RAIL HOTELS
Eurostar revenues down in Q1
HILTON TO OPEN AT EMIRATES OLD TRAFFORD
HILTON WORLDWIDE HAS ANNOUNCED it will open a new property at the home of Lancashire County Cricket Club. Under a franchise agreement between the group and club, construction of the Hilton Garden Inn Emirates Old Trafford will start later this year, with an opening date scheduled for early 2017. Located just outside of Manchester, the hotel will offer 150 rooms over five
floors, a 24-hour gym, restaurant, bar and business centre. It will also offer free wifi throughout. The new hotel will replace the existing Old Trafford Lodge, which has been operating for 16 years.
LOYALTY
IHG unveils rewards programme for buyers
INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS GROUP (IHG) has launched a rewards scheme aimed at travel and meetings buyers. IHG Business Rewards is a new bookings programme offering rewards on all qualified business bookings for rooms, meetings and events at more than 4,700 properties worldwide. Designed specifically for buyers, the loyalty programme gives members with IHG
14 BBT MAY/JUNE 2015
Rewards Club points for their B2B business in a single global programme. Members will now see
all earned points from booking and staying appear in one account, so the same membership card for IHG Rewards Club and IHG Business Rewards will be used to book and stay at all participating IHG hotels. Members will also earn points for every booking,
and there is no booking threshold and no minimum qualifying spend. IHG added that all
rewards bookings will count towards achieving IHG Rewards Club Gold or Platinum tier status, when the same member books and stays at an IHG hotel.
Points can be redeemed for a range of options, from hotel stays and air travel to electronic goods.
EUROSTAR REPORTED that revenues were down following the terrorist attacks in Paris and closure of Eurotunnel following a lorry fire earlier this year. The cross-channel rail operator said sales were down 6 per cent for the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same period last year. Passenger numbers remained the same, at 2.3 million. Eurostar said its results were helped by a boost in business travel bookings with its Business Premier service increasing by 7 per cent compared with the same quarter in 2014. The rail operator said this trend is “testament to the increasing enthusiasm among business travellers” for Eurostar services.
It said despite a “challenging” January, trading returned to a more normalised pattern over the entire quarter. In March, the UK government confirmed the sale of its 40 per cent stake in Eurostar for around £760 million.
AIRLINES
Norwegian counts cost of pilots strike
LOW-COST CARRIER NORWEGIAN has admitted that strikes earlier this year have cost the company around £29 million. The airline had to cancel around 2,000 flights due to the industrial action by pilots in March. The overall cost included having to spend around £9 million to look after stranded passengers, while loss of bookings cost Norwegian a further £10 million. The strike led to a reduction in Norwegian’s passenger numbers to 1.73 million during March – a 4 per cent fall compared to the same month in 2014.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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