News

Archive for August, 2009

Scottish tourism profits despite recession

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

Scottish tourism managed to bring in a record £63.5 million last year, VisitScotland announced yesterday.

Although tourist numbers fell by over a million, the statistics still show that profits were up compared to the same time last year.

VisitScotland said that it successfully encouraged more travellers to visit Scotland during the quieter months, worth an additional £17 million more than last year, as spending and a fall in the numbers of business travellers.

‘This is great news for everyone in Scottish tourism and highlights the importance of working in partnership with our industry, especially during such challenging economic times, to get tourism growth back on track’ said group product manager for VisitScotland Suzanne Casey.

Tourism Minister Jim Mather added that it was vital Scotland looks for new and innovative ways to attract visitors to the country.

Thanks to the BBC for the above quotes.  For more information please visit their website at www.bbcnews.com

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off

Majorca ‘still safe’ says British Government

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

The British Government still maintain that it is safe to travel to Majorca, despite two bomb attacks on Sunday.

The small bombs, believed to be the work of Basque separatist group ETA, exploded on the resort island just after two police officers were killed a week earlier.

No one was injured in yesterday’s blasts, and police defused a third device nearby amid speculations that ETA is attempting to hijack the tourist season at its peak.

The Foreign Office last night updated its travel warning for Spain, again warning holidaymakers to be aware of the ‘high threat’ of indiscriminate attacks by ETA, but still did not go as far as advising travellers to avoid the area.

One of yesterday’s bombs was found at La Rigoleta Restaurant, on the beachfront in Palma, and the second went off at an underground passage in the Plaza Mayor square, which is popular with British tourists during the summer months.

A hotel was searched by police for a possible fourth bomb, the government said.

ETA claimed responsibility for another four bombings this summer that killed three people, including two Civil Guards in Majorca on July 30, and injured many more.

In the past few years, ETA has frequently targeted Spain’s tourist industry with small bombs during the peak holiday season in a bid to disrupt trade and force the government to negotiate with them.

Thanks to newsletter.co.uk for the above quotes.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off

Passengers ‘horror’ 9 hours on plane

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

A three hour flight turned into a nine hour ordeal, as passengers aboard ExpressJet 2816 told of their horror of being confined all night in a small plane after a series of problems.

The ExpressJet flight 2816 from Houston to Minneapolis should have taken three hours, but the aircraft was forced to divert to Rochester where 47 passengers then spent the night trapped inside a plane, complaining of foul over-used toilets and screaming babies.

Passengers couldn’t believe that the airline was unable to work out an alternative besides keeping passengers on the plane for such a long time.

“It’s not like you’re on a (Boeing) 747 and you can walk around,” passenger Link Christin said.

“This was a sardine can… It was a nightmare.”

Spokesperson for the airline, Kristy Nicholas, said the flight suffered a series of problems, as the crew reached maximum work hours, forcing another crew to be flown in.  Passengers were not allowed into the airport as security screeners had gone home.

Mr Christin said that passengers were not given any food and had to put up with crying babies and smelly toilets.

“The smell of the bathroom was getting worse, the smell of the babies was getting worse,” he said.

The passengers finally made it to Minneapolis approximately 11 hours late.

ExpressJet have apologised for the incident.

Thanks to news.com.au for the above quotes.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off

JetBlue reports rise in traffic

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

JetBlue Airways Corporation reported a slight rise of traffic in July, in the first month-over-month improvement for the budget carrier in almost a year.

Competitor Southwest Airlines also reported a rise in traffic, a sign that passengers are moving from full service carriers to low-cost alternatives during the recession, this summer.

JetBlue said passengers flew a total of 2.54 billion miles compared with 2.53 billion in the same period last year, in what has been their first improvement of traffic since August 2008.

JetBlue says more seats were available last month and that planes were not full.  Capacity in July had gone up by 0.9 percent as occupancy fell 0.5 to 86.1 percent.

The airline says traffic is down total of 4.6 percent this year, but this has been evened out as the carrier cut capacity by 2.9 in the first seven months of 2009.  Occupancy rates fell 1.4% to 79.1% in the same period.

Thanks to Forbes for the above quotes.  For more information, please visit their website.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off

Car rental companies shift to foreign made, cheaper fleets

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

Car Hire companies in the US are adding more foreign manufactured cars to their fleets than ever before.

In the past six months, 48.8% of cars to become part of rental fleets were produced by Ford, Chrysler or General Motors, compared with almost two-third at the same time last year, according to Automotive Fleet magazine.

About 8 in 10 vehicles sold to rental companies came from local manufacturers, but now the big three rental companies, Avis, Hertz and Dollar Thrifty are increasingly adding foreign names like Hyundai, Kia, Toyota and Nissan to their fleets.

This change shows how the domestic automakers are losing to their foreign competitors, and how car rental companies are tightening their belts and dealing with slimmer profits as the travel industry is by the recession.

Rental companies want to keep customers happy rather than provide the cheapest option, and they also want vehicles that can hold their value for the longest.

“It’s amazing how things turn around,” car-rental industry consultant Neil Abrams said. “It used to be you’d never see foreign cars in fleets, but the companies re-examined their businesses and decided to embrace non-U.S. brands.”

The major car rental companies in the US were once controlled by the automakers, with all having spun off as independent companies, but recently have found themselves diversifying to several brands of cars for hire.

“For some models, we’d find ourselves selling 50 percent to 60 percent of our production into rental,” George Pipas, chief sales analyst at Ford, said.

Consumers are also playing a significant role into the shift of focus.

Drivers are now choosing to buy imports over American cars, so it’s not surprising that rental companies follow these trends, said Mark Norman, president and chief operating officer of Zipcar.

