Global News

Mobile communication devices are becoming an increasingly dominant aspect of the global travel industry. Business travellers as well as holidaymakers carry smartphones, mobile phones and netbooks in their hand luggage to ensure they can be reached anywhere and at any time.

ISIC and Accor Group launch partnership with great value breakfast deals for international students at ibis, Etap Hotel, Hotel Formule1 and hotelF1 worldwide.

Harrah’s is betting on increasing international in-bound travel to its Las Vegas resort-hotels through a new alliance with Discover the World Marketing. Discover the World Marketing will provide hotel marketing/sales representation throughout its global network for Harrah’s seven Las Vegas properties--Bally’s, Caesars Palace, Flamingo, Harrah’s, Imperial Palace, Paris, and Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino

Spas, health & wellness and medical tourism are the focus of Anfas Hetex 2010, a major trade fair that attracts exhibitors and buyers from all over the world.

A major new development took place during this year’s ITB Berlin Convention at the world’s leading travel show, in the form of the first comprehensive study into corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the tourism sector. ITB Berlin is once again investigating the subject of CSR in the travel industry. As the partner of GATE e.V. in this undertaking ITB Berlin is lending its support to the symposium taking place in November, which is entitled “Sustainability all along the line? CSR in tourism supply chains”.

oneworld®, the leading quality alliance, is cutting the prices of its market-leading range of alliance fares worldwide by 10 per cent for another 10 weeks to mark its 10th birthday - and the 10th anniversary of the addition of its first airline recruits.

World major ITB Berlin, a product of Messe Berlin, has announced a co-branded show with SATTE for 2010.

Malaysia Airlines announces record profits and a place as one of the world’s top three performing airlines - all in one bumper quarter

Ahead of the UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark (December 2009), UNWTO has joined several UN agencies to release an Interagency Statement of the United Nations System: ‘Green Economy: A Transformation to Address Multiple Crises’. This statement underlines the necessity for leading economies to come together and strengthen the coordination of their respective stimulus programs to both revive economic growth and begin the transformation towards a Green Economy. Tourism is among the sectors singled out in the statement following UNWTO’s awareness raising efforts regarding tourism’s potential to play an integral role in both economic recovery and the shift towards a Green Economy.

San José, Costa Rica / Madrid, Spain, June 2009 - Given the present economic crisis, it is particularly important to implement the ethical principles stated in the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism. This is the main message to emerge from the recent meeting of the World Committee on Tourism Ethics (San José, Costa Rica, 18-19 June).

For the year 2008 ICCA's research team identified almost 800 previously unknown, regularly occuring series of association meetings that rotate between at least three different countries. "That represents more than 10% growth in our database of such events" said Martin Sirk, ICCA CEO, "and reflects the extraordinary dynamism of this market segment. Many of these events have been created as offshoots of established larger association events to service regional or precise subject-specific needs, generating new competition in the marketplace and tremendous opportunities for new business development in all regions of the world"

The BestCities Global Alliance has appointed Gary Grimmer & Company (GG&Co) as its new management company. Eight of the world's leading meetings destinations on five continents - Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dubai, Edinburgh, Melbourne, San Juan, Singapore, and Vancouver are Partners in the Alliance.

One of the world’s premier car rental companies, Europcar, has teamed up with leading global distribution system (GDS) provider, Travelport, to introduce paperless car hire bookings on the Galileo system.

New Environmental Initiatives Advance Pioneering EarthCare Program

Travelport GDS has introduced a travel industry merchandising first and technology leap forward for Air Canada® with the full market launch of Travelport Agencia™ a revolutionary travel booking solution that delivers access to the complete portfolio of Air Canada product in a seamless manner to users of Travelport’s Apollo GDS.

Airline and tourism representative responsible for all sales activities in China/Hong Kong and Australia/New Zealand

Three of the world's most popular holiday islands are lining up to join the network served by oneworld®, the leading quality global airline alliance, with Iberia Regional Air Nostrum launching flights to Corfu and Funchal in Europe and British Airways opening service to the Maldives, in the Indian Ocean. The launches of these three new routes was announced as the alliance's airlines added Benghazi and Bergen to the oneworld map.

The Chief Executive Board of Star Alliance, of which SAS Scandinavian Airlines is a founding member, has accepted the membership application of Aegean Airlines, the largest airline in Greece. This means SAS soon can offer its customers 28 new destinations in Greece. SAS currently operates 10 flights a week from both Copenhagen and Stockholm, which will connect smoothly to Aegean's wide network. Aegean's destinations include the islands of Corfu, Kefalonia, Kos, Mykonos, Rhodes and Santorini, amongst others.

Travelers can be instrumental in protecting the priceless natural heritage of the Galapagos Islands

The Global Travel & Tourism Summit calls for closer collaboration between the world's leading public- and private-sector tourism bodies