TM Insider 166

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The TravelMole Insider – Issue 166
ISSN 1474-2292
13 December 2001
https://www.travelmole.com

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This newswire contains an advertisment from: e-Bay

New PressZone member: RWA:
RWA Manages GDS Selection and Migration Project For Airtours
https://www.travelmole.com/news/press/rwa_pz.html

THIS WEEK’S REGULAR FEATURES:
Site of the Week: Opodo.de
People in the Trade: Chris Kroeger, vp, Sabre, E, ME and Africa
Poll: Should the EC give Opodo the green light?

LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS:
1. American Express announces huge job cuts
2. Thomson targets family market
3. 10 percent of B2C e-commerce will soon be done without a PC
4. Qantas share price drops after rumours of BA sell-off
5. BA figures show New York tops the Christmas charts
6. Tony Hughes named new Radius president
7. Travel agents go for free to Vive La France
8. Galileo introduces business travel booking tool
9. Gradient to power Delta Air Lines’ corporate loyalty programme
10. Pegasus Solutions expands in Asia Pacific
11. Starwood and five other major hotel groups join Andbook
12. 3,000 agents sign up to needahotel.com
13. New appointments

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TravelMole is a community of over 14,500 travel and tourism
professionals. For details of how to reach this audience:
https://www.travelmole.com/service/advertise

Editor’s Note

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Dear TravelMole Member

The following companies are the latest to join TravelMole’s
PressZone:

Active Hotels, “the fastest growing provider of online
reservations to the independent hotels network in the UK and is
expanding into Europe”;
Travelink, “renowned as a new tour operator system offering all
the benefits of 100 percent integration with Windows to over 45
tour operators throughout UK and Ireland”;
RWA, “an independent software company providing consulting and
software development services.”

Other PressZone members include FSS Group, Aerotech, Call-Link,
Farebase, Sabre, British Airways, Intrepid, and Swiss Tourism.

These companies see the value of placing their news in front of
TravelMole’s audience of over 14,500 members of the travel and
tourism industry.
https://www.travelmole.com/news/press

PressZone currently costs just GBP 950, and enables you to post
up to 25 press releases on your company’s own branded page
within TravelMole. Recent Presszone headlines will be included
in every Thursday edition of the TravelMole Insider.

In the New Year, the price of PressZone will increase to
GBP 1,250. For more details, contact Richard Lough,
mailto:[email protected]
https://www.travelmole.com/news/press/member.html

Best wishes

Richard Hammond
mailto:[email protected]

LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS

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1. American Express announces huge job cuts

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American Express has said it is to cut up to 6,500 jobs,
approximately half from its travel businesses because of
the ‘blow dealt to the travel industry by the 11 September
terrorist attacks’.
https://www.travelmole.com/item/66304

2. Thomson targets family market

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Thomson has carried out a review of the family holiday market
and has invested more than GBP 4 million in its children’s clubs
and holidays for summer 2002.
https://www.travelmole.com/item/66330

3. 10 percent of B2C e-commerce will soon be done without a PC

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While the PC will be the primary device used by U.S. consumers,
alternative devices will begin making inroads in e-commerce over
the next few years, according to a new Gartner report.
https://www.travelmole.com/item/66182

4. Qantas share price drops after rumours of BA sell-off

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Qantas’ share price has fallen after rumours that British
Airways is preparing to offload its 22.5 per cent stake in the
Australian airline.
https://www.travelmole.com/item/66331

5. BA figures show New York tops the Christmas charts

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Latest figures from British Airways on their most popular routes
show that New York is once again the top BA longhaul destination
this Christmas.
https://www.travelmole.com/item/66297

6. Tony Hughes named new Radius president

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Tony Hughes has been named the new head of global business
travel firm Radius, replacing interim president John Melchior.
https://www.travelmole.com/item/66118

7. Travel agents go for free to Vive La France

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Travel agents and other travel industry professionals are being
offered a free invitation to attend the first day of Vive La
France – the French lifestyle and travel show at London`s
Olympia, 18-20 January 2002.
https://www.travelmole.com/item/66104

8. Galileo introduces business travel booking tool

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Galileo has introduced a new internet-based booking tool for
small to medium sized businesses.
https://www.travelmole.com/item/66146

