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Two recent data tell us that that money is now showing up in a travel industry comeback: 1.) The U.S. Commerce Department reported that travel-related sales in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2004 reached $757.7 billion - the highest total since sales peaked in the first quarter of 2000; 2.) a National Tour Association member survey shows that 74% of its destination marketing organizations expect higher numbers of visitors this summer than they did last year. Although 23% of respondents expected no change, only 3% anticipated a drop-off. Bottom line: The U.S. economy is definitely on a robust rebound, which has freed up discretionary spending. With the U.S. economy still the "engine" of the world economy, expect its healthy performance to have a beneficial ripple effect on European and Asian economies - including tour destinations. 

It's no news to cultural travel tour operators that their demographic skews toward older, more affluent customers. You don't take an opera tour of Italy or go on safari in Africa unless you have some means. That's why it's always fun to note just how savvy that older demographic is when it comes to the Internet. The Wall Street Journal recently surveyed 404 corporate higher-ups - CEOs, senior VPs, executive directors, etc. (average age: 50) - about their Internet use and found that these folks use it as casually and expertly as Tarzan uses all those hanging vines: 99% use the Internet at work; 97% use it at home; they average 13.4 hours per week online; 83% go online for news and pleasure reading; 83% have bought airline tickets and 78% have made room reservations online. If you want to connect to this important demographic segment, you must include the Internet among your approaches.

Here's a statistic that might make you go "Wow!" until you give it a second thought: Last year, $55 billion in sales were conducted on the Internet, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. That figure doesn't seem so heady, though, when you realize that $55 billion = only 1.6% of all U.S. retail sales in 2003. But the real question here is how many buying decisions overall were affected by research consumers did on the Internet. A recent report by the U.K.-based Economist magazine says 20% of all buying decisions were preceded by online window shopping and comparing. As people's experience with and trust in the Internet grows, expect to see online sales grow spectacularly. Until then, it's great to know that a large percentage of consumers already feel comfortable enough with the Internet to use it as their major touch point for reaching a buying decision.

Our deal with the writers who contribute to The Cultured Traveler is that we own one-time publication rights, including the right to store their articles in our archives. Beyond that, they keep possession of their work. The only exception to that rule is the stuff written by our staff, Sheri Leigh and Patrick Totty, TCT's editor. All staff work is "for hire," meaning that we can use it and pass it around anytime and any way we want. Not that our writing is everybody's cup of tea, but it does fill space. So, here's the deal: If you need material to help fill your web site or newsletter, you can use any article written by Leigh or Totty as long as you add the following line after it: Copyright 2004, The Cultured Traveler Cultural Travels (http://www.crossculturedtraveler.com) reprinted with permission. Also, please let us know you're using the material, just so we can keep track.

In the recent horror flick spoof Scary Movie 3 there's a tense scene where the heroine is desperately trying to reach an Internet site that will help her avert some impending disaster. Just as she does, 20 different pop-ups appear, jostling and stacking atop one another and totally hijacking her screen. The audience roars knowingly - the movie's makers have tapped in perfectly to people's frustrations. A survey of 3,100 Internet users by Burst! Media on web page ad clutter (defined as two or more ads per page) shows that more than 60% don't like more than two ads per page and that 51.7% are less likely to have a favorable opinion of a product if its ad appears on a cluttered page. Thirty-six percent will leave a page they consider cluttered, while 73.4% of those that remain on a cluttered page simply ignore all the ads. When you buy ad space on the Internet, make sure you know how it will be placed. If your ad is simply thrown in among a bunch of others, you are wasting your money. On The Cultured Traveler article pages, only one highly targeted ad is allowed- with 10% average click-thru rates, that's a placement that can't be beat!

Our Monthly Factoids:

• Bigfoot Interactive reports that permission-based e-mail click-through rates improved slightly in the first quarter of this year, indicating that the online public is increasingly savvy about what is/isn't spam. Retailers enjoyed an 11.2 percent open rate up 14% over a year before. Newsletter click-throughs increased 26% from 2003 to a 16.5% rate. But remember that is in-house or highly targeted mailings like Cultural Travels provides.

• No surprise here: 18-to-34 year olds who have broadband Internet connections spend 52% more time online than their dial-up-equipped peers, says the Online Publishers Association. The faster the connection the more likely this age group is to use the Web as an information source, as opposed to almost strictly a communications medium. Given this group's already great comfort with the Internet, as its members' incomes grow, they are basing a large number of their buying decisions on Web-based information. 

• Online advertising posted a whopping 28% increase in the first quarter of 2004, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMR, far ahead of the 16.3% and 14.6% gains posted by, respectively, cable TV and national newspapers. Overall, total U.S. ad spending increased 9.6%. Online ads accounted for $1.9 billion of the total domestic advertising pie of $31.5 billion.