{"id":14373,"date":"2026-05-15T04:39:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T04:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alfanouscar.com\/blog\/?p=14373"},"modified":"2026-05-15T04:39:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T04:39:59","slug":"rephrase-the-same-spirit-airlines-collapsed-what-happens-to-budget-travel-now-in-a-different-way-no-more-than-118-characters-as-if-you-were-a-native-american-speaker-as-expert-on-content-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alfanouscar.com\/blog\/rephrase-the-same-spirit-airlines-collapsed-what-happens-to-budget-travel-now-in-a-different-way-no-more-than-118-characters-as-if-you-were-a-native-american-speaker-as-expert-on-content-creation\/","title":{"rendered":"Rephrase the same Spirit Airlines Collapsed. What Happens to Budget Travel Now? in a different way  no more than 118 characters, as if you were a native American speaker as expert on content creation and dont talk about yourself or your experience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.megaphone.fm\/SKIFT7420859523\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><mark>Subscribe<\/mark>\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/feed\/id999975096\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2MA0T4D6WX1xqzAKEAIKCJ?si=ztOiJ_VxTnChYETmyfR7hg\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spotify<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PL0x2YrE2GNe7hCK-RXaoxcyfWzNWv1Jzd\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">YouTube<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/feeds.megaphone.fm\/SKIFT8999081027\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">RSS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Spirit Airlines is shutting down, marking one of the most significant airline collapses the U.S. travel industry has seen in decades. In this episode of the Skift Travel Podcast, Sarah Kopit and Seth Borko break down what finally pushed Spirit over the edge, from rising fuel costs and failed merger attempts to the growing dominance of the major U.S. carriers. <\/p>\n<p>They also explore what the shutdown means for travelers, JetBlue, Fort Lauderdale, and the future of the low-cost airline model in America. The conversation then shifts into Skift Research\u2019s new report on destination loyalty and why travelers return to certain places again and again. Surprisingly, the data shows that repeat visits are not driven primarily by how much travelers enjoyed a destination. Instead, comfort, familiarity, affordability, and emotional ease play a much bigger role in building long-term destination loyalty. <\/p>\n<p>Sarah and Seth also unpack why repeat travel changes as people get older, how family travel shifts consumer behavior, and why destinations may need entirely new strategies if they want visitors to keep coming back.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-watch-this-episode\">Watch This Episode<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<\/figure>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-transcript-of-this-conversation\">Transcript of This Conversation<\/h2>\n<p><em>This transcript is generated by artificial intelligence<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Welcome back, everybody, to the Skift Travel Podcast, and the number of the week is zero.<\/p>\n<p>That is right, zero Spirit Airlines airplanes will be flying around after the bankruptcy that rocked at least everybody in the travel world\u2019s weekend, this past weekend. And I am sad, Seth.<\/p>\n<p>I am a Michigander, and Spirit had one of its hubs in Detroit. And I was a frequent flyer, man. I was a member.<\/p>\n<p>I had loyalty points that went away.<\/p>\n<p>I agree with you. I, Spirit got so much more hate than it deserved. It\u2019s just not fair.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s just not fair. Ryanair thrives on the hate. They feed on the hate and people love them for it.<\/p>\n<p>And poor Spirit Airlines, they just do the same thing and they got killed for it.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah. And it was so perfect for me too, because like, so I live in New York, my parents are the ones that live in Detroit. That\u2019s where I was raised.<\/p>\n<p>But so like, I still have like more stuff than my parents would probably like me to have at their house, right? So I didn\u2019t need that checked bag, right?<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, totally.<\/p>\n<p>They secretly kind of like it, like up in like the upstairs loft, like over the garage, there\u2019s like a little card pinned up that says that my dad has pinned up that says something like, you know, it\u2019s not an empty nest until your kids get their shit<\/p>\n<p>out of the garage. None of which has actually happened.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s amazing. I\u2019m just glad. Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>They can just be happier on your own phone plan now, though. You know, that\u2019s the true Marko.<\/p>\n<p>There you go. There you go.<\/p>\n<p>2:09<\/p>\n<p>Bag Fees and Cheap Fares<\/p>\n<p>And so anyway, I never needed that checked bag, so I enjoyed my $79 round trip to Detroit.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, that\u2019s the whole thing. They get in charge for the bag is the game now. Like that\u2019s not like they.<\/p>\n<p>It was more than the flight sometimes.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>But where, you know, I mean, you only had yourself, come on, I don\u2019t want to blame customers here, but you only had yourself to blame if you showed up for a Spirit Airlines flight and you\u2019re like, oh, there\u2019s a booking fee, there\u2019s a baggage fee.<\/p>\n<p>Correct. Come on, you know what you\u2019re flying.