What The Year Of The Rabbit Means For Tourism
So, it’s the year of the rabbit, surely the meekest year of all the animals. Oh, but this is the year of the ‘Metal Rabbit’ – the elemental component of the Zodiac is one people in the west tend to be ignorant of, with successive years cycling through Earth, Metal, Water, Wood and Fire (and their Yin and Yang components). Now, a Lagomorph year with armour plating might just be the kind of year the world needs, as it emerges from its burrow to sniff around for enough dandelions to offset the winter deficit? Sounds like a great metaphor to me.
The tourist industry seems to be imitating the rabbit in the year ahead in this way, seeming unusually inquisitive and approachable. Much like the people born of the year of the Rabbit, the tour operators and others in the sector are all ‘Gracious manners and sensitivity’. It’s indisputably a sign of the times, but the tourist operators can’t help but be sensitive to the needs of their customers. The cruise industry, for instance, is all about pricing competitively and throwing in a whole bunch of extras it would have previously kept under lock and key. Buy into Florida Villas and expect a similar emphasis on extras and price reasonableness. With source markets put a stranglehold on tourist spending in the form of VAT rises and hidden duty charges, Caribbean destinations are looking to retain custom with very reasonable packages. But the forward momentum is definitely with the emerging markets (such as China).
Is it not true that the Chinese New Year is an event in itself? If you want Chinese new year, the rather banal answer is to go to China itself. But one increasingly popular destination for Chinese New Year revellers are Holidays to Las Vegas. In 2011, Las Vegas is already poised to make a massive turnover for Super Bowl Weekend. Add to Super Bowl Weekend the culturally separate phenomenon of Chinese New Year and you have a very attractive prospect (and a Las Vegas Strip full of lanterns and citrus trees). Celebrations will last for 15 days in total, and some analysts are predicting spending usually associated with the Western New Year.
So, the year of the Rabbit is really shaping up to be something special. Ask yourself: where below the American Sky will the Chinese rabbit lead us all in 2011? Can we possibly know?
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