TM Insider 210

The TravelMole Insider – Issue 210
ISSN 1474-2292
11 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. OTC snaps up Travelstore.com for GBP2.1million
2. TravelMole Interview: Mark Jones, Online Travel Corporation
3. ABTECH conference wrap-up: Live Long and Prosper
4. Ryanair exceeds expectations with huge profits surge
5. No-frills airlines flying high
6. EC “was wrong” to block Airtours/First Choice merger
7. Lastminute takes 20% stake in German website
8. BA’s latest figures fail to impress
9. BAA performs well in tough times
10. Galileo signs three new client contracts
11. Stepek Travel ceases trading
12. US travellers expect to holiday closer to home
13. PATA postpones Americas Travel Mart
14. Fair Trade in Tourism trademark launches in SA
15. Site of the Week: Travelintelligence.net

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. OTC snaps up Travelstore.com for GBP2.1million
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OTC has furthered its business travel ambitions with the
purchase of Travelstore.com, including its subsidiaries Amersham
Travel and Oxford Technology Solutions, for GBP2.1million.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83021

2. TravelMole Interview: Mark Jones, Online Travel Corporation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mark Jones, chief executive of Online Travel Corporation has
conceded that the company has bought online travel website
Travelstore.com for a bargain price.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83087

3. ABTECH conference wrap-up: Live Long and Prosper
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
‘Partnership’ was the dominant theme at the recent ABTECH 2002
Conference, ‘Live Long & Prosper’. In his keynote address,
Datalex’s Neil Wilson talked of the traditional confidence of
systems suppliers, sometimes bordering on arrogance, that they
alone always have all the answers.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83066

4. Ryanair exceeds expectations with huge profits surge
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In sharp contrast to the poor figures released by BA on Friday,
Ryanair has reported a 44% increase in its annual profits and
revealed that passenger numbers are up 38% on a year ago.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83072

5. No-frills airlines flying high
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Go and easyJet have followed Ryanair by reporting massive jumps
in passenger numbers.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83157

6. EC “was wrong” to block Airtours/First Choice merger
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The European Commission was wrong to block the merger between
Airtours (now MyTravel) and First Choice in 1999 according to
the European Court of Justice.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/82907

7. Lastminute takes 20% stake in German website
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lastminute.com has said it aims to create the leading online
travel company in Germany through its investment and partnership
with Lufthansa City Center’s online subsidiary LCC24.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83033

8. BA’s latest figures fail to impress
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
British Airways has revealed that its traffic was down 10.2% in
May compared to the same month last year.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83154

9. BAA performs well in tough times
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BAA chief executive Mike Hodgkinson has said the company has
performed well despite “challenging trading conditions”.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/82910

10. Galileo signs three new client contracts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Galileo has signed new client contracts with Ayscough
Travel, Peltours and Portman Travel.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83071

11. Stepek Travel ceases trading
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABTA has announced that Stepek Travel Ltd of Quarry Street in
Hamilton has ceased trading.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83078

12. US travellers expect to holiday closer to home
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
US leisure travellers are planning to take their holidays closer
to home during 2002 according to research released on Thursday.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/82916

13. PATA postpones Americas Travel Mart
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has postponed its
Americas Travel Mart as a result of the downturn in inbound
traffic to North America since 11 September.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83156

14. Fair Trade in Tourism trademark launches in SA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A ‘Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa’ trademark is to be
launched in Pretoria on Thursday to boost fair business
practices and responsible tourism development in the country.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83065

15. 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

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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
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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