Planners can and do prepare for many things beyond their control or ability to plan for that can interfere with a meeting, incentive, or event. But the forces of nature and man proved particularly harsh a month ago, with a volcanic eruption, historic flooding, a massive oil spill, and a tourism boycott fueled by accusations of racism all creating a perfect storm that threatened the industry.

“When you consider all the travel industry has faced in just April, it certainly makes one wonder what else will we be dealt,” says Christine Duffy, president and CEO of Maritz Travel and co-chair of the U.S. Travel Association’s Meetings, Incentives, and Trade Show Council. “We feel for those communities and the people within them. Unfortunately, this is nothing new for the travel industry. We deal with these types of issues on a regular basis.”

Duffy continues: “One thing I’ve learned over the past 18 months is the travel industry can persevere through the tough times. We’ve formed a tight community centered on the value business travel brings to organizations. Our business is not only critical to local economies, but what we do affords companies the opportunity to engage and motivate their people and drive lasting performance. It’s a win-win for all those involved.”

Eyjafjallajokull Enters the Lexicon
The worst disruption of air travel in modern aviation began on April 14, when Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano sent a continent-wide cloud of plane-engine-clogging ash 36,000 feet into the atmosphere. Most of continental Europe’s airspace reopened on April 20, and Britain’s on April 21. But brief, localized shutdowns continued through May.

In dollar terms, the cost was high. The U.S. Travel Association estimates canceled flights cost the American economy $650 million in direct travel spending and $90 million in lost taxes. A late-April survey of 234 professional business travel managers (representing more than 2,000 corporations) by the National Business Travel Association Foundation found that four out of five companies were hit by travel disruptions, stranding an average of 160 travelers per company, at an average cost of $200,000. Just in this sample, that works out to 310,000 travelers stranded at a cost of $367 million.

One point highlighted by the unprecedented shutdown was the value of having professional travel managers available to support stranded employees.

“Across our customer base, about 150,000 people were stranded or had their plans rescheduled or canceled,” says Issa Jouaneh, vice president of New York-based American Express Business Travel’s Maxvantage and Global Meetings Solutions. “We fielded more than 1 million calls to help and support impacted travelers. Our travel counselors logged over 12,000 hours of overtime. We chartered buses and trains. We tracked where travelers were—we were able to open a channel of communications with people who were stranded.”

The company also tapped its network of travel supplier partners to reroute and reschedule clients’ flights, when possible, and keep them off airport cots. “We had situations across Europe where we had to find alternate accommodations for our customers because they couldn’t stay in their existing hotels any longer,” Jouaneh says.

Oil and Water Hit U.S. South
The BP oil spill is proving particularly frustrating to the Gulf Coast and western Florida meetings market because its damage to business travel is increasing and there is no defined end to the disaster as the oil company continues to struggle with stopping the spill.

Meeting cancellations as a result of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are growing at hotels along the coast, though hoteliers said hype, more than actual effect, is causing the cancellations, according to data by the Knowland Group, a hospitality technology supplier.

Of 50 hotels surveyed, 42 percent said they are seeing group cancellations as a result of the spill. More than half the hotels surveyed, however, blamed the media attention for the cancellations. Just under half said canceled groups were concerned about the spill’s potential effect on the beach. Only 14 percent said guests were concerned about potential petroleum odor.

The spill's greatest impact is on short-term meetings. The hotels said 44 percent of the events canceled were scheduled to happen within the next three months, and 88 percent of canceled meetings were set for within the next six months. Most hoteliers said the impact on future bookings at this point is minimal.

The New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau has had “one or two questions from existing [group] customers, but nothing significant,” says Kelly Schulz, vice president, communications, and public relations for the bureau, who added that New Orleans is 100 miles inland and doesn’t anticipate any impact on visitor levels from the spill. “Our strategy has been to inform clients that we are monitoring the news daily, and while we do not want to minimize the seriousness of the oil leak it is business as usual for visitors to New Orleans.”

Neighboring Mississippi has been less lucky. As of mid-May, at least two groups have canceled their events, says Janice Jones, manager of media and public relations for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau. Still, there have been few concerns, she adds.

Along Florida’s Gulf Coast, there have been no reports of any meeting cancellations, according to sources at various destination management companies, Tampa & Company (the city’s tourism bureau), and the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“We’ve begun to track those concerns, and we’re being as proactive as possible to educate our planners and visitors that we’re open for business and are unaffected by the spill,” says David Downing, deputy director of the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area CVB. “We’re using social media to get the message out, and about a week ago we linked the live webcam from the beach to our Web site when we realized there could be a perception problem,” Downing says. “There’s nothing like seeing people on the beach. A picture says a thousand words.”

Nashville Flooding Shutters Major Area Group Resort
Torrential rains brought catastrophic flooding to Nashville in late April, and while most of the city’s hospitality product has recovered, the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center—which includes the Grand Ole Opry theater—suffered significant damage from 10 feet of floodwater and will be closed for at least several months.

The resort, with 600,000 sf of meeting and convention space, accounts for 10 percent of Nashville’s room inventory. It had 181,600 group room nights booked through July. The cost of lost business and flood damage was expected to exceed $50 million.

By mid-May, the 2,881-room Gaylord Opryland was assessing the property damage and working on relocating guests and groups that had booked the resort over the next three months. At that point, it had transferred at least 8,800 room nights to other Nashville hotels and was working with dozens of groups to salvage an additional 49,000 room nights for the city. Another 58,000 room nights were moved to other Gaylord properties around the country.

Betsy Hilt, executive director of the Nashville-based Tennessee Society of Association Executives, confirmed that the property is the only one closed. Nashville’s hallmark attractions are open and the downtown Music City district is up and running.

Arizona Immigration Law Strafes Meetings, Conferences
In the first week after Arizona enacted controversial immigration legislation, a statewide travel boycott called for by opponents led to the cancellation of at least 19 meetings, representing more than 15,000 room nights and costing the state’s meeting and hospitality industry an estimated $6 million, according to the Arizona Hotel & Lodging Association (AzHLA). By mid-May, cities like Seattle and Los Angeles had enacted formal boycotts on traveling to Arizona or doing business with companies located there.

“The state’s immigration legislation wasn’t crafted to have a negative effect on tourism, nor was our industry involved in its development, but we are definitely concerned that it will result in unintended, damaging consequences,” says Rachel Pearson, director of corporate communications for the Scottsdale Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Douglas MacKenzie, director of communications for the Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau, says, “We think it’s misguided to use tourism as an issue in this. One of our main concerns is making sure the more than 200,000 families who rely on the tourism industry in Arizona don’t lose their jobs in this economy.”

The boycott could not have come at a worse time; the Arizona tourism industry was recovering from one of its worst periods, hit by a poor economy, and the reluctance of companies to book meetings in resorts and destinations seen as lavish. Just prior to the boycott, the Phoenix-Scottsdale resort market had posted double-digit occupancy increases.

“If there is an upside, one positive impact from the past 18 months of the industry battling [the AIG effect] is that we are now an organized voice,” says Brenda Anderson, CEO of incentive travel industry group Site. “There’s more organized messaging from the industry, such as being able to quickly articulate that innocent bystanders making a living are being affected by politics.” This page is protected by Copyright laws. Do Not Copy