The newly released Hotels.com Hotel Price Index (HPI), covering the first six months of 2011, shows a 3 percent global price increase and continued gradual recovery of the industry despite natural disasters and political upheavals in the first half of the year, and ongoing economic and employment stagnation in the United States.

Rates, however, are still below their pre-recession peak in mid-2007, so there remain some good deals and value for travelers.

“Despite the gradual upward trend in hotel prices compared to recent bargain basement rates, there are still plenty of great deals for consumers,” said Victor Owens, vice president of marketing North America for hotels.com, in a statement. “Sales are popping up constantly, especially last-minute sales on desirable locations. There are plenty of cities that still have reduced average hotel rates. Even popular tourist destinations offer deals during the off-peak season.”

The HPI surveys hotel prices in major city destinations across the world and is based on bookings made on hotels.com, with prices shown as those actually paid by customers (rather than advertised rates) for the period being reviewed. This report compares prices paid in 2010 with prices paid in 2011.

Higher Costs for U.S. Travelers

The weak U.S. dollar means overseas travel is even more costly for Americans, particularly for European destinations, where U.S. travelers paid 11 percent more for hotel rooms in the first half of 2011 than they did in 2010. They also paid a 5 percent increase for rooms in North America, a 4 percent increase in the Caribbean, but just a 1 percent rise in Asia.

In the 10 most expensive international cities, rates rose 22 percent on average, with U.S. travelers paying $350 per night and up for rooms in destinations as diverse as Vieques, Puerto Rico, and Monte Carlo, Monaco. French Polynesia’s Bora Bora topped the list, with daily rates averaging $800.

New York once again is the most expensive city for travelers in the United States, with an average rate of $190.46, up 5 percent from $181.66 in 2010, followed by Honolulu, up 13 percent, Boston and Miami, up 7 percent each, and New Orleans, up 12 percent from 2010.

International Destination Trends

When it comes to where Americans are traveling, little has changed. Europe remains the international spot most frequented by U.S. travelers, with London, Paris and Rome the three most popular destinations. Our neighbors to the north, Toronto and Vancouver, are fourth and fifth, respectively. European cities grabbed 10 more of the top spots, with Madrid, Amsterdam, Dublin, Florence and Venice each moving up in popularity.

The fastest growing cities for U.S. travelers are in Asia, with Beijing, Bangkok and Seoul rising from 12 to 16 spots each, and the first two, along with Hong Kong and Shanghai, ranking in the top 20.

For full HPI results, visit www.hotel-price-index.com.

Image: Hotels.com HPI Survey

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According to a new survey by the National Restaurant Association, nearly six out of 10 consumers (59 percent) would visit a food truck if their favorite restaurant had one. This is up 12 percent from the 47 percent who said the same last year.

Food Trucks survey

Nearly one-fifth (18 percent) said they saw a food truck in their community this summer, and 28 percent of those who saw a food truck made a mobile food-service purchase.

The instances of consumers spotting a food truck are highest in the West (29 percent) and the Northeast (24 percent), with the South clocking in 15 percent and the Midwest 9 percent.

Two -thirds of younger consumers (age 18 to 44) said they would visit a food truck if their favorite restaurant offered one, while 38 percent of those 65 and above said they would do so.

Asked how they found the food truck they visited, 73 percent said they simply saw it on the street. Fifty-four percent indicated they went over to an area where food trucks typically gather.

But there’s also a big social element to it, because 39 percent said they found out from a friend and another 13 percent said they found it via social media.

This quick growth in the food-truck business has left many cities struggling with outdated laws. Washington, D.C., treats food trucks like ice-cream trucks, so they’re not allowed to halt unless someone hails them.

In Chicago, the trucks can sell food, but they’re not allowed to cook. An online petition campaign that has garnered 4,688 signatures to date aims to get Chicago City Council regulations amended so that the trucks can cook on board their vehicles.

Food trucks are also not bound by school cafeteria regulations, so some cities like San Francisco have regulations prohibiting the trucks from coming within 1,500 feet of district schools.

El Paso, Texas, had a regulation in place that prohibited food trucks from operating within 1,000 feet of a restaurant or food store. That regulation was scrapped after the city was hit with a lawsuit by the Institute for Justice.