<\/p>\n<p>Correct. Exactly. Exactly.<\/p>\n<p>2:41<\/p>\n<p>A Rare US Airline Collapse<\/p>\n<p>So yeah. So, you know, it\u2019s kind of a big one. This was the first, like Europe seems to be kind of okay with or used to airlines shutting down, coming and going.<\/p>\n<p>This is a big one for the US. The US hasn\u2019t had a major airline liquidate. And what was it?<\/p>\n<p>Like, do I hear 25 years? Something like that.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been a long time.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been a while.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know the exact number, but it\u2019s certainly, I mean, we certainly had consolidation, right? Yep. We\u2019ve had Alaska.<\/p>\n<p>People have bought each other.<\/p>\n<p>Alaska and Virgin, now Hawaiian, are merging.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, even back in the day, Northwest, Delta, like we\u2019ve had plenty of airlines, great airlines that ceased to exist because they were merged or subsumed or evolved into something else.<\/p>\n<p>But to have an outright failure where they just put the clothes on and stop flying. Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Left people where they were.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>3:39<\/p>\n<p>LaGuardia Marine Terminal Fallout<\/p>\n<p>Did you see the coverage about, this is a hyper local lead in to the Spirit Airlines story. But I am a huge fan of LaGuardia\u2019s Marine Air Terminal. I think we\u2019ve actually discussed that on this podcast before.<\/p>\n<p>Yes.<\/p>\n<p>Yes.<\/p>\n<p>No.<\/p>\n<p>I have what is to happen to the Marine Air Terminal. I also love it because you can get through it like that.<\/p>\n<p>You get through security like that. It\u2019s an Art Deco masterpiece. It\u2019s a piece of Pan Am and aviation history.<\/p>\n<p>So it was always one that I really enjoyed flying through, and that was where Spirit set up their New York City base. And I read a whole story about how basically the terminal is like, I mean, it\u2019s not even open. They didn\u2019t even post TSA there.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s literally not functioning right now.<\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t realize Spirit was the only barrier.<\/p>\n<p>Spirit was the only client, I think. Yeah. It used to be JetBlue, but now JetBlue is moving operations.<\/p>\n<p>Well, somebody can take that over and make it into a wonderful thing.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, you\u2019re not kidding about the Art Deco. For anyone who has come through LaGuardia and gets to go through that terminal, it really is like a, I don\u2019t know, it\u2019s like a blast from the past. It\u2019s a bit of a little museum in and of itself.<\/p>\n<p>4:50<\/p>\n<p>What Killed Spirit<\/p>\n<p>So our crack aviation reporter, Magnum Maharishi and I was on a live or oh yeah, a live reaction podcast with her last week.<\/p>\n<p>You may have listened to that if you\u2019re a real airline, airline weekly nerd, but she wrote the obituary for Spirit. But the truth is she wrote that obituary five times. She had pre-written it and pre-written it and revised it.<\/p>\n<p>What do we think in the final estimation, what killed Spirit? What\u2019s the cause of death?<\/p>\n<p>I think the cause of death was gas prices, oil prices. I mean, it just has to be that because I think that that\u2019s the thing that changed. That, you know, because it\u2019s been going on forever.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, when did this really start in earnest? 2022, maybe? I mean, it\u2019s been going on for years.<\/p>\n<p>5:37<\/p>\n<p>DOJ Merger Block and Bailout Debate<\/p>\n<p>It started under Biden because we knew that Spirit wanted to merge with First Frontier and then old JetBlue outbid Frontier, and Spirit was open to either, then it really wanted to merge.<\/p>\n<p>And under President Biden\u2019s Department of Justice, they objected on antitrust grounds, which is certainly going to be a source of sore spot. It got to be a sore spot. I think it\u2019s interesting.<\/p>\n<p>The question is, did the DOJ kill Spirit Airlines or set up the setup, set them up for this? Or did they prevent Frontier and JetBlue from getting dragged down by an airline that was going under anyways?<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s another topic of conversation that I\u2019ve been thinking about a lot.<\/p>\n<p>Well, one of the interesting things that I\u2019ve been reading, and I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for this one, is just the kind of disagreement between Secretary Duffy and Secretary Letnick about whether Spirit deserved a bailout or<\/p>\n<p>not. And yeah, and Sean Duffy just saying basically, no, if it\u2019s going to fail, it\u2019s going to fail. And Howard Letnick wanted the Trump administration to give them that $500 million lifeline right at the end there, but it was not to be.<\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s interesting with airlines, it\u2019s like if the government\u2019s going to get involved. We\u2019ve talked about this before too. It\u2019s like airlines and like electric companies, right?<\/p>\n<p>Like they\u2019re the biggest of the institutional, you know, if you\u2019re public private type things that we\u2019ve got going on here in the United States of America anyway.<\/p>\n<p>And I don\u2019t know though, I just, I kind of wonder what would have happened if all three of the big low costs in the United States would have like gotten together and joined up and tried to do a thing.<\/p>\n<p>Well, one will hope that they will fill this vacuum. I mean, one of our day two stories is that JetBlue has been adding flight capacity into Fort Lauderdale, which was Spirit\u2019s other major hub.