→ Money and the Environment
→ Evolution of a Storied Chain
→ Postcards Favored by Tourists
→ SE Cities Earn High Marks
→ Steamboat Sails into Final Year
→ ABA’s Top 100 Events
→ Tourism Director of the Year
INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
When Thinking Green Means Both Money and the Environment
More and more American travelers are thinking green (as in the environment), but the green in their wallets also plays a big role when they chose an airline, a hotel or a destination.
New research shows that while half of U.S. adults advocate environmental responsibility, only 14 percent say a travel supplier’s green record influences their selection and just 13 percent are willing to pay more to patronize suppliers who demonstrate environmental responsibility.
Still, they often make qualitative decisions, such as choosing a resort that is known for a beach restoration project or a community where everyone is encouraged to recycle. Travel industry leaders are advised to watch this trend. More...
In this modern world of digital photos, cell phones and Instant Messages, the idea of sending a postcard may sound quaint or downright old-fashioned. But the venerable postcard remains a staple of the tourism industry. Linda Lange, travel editor of The Knoxville (Tenn.) News-Sentinel and writer of its travel blog,
Explore, at KnoxNews.com, takes a look at postcards old and new. More...
Holiday Inns—Watch the Evolution of a Storied Chain
If you want to see an exercise in corporate transformation, watch Holiday Inns for the next couple of years.
According to USA Today, the venerable chain is dumping roughly half of the 1,100 properties it had in 2004. The paper says it’s the largest cutback ever undertaken by a single chain.
So what’s changing? Look for older, two-story properties with exterior corridors to disappear and for multi-story, contemporary style hotels with fewer rooms and smaller restaurants to open. The transformation means elimination of about 100,000 rooms and addition of 35,000 new ones. More...
AROUND THE SOUTHEAST
Nearly 60,000 Travel + Leisure readers and CNN Headline News viewers have spoken, and they love specific aspects of New Orleans, Charleston, S.C., and Nashville. Those three Southeastern cities were on a list of 25 cities throughout the nation that the magazine and cable channel asked travelers to evaluate.
Those polled like the cheap eats and ethnic food in New Orleans, the friendly people in New Orleans and Charleston, and the barbeque in Nashville. The full poll includes categories such as attractive people, antiquing and architecture.
One of the most picturesque images on America’s inland waterways is the sight of the Delta Queen steamboat — glistening white and accented by its red paddlewheel — coming ‘round the bend.
It’s a scene right out of a Mark Twain novel, but it’s one we won’t see after 2008. The Delta Queen’s owners could not get Congressional approval to operate outside Coast Guard regulations that prohibit wooden superstructures and have scheduled its final trips. Its ultimate fate is undetermined. More...
Seventeen events in the Southeast—stretching from January’s Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City to December’s Olde Towne Holiday Music Festival in Portsmouth, Va.—are on the American Bus Association’s Top 100 Events in North America 2008 list.
The 17 events are spread through 11 states. 
Virginia has the most with three. Alabama, Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee each have two.
Check out the entire list.
Florida’s Bud Nocera Named Tourism Director of the Year
Bud Nocera, president and chief executive officer of VISIT FLORIDA, is the Travel Industry of America’s Tourism Director of the Year. Nocera, who is on the Southeast Tourism Society’s board of directors, has worked in tourism for 36 years and has been with VISIT FLORIDA since just after it was created in 1996.
IMPORTANT STS DATES
December 10-11, 2007: STS Board Meeting - Marietta, Ga.
March 31-April 2, 2008: Spring Meeting - Asheville, N.C.