Photo – National Restaurant Association

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Feature 1: Google has acquired Zagat Survey, which now gives Google Maps a big leg up against user-generated restaurant-review sites like Yelp and OpenTable. Acquisition terms were not disclosed.

Zagat Google

Following are statements from both companies about the acquisition and what it means for them:

Marissa Mayer, vice president for local, maps and location services, Google: “Moving forward, Zagat will be a cornerstone of our local offering—delighting people with their impressive array of reviews, ratings and insights… With Zagat, we gain a world-class team that has more experience in consumer based-surveys, recommendations and reviews than anyone else in the industry.”

Nina and Tim Zagat: “After spending time with Google senior management discussing our mutual goals, we know they share our belief in user-generated content and our commitment to accuracy and fairness in providing users with the information needed to make smart decisions about where to eat, shop and travel.”

Google just got Zagat rated – Google Blog
Zagat got Googled - Zagat.com
Priceline CEO: Google web travel efforts under legal cloud – WSJ.com
Google Hotel Finder rocks the boat for Kayak – Forbes

Feature 2: Sunnyvale, California-based wireless location-based services provider Telenav has acquired Boston-based local-activity search startup Goby. The acquisition terms were not disclosed, and Goby’s existing core team will continue to operate out of Boston.

Goby was launched in October 2009 with $5 million in investment from Flybridge Capital Partners and Kepha Partners and raised another $2.5 million in 2010. Its mobile apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android have more than half a million users.

TeleNav completes acquisition of Goby - Telenav.com

Here’s the rest of the week’s interesting news:

Hotels.com extreme airborne stunt shows how to book a room “on the fly” – Hotels.com
Hipmunk first OTA to integrate Amtrak searches – Gadling.com
TripIt survey shows Android users travel less frequently - TripIt

Sabre Profiles: New customer profile management system – Sabre Holdings
American accuses Sabre of staging bookings boycott – Bloomberg
Amadeus and SITA to bring real-time baggage tracking to passengers - Amadeus.com

Survey: Airport security, baggage fees and trusted traveler program – Travel Leaders
Airport Screening: Shoe removal policy could come to an end – TIME

California Court overturns San Diego hotel tax ruling against OTAs - ITSA (pr)
Vail could sue online travel companies - VailDaily

Photo – Zagat

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Is BP now one of the Gulf Coast’s tourism promotion organizations? Apparently so, because it has started directly promoting the Gulf Coast as a destination in a new ad campaign called “Voices from the Gulf.”

BP Gulf tourism ad

In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which soaked the Gulf and its beaches, BP has given $170 million for tourism promotion to the various tourism promotion organizations in the four affected Gulf states.

This $170 million is in addition to the $5 billion from the BP fund that has been given so far to affected residents and businesses.

But the new TV and radio ad campaign that started airing in markets across the United States starting late August marks the first time that BP has directly promoted Gulf Coast tourism on air.

The core of the campaign is made up of two spots—Great Vacation and Best Place. Each ad features real business owners and visitors from Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi talking about what’s good about each state and the best places to visit.

They argue about whether visitors will enjoy the fresh seafood in Louisiana more or the sugar-white beaches in Florida, or maybe the great outdoors in Mississippi or the beautiful Alabama shoreline. The ad then turns to the one thing that they can all agree on—that the Gulf is the “world’s good time headquarters” and that “we’re 100 percent open for business, 100 percent open for fun.”

There are individual videos with each of the spokespersons, including Rip Daniels, who runs WJZD radio, is CEO of the American Blues Network and is a managing partner of the Almanett Guest House in Gulfport, Mississippi. You can see all the videos on BP’s YouTube channel.

If you’ve seen both these ads and those that were aired earlier by some of the Gulf Coast tourism organizations after the oil spill, you’ll notice that these BP ads hit right home, and better than most of the other ads.

No doubt visitors aren’t so concerned with the oil spill anymore because there isn’t any oil leaking out into the Gulf or showing up on beaches. That makes it easier to promote these destinations and focus on all the good things, instead of the oil.

Even so, it’s a pretty good effort by BP and allows the tourism organizations in all four states to leave the oil spill out entirely from their own messaging and promotional campaigns. In any case, it’s more free media for the Gulf Coast, and bound to be helpful.

Photo – BP

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