Travel Trade Takeaways From Go West Summit 2020

Visit California and California’s tourism industry had a large showing at this year’s Go West Summit, held Aug. 31 - Sept. 3. The conference connects domestic and international tour operators and travel advisors. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this is the first year the conference ran virtually and the first year the majority of attending buyers were U.S.-based.

Over the course of the event, Visit California held 35 meetings with domestic buyers, 21 of which were U.S.-based, mostly operating in the west with eight operating inside California. International buyers were from major source markets including U.K., Australia, China, Japan and South Korea.

Operators in these meetings expressed the most interest in road trips, wine country, national and state parks, destination resources, creative assets, travel trends, Visit California’s domestic and international market strategy, and the organization’s co-op and partnership opportunities. Of note, the recent lightning wildfires were not mentioned by most of the tour operators.

California Caucus
As part of the conference, Visit California hosted a virtual California Caucus. Due to the virtual setting, the educational portion of the summit took place the week prior to the start of appointments, on Aug. 26. The caucus attracted a strong turnout of 39 delegates from California, an increase from last year’s event.

Visit California leadership gave an update on the current state of California and economic impact, mindset of travelers towards resuming activities, as well as recovery efforts including the responsible travel code, current and upcoming marketing efforts, and shared resources and the best ways to stay up to date. The team addressed questions on virtual trade shows, strategy for restarting in international markets, and updates on airlines, theme parks and attractions.

Takeaways

• New virtual travel trade strategies. Some operators have launched virtual tour packages, where tour guides introduce U.S. destinations to customers on Zoom by displaying destination imagery as a background. This firm is also seeding destination demand among young students by connecting them with virtual internships at U.S.-based companies.

• Travel trade has not abandoned international travel. A major operator serving Europe and America considered shifting to a domestic travel focus, but currently feels the cost of building new clientele likely outweighs the benefit of shifting their business model. This decision was informed by the much higher average spend of international travelers and the likelihood that the belief that limits on international travel will likely be short-term.

• Operators generally predict international travel will pick up by spring 2021.

• U.S. domestic operators see growing demand for rural and park day tours. Some day tours in future months are even sold out. Park tours are especially popular because they allow visitors to avoid the hassle of permits and logistics. 

• Operators and hotels believe free independent travelers (FIT) and family segments will recover faster than meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE). Chains and convention hotels with large capacity are actively reaching out to operators and offering competitive rates and flexible cancellation policies. Operators who specialized in MICE have mostly shifted their focus to FIT and family segments.