TM Insider 214

The TravelMole Insider – Issue 214
ISSN 1474-2292
27 June 2002
http://www.travelmole.com

LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS
1. Holiday bookings up in post World Cup fever
2. Survey finds exponential growth in internet hotel reservations
3. Luton Airport lifts TBI’s results
4. Opodo appoints new chairman
5. United asks for $2billion loan
6. Air Botswana suspends Victoria Falls service
7. Former Anite marketing director Howard Frost joins Travelink
8. Galileo appoints Global Marketing Communications Director
9. Chris Lorenzo to spearhead Royal Olympic’s UK expansion
10. PKF warns on holiday homes from hell
11. Small businesses hit out at BT’s broadband decision
12. Has tourism fallen off the government agenda?
13. The TravelMole Interview: Rob Wortham, RWA
14. Site of the Week: Teletextholidays.co.uk

EDITOR’S NOTE
In response to the article ‘Loser Ryanair criticises ABTA court
action’, Paul Brewer commented:

“Well done ABTA, money well spent, but how can Jeans state that
it marks the end of relations with the trade? He obviously does
not have his finger on the button at FR or he would realise that
he still relies on the trade for a vast number of bookings that
are made on their site by agents on behalf of clients who are
happy to pay a fee to take away the concern of booking it
correctly or indeed have no facility themselves to make the
booking.

“I look forward to my cheque and continue to make a profit on the
back of Mr. Jeans and his Ryanair, long may it continue.”
http://www.travelmole.com/item/83645

Have your say! If you would like to add your thoughts to this or
any other TravelMole article, click on the ‘Add a Comment’
button at the top of the article.

Best wishes

Richard Hammond
mailto:[email protected]

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

1. Holiday bookings up in post World Cup fever
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Holiday bookings are on the up as Telewest reports a 15%
increase in Viewdata usage over the weekend.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/84603

2. Survey finds exponential growth in internet hotel reservations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The number of hotel reservations made over the Internet has
increased by 300% since this time last year, according to a
survey by Active Hotels.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/84600

3. Luton Airport lifts TBI’s results
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The strong performance of Luton Airport helped airport operator
TBI to report a 26% rise in pre-tax profits for the year ended
March 31.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/84493

4. Opodo appoints new chairman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Online travel portal Opodo has announced the appointment of
David Coltman as its independent Chairman.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/84672

5. United asks for $2billion loan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
United Airlines has applied for $2billion in loan guarantees to
help the airline recover from the impact of the September 11
terrorist attacks.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/84456

6. Air Botswana suspends Victoria Falls service
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Air Botswana has announced that it is to suspend its service
between Maun, Botswana and Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe due to lack
of demand.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/84588

7. Former Anite marketing director Howard Frost joins Travelink
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tour operator systems provider Travelink Systems has appointed
Howard Frost, former director of marketing at Anite Travel
Systems, as sales director.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/84660

8. Galileo appoints Global Marketing Communications Director
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Galileo has announced the promotion of Elizabeth Harraway to
Director of Global Marketing Communications.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/84702

9. Chris Lorenzo to spearhead Royal Olympic’s UK expansion
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Royal Olympic Cruises has confirmed the appointment of Chris
Lorenzo as general manager (UK), which the company said marks
the first step in its plan to substantially upgrade its UK sales
presence.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/84662

10. PKF warns on holiday homes from hell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With many people’s thoughts turning to their time in the sun,
PKF has warned of several obstacles to owning that dream holiday
home.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/84619

11. Small businesses hit out at BT’s broadband decision
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has lambasted BT’s
refusal to upgrade rural exchanges to broadband unless enough
customers pre-order the service.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/84618

12. Has tourism fallen off the government agenda?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The government has taken tourism “off the front burner” after a
short lived prominence following the September 11 terrorist
attacks, according to an industry think-tank.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/84476

13. The TravelMole Interview: Rob Wortham, RWA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Firms that do not own their own content – such as telecoms
companies and the GDSs – will “end up dead in the water” in the
not too distant future according to Rob Wortham, director at
travel industry software consultancy and development firm RWA.
http://www.travelmole.com/item/84368

14. Site of the Week: Teletextholidays.co.uk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s probably for the cheap, last-minute holidays advertised on
the TV pages that Teletext is best known. The travel section
expands this offering into a full-feature travel website.

TravelMole’s reviewer, Adrian Mann, says: “There’s more to this
site than you might suspect, especially coming from Teletext,
where the experience of most users of their services is pages of
non-interactive information. The quality of information is good,
and the layout and design are simple but attractive. There were
some problems with slow pages, mainly due to the banner ads, and
the brochure page wouldn’t load at all. There were also a few
missing images, a couple of pop-ups, and occasional problems
with drop-down menus, but these are minor and don’t detract too
much from the overall experience.” Read his full review:
http://www.travelmole.com/featured_sites.html

LATEST PRESS POSTINGS
Baubock Report issued by ETTFA
Sabre reports spate of travel agency conversions across Europe
120 more travel agencies adopt RWA’s booking engines
http://www.travelmole.com/news/press

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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