New US entry rules and registration. First confusion, now ripoff merchants. Recombobulation time?
by timsbootThe new US rules on registration prior to entry are coming into force next week (January 12). Called the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation, the process is a four step process to apply for the right to enter the US under the Visa Waiver... Read more »
Press release of the day!
by Kevin MayPING! This just in...Coastal communities cash in on lucrative love medicine8 January 2008A remote fishing village in southern Madagascar has sold its first batch of locally farmed sea cucumbers - believed to be a potent love medicine in southeast... Read more »
Is a little context needed on flight search plummet stories?
by Kevin MayHitwise is scaring the hell out of the everyone today with data from the week ending 5 January 2009 showing that flight searches in hte UK were down 42.4% on the same week 12 months before.Searches to the US and Eurozone countries have falled... Read more »
What can we expect next from Lonely Planet?
by Kevin MayThere is no question that Lonely Planet has come a very long way since its days as a publisher of dog-eared guidebooks for overlanders from Kathmandu to Istanbul.The Thorn Tree forum, online destination guides and white labelled meta search... Read more »
Bedbanks are not as cool as airlines but they are more interesting
by Kevin MayThe most frustrating on-off deal of the latter part of last year was finally completed yesterday when the Thomas Cook Group bought lastminute.com's MedHotels for an undisclosed fee.Rumours first circulated at The Travel Convention in Gran Canaria... Read more »
That Peluso goodbye letter in full
by Kevin MayThere probably hasn't been a day like it before - when the global CEOs from two of the biggest online travel agencies on the planet quit within hours of one another.Steve Barnhart (Orbitz) and Michelle Peluso (Travelocity) may even have worked... Read more »
Good news day masks a bad news day - cost cuts of $45M
by Kevin MayBuried, understandably, at the bottom of the Orbitz announcement this morning about its new CEO, Barney Harford, are a very worrying few lines for anyone who works at any of the Orbitz brands."In addition to its leadership transition, Orbitz... Read more »
TV shows can inspire all kinds of holidays - so be clever online
by Kevin MayWhich? magazine, via the Telegraph, says the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing show is so popular that it has fuelled a rise in dancing holidays.Now for some of us the idea of going on holiday to learn the quickstep sounds about as enticing as a... Read more »
The Airline Industry - IATA style - Times Interview with CEO Giovanni Bisignani
by timsbootI have come across an interview in the TimesOnline by Suzy Jagger with IATA CEO Giovanni Bisignani. The article is a great piece of PR for Bisignani but if you can read through the "talking points", the text contains some interesting predictions... Read more »