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, Spirit basically had three hubs, Detroit, New York, and Fort Lauderdale. And JetBlue has been trying to grow at Spirit. Spirit\u2019s loss is their gain, their hope.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re similarly, they\u2019re not ultra low cost, but they are similarly positioned more budget-friendly carrier. They do have more premium seat in accommodation, and they are the second-largest carrier into Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n<p>By a long shot, for context, and I\u2019m rounding the numbers, Fort Lauderdale last year was served by about 20 million airline seats in terms of airlift.<\/p>\n<p>Spirit was 5 million, JetBlue was 4 million, and whoever is number three, I don\u2019t remember, is like 2 million. So it\u2019s like, and the list just goes down from there. So between those two airlines, they are 50% of the traffic into Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n<p>So they may not formally merge, but their planes are going to be up for sale. Their routes are going to be open for competition. Their gates are going to be up for sale.<\/p>\n<p>So maybe JetBlue actually picks up. Maybe they will get to do their merger after all and just do it on the cheap and in parts instead of as a whole.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what do you think if you\u2019re reading the tea leaves from this, both from a government perspective and from an airline perspective, what does it tell you?<\/p>\n<p>What does it tell you anything about, at least this administration\u2019s capacity or appetite to let things fail, to let capitalism do its thing?<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know. We are talking about the bailout. So I think that it\u2019s just such a fascinating saga, right?<\/p>\n<p>Because we\u2019re alluding to Spirit has basically, I\u2019ve watched a lot of The Pit, so I\u2019m like a real emergency doctor room.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah. So I\u2019ve seen season one, not season two. No spoilers.<\/p>\n<p>No spoilers.<\/p>\n<p>But you have been watching, so I think I\u2019m in medicine. So I think they actually call them frequent flyers.<\/p>\n<p>This patient has been a frequent flyer in and out of the emergency room for a long time now, which is I guess part of the saga is that this is finally coming to an end. But this has been a long time.<\/p>\n<p>Oil prices was the nail in the coffin, but it\u2019s not like it was the only thing. There was multiple contributing factors.<\/p>\n<p>And what\u2019s so interesting is that how the government has played a role consistently in the story, back with the DOJ antitrust case and now with the decision to bail them out and then ultimately not bail them out.<\/p>\n<p>I think that we famously from 2008 and 2009, the global financial crisis, we had too big to fail. I think Spirit was too small to save.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah. Well, that\u2019s a good one. That\u2019s a good one, Seth.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s like a soundbite right there. Should write that down for next time you\u2019re on TV. Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Because I mean, if we were talking about American Airlines failing, we were talking about United Airlines or Delta Airlines failing, I think the conversation, the phone call that you want to be on the fly in the wall for between Lutnick and Duffy, if<\/p>\n<p>I also don\u2019t even think it would be a conversation.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re right.<\/p>\n<p>It would be a no-brainer.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah. Exactly. They get to continue.<\/p>\n<p>Where poor Spirit charging for water does not.<\/p>\n<p>10:48<\/p>\n<p>Low Cost Model Under Pressure<\/p>\n<p>I think this though does raise this really big question about what\u2019s happening to the low-cost model in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Is the low-cost airline down in the United States? I have some opinions and I\u2019ll share them, but I want to ask you this, Sarah, what do you think is going on? Don\u2019t people want to deal?<\/p>\n<p>Why are these low-cost airlines? Do you have any thoughts on why these low-cost airlines? Because even though Spirit went under, it\u2019s not like JetBlue or Frontier have been having a great go of it either.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, I think that people would rather fly one of the big three, as long as the price is somewhat competitive. And that\u2019s what I think personally, what I think happened. Like, for example, as a frequent Spirit flyer, I will give you an example.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know, I had to go to some bachelorette party or wedding or something. I had to get somewhere. I had to get to Michigan.<\/p>\n<p>And my Spirit flight got canceled. And I was panicked. I almost drove through the night to get to where I needed to go.<\/p>\n<p>If I was an American Airlines customer or Delta customer or United customer, they just would have put me on another plane. You know, but like Spirit doesn\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n<p>And I think for many people, the big three, they came in and they were able to compete on price enough where people just chose them. And I see that. So people do want a deal.<\/p>\n<p>But increasingly, Delta United and American have been giving them that deal, that basic economy. No, even on Delta, no pretzels, no water anymore. Right?<\/p>\n<p>And your short little puddle jumper flights, no more snacks.<\/p>\n<p>I think that is exactly precisely right. Because we talk about airlines as infrastructure, as transportation, as critical as part. And what good is infrastructure if you can\u2019t count on it?