TM Insider 201

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The TravelMole Insider – Issue 201
ISSN 1474-2292
7 May 2002
http://www.travelmole.com

FEATURES
The GDSs, sponsored by Galileo
http://www.travelmole.com/item/79060
Testing times, by New Frontiers
http://www.travelmole.com/item/79251

LATEST PRESS POSTINGS
RWA Session Manager goes live on Telewest Travel Network
Sabre becomes leading GDS in Greece
Sabre signs deal with UK’s leading Uniglobe franchisee
April news from Switzerland
http://www.travelmole.com/news/press

A message from ABTECH:
ABTECH 2002 Conference: Live Long and Prosper, May 23rd.
Many of today’s travel companies were well established when
the Internet boom hit, and plan to see out the current ‘sea
change’ in the industry. But in very different ways.
Presentations from a number of AAA e-commerce award winners
plus panel sessions. ABTA, London. More info/registration:
http://www.abtech.co.uk/livelong/tm

LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS
1. No-frills consolidation is ‘inevitable’ says analyst
2. easyJet to buy no-frills rival Go for GBP 400m
3. ABTA says its has strong case against BA
4. The TravelMole Interview: Alicia Gardner, Sabre
5. European airline March traffic figures down 8%
6. BA targets affluent leisure customers with cheaper fares
7. Amadeus claims P&O Cruises deal will benefit agents
8. New Telewest service aims to speed up viewdata
9. Troubled Telewest to axe 1,500 staff
10. Champion Travel launches online bookings
11. Express by Holiday Inn expands into Spain
12. Tourist board brings in GBP 77 for every GBP 1 spent
13. CECTA helps put Slovakia on industry map
14. Site of the Week: nycvisit.com
15. Feedback: Does exposure on TravelMole produce results?

EDITOR’S NOTE
The news that easyJet is close to securing the takeover of no-
frills rival Go took the city by surprise on Friday. While
analysts have said for some time that consolidation in the
sector is inevitable, no-one really expected it to take place
quite so quickly.

BA shareholders will hardly be overjoyed to hear that easyJet
looks prepared to pay four times as much for Go than it was sold
for last summer. And agents may well wonder if BA is now having
to cut their payments because of the errors of judgement it has
made in other areas of its business.

Best wishes

Richard Hammond
mailto:[email protected]

LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS
Breaking Stories: http://www.travelmole.com/news/index.html

1. No-frills consolidation is ‘inevitable’ says analyst
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Following the news that easyJet is in talks to buy Go, GartnerG2
travel industry analyst Mark Riseley has outlined to TravelMole
the reasons why he believes “consolidation in the no-frills
sector is inevitable.”
http://www.travelmole.com/item/80004

2. easyJet to buy no-frills rival Go for GBP 400m
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
easyJet is expected to announce details of how it is going to
pay GBP 400m for no-frills rival Go later this week when the
company announces its half year results.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/80013

3. ABTA says its has strong case against BA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABTA head of legal services Riccardo Nardi has told TravelMole
that the association has a “lever arch file full of evidence”
that BA is abusing its dominant position.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/80028

4. The TravelMole Interview: Alicia Gardner, Sabre
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Agents should consider using websites as loss-leaders, according
to Alicia Gardner vice president of Sabre’s online travel
solutions division.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/79998

5. European airline March traffic figures down 8%
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Figures released by the Association of European Airlines shows
that March traffic for European airlines dropped 7.9 per cent
from the same period last year.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/80051

6. BA targets affluent leisure customers with cheaper fares
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
British Airways is targeting well-off leisure customers with
cheaper fares on long haul club world and first routes.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/80025

7. Amadeus claims P&O Cruises deal will benefit agents
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Amadeus claims that its recent signing of P&O Cruises should
save agents from having to make time-consuming calls to the
cruise firm’s telephone call centre.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/79919

8. New Telewest service aims to speed up viewdata
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Telewest has introduced a service which it says will allow tour
operators to distribute viewdata at far higher speeds than
previously.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/79914

9. Troubled Telewest to axe 1,500 staff
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cable operator Telewest is to merge its consumer and business
divisions and axe 1,500 staff, it announced on Thursday.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/79908

10. Champion Travel launches online bookings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Champion Travel is to use its Directflights.com site to sell
travel online.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/79898

11. Express by Holiday Inn expands into Spain
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Six Continents Hotels has announced a development agreement to
build up to 20 new Express by Holiday Inn hotels in Spain.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/79812

12. Tourist board brings in GBP 77 for every GBP 1 spent
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A GBP 1m series of marketing campaigns run by Cumbria Tourist
Board to counter Foot and Mouth resulted in a GBP 77 million
boost to the region’s economy.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/79894

13. CECTA helps put Slovakia on industry map
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Over 150 people attended the Slovak Embassy last week for the
launch of a new initiative to put Slovakia firmly on the map for
the British travel industry.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/79928

14. Site of the Week: nycvisit.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
nycvisit.com is the official New York City tourism web site.

TravelMole’s reviewer Adrian Mann says: “There’s an enormous
amount of information and links to all the things you might want
to find out, and on the whole, it’s fairly easy to navigate and
get to what you want. There was some lack of consistency,
particularly in how links are displayed, and a distinct lack of
images – even the NYC images pages only displayed 8 pictures and
one webcam – but overall, it’s an excellent resource.”
Read his full review:
http://www.travelmole.com/featured_sites.html

15. Feedback: Does exposure on TravelMole produce results?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TravelMole has received the following feedback from the
publisher of a featured TravelMole ‘Site of the Week’.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/78224

TRAVEL DEALS FOR THE TRAVEL TRADE
TravelMole, in association with idDeals, brings you the
opportunity to get exclusive travel trade and airline staff
discounts at a range of properties at home and abroad:

Seychelles, The Plantation Club: luxurious beach resort, 25% off.
Dubai, Five star Hilton resort: GBP 35 per double incl tax.
Australia Gold Coast, Sea World Nara Resort: from GBP 61.
London, Radisson Edwardian: GBP 142.50 per double room.

Please note these discounts are only available to serving travel
agents or airline staff and their travelling companions. For
full details of these offers, go to:
http://www.travelmole.com/item/69822

CAREERZONE
This week on TravelMole there are 89 travel-related job
vacancies, all listed at:
http://www.travelmole.com/cgi-site/tmjobs.cgi
If you want to be the first to know about a new vacancy that
matches your own interests, just set up a Job Vacancy Alert and
we’ll send you an email as soon as the job is posted.
http://www.travelmole.com/cgi-site/tmjprofile.cgi?action=insert

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