Travel Expert Predicts Increased Tourism This Summer

Peter Yesawich, Chairman and CEO of Ypartnership, a prominent marketing, advertising and public relations agency, spoke to a group of people at Friday morning. Ypartnership is a world-renowned agency with a finger on the pulse of travel industry.

Yesawich gave a bright and sunny forecast for the travel industry despite the chilly economic climate. Yesawich assured the crowd of marketing and tourism gurus that this is certainly not the end of leisure vacationing, and that this summer will be the closest one yet to resemble the pre-recession tourism industry.

Yesawich and his team published “A Portrait of American Travelers,” which is based on their studies of the travel industry over the past eighteen years. According to their studies, out of the 118 million American households, 45 percent do not travel.

According to Yesawich, the drastic gain in tourism from the fall of 2008 to the spring of 2009 is explained by businesses who were afraid of declines in sales and thus launched unprecedented discounts and increased a perceived affordability of travel.

“They’re not going to compromise on their quality, but they want to save 20 percent,” Yesawich said.

He also said flash sales, or offers that are time sensitive, are quickly becoming more popular and are seeing great success. Flash sales like Groupon can also appeal to younger crowds whom he said expects instant gratification is a large target audience for this type of sales.

Despite targeting towards the generation, Yesawich said social media isn’t a key player in the tourism industry and how Facebook does not influence decision on where to travel. The most popular source people use to find information about travel is actually family and friends, he said.