Hotel Reviews and Holiday Reviews

Friday, March 09, 2012

ABTA accused of cheap shot by the head of a UK holiday park group.

ABTA has been branded the "anti-British tourism alliance" by the head of a UK holiday park group.

Tony Clish, director of Park Holidays UK, has lashed out at ABTA after the trady body attacked a new government-funded campaign to promote UK tourism.

ABTA described the £4m advertising campaign by VisitEngland as "a misguided use of public funds".

Clish said the criticism by the association was "a cheap shot from a body which can't understand why people now prefer Torquay to Turkey".

He said the comments were hardly surprising, coming from a body whose members' interests were served by encouraging people to holiday abroad.

"We are at the start of a year when the international spotlight will be falling on Britain, and it's perfectly proper for the tourist board to highlight the UK's fantastic tourism product," he said.

"Our tourism industry generates over a hundred billion pounds of spending each year, supporting over two-and-a-half million people in tourism-related jobs.

"What's wrong in spending a tiny fraction of that income in order to generate even more visitors during a year when we will celebrate both the Olympics and Diamond Jubilee?"

He claimed there has been a steady rise in UK tourism in recent years, along with a sharp fall in the number of people taking overseas holidays.

This, he said, might be fuelling ABTA's outburst.

"Clearly ABTA is feeling the pressure, but people can't be blamed for re-discovering Britain as a wonderful, stress-free holiday destination," he said.

"The government is making a very shrewd move in launching this advertising campaign, for the cost is just a fraction of what is likely to be recouped by keeping the leisure pound in this country.

"So let's allow families to make their own decision about where to go - and if they choose Ramsgate over Rhodes, then I'd say they are supporting the right economy!"

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Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Ryanair and BMIBaby

The advertising watchdog has ruled against Ryanair advertisements highlighting Thomas Cook’s financial woes.

The Advertising Standards Authority received 15 complaints about newspaper adverts, headed ‘BYE BYE THOMAS COOK’, with extracts of news stories about Thomas Cook ‘in dire straits’ and ‘accumulated debts of nearly £1bn’.

One advert said ‘Ryanair – guaranteed to keep flying this Christmas’ while others stated: ‘We’re financially secure’ and ‘guaranteed to keep flying’.

Ryanair did not believe the ads denigrated Thomas Cook as they only reproduced factual information and newspaper headlines that had already been published.

However, the ASA said the header ‘BYE BYE THOMAS COOK’ pictured alongside the newspaper headlines would lead consumers to believe that Thomas Cook was likely to go into administration – so it concluded that the ads were misleading and denigratory.

It told Ryanair the ads must not appear again in their current form.

On two issues, the complaints were not upheld as the ASA concluded that the ads did not contain anything ‘that was likely to cause serious or widespread offence’ and the content was ‘unlikely to cause fear or distress’ to Thomas Cook’s customers and staff.

Elsewhere, Ryanair is remaining ‘tight-lipped’ on speculation that it could be planning to buy bmibaby, according to the This Is Leicestershire website.

On Monday bmi – the parent of bmibaby – said it had signed a preliminary ‘non-exclusive’ sale agreement with an unnamed airline based in the European Union.

bmi did not give any more details and Ryanair would not confirm or deny it was the airline in question, said the report.

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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Travel agent raided by armed robbers

Robbers armed with a gun and a knife raided a South Yorkshire travel agency, escaping with cash.

Co-op Travel in the Crosspool area of Sheffield was held up by three masked men as two female agents were cashing up at the end of the day.

The agents were unharmed but they told police they thought the gang had a gun and a knife.

According to local reports, police later found the robbers' getaway car - which had been reported stolen earlier in the day - on fire in the city.

Detectives want to hear from witnesses who saw a Seat driving to or from the travel agents on Sandygate Lane last Fiday around 5.15pm, or from anyone who saw the offenders after they torched the getaway vehicle.

CCTV footage from the shop and surrounding area is also being examined.

Detective Inspector Chris Singleton of South Yorkshire Police said: "This was a harrowing experience for the two employees, to be confronted with what appeared to be a firearm.

"Members of the public going about their everyday lives should not have to put up with this and we are extremely grateful there were no injuries.

"Fortunately nobody was injured though threats were made."

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Thomson Airways

Thomson Airways has been named the most punctual charter carrier for summer 2011.

Website flightontime.info, which analyses Civil Aviation Authority airline punctuality data, said Thomson had an average delay of 17 minutes and an on-time performance of 77%.

Overall, one in 15 Thomson charter flights was delayed by over an hour, compared with one in ten for the airline during summer 2010

Thomas Cook, runner up in the table, recorded the best improvement in average delay of the three analysed charter airlines, dropping by 43% from 35 minutes to less than 20 minutes overall.

On-time performance for Thomas Cook flights was close to the level demonstrated by Thomson at nearly 76%, though a larger proportion of longer delays adversely affected the average delay for the airline.

