ALTOUR Index Reports People Are Traveling More, Opting For Luxury Tourists Are Looking To Travel And Choosing Premium Level At The Right Price
(New York – April 9, 2012) The April ALTOUR INDEX (the luxury travel expert’s bi-monthly survey of hundreds of leisure agents) shows a strong increase in travel overall from last year, and an increased demand for luxury vacations.
At ALTOUR we understand the power travel has in connecting people, spreading ideas, and helping different cultures better understand each other. When we learned the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Bronx Museum of Arts were teaming up to create, smARTpower, in an effort to expand cultural diplomacy using the visual arts, we had to get involved.
With some Kasparovian play, and a little help from ALTOUR, the South Bronx could be home to a future United States Chess Federation champion. That’s the hope for the WHEDCO (Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation) Chess Team, and its 8 players aged 9-13, when they travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota to compete in the United States Chess Federation chess championships April 13-15th.
Air travel has made the world a smaller place, but also a more complicated one. It’s great that we can eat breakfast in New York and be in London in time for tea, but with added access comes added security concerns and the endless miles of red tape that come with it. For frequent international travelers, this was simply a part of the process that couldn’t be avoided: a necessary evil. But new and expanded programs allow for simpler immigration procedures for trusted travelers.
Twenty years ago I walked into a dealership to buy a new car. A passionate young man and his cloud of cologne must have seen the overwhelmed look on my face instantly and instantly zeroed in on me. He was maybe too passionate, and certainly wore too much cologne, but he helped me put into words what it was I needed. I drove off the lot a happy customer.
To look at that car now is to see a very expensive box with an engine in it, but at the time it was quite a trendy purchase. This year, when it was time to move on from the box’s replacement, I walked in to a very similar situation. The salesman wore a tighter suit and his glasses that were twenty-years out of style twenty years ago but are now experiencing a renaissance. He wore far less cologne, and the rounded features of the ’91 model had given way to the precise angles of the ’12. But beyond being shown a GPS instead of power windows, the overall experience was largely the same. The way I bought a car had not fundamentally changed.
In some respects, the same cannot be said of Leisure Travel.
When we decided to re-do the ALTOUR website, we wanted it to be world-class. That meant we had to create it from scratch.
Every other month, ALTOUR sends a survey out to hundreds of its leisure agents to get a bead on the industry. We want to know the where people are headed, how often, and what their chief concerns are. This knowledge helps us plan ahead so we can provide a better service. Below are some of our latest observations along with quotes from some of ALTOUR’s finest.
This past June ALTOUR reached a truly special milestone: our twentieth anniversary. To commemorate the company’s founding, and the business we’ve become over the past two decades, we turned to our marketing team, to create a special ALTOUR takeaway. And since our anniversary was such big news, why not an ALTOUR newspaper?
There’s nothing like the feel of paper and the smell of fresh ink, so be sure to order your copy. But here are a few highlights.
As the head of ALTOUR’s global Leisure Travel operations, Martin Rapp travels the world more than just about anybody. In the summer of 2011 Martin headed to Norway for a week-long visit. A detailed itinerary put together in association with one of ALTOUR’s local partners guided Rapp on his wanderings every step of the way.
As a global company that sends people across the planet on a daily basis, ALTOUR understands that it is important to look after that planet. That’s why ALTOUR has formed an alliance with Yann Arthus-Bertrand and his organization GoodPlanet in their mission
