Travel Extra Sept 2017

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U CRUISE MSC’S TWO NEW SHIPS O E Y D TRANS-ATLANTIC GETS SERIOUS A TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS FOR AGENTS TR PER PA ITAA conference topics

Dublin airport’s record year

AerCap scales heights

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION Free

SEPTEMBER 2017

VOLUME 22 NUMBER 8

The fast changing world of beds & technology

Bedbank check

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NEWS

Month of Miami Aer Lingus flights launch on September 1st

PASSPORT Online passport renew-

als now account for 17pc of all applications, ahead of initial projections. Minister Simon Coveney said: “the target turnaround time for online renewal is ten working days plus postage. In actual fact, 90pc of online applications are currently being processed within just five working days. We are also meeting the target turnaround time of fifteen working days for Passport Express renewals, despite the extremely high volumes being received. Firsttime applications and applications to renew lost or stolen passports take longer because extra checks are necessary.” The Passport Service has already issued 500,000 passports in 2017, with applications up 10pc.

MADRID has asked Spain’s anti-trust watchdog to investigate whether Uber’s new airport transport service violates fair competition laws.

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Aer Lingus will have daily flights to Florida via orlando and Miami

er Lingus now have a daily service to Florida through winter with the commencement of Aer Lingus flight to Miami on September 1.

The airline says seasonal bookings during Thanksgiving and Christmas

are particularly high. Aer Lingus Miami service is aimed at cruise passengers.

As Yvonne Muldoon says “about 70pc of cruises, and there are 76 of them, which go out of Miami go on Saturdays which is why we chose

Wednesday and Friday flights.”

The route has beaten expectations and we have had great support both from the travel trade and the cruise companies. We will be as pro active as we possibly can with the travel trade.”

THE KEY NEW DESTINATIONS 2017

AGADIR Already served by Sunway, Air Arabia will join them on the route 2w in winter

ICELAND New flights from Cork and Belfast, Iceland tourism has trebled in recent years.

PHUKET New one-stop option via Istanbul from July

Ryanair and KLM (4 daily) are competing with Aer Lingus.

from July.

PROVIDENCE Norwegian flights from four Irish airports.

AMSTERDAM Now

DOHA The big marquee new

destination for 2017, there is a visafree stopover available.

HARTFORD Daily from Aer Lingus since September.

KRABI One stop through Doha MIAMI Aer Lingus’s marquee route from the autumn, opening up Florida and cruise opportunities.

MUNICH Ryanair and Tran-

savia now compete on a route dominated by Aer Lingus and Lufthansa.

NAPLES New Ryanair service commences 2w in winter.

Falcon is fully bonded and licensed by CAR (TO 021).

USA

reported 22,100 visitors from Ireland in January 2017, up 0.9pc. Overall visits were up 2pc, the first month of growth in total US visits since June 2016, although key European markets are down, England by 9pc, Germany by 7.4pc, and France by 3.1pc.

GERMANY says overnight stays are up 3pc for January-June 2017 to 36.7m.

FLORIDAGovernor Rick Scott announced that Florida has set another record by welcoming the highest number of visitors of any six months in the state’s history with 60.7m visitors.

VATICAN fountains were turned off during the Italian drought.

SPLIT New Aer Lingus service NEW ZEALAND Tourism’s new

to Croatia.

WESTCHESTER the Stewart International hinterland.

SUMME R on sale ‘18 now

DISCOVER MEXICO’S CARIBBEAN COAST DIRECT FROM DUBLIN.

IRELAND finished top of Hostelworld’s list of most travelled nations per capita, followed by 2 Australia, 3 New Zealand, 4 England, 5 Canada, 6 Netherlands, 7 Switzerland, 8 Scotland, 9 Sweden and 10 Denmark. Travel Extra’s own research usually places Ireland in second place behind Norway.

ad showing a woman about to drink water out of her hand from a stream in their latest ‘100pc pure’ promotion led to complaints.