Monarch Airlines, in third position, improved its time-keeping significantly compared with summer 2010, reducing its average delay by over 25% to 22 minutes.

On-time performance for Monarch charter flights was 70.5%, some five percentage points lower than for second-place Thomas Cook, though in terms of the proportion of flights delayed by over an hour the airline achieved the second best performance at 8.1%.

Overall, flightontime.info said there were shorter charter airline delays in 2011 compared with the previous year.

The average charter flight operated 20.2 minutes behind schedule, among the lowest over the last decade and a significant improvement on the peak of 31 minutes in summer 2008 and 2010’s figure of 28.5 minutes.

On-time performance was 74% on average, a nine percentage point improvement on the previous summer.

Only 8% of flights were delayed by over an hour, compared with 12% in summer 2010.

Dawn Wilson, director of operations for Thomson Airways, said: ‘It is great to be recognised for the fantastic work of our airline teams, both at the airports and in head offices, ensuring our customers get away on their holiday on time.

‘We know how frustrating delays can be for holiday makers so we do everything we can to reduce waiting times when we do have to deal with unexpected delays.

‘Our hard work has certainly paid off as we are seeing a year-on-year reduction in the average delay.

‘We are continually reviewing our performance and will continue to reduce the delay time even further on flights operating across the whole of the UK.’

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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Norwegian Cruise Line

Higher prices and onboard spend helped Norwegian Cruise Line achieve a 37.1% increase in operating income last year.

The cruise line reported operating income of $316.1m (£200m) for the year to 31 December 2011, compared to $230.6m (£146.3m) in 2010.

Net income was $126.9m (£80.5m) compared to $23m (£14.6m) in in 2010, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) climbed to a record $506m (£321m) and a margin of 22.8%.

Net revenue for the year increased 10.8% primarily due to the addition of Norwegian Epic to the fleet in June 2010 along with a 3% increase in net yield, attributed primarily from higher ticket pricing and increased onboard spend.

In the fourth quarter, adjusted EBITDA increased 38.7% to $88.3m (£56m) from $63.6m (£40.3m) in 2010.

Net loss for the quarter narrowed to $1.9m (£1.2m) on revenue of $488.6m (£310m) versus a loss of $40m (£25m) on revenue of $483.6m (£307m) in 2010.

Kevin Sheehan, president and chief executive, said: ‘Looking at 2011, I am pleased to report it was another year of great results.

‘In addition to the impressive financial results for the year, our guest satisfaction scores reached new highs, confirming that our initiatives to continue to improve the vacation experience are resonating with our guests.’

2011 also saw ‘significant investments’, including a new marina, more dining facilities and a doubling of the beach area at Great Stirrup Cay, the company’s private island.

In April, Norwegian unveiled its Partners First travel agency initiative and in October it began a new advertising campaign, under the slogan ‘Cruise Like a Norwegian’.

Sheehan said these initiatives, as well as on-board improvements such as more specialty restaurants and refurbished children’s areas ‘will provide benefits in 2012 and onward’.

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Wednesday, February 01, 2012

TripAdvisor reviews could be fake say advertising watchdogs

Travel review site TripAdvisor has been told it can no longer claim to offer "trusted and honest reviews" after an investigation by advertising watchdogs found the site could not guarantee customer feedback was genuine.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it was possible some of the reviews on TripAdvisor were fake as they was no way of proving they were from genuine customers as the site doesn't vet its users.

It ordered TripAdvisor to avoid running adverts claiming its reviews were from real travellers, or were honest, real or trusted. It said this should be a warning to all websites that make claims about the reality of their user-generated content.

The ASA's investigation followed complaints from two hotels and from online reputation management company KwikChex, which represented other hoteliers, that TripAdvisor's claim to offer honest reviews was misleading as it could not be substantiated.

The advertising body acknowledged that reviewers were asked to sign a declaration that their reviews were real and that they had no incentive or competitive interest with the places commented on.

It also recognised that TripAdvisor used "advanced and highly effective fraud systems" to identify and remove fake content.

But it said it was still possible that "non-genuine" reviews could appear on the site undetected and that users might not be able to spot them.

It warned that this was particularly a problem in cases where an establishment only had a small number of reviews. It added that offering hoteliers a right to reply did not fully address the problem.

The ASA's ruling was based on a survey of the site carried out in July 2011 when it was still owned by the travel booking service Expedia. It has since been spun off as a separate business.

TripAdvisor issued the following statement in response to the ASA ruling. "We have confidence that the 50 million users who come to our site every month trust the reviews they read on TripAdvisor, which is why they keep coming back to us in increasingly larger numbers to plan and have the perfect trip."

Tripadvisor.co.uk removed the word "trust" from its homepage last year. Instead it describes itself as "the world's largest travel site" However, its international tripadvisor.com address - which is accessible in the UK - continues to describe its content as the "world's most trusted travel advice".

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