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Source: Visit Britain( International Passenger Survey, UK Tourism Survey) Cumbria Tourism (Occupancy Survey, Business Survey)

2.6 million more holidays taken as ‘lost generation’ discovers England
According to VisitEngland the increase in domestic holidays and drop in outbound travel has amounted to 2.6 million more holiday trips and more than 9.1 million extra nights holiday taken from January to June 2009 over the same period of 2008.

Further, VisitEngland focus group research, undertaken in August, indicates that attitudes to domestic travel are undergoing change. Respondents admit to often knowing more about foreign destinations than those in their home country and claim to have a genuine yearning to experience and learn more about the regions of England.

The research goes on to suggest that a ‘lost generation’ of young people confess to feeling almost embarrassed at the lack of knowledge of their own country. While older groups cited unfavourable exchange rates as the trigger for sparking interest in rediscovering classic England hotspots, as well as seeking out ‘off the beaten track’ lesser known regions.

"England is back in fashion as Brits are rediscovering the diversity and appeal of the English holiday. It’s a trend that we’ve seen developing over the course of the last few years and one which we intend to nurture with the help of the tourism industry.

"We know that people are looking for experiences tailored to their interests, be it a spiritual retreat, an adventure holiday or a chic weekend break – they are now realising that England can deliver all that and more.

"Cleary there are businesses out there still suffering, particularly those in the conference and events market so we are certainly not out of the woods. As an industry this is the time to pull together and ensure that when the economic circumstances and exchange rates change, we have a robust strategy in place to ensure that England destinations continue to attract new and repeat visitors."

James Berresford, Chief Executive of VisitEngland

Source: October 2009 www.enjoyEngland.com

Lake District makes the 'Top 10 best places to visit list' for 2010

The Lake District has today been given huge tourism boost for next year with the publication of the Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2010.

"There's much more to England's best-loved National Park than just dazzling good looks - think cast-iron literary cachet and history in abundance, not to mention gastronomic adventure and enough first-class fell-walking to fill a lifetime of visits."

The book lists Scafell Pike, England's highest mountain as the area's most ‘defining experience' followed by some ‘hearty grub and home-brewed beer at the historic Wasdale Head Inn'.

‘Essential Experiences' include tackling Striding Edge on Helvellyn, visiting Dove Cottage and Rydal Mount, cruising on Coniston Water, Osprey-spotting at Bassenthwaite Lake, and a stay at the remote Black Sail Youth Hostel at Ennerdale.

"The Lake District is already a well-established holiday spot for Brits, we've put the area on the Top 10 Regions list because we think it is a place that deserves a second and third look."

Tom Hall, Lonely Planet Travel Editor

The other destinations to make the final ten were: Alsace, France; Bali, Indonesia; Fernando de Noronha, Brazil; Goa, India; Koh Kong Conservation Corridor, Cambodia; Lake Baikal, Russia; Oaxaca, Mexico; Southern Africa; and Southwest Western Australia.
 

Source: 03 November 2009 www.cumbriatourism.org

London is named one of world's top 10 best-value destinations by Lonely Planet

The Lonely Planet guide has also given a boost to our country's capital, which has made it into the top 10 of the world's best-value destinations. Lonely Planet says London's reputation as one of the world's most expensive cities is over thanks to the plunging pound. The guide introduced its review of London by saying: "Every economic crisis has a silver lining."

"Long ludicrously expensive, London has become much more affordable for visitors from abroad, if not for its residents.

"The favourable exchange rate means that travellers will often find hotels and meals up to half the price they were a few years ago, or at least a third cheaper."

Tom Hall, Lonely Planet travel editor

Source: 02 November 2009 www.DailyMail.co.uk

London leads the way in a mixed month of performances
London hoteliers experienced in September an increase in monthly Revenue per Available Room for the first time since August 2008. Meanwhile, hotels in Budapest, Munich and Prague continued to suffer major declines in RevPAR performance.

