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  • News: Leisure traffic boosts Eurostar revenues

    Eurostar has reported an encouraging begin to the year with growth in sales revenues in the course of the first three months of the year.  In comparison to an identical period in 2012, sales revenues grew by 1% to £213 million (£211 million Q1 2012), while passenger numbers remained stable year-on-year at 2.23 million (2.24 million Q1 2012).

    The ongoing economic uncertainty throughout Europe continues to persuade business travel patterns particularly as many organisations maintain an in depth eye on corporate travel budgets.  However, even with a protracted period of unseasonably cold and winter the ongoing resilience of Eurostar’s leisure travel market has helped deliver the cast performance in Q1.

    Nicolas Petrovic, Chief Executive of Eurostar, said: “This is an encouraging begin to the year regardless of the challenges posed by both the economy and the elements. 

    “Our sales revenues have grown during 1 / 4 which saw heavy snowfalls and a few of the coldest temperatures on record inside the South of britain and northerly France. 

    “This quarter’s performance is testament to our enduring popularity with regular and primary time travellers alike.” Added Petrovic.

    Supporting the delivery of a superb performance over the primary three months of the year, multiple marketing initiatives both domestically and internationally have helped underpin the expansion in sales revenues.

    In January, Eurostar ran its most successful consumer promotion ever with 150,000 seats available from only £59 return for travel between London and Paris, Brussels or Lille.  Over the process the promotion sales exceeded even those made in the course of the ash cloud disruption in 2010, previously Eurostar’s strongest ever booking period.

    Similarly, an ongoing think about international marketing campaigns has delivered impressive growth in both passenger numbers and sales revenues for travel originating outside the european.  Within the first three months of the year non-EU originated sales revenues grew 10% while passenger numbers increased by 8% in comparison to the identical period in 2012. 

    Reflecting the increasing strategic importance of Eurostar’s website as a right away sales channel for passengers originating outside the european, total sales revenues generated via online bookings in Eurostar’s largest international market, the us, have shown particularly strong growth within the first three months of the year, up 20%.

    Further demonstrating its ongoing commitment to investment around the business, Eurostar recently took the wraps off its trendy consumer facing website.  This can be a central component of Eurostar’s ambitious growth plans and has transformed the shopper experience when booking online. 

    The new website simplifies and accelerates the booking process and because launch has reduced the typical period of time taken to book a ticket by greater than 40% from eight minutes to four and a half minutes.

    The launch marks the primary stage of an important investment by Eurostar in digital technology as a way to see a raft of latest features added to the location over the arrival months.

    Nicolas Petrovic continued: “The transformation of eurostar.com is a part of a much broader investment in our business designed to make certain we continue to supply our customers the absolute best end-to-end travel experience.  Along with this investment in our ‘virtual shop-window’, our £700m programme of investment in our fleet of trains which encompasses the refurbishment of the present Eurostar fleet and the acquisition of 10 new trains is progressing well.”

  • Copenhagen Airport passenger numbers up nearly 5% in June

    Passenger numbers at Copenhagen Airport were up 4.8% in June. a complete of two,329,956 passengers travelled through Copenhagen Airport in the course of the first month of summer, the busiest month ever on the airport. The year-to-date increase in passenger numbers is two.2%.

    Many people travel abroad for his or her summer holidays, and that shows at Copenhagen Airport, because the choice of international passengers rose by 4.4% year on year in June.

    “June 2013 was the busiest month ever in Copenhagen Airport’s 88-year history. That emphasises how important that’s for us to have the big, 1,400 square metre expansion of Terminal 2 ready for the summer traffic. The recent, more light and spacious terminal area has 12 new check-in desks and a lot of additional self-service kiosks,” said Thomas Woldbye, CEO of Copenhagen Airport.

    Domestic traffic increased by up to 10.2%. This brought the complete year-on-year increase in passenger numbers to 4.8% in June.

    Year-to-date, passenger numbers at Copenhagen Airport increased by 2.2%, to a complete of eleven.5 million passengers.
    On the head-10 list, the ecu cities Milan and Berlin showed the strongest growth.

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  • News: Carnival Cruise Lines to speculate $300m on safety

    Carnival Cruise Lines has implemented a program to improve emergency power capabilities, introduce new fire safety technology, and improve the extent of operating redundancies across its entire 24-ship fleet.

    This enhancement program will cost greater than $300 million, and rapid upgrades have already begun.

    The actions by Carnival Cruise Lines will expand the provision of hotel services for the relaxation of its guests within the rare instance of a shipboard event that involves the lack of main power.

