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  • News: Celebrity Cruises announces 2014 sailings from the united kingdom

    Celebrity Cruises has today announced its 2014 sailings from the united kingdom with contemporary itineraries to Spain and the Canary Islands and to the Norwegian Fjords. The recent sailings will go on sale from 21 March 2013.

    Both Celebrity Eclipse and Celebrity Infinity will return to their summer homeports of Southampton and Harwich respectively. Marking the second one year running of the 2 ships being based from the united kingdom, Celebrity Eclipse, recently voted best large ship by consumers within the 2013 Cruise Critic UK Cruisers’ Choice Awards, returns to Southampton for its fifth season in 2014.

    Jo Rzymowska, associate vice chairman and general manager, Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises – UK and Ireland, commented:

    “It is usually a thrilling time once we announce our new sailings and the hot destinations and experiences that our guests can enjoy. The 2014 summer time sees the united kingdom playing host to 2 of the six Celebrity Cruises ships based in Europe plus new additions to the sailings, including more overnight stays, allowing guests to experience the local nightlife and explore the regions more fully. Our 2014 UK departures set the bar high in terms of offering a contemporary luxury holiday without the trouble of flying and we’re pleased to continue to supply our guests new and exciting destinations.”

    Celebrity Infinity will repeat the increasingly popular 12-night European Immersive Wine Cruises for the third consecutive year, taking in a few of Europe’s most famed wine producing regions. New for 2014 is an overnight stay in La Rochelle in France for the arena-famous Bordeaux region. Moreover, the ship will sail a sequence of recent 14-night Iceland and Fjords cruises, in addition to an 11-night British Isles cruise, visiting ports including Waterford (Wales) and Holyhead (Ireland). an extended 14-night British Isles cruise, with an overnight in Dublin (Ireland), also allows guests to benefit from the city’s nightlife.

    When Celebrity Eclipse returns to its summer homeport for the fifth season, it is going to include a brand new 10-night itinerary to Spain & Canary Islands and extra highlights.

    Guests onboard both ships can relax within the onboard Elemis AquaSpa or solarium, head to the fame iLounge internet café to exploit, find out about or buy a number of Apple products, or benefit from the choice of original, contemporary art. Culinary onboard offerings include healthy-eating specialty restaurant Blu, an ice-topped Martini Bar and the award-winning Qsine, the unconventional restaurant first introduced to Celebrity Eclipse to much acclaim.

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  • News: Concur adds advanced mobile communications and messaging platform

    Concur, a worldwide leader in integrated travel and expense management, today announced it acquired privately-held conTgo, a number one cloud-based mobile communications and messaging platform for the worldwide travel industry. conTgo, based within the UK and Australia, provides its communication platform to corporate customers and TMCs.

    conTgo adds comprehensive location-based services with advanced mobile communications and messaging capabilities to Concur’s offerings, extending the price of the Concur T&E Cloud for partners, suppliers and clients alike.

    Concur expects to leverage conTgo’s market-leading technology to offer a number of new services designed to optimize the traveller experience. By itinerary data and placement information with insight and context from past behavior, Concur and Concur T&E Cloud partners may have the technology and capability to deliver applications which can:
    ·      Preserve employees irrespective of where they book – Proactively manage duty of care programs by consolidating and matching booking data with risk intelligence so companies can track, locate and communicate with travelers 24/7 with relevant value-added services.

    ·      Make travel plans around colleagues – Enable travelers to plot a visit using location and hotel data from select colleagues in order that everyone can stay inside the same hotel and/or city.

    ·      Get discounts or offers from favorite merchants – Enable delivery of offers to travelers from frequently-visited merchants in keeping with location and itinerary data.

    ·      Profit from a travel delay – Enable delivery of offers to travelers from airport merchants within the event of a flight delay, turning the inconvenience into a possibility for the traveler and the merchant.

    ·      Carpool with colleagues – Enable travelers who arrive on the same airport and stay on the same hotel to catch a ride together through a service that associates all of them with an available ground transportation provider, saving money and time.

    “We continue to find game-changing technologies that enhance the business travel experience and advance our vision for the ideal Trip,” said Michael Hilton, EVP of Product Strategy at Concur. “The conTgo team developed an award-winning solution for firms to trace, locate and communicate with employees in spite of their location. Working including the Concur ecosystem of application developers, customers, and suppliers, we plan to deliver a number of new location-based applications that benefit companies and their travelers alike.”