Despite a 3.9% drop in average room rate in London, RevPAR for the month of September finished 0.5% above the same period in 2008 due to a 3.9 percentage point increase in occupancy levels. Furthermore, profit per available room (GOP PAR) in the UK capital grew by 3.3% in the month of September 2009, to £94.39. This was made possible by a decrease in the level of payroll as a percentage of total revenue, down to 22.4% from 24.7% in September 2008.

“Following a summer of fluctuating price and volume, it was back to business for London hoteliers in September. Twelve months on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the immediate impact of the banking crisis, London hoteliers are growing profits.”

Jonathan Langston, managing director, TRI Hospitality Consulting.

At the end of the third quarter, the impact of the economic downturn on the primary measure of profitability for hoteliers across Europe is clear. Year to date figures show double digit decline in GOP PAR is a common factor in all but one of the surveyed cities, the exception being London (-8.2%). More apparent is the massive year on year declines experienced in previously buoyant markets such as Amsterdam (-24.4%), Budapest (-33.9%), Munich (-36.4%), Prague (-38.6%) and Vienna (-41.3%).
 

Source: 3 November 2009 www.4hoteliers.com

TripAdvisor influences £500m of corporate hotel choices
TripAdvisor and similar user review websites now influence corporate decisions on hotels to the tune of £500m a year, according to research firm BDRC.

In a BDRC survey of 1,000 business travellers, 28% said they actively seek advice on websites featuring consumer reviews; 46% were influenced in their hotel selection by consumer reviews, while 41% decided to change their original hotel choice after reading about other travellers’ experiences.

The influence of word of mouth recommendations - both on and off line – outweighs the star ratings offered by the AA and RAC and official ratings and advice from travel agents, the survey revealed.

With 40% of respondents citing them as “very reliable”, personal recommendations were the most trusted source of information, followed by information supplied by the company business travellers were visiting (33%).

Nearly a quarter (23%) of business travellers said they placed their faith in reviews by total strangers on sites such as TripAdvisor. Only 13% believe that others’ opinions on user review sites are “unreliable”, compared to just 4.5% who remain sceptical about personal recommendations.

“These figures show that the influence that sites featuring consumer reviews and opinions have is absolutely huge for both leisure and business travellers.

"In the past a guest’s role as either an advocate or detractor was limited to their personal network but now as more and more business travellers log on to read user-review sites, the impact they are having on corporate bookings is enormous.”

Matt Costin, director of hospitality research at BDRC
 

Source: 09 October 2009 www.caterersearch.com

Demand for passports drops ten per cent due to recession
The demand for passports has fallen by more than 10 per cent over the past two years as recession-hit Britons choose to 'staycation' or put off expensive renewals.

More than 12million Britons chose to holiday in the UK this summer instead of taking their annual break abroad. And the increase in passport prices is also putting holidaymakers off renewing until the last possible moment before a trip.
 

The cost of an adult passport has increased from £66 in 2006 to £72 in 2007. With another rise earlier this year, the price currently stands at £77.50.

Only 5.23 million passports were issued in the year 2008-09 - compared to 6.2 million in 2006-07.
 

"What has been happening in the last two years is that demand for passports has been falling and we think that is because, as the recession has come on, people are delaying renewing their passports."
 

Sir David Normington, Home Office permanent secretary (before the latest price hike):

He also claimed the price of the passport was considered particularly high when compared with other modern holiday costs - such as travel on budget airlines.
 

Source: 27 October 2009 www.DailyMail.co.uk

SPECIAL FEATURE: Airline Update

Darling admits APD will help pay for banking crisis
Chancellor Alistair Darling has admitted that Air Passenger Duty (APD) is a tax to help fight the banking crisis, according to reports.

"I am quite blunt about it, we need to raise money to pay for some things we have done... If unemployment goes up there is a cost obviously to the family, there is cost in increased benefits, Northern Rock has cost a lot of money."

Alistair Darling speaking in London last month

A Treasury spokesman confirmed to Travel Weekly APD has always been a "revenue raising instrument".

Source: 2 November 2009 www.TravelWeekly.co.uk 

Ryanair Predicts 20% drop in Fares Over Next Six Months
Ryanair's fares are expected to drop by 20% over the next six months, even though it means the airline will make a loss during that period. According to chief executive Michael O'Leary the airline's fares have already fallen 17% this financial year. Despite this, the airline saw its net profits increase by 80%, largely thanks to a 42% reduction in fuel costs.

