NEWS TRAVEL WEEKLY BUSINESS CONTINUED FROM THE BACK


Singer argued the risks for


the sector are growing because individuals are at heightened risk of security breaches when they travel, saying: “We tend to move through spaces and use networks not giving the same amount of security. There are countries where the threat may be greater, and we tend to make larger purchases [when we travel], providing opportunities to attack.” He told the audience: “You should not always have your Wi-Fi on.”


Singer said more fraudsters


“are going after mobile devices” and warned: “When travel companies offer a mobile app they better ask how security was baked into it, because someone will try to exploit it and the outcome will be financial costs or customers fleeing or customers suing.” For consumers, he said: “It’s a question of how much of your life you [should] have on your phone. There is a balance between convenience and security.


“I could operate in a much


more secure manner but without being able to take advantage of all the apps I like. It’s about convenience, but it comes with a security price.” Singer said regulation was


lagging behind the risks, meaning companies are more likely to face legal action than legislation. “We see the threat of lawsuits force a lot of action, particularly from hotels,” he said. “It’s up to companies to try to reduce the tension. If you make it easy to be insecure, people will be insecure.” And he warned that the


internet would “create a new landscape of threats”. “We have already seen the hacking of cars, of drones, of industrial control systems including the engine room of a cruise liner,” he said.


WTTC GLOBAL SUMMIT 2016: Security issues dominate debate as


American: We can’t live with $50bn Gulf subsidies


American Airlines restated its call for the US government to tackle “subsidised competition from the state-owned” Gulf carriers at the World Travel& Tourism Council summit.


Scott Kirby, American Airlines


president, described Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways as “the biggest threat to competition that aviation has seen”. Speaking in Dallas, he told the


WTTC annual summit: “We’re competing with subsidised carriers. We can’t compete with $50 billion in subsidies.” American Airlines, Delta Air


Lines and United submitted a dossier to Washington last year alleging the Gulf carriers received government handouts that they claim distorted the market. The US government is investigating, although the Gulf airlines dismissed the claims as “misleading”, “ill-founded” and “false”. Kirby told the summit: “We’re


in favour of open skies when there is fair competition. We’ll compete


Goldstein: Cruise at mercy of taxes and regulations


Cruise line bosses hit out at regulators and environmental critics “who don’t understand” the cruise business and defended the sector’s environmental record. Adam Goldstein, president


and chief operating officer of Royal Caribbean Cruises, told the WTTC summit: “There are so many people legislating about


68 travelweekly.co.uk 14 April 2016 KIRBY: ‘[The Gulf carriers] are the biggest threat to competition’


with anyone but we can’t compete with governments.” He rejected the Gulf carriers’


counter claim that American, Delta and United had all benefited from government support during bankruptcy protection. Kirby said: “Ask our employees who took a hit. Ask our creditors who took a hit. There was no government subsidy.” Lufthansa executive board member Karl Ulrich Garnadt warned: “You ain’t seen nothing


Royal’s Adam Goldstein


yet. In Europe, the Gulf carriers operate seven times the capacity of European carriers between Europe and the Gulf. They dominate traffic between Europe and Asia. “Open skies is good so long as the competitive landscape is level, so long as the regulatory framework is the same for everyone.” Garnadt said: “We want business models that are transparent, not that we can’t see what the business model is.”


what cruise companies put into the ocean. We put investment in and now you could drink what we put into the ocean. Now people care about sulphur [emissions].” Goldstein said Royal Caribbean


our industry who have no idea about it. We’re at the mercy of 1,000 destinations for taxes and regulations [created] by people who don’t understand our industry.” He added: “There was a lot of interest in the last decade about


Cruises and Carnival Cruise Lines had invested “probably $1 billion” to reduce their sulphur emissions. The EU tightened rules on sulphur emissions from shipping last year. Carnival Cruise Lines president and chief executive Arnold Donald insisted: “It’s in our interests to have a clean environment. Do people want to see trash [in the sea]? Of course they don’t.”


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