TM Insider 211

The TravelMole Insider – Issue 211
ISSN 1474-2292
13 June 2002
http://www.travelmole.com

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LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS
1. All Canada to cease operations for 2003
2. Ebookers and Tiscover to partner online
3. Prudent capacity cuts benefit First Choice
4. AITO confident of rise in specialist holidays
5. Corporate Booking Tools – an alternative view
6. Amadeus provides agents ‘Dynamic Access’ to hotel inventories
7. BA to launch on-board broadband internet access
8. TravelMole Interview: Mark Jones, Online Travel Corporation
9. Site of the Week: Travelintelligence.net

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 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
The takeover of Travelstore.com by OTC shows that confidence is
beginning to return to the business travel sector with
aggressive companies taking advantage of the rock-bottom price
tags that they know won’t be around forever.

Further consolidation also seems inevitable in the leisure
sector following the recent European ruling on the blocked
purchase of First Choice by MyTravel. However it is unlikely
MyTravel will be reviving its takeover bid in the immediate
future. The operator is looking out on a limb after making the
wrong capacity decisions for summer 2002 – a fact made all too
apparent by the good set of results announced this week by First
Choice:
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83203

Best wishes

Richard Hammond
mailto:[email protected]

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

1. All Canada to cease operations for 2003
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All Canada Travel & Holidays, the specialist tour operator to
Canada, will not be operating a programme for 2003 due to the
fall off in business following 11 September.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83296

2. Ebookers and Tiscover to partner online
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two of Europe’s market leaders in e-travel, ebookers and
Tiscover, are to join forces online.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83260

3. Prudent capacity cuts benefit First Choice
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In sharp contrast to its rival MyTravel, First Choice has said
that bookings are “robust” despite reporting an increase in
losses for the first half of the year.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83203

4. AITO confident of rise in specialist holidays
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As a result of “a distinct trend towards specialist holidays”,
The Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO) has
announced a significant increase in its marketing activity for
2003.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83395

5. Corporate Booking Tools – an alternative view
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following article was submitted to TravelMole by Mike Fill,
Partner, Item Consulting, in response to this week’s feature
on ‘Corporate Self Booking Tools’.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83273

6. Amadeus provides agents ‘Dynamic Access’ to hotel inventories
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Amadeus has launched a new level of connectivity called ‘Dynamic
Access’, offering travel agents direct access to the reservation
systems of participating hotels.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83389

7. BA to launch on-board broadband internet access
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
British Airways has announced it will soon offer on-board e-mail
and internet access for its passengers.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83373

8. 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

9. 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

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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