Friday 20th July 2012.indd - Travel Daily Media

TRAVEL DAILY INDIATRAVEL DAILY ASIATRAVEL DAILY MIDDLE EASTSINGAPORE TRAVEL NEWSCRUISE NEWS UKwww.traveldailymedia.com/ukFriday 20th July 2012 ▶ P 1≪ SUMMER HOLIDAYSTwo million people are due to goon holiday this weekend...READ MORE≪ GOOD WEEK BAD WEEKOur round-up and round-down ofhow the travel industry has beenthis week… READ MORE≪ FIVE ON FRIDAYDertour offers agent rate on ship;Virgin Holidays Cruises waivesAPD and more… READ MOREBirmingham Airport Gurus launchfor agentsExpanded sales team to support trade...Birmingham Airport officiallyintroduced its expanded travelagent support team to the tradeearlier this week under the ‘AirportGurus’ name. Tracey Quirk andStefanie Bowes have joined theairport’s trade relations managerMandy Haque to form the agencysupport team, with the aim to helptravel agents, tour operators andairline sales teams with advice andenquiries. Its Airport Guru concepthas the tagline “Enlightenment forthe travel trade” and will see theteam visit up to 70 travel agents aweek on the road, as well as attendtrade shows.Wednesday evening the threegurus met with travel agents andsuppliers from the Midlands andhanded out prizes at an exclusiveevent held with Travel Daily MediaGroup. Speaking at the event,Haque thanked the trade for itsThe big prize winner – Aaron Harris from Click Travel (third from left)won flights to Istanbul with Turkish Airlines; three nights at the OttomanHotel Imperial and lounge passes with No1 TravellerConsultants from BTG TravelConsultants from Bowen Travel and BTG TravelConsultants from Sutton Travelsupport and announced its newwebsite.“Since I joined last year I haveappreciated the support we’vehad from the trade but I cannotdo it on my own, so I’ve broughtin Tracey and Stef to help. WeBirmingham Airports’ Airport Gurus Tracey Quirk,Mandy Haque and Stefanie Boweswant travel agents, tour operators,business travel bookers and airlinesales teams to feel that we are anextension of their business andwelcome questions about anything,at any time,” she said. Click here forfull story.Katy Broadbent from Thomson (left) won a pair of No1 Travellerlounge passes!STA Travel had a winner in its midst – Matt Palmer (bottom left)won football tickets with Emirates!United Travel with Mandy Haque from Birmingham Airport. AlanLeong won a bottle of bubbly and cookies thanks to United Airlines!Sonia and Laura from Holidaysplease with The Travel ShopPrize winners!• Flights to Istanbul withTurkish Airlines; threenightsat the OttomanHotel Istanbul fromTravelcube and VIPpasses at No1 Travellerlounge – Aaron Harris,Click Travel• A pair of return flights toParis from KLM AirFranceand No1 Traveller passes– Kelly, Pure Destinations• A pair of return flightsto Berlin with Lufthansaand No1 Traveller passes– Ryan McVinnie fromGoing Places• A pair of tickets to anyAston Villa, Stoke Cityor West Brom gameat Emirates Stadiumcourtesy of Emirates –Matt Palmer from STATravel• £150 Love2Shop vouchersfrom Thomas Cook – MattPalmer from Co-op• £100 Love2Shop vouchersfrom Thomson – Asif fromEasyway Travel• Two pairs of VIP loungepasses from No1 Traveller– Dawn Wingley from STATravel and Katy Broadbentfrom Thomson• £30 Capital Bondsvouchers, goody bag andchampagne from WendyWu Tours – JacquelineBennett from STA Travel• Champagne and cookiescourtesy of United – AlanLeong from United TravelGossip…- Turkish Airlines’ growthmeans it will alwayslook for growth areas,with a “you never know”response to UK regionalairport expansion- Did you notice one of the‘big two’ gave away £100in vouchers and the otherhanded out £150- One travel agent admittedto a crush on a TravelDaily UK team member.We have not told him,promise.- Agents continued to showconcern at being undercutby direct online prices…Click here to see more photosfrom the eveningfollow us onAdvertise with TDUK today! Email us at advertising@traveldaily.co.ukManaging Editor: Amanda Greenwood | Managing Director & Editor: Gary Marshall 36-38 Hanway Street London W1T 1UP United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 207 2686560

