Strong Results for Houston in Two National SurveysOctober 8, 2009
Contact Information: Strengths Houston is a good value. Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed by TNS perceive Houston as a good value for the money, and Houston ranked No. 1 in Travel + Leisure's survey for affordable hotels and No. 5 for affordable getaways. Visitors spend an average of $508 per trip, according to TNS. Houston's rankings in both surveys are extremely high for business travel. According to TNS, Houston attracts more business travelers than the national average, who spend more than double what leisure travelers spend ($1,010 per trip vs. $501). Similarly, Travel + Leisure's survey shows Houston ranks high in all business travel categories: Airport lounges; business hotels; on-time arrival and departures and big-name restaurants. Houston ranks particularly high in Travel + Leisure's categories featuring urban activities: shopping, dining, arts and culture and nightlife. According to TNS, the top visitor activities (in order) are: visiting relatives; shopping; visiting friends; fine dining; and urban sightseeing. Significant Improvement Houston has not been included in the Travel + Leisure America's Favorite Cities survey since 2004—it was dropped from the list after low rankings and competed with 10 cities this spring for enough votes to be included again. Things have changed since 2004. Houston's rankings have significantly improved in 29 categories (noted by a green arrow on the T+L site), second only to San Francisco, who has significantly improved in 31 categories. Houston is also behind San Francisco as the city with top 10 rankings in the largest number of categories (30 for Houston, 31 for San Francisco). How Other Texas Cities Stack Up Texas is the only state to have four cities included in the Travel + Leisure survey. The TNS survey also compared perceptions of the largest Texas cities and, once again, the results are very similar. When compared to the three other major Texas cities in the TNS survey—DFW, San Antonio and Austin—travelers view Houston as the best place in these categories: easily accessible; variety of dining options; cultural/performing arts; culturally diverse; family/roots there; and accessible for disabled. San Antonio leads Texas in the following TNS categories: lots to see and do; history and culture; and good for family and children. In the T+L study, it ranks No. 4 for family vacations and No. 5 for historic sites and monuments. Austin is the nightlife leader in Texas, according to TNS, and ranks very highly in Travel + Leisure's nightlife categories as well. The Travel + Leisure survey ranks all 30 cities 56 categories, and this is how Texas cities compare:
Making Changes Both surveys cite public transportation and traffic as a challenge for Houston, and the city is working hard to address those problems. In 2004, METRORail, a 7.5-mile light rail service, began running from downtown, through Midtown, the Museum District, Texas Medical Center to Reliant Park. Construction has begun on two additional light rail lines, and by 2012, five lines with 30 additional miles of rail will be in use, connecting the existing rail to the University of Houston, the Galleria area (Houston's second-largest business district and its main shopping area), the East End and more. METRO also launched METRO Airport Direct in 2009, a bus service that runs daily from Terminal C to downtown every 30 minutes for $15 each way. About the TNS Study The syndicated TravelsAmerica study collects data via a web based methodology. Sample is selected from the TNS 6th dimension USA Panel with e-mail invitations sent monthly to representative households. TNS constantly strives to keep Internet penetration high and panel fatigue low by carefully monitoring and limiting the number of contacts with each household. Each month, potential respondents receive an e-mail request to participate in the study; TNS targets a response rate of 45%. The field period runs for two weeks each month, usually starting in the middle of the first week. To enhance relevance, the data are weighted two ways: Demographic weights adjust respondents by demographic factors such as region, age, income, household size, and marital status to closely represent the characteristics of US households Trip and state projection calculations counts every trip taken by respondents for total trips taken. Detailed information collected for up to three trips in the past month is projected to the actual number of trips taken. In the case of city level calculations, each trip taken to that city counts. A few tables represent person-trips — these take into account the immediate travel party size for each trip as well. For projections, the counts are weighted to reflect the actual number of US households and total trips. This special report focuses on results for Greater Houston. For the calendar year ending December 31, 2008, respondents (does not include others in travel party) for Houston and total are shown below.
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