    “We are inquisitive about this perfect fit of both technology and culture between our companies,” said conTgo founders Henrik Conradsen and Johnny Thorsen, who join Concur in new senior management roles. “We will continue to deliver duty of care offerings to our customers and partners and plan to take advantage of our award-winning technology for brand spanking new services that support Concur’s vision of The proper Trip.”

    Concur customers worldwide can immediately enhance their existing corporate travel booking and expense management solutions with the addition of conTgo’s award-winning duty of care solutions and the Concur Locate and Alert offering, so one can leverage the conTgo platform.  The combined solutions could be the only duty of care solutions available to buy to watch travel whatever the source of booking – supporting the rage of Open Booking.

    The terms of the purchase weren’t disclosed. Neither the financial terms nor the revenue impact of the conTgo business are material to the Company’s business outlook for fiscal 2013. As a result of increased operating costs concerning acquired headcount, the corporate expects modest dilution to its expected non-GAAP operating margin range for Fiscal 2013 and expects the purchase to be neutral to accretive to non-GAAP operating margin in Fiscal 2014.

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  • WTTC president Scowsill requires British Schengen entrance

    The UK should adopt the Schengen System to make sure it stops missing out on vital tourists, in accordance with World Travel & Tourism Council president David Scowsill.

    The comments come as prime minister David Cameron promised to loosen visa bureaucracy for visitors from India.

    Scowsill explained: “It is sweet to listen to David Cameron is vowing to sit back visa rules to permit more Indians to travel to Britain for work and study.

    “Anything which permits people to travel more easily can only be a terrific thing, socially and economically, for the united kingdom.

    “But it really is only 1 small step.

    “The restrictive visa policies in place inside the UK are making the rustic uncompetitive and the united kingdom government now should loosen visa bureaucracy for other emerging markets like China.”

    Travel generates 2.3 million jobs and contributes over $100 billion to the united kingdom economy annually and reforms in visa facilitation have the aptitude to create many additional jobs within the UK, in accordance with the WTTC.

    “China’s economy is growing faster than some other,” continued Scowsill.

    “Yet, the united kingdom is currently losing out on thousands of Chinese tourists to our nearby neighbours because Chinese tourists face higher fees and feature to finish an extended application form than in the event that they wish to visit most other countries in Europe.

    “Chinese outbound travellers totalled 84 million last year and the united kingdom receives just a small fraction of them

    “It’s time for Britain to become component to the Schengen system that gives Chinese visitors the possibility to go to 26 countries in Europe on a single visa.”

    Research by the WTTC reveals visa facilitation has historically increased international tourist arrivals of affected markets by five to twenty-five per cent, following the implementation of policy changes.

    “Cameron’s promise to loosen visa bureaucracy in India is all well and good, but when he really desires to make a difference to Britain’s economy and create jobs, he must fundamentally reform visa policies for booming economies like China too,” concluded Scowsill.

  • Starwood relocates global headquarters to Dubai

    Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. today announced the start of a month-long relocation of its global headquarters from Stamford, CT to Dubai.  From now until April 5th, Starwood President & CEO Frits van Paasschen and the company’s top executives will conduct day-to-day business from Dubai, an increasingly important global destination and travel hub.  Following the company’s successful relocation to China in June 2011, this second leadership move reflects Starwood’s innovative management method to cultivating a more global culture by understanding, appreciating and leveraging different societal perspectives and approaches to business and hospitality. 

    “With 80 percent of Starwood’s pipeline coming from rapidly growing markets, it truly is simply unattainable to guide a very global business from a boardroom in Connecticut,” said van Paasschen.  “Rising wealth and ever greater global connectivity are making a once-in-a-lifetime growth opportunity for our business – by fueling new demand, changing travel patterns, and fully new travel markets.  Dubai epitomizes this changing face of travel, and we predict this relocation will deepen our relations with partners, associates and customers.  Just as with our one-month relocation to China in 2011, our time in-market will spark new ideas so one can fortify our position because the most global high-end hotel company.”

    During the process the relocation, greater than 200 Starwood executives and GMs from the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America will travel to Dubai because the company runs day-to-day operations almost 7,000 miles and a nine-hour time zone clear of its usual HQ outside Ny city.  The team will meet with associates, customers, owners and prospective developers inside the UAE and likewise make the most of Dubai’s location for business travel to destinations including Mumbai, Addis Ababa, Jeddah, Dushanbe and Kuwait.

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  • Playlists: ITB Berlin 2013

    Breaking Travel News catches up with key tourism decision makers from worldwide at the convention floor at ITB Berlin 2013.