UNWTO welcomes Jamaica’s decision to waive visa requirements for Eastern European nationals and to increase indefinitely the present visa waiver system for some Latin American nationals. These important policy steps are in step with UNWTO’s demand countries worldwide to revise their visa regulations and procedures underscoring the close links between visa facilitation and economic growth through tourism. 
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UNWTO welcomes travel facilitation measures by Jamaica
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News: South West Trains celebrates 150th anniversary of Clapham Junction Station
Passengers using Clapham Junction station were treated to a number of commemorative celebrations this week as South West Trains teamed up with Wandsworth Council to celebrate the 150th anniversary of this world-famous station.
A hundred and fifty years ago Clapham Junction, that is located within the heart of Battersea, opened its doors to its first rail passengers.
Since then, the famous station has become the busiest interchange station in Europe serving 40 million people a year, with over 20 million using the station to attach in with other services.
Today, passengers on the station were invited to return in time and think about many of the history of this famous station. Copies of The days newspaper from 2 March 1963, the outlet day of the station, got away to passengers by newspaper agents wearing traditional Victorian costume. Members of staff also gave away complimentary vintage Oyster card wallets created in partnership with Wandsworth Council.
An exhibition of archive images provided by Wandsworth Council exploring the historical significance of trains and train travel at Clapham Junction, from station to railway was unveiled to the general public on the Brighton Yard entrance.
Members of purchaser service staff from the station – with over 150 years of combined service to the railway – took part in a photocall next to massive ‘150’ figures in recognition of the station reaching this grand age.
Jake Kelly, Customer support Director for the South West Trains – Network Rail Alliance, said: “It’s problematic to last 150 years; Clapham Junction has needed to constantly reinvent itself to fulfill the wishes of recent passengers. Lately, we’ve got all for key improvements to make the station accessible to all, and feature opened a brand new entrance to ease the flow of passengers and make it easier for passengers to head across the station.”
Leader of Wandsworth Council Ravi Govindia said: “As the railway network has grown over the past 150 years Clapham Junction has benefitted from an increasing number of connections, with new routes fanning out across London and the south of britain. At Wandsworth Council we believe the station has even greater potential and we’re working with the rail authorities to peer that it’s achieved.”
From a rural feel with lavender fields nearby in 1863, the station quickly took its place because the major local transport hub it has become today. In recent years, the station have been transformed and gained a 3rd entrance and further staffed ticket offices, cycle parking and a taxi rank. All platforms had been equipped with lifts, making it easier for all passengers to access the station.
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Nearly 25% of UK families forgo holidays due to the money worries
With the Easter holidays rapidly approaching, Kleeneze research shows that austere times continue to bite, with over a fifth (22%) people admitting to forgoing a family holiday so as to fund everyday necessities.
Families feel the impact…
Over 1/2 families within the survey who had missed out on holidays (51%) said it were difficult and caused disappointment and one in ten (10%) said it had ended in family arguments.
Perhaps more surprisingly, almost one in five (17%) admitted to having to pay for other treats to make up for it, potentially resulting in a false economy partly.
Finding a solution…
Rather than cancel family holidays, over a 3rd people (34%) said we had taken specific steps to prevent having to try this.
The most appropriate solutions to the difficulty were to scale back on other non-essential spending (64%), working extra hours or taking up an element time job (59%), counting on others equivalent to parents or grandparents to hide the price (19%) or sharing with other families to bring the price down (19%).
Commenting at the result of the research, Lisa Burke, sales director of Kleeneze, said: “It’s clear many families are having to work harder to balance the household finances – pay freezes, reduced hours and sadly redundancies are all having a major effect.
“Because Kleeneze distributors are self-employed and might work the hours they wish, we continue to work out a serious choice of new recruits who sell Kleeneze products as a second job on top of existing full-time employment. Often, the cause of joining is as a way to continue to afford the life-style that they had previous to these more austere times.”
The regional picture…
The Kleeneze research revealed that those in Northern Ireland were in all likelihood to have forgone a vacation with a 3rd (33%) indicating that they had – next it was those within the North West (25%) and people within the East Midlands (24%).
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Westin Hotels to open 200th hotel in 2013
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide announced that its Westin brand expects to open its 200th hotel in 2013, driven by robust international demand and the exceptional success of the brand’s distinct wellbeing positioning. Westin will open 11 new hotels this year, the overwhelming majority outside the u. s. in fast-growing markets including China, India, Singapore and Panama.
In line with global growth trends, the Westin brand is experiencing a surge in new hotel openings across Asia Pacific. Seven new Westin hotels will open in Asia Pacific in 2013, increasing the brand’s portfolio to almost 50 hotels within the region by year’s end. Fuelling the brand’s growth inside the region is the rapid economic growth in China’s second and third-tier cities. New Westin hotel openings in China this year include The Westin Haikou, The Westin Sanya Haitang Bay Resort, The Westin Chongqing Liberation Square and The Westin Qingdao. Westin may even make its return to Singapore with the outlet of The Westin Singapore Marina Bay in late 2013.
Demand for brand new Westin hotels in Latin America is likewise heating up. In exactly the past 18 months, Westin has grown its footprint in Latin America by nearly 50% as portion of the brand’s strategic expansion within the region’s fastest growing markets. This year’s opening of The Westin Panama increases the Westin portfolio in Latin America to 11 hotels, spanning five countries including Panama, Mexico, Peru, Costa Rica and Guatemala.
In North America, the Westin brand will add four new hotels to its portfolio this year. As well as the hole of The Westin Birmingham, Westin may be attracting a growing share of conversion opportunities in cities around the USA, with The Westin Houston Downtown, The Westin Sacramento and The Westin San Jose all opening in 2013, following renovations.
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News: Vayant’s Pricing Cache brings even greater flexiblity to travel sellers
Vayant Travel Technologies, a global leader in B2B airfare search innovation, today announced the launch of the most recent version of Pricing Cache, its cache export solution for Online Travel Agents (OTAs), Tour Opertors (TOs) and Airlines.
Announced at the eve of Vayant’s attendance at ITB Berlin 2013, Pricing Cache V2.0 makes Vayant’s custom cache solution much more flexible. Travel retailers be capable of fine tune their customer’s travel shopping experience through a comprehensive set of parameters that consistently deliver accurate air search results.
Pricing Cache can support any market cache on a global-wide basis, corresponding to market-driven cache, country, cross-country and continent-scale cache.
New features of Pricing Cache V2.0 include for every origin and destination combination support for multiple passenger types and different fare classes in one cache. Travel retailers may also specify maximum connection times, airports, airlines, routes, and define the number and sort of search leads to their respective cache.
Pricing Cache’s unique and proven technology now enables updates as much as 24 times an afternoon. The power to refresh the cache in the course of the day means travel retailers enjoy the cost effectiveness of caching without compromising on accuracy. The answer delivers, on average, 75 per cent or greater bookability (versus a maximum of 40 to 60 per cent for rival offers).
Boyan Manev, Director Business Development and Product Marketing at Vayant, said: “We are constantly working to complement our solutions and stay sooner than the contest. We must ensure travel retailers have fast, cost-effective the way to provide their customers with essentially the mostsome of the most relevant offers available. With Pricing Cache V2.0, travel retailers can define go searching their customer’s needs more tightly than ever before. All of it adds as much as a wiser customer experience.”
First launched in July 2012, Vayant Pricing Cache is getting used by travel retailers including Hotelplan, travel.at, HLX and Binoli.