saw its biggest year-on-year growth, in percentage terms, at nearly 10%. “So this is a healthy, stable and established market that continues to bring great benefit to us,” says Thompson (inset), pointing out that the $53 billion spend by Europe’s visitors was half as much again as that of China’s three million visitors ($35 billion).
SKY-HIGH STATS Thompson also highlights the “significant” airlift from Europe, with 406 routes to the US operating from 33 airports and
Heathrow by far the most dominant gateway.
Nearly eight million seats both ways across the Atlantic have been added just in the last two years, a 9.3% increase, and seat capacity over the past 15 years has grown from 60 million to 90 million two-way seats. Compared with China, which has added
500,000 seats in the past two years and now has around 10 million, Thompson says: “It just emphasises when you look at Europe as one single destination, as the entire continent, it has tremendous potential and it continues to produce on a regular basis.” Increasing load factors on transatlantic
flights by just 1% from the current 88.4% would result in another 860,000 passengers and incremental airline spend of nearly half a billion dollars, not even taking into account what these visitors would spend once in the US. He feels this is “fairly easily attainable” if the industry collectively sets it as a goal.
THE BIG SCREEN The big happening for Brand USA in early 2020 will be the launch of its third giant-screen Imax movie, Into America’s Wild. Set for its world premiere in Washington DC in February, it follows on from National Parks Adventure, which launched in 2016 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the National Parks Service, and
MEGAFAM EXPANDS
The USA Discovery Program online travel trade training scheme, first launched in the UK and a requirement for agents wanting to go on Brand USA’s popular MegaFams, is being expanded to France, Italy and Spain, Thompson reveals. The UK MegaFam will once again take 100 agents to US destinations in 2020 but details of this have not yet been finalised.
America’s Musical Journey, which followed in 2018 and centred on the country’s diverse music genres. Thompson says it will be taken to all the major markets after its DC launch, with a big event planned for its London premiere. No dates have yet been set for its release outside the US. Imax specialists MacGillivray Freeman are
again producing the latest film and, as with its predecessors, it is set to have another big-name narrator – Robert Redford and Morgan Freeman respectively narrated the first two. It will again be sponsored by partner Expedia along with new global partner United Airlines. The highest-grossing documentary of 2016, National Parks Adventure is streaming on Netflix while America’s Musical Journey is still playing in six countries and will begin global streaming in 2020. The new film will feature John Herrington, the first Native American astronaut who flew on a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station in 2002, and Alaskan pilot Ariel Tweto.
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