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 4

THE KNOWLEDGE

Travel Extra Clownings, Straffan, Co Kildare (+3531) 2913707 Fax (+3531) 2957417 Managing Editor: Gerry O’Hare gerry@travelextra.ie Editor: Eoghan Corry eoghan.corry@ travelextra.ie Publisher: Edmund Hourican edmund@bizex.ie Sales Director: Maureen Ledwith maureen@bizex.ie Sales Manager Paulette Moran paulette@bizex.ie t: +353 (0)1 291 3702 Accounts and Advertising: Maria Sinnott maria@bizex.ie Sunday Supplement & Online: Mark Evans markevanspro@gmail.com Chief Features Writer: Anne Cadwallader anne@travelextra.ie Contributors : Eanna Brophy eanna@travelextra.ie Marie Carberry marie@travelextra.ie Carmel Higgins carmel@travelextra.ie Cauvery Madhavan cauvery@travelextra.ie Sean Mannion sean@grafacai.ie Ida Milne ida@travelextra.ie Catherine Murphy cathmurph@yahoo.com

Travel Extra takes no responsibility for errors and omissions.

Distribution Manager: Shane Hourican shane@bizex.ie Origination: Typeform

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Contact +353872551675 if you have difficulty getting Travel Extra.

CONTENTS

3 News Where to go,h ow much to pay 6 Hotels: News 8 Postcards: News from the trade

www.travelextra.ie

12 Destination: Australia 16 Cruise: Norwegian coast18 Accommodation: Bedbank special 22 Technology: What;s new 26 Afloat: Cruise and ferry news

28-32 Flying: Airline and airport news 34 Global Village Inside travel 36 Window seat: Our columnists 37 Pictures: Out and about

Deep into Dynamic

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he number of hotel beds that are available to agents through the various booking agents is gargantuan.

Some of the most successful travel agencies in the current market are those whose business model is based on dynamic packaging. It is now 80pc of travel agents’ buisness.

All of the dynamic packaging agencies, big and small, have bespoke systems that can build millions of offers and options.

So how does a perplexed agent handle these options?

CHOOSE your

market. Either find a niche area or find where the masses are going. If you cannot think of one, four-star all-inclusive is a good place to start.

Aim for the general family and couples market.

DECIDE who you

are going to work with.

It is sensible to deal with a handful of decent bed banks that you trust rather than plunge into the great unknown. No matter what supplier they are using nowadays, an agent can offer customers hundreds of thousands of hotel options at a click. Often, only a few dozen of those count in the Irish market. There are a small number of favourite hotels that crop up again and again on wish lists of Irish customers at the key destinations.

Even the most exotic locations have only a few hotels that really matter to the Irish consumer.

coverage and public liability insurance.

LOOK at the paperwork and see if it reflects what you are doing in practice. Make sure you are always acting as an agent, both on paper and off it.

Pasea Huntingdon beach, California

DEVELOP your

sales technique. Agents can still persuade customers that they are the best place to book and that they shouldn’t worry that suppliers are named on the paperwork.

DON’T

be afraid to talk price. Even though the internet is awash with direct offers, today’s technology means a good agent can tell every customer with confidence that they can find them the best price. When a customer looks up the internet, the price could be different to what it is in the next hour. If you look at a destination and find a good price, buy it or tell the customer to buy it.

With dynamic packaging a price is likely to go up rather than down.

GET the right tech-

nology. Better technology gives agents a lot more flexibility to offer a wider range of products.

It is the key to how much product you can access and how quickly you can do so. It puts an agent in control of their business

and, more importantly their margin.

CHARGES

Ask whether the bed bank is buying its own stock or whether it is buying from another bed bank. They may have different cancellation charges, and these could be passed on to the agent without you knowing it.

KNOW your cus-

tomer, and keep it that way. A direct seller can never get to know your customer as well as you do (and many have tried and failed). No internet or online travel agent will know your local airport and its routes and its routes as you do, particularly if many operators don’t fly from there (departures from regional airports such as Kerry are cheaper than from main airports at this time of the year).

SHOW the value

of the flights you source for your customers by comparing them to more expensive ones earlier or later that day. The process if providing good value for money starts

with the best flights. It convinces the customer that you can offer a better holiday at a better price.

FEES When you

charge a consultancy fee, make sure it is clear in the price. Don’t impose your own amendment or cancellation fees.

SELL the extras. For

such an obvious way to increase commission, suppliers say many agents still do not offer products such as transfers and car hire during consultations. Agents do not make the most of what they can do when the customer is in front of them. After sorting out the flights and accommodation, ask the simple question: what do you want to do?

