‘Preying’ for tourists in the southeast? Not this year.

I was visiting Sea Island Resort in Georgia this weekend, where it has been a bumper summer for this classy resort that boasts four Forbes Five-Star experiences: The Cloister at Sea Island; The Lodge at Sea Island Golf Club; The Spa at Sea Island; and the Georgian Room restaurant. Service is really slick here, due in part to the charismatic leadership skills of James Gibson, a fellow Brit, and Director of Operations. Attention to detail is applied to every service encounter and even raptors are employed to enhance the dining experience for guests. Staff can often be seen (see picture above) walking around with a bird of prey on a gloved fist, the bird’s presence being a natural, and non-lethal means of disrupting the aggressive behavior of blackbirds who can be a nuisance while guest enjoy dining outside.

But Sea Island is not the only destination to enjoy record numbers of guests this year. Tourism has been buoyant elsewhere in the southeast, with hotel occupancy and average room rates up on last year in most resorts and hotels. A recovering economy and low gas prices have contributed to this increase, but of course we do offer excellent value for money and guaranteed sunshine! If you would like to hear more about tourism in this part of the world (from my point of view anyway), click on the Podcast link below:

http://www.hrsm.sc.edu/CoEETourismandED/podcasts/In_Focus_August_31_Summer_Tourism_and_Sun_City_Veterans_3.mp3

The World Tourism Cities: Market and Cooperation

Dr. Fang Meng: World Tourism Summit in Beijing, China

Dr. Fang Meng, is among one of distinguished guests participating in the 2014 World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit being held in Beijing, China from September 4th and 5th, 2014. The focus of the summit is to promote cooperation between tourism cities and tourism operators around the world. These experts will exchange views and explore  challenges and opportunities for global tourism in the future. Dr. Meng is among one of the top leaders in this global tourism group and on the forefront of new and innovative ideas for the future of tourism!

South Carolina moves up the rankings of business-friendly states.

According to Chief Executive Magazine, South Carolina is now the fifth best state in the U.S. to run a business, moving up from its 2013 ranking of eighth. In their 10th annual survey, the magazine questioned over 500 CEOs across the U.S. asking them to grade states with which they were familiar on measures including tax and regulatory regime, the quality of the workforce, and the quality of the living environment. Texas continues its 10-year historical position as the best state overall; but Florida, which ranks No. 2, is edging up and even overtaking Texas in its quality of living environment. Tennessee edged out North Carolina to take third place with North and South Carolina respectively capturing 4th and 5th place.

 

 

 

Responding to ‘Think Aiken Think’

Dr. Hudson was a guest of Aiken South Carolina’s Chamber of Commerce yesterday, where he was acting as a ‘responder’ to a community leader’s think-tank called “Think Aiken Think”. The Chamber was looking for someone from outside the community but with a background in economic development and planning to come in and sum up the planning session. “My job was to listen to all the various group discussions and then give a summary based on what I had heard, reacting to the level of creativity and identifying common themes” said Hudson. Participants were asked to debate various topics including how to create a more progressive and future-oriented leadership, how to attract more investment and create jobs in Aiken, and how to improve and promote the quality of life in the city. “It is just great to see these rural communities in the state realizing that inaction is not a viable option if they genuinely want to improve local prosperity. So they are bringing leaders of the community together to create a vision for the future – such stakeholder engagement is a crucial step in the community development process.” Last year, Hudson’s team in the Center of Economic Excellence in Tourism conducted a similar project for the Town of Bluffton. Their report can be found at: http://www.hrsm.sc.edu/CoEETourismandED/PDFs/BlufftonReport.pdf

Great customer service should be delivered with a compliment or two (or five).

Dr. Hudson was a guest of the Members Club at Woodcreek and WildeWood in Columbia this week delivering a customer service seminar to employees. As part of a general training day, Dr. Hudson was giving some tips on how to provide superior customer service. “It’s actually not that complex,” he said “But few organizations really get it right.” One of the problems, he says, is that many companies think they are providing good customer service, when, in actual fact, their customers are saying otherwise. Hudson refers to a recent study that found 80 percent of companies believe they deliver superior service to their customers, but only eight percent of their customers actually agreed! “It is refreshing to see an organization like Woodcreek & Wildewood recognizing the significance of customer service, and investing in their employees. Customer service training is often viewed as a cost rather than an investment, and even if companies recognize the importance of customer service, they don’t know how to deliver consistent, high quality customer service on an on-going basis.” One of Hudson’s tips on how to wow your customers: pay them a compliment. He refers to one study where hairstylists compared the tips they got when they complimented their customers versus when they did not compliment them. In the study, tips were significantly higher when the hairstylists used compliments. “Did you know the key to a successful relationship is to pay your partner a compliment five times a day?” says Hudson. There’s food for thought.

Hotels add health to the menu

An increasing number of hotels are responding to growing global demand for health and wellness and are catering to the physical and psychological needs of guests while promising enhanced wellbeing – benefits that visitors can take home when the holiday is over. A far cry from more traditional vacations spent lounging on a beach or poolside chair. Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHC), for example, created EVEN Hotels after conducting research that found there are 17 million travelers who want hotels to accommodate their healthy lifestyle needs. Westin hotels also recently launched a Well-Being Movement and even Las Vegas’s MGM Hotel has Stay-Well rooms.

A recent article by Simon Hudson published in Hotel Business Review focuses on this trend and spotlights certain hotels around the world and the specific services they are providing for the growing number of health-conscious visitors. The full article can be found at:

 https://hotelexecutive.com/business_review/4024/hotels-add-health-to-the-menu

Santee Cooper Research Uncovers Yet Another of South Carolina's Hidden Treasures

Beautiful sunset in Santee Cooper Country

Kayaking, motorized boating, fishing, geocaching, hiking, bird watching and golfing are just some of the outdoor activities available along the Blue ways of Santee Cooper Country. Through  a project supported by Santee Cooper, Santee Cooper Country and University of South Carolina, the SmartState Center researchers are conducting a study examining  the development of opening up the waterway for tourism all the way from Columbia down to Charleston. The study aims to assess the current resources and potential tourism attractions, conduct a comparative analysis of similar waterways, measure the interest and demand for tourism along the waterway and examine the attitudes for future tourism development among the key stakeholders in the region. Through this research project, the team has had the pleasure to discover more of South Carolina's bounty of natural resources!



Drs. Hudson and Cardenas at the lock