First Ever British Tourism Week in 2007!

British Tourism week will launched in 2007, from the 12th to the 18th of March. Its aim is to launch awareness of the tourism industry in Britain.

It is being organised by Visit Britain and UK Inbound and it will focus on two main events:
- Visit Britain’s British Travel Trade Fair (13 - 14 March)
- UK Inbound’s 30th Anniversary Convention (14-15 March)

I think that it is great that Britain have finally organised an event like this…

The end is near for paper airline tickets!

The time has finally come with IATA (The International Air Transportation Association - more on IATA coming soon) announcing that they will be forcing airlines to phase out paper tickets by the end of 2007.

Currently 50% of tickets in todays market that are being issued are e-tickets and I’m sure this makes everyone happy…some benefits of e-tickets are:
- Save the airline industry up to US$3 billion a year
- E-tickets cost US$1 to produce compared to paper tickets that are US$10
- Easier itinerary changes
- No more lost tickets
- Plus saving trees!
E-tickets are the way to go…

Interested in a travel search engine that doesn’t sell anything?

I have noticed a bit of a trend in a new type of website that is out there…the travel or airline search engine that doesn’t actually sell anything, but finds the best deals for you and then allows you to book directly with the hotel etc. Have these sites been created to help solve the problem of people getting confused by all of the deals on the internet?

One of these sites is Kayak.com - it was recently listed by Entrepreneur Magazine as #83 in its Hot 100 Businessees and #1 in Business Travel Awards in the category for ‘Best Site for Travel Deals’.

Kayak.com was started by Steve Hafner and Paul English (former employees of Orbitz & Travelocity) and has AOL as an investor plus it gets approx 5 million users per month.

I checked out the site and I found that it worked well showing all of the deals that hotels, airlines, carhire etc offer but I also discovered that the ads on the sidebar were a little confusing as they are all the same colour/text as the results. (Maybe this was done on purpose??)

I guess it is only a matter of time before we start to see more and more of these type of sites?

Check out Farecast…now live!

Quick update on my previous post a couple of days ago, Farecast.com is now live and available to the public.

Unfortunately it is only available for people flying out of Seattle & Boston but I still think that it is worth keeping an eye on for the future!

Vancouver International Airport

I just thought I would share some info I just found…Vancouver International Airport employs 26,000 people every year and it turns over $5.2 billion in economic activity every year!

That is a lot of people & a lot of money and there are still another 4 years until the 2010 Winter Olympics are in town. I can only imagine what it is going to be like then!

Tourism in India - growing in leaps & bounds

India is getting another company investing in the tourism sector. UK based Dawnay Day group is injecting $200 million into the industry to build 10 hotels in Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and New Delhi by 2010. This is the first step in an effort to build a total of 30 new hotels.

Another company that is getting into the tourism industry in India is the easyGroup, founded by Stelios Haji-Ioannou. easyHotel has formed a joint venture with Istithmar PJSC (an investment house based in the UAE). They are planning to build 8 budget hotels across India in the next four year. The alliance also has plans for the future with easyHotels opening in Pakistan, North Africa and the Middle East.

What’s your cities tag line?

As I have been watching tv and reading a lot of magazines lately, I have noticed that cities all have different tag lines. For example:

"America's Adventure Place" - Reno, Nevada, USA
"Forever West" - Wyoming, USA
"The Gentle Island" - Prince Edward Island, Canada

Personally if I heard "The Gentle Island" tag line for Prince Edward Island, it wouldn't be the first place to visit on my list, but I also know that Prince Edward Island is also a haven for kayaking, biking etc.

Do these tag lines make you want to visit these places? Or do you agree with your own cities tag line?

What makes a city worth visiting twice?

I have always wondered what makes a city worth visiting twice. Is the people or the atmosphere you feel when you walk down the street? Is it the fact that it reminds you of home or is it that the weather is just so nice, you can't live without it?

I have been trying to understand what makes a place worty of a return visit. The minute I stepped foot in Vancouver I knew that I loved it just as much as I did the first time. Compare that to Seoul, South Korea, where I know that once is enough.

So what makes you visit a place more than once?

An update on Farecast.com

No so long ago I wrote about an airfare price prediction site called Farecast.com

I was lucky enough to receive an invite to check out the system, even though it is still in BETA (testing) phase. They are currently only going out of Seattle & Boston, but the site is really easy to use. Once you are on the site, you can search for specific dates and destinations just like a normal airfare site however this site isn't just about showing airfares like Expedia and Travelocity do. It allows to to see when the fare prices change and when is the best time to buy therefore saving you money.

Also you don't book on Farecast.com, it directs you the the website with the best fare and you can then book it.

If you are interested in having a look at Farecast, please feel free to email me as I have some invites to the site… email

Ever wondered about those little mini-brochures in hotel lobby’s?

You know the ones, the little mini brochures that advertise attractions around the city that are pretty much in every hotel lobby. They are normally in a rack tucked into a corner, but they are definitely there.

The company behind all of those little brochures is Certified Folder. They are the largest professional brochure distribution and display service in North America, providing information at 21,000 locations in Western US and Canada.