EDITOR’S COMMENTS
NEWS Tunisia Tragedy
04 – Tributes flood in for victims 05 – Sales plummet; trade thanked 06 – Media scaremongering slated; operator cuts capacity; Cooper’s view
Top Stories
08 – Lufthansa fee; airports decision 09 – Greece crisis; French ATC strike
News Digest 10 – Kenya online visas; HAL clients die in crash; Terminal 1 closes
Analysis 12 – Agents’ role in airlines’ future?
Big Interview 14 – Tom McAlpin, Virgin Cruises
Special Report 16 – Delta’s partnerships pay off
NEWS YOU CAN USE
Product News 19 – Club Med’s £1k sales incentive
Cruise News 20 – MSC Seaside sets family focus
US News 22 – Great Lakes team visits agents
Hotel News 24 – Grand Hyatt opens in Mexico
All For You 34 – Win a fam trip to California
Summer Sizzler photos 38 – Glasgow, Liverpool, Norwich
Mystery Shopper 42 – Who won in Bury St Edmunds?
DESTINATIONS The US
45 – We hit the ocean road on a self-drive from San Francisco to LA 51 – Motown and more in Detroit 59 – Three towns in New England
Switzerland & Austria
65 – Glamour of the Swiss Riviera 69 – Gateway to the Alps JOBS AND CLASSIFIED
72 – Vacancies and business services TRAVELWEEKLY BUSINESS
News
78-80 – Abta Travel Matters 2015: Clash over the new PTD; Greek crisis; economic outlook; Atol protection
ALL ABOUT YOU
Letters 28 – MAN; Tui; Barrhead; Lufthansa
Comment 30 – Jonathan Sloan: US love affair
LUCY Editor-in-chief HUXLEY
Tunisian atrocity tests the resolve of us all
W
hen we’re recruiting for a reporter for Travel Weekly, we like to entice candidates by telling them how they could end up reporting on virtually every major world event. Travel is seldom left untouched by major incidents. Tragically,
last week that truism became horrifically apparent. This time, however, travel was not just caught up in a major incident – it became the target of the latest terrorist outrage. Just one word springs to mind about what happened on the beach at Port El Kantaoui last Friday afternoon – atrocity. It is beyond belief that holidaymakers sunbathing on a beach could be targeted in such a callous and brutal manner. The events in Tunisia can only add to an already febrile atmosphere of fear that is being fanned, in part, by alarmist media reports suggesting virtually everywhere is unsafe. The economic situation in Greece, the migrant crisis in the
Mediterranean and the strikes in France are all bound to be making travellers cautious about leaving these shores. We hear it all the time that Brits are resilient, and I’ve no doubt our industry will be at the forefront of helping Tunisia to rebuild its tourism industry when the time is right. But the country’s tourism sector will feel the impact of last
week’s events for a long time, as Egypt did following the Luxor massacre of 1997 – the week I started reporting on travel. I was a holiday rep before I became a journalist and can only imagine what the travel companies affected are going through. Tales of how British operators and agents, as well as reps and
Tunisian hotel workers, rallied to support those affected is the only heartening aspect of an utterly devastating week for travel.
lucy.huxley@
travelweekly.co.uk WHAT LUCY DID THISWEEK 1
2 3
Attended Abta’s sixth Travel Matters seminar, which covered various public policies affecting the sector
Met lots of Caribbean operators and suppliers at the CTO Ball, as well as travel TV presenter Simon Reeve
Travelled to Warner Leisure Hotels’ Littlecote House in Hungerford to present the inaugural UK ambassador award at the Travel Brit Awards
2 July 2015 —
travelweekly.co.uk • 3
CONTENTS Inside your number-one industry mag!
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