18 | INDUSTRY Travel & Tourism
NEWS IN BRIEF Turkey airport boost
INDUSTRY By Adam Hill
A popular second home destination, Turkey has seen a 24% increase in passenger numbers year on year during the fi rst half of 2010, with 44.6 million people passing through its airports. Istanbul Ataturk accounted for a third of this, but offi cial data also showed a 19% increase in international fl ights in Antalya, Izmir-Adnan Menderes, Mugla- Dalaman and Milas-Bodrum airports.
Aegean becomes a Star
ONE of Greece’s largest airlines, Aegean, has been made a member of the Star Alliance. Star CEO Jaan Albrecht said this would help turn Athens into a major hub airport with growing connection traffi c for the network. The airline began operations 11 years ago and operates 30 planes, with 150 daily fl ights across 54 routes.
Aseana to buy KL hotel
MALAYSIA and Vietnam developer Aseana Properties is to buy a four-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur at 112.5% of the total development cost – expected to be around US$66 million. Due to be completed in 2012, it will have 482 rooms, and Aseana is hoping for Starwood Hotel and Resorts Worldwide to manage it under the aloft brand. It is located in Kuala Lumpur Sentral.
Flybe and easyJet
FLYBE has announced a new year- round route to Frankfurt from Glasgow via Southampton, with up to 12 fl ights a week starting this month. Meanwhile easyJet is to put on eight new routes for this winter: Bristol and Liverpool to Lyon; Edinburgh-Basle; Manchester to Hamburg, Gothenburg and Amsterdam; and Gatwick to Gothenburg and Zagreb.
CRETE, Sydney and Johannesburg all saw their stock as travel destinations rise in June while the popularity of Malta, Madrid and Venice dipped, according to Skyscanner. The cheap fl ights comparison site
suggests that football is not the only area in which Spain reigns – the country has maintained its stranglehold on second home owners and holidaymakers as the top four slots remain unchanged: Malaga, Alicante, Palma and Tenerife. Luqa in Malta fell fi ve places, and
Madrid and Venice both dropped by three places each. The site, which searches hundreds of thousands of routes, also found that Dalaman in Turkey had moved up the ranking, swapping places with Faro. Meanwhile fl ights to Orlando rose two places into the top ten, in part due to the opening of Harry Potter World. New York is ninth in the list, edged down one place by renewed summer interest in Ibiza. “This month sees Dalaman pushing into the top fi ve, and two US destinations in
www.opp.org.uk | AUGUST 2010 Spain is still the main game
Spain | still reigns supreme as the number one overseas destination
the top ten,” says Skyscanner co-founder Barry Smith. “At country level, Spain remains strong and Italy, France and Greece are all performing well.” This data means that Spain tops the
overall list, followed by the UK, the US, Italy, France, Greece, Germany, Portugal and Cyprus. London stayed where it was at number
seven, while Johannesburg appears to be a benefi ciary of the hoopla surrounding the World Cup football tournament,
moving up fi ve places to number 45 on the list of searches. Other highlights included searches for fl ights to Sydney rising fi ve spots to 34. Corfu, Antalya and Hong Kong came
into the top 50, while Pisa, Frankfurt and Fuerteventura all dropped out. However, Crete was one of the highest climbers, up fi ve places to 33, despite gloomy predictions that Greece’s tourist industry would suffer following violent disturbances earlier this year.
Is this the end for US-Cuba ban?
AS Fidel Castro makes his first public appearance for months, the ban on US citizens visiting Cuba may be moving a step closer to repeal. The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) has thrown its weight behind a new bill which could see restrictions on travel lifted, giving developers with an interest in the Caribbean country access to a potential new market. The proposed legislation – called
the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act (HR4645) –
FLY TURKEY-MONTENEGRO
TURKISH Airlines has launched its fi rst service from Istanbul to Podgorica in Montenegro, three times a week. Return tickets cost 212 Euros until 24 September. Meanwhile, from August, all of the airline’s fl ights from Sabiha Gokcen will be carried out by AnadoluJet. These include routes to Nicosia, Amsterdam, London Stansted and Moscow.
is being considered by the US House of Representatives. If it goes through, there is a real possibility that it will ignite demand for new passenger routes, tour operations
Call a cab | America wants back in IATA DISPELLS GLOOM
THE International Air Transport Association has announced an 11.7% increase in international scheduled passenger traffi c in May, something of a bounceback following problems caused by the Icelandic volcano ash cloud in April. “Passenger traffi c is now 1% above pre-recession levels,” said IATA CEO Giovanni Bisignani.
and travel agent services, in a country that has seen tourism develop steadily from the 1990s. Foreigners are already allowed to own property in new developments there. “ASTA has long supported the principle that Americans ought to be allowed to travel across the globe without restriction,” said Colin Tooze, ASTA’s vice president of government affairs. The organisation points out that Americans are free to travel to Pyongyang, Tehran, Khartoum and other “non-friendly” cities.
TUI SEEs GREEN
IN an attempt to encourage sustainable tourism, TUI is launching Holidays Forever, a new brand which will sit alongside its existing Thomson and First Choice ones. It will major on eco-friendliness, with online microsites talking about carbon emissions and the amount of local products that hotels / resorts source.
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