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Category: News

  • News: Ryanair extends Warsaw Chopin flights until 30th June

    Ryanair, Europe’s only ultra-low-cost carrier (ULCC), today confirmed it is going to continue to function its Warsaw flights to/from Warsaw Chopin Airport until 30th June 2013, while runway repair works are completed at Warsaw Modlin Airport.

    All Ryanair flights scheduled to fly to/from Modlin will fly to/from Chopin until 30thJune to present certainty to passengers travelling to Warsaw. Ryanair sincerely apologises to passengers (who’ve been informed by email) for any inconvenience caused and appears forward to recommencing flights to/from Warsaw Modlin Airport once its runway is certified to be operational.

    Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said:
    “Due to runway repair works at Warsaw Modlin Airport, Ryanair will continue to function its Warsaw flights to/from Warsaw Chopin Airport until 30th June 2013, to facilitate our Warsaw passengers. Warsaw Modlin Airport has indicated that repairs would be completed over the arriving months and we glance forward to returning to Modlin once its runway have been repaired.”

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  • News: Big data travel company reports greater than double year-on-year growth

    Today, travel-related transactions account for 1/3rd of all ecommerce revenue (ComScore 2012), and lots of the leading travel brands are leveraging Sojern’s technology to extend marketing acquisition performance on these transactions, including American Airlines, American Express, Avis|Budget Group, Choice, Delta, Enterprise, Hertz, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Las Vegas, Marriott, Starwood, United, and US Airways.

    “Since 2007, Sojern have been building the world’s leading data-driven traveler engagement platform, helping brands more efficiently and meaningfully engage travelers to drive conversions and loyalty,” said Mark Rabe , CEO at Sojern. “Our expansion both inside the US and abroad will address the increasing demand from multinational travel brands for data-driven marketing, monetization and insight solutions at scale.”

    As the primary company to have successfully cracked big data within the travel sector, Sojern has access to over 100 million anonymous traveler profiles and billions of traveler intent data points. Sojern combines this unique intelligence with innovative technology to actually deliver the correct messages to the precise travelers on the right times, through multiple channels including display, video, email, and social media (e.g. Facebook Exchange).

    In 2013, the corporate will aggressively increase global staff, expand its data science team, and invest heavily in its industry-leading technology platform, including the construction of key products in machine learning technology, enhanced programmatic buying (real-time bidding) and information insights. The corporate has already established global operations, with the launch of its EMEA headquarters in London, and appointment of Stephen Taylor as VP & MD, International.

    Stephen is a pioneer of knowledge-driven travel marketing, having been one of many first employees at Air Miles (acquired by British Airways). Most recently, he served because the CEO of Qype (recently acquired by Yelp) and before that he lead Yahoo!‘s European consumer business.

    “With a focal point on innovative technology and a veteran team of travel experts, Sojern is definitely-positioned to fulfill the growing demand from global travel brands for prime performance digital marketing and monetization,” said Taylor. “I’m thrilled to hitch the team and help bring Sojern’s differentiated solutions to new markets.”

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  • New appointment for Dusit International

    Leading Asian hospitality group Dusit International has appointed Mr Thierry Douin as its Regional Vice chairman for the center East and Africa (MEA), effective 1st March 2013. Mr Douin will act because the figurehead for Dusit International within the region, overseeing the company’s expansion efforts, driving operational performance and supervising the outlet of recent hotels from his base inside the Dubai Regional Office.

    A passionate and experienced hotelier, Mr Douin have been inside the industry for greater than 35 years. He has managed luxury hotels in lots of parts of the arena, including in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai, Jakarta and Caracas for numerous groups, including InterContinental Hotels and Resorts and most recently, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts.

    Mr Douin, a French national, is a graduate of the Hotel and Catering School in Granville, France and is a licensed Hotel Administrator and authorized Food and Beverage Executive with the yankee Hotel and Motel Association. Over the process his career, he has attended various executive programs akin to the posh Brand Management Program at ESSEC Business School, the Asian International Executive Program at INSEAD Business School and the overall Manager’s Program on the School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University.

    “We welcome Thierry Douin into the Dusit family and wait for his leadership within the Middle East and Africa where we predict to cope more hotels inside the near future,” said Managing Director and CEO of Dusit International, Mr Chanin Donavanik.

    “This is a thrilling and demanding time to hitch the corporate, whilst it’s excited by expansion and growth,” said Mr Douin on his appointment. “I hope my experience will strengthen the team and that i watch for capitalising at the great legacy of the Dusit brand within the MEA region, where it’s been in operation for greater than a decade.” Dusit International has a variety of hotel openings inside the MEA region over the subsequent 365 days, including: Dusit Thani Abu Dhabi, U.A.E; dusitD2 nairobi, Kenya; dusitD2 dubai, U.A.E.; Dusit Thani Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Dusit Residence and Suites West Bay in Doha, Qatar.

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  • News: PATA: 2012 was a record year for Asia/Pacific tourism

    Asia and the Pacific continued as a hot spot for international tourism in 2012, attracting what’s expected to be in far more than 350 million international visitor arrivals, expanding its collective inbound count by greater than 5% and generating greater than 18 million additional foreign visits, year-on-year. It’s in keeping with preliminary results released today by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).

