Airport marketing

Airport retailing shrugs off global downturn
http://www.insideretailing.com.au/articles-page.aspx?articleType=ArticleView&articleId=3446 While many retailers around the world are suffering from deteriorating consumer confidence, airport retailing is predicted to continue to boom.

According to the latest report from Verdict Research, a Datamonitor company, retail sales at airports will grow by 11% in 2008 to $30billion, making it the fastest growing channel of retail after the Internet. Indeed rather than slow, retail sales are set to continue to grow strongly over the next five years, particularly in emerging markets, driven by the rapid increase in air travel and major investment in new airports and retail facilities. Though retail sales at airports will remain resilient in developed markets, it is the emerging markets of Asia-Pacific and the Middle East that offer the most exciting opportunities for retailers. The clean slates of emerging market airport development provide huge scope for growth that is less feasible – physically or financially – in regulated and restricted mature markets, and this is now being taken advantage of by airport operators.

Increasing passenger numbers are a key driver with the strong growth witnessed over the last five years set to continue, particularly in emerging markets according to Verdict. “The key factors stimulating this growth are increased affluence, growing tourism, rapidly expanding airline networks and new routes (especially those of low cost carriers). The increase in business travel as a result of globalization is providing a further boost to airport retailers,” says Nick Gladding, Verdict Research Lead Analyst and author of the report.

Mini Motel (for sleeping at airports when your flight is cancelled)
http://urbanpalimpsest.blogspot.com/2008/01/mini-motel.html
Extract: It's called The Mini Motel and it's being billed as the solution to canceled flights. For $39.95 you get this portable tent that includes an air mattress and an alarm clock among other amenities.

How to construct an airport marketing plan
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=jSjvOpliBLwC&pg=PA97&lpg=PA97&dq=airport+marketing&source=web&ots=MuqEUY8Jop&sig=12VgeVcz0tchcPz8Ib0uOK6hfCo&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result
Chapter 7 from the book "Airport Marketing"

Annual global holiday survey shows Australians are more holiday deprived than ever - One in three say financial pressures have affected their holiday plans for 2008
http://media.expedia.com/media/content/expnz/images/temp/hd/Holiday-%20Deprivation-2008.pdf
Extract: Sydney, 10th June 2008: For the second year in a row, Australians have been revealed as the worst in the world among the countries surveyed in both 2007 and 2008 at taking all their entitled annual leave. Australians clearly need to take more holidays in light of the results of the Expedia, Inc. annual global Vacation Deprivation™ survey, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Expedia, the world’s leading online travel company. This dismal track record also raises continued concerns among Australia psychologists about the mental and social impacts of holiday deprivation on the Australian population.

Toughening economic times featured high on the list of reasons deterring Australians from taking all their leave, with more than a quarter (26%) of Australians citing financial pressures. Asked specifically whether the credit crunch and higher interest rates had affected their holiday plans for 2008, 32% responded in the affirmative.

It appears that an addiction to work is another culprit deterring Australians from taking their full annual leave entitlement, with more than a third of respondents (34%) citing work commitments being too great to take a break.

In a further sign of Australians becoming workaholics, more than one in ten Australians (11%) said they felt guilty taking time off work for a holiday, while 7% feared for their job security if they took a break and 5% saying they suffered from ‘work anxiety’ when taking a holiday. Even when Australians took time off from work, almost two-thirds said they remained contactable with their work while on holiday (62%), with a whopping 57% being contactable by work or the office via their mobile phone, and 41% keeping an eye on their work emails while on holiday.

This year’s survey found that 38% of Australians do not take all of their allocated annual leave days, making them once again the worst among the same countries also surveyed in last year’s study (USA, UK, Spain, Germany, France and Australia) at taking all their holiday entitlements. To make matters worse, Australians also receive the second lowest amount of annual leave in the world (18 days) after the Americans, who receive a paltry 14 days. On average, Australians left around three days of their total annual leave entitlement on the table in the last year.

Currently 31% of Australians take holidays less than once a year and 13% take holidays less than every five years.

Winnipeg Airports Authority on board
http://www.brandchannel.com/features_webwatch.asp?ww_id=381
The Winnipeg Airports Authority (WAA) is using not one but two websites to keep residents of the central Canadian city up to date on the biggest project in its history—the construction of a new CDN$ 585 million terminal building.

Barry Rempel, president and CEO of the WAA, wants to avoid the mistakes made by other airport authorities when they unveiled new buildings of their own in recent years. He says by not communicating with various stakeholders throughout the construction process, people—primarily travelers—were left up to their own devices to envision what the facilities would look like once they were finished, and how they would work.

“People left the airports disappointed because their expectations had not been realized,” he says. “The consistent theme we heard (from other airport authorities) was we needed to communicate and engage the community with what was to come, to mold and crystallize in people’s minds what they could expect. If we don’t tell them what to expect, they’ll all come with different ideas and they could be confused their first day in the building.”