<\/p>\n<p>What good is your water utility if you turn the taps and no water comes out?<\/p>\n<p>And I think you\u2019re exactly right, which is that as the big airlines have segmented their cabins and started selling basic economy tickets, they get close enough in price, but they are far superior even at the lower price points in, well, we\u2019re going<\/p>\n<p>to have five flights a day, so it\u2019s okay. And it\u2019s not even about the five flights a day, it\u2019s about as it happens to all of them eventually, but like Southwest had this like, do they wind up with pilots and flight attendants out of position and<\/p>\n<p>planes get stranded and people get stranded and that hard reset that\u2019s really hard to do, it\u2019s much easier to do. I actually think you\u2019re right, it\u2019s not even like premium versus low cost, it\u2019s the resurgence of hub and spoke flying because people<\/p>\n<p>want the reliability of knowing if I\u2019m flying out of a hub, I\u2019m happy to take the basic economy, but I know I\u2019m in a hub and I know they\u2019re going to have pilots and planes and all this stuff so that if something goes wrong. Somehow.<\/p>\n<p>Somehow I\u2019m getting out of here.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Because everyone\u2019s like, and it happens in the camp, like even forget like, you know, happens in the camp, forget weather, like if the plane has an issue and you\u2019re in wherever, and this happened to me and you\u2019re in Belize, this happened to me in<\/p>\n<p>Belize, I\u2019m not trying to pick on them, but it did, and the plane breaks down, we\u2019re going to bring another plane, it\u2019ll take six hours to get here. Whereas this has also happened to me in Newark, which tells you a bit about the airline I fly in<\/p>\n<p>Newark. And they\u2019re like, all right, hang on, we got one parked over here, we\u2019ll go grab it. We just got to get the keys. That makes a huge difference.<\/p>\n<p>14:26<\/p>\n<p>Who Wins Next JetBlue<\/p>\n<p>Well, rest in peace Spirit, who do you think is going to be the big winner?<\/p>\n<p>Who\u2019s your call? Is it JetBlue?<\/p>\n<p>JetBlue.<\/p>\n<p>Do you think JetBlue is the one they\u2019re going to reap? What about Frontier?<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know that Frontier has the network. JetBlue has built more, in the low-cost world, they don\u2019t call it hub-and-spoke. They talk about banks, which is when you put a lot of airlines.<\/p>\n<p>Like they have mini-hub. Basically JetBlue has mini-hubs. New York and Fort Lauderdale are two of them.<\/p>\n<p>They have more aircraft, and they\u2019re much farther along in their premium journey. Mint, which is the JetBlue business class, is a product that people really love. They\u2019re building lounges.<\/p>\n<p>So they are starting to look more and more like a Southwest, I mean not a United, but a Southwest.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time that they\u2019re going to have these low-cost passengers, they\u2019re also going to have more premium seats to pay the bills, they\u2019re going to have more low-cost, they\u2019re going to have more network. They\u2019re trying to get that direction.<\/p>\n<p>The question is, can they get there fast enough? Losing one of their strongest competitors in two of their strongest markets probably helps buy them more time to get to where they need to go in their ongoing transformation, in my opinion.<\/p>\n<p>15:39<\/p>\n<p>New Report Destination Loyalty<\/p>\n<p>Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>I heard you have a new research report coming out.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah. Just published. Just published this week.<\/p>\n<p>Tell me about it.<\/p>\n<p>We are publishing, well, we have published by the time you\u2019re listening to this.<\/p>\n<p>Even right now as we talk a lot, even if you were listening to this live, we\u2019ve published a new research report on destination loyalty. We\u2019ve lots to talk about loyalty, right? We\u2019re talking about hotel loyalty, hotel airline loyalty.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, airline loyalty is a big part of this spirit conversation. But what about destination loyalty? What gets travelers to go back and repeat visit to a destination?<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the topic of this research report.<\/p>\n<p>Is it because they like it? I mean, that would be my, I would go back because I like it? Is that what you found?<\/p>\n<p>No.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what\u2019s so exciting about this. It\u2019s not it. Yeah, I know.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s super counterintuitive.<\/p>\n<p>So do tell.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah. So people don\u2019t go back to destinations because they like them. That is the real big counterintuitive find in from this research.<\/p>\n<p>They have to like them, but that\u2019s not the big driver. It actually turns out that there are a lot of destinations that people go to, and they\u2019re sort of a bucket list or their destination. They don\u2019t see themselves going back to it.<\/p>\n<p>And sometimes, ironically, you can go and you can have a great time, and that takes it off. Wow. I really loved my trip to X-1.<\/p>\n<p>I saw the Statue of Liberty.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, I saw it. Or maybe New York\u2019s not the best one. Maybe I saw the Eiffel Tower.<\/p>\n<p>I came, I saw I Conquered.<\/p>\n<p>I bought the Postcard, I loved it.<\/p>\n<p>17:12<\/p>\n<p>Why Loyalty Is Hard<\/p>\n<p>And people, there\u2019s a lot of destinations that people go to. They loved it. And they said, well, great.