recommendations aside, the interesting parts in the report are the ones which detail how and why Canada is falling behind in travel & tourism.

For instance, in 2002, Canada was in 8th place among the most visited destinations in the world. It is now in 15th place. They blame it on decreasing travel to Canada by US citizens.

On the other hand, the report also claims that the US has managed to hold on to its place in the top three because the dropping value of the US dollar has allowed more Canadians to travel to the US.

Also, Canadian airports and airlines are losing revenue because it is cheaper for Canadians traveling overseas to cross the border by road into the US and board international flights from Buffalo, Detroit, Burlington, Plattsburgh and Bellingham.

Apparently, US gateways enjoy a 15% cost advantage over Canadian gateways and Canadian government policies add upwards of $160 to the cost of an overseas trip to Canada compared to the US. For instance, one issue is the security fee – passengers pay a $5 security charge on a return flight from Boston to Paris but a $28 charge on a return flight from Montreal to Paris.

Canada vs US airport & trans-border fee differences

In a statement, National Airlines Council of Canada President George Petsikas said that “We cannot continue to weigh our sector down with these financial burdens and expect to compete with other destinations around the world.”

Among the many recommendations in the report (see summary on page 47), a couple are notable. One is the NTTC’s suggestion to focus on aviation based tourism, because they spend a lot more ($861 for overnight US visitors and $1404 per overseas person per trip) than automobile travelers driving in from the US ($385 per overnight trip).

Another is their suggestion that Canada’s travel & tourism industry should have its own bank to finance infrastructure projects like transport systems and convention centers and provide loans to businesses. They want to call it the Canadian Travel and Tourism Infrastructure Bank.

Whitepaper – Future of Travel and Tourism in Canada – Download (pdf)

Travel Weekly has published the 2010 Travel Industry survey, based on responses from 2,191 travel agents. While there’s a whole lot of interesting data in the report, here’s a few of the highlights that stand out from the rest.

Travel Industry Survey 2010

- Avg annual sales of home based agents is down 11% to $330,000

- Leisure/Business ratio in 2009 was 73/27 percent (85% leisure for home-based agents; 69% for $3m+ brick & mortar agencies; and 54% for $10m+ brick & mortar)

- Domestic/International mix stands at 51/49

- GDS users are down to 76%

- As a percentage of agency sales, cruises account for 28%; Hotels & inclusive resort bookings 27% (hotels alone are up to 14% as compared to last year’s 10%); and air travel is at 25%.

There are two other interesting parts to the survey. First, according to a psychographic analysis of the responses done by Stanley Plog, the data shows that there is widespread discontent among travel agents worried about their future.

The survey puts respondents  into three categories – Contenteds, Seekers and Careerists. The Contenteds are the happiest of the lot, who like their work, enjoy leisure travel and believe that travel suppliers are fair and honest. The Careerists are the motivated ones intent on being a success, while the Seekers are the unhappy ones who don’t see a future and plan to change their field soon.

The report compares this psychographic breakdown for the last four years, and turns out that while the number of Careerists remains about the same, a large number of Contenteds have given up and become Seekers.

Among home-based agents, the number of Seekers grew from 23% in 2009 to 31% this year, and for retail the shift is even more pronounced – from 36% to 49%. Simply put, a full half of retail agents are unhappy, believe they’re not being paid adequately and anticipate quitting the field in the near future.

Another equally stunning revelation in the report is the lack of web-savvy among ASTA members. A large number of travel agents (37%) think that social media is a ‘waste of time.’ 33% say they’re still learning about it, and only 20% have used twitter.

78% have a website, but only 20% have updated it daily over the last five years. Few offer an online booking option, and among those do, the online booking rate is only 7%. Only 6% have video on the site, 16% have a site feedback mechanism, and 24% offer a search box.

Full Travel Industry Survey 2010 – Travel Weekly