TM Insider 209

The TravelMole Insider – Issue 209
ISSN 1474-2292
6 June 2002
http://www.travelmole.com

FEATURE: Corporate Self Booking Tools, sponsored by Sabre
An explanation of the background to corporate self booking
tools, how they are used and the opportunities they provide.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/82665

LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS
1. Worldspan to evaluate new pricing strategies
2. Oneworld to launch e-ticket interlining
3. United Airlines’ traffic drops 13.9 percent
4. Virgin Atlantic appoints new commercial director
5. eBookers strengthens management team
6. Teletickets takes off online
7. Foreign Office advises against travel to India and Pakistan
8. PATA closes Sydney office
9. The TravelMole Interview: Oliver Hillel, UNEP
10. Site of the Week: Travelintelligence.net
11. Any Answers? VAT on package holidays – how does it work?

LATEST PRESS POSTINGS
Sabre reports spate of travel agency conversions across Europe
120 more travel agencies adopt RWA’s booking engines
Altavista UK helps Australian online accommodation provider
expand into Europe
Call-link installs its 2000th Magic Desktop portal
http://www.travelmole.com/news/press

EDITOR’S NOTE
This week’s feature is on Corporate Self Booking Tools.

“In 2001 US business travel expenditure reached US$174.7
billion. Online corporate travel in the same period reached
US$8.6 billion representing an overall adoption rate of 9.5%.
PhoCusWright report online corporate travel expenditure will
represent 18.6% of the total US market by 2003. Forrester
predicts that by 2004 77% of business travel will be booked
online in North America as a whole.

“Uptake across Europe has been slow over the past four years.
However anecdotal evidence would suggest that self booking tools
have reached somewhere around 5% penetration among European
companies today and that a significant turn in attitude from
initial scepticism has occurred over the past year.”

For the full article, go to:
http://www.travelmole.com/item/82665

Forthcoming features include Website Tools, CRM, online Hotel
Bookings, and World Travel Market. For the list of features see:
http://www.travelmole.com/news/features.html
We do welcome suggestions for features. If you have suggestions
for a feature and/or are interested in sponsoring or
contributing editorial, do get in contact with me.

Best wishes

Richard Hammond
mailto:[email protected]

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

1. Worldspan to evaluate new pricing strategies
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Worldspan has announced plans to restructure its pricing model,
claiming that “the current industry model is broken”.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/82669

2. Oneworld to launch e-ticket interlining
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As part of a series of new initiatives announced yesterday, the
oneworld airline alliance said it is to launch e-ticket
interlining, making it simpler for passengers to transfer
between its carriers using the latest forms of travel ticketing.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/82681

3. United Airlines’ traffic drops 13.9 percent
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
United Airlines’ total scheduled revenue passenger miles (RPMs)
fell 13.9 percent in May versus the comparable month in 2001, on
a capacity decrease of 17.2 percent.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/82726

4. Virgin Atlantic appoints new commercial director
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Virgin Atlantic Airways has announced the appointment of Willy
Boulter as director, commercial planning and strategy.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/82667

5. eBookers strengthens management team
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
eBookers has announced the appointment of a new Chief Financial
Officer and Chief Information Officer, previously with
Priceline.com and First Choice.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/82723

6. Teletickets takes off online
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Flight-only operator Teletickets’ online bookings are accounting
for 20% of its business just one month after going online, the
company has announced.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/82728

7. Foreign Office advises against travel to India and Pakistan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Foreign Office has warned UK tourists to avoid all travel to
India or Pakistan, amid rising tensions between the two
countries.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/82473

8. PATA closes Sydney office
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has announced that
its current operations in Sydney have been closed down as part
of a “restructuring” of its Pacific Division.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/82476

9. The TravelMole Interview: Oliver Hillel, UNEP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the first World Ecotourism Summit, Quebec, Canada, Oliver
Hillel, tourism programme coordinator, United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) told TravelMole that a broad basis
of consensus had been reached over the definition of the
term ‘ecotourism’.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/81852

10. Site of the Week: Travelintelligence.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The site was founded by some notable names, for instance, AA
Gill – Sunday Times Magazine Columnist of the Year, award-
winning travel writer Philip Marsden, and many others. The
objective of the site is not just to provide information or
recommendations, but to inspire the reader with the quality of
the writing and the thoughtful opinions.

TravelMole’s reviewer, Adrian Mann, says: “As you might expect,
it’s the quality of the content that makes the site great, but
it’s also due to the design, which allows the user to access the
features quickly and easily. There are a couple of very minor
inconsistencies, and a search facility would be nice, but that’s
just being picky. A joy to review, and naturally highly
recommended.” Read his full review:
http://www.travelmole.com/featured_sites.html

11. Any Answers? VAT on package holidays – how does it work?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How do I account for VAT on package holidays, especially in
relation to commissions?
Richard Lyons
http://www.travelmole.com/item/82691

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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
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