http://www.travolution.co.ukThe latest information from Travolution60179117515http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/07/03/2685/business-taxis-overhauls-web-offering.htmlCCPFri, 03 Jul 2009 10:05:15 +01:00 Holiday Taxis spin off Business Taxis has revamped its booking platform and widened its destination coverage as part of a site relaunch. The business transfer specialist enables travel management companies and corporate travellers to pre-book transfers in 70 countries including the UK The service allows customers to make single bookings or open an account as well as enabling companies to set travel policies and produce management reports. A carbon- offset function is also a feature of the new site.   Strategy director Russell Parr claimed no one else offered such coverage or range or product with full control of ground transport expenditure.   The next development will be the integration of business taxis into the global distribution systems as well as the white label solutions and XML integrations for customers. http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/30/2673/freudmann-shrugs-of-challenge-to-chairmanship.htmlCCPTue, 30 Jun 2009 02:12:00 +01:00 Institute of Travel and Tourism chairman Steven Freudmann has branded news of a challenge to his position as a “storm in a tea cup” based on politics rather than policy issues. The new chairman will be decided at the Annual General Meeting on August 4, when members will be asked to nominate and second a new chairman. Board member Lawrence Assock has said he will stand if no-one else does. If Freudmann is challenged, it will be the first time in seven years. Freudmann has held the chairman position unopposed for seven years and also holds the paid-for chief executive role, a role he was offered after he had been chairman for some time. He was recently re-elected to the board as the travel agency representative, winning 70% of votes cast. He admitted he found news of a potential challenge to his position as chairman as “bizarre” and believes it to be rooted in ‘political’ issues unrelated to ITT, rather than on the basis of differences of opinion on ITT polhttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/30/2663/youtravel.com-appoints-new-non-executive-chairman.htmlCCPTue, 30 Jun 2009 09:34:00 +01:00 Bed bank youtravel.com has appointed a new non-executive chairman to help expand the business internationally. Niels R Andersen replaces Nigel Jenkins, who left in November last year, and will chair his first board meeting this week. Andersen has worked for management consultancy McKinsey & Company and worked as finance or executive director for a number of multi-national corporations outside of the travel industry. His experience includes running a business transformation programme at the  BBC , where he was head of group finance and introduced a new accounting system, and at Sainsbury’s where he was programme director. Group managing director Graham Nichols said: “He’s got a very good track record and has a lot of ehttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/30/2668/domegos-unveils-new-site-for-the-uk.htmlCCPTue, 30 Jun 2009 09:27:12 +01:00 Holiday home specialist Domegos has launched a beta version of its site for the UK. The company has spent recent months developing new functionality for the site as well as increasing the number of properties available. Domegos co-founder and director Dennis Klett claimed there had been a 157% jump in new properties listed on the site. He added that it was predominantly from owners new to the holiday home market wanting to earn extra revenue in the current economic climate. The service has also seen an increase in the number of enquiries, 21% in the past six months, on the site from people looking to holiday at home. Klett anticipated the site would continue to grow at a rapid pace because of it does not charge fees or commission to homeowners. “We only have 3,000 properties but growth has been quicker than others because the service is free and that will help us grow. We are a marketplahttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/26/2655/easyjet-expecting-good-fortune-from-ryanair-online-woes.htmlCCPFri, 26 Jun 2009 10:10:28 +01:00 EasyJet is expecting a good return from a promotion which ran during ten hours Ryanair 's website was down for maintenance this week. EasyJet emailed several million customers alerting them to discounts of up to 10% on ten routes where easyJet competes directly with Ryanair. A spokesperson told Travolution: "This was very much a serious attempt to capitalise on Ryanairs down time. "We havent got the exact figures yet but these promotions are always good for business, especially on the head-to-head routes. The routes were also described as big summer routes and included Stansted to Faro, Liverpool to Ibiza and Edinburgh to Palma. A secondary aim of the promotion was to alert easyJet customers to the apparent inconvenience Ryanair customers would suffer as a result. "When we carry out maintenance on our stie we dont take the website down," hhttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/26/2652/hostelworld-reports-massive-surge-in-interest-in-emerging-destinations.htmlCCPFri, 26 Jun 2009 10:10:28 +01:00 Budget accommodation specialist Hostelworld has reported growth in travel to emerging destinations driven by the current economic climate and demand for cheaper accommodation options. In the past year bookings to Moldova grew 600%, Columbia 266% while Ukraine hostel bookings increased 181%.   The top emerging cities experiencing growth were Kiev at 218%, Zadar in Croatia at 160% and Hiroshima in Japan, 89%. El Salvador, South Korea and Malaysia also saw significant growth in hostel bookings the past year.   A Hostelworld spokesperson said the growth was also driven by the desire for more authentic travel experiences as well as the maturing of the hostel industry. http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/25/2648/youtravel.com-set-to-broaden-destination-portfolio.htmlCCPThu, 25 Jun 2009 10:00:00 +01:00 Bed bank Youtravel.com  is poised to add a further 9,000 hotels to its city and worldwide portfolio, moving it into new destinations. The bed bank is set to announce a partnership deal that will give it access to the new bedstock, revealed sales and marketing director Paul Riches. Currently, Youtravel focuses mainly on eastern and western Mediterranean destinations. Riches, who would not reveal more details at this stage, said: “This will really widen our portfolio into new areas and new destinations.” Meanwhile, Riches said the bed bank remains on track to deliver a healthy profit for the year ending October 2009. It expects to make revenues in the region of £80 million for the year, similar to last year. Summer sales so far for May to October departures are flat year on year. “We have still got a couple more months’ selling [for this summer] and if it carries on we couldhttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/23/2643/starwood-and-microsoft-pioneer-new-service-for-uk-push.htmlCCPTue, 