NEWS TRAVEL WEEKLY BUSINESS CONTINUED FROM THE BACK
“A balance between residents and tourists is essential. It’s impossible to just add more and more people – not just for the city but for tourism.” Dubrovnik saw a 17% year-
on-year rise in visitors last year and expects a further 10% increase this year. The city’s mayor, Mato Frankovic, said: “We don’t want to be recognised as an overcrowded destination [so] we have started to cope with these problems. “We are visited by 700,000
cruise passengers a year. The problem was the number at one time in one spot. The ship visits were concentrated on just three days a week. “We spoke to Clia and changed the arrival dates and times of ships so no more come at the same time [this summer].” He said: “The strategy is
already a success. Now we are working to organise the flows of tourists. We will inform visitors daily of the best time and date to come.” Frankovic said: “We can’t
restrict numbers, but we have to manage it or we will have the reputation of being overcrowded and people won’t come.” He added: “We are cutting the number of restaurant tables and seats in public spaces to make them wider for visitors. It is a harsh decision. Some people don’t like it. But you have to take hard decisions.” Torrella agreed, adding:
“It’s impossible to tackle overcrowding without having a strategic plan for the city.” However, Van der Avert dismissed the idea of focusing on quality of tourists rather than quantity. He said: “When you talk about quality of tourism, what is it? Are the tourists more wealthy, more handsome? If two students visit your cultural attractions but stay in a hostel, are they quality tourists?”
ITB 2018: About 1,000 firms exhibited at Europe’s biggest travel show last week. Ian Taylor reports from Berlin
Qatar Airways blames air blockade for ‘large loss’
Qatar Airways will reveal a “very large loss” when it publishes results for the financial year to March, blaming the blockade on Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other regional states.
Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways’
chief executive, hit out at the blockade and conceded it had “created problems” for the carrier, but declined to give further details of the losses. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and
Bahrain severed relations with Qatar last June over Qatar’s alleged support for terrorism. Egypt also cut diplomatic ties and Qatar refused to comply with a list of demands. Speaking at ITB in Berlin, Al
Baker said the blockade “put a lot of financial strain” on the carrier and “seriously added” to its flight times. But he insisted Qatar Airways remains “financially robust”. He said: “We have to circumvent the blockaded air space. It has seriously added to flight times to North Africa, to South Africa, to
Booking.com considers adding flights to site
Online accommodation giant
Booking.com is “looking at” adding flights to its site, chief executive Gillian Tans has revealed. Tans said: “One-third of our customers think about [booking] their flights before accommodation, one-third during [the process] and one-third after booking accommodation.” Asked whether
Booking.com
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travelweekly.co.uk 15 March 2018 15-20
Extra minutes’ flight time for Qatar to Europe due to blockaded air space
India, to the Far East, to China. It makes 15-20 minutes’ difference to Europe and the US. “It’s not only extra fuel burn, it is
extra maintenance, it affects crew flight times and crew allowances.
would add airline ticketing, Tans said: “We are looking at that. We will change if we see customers want
Booking.com to help with this. “If we see customers don’t
want to do [flight booking] with
Booking.com, we won’t do it.” She said “everything on our
website is tested” and that 1,000 experiments are carried out each day on the site.
Booking.com accounts for 80% of the annual revenue of parent firm Booking Holdings, which recently changed its name from Priceline Group. Tans, who ruled out the online travel agent taking Bitcoin as
TANS: ‘We are looking at [adding flights] if customers want this’
payment, added: “We create two variants of everything and see which one customers prefer. It’s extreme sometimes.”
It also impacts our slot times.” Yet he insisted: “People still
prefer to travel on Qatar Airways.” The carrier has a global network connecting 150 destinations through its hub at Doha and depends on the resulting long-haul traffic, much of it between Europe and the rest of the world. Al Baker said: “We don’t know
how long the blockade will last. We expect it to be long term.” However, he said: “During the
blockade Qatar Airways continued its expansion. We are defiant and will keep on expanding.”
AL BAKER: ‘We are defiant and will keep on expanding’
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