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m glad that was such a great trip. I don\u2019t need to go back there now. So what drives loyalty?<\/p>\n<p>I mean, you does have to be a good experience. No one goes back after having a terrible experience, but it\u2019s not having a good experience solely that causes people to come back. But actually, let me pull up this chart that we\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n<p>Again, if you\u2019re a listener, I\u2019ll talk you through it. If you\u2019re a viewer, you\u2019ll see it popping up on your screen very shortly.<\/p>\n<p>17:40<\/p>\n<p>Survey Chart Surprise<\/p>\n<p>And so, to exactly this point, I think this is the chart that really speaks to this. Where we asked a bunch, we did a survey, 500 travelers, we asked them, how likely are you to return to the destination you visited?<\/p>\n<p>Very likely, somewhat unlikely, neutral, somewhat unlikely or very unlikely. So it was like five point scale. And then we asked them how likely they would be to recommend the destination that they just visited to a friend.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s called a net promoter score. You take promoters versus detractors. And what we expected to see was this black line, which says the highest NPS is strongly correlated with likelihood to visit.<\/p>\n<p>So what we, you know, and so if you had a really high NPS, you\u2019re really likely to come back. And then if you have a somewhat lower one, you\u2019re somewhat likely and then so on and so forth. That\u2019s not what we find.<\/p>\n<p>We find the people with the absolute highest net performance, net promoter scores are very likely to return. That makes perfect sense. The people with the second highest net promoter scores are somewhat unlikely to return.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t actually work that way, where it\u2019s not really about, did you, I mean, if you truly loved it, fell in love with the place, then yes, you\u2019re going to come back.<\/p>\n<p>But the average tourist who just goes and has a great time and says, would you recommend this for your friend? Absolutely, I would. All right, where are you going next?<\/p>\n<p>Well, I got to go. I just was in Europe. Now I got to go to Asia.<\/p>\n<p>Now I just was in the East Coast. Now I got to go to the West Coast. So we have this other slide actually shows what actually drives Repeat Destination.<\/p>\n<p>19:04<\/p>\n<p>What Drives Returns<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s about feeling comfortable. It\u2019s about safety and security. It\u2019s about welcoming and friendly community.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s about local food and beverage experiences and it\u2019s about affordability. These are the things that really matter for people to come back. They\u2019ve got to not just love it, but they\u2019ve got to feel welcomed.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ve got to feel comfortable. They\u2019ve got to feel like they\u2019ve got more and more stuff to come back and do. That\u2019s what really makes people return.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s interesting.<\/p>\n<p>As I\u2019ve gotten older, I have started going back to the same places.<\/p>\n<p>19:32<\/p>\n<p>Family Comfort Factor<\/p>\n<p>Since I\u2019ve gotten older and had kids, I think it was the emergence of the tiny people on the scene that really changed this. But before I had kids, I probably wouldn\u2019t repeat places.<\/p>\n<p>But once they came along, I have a favorite spot and I\u2019ve gone back there so much that my children now who are teenagers, are like, we don\u2019t want to go back, mom. Like it\u2019s boring. But I\u2019m like, I do.<\/p>\n<p>You know, I\u2019ve got the whole thing down. Like I know exactly what I like and I like it. And you know, they\u2019re the ones that want to try something different now.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, we see that that came through loud and clear in the research family. So I think family is a huge part of it. Where when people really want a place that they can enjoy quality time with family, that\u2019s the kind of place they come back to.<\/p>\n<p>Because it\u2019s just easier. And then there\u2019s that level of comfort, where you know what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n<p>I think, what were you saying to me about, you said something really, what you said to me, Sarah, when we were talking about your favorite destinations.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>20:37<\/p>\n<p>Jumpstart Vacation Mode<\/p>\n<p>So it takes, like especially I think for Americans, like we only get, you know, 10, a meager little 10 days off per year. And so when you\u2019re going on vacation, like it takes a bit of time to like get into vacation mode, right?<\/p>\n<p>For me, it\u2019s like three days, like three whole days, start feeling the chill. But it\u2019s a lot easier to do that, I think, when you\u2019re going somewhere that you know, and that you\u2019re really familiar with, and that you\u2019ve been before.<\/p>\n<p>I think it\u2019s harder when you\u2019re both having to kind of like shut your brain off from like work mode and figure out a new city or a new town. And all this stuff, like figure out where to eat, where to get your coffee. It\u2019s always a big one for me.<\/p>\n<p>I think that was a really wonderful insight, and I think incredibly meaningful.<\/p>\n<p>I kind of wish we\u2019d put that in the report, and we could still go and edit and add in, because it is like value for money.<\/p>\n<p>Because you know the destination, you are getting more quality, not just vacation days, but quality vacation days out of a destination.<\/p>\n<p>You know all the tricks.