UPGRADES

Use a dynamic package to get a better price or give added value to the customer. The more you add, the more value you can give.

GET the necessary legal paperwork and business infrastructure in place, such as CAR

INVOICE diligently. It is more important than ever that agents make sure their invoicing and terms and conditions are clear, otherwise they could find themselves liable if a supplier fails. Your invoices and terms and conditions must clearly state whether you are acting as the agent or principal. In particular do not confuse booking confirmations with receipts.

KNOW the law.

Making sure you operate legally can take a significant amount of research. While dynamic packaging allows agents to compete with internet pricing, agents need to be vigilant about their adherence to legal and industry standards.

AVOID marking up or trying to control or change the price of the products.

AVOID picking

elements of the product, bundling them up and selling them as an inclusive package.

COMPETE If

you do not have the technological might to take on the big online dynamic packaging agents, you can still use dynamic packaging to beat the agency selling packages down the road.

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NEWS

www.travelextra.ie

France still leads

Resurgent France and Spain compete for tourism lead

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nternational figures for 2017 are likely to see Spain run france close as the world’s favourite tourist detsinations, but a small rise in french numbers means that France is unlikely to be overtaken.

After a “catastrophic” 2016 for tourism following a series of terrorist attacks in France, turism is up 6.4pc for the first half of 2017. If the trend continues that will bring it close to 89.2m for the year. Spain will overtake the USA on 83.7m for second place if the current trend, up 11.4pc, continues, wth the USA on 74.4m. .

According to figures for the first half of 2017, released this week by France’s Regional Tourism Committee visitors to Paris and the surrounding Île de France region are up 14.6pc and have hit a 10-year high.

US president Donald Trump told Americans to stop visiting France at a rally in Maryland, declaring: “Paris Vanessa Renaud and new London based director Stephane Ballot is no longer Paris” but visits rom the of Atout France during Rendez Vous France 2017 in Rouen USA are up 20pc. The French government launched a €10m campaign with Paris and Île de France authorities in January to woo tourists back to the IRELAND’S capital amidst security fears.

FAVOURITES Spain was visited by 928,960 Irish in the first six months of 2017, up 18.2pc and is likely to pass 2m for DESTINATIONS the year. Irish travel to Turkey is recovering slightly in England 1,836,000 2017 after declining to half of its peak figure of 114,000 Spain 1,740,000 amid security feaes and as direct access optionns de- France 550,800 USA 360,000 cline to key south western resorts.

While Turkish air- Italy 351900 TOURISM IN 2016 lines resumed double Portugal 283,000 daily to Istanbul, Germany 194,000 1 France 83.8m (down 0.8pc) Irish holiday makers Wales 135,000 2 USA 75.6m (down 2.4pc) once had a choice of Netherlands 118,000 3 Spain 75.1m (up 10.1pc) eight weekly charters Scotland 109,000 4 China 59.4m (up 4.5pc) to south-west Tur- Greece 74,000 5 Italy 54.8m (up 8pc) key. This fell to just Turkey 71,000 6 Germany 38.1m (up 9pc) two weekly charters Thailand 66,000 7 Britain 36.8m (up 7pc) in 2017 to Izmir in- Poland 66,000 8 Mexico 35m (up 9pc) cluding a scheduled Austria 59,000 9 Thailand 34m (up 14.1pc) flight operating with Australia 58,000 Belgium 56,000 10 Russia 30.4m (down 3pc) a charter license.

VOLCANIC PROBLEMS

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olcano Bay waterpark new virtual queue technology continues to cause problems.

Univerals’s new resort charged a premium because it billed itself as a queue-free experience.

Guests handed TapuTapu wristbands on the way in would be able to reserve spaces in a virtual queue for the signature slides

Problems that emerged on the opening day could take months or years to fix. capacity issue. There were not enough attractions to spread across its thousands of daily visitors to prevent long gaps between signature ride reservations.

One well prublicised review: “one ride had a 410 minute wait and since you can only queue for one ride at a time, that’s your

day gone. To make matters worse, there is no one on the ride, it’s completely empty. “We queued for an hour and a half for Punga Racer then they closed the tide so it’s back to the start for us. So basically one ride in the whole day.”

The new park offer body slides, lazy rivers, wave pools, and a water coaster that were already available at area parks.