TRAVEL DAILY INDIATRAVEL DAILY ASIATRAVEL DAILY MIDDLE EASTSINGAPORE TRAVEL NEWSCRUISE NEWS UKwww.traveldailymedia.com/ukFriday 20th July 2012 ▶ P 2Two million head overseas this weekendThomson and First Choice absorb Spanish VAT increase...Two million Britishholidaymakers are expectedto head overseas in the nextfour days as schools break upfor the summer holidays. ABTAexpects most holidaymakers tohead to Spain with the Canaryand Balearic Islands some ofthe most popular destinations.Turkey and Greece are alsopopular destinations, with manytaking advantage of the euroexchange rate and cheaperin-resort prices. Thomson andFirst Choice are set to fly 46,000customers from 18 airports duringthe weekend, also mentioningthe Balearics and Turkey aspopular destinations. Cape Town,Mexico, Greece, Florida andEgypt are also amongst the topsellingdestinations, with a trendtowards more seven-night stays.The company has also absorbedthe increased Spanish VAT rates.“I think people are looking tospend their hard earned cashon holidays they know they willdeliver and which have theirSchool’s out for most pupils this afternoonmeals and lots of activitiesincluded,” said Steve Perridge,general manager of late trading atThomson and First Choice. Clickhere for full story.QUOTEOF THE DAY“It runscontrary to itsstated positionin the recentpast”Belfast InternationalAirport is leftconfused over AerLingus’ switch to CityAer Lingus switches Belfast airportsBorder Force set pre-Olympic strikeImmigration staff are to strike on the day before the Olympics(Thursday 26 July) although only 20% of its membership voted in theballot. According to the Daily Telegraph, unions have also encouragedan overtime ban from 27 July to 20 August, when thousands planto go on their summer holidays or arrive for the Olympics. Around500 emergency staff are expected to help at Heathrow similarly todisruption earlier this year.Aer Lingus has announced itwill switch its flights to GeorgeBest Belfast City Airport laterthis year. The airline previouslyoperated for five years fromBelfast International, which tookto Twitter to voice its confusionover the decision. “It runs contraryto its stated position in the recentpast,” its tweets read. “[BelfastInternational] have (sic) beenoffered no explanation as to whyAer Lingus should move fromthis ‘ideal location’”. The airportcontinued to say that Aer Lingushad taken a u-turn after the airlinesaid Belfast International was“better positioned to facilitate airpassengers” when it first started in2007. Click here for full story.Gatwick rules out second runwayICS TRAVEL GROUP, Indochina’sleading DMC including Indonesiaand India are looking for a SalesRepresentative to strengthen theCandidates must possess a strong product knowledge of theIndochina region, along with a dedication to servicing ourexisting and establishing new agent contacts within the UKand Ireland markets.If you have the above attributes please emailGordon Bell, Director of Sales UK market at gordon@is-intl.comfor further details.Gatwick Airport has said it hasno plans to build a secondrunway although warned it couldbe full by 2030 in is new masterplan for 2020. Following a publicconsultation, the airport revealedit will invest another £1billion from2014 and could grow from carryingits current 34m passengers annuallyGatwick’s South Terminal Arrivalsto 40m by 2021/22. However itwarned that although its capacitycould reach 45m by 2030, theairport would be full at that point.Changes to Gatwick have beenrealised in the last two and a halfyears following a £1.2bn investmentby new owners. Click here for fullstory.follow us onAdvertise with TDUK today! Email us at advertising@traveldaily.co.ukManaging Editor: Amanda Greenwood | Managing Director & Editor: Gary Marshall 36-38 Hanway Street London W1T 1UP United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 207 2686560

TRAVEL DAILY INDIATRAVEL DAILY ASIATRAVEL DAILY MIDDLE EASTSINGAPORE TRAVEL NEWSCRUISE NEWS UKwww.traveldailymedia.com/ukFriday 20th July 2012 ▶ P 3CELEBRITYHOTSPOTIreland releases cheeky Olympicescape video• Rihanna: Yep she’s in thesun and on a yacht again, thistime in the Italian waters ofCapri. She’s been posting morepictures too so expect those inthe national papers soon…• John Terry: You can’treally blame the guy for taking aholiday after the Euros and thatcourt case, so he’s headed offto Portugal for some family funin the sun.• Mario Balotelli: Sorryyes two footballers this weekand although they are nottechnically celebs they areobviously catching the raysbefore the next season kicksoff. Balotelli is probably havinga different type of holiday toTerry though as he parties inIbiza with French models.New app unveiledby SabreSabre Travel Network is topreview the new interface forits new TripCase app next weekat the Global Business TravelAssociation (GBTA) conference.The app, which is due to launchlater this year, will allow travellersto manage, track and share tripsand act as a ‘personal concierge’if itineraries change. TripCase willautomatically notify users of fl ightdelays, gate changes and otherfactors that could affect their traveland will be integrated into its GDS.