Report: U.S. Hotels See Underwhelming Demand for World Cup

[ergophobe]

65-70 percent of respondents across markets say visa barriers and broader geopolitical concerns are significantly suppressing international demand. These factors consistently rank as the top constraint on World Cup-driven travel.

https://www.travelagentcentral.com/hotels/ahla-world-cup-hotel-performance

[littleman]

Would you come here right now?  I hope they didn't spend too much on that FIFA prize.

[ergophobe]

Now that I just run one little rental, I don't have access to large datasets for hotels, so only anecdotal info.

However, when I did market hotels, the second biggest demo was UK visitation (bigger than Canada or Mexico). Foreign visitation ran in the low 20 percent range with UK alone being in the high teens, sometimes 20% by itself.

That was always roughly true with my anecdotal one-apartment dataset. But the last two years, we have had less than 5% foreign. We just got a booking from the UK last week and I realized that it had been ages since we had had one.

From my very very very limited dataset, lots of foreigners seem to be opting out of US trips. Not all, though. I ran into a French family while hiking recently and we ended up second in line on a climb behind a Canadian couple in Red Rocks (near Vegas) a couple weeks ago.

Also, in the national parks, we are actively chasing away foreign visitors - they are being hit with a $100/person 16+ surcharge to enter. A family with two parents, a child 16+ and a child under 16 would now pay $335 to enter Yosemite instead of $35 for a similar family with US residency.

[Rupert]

My wife was in LA last month, to see the old relative who has just turned 100. (Congrats Aunty Marg ) .  But my sister has said she wont go to the US at present.

[ergophobe]

>>  wont go to the US at present

Would she consider a trip to China or Russia or the Philippines?

I think it's not just the recent US policies foreign and domestic, it's the "apostasy" of the United States.

Apostasy: the formal, total abandonment or renunciation of a religious faith, principles, or a cause previously held

In the Reformation era, Protestants held apostates in particular disdain. They could forgive most of the rank and file "papists" and Jews and "Turks" who had never seen the light, but they expected those who had converted to the Reform to die at the stake rather than renounce.

There is something about the apostate (one of "us" who is now one of the "others") that is much worse to people than one of the others who has always been one of the others.

[Rupert]

>>  wont go to the US at present

Would she consider a trip to China or Russia or the Philippines?

Absolute NO to Russia.>  Way too cautious.  China and the Philippines would be on the list to visit I think.