QATAR scrapped visas for Irish tourists

with immediate effect. Citizens of 47 countries can enter visa-free for an initial 30 days on single or multiple trips, and can extend that for a further 30 days. Citizens of 33 countries can obtain a visa waiver for 180 days. Qatar is new the most open country in the region.

LONDON

announced that the process of filling in a landing card before arriving in the country will be scrapped for 16m non-EU travellers. Since 1971, non-European travellers have been required to fill out a landing card with basic information about themselves and their travel,

VENEZUELA The Department of Foreign Affairs advised against all but essential travel to Venezuela.

CAR RENTAL A survey by Enterprise Rent-A-Car showed 65pc of Irish people driving abroad this summer are likely to rent a vehicle compared to the European average of just 48pc. Irish holidaymakers abroad are twice more likely to rent a car than German (30pc), French (38pc) motorists, Spanish (55pc) and English (60pc) motorists.

SWITZERLAND The world’s longest pedestrian suspension bridge opened in the Swiss Alps

EUROPEAN RAIL AT YOUR FINGERTIPS! www.voyages-sncf.eu 076 604 2739

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 06

TECHNOLOGY

Planes, trains & GDS’s How central reservation systems evolved from airline’s fight for dominance & market share

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he business of aggregating and delivering comparative data on air travel has evolved as rapidly as the technology on which it depends. Travel was always at the cutting edge of technology. Airlines were the first big customers of the early computer networks. Irish innovators were among those who drove the technology.

Sabre and Galileo were the ipneers. In 1959 when American Airlines set up the first computer network with remote terminals, eventually to become Sabre, and 1971 when United Airlines launched the system that would eventually form the basis of Galileo.

Instant data was now available to the travel trade on a convenient terminal, but did not allow the agents to book tickets on competitor airlines.

In Europe, this worked well with legacy flag-carriers. The United States was more complicated.

With each airline operating their own database, the system needed to be aggregated and made interactive enough to take and recognise bookings.

Due to the high mar-

ket penetration of the Sabre and Apollo systems, other airline groups started their own systems to gain market share in the increasingly lucrative computer reservation system market.

Aer Lingus, interestingly, went it alone with the Astral computer system which was sold on to 20 other airlines at one stage.

Galileo and Amadeus both date from 1987: Galileo was formed by nine European carriers, British Airways, KLM , Alitalia, Swissair, Austrian Airlines, Olympic, Sabena, Air Portugal and Aer Lingus. A consortium led by Air France and Lufthansa developed Amadeus.

Three years later, in 1990, Delta, Northwest Airlines, and Trans World Airlines formed Worldspan and Galileo was merged with United Airlines Apollo system in 1992. y 1992 four main intermediaries monopolised global distribution systems, Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo and Worldspan.

They providing the technology to travel websites to search, price and book flights, hotels, cars,

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trains and cruises. Within three years airlines ways looking at ways of using the internet to bypass the high GDS charges.

Worldspan and Galileo were both integrated into Travelport in 2006, when the four became three.

Analysts wonderwed would the next step drive these intermediaries out of the market.

It was speculated that airlines, tour operators, hotels and travel websites would somehow be able to combine to deliver their efficiencies to

the travel agent, or even more ambitiously, to the consumer.

American Airlines and others tried to bypass the GDSs more recently and have the travel websites link directly to the airlines’ own reservation systems to save cost.

Europe proved a more complex market than America so the GDSs are more important here. Air France is good at selling its flights directly to customers in France, because it is the best known and most popular brand,

but it needs the GDSs to bring in business from Ireland. For Aer Lingus, the reverse is true.

Ryanair took their inventory offline altogether in 1996, eventually returning to Travelport in March 2014. Ryanair fares will be on Amadeus by the end of 2014. There are separate Ryanair terms and conidtions.

They keep their lowest promotional fares separate from the GDS. Aer Lingus also went offline between 2002 and 2009. While they are on

SCREEN GRAB: A 30 SECOND HISTORY OF TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY 1959 American Airlines set up first computer network with travel agency terminals (Sabre – the Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment), completed 1964.

1963 Trans-Canada Airlines bookings computerised.

1968 Delta launched the Delta Automated Travel Account System 1971 TWA set up the Programmed Airline Reservation System 1971 Apollo system launched by United Airlines, the system that would eventually become known as Galileