Ahorre en Prestamos Credito Refinanciar Hipotecas Hispanic Marketing Services. Sales, Marketing, Promotions and Hispanic Internet. Consejos de Como Ahorrar Dinero Compras Regalos Ofertas Musica Internet Negocios. Hipoteca Refinanciar Prestamo Tarjetas de Credito.

“The growth in travel has kept pace with the growth in population,” Keefe says of the current Hispanic travel boom. “They are taking more trips and it’s become a big growth market. People are looking into this market more and more, hoping to tap into it and spend some money on it.”

Indeed, says University of Florida marketing professor Erik Gordon, the travel industry has taken note of such growth and Hispanics have become target market número uno for airlines, hotels, even convention and visitor bureaus looking to attract new travelers to their cities.

He cites three factors that make the Hispanic travel growth significant.

Hispanics, he says, are very family-oriented, a theme echoed significantly in the TIAA study, which found that 33 percent of all Hispanic trips included three or more people from the same household.

“If you talk about family values,” observes Gordon, “nobody has bigger family values, as a group at least, than the Hispanic population. Family means extended family, multi-generations, and includes cousins, everything. Many of these people are traveling together.”

Hispanics, Gordon adds, have made great inroads financially, with increasing disposable wealth that allows them more money for leisure activity.

“The Hispanic community has a lot of buying power,” he says. “Financially, it’s a very successful group. They’ve really advanced and have a lot of spending power. Spending power helps you travel.”

Another contributing factor, he says, is the increasing dispersal of Hispanic families who are spread all over North America and the United States.

“Today, they are less concentrated in the classic pockets, South Florida, South Texas, Southern California. We are seeing pretty sizable Hispanic populations in a lot of different places, which means folks are separated including many elements of this big extended family,” Gordon said.
All of those factors—strong families, more dispersion and money—“make them a very attractive travel market for travel people,” he says.

“If you look at how travel people are spending their money, they know this and really are trying to go after this business,” Gordon adds. “If somebody isn’t, they are leaving a lot of money on the table because their competitor is. If you are a hotel chain and you aren’t in the right media, somebody else is. There aren’t a lot of growth areas in travel, so when you get a segment that is, you need to advertise and get in the right mix. This is not a secret.”
The TIAA survey, called “The Minority Traveler,” was conducted in 2002 and looked at responses from 300,000 American households. It measured not only Hispanic travel rates and habits, but also those of African-American and Asian-American households.

Hispanic travel volume rose from 64.1 million to 77.1 million person trips, a 20 percent climb, while Asian-American trips increased 10 percent (from 30 million to 33.1 million trips) and African-American trips were up 4 percent (from 72.2 million to 74.2 million). Domestic spending by minority travelers accounted for about $90 billion in 2002, the study found.

“These growth rates show that our industry has been very assertive in its efforts,” says TIAA President and CEO William S. Norman, who released the results earlier this year. “Every sector of our industry—hotels, theme parks, city visitor bureaus—has begun to reach out to the minority traveler through targeted advertising, minority travel guides and special ethnic promotions, and I think we are beginning to see the results.”

Annette Latorre Conrad, the director of executive meetings and group sales at the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission, understands the increasing importance of attracting the Hispanic market. While St. Louis might not seem offhand a key destination for a typical Hispanic family or professional group, her Midwestern city with its famed arch, is taking greater steps to make sure Hispanic travelers know what they have to offer.

Conrad (Latorre is her maiden name) is a native Spanish speaker, growing up in New York City to Puerto Rican parents. She has lived in St. Louis for about 15 years and calls it a “charming, warm and cosmopolitan city.” After suggesting to her boss that the city was losing out on prospective revenue from Hispanic travelers, she was given greater job responsibility to go out and attract that business. She travels to Hispanic conventions and meetings to tout the virtues of her city and has even designed an information pamphlet that is in Spanish to makes prospective Hispanic visitors feel more connected.
“I noticed that the city was not going after this Hispanic market,” Conrad says. “I said gosh, we are missing the boat here.”

She did market research for six months, looking at the city’s population, its activities, and specifics it offered, like Spanish television programing and radio stations, Masses in Spanish, neighborhoods and restaurants, “things that I thought would be of interest for a visitor,” Conrad says of the efforts that went into her new marketing materials. “Now I have something to offer those who don’t speak English. The good thing about most Hispanics is they understand and speak English.”

Adds Conrad, who is delighted by the response to her marketing strategy so far: “We’re trying to let the folks in the U.S. know we are very interested in the Hispanic markets. We are pursuing Hispanic media and convention organizations so they can consider St. Louis for future meetings. The branding message is that there is so much to see and do. We are a very affordable destination, very central and easy to get to, whether by Amtrak or by flying or on the four major interstate highways.”

Conrad hits her sales pitch hard, pointing out that St. Louis was first settled by Spaniards and has the most number of free attractions of any city after Washington, D.C., with its host museums and art galleries.

“This is an ideal location for families,” Conrad says. “I’m tring to create awareness that there is a lot to see and do, and it’s a very different option for Hispanics besides New York, Dallas, California and Orlando,” places favored by those travelers.

Other cities, she says, should take heed because Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority market and that means there’s plenty of future business ahead.

“If we don’t pay attention to that, we are going to be missing out on quite a lot,” she says. “This city is bringing not only Hispanic groups from around the country, but also international groups, from Spain and Latin America. They are so pleasantly surprised because they are so clueless to what St. Louis is all about. The music heritage is so huge here and the nightlife is great. That’s something Hispanics like to do. We are a major sporting city, and baseball is very important to Hispanics. Why not capitalize on that?”

Just as Conrad is working hard to draw Hispanics to her town, Florida-based travel agent Barbara Thoney also notes a trend in her industry that also is increasingly catering to Hispanics, particularly younger professional travelers, who she observes, are not only heading off to greet family in Latin America or across the U.S., but come to her seeking information on destinations abroad. Some airlines including Spirit and JetBlue, she adds, have taken the added step of offering flight information and schedules in Spanish, making air travel easier and more familiar.

Business from the Hispanic traveler, she says, has been brisk.

“We are seeing a greater call from Hispanic travelers for assistance with trips to Europe, Asia and other luxury vacation spots,” says Thoney. “They are interested in learning more about other cultures and have money to spend. While before, they may have traveled closer home and taken more low-key vacations, today they seem to be traveling more and farther to explore and broaden their horizons. Whether domestically or even internationally, it’s clear that this market is dynamic. I have no doubt the impact will continue to be felt. Our industry recognizes the tremendous potential.”