For more information on this article, visit chicagotribune.com

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off

British man set alight in self-defence

Monday, August 10th, 2009

A woman has become a hero in the eyes of many Greek women after allegedly setting fire to a drunken Briton’s genitals after he began to expose himself in a Crete Nightclub.

The 26-year old Greek woman was cheered by many across the nation, but is now facing charges of causing bodily injuries to the 23-year old tourist.

Police claim that the woman set fire to the man’s genital’s in a nightclub on the Greek island of Crete after he was drunkenly approaching women in the club and trying to force them to touch it.  He then approached the 26-year old who repeatedly asked him to leave but when he didn’t she poured an alcoholic drink over his penis and set fire to it.

The incident occurred in Mallia, an area popular with British tourists.

The man is being treated for second-degree burns to his genitals in Heraklion, the capital of Crete.

The woman has been freed pending trial, as it seems that the magistrate and prosecution have accepted her act as justifiable self-defence.

The incident comes less than one month after a joint taskforce between Greek and British authorities, who want to crack down on organised ‘bar-hopping’ tours and doctored drinks in order to reduce the number of British tourists finding themselves in alcohol related trouble.

For more information on this article, visit thetelegraph.co.uk

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off

New routes for Ryanair

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Low-cost carrier Ryanair has announced new routes from Prestwick airport but plans to reduce frequency or cancel flights on six existing routes.

The new winter timetable would provide new services to Alicante, Arrecife in Lanzarote, Las Palmas in Gran Canaria and Palma, with a new route to Ibiza in March.

The proposed changes will increase the number of passengers using Prestwick airport, but would limit the number of inbound visitors.

It is expected that an extra 100,000 passengers will use the airport, but inbound visitors would also drop by 100,000 each year.

Routes that have been culled include Prestwick to Frankfurt, Kracow and Stockholm, but the airline planes to increase frequency on flights to Faro, Malaga and Tenerife South.
.
Director of new route development for Ryanair, Ken O’Toole said: “Ryanair is delighted to announce five new sun routes and increased frequencies on three routes to and from Glasgow Prestwick Airport, which will allow us to bring more low fares, more competition and choice to even more Scottish consumers and visitors.

“This expansion will now ensure the lowest fares to the sun for Scottish consumers compared to other high fare airlines.”

Ryanair last week announced a cut back in services at Stansted Airport, citing higher landing fees and air passenger duty.

The airline’s expansion is centred on Spanish mainland and islands, primarily due to Spain scrapping air passenger duty.

Quotes from bbcnews.com.  For more information visit their website.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off

British Airways 747 emergency landing at heathrow

Monday, August 10th, 2009

A British Airways Boeing 747-400 underwent an emergency landing at London’s Heathrow Airport yesterday after developing a fault.

An airlines spokesman said that BA flight 010, which flew from Sydney to London via Bangkok, suffered a ‘minor technical fault’ with its hydraulic system.

The Boeing 747-400 landed safely just before 7am yesterday morning and was towed at to a stand at Terminal 3 as a precaution.

The spokesman said: “The safety of customers, crew and aircraft is of paramount importance.”

Passengers were told to remain on board the aircraft for about an hour after landing, and engineers were to begin examining the fault after the plane had been empty, the spokesman added.

The technical fault comes at a bad for the struggling airline, which has recently rested 20 Boeing 747 and 757 aircraft from service due to a decline in passenger numbers, stripped back full service on flights under two hours, and reported a £148 loss for the last quarter.

Quotes from the BBC.  For more information, visit their website www.bbcnews.com

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off

Hyatt Hotels Float To Raise Funds

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Plans have been revealed to float the Hyatt hotel chain in an effort to raise cash after travellers, suffering from the recession, cut spending.

The Hyatt Hotels Corporation, 85% owned by the Pritzker family of Chicago, hopes to get £685 million following the initial public offering, but did not give a date or disclose the number of shares on offer.

Thomas Pritzker, chairman of Hyatt, will retain control of the company, giving the Pritzker family a voice in the selection of directors, offers of preference shares and scheduling of annual meetings.

Analysts say that the prospectus contains some of the strongest anti-takeover provisions ever witnessed. Goldman Sachs and Madrone Capital Partners, a private equity company that manages money for the heirs of Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart invested $1 billion in Hyatt two years ago, holding a total of 13.6% of the corporation.

Hyatt claimed in a report to the Securities and Exchange Commission that no dividends would be paid on the new stock in the near future, and says that the money raised would be used for possibly making acquisitions, although it did not talk on specific deals.

Hyatt also said it made a loss of $36 million in the first six months of this year, compared with a profit of $173 million at in the same period last year, with revenue per available room sliding by 24% as businesses cut back on travel expenses due to the recession.

For more information on this article, please visit timesonline.co.uk

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off

Further bomb blasts threaten Spanish Tourism

Monday, August 10th, 2009

A small bomb has exploded at the La Rigoletta restaurant in Majorca, an area popular with tourists, but did not cause any injuries according to initial reports.

The bar opposite the beach was evacuated following a warning by Basque separatist group Eta.

Spanish authorities claimed that Eta issued a warning at 11:30 local time yesterday saying that there was an explosive device planted inside the ladies bathroom which was set to explode on Sunday afternoon.

The bomb blast comes as Eta appears to be ramping up their terrorist campaign.

Less than one week ago, a bomb exploded on the island near a police station, killing two Civil Guard officers, and a second device was found under a civil guard vehicle which prompted the evacuation of many hotels.   The blasts followed a similar explosion in Burgos, northern Spain which injured 46.

The Foreign Office has already issued a travel warning to British tourists to be vigilant and that further blasts could take place.

Thanks to the Telegraph.  For more information on this article please visit their website.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »