ttglive.com In brief
■ VisitEngland loses a third of its funding VisitEngland’s funding will be reduced by 34% over the next four years, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport confirmed on Wednesday. The budget for next year will now be £9.2 million. The tourism minister will launch the government’s tourism strategy at the end of the year. James Berresford, chief executive of VisitEngland, said: “We are already prepared to adapt our business model to this cut and will ensure VisitEngland continues to meet our fundamental goal to grow the value of domestic tourism.”
■ Gatwick lands Airbus A380 approval Gatwick has been granted permission to operate the Airbus A380 superjumbo. Previously only Heathrow and Manchester airports have been able to accommodate the A380. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic both have orders for the aircraft which is currently being flown by Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Qantas and Air France.
■ Costa cancels cruise after Shanghai crash Costa Cruises has had to cancel a cruise this week after its Classica ship collided with a cargo ship near Shanghai on Monday. Several passengers suffered minor injuries in the acci- dent and the damage to the ship meant that a scheduled cruise from Shanghai to Japan, Korea and Hong Kong due to leave on Monday had to be cancelled.
■ George Greenaway passes away A funeral is being held on Friday for George Greenaway, chief executive of travel extras company Flight Hotel Reservations, who has died after a long illness. Greenaway established West Sussex-based FHR in 1986. Greenaway’s funeral will be held today in Copthorne.
■ Gold Medal’s Hendry heads to Dublin Gold Medal employee Alexandra Hendry (pictured)is undertaking a series of challenges to raise money for the charity Children with Leukaemia. Hendry, who works at Gold Medal’s offices in Preston, is running the Dublin Marathon on Monday and plans to trek to Everest Base Camp in the Himalayas next March.
bmycharity.com/alexhendry
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Osborne’s axe deals travel a cold winter
Rob Gill & Sophie Griffiths.
AGENTS COULD face a cash flow squeeze this winter after chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne took his axe to the public sector this week, financial experts have warned. The uncertainty over the planned 490,000 job losses in the public sector is likely to lead to fewer advance bookings and could hasten further consolidation in the travel sector. Andrew Burnham, MacIntyre Hudson’s head
of travel and tourism, said there would be fewer bookings over the winter as the six million public sector workers waited to learn their fate. “It’s going to be a tough winter,” said Burnham.
“There will be six to nine months of uncertainty when there’s the likelihood of diminished travel bookings. “This will have an impact on cash flow and could accelerate the process of amalgamation and mergers in the travel sector.” Burnham added that there may be a recovery in spring 2011 once people found out how the government cuts were going to affect them. Robert Milburn, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ UK hospitality and leisure leader, agreed that job insecurity would have an impact on forward holiday bookings. “This will affect the cash flow of smaller travel
companies, many of whom need to be taking deposits now for next year,” he said. “It will cause them some cash flow concerns, and they will have to manage their cash flow carefully.”
Milburn added that areas such as Manchester,
Liverpool and Newcastle were likely to be among the worst affected because of their reliance on public sector jobs.
He also said that business travel was likely to
suffer from reduced staff numbers. “The cuts mean 490,000 less people will be
travelling on government business. “Those that are left will be encouraged to
travel as little as possible and to rely on video conferencing instead,” he said. Abta head of public affairs Luke Pollard
stressed that while the cuts would be a “blow” to consumer spending, the industry should not be too pessimistic. “Clearly value for money will be key to selling
holidays over the coming year, but our members are telling us that holidaymakers want to be able to trust the companies they make their bookings with,” he said. “Spending on travel will be one of the stronger
sectors of the economy over the coming years, as well as being a sector that will be key to job creation.”
RICH PICKINGS: Ken Livingstone told the Travel Convention that overseas holidays were the preserve of the rich and that average earners were excluded. His comments came when he was asked if cuts to short-haul air travel to reduce carbon emissions would stop average earners flying. “People earning more than £40,000-a-year take 54% of UK flights. People earning under £21,000 take 5%. It’s already a class issue,” he said.
22.10.2010 05
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