23 Jun 2009 09:10:00 +01:00 Starwood Hotels & Resorts is promoting its Westin brand to the UK market via a deal with Microsoft Advertising which it claims is a travel industry first. The campaign will promote the idea of “wellbeing while you travel”. It is appearing on MSN.co.uk’s life and style  channel as well as the travel section home-page, the first time that a travel brand has tried a “duo takeover” approach. The creative is based around superfoods which are a key part of Westin’s food and beverage offer at the hotels. The placement of the banners and skin on the lifestyle pages will engage MSN users interested in health, complementing its appearance on the travel page. It is hoped that this dual approach will appeal to its target audience of health-conscious travhttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/23/2642/hilton-admits-3m-hole-due-to-web-error.htmlCCPTue, 23 Jun 2009 09:03:00 +01:00 Online consumer insight specialist Speed-Trap claims that it real-time analysis of hilton.co.uk helped the hotel chain close a $3m revenue gap. The posting of a generic error message during the booking path was prompting customers to abandon the site, Speed-Trap found. The error message appeared when a particular rate was unavailable on the day requested, rather than suggest alternatives. Suniel Curtis, online business analysis manager at Hilton Hotels, said: “This error, if it had been left uncorrected, could have led to a potential loss of bookings equating to $3 million per year.” Speed-Trap’s software helped Hilton identify a number of other issues, although the major discovery was the number of exits when the message appeared. Malcolm Duckett, vice president of marketing and operations explained that the web analytics business had moved on http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/09/2620/british-airways-axes-outsourcing-programme.htmlCCPTue, 09 Jun 2009 04:44:00 +01:00 British Airways has ditched plans to outsource elements of its main ba.com website to third party technology players. The airline, which began talking to a number of companies late last year, had been seeking to create efficiencies and reduce costs by finding different ways of working. Travolution understands that it costs the airline in the region of £30 million annually to run ba.com. It is believed however that the expense of putting the business out to tender including the employment of consultants has proved too deep for the airline’s pockets in the current climate. A BA spokeswoman said: “We did launch a procurement process to see if there were any further efficiencies they we could achieve with ba.com at this stage. "Due to the economic crisis, we are currently concentrating on core business and have put the formal process on hold.” She added the airline would continue to speak to a number of playershttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/09/2616/ancillary-products-holding-up-during-downturn.htmlCCPTue, 09 Jun 2009 04:19:00 +01:00 More than half of regular business and leisure travellers would consider buying ancillary products if offered by a preferred travel supplier despite the economic climate, according to new research. The study, run by YouGov with more than 2,000 adults, shows 54% of travellers will consider value-add items and that insurance is the most popular (39%). The survey was commissioned by technology specialist Collinson Latitude . Further findings showed that travel related services are the second most popular component within ancillary offerings with 32% of travellers stating that airport lounge access and travel wi-fi are attractive. Meanwhile, 14% said they would be interested in buying mobile phone services, including trip management and check in-services while 13% of travellers said leisure and lifestyle benefits such as magazine subscriptions and gym and spa access would be attractive as a vhttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/05/2615/online-booking-volumes-more-resilient-in-recession.htmlCCPFri, 05 Jun 2009 10:30:00 +01:00 The online hotel sector is proving more resilient than traditional channels in volume terms but not prices, acccording to hotels.com. Nigel Pocklington, managing director of the Expedia-owned accommodation-only website, said volumes continued to be robust but admitted prices were under pressure for major online players. Speaking at the WTM Vision Conference this week, he said: “It’s a story of high volumes for lower prices.” The Hotel Price Index, produced by hotels.com at the end of last year, showed global hotel prices were 12% down. “There is some fairly aggressive price cutting,” added Pocklington. He maintained there continued to be a shift to booking on the web, with the online sector proving more resilient during the economic downturn. He added: “From an industry point of view, people will continue to shop around but the shift to online is continuing. I suspect we will continue to see volume growth in the online sector. It’s been vhttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/05/2611/travel-products-tipped-for-eco-friendly-label-system.htmlCCPFri, 05 Jun 2009 08:46:00 +01:00 Consumers will come to expect "labelling" to indicate the environmental and social impact of holidays, TUI Travel head of sustainable development Jane Ashton has predicted. Other industries, such as food, are already putting information on their products about CO2 as well as about fairtrade, she said. Speaking at the WTM Vision Conference, she said: "Other industries are addressing these issues in product labelling; so our customers are going to expect carbon and social impact and other tourism labelling." In TUI's own research, only about half of 25 airlines surveyed currently report their carbon footprint. Carbon labelling would highlight efficiencies of individual airlines, she added. She predicted a change in the next decade. "Carbon labelling on flights might well be something we see on flights in the next ten years," she said. Ashton admitted holidaymakers were not currently dhttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/02/2600/ryanair-posts-first-annual-loss.htmlCCPTue, 02 Jun 2009 12:12:00 +01:00 Ryanair has reported a net annual loss for the first time of Euros 169 million for the 12 months to 31 March 2008. The low cost carrier blamed higher fuel costs and its decision to write down the stake it currently has in Aer Lingus. Sales reached Euros 2.94 billion over the period – an increase of 8.4% on the previous 12 months. However, fuel costs jumped from 791 million to Euros 1.26 billion. Chief executive Michael O’Leary, said: “Despite the global recession and record high oil prices Ryanair’s lowest fare/lowest cost airline services again delivered traffic growth and profitability which demonstrates the fundamental strength of the Ryanair model." http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/05/28/2579/ncl-returns-to-profit-despite-poor-economy.htmlCCPThu, 28 May 2009 10:30:00 +01:00Norwegian Cruise Line has announced a return to profit despite the poor economy.