By Andrew Gibson

The President and CEO of the WTTC explained that he felt Tourism was a ‘Force for Good’ when he made his closing speech at the Global Summit in Tokyo. He explained that the industry is responsible for 255 million jobs across the world and generating 9% of the global GDP which is a huge amount. He went on to say for every dollar spent in the tourism industry it contributes 3 dollars to the economy.

He went on to say that the industry continues to drive forward with sustainability making a balance between profit, people and the planet. Achieving this is something which customers and employees want to do and is something which is improving all of the time. He explained that he felt that the industry is leading a market that is generating jobs, growth and sustainability in a way that no other industry has.

The speech follows the announcement earlier on in the summit that tourism was making a major contribution to the world economy. With it being a market that is now growing and many emerging markets appearing, it certainly is in a positive place at the moment. It has made a recovery, although there are still problems in some areas of the world, it is moving forward which is a very positive thing for the industry as a whole. It shows that if any company in this area looks hard enough, they will be able to find room to grow and succeed.

By Chris Bradley

It is now easier to search for holidays on the British Airways website thanks to their new Holiday Finder tool. The commercial director, Andrew Crawley, explained that they have been developing new ways to make using their website even easier. The Holiday finder is a new tool on BA.com which will help customers find a bargain and a great holiday choice at the same time.

There is a new section on the homepage which is entitled ‘not sure where and when’ and this is where there is a link to the holiday finder. It allows customers to be able to look at flight and hotel packages and find a good deal. It includes all of the most popular holiday destinations and customers are able to specify certain criteria when they search. They can enter their budget, dates, number of nights, destination or a selection of destinations, temperature, type of holiday and board basis. They will then be presented with a selection of holidays which fit these criteria.

This will make it a lot easier to find holiday options and to see what is available on certain dates or for specific budgets. It can speed up the selection process and also makes searching more personalised. It also means that if you have no specific travel dates but a specific budget or know you want to travel to a beach in a certain week, you will be able to put in these specific details and find out what is available. It could make planning a holiday a lot easier and simpler.

By Andrew Gibson

Norwegian Cruise Lines are offering free shore excursions places for children for any family who book a cruise from 16th April until 13th May. The offer is called ‘Little Norwegians Explore for Free’ and will allow children aged twelve and younger, to be able to travel on shore excursions for free as long as they are sharing a stateroom with a paying adult. 

Teenagers (from thirteen to seventeen) can have a half price excursion, under the same terms and conditions. This means that for every paying adult in the stateroom that goes on a shore excursion, they can take a child for half price or free, depending on their age. The offer applies to all 2012 sailing and all ports of call and so they have the opportunity to whale watch in Alaska or snorkel in the Caribbean or perhaps explore ancient cities in Europe.

They have also partnered with a children’s clothing company and launched a competition where families can win a seven day cruise to Bermuda or the Caribbean. Details can be found on www.childrensplace.com and all those who qualify will get a coupon for money off at The Children’s Place (this is for US and Canada stores).

The cruise line has many attractions for families with great entertainment and dining options on board. They have Nickelodeon activities and shows on certain ships. They also have youth and teen programs for the older children with different themes and fun activities aimed at their age group to develop confidence and interpersonal skills. They have sporting events, a circus school, sensory lay and baby art.

By Chris Bradley

Eurostar, the high speed rail service, has reported continued growth in passenger numbers and sales revenues. They saw sales revenue grow from £197 million to £221 million in the first quarter of this year which represents a rise of 7%. They also saw an increase in passenger numbers from 2.15 million to 2.24 million. Rises were based on the same period of time last year.

The growth has been mainly because of increase in leisure use. Business travel was found to have remained pretty much the same between the two periods. The chief executive of Eurostar, Nicolas Petrovic, explained that the start to the year was strong with passenger numbers and sales revenues increasing. He explained that their core destinations tend to remain popular but the Amsterdam fares were also proving to be popular because people wanted to try out new destinations by rail.

He went on to say that they are expecting to be busy in the summer as the UK prepares for the Jubilee celebrations and the London 2012 Olympic Games. He confirmed that the June bank holiday weekend already looks strong with regards to the amounts of bookings as it seems thousands of people plan to travel to London to celebrate the Jubilee. In fact all of the UK is gearing up for a summer of celebrations and the transportation services are expecting things to be really busy as well as the leisure industry. It is expected that many people will visit the UK, but there will also be people leaving the country to get away from the crowds.

By Andrew Gibson

Ryanair, the budget airline, has just launched a hotel comparison website for low cost properties. The site allows visitors to be able to search among 300,000 hotels throughout Europe for good deals and there is also a facility for guests to leave reviews. It means that they will not only be providing a budget flight service for their customers, but also give them the opportunity to find low cost accommodation as well, whether they are looking for something cheap and cheerful or a better quality of property at a bargain price.

The website is called Ryanairhotels.com and it has been put together by hotelscombined which is a hotel comparison engine who provide information for many top quality sites. They have worked closely together with Ryanair to get the site working as they want it to. It has a selection of hotels from luxury five star ones to small independent ones and it is easy to use. This means that it is something that everyone should be able to benefit from.

Michael O’Leary, the head of Ryanair explained that it has more hotels than any other hotel comparison site and so it allows users the maximum amount of choice. It allows people to find the lowest prices for hotels and therefore you can save money on hotels as well as flights if you book through Ryanair. Yury Glikin from Hotelscombined said that the website will provide a great service for Ryanair passengers and their company provide the best hotel comparison services for websites.

By Chris Bradley

South Africa saw a growth in tourism in 2010 with record breaking figures showing a huge improvement. It has improved even further in 2011 with over 8 million International tourists showing a 3.3% growth compared to the amount of visitors the previous year.

The countries Minister of Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, announced the 2011 figures and he explained that although the economic conditions were tough the country managed to surpass the great performance it had seen in 2010. He said that in 2010 the FIFA World Cup was a great opportunity to showcase the country and it gave them billions of dollars’ worth of free media exposure which gave them a great tourism infrastructure. He went on to explain that they continued to work hard after the event to make sure that the growth was sustained and they have also been looking for new tourism markets too. He said that the growth in tourism in 2010 was great, even taking away those visitors who were specifically there for the football and to be able to improve on that was a great achievement.

The country tends to see most tourists arriving from Europe and North America but their main growth in 2011 was from the emerging Asian markets. They also saw an increase in arrivals from other African countries. In fact they saw a decline in tourists from Europe and only a small increase in those from USA. The drop in European visitors was explained by the minister as being due to the economic situation but also air passenger duty rises in the UK affected travel from there.

By Chris Bradley

The Palace Hotel Tokyo is due to be opening on 17th May. It will have 290 rooms and will be suitable for both business and leisure customers. It will have ten bars and restaurants including some with Michelin stars and an Evian SPA.

The hotel will have twelve different categories of accommodation from deluxe rooms to suites and therefore there will be something to suit every type of traveller. They will all have bathrooms which have showers and soaking tubs and balconies and terraces. They will have free wireless and wired Internet access as well as Blu-ray players and LCD televisions, so there will be facilities for work and play, if needed. There will also be some complete Japanese touches with a selection of Maruyama Nori teas, bath towels from Ehime prefecture and Imabari bed linen. This means that the hotel not only recognises the local culture but also provides everything that a worldwide traveller would need.

The hotel will have the very first Evian SPA in Japan which will have five treatment rooms, a spa suite and relaxation lounge. It will have a selection of treatments which will give celestial restoration, precious nourishment, renewed vitality and mineral enrichment. There will also be a fitness area which will be open 24 hours a day and a 20 meter indoor pool. So guests will be able to keep fit or relax or do both. The company’s president, Takashi Kobayashi explained that there will only be one experience like this in the city with an appreciation of the culture of the country.

By Andrew Gibson

At the ATTC 12th Global summit in Japan the WTTC announced that the Travel and Tourism Industry, as measured globally, is double the size of automotive manufacturing and one third larger than chemical manufacturing. This is a fantastic result.

The specific amount that the industry contributes to world GDP is US$2 trillion which is effectively 2.8% of GDP. This is more than double the amount that automotive manufacturing contributes. It is equivalent to global education and communications sectors but half that of banking and financial services.

The president and CEO of WTTC, David Scowsill explained that these are extraordinary results. He explained that although they have always been aware that travel and tourism was a significant market sector in the world the figures show just how very important it is. He went on to say that it shows that the industry is very important in the world recovery. The figures also showed that after education it created the most jobs in 2011 which was twice as many as the financial sector. He explained that this was a very positive thing, especially how it had been able to create jobs throughout the world, not just in one area. In 2011 it sustained 1 in 12 jobs throughout the world. In Japan it generates 80% more jobs than automotive manufacturing and so the growth there has been massive. The research was carried out by Oxford economics and refers to 2011 comparing it to the previous year.

By Andrew Gibson

The Carlson Rezidor Hotel group are to work together with Bestech Hospitalities to develop 49 Park Inns across eleven states in India. They will be joining together to invest a total of 42 million dollars to develop the first two hotels which will be Park Inn by Radisson Gurgaon sector 88 and Park inn by Radisson Chandigarh, Mohali Nestech.

The executive vice president, South Asia for the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, KB Kachru, explained that they feel that this opportunity and partnership will be able to provide a great investment in the property market in India. The president of Asia pacific for the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, Simon Barlow, explained that the middle class in India is expected to grow significantly in the next ten tears and so it is likely that domestic travel will increase, as will the demand for affordable accommodation. The managing directors for Bestech Hospitalities, Dharmendra Bhandari and Sunil Satijia, agreed and said that they are proud to continue working with the company.

Park Inn by Radisson was launched nine years ago in Europe as has been a successful operation with 127 hotels now spread across 33 countries. It is a dynamic hotel but also affordable, designed to attract the Gen Y market who do tend to dominate the middle classes in India. The new hotels will be spread across eleven states in India, Uttrakhand, Uttar pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Madhya pradesh, Kashmir, Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, delhi, Chandigarh and Chattisgarh.

By Andrew Gibson

The Carnival Miracle has more to offer its guests from now on. There are a selection of new entertainment and dining choices, meaning that more people are catered for.

The Taste Bar is a new appetizer program which is fully complimentary for guests. It is expected to be added to the rest of the fleet by the end of next year and has bite sized nibbles with a cocktail available for $5. These include roasted port tacos, lime tortilla soup, Nonnas meatballs, ricotta bruschetta, fried malanga with pork and lime, pepper pot soup, grilled ham and cheese on brioche and tomato soup. All of the dishes are smaller sized versions of those served in some of their restaurants on board this and other ships. The menu will rotate and sushi will also be featured some nights. The food is served between 5pm and 8pm.

The Punchliner Comedy Club débuts on the ship and is presented by George Lopez. It will offer 35 minute shows with two comedians per night with early evening family shows and later adult only ones. There will also be a Punchliner Comedy Brunch where there will be a free dining option in the dining room at lunch time which will be accompanied by five minute comedy bursts. Many of the menu items will have a Mexican influence due to the Mexican heritage of the comedian. Other menu items are comedy inspired and two of the dishes have been created by the comedian himself.