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, you know exactly. You know all the shortcuts, you know the tricks, you know what to do. You\u2019re able to jumpstart not your physical vacation, but your mental vacation.<\/p>\n<p>Mental vacation.<\/p>\n<p>I think that\u2019s so key.<\/p>\n<p>In that chart I had up earlier, reasons for returning or not returning, the bottom reason, least likely to cause someone to return, was unfinished exploration, which as someone without kids, it\u2019s sort of counterintuitive.<\/p>\n<p>You want to always have more, always have more, always something new for someone to see. And it\u2019s like, actually, people can go, they can have a great time, and they can still not return.<\/p>\n<p>Actually, people can go, they can have a good time, they cannot finish everything they need to finish, and they still may not return because they might just say, it\u2019s not worth it. I got the gist of it.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s more to do and maybe I\u2019ll be back around, but I got 80% of the trip. What people are really looking for, especially with high repeat visitors, is that comfort, is that ability to jumpstart their mental vacation that you just talked about.<\/p>\n<p>And it takes a special kind of destination to build towards that. You have to market properly.<\/p>\n<p>22:42<\/p>\n<p>Strategy For Destinations<\/p>\n<p>Well, I was just going to say, so what does that mean for destinations?<\/p>\n<p>This will be a fascinating one for them and for hotels, I suppose, and everybody else who profits and makes money from tourists coming to a place.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah. I think what it means, it has a lot to do with your marketing and how you frame it. I think that the right message in is important.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, there is something to do with, I mean, we\u2019re talking about comfort, we\u2019re talking about safety, we\u2019re talking about affordability.<\/p>\n<p>Those are things that DMOs really can work for, especially DMOs when they\u2019re not just destination marketing organizations, but they\u2019re destination management organizations.<\/p>\n<p>So ensuring that you have accessibility and not just like, wheelchair access, but like actual like translations and signs and subways that are easy to use or buses and that sort of stuff.<\/p>\n<p>We know that affordability is a big concern, and this is sort of where over-tourism comes into the conversation, even where the conversation about New York City and affordability, where if a city is not affordable for its locals, it\u2019s probably not<\/p>\n<p>affordable for its tourists. It\u2019s certainly not affordable for a tourist who wants to come back five times like a local would. Like local affordability is even more of an issue for a repeat tourist than a one-time tourist.<\/p>\n<p>And then it has to do with the whole report goes deeper in death. But tourists want to hear from you after they leave.<\/p>\n<p>And so how you communicate with people post-booking and help them set the right stage and set the right mindset, also pre-booking communications, this is for hotels in terms of what to expect.<\/p>\n<p>And then, yeah, I mean, how you advertise and market your destination, whether you\u2019re, you know, marking as an adventure destination or an exploration place or whatever, right?<\/p>\n<p>Like we\u2019re trying to be very focused on decisions here at Skift and make helping you make better decisions as the listener of this podcast or the reader of this report. You do need to make a decision to have a repeat visitor strategy.<\/p>\n<p>I think that\u2019s the big takeaway, is just saying that we\u2019ve got a great destination with a lot of stuff to offer that people love, is not a repeat visitor strategy. That\u2019s a great, I mean, it\u2019s a great destination.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a great problem to have, but that\u2019s not a strategy. You have to decide specifically to target and market and build inventory and infrastructure for the repeat visitor if you want to have that kind of a business.<\/p>\n<p>Is there anywhere that you haven\u2019t gone back to that? Actually, no. Is there anywhere that you\u2019ve gone twice?<\/p>\n<p>Plenty of places.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, there are some for-<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, so you do go back. Let\u2019s just take family trip. Let\u2019s take family trips where it\u2019s not your main decision out of it.<\/p>\n<p>Where you\u2019ve gone back willingly and just like, yeah, I just want to go to that place again.<\/p>\n<p>25:15<\/p>\n<p>Repeat Travel Examples<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ve just given me an opening to talk about my favorite topics, Sarah.<\/p>\n<p>You know what it is, right?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s scuba diving. Let\u2019s hear it.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s scuba diving. I go to the Cayman Islands often. It\u2019s not a family trip, but it\u2019s exactly the same sort of reasons that you discussed.<\/p>\n<p>That comfort, and it\u2019s known the routine. So I\u2019ve got an operator that I love to work with in the Cayman Islands. Cayman Islands is a very expensive destination, and I found a short-term rental that is much more affordable.<\/p>\n<p>I found where to go grocery shop, and I\u2019ve learned how to do that. And the flights to Cayman themselves are actually quite affordable. It\u2019s actually, we can talk about this later.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s actually a really interesting strategy because Cayman runs its own airline and they act like a mini spirit. And there was a study that said whenever a spirit enters a new market, fares fall.