9. Gradient to power Delta Air Lines’ corporate loyalty programme

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Gradient, the travel e-commerce specialist acquired last year by
Sabre, has won the contract to provide the technology behind
Delta Air Lines’ re-branded European corporate loyalty programme.
https://www.travelmole.com/item/66333

10. Pegasus Solutions expands in Asia Pacific

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Pegasus Solutions has expanded in the Asia Pacific market
through new and extended contracts with 11 travel companies in
the region.
https://www.travelmole.com/item/66160

11. Starwood and five other major hotel groups join Andbook

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Andbook Online, the joint Internet venture between Accor, Le
Meridien and Hilton International, has announced further
partnership agreements with six more Global Hotel Companies.
https://www.travelmole.com/item/66332

12. 3,000 agents sign up to needahotel.com

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More than 3,000 travel agents have signed up to the online
global hotel reservation system launched in the UK and Ireland
by needahotel.com last September.
https://www.travelmole.com/item/66334

13. New appointments

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Lastminute.com has appointed a new technology chief.
https://www.travelmole.com/item/54789

REGULAR FEATURES:

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People in the Trade: Chris Kroeger

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Chris Kroeger was named senior vice president Sabre Europe,
Middle East and Africa in June 2000 and is responsible for
sales, service, marketing, e-commerce, business development, and
joint ventures throughout the region. Read his entry in
TravelMole’s Who’s Who in Travel and Tourism:
https://www.travelmole.com/cgi-site/whoswho.cgi

Site of the Week: Opodo.de

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Opodo.de is the first of the fully-functional Opodo sites to
appear, and while it’s the German site, we can presume that the
functionality and content will be consistent across all the
country specific sites. TravelMole’s reviewer, Adrian Mann,
concludes: “An excellent debut. It’s perhaps not as ‘cutting
edge’ as some were expecting, but it doesn’t suffer from this.”
Read his full review:
https://www.travelmole.com/featured_sites.html

Poll
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Should the EC give Opodo the green light?
Vote now on the TravelMole home page: https://www.travelmole.com
Results so far: Yes: 57%; No: 43%

Any Answers

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Which GDS should I use?

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Fermin Goitia is opening an internet enabled travel agency in
the beginning of 2003 and is currently working on the business
plan. Fermin does not know which GDS to use to facilitate online
bookings – for air, hotel, car, and rail.
Do you know “which offer the best for the price? Which have great
service? Also, which charge the lowest PNR?”

If you have any answers, please ‘add a comment’ to the question:
https://www.travelmole.com/community/anyanswers/index.html

CareerZONE

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This week on TravelMole there are 111 travel-related job
vacancies, all listed at:
https://www.travelmole.com/cgi-site/tmjobs.cgi
If you want to be the first to know about a new vacancy that
matches your own interests, just set up a Job Vacancy Alert and
we’ll send you an email as soon as the job is posted.
https://www.travelmole.com/cgi-site/tmjprofile.cgi?action=insert

PressZONE Members – recent postings on TravelMole:

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Active Hotels: Active Hotels attracts key name back to travel
sector
https://www.travelmole.com/news/press/activehotels_pz.html

RWA: RWA Manages GDS Selection and Migration Project For Airtours
https://www.travelmole.com/news/press/rwa_pz.html

Sabre: Alitalia implements Sabre’s booking tool for airline
alliances
https://www.travelmole.com/news/press/sabre_pz.html

Switzerland Tourism: November: News from Switzerland
https://www.travelmole.com/news/press/switzerland_pz.html

Travelink: Operators pay unnecessary system charges
https://www.travelmole.com/news/press/travelink_pz.html

University of Westminster: Dissertations at University of
Westminster https://www.travelmole.com/news/press/westminster_pz.html

Wales Tourist Board: Hotel4Wales means a Headstart4Superbreak!
https://www.travelmole.com/news/press/wales_pz.html

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For GBP 950 a year, become a PressZone Member and post
your latest news and information on TravelMole.com:
https://www.travelmole.com/news/press/member.html

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About the TravelMole Insider

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This is the 166th issue of the TravelMole Insider. We keep track
of developments of interest to people working in the travel
and tourism industry. The Managing Editor is Richard Hammond,
the News Editor is Helen Young and the StudentZone Managing
Editor is Janie Bickersteth. The TravelMole website includes the
latest trade news, previous newswires, links to relevant sites,
research information and other useful resources for the industry.

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