• blackenterprise.com, Monday, July 10, 2006 12:30 PM

The travel industry is beginning to specifically target African-Americans in an attempt to tap into the group's estimated $25 billion in travel spending power. One example is American Airlines, which recently teamed with the city of Philadelphia to create the carrier's first "Ethno Tour," packages targeted to black travelers. "As the shift in the population occurs over the next 15 years, it is dear that our customer base will shift. We need to start developing products that appeal to this growing market. We intend to extract as much business as we can," said airline spokesman Lou Phillips. In addition, US Airways (formerly USAir) has been targeting the African American market through advertising and sponsorship activities over the past two years, and Northwest Airlines has recently created an urban affairs department to develop and market special leisure trips to preferred black destinations. Northwest spokesman John E. Williams says the carrier plans to increase travel to those places and to create packages with carrier partners that fly to those popular African-American destinations Northwest does not go to directly.

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