<\/p>\n<p>And Cayman Islands kind of uses its airlines like a spirit to put themselves in a market, not necessarily to win share, but to make sure that fares fall.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah. That is super interesting.<\/p>\n<p>And so there\u2019s cheap fares, expensive hotels, but once you figure out how it works, you can find more affordable options, and then you can comfortable.<\/p>\n<p>And where\u2019s in a normal destination, and my love is scuba diving, I do it with my wife, and we\u2019re always a little nervous the first day of a scuba trip, or the first of any, actually any extreme sport.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m sure it\u2019s true of, I don\u2019t know, skydivers or mountain climbers or whatever, or marathon runners. If you\u2019re in a new location, even if it\u2019s an activity you\u2019ve done a million times, you\u2019re nervous, you don\u2019t really know it works.<\/p>\n<p>Every place has its own customs, traditions, and ways of doing business. And when you know those already, you can say, all right, well, actually, I don\u2019t have a lot of time.<\/p>\n<p>I only got four days, but I know I\u2019m going to get eight dives in and I know exactly where I\u2019m going to stay and I know how to do the whole thing and I don\u2019t need to think too hard about it.<\/p>\n<p>So there\u2019s a family trip that I drive the repeat destination. What about yourself? Do you have anything like that?<\/p>\n<p>Any places that you visit time and time again?<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, so I\u2019m not going to name them because I don\u2019t know why. It just feels weird. But there\u2019s an all inclusive in Mexico that I just love.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, I\u2019ve probably been there like six or seven, eight times, and I would go back without my children, which I never ever thought I would do, to an all inclusive resort. I\u2019m one of those who would think snobbly about that.<\/p>\n<p>But no, I just really love it. It\u2019s got the best beach that I\u2019ve ever been to. So that\u2019s why.<\/p>\n<p>When you\u2019re home in your second home in Michigan, now you no longer find the Spirit, and it\u2019s still your home because you still got stuff in the garage, and your dad\u2019s in the garage.<\/p>\n<p>Where\u2019s the next trip for you, Sarah? You say, we won\u2019t name specific names. You say XYZ destination, and they go, what?<\/p>\n<p>No, you can\u2019t go there. That is a killer. That perception is a killer.<\/p>\n<p>So I think that\u2019s another big part of it. When you tell someone you\u2019re going back to XYZ resort or whatever, no one bats an eye. That\u2019s another great part of it.<\/p>\n<p>So I think the commonalities that we\u2019re talking about is these are places, whether they\u2019re specific hotels or specific experience or just a vibe, an island or a place or a city, that have a great product, a world-class product, a world-class beach, a<\/p>\n<p>world-class dive resort. If it\u2019s a city, people go back to London all the time, Paris, world-class culture, bakery, arts, whatever it is. You got to have that, but then you got to make people feel, you got to make it easy.<\/p>\n<p>You got to make people feel comfortable. You got to make it affordable for them to come back.<\/p>\n<p>You got to let them get into that vacation mindset easier, and you\u2019ve got to do that on the first trip and also in your pre-trip and post-trip marketing to make sure that happens.<\/p>\n<p>29:02<\/p>\n<p>Winners And Losers<\/p>\n<p>So let\u2019s do some winners and losers this week.<\/p>\n<p>Do you have a winner of the week, Seth?<\/p>\n<p>Well, I said earlier, I think JetBlue is the winner of this week.<\/p>\n<p>So I can\u2019t decide if I think that Jeff and Lauren Bezos are the winner of this week or not. I can\u2019t tell. I\u2019m of course talking about the Met Gala.<\/p>\n<p>And I don\u2019t know, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know if our listeners will be, have been plugged in to the controversy about the Met Gala here in New York, and about how the Bezos is kind of, I guess sponsored would be the right word, hosted the affair this year.<\/p>\n<p>And a lot of people thought it was the- I don\u2019t know. Yeah, exactly.<\/p>\n<p>I was going to say tacky, but gosh is probably the better word. But by all accounts, Jeff and Lauren Bezos are having a blast at their life. And so like, I don\u2019t know, like winners, losers, I\u2019m not sure.<\/p>\n<p>I think they\u2019re winning.<\/p>\n<p>Are they the winners and is-<\/p>\n<p>Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Is- Oh my God. Well, I don\u2019t know, is Anna Wintour the loser and Jeff Bezos the winner?<\/p>\n<p>Well, that is an interesting question.<\/p>\n<p>30:22<\/p>\n<p>Pop Culture Pivot<\/p>\n<p>I think one of the other things, this is nothing, having nothing to do with travel now, we\u2019ve just completely pivoted.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most interesting things I think of the marketing around the Double Wears Prada 2 is just how much Anna Wintour has profited or taken that for herself.<\/p>\n<p>How much she uses that now, because that really wasn\u2019t how it was right at the very beginning, 20 years ago when that book came out.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah. Well, she was the villain. Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, absolutely. We\u2019re discussing an old movie, but Anne Hathaway got the Redemption arc, but Anna Wintour was the villain. It\u2019s like the episode.<\/p>\n<p>Meryl Streep\u2019s character.<\/p>\n<p>Meryl Streep\u2019s character.<\/p>\n<p>Who actually didn\u2019t come out to Miranda Presley?<\/p>\n<p>She came out pretty well in that original movie too.