“What makes TripCase uniqueis how we are able to anticipatetravellers’ needs to make the overalltravel experience better,” said JohnSamuel, senior vice president ofSabre Traveler Solutions. Click herefor full story.new tongue-in-cheek videoA featuring a voiceover byactor Chris O’Dowd has beenlaunched by Discover Ireland tooffer Londoners an Olympic escape.The video, which was writtenby Bridesmaids star O’Dowd,TripAdvisor boasts £1.7bn sales asMail Travel muscles in marketTripAdvisor has boasted itsweb traffic contributes towards£1.7bn of tourism spending in theUK and supports a signifi cant partof 42,000 jobs a year. The reviewssite believes a quarter of peoplehave stayed longer, spent moreor engaged in more activities asa result of its page views, with theaverage domestic spending per trip20% higher than the average onlinebooking. It has argued that its usergeneratedcontent has resulted inan even playing fi eld and more thanhalf of respondents end up fi ndingnon-chain hotels.compares the ‘stressful commute’of a city boy and his friend’s journeyto Ireland while the games are on.It is part of an ‘escape’ or ‘embrace’campaign to showcase holidaysto Ireland or VIP passes at its IrishHouse in London.Meanwhile A&N Media, whichowns the Daily Mail, The Mail onSunday and Metro, has launcheda new consumer-facing holidaywebsite at mailtravel.co.uk.Clickhere for full story.Read TDUK withAdobe Reader 10.1.3Having trouble downloading TDUK? Read ourdaily e-news magazine with the latest version ofAdobe Reader – CLICK HERE to downloadedAdobe Reader 10.1.3 for free.Contact us todayAdvertiseEditorialSubscribeTravel Daily UK ............................Amanda Greenwood – Managing Editorinfo@traveldaily.co.ukTom Penn – Sales Managertom@traveldailymedia.comTravel Daily Asia ..........................Mark Elliott – Editor-in-Chiefinfo@traveldailymedia.comPaul Adams - Regional Directorpaul@traveldailymedia.comTravel Daily India .........................Krupa Vora - Editorkrupa@traveldailymedia.comPaul Adams - Regional Directorpaul@traveldailyindia.comJay Shah – Regional Manageradvertising@traveldailyindia.comTravel Daily Middle East .............Charmaine Fernz – Editorcharmaine@traveldailymedia.comGuillaume Massey – Commercial Directorguillaume@traveldailyme.comSingapore Travel News ...............Mark Elliott – Editor in Cheifmark@traveldailymedia.comPaul Adams – Regional Directorinfo@traveldailymedia.comCruise News by Travel Daily MediaErnie Skalsky - Editorernie@traveldailymedia.comGuillaume Massey - Commercial Directorguillaume@traveldailymedia.comGary Marshall - Managing Director & Editorgary@traveldailymedia.comGOOD WEEK/BAD WEEKA good week for:Olympic Houses: With just a week away from thegames, tourism boards are building up to host events intheir Olympic Houses and showcase their culture. Tryand get along to one if you can!Overseas travel: With Britain seeing the wettestJune and a pretty rubbish July it wouldn’t come of muchof a surprise to hear lots of us are thinking of heading tothe beach in the Med.Ski market: A new report from SkiBase hassuggested the ski market is not as down as it wouldseem, with the over 55s market keeping things afl oat.A bad week for:Olympics officials: Heathrow Airport seems to havecome through its busiest day without any major hiccups,but no doubt that Coe and co have their fair share ofnerves at the moment. We will see in seven days…Domestic days-out: While some domestic holidayoperators say they are holding up, some seaside resortsor attractions are seeing numbers drop while it rains.Get those macks on and get out anyway, we say!Adventure travel: Tour operator Kumuka becamethe latest casualty to tough trading conditions when itcalled in the administrators earlier this week.follow us onAdvertise with TDUK today! Email us at advertising@traveldaily.co.ukManaging Editor: Amanda Greenwood | Managing Director & Editor: Gary Marshall 36-38 Hanway Street London W1T 1UP United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 207 2686560

TRAVEL DAILY INDIATRAVEL DAILY ASIATRAVEL DAILY MIDDLE EASTSINGAPORE TRAVEL NEWSCRUISE NEWS UKwww.traveldailymedia.com/ukFriday 20th July 2012 ▶ P 4Etihad to take 10% stake in Virgin AustraliaFIVE ON FRIDAYEtihad Airways has been giventhe green light to increaseits stake in Virgin Australia to amaximum of 10%.The Abu Dhabi-based carriercurrently holds a 4.99% stake inVirgin Australia, and had appliedto the Australian government'sForeign Investment Review Board(FIRB) to raise the level of itsinvestment. The acceptance ofthe bid allows Etihad to furtherstrengthen its global portfolio ofairline investments. The carriercurrently holds a 40% stake in AirSeychelles, a 29.21% interest inIN NUMBERS3Airport gurus atBirmingham Airport10Percentage stakeEtihad has in VirginAustralia75,000Emails sent to MPsagainst APD so far(carry on!)5,300,000Number of passengernumber difference forFlybe from 2002 to2012airberlin, and a 2.987% stake inIrish national carrier Aer Lingus, aswell as its stake in Virgin Australia.The deal will also enable Etihadto move further into the Australianmarket. As part of its existingcodeshare arrangement with VirginAustralia, the airline currentlyoperates 24 weekly fl ights betweenAbu Dhabi and three Australianhubs - Sydney, Melbourne andBrisbane - with plans for Perthfl ights in future.It is facing strong competitionhowever, from Gulf rivals. Clickhere for full story.Wyndhamannounces newScottish hotelWyndham Hotel Group hasannounced it will open itsfi rst Wyndham Hotels and Resortsbrandedhotel in Scotland. TheWyndham Grand The Angus nearDundee is set to open in 2015 andwill be the second to open in theUK after its Wyndham ChelseaHarbour property in London. TheScottish hotel will have 187 roomsand 10 two-bedroom lodges nextto the Forbes of Kingennie Resort.Facilities will range from a spa,infi nity pool, gym and dance studiosto two restaurants, a bar andclubhouse bar. Click here for fullstory.DID YOU KNOW?Skytrax’s top 10 airlines1 Qatar Airways2 Asiana Airlines3 Singapore Airlines4 Cathay Pacifi c Airways5 ANA All Nippon Airways6 Etihad Airways7 Turkish Airlines8 Emirates9 Thai Airways10 Malaysia AirlinesSkytrax’s best in EuropeBest European Airline – TurkishAirlinesBest low-cost airline in Europe– easyJetBest regional airline Europe –Aegean Airlines Stay on a ship during OlympicsDertour is offering travelagents the chance to stay on‘MS Deutschland’ when it isdocked in London during theOlympic games. A selectednumber of cabins have beenleft available for agents tostay on the ship between 26July and 13 August while it is situated in London’s WestIndia dock. Agents can stay for £49 per person per night.tours@dertour.co.uk Virgin Holidays Cruises’ anti-APDVirgin Holidays Cruises has been included underVirgin Atlantic’s scheme to pay APD for its customers.The no APD offer applies to all holidays using VirginAtlantic routes on all departure dates and cabin grades onbookings made until 23 July 2012. An example 14-nightMexico stay/cruise/stay holiday starts from £1, 418per person, taking off the £162 discount. Departing 10November 2012, the holiday includes full-board basis andfl ights from Gatwick. www.virgniholidayscruises.co.uk Flybe offers 10% discountFlybe is to celebrate itstenth anniversary in its newbusiness model by offering10% off all bookings madebefore midnight on 25 July. Thediscount covers travel throughto 25 October on severalpopular routes includingScottish airports, Belfast City, Birmingham, Exeter, Gatwick,Southampton, Amsterdam and Paris CDG. www.flybe.com UIA’s saleUkraine International Airlines (UIA) has released salefares for bookings and travel until 20 December 2012. ItsLondon to Kiev routes start from £150 one-way in the saleand £214 return, with connections onto Odessa, Lvov,Donetsk and destinations across Ukraine, CIS, Asia andthe Middle East. www.flyuia.com Centara’s wedding packagesCentara Hotels & Resortshas launched a new rangeof wedding packages.Prices start from £305 forpackages at select resortproperties in Krabi, Samui,Phuket and Trat with theoption for Thai or Westernceremonies. Packages include the wedding ceremony,venue decoration, bouquet, buttonhole, sparkling wine,a romantic dinner for two and some will offer in-roombreakfast. Additional options available. weddings@chr.co.th follow us onAdvertise with TDUK today! Email us at advertising@traveldaily.co.ukManaging Editor: Amanda Greenwood | Managing Director & Editor: Gary Marshall 36-38 Hanway Street London W1T 1UP United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 207 2686560