    In addition, the plan will reinforce key shipboard operating systems to further prevent a possible lack of primary power. The advance plan is the results of a comprehensive operational review, overseen by parent company Carnival Corporation & plc, initiated immediately after the Carnival Triumph fire in February 2013.

    “All of Carnival Cruise Lines’ ships operate safely today. Each vessel already has effective systems in place to forestall, detect and reply to emergency situations, and we meet or exceed all regulatory requirements,” said Gerry Cahill, president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines.

    “However, by applying lessons learned through our fleet-wide operational review after the Carnival Triumph fire and by profiting from new technologies, we’ve got identified areas for enhancement across our operations. These initiatives reflect our commitment to safe and reliable operations and an enjoyable cruising experience for the nearly 4.5 million guests who sail with Carnival Cruise Lines every year.” Added Cahill

  • Abu Dhabi records strong increase in tourism figures

    Abu Dhabi’s 141 hotels and hotel apartments have turned in a promising first quarter performance with across-the-board growth in guest numbers, guest nights, average-length-of-stay and revenues.

    Figures just released by Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority show that in the primary three months of this year some 631,417 guests checked into accommodation inside the emirate – a six per cent rise at the same period of 2012.

    Guest nights rose 23 per cent to two,119,016, the common-length-of-stay was up 16 per cent to a few.36 nights and total revenues climbed 15 per cent to AED1.432 billion of which food & beverage income of AED538.8 million represents a 12 per cent increase on quarter one among 2012.

    The results were aided by a healthy March performance when guest arrivals rose nine per cent at the same month last year to face at 230,974 which translated into 761,834 guest nights – a 26 per cent month-on-month increase with total revenues climbing 18 per cent to AED502 million, average-length-of-stay edging up 16 per cent and occupancy rising seven per cent to 74 per cent.

    The results were also delivered against a background of rising room supply with four new hotel facilities – two resorts, one in Abu Dhabi city another in Al Ain, and two hotel apartments within the UAE capital – opening during quarter one bringing yet another 706 rooms online.

    “The heightened competitiveness of the destination is winning additional major tour operators to our destination,” explained HE Mubarak Al Muhairi, director general, TCA Abu Dhabi.

    “We are beginning to take advantage of our trade engagement programme which began a year ago and wherein 14 destination management companies has been represented, three of that are now opening offices in Abu Dhabi with a fourth expanding an existing office.”

  • Brand USA seals global manage STA Travel

    BRAND USA and STA Travel have signed a worldwide deal worth $4million over the subsequent two years to advertise the us to the youth travel market.

    This is the 1st time that Brand USA, the official tourism marketing organisation for the us of America, has launched into a dedicated youth campaign. The us is already a key destination for STA Travel, the world’s leading student and youth tour operator for 18 to 35 year-olds, but it surely is aiming to increased sales to the us by 30 per cent over the 2 year period.

    The campaign has launched inside the UK, Northern and Central Europe, Asia, Australasia and South Africa, with a contest for 3 winners to every win a road trip to america, housed at www.statravel.co.uk/usa-destination-guide.htm. The winners might be joined by a pro film crew to be able to gain exciting and experiential footage that may be placed online. The purpose is to get under the outside of America and seek for what makes the united states a special destination to the youth traveler in an effort to discover this land like never before.

    The campaign will largely be driven online across quite a few social media and digital platforms, across college campus activity and throughout STA Travel global retail stores.

    STA Travel chief executive John Constable said: “We are delighted to be working at the side of Brand USA in this ambitious campaign. We’ve seen the recognition and insist for the united states grow exponentially during the last five years and notice this as a chance to carve out a novel proposition about USA to the youth audience.

    “Brand USA couldn’t have come at a smarter time; america has needed a consolidated marketing approach for it slow and we’re very eager about working together to advertise an extremely special landscape.”

    Brand USA chief executive Chris Thompson said: “We are excited to be working with STA Travel on our inaugural Brand USA youth campaign. The youth market is a crucial target for the us as a travel destination; those travellers who visit us now will in future become our repeat visitors, returning to the united states year after year. We work flat out with our Partners to make sure Brand USA reaches a large and various audience and we are hoping that through this partnership the youth market will enjoy discovering this land, like never before.”

    Brand USA is the general public-private partnership answerable for promoting america as a premier travel destination and communicating U.S. entry/exit policies and procedures. Established by the Travel Promotion Act in 2010, the organisation’s mission is to extend international visitation to the us while working in partnership with the travel industry to maximize the commercial and social benefits of travel. These benefits include creating jobs necessary to the economy and fostering understanding between people and cultures. For industry or partner information regarding Brand USA, visit www.TheBrandUSA.com. For info about travel to and across the U.s., please visit Brand USA’s consumer website at www.DiscoverAmerica.com.

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