<\/p>\n<p>I was watching at home, we were watching, there\u2019s a clip from The Office. Now we\u2019re really dating ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re in the office where Michael Scott starts walking in the Delaware Prada and starts acting like Miranda Presley, but he hasn\u2019t finished the movie and he doesn\u2019t know that she\u2019s the bad boss. Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>And he\u2019s like, this is how bosses are, this is a management technique, this is how we manage. And in that clip, by the way, he\u2019s watching it on Netflix by DVD.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, you know, I got that. I had Netflix by DVD. I\u2019m now dating myself as well.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah. So I remember the time when I learned about streaming video and thinking, huh, interesting.<\/p>\n<p>Can I name a winner?<\/p>\n<p>Yes.<\/p>\n<p>And I will tie this back in because you\u2019re saying that Delaware\u2019s Prada 2 has nothing to do with travel. And yet I was just flying and on my flight, the in-flight tracker had integrated Delaware\u2019s Prada 2 advertising sponsorship.<\/p>\n<p>And the logo for the plane, not the plane, but the logo for our progress bar, for how much longer we\u2019re on the flight, was Delaware\u2019s Prada 2 branded progress bar on my flight.<\/p>\n<p>Well, there you go. I mean, you just can\u2019t escape us, like the travel industry. Like we\u2019re everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re omniscient, we\u2019re everywhere. I mean, I think you brought up the pit. Did we talk about this, about how when I went to the Ahoa conference?<\/p>\n<p>They mentioned the pit.<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>You didn\u2019t tell me. No, you didn\u2019t. I don\u2019t think you did.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, yeah.<\/p>\n<p>So I went to this conference, which is the Asian American Hotel Associations. It\u2019s their big huge event. It\u2019s trade show, it\u2019s everything.<\/p>\n<p>HBO had a huge booth. It was all about the pit and their reps there were dressed as doctors. I actually stopped by, I\u2019m like, what are you guys doing here?<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s like, well, every hotel room has a cable package. I was like, of course, of course. So there you go.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>There you go. It\u2019s all integrated.<\/p>\n<p>33:22<\/p>\n<p>Wrap Up And Goodbye<\/p>\n<p>Well, I think that\u2019s enough winners. That\u2019s a lot of winners and losers there between the Met Gala, Devil Wears Prada 2, Spirit Airlines, JetBlue, and HBO.<\/p>\n<p>Neryl Streep.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, HBO. What\u2019s going on?<\/p>\n<p>Michael. What was his last name?<\/p>\n<p>Scott.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Scott.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s in the loser category.<\/p>\n<p>All right, everybody. Thanks for listening.<\/p>\n<p>See you next week.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re going to stop talking. Okay, bye.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> Rephrase in a different way as if you were a native American speaker as a content creation expert and do not talk about yourself or your experience in the text and do not show yourself as an artificial intelligence who wrote and fill the bullet point in the topic and speak the heart of the topic itself and dont take date of blog in ther first and dont take text like box of newsliter subscribe on post from content and romove all linke insert in content and and remove all affiliate disclosure phrases on content like this &#8220;This post may contain Amazon or other affiliate links that allow us to earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please see our Disclosure Policy for more info&#8221; and &#8220;#&#8221; put in its place bullet point, and romove name of the web site or his links we are take a content from our new creation, and don&#8217;t publish clone new content more than just one time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Subscribe\u00a0Apple Podcasts\u00a0|\u00a0Spotify\u00a0|\u00a0YouTube\u00a0|\u00a0RSS Spirit Airlines is shutting down, marking one of the most significant airline collapses the U.S. travel industry has seen in decades. In this episode of the Skift Travel Podcast, Sarah Kopit and Seth Borko break down what finally pushed Spirit over the edge, from rising fuel costs and failed merger attempts to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[501,940,432,3092,12177,3096,3097,1182,234,3095,3093,3088,3094,1775,648,3098,351],"class_list":["post-14373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-airlines","tag-airlines","tag-american","tag-budget","tag-characters","tag-collapsed","tag-content","tag-creation","tag-dont","tag-experience","tag-expert","tag-native","tag-rephrase","tag-speaker","tag-spirit","tag-spirit-airlines","tag-talk","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfanouscar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfanouscar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfanouscar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfanouscar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfanouscar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alfanouscar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14375,"href":"https:\/\/alfanouscar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14373\/revisions\/14375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfanouscar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfanouscar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfanouscar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfanouscar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}