"Kick 'em while they are down..."

News just keeps getting worse for British Airways customers that had hoped to travel with "The worlds leading airline" over the festive season...

Firstly was to find out that the threatened strike action IS going ahead..

Then they find out that if they booked their flights since news broke of the possible strike action, then their insurance does not cover them for a full refund...

And now, just to top things up, we hear that people booking late festive flights (which are those that have been let down by their preferred carrier) are being charged above premium rates for their flights...

Today's Guardian states that "Air fares over the festive and new year period continued to rise today, as passengers whose holiday plans are threatened by BA's Christmas strike booked with alternative carriers...

A direct, economy class return flight from London to New York leaving on the first day of the proposed 12-day strike and returning after Christmas was fetching as much as £1,527 this morning, while an Air France return Edinburgh-Paris flight over the new year reached £372 on price comparison site Travelsupermarket.com...

Long-term rival Virgin Atlantic said its call centre had been "inundated" with enquires from concerned BA passengers since the strike was announced on Tuesday and that only "a handful" of seats were left on popular shared routes...

"Our call centre has been inundated with calls from worried travellers," said a spokeswoman...

The airline announced yesterday that it would operate larger aircraft on some routes during the BA strike period, including Newark, Boston, Washington DC and Delhi.

EasyJet today reported an increase in enquiries and bookings but said it still had availability on most of the 96 routes it shares with BA. The no-frills airline, which is offering BA Executive Club gold card holders free speedy boarding, is not laying on additional services at this stage but will consider this once BA's services are confirmed...

Virgin Trains will run an additional 25 services on the London to Glasgow via Preston route over the holiday period to help affected passengers...

Eurostar said it had seen an increase in enquiries rather than bookings for the period of the strike and said it had good availability on its high-speed rail services...

"We have several thousand seats available both to Paris and Brussels," a spokesman said. "We're finding that people are holding tight to see what happens with British Airways..."

But its not all doom and gloom as "BA will hold fresh talks with union leaders "without preconditions" at 3pm today, in a bid to avert the industrial action, which could disrupt the festive travel plans of up to a million passengers.

A Unite spokesman said: "We are glad that BA management has seen sense and we hope we can now move from confrontation to negotiation and get the dispute resolved.""

So, fingers crossed then..

Follow this story at http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/dec/16/flights-british-airways-strike

Barticus.

"Feel good factor..."

Once again we look at the positives of going on a vacation, and therefore how they should be available to all people...

Following research conducted on their customers, specialist travel insurance provider, PJ Hayman, reveals that 61% of consumers with pre-existing medical conditions feel that going on holiday affects their health positively...

These findings were revealed as part of a study of almost 800 UK consumers which looked at the benefits of holidays for people who suffer from a range of conditions including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure...

Of those who went on holiday, 45% said they felt less stressed and therefore healthier and 41% went on holiday for rest and relaxation which they believe helped their condition. Holidays also had attitudinal benefits as 24% felt more able to deal with their condition and 27% said it allowed them to re-evaluate their situation and concentrate on being positive.

As part of the survey, P J Hayman reviewed the benefits offered to those with a variety of conditions. Cancer patients (78%) were most likely to believe holidays had affected them positively with over half (56%) saying it made them feel less stressed and healthier and 53% said it gave giving them chance to re-evaluate their situation and concentrate on being positive...

Consumers with pre-existing medical conditions went on holiday at least once a year (98%) and gained a variety of general well-being benefits. Indeed, 67% said it gave them the opportunity to spend time with family and friends which made them feel good and 45% saw it as an opportunity to relax and not think about their condition. Many people (41%) also saw this as an opportunity to fulfil an ambition to see a location they had always wanted to see...

People with cancer (66%) saw holidays as an opportunity to relax and not think about their condition while those who suffered a stroke saw holidays as a real opportunity to spend time with family and friends (67%)...

So once again (as if we needed more proof) it has been proved exactly how beneficial these breaks are, and are left wondering how long we must wait for the respective Governments to add vacations to the treatment of many health related problems...

Follow this story at http://www.traveldailynews.com/pages/show_page/34660-More-than-half-of-consumers-see-medical-benefits-from-holidays

Barticus.

'I'm late, I'm late for a very important date!'

I believe that most people have a favourite when talking about tea and coffee. Mine for certain is tea, that comes in many different varieties, especially traditional Arabic mint tea with one teaspoon of sugar mixed thoroughly to give a slight sweetness accompanied with the freshness of the floating mint leaves.

Lonely Planet has published a guide on the wonderful diversity of  destinations that tea maybe highly enjoyed. London took the number one spot due to the popular Ritz experience with the guide stating, "Afternoon tea at the Ritz is a splendid affair: silver pots and fine China chink at 4pm sharp under the vaunted glass and chandeliers of the Palm Court." Other destinations in the top ten were Japan, USA, Sahara Desert and Peru.

To read the full story and experience the variety of tea ceremonies just click below,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/6789839/Ritz-Hotel-and-Trans-Siberian-railway-head-tea-tourism-guide.html

G.T.I.

"Hope you realise what you are doing..."

Strike! I understand the problems that many of the British Airways staff have been facing over the last few months, but is this really the answer...

British Airways has been loosing money hand over fist, and all that has helped to keep them going is their image (and a dodgy looking partnership with Iberian) and a strike over the Christmas period looks set to spoil even this...

Phil Davies from Travelmole writes "British Airways faces “massive disruption” over the busy festive travel period after cabin crew voted to take strike action...

Disruption is due to begin on December 22 and run until January 2...

Cabin crew voted by nine to one in favour of the strike action, with more than an 80%turnout...

The airline, responding to the result of THE ballot by members of the Unite union, said: “A 12-day strike would be completely unjustified and a huge over-reaction to the modest changes we have announced for cabin crew which are intended to help us recover from record financial losses...”

BA added: “Unite’s cynical decision betrays a total lack of concern for our customers, our business and other employees within British Airways...”

The airline said it was “extremely disappointed” that Unite is planning massive disruption for hundreds of thousands of passengers over the Christmas/New Year holiday period..."

Is this yet another step towards the self destruction of one of the worlds leading airlines?

Follow this breaking news at http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1139978.php?mpnlog=1

Barticus.

"So, some prety babies then..."

News has broken that UNWTO and CNN International have joined forces and that they are moving ahead with their strategic partnership signed last month between the Organization and the CNN Tourism, Advertising Solutions and Knowledge (TASK). The partnership sees UNWTO and TASK collaborate on industry events to ensure the best breed of knowledge and latest data is imparted to sector professionals. UNWTO and the TASK Group will share content, join forces on industry newsletters and cross promote services across each other’s respective platforms...

This should help to get tourism related issues out to a much wider audience, and allow for better understanding and therefore education of the subjects involved...

UNWTO Secretary-General ad interim Taleb Rifai underscored the importance of the strategic partnership between UNWTO and CNN International as “a significant step towards highlighting the economic, cultural, social, environmental and political potentials of travel and tourism. The travel and tourism industry continues to grow, employing hundreds of millions of people, contributing to the socio-economic development of the world’s poorest countries. Yet, its future depends on the realisation of its potential and its integration into the global economic and political agenda. This partnership provides the opportunity to maximize tourism’s benefits in a highly competitive market through the support of CNN Task Group’s destination marketing as an additional support element...”

We at GTI wish them all the best, and hope this really does bring about more awareness of the issues within this industry...

Follow this story at http://www.traveldailynews.com/pages/show_page/34601-UNWTO-and-CNN-International-join-forces

Barticus.

"Beware Backfire!!!"

Whats going on with Dubai and their "Rich man/Poor man" act that has suddenly flooded the market with the most amazing holiday deals? Futher to yesterdays report on this, Martin Ferguson from TTG live has looked at the possible negative impacts of this method of "Panic Marketing..."

He writes "Travel agencies have been bombarded with special offers and discounts for holidays to Dubai – but fear customers will hold off until even better deals materialise...


Five-star hotels, including the recently opened Atlantis The Palm, have been contacting agents offering up to 50% off rates in a desperate attempt to sell inventory for 2010...

Luxury operator If Only contacted agents on Monday to tell them a seven-night stay at Atlantis, including Emirates flights, was £1,600 cheaper than the previous week...

Agents were unanimous that the price reductions were good but some found that customers were delaying making bookings, believing prices would fall further in the new year...

Janet Whittingham, retail development manager at St Andrews Travel in Bolton, said: “One of our regular Dubai clients admitted he had seen deals online and told us he was going to wait for the price to fall further before booking...

“They recognise what a good product Dubai is and want to obtain the best possible deal...”

Jo Gardiner, a Travel Counsellors agent based in Oxford and one of the agents who completed TTG’s Dubai survey, said she was facing a raft of cancellations by clients on low deposits because they believed they would get a better bargain later..."

Follow this scary story at http://www.ttglive.com/c/portal/layout?p_l_id=3208370&CMPI_SHARED_articleId=3432042&CMPI_SHARED_ImageArticleId=3432042&CMPI_SHARED_articleIdRelated=3432042&CMPI_SHARED_ToolsArticleId=3432042&CMPI_SHARED_CommentArticleId=3432042&articleTitle=Dubai%20discounts%20could%20backfire

Barticus.

"Marry me (I need a holiday)..."

This follows the news that Thomson and First Choice have predicted the top trends for 2010, and these include:

The rise of the all-inclusive
10 and 11 night holidays
Mid-haul is the new short-haul
More first time cruisers
Getting away from the football during the World Cup and
Getting Married Overseas which they say is "A big trend, already evident from bookings next summer, is couples getting married abroad. Thomson and First Choice have seen bookings rise by 35% in the last year as more and more couples look to get married on the beach, beside a traditional Greek Chapel or in a medieval Italian monastery...


Getting married overseas is a cheaper option than getting married at home, according to a recent survey by Mintel. The survey found that the average cost of a wedding in the UK was £20,000, while overseas it was just £6,500. This is because generally you will have less people to cater for, extras like photographers and flowers tend to be cheaper and the cost of venues tends to be less. On top of that you also have a much better chance of sunshine, if you book with Thomson and First Choice you’ll have a wedding co-ordinator to sort it all out for you, and after the wedding you are already on your honeymoon..."

For these and more predictions, please go to http://www.traveldailynews.com/pages/show_page/34604-Thomson-and-First-Choice-predict-the-top-trends-for-2010

Barticus.

"Mozambique doubles up in five years..."

Its good to see that despite the growing economic problems around the world, people are still looking for new destinations for their family holiday, with news that Mozambique tourist income has more than doubled in just five years...

Maputo - Mozambique's tourism revenue more than doubled in the past five years, hitting 200 million dollars in 2009 for the first time ever, the country's tourism minister announced Wednesday...


Some 1.5 million people visited the southern African country in 2009, also more than double the 2004 figure, Minister Fernando Sumbana Jr was quoted by the weekly Canal de Mocambique newspaper on Wednesday as saying...

In 2004, the former Portuguese colony earned only 90 million dollars from tourism...

With its nearly 2,500 kilometres of Indian Ocean coastline, Mozambique was a premier tourist destination before the country's 16- year civil war, which killed around 1 million people and wrecked basic infrastructure by the time it ended in 1992...

For more on this exciting news, please go to http://www.eturbonews.com/13224/mozambique-tourist-income-more-doubles-five-years

Barticus.

"Must try harder..."

With so many customers being stranded all over the globe, people were hoping for more from ATOL...

An overhaul of the ATOL passenger protection scheme does not go far enough, according to consumer watchdog Which? Holiday...
A 'flight plus' element is to be suggested in an effort to close the passenger protection loophole when different travel components are booked together with a flight...

Responding to the revamp of the system announced by transport secretary Lord Adonis, the body’s head of research Rochelle Turner said: “The ATOL scheme in its current form provides great protection for anyone taking a package holiday or booking through an ATOL bonded agent...

“But a significant number of people book hotels from direct links on airline websites, or use online travel agents to book their own package, and could be left without the peace of mind that they are protected should something go wrong...

“While it’s great that the Government is taking steps to make the scheme relevant to today’s holidaymaker, we are concerned it doesn’t go far enough to ensure that all travellers are equally protected...

“The proposed ‘flight plus’ category needs clarification to prevent consumers being left open to loopholes which may leave them stranded should something go wrong...”

Flight plus’ measures have been proposed whereby ATOL protection would include all sales of a flight together with another significant element, such as hotel accommodation or car hire...

Which? Holiday said it is aware of a growing trend towards “reverse packaging”, where people are booking hotel accommodation and then booking their flights through a link on the hotel website...

This would not be covered under the proposed changes to the ATOL scheme, the body claims...

The proposals to reform the ATOL scheme are designed to reflect changes in the holiday market and make it easier for those booking holidays to understand whether their trip is covered or not, the Department for Transport said...

Read this full story at http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1139938.php?mpnlog=1&m_id=s~bvs~bm

Barticus.

"Wahoo!! Winter sun..."

Yet more good news for hard up Brits with the publication that hotel searches for Dubai have gone up a spectacular 590%...

British travellers are making the most of cut price hotel rooms in Dubai according to new figures from Hotels.com. Searches for hotels in Dubai have risen by 570% since Dubai World's announcement sparked a financial crisis in the Emirate, it is revealed...


In the first half of 2009, the average price of a five star hotel room in the city was £174 per night. However, for January 2010 a five star hotel room will cost on average just £144 a night, a drop of 17% and adding up to a saving of £210 for a week-long stay. A five-star weekend break in mid-January starts from as little as £74 per night...

Dubai has been experiencing falling rates for some time, as the global downturn, compounded by an over-supply of hotel rooms in the city, meant hotel rates dropped dramatically in the first three months of 2009...

Alison Couper, Director of Communications at Hotels.com, said: "Dubai is great value at the moment. There are some fantastic promotions from hoteliers in the city as they try to attract customers, meaning there has never been a better time for travellers to stay in some of the world's top properties for a great price. Now is the time to take the holiday you've always dreamed of..."

Follow this story at http://www.traveldailynews.com/pages/show_page/34578-British-travellers-cash-in-as-Dubai-rates-plummet

Barticus.