Front Page || Main Index || Corpus Christi News || Business || Texas || Sports || Entertainment || Selena
Thursday, Jul. 30, 1998
What I did on my summer vacation: Shop
For millions, `Shopping is the vacation,' stores here and elsewhere are learning
From staff and wire reports
More and more, tourists posing for pictures aren't standing in front of the arch in St. Louis or San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Instead, they're savoring a Kodak moment in front of a Ralph Lauren store.
Increasingly, the can't-miss-it event on a vacationer's itinerary is a shopping expedition that goes beyond the souvenir T-shirt and into the realm of Tommy Hilfiger jackets, Coach bags and even Villeroy & Boch fine china.
Take Bernie and Helen Shoemaker, who planned a bus trip from Ohio to Minnesota with a group of farmers. The two destinations at the top of their list: A look at the John Deere farm-equipment factory and a spree at the Mall of America.
``It's so large and everyone knows about it. We had to come look around and see what's different from what we have at home,'' Shoemaker said as he entered the suburban Minneapolis mall.
For several reasons, it seems shopping -- and not just for trinkets to take back to friends and relatives -- has become part of getting away from it all.
Many tourists visit the same stores they have at home and buy many of the same things -- jeans, stereo speakers, kitchen accessories -- that are sold in their local malls.
The malls have taken notice, teaming up with airlines, hotels and tour operators to offer shopping-themed travel packages. Retailers realize the buying power of vacationers and want space in resort communities.
Padre Staples Mall and Sunrise Mall in Corpus Christi are not allying themselves with other travel-related businesses but do count tourists as an important segment of their business, say mall marketing managers.
Research and telephone surveys conducted by Padre Staples Mall in September showed about 8 percent of the mall visitors at any given time come from out of town, said Rick Geiter, marketing manager for the mall.
Geiter noted that the out-of-towners could be from Robstown or other nearby cities in the mall's 13-county trade area. Nonetheless, he said, they are an important part of the mall's business.
The mall also advertises in convention and travel-related guides distributed at area hotels.
Vicki Conley, marketing manager for Sunrise Mall, said the mall has hosted afternoon shopping excursions for groups of convention delegates and is drawing many tourists this year with its Dinosaurs at Sunrise exhibit.
``We do market to tourists and we have specifically targeted the convention groups as they have come to town, so they are important to us,'' she said.
Representatives of the malls and the Corpus Christi Convention and Visitors Bureau met recently to discuss the link between shopping and tourism.
``We certainly want shopping to be one of the main components of the efforts to market Corpus Christi as a tourist destination,'' said Kim Lemley, the bureau's new director of tourism.
An emphasis on the city's malls, strip shopping centers and downtown gift shops will be a particularly important part of efforts to attract Mexican tourists to Corpus Christi. Shopping and medical needs are two of the main reasons shoppers from south of the border choose a travel destination, Lemley said.
The importance of shoppers to tourism revenues is also evident in data collected by the Texas Department of Economic Development, which shows average spending for a visitor to Texas grows from $88 a day to $150 a day if their itinerary includes shopping.
``The No. 1 thing that many vacationers do is shop,'' said Brian Kendrick, vice chairman at Saks Fifth Avenue, which operates eight stores at vacation destinations. ``And the resort stores really reflect that. They are performing well above the rest.''
People today lead busy lives. They juggle work and family and have little time for trips to the mall. But on vacation, they don't have to live by the clock.
``Now, I make shopping part of every vacation,'' said Leslie Grossman, a public relations executive in New York with two teen-age children. ``It's a chore for me the rest of the year, but on vacation, I have time to relax and enjoy it.''
About 77 percent of all adults do some sort of shopping on vacation, from buying a simple something at a hotel gift shop to an extravagant purchase at a pricey boutique, according to a nationwide survey of 1,500 people by the Travel Industry Association, a Washington-based trade group.
Three percent of those who shop on vacation said it was the primary reason for their trip, the survey said.
A new study of 8,000 leisure travelers to Las Vegas by Plog Research of Reseda, Calif., found that 67 percent listed shopping as a major activity, while 18 percent listed gambling.
Malls are among the top tourist attractions in 10 states, including Illinois, Texas, Missouri, Virginia and Colorado, according to research done by McCormick Marketing, a Napa, Calif.-based retail consulting firm.
People made 43 million visits to Mall of America last year, more than Disney World, the Grand Canyon and Graceland combined.
In Branson, Mo., more visitors said shopping lured them to town than the live entertainment that made the rural city famous, said Jerry Adams, spokesman for Branson, which has three outlet centers to serve 3,900 residents and the 5.8 million tourists who visited last year.
``This country is saturated with malls and outlet centers, and millions of people want to visit them, no matter where they are. Shopping is the vacation,'' said Nanette Ream, who organizes many bus tours through her travel agency, Fidelity Tours, in Massillon, Ohio.
With the vacation market booming, merchants across the nation want a piece of the action. Tourists spend four to 10 times more than local shoppers and rarely return what they buy, according to McCormick Marketing.
The Taubman Co., one of the nation's largest mall managers and developers, runs the World Class Shopping program, giving discounts on hotels and airfares to many of the cities where its 27 shopping centers are located, including Stamford, Conn., Phoenix and Miami.
Also tapping the tourist market is Urban Retail Properties Co., which manages malls. The Chicago-based company started a toll-free hot line where travelers can find out about shopping and travel packages in 10 U.S. cities, including Memphis and Tampa, Fla.
``There is an incredible intent to spend on vacation,'' said Rosemary McCormick, who heads McCormick Marketing. ``Finally, more malls and travel groups are beginning to realize this.''
The Associated Press and staff writer Jeffrey Tomich contributed to this report.Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web