Travel Industry Roundup | October 7
Is there hope for improving America’s terrible airports? What hotel rewards program offers the best value? Can the U.S. travel boom continue? Those answers and more in this week’s travel industry news roundup.
Can Airlines Help Improve the American Airport Experience?
In this time of political division, it’s strangely heartening that both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have recently described American airports as “third world.” There’s nothing like travel annoyances to bring this country together. TravelPulse looks at how in the absence of major infrastructure upgrades, “airlines and third party airport service companies have stepped in to make their own improvements.”
Wyndham Tops Another Hotel Rewards Survey
Having already claimed the number one spot in US News and World Report’s rankings of the best hotel rewards programs, Wyndham Rewards has been found to return the highest rewards payout among major hotel programs. Skift summarizes the findings from Ideas Works and Switchfly by saying that, “Wyndham Rewards returned, on average, 13.6 percent reward value for every dollar spent on a hotel, which means that for every $100 spent on a hotel room rate, a Wyndham Rewards member gets an average reward payback of $13.60.”
What’s Next for Member Exclusive Hotel Offers?
Members of hotel rewards programs such as Wyndham’s are increasingly able to score exlusive discounts and offers when they book directly. It’s part of the hotel industry’s aggressive attempt to reduce fees paid to third party agencies by incentivizing customers to make their bookings on hotel sites, Business Travel News reports.
Amex GBT and Concur End Reseller Agreement
Business Travel News also has coverage of a significant development in the world of corporate travel. American Express Global Business Travel has not renewed its resale agreement with Concur, and as such “the mega is no longer among the travel management companies that promote and resell Concur Travel booking technology to new users.” Amex GBT issued a statement saying that clients who use Concur’s booking tool can continue to do so.
U.S. Travel Volume Increases in August, but Growth Expected to Slow
The U.S. Travel Association’s Travel Trend Index found that travel volume was up a surprisingly robust 4.4% year over year in August, but cautioned that “although travel has outperformed the economic recovery overall, our grip on prolonged growth has felt tenuous at times because of the dollar’s impressive run and a rogue’s gallery of other concerning factors.” Skift says that, “it’s good news that travelers took their summer trips, all things considered, but the fairly bleak outlook shows that the travel industry still has some lean times ahead.”