"We expect average fares to fall by up to 20% during quarters three and four, which will result in both these quarters making a loss.

"Recent weeks have seen the demise of SkyEurope and Seagle Air in Slovakia, and MYAir in Italy, and we expect further casualties this winter.

"Ryanair is the only major European airline to increase traffic and profits. We are winning substantial market share from the big three, high-fare, flag-carrier groups led by Air France, British Airways and Lufthansa and we expect this trend to continue."

Michael O'Leary, Chief Executive of Ryanair

O'Leary's confident predictions come despite his admission in the results that traffic figures through UK airports are expected to drop by 10% over the next six months.
 

Source: 2 November 2009 www.TravelWeekly.co.uk

American Airlines Returns To Manchester
American Airlines has announced it will add a new service between Manchester and New York JFK, just a week after Delta announced it was withdrawing from the route. American’s new non-stop daily summer seasonal service is scheduled to start on 16 May until 30 September 2010.

Delta’s Manchester-JFK flights are scheduled to end on 8 January. The airline blamed a drop in demand over the winter for its decision. Manchester Airport lost a British Airways daily flight to New York last year. Bmi has also withdrawn all its transatlantic flights from Manchester over the past 12 months.
 

Source: 18 September 2009 www.cnntraveller.com

Easyjet profits plunge amid high fuel costs
EasyJet's profits have dropped by 50% to 54.7 million for the year to September, despite increases in passenger numbers, load factors and market share. The airline blamed higher fuel costs for the drop in profits, with fuel costs for the year £86.1 million higher than last year.

However, a number of key indicators were positive. The airline managed to increase its market share of the overall European short- haul market, carrying 45.2m passengers during the year, 3.4% ahead. Load factors were up by 1.2% to 85.5%.

Overall capacity, measured in terms of seats flow, was 1.8% up. In the UK, capacity at Gatwick was increased by 12%, giving easyJet a 30% share of the airport. Elsewhere, it reduced capacity at weaker performing markets such as Luton and the UK regions.

Source: 17 November 2009 www.Travolution.co.uk

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Firefox add-on helps plan trips and find travel deals
Focusing more on travellers' own search process, the time they spend scouring the web for ideas, comes Gliider, a Firefox plug-in aimed at organizing all the best results in a single, online place. Gliider lets travellers keep track of all the interesting ideas they come across while researching and planning a trip.

When they're surfing the web and come across a hotel, restaurant or photo they want to remember as they make their plans, they need only click the Gliider icon. Simply drag and drop whatever you want to save, creating a neater, more organized alternative to a list of bookmarks. Users can share their trip files, create a summary travel document PDF, and tracks deals on hotels relevant to a specific trip that allows users to take advantage of them in a single click.
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Campsite directory with a fresh pitch
The UK Caravan Club reported a 40% rise in bookings this year over 2008 figures, while according to the National Office of Statistics, the amount of Brits travelling overseas fell by over 7 million compared with last year. To capitalise on this, camping and caravanning site directory Pitchup.com is making it easier than ever for UK "staycationers" to settle on the right destination.

Launched at the beginning of this holiday season, the website lists over 5,000 camping and caravanning sites around the UK and Ireland. Users can easily narrow down the selection using a whopping 79 different criteria, including whether the site has wifi or disabled facilities, and whether campfires are allowed. Users can also search by proximity to attractions such as beaches, battlefields or national parks. And access tickets for upcoming events in the area.
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Crowds map filming locations across the world
Filmaps is rapidly creating a crowd-powered database of filming locations around the world. Users can search by location or film title to bring up a Google Map that features location photos from Panoramio and videos from YouTube. Filmaps adds social elements through Facebook and Twitter connections, as well as embeddable location widgets.

There are hints on the website that Barcelona-based Filmaps may have plans to offer film location tours, which would make sense. Its members are already mapping out the routes, and the site would be a perfect marketing tool. What other niches could you map your way into?
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Source: Springwise

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