    This is the third consecutive year during which foreign arrivals growth has remained positive for the region.

    Of the 40 separate destinations covered, only 5 reported contractions for the year. Most of these were relatively marginal for the region as a complete. The sole exception was China, which, with a contraction in growth of two.2%, is estimated to have lost around 3 million international arrivals (foreign and compatriot) from its 2011 total international inbound count.

    The picture is rather different for foreign arrivals to China, however (i.e., excluding compatriot arrivals). The year 2012 saw a rise of one.6% in that inbound volume, year-on-year.

    Southeast Asia was the strongest performer in 2012 in annual percentage growth terms, with a gain of 9.9% for the year. This equated to a rise of greater than 8 million additional arrivals over the former year and pushed the ASEAN aggregate international inbound count to just about 89 million.

    Within this sub-region, Myanmar had a staggering increase of virtually 52% in arrivals, while Cambodia and Lao PDR reported gains of 24% and 22% respectively. All 3 destinations created new records with Myanmar breaking the million arrivals mark (in total) for the primary time. Cambodia and Lao PDR both also broke the three million mark. They weren’t alone either as every destination inside the ASEAN region set new highs relating to international arrivals.

    After several years of sturdy double-digit growth rates, South Asia is now settling back somewhat, but still returning strong gains; 2012 for instance saw growth of 6.6% and a rise of well over half-a-million additional international arrivals. Sri Lanka, with growth of virtually 18% saw its foreign arrivals count pass the only million mark, while the Maldives fell just in need of it. India remains the titan within South Asia, however, with greater than 6.6 million arrivals and a year-on-year gain of near to 340,000 additional foreign arrivals, some 59% of the whole additional increase within the arrivals volume to the sub-region.

    Even with the contraction in total international arrivals into China, Northeast Asia still maintained a growth rate of virtually 4% for the year. It dominated the visitor increase count by receiving near 8.5 million additional international arrivals year-on-year.

    Japan turned within the strongest percentage growth with a gain of 35% for the year, a performance that saw the destination recoup the losses in visitor arrivals following the tsunami of 2011 and move again into record arrivals territory. Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong SAR, and Korea (ROK) also added to the sub-regional performance with growth increases of 20%, 16%, and 14% respectively.

    After a somewhat mediocre performance in 2011 (+0.3% growth), the Pacific bounced back strongly in 2012 to post a collective gain across eighteen destinations of 6%. This in turn equated to a rise of higher than 1.1 million additional international arrivals to the sub-region, which now collectively boasts a global inbound volume tantalizingly on the brink of 20 million.

    The Northern Marianas (+17.4%), Vanuatu (15.1%), and Guam (+12.8%) reported the strongest percentage gains, while Hawaii, Australia, and Guam posted the best gains in more arrivals for the year.

    Across the Asia/Pacific region, preliminary figures suggest that the pinnacle 5 destinations, by growth in international visitor arrivals, were: Myanmar, Japan, Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Chinese Taipei; each had a year-on-year increase of 20% or better.

    In volume terms, there have been 6 particularly significant outcomes with Hong Kong SAR, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, Korea (ROK), and Chinese Taipei each securing in way over a million additional arrivals in 2012; the SAR of Hong Kong saw 6.7 million additional international arrivals.

    Martin J. Craigs, CEO of PATA, said: “Asia and the Pacific continues so as to add substantially to the worldwide international arrivals count. We predict that to continue for a while yet. The players shift and alter, after all, and we are able to expect some movement relating to generating and receiving markets. But around the region we predict substantial gains in both the quantity and the worth of those movements for it slow yet.”

    The PATA CEO added: “How we measure and determine the impacts of this growth in traffic is becoming more important, however. For this reason PATA is operating to advertise the idea of the entire Visitor Economy throughout its membership and around the wider industry.”

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  • New leadership for Dusit in Middle East

    Leading Asian hospitality group Dusit International has appointed Thierry Douin as its regional vice chairman for the center East & Africa.

    Douin will act because the figurehead for Dusit International within the region, overseeing the company’s expansion efforts, driving operational performance and supervising the outlet of recent hotels from his base within the Dubai Regional Office.

    A passionate and experienced hotelier, Douin have been inside the industry for greater than 35 years.

    He has managed luxury hotels in lots of parts of the arena, including in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai, Jakarta and Caracas for numerous groups, including InterContinental Hotels & Resorts and most recently, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts.

    Douin, a French national, is a graduate of the Hotel & Catering School in Granville, France and is an authorized Hotel Administrator and licensed Food and Beverage Executive with the yankee Hotel and Motel Association.

    Over the process his career, he has attended various executive programs together with the posh Brand Management Program at ESSEC Business School, the Asian International Executive Program at INSEAD Business School and the final Manager’s Program on the School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University.

    “This is an exhilarating and demanding time to enroll in the corporate, whilst it’s all in favour of expansion and growth,” said Douin on his appointment.

    “I hope my experience will strengthen the team and that i watch for capitalising at the great legacy of the Dusit brand within the MEA region, where it’s been in operation for greater than a decade.”