The Office of Travel and Tourism at the US Dept. of Commerce has published its annual Year in Review report for 2009, and the facts and figures are a grim reminder of the spectacular disaster that was 2009.

US Travel Year in Review 2009

The 2009 highlights for US Travel & Tourism:-

- 54.9 million international visitors (down 3.1 million or 5% from 2008)
- $121 billion in international visitor spending  (down $21 billion or 15% from 2008)
- $100 billion less output (domestic+international; down 7.4% from 2008)
- 8.2 million jobs supported (down 400,000 or 4.6% from 2008)

Regionwise, the biggest drop came from Europe, which sent 10% fewer visitors to the United States in 2009. European spending on US travel and tourism-related goods and services dropped to $10.1 billion (20% drop) in 2009.

Within Europe, the biggest drop came from the UK – 3.9 million visitors (down 15%) who spent $5 billion less (down 27%).

Americans traveling abroad also spent less in 2009 – 12% less as compared to 2008.

Subtracting the amount Americans spent abroad on travel & tourism from the amount spent by international visitors in the US, the trade surplus for 2009 comes to $22 billion – a drop of $7 billion over the 2008 surplus.

2009 was the worst year in recent history for the US Travel & Tourism sectors, comparable to the impact of 9/11. The $21 billion drop in 2009 international visitor spending is worse than the $13.3 billion drop in 2001. The 4.6% employment drop is more than that for 2001 and 2002  (1% and 3% ) put together.

How far back the 2008-2009 recession has pushed US Travel can be judged from the fact that the industry actually employed more people in 1999 than in 2009. Total spending on passenger air transportation services (direct and indirect) fell more than 16% to $158.3 billion in 2009, less than was spent in 2000.

The $100 billion drop in demand for US travel & tourism goods and services is by far the single largest contraction the industry has ever experienced.

2009 employment data by sector:-

- Food services/drinking places supported 2.5 million jobs (down 2%; lost 61,000 jobs)
- Passenger air transportation industry supported 758,000 jobs (down nearly 6%; lost 47,000 jobs)
- Traveler accommodations supported 1.6 million jobs (down nearly 6%; lost 100,000 jobs)

For more details, download the full report from the OTTI (pdf file) website.

The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and the Economics practice at AECOM have released their annual 2009 Theme Park Attendance Report, which shows attendance at theme parks worldwide and in North America dropping slightly from 2008 levels.

Highlights of the 2009 attendance statistics from the report:-
Top 25 theme parks worldwide - 185.4 million (down 0.3% from 2008)
Top 20 North American theme parks – 121.1 million (down 1.3% from 2008)
Top 20 European theme parks - 57.3 million (no change  from 2008)
Top 10 Asian theme parks - 65.5 million (down 3.5% from 2008)
Top 20 worldwide water parks - 20.7 million (up 2.1% from 2008)

Dig deeper into the North American statistics, and you get some neat trends.

While attendance for all the Orlando theme parks put together dropped 9% in 2009, the drop had nothing to do with attendance at Disney’s parks. In fact, attendance at Walt Disney World in Florida actually grew 1% to 17.23 million.

Disneyland in Anaheim lead Disney’s growth with 15.9 million visitors in 2009 – a growth of 8% over 2008 attendance. Disney’s California Adventure grew 9.5% to 6.05 million visitors.

These statistics, coupled with the overall North American drop of 1.3%, suggest that while the theme park sector lost visitors, Disney not only managed to hold its own, but also reeled in visitors from its competitors.

Magic of the Disney brand or good management? Likely a little bit of both – as proved by the success of the ‘Give a Day, Get a Day’ promotion, under which 1 million people signed up to volunteer their time for their community, in return for free admission to one of Disney’s parks.

Apparently Universal’s magic isn’t so strong (2010 might be a better year after the Harry Potter park opens) - 2009 attendance at Universal Studios Orlando tanked 12% to 5.4 million visitors. Universal Studios Hollywood dropped 6% to 4.3 million visitors.

Seaworld too had a bad year, with Seaworld Orlando down 6.8% to 5.8 million visitors and Seaworld San Diego down 12.6% to 4.2 million visitors.

Match Seaworld’s sharp drops against the 2.1% growth of water parks worldwide, and taking into consideration the bad publicity over the death of a trainer at Seaworld Orlando earlier this year, things don’t look too good for North American water parks.

For more details and trends, download the full TEA report here (pdf file).

2009 Roundup

The past 12 months have brought massive change for the travel industry, with a new President and a new legislative agenda, the recession and its massive impact on airline fees and hotel revenues, the H1N1 swine flu, and massive projects like CityCenter.

The shift in consumer preferences too was equally momentous, with the top consumer travel stories for 2009 showing a tilt in favor of budget travel.

Here’s a roundup of the top travel stories for 2009 which ended up as the most viewed articles published by various travel media outlets.

U.S. Travel Association - List of the most accessed articles in the U.S. Travel News Brief. The list is topped by an NYT story about hotels facing an uncertain future.

More stories in the list on the recession’s impact, cancelled meetings and the negative perceptions over business travel (AIG Effect). A couple of stories on President Obama’s election and his policies for the travel sector. One article about the Travel Promotion Act and one on the launch of DiscoverAmerica.com. See the full list here.

Travel Weekly – Travel Weekly’s top 10 2009 stories list is more of a roundup of the top issues, including airline fees, United’s merchant fee tiff, tarmac time, AIG Effect, H1N1 Swine flu, Alaska cruises, OTA hotel taxes, Travel Promotion Act, and the launch of the two biggest game-changers – Royal Caribbean International’s Oasis of the Seas and MGM Mirage’s CityCenter in Las Vegas. Read the details here.

New York Times – The NYT published its own list of top travel stories and slideshows for 2009. Their list is topped by Frugal Traveler Matt Gross’ guide for the Frugal Pleasures of Paris in Summer. 

Bing Travel – Bing’s list of top slideshows and articles in 2009 was topped by an article by Peter Greenberg on How to avoid staying in a Filthy Hotel Room.

Yahoo! Travel – Yahoo’s list of top 10 travel destinations for 2009, based on consumer interest and activity, is a big story all by itself, which underlines the shift in favor of budget travel. The 2008 list had New York in 2nd place, with Paris and Honolulu claiming the 5th & 6th spots. The 2009 list is topped by Vegas and Miami, with the more expensive New York dropping down to 6th, Honolulu to the 9th spot and Paris coming in last.

Worldhum – Worldhum’s list of 21 most read features of 2009 are topped by two posts for introverted travelers by Sophia Dembling. The list also includes articles about twitter tips from tweeting travelers, and one about the perils of travel writing.

Baltimore Sun – The Baltimore Sun’s list includes two accidents which completely enthralled the travel media for days - Capt. Sully Sullenberger’s Hudson Miracle (USAirways Flight 1549) and the tragic Air France Flight 447, which vanished in the Atlantic enroute to Paris from Rio.

Photo by Optical_illusion (thanks to Britt)

Holiday travel just got cheaper

It’s all over USA Today this morning: the airlines have waived their advance purchase rules, meaning folks can buy their way home this holiday without paying more than those who booked in advance. As the nation’s newspaper points out, American Airlines everyday no-advance purchase airfares between Dallas and New York City were selling yesterday for $1,858 roundtrip. Today, the route is priced as low as $388 roundtrip. (Atlanta to Seattle fell from $1,198 to $258 on Delta.)

That’s excellent news for consumers, of course. No one should have to finance a visit with family over the holiday for the next 12 months.

But this comes on the heels of the airlines swearing themselves blue in the face that wouldn’t happen this year. Travel agents have been spreading the word that capacity is down, prices are up and the old “buy now, or pay more later” adage was definitely in full force for the holidays. Only now it isn’t, and the travel agency segment looks like used car salesmen. My sincere condolences go out to the poor family that paid nearly $1,200 for a ticket yesterday because you, frankly, were screwed.

And good luck, American Airlines/United/Delta/Northwest/US Airways/Frontier/AirTran/ Midwest getting folks to buy seats a few months out on the 2010 holidays, which would be so helpful to your bottom line. You’ve just trained them to wait until December 21 for the deal.

Merry Christmas, travelers!

I certainly don’t have an MBA degree hanging on my wall; my business knowledge comes from two decades as a business reporter and a few years of being a business owner myself. But that gives me enough common sense to wonder if sticking to your guns wouldn’t be worth trying at some point. The airlines have fallen into the couponing trap, and don’t have the strength of will to pull themselves out. Meanwhile, William Maloney, CEO of ASTA, describes 2009 as “miserable, probably one of the worst for the travel industry. Airlines, hotels, tours, cruise lines — everyone saw a downturn in revenue.”

If the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome, then discounting holiday fares is insanity.

Meanwhile, Arnie Weissman at Travel Weekly is calling this the decade of fear for the travel industry. He points the finger at 9-11 and consumers’ reactions. “For how many years will Americans react to each new perceived danger by canceling travel plans?” Weissmann asks. That goes both ways: how long will suppliers in this niche be afraid to step out and try something new?

Photography: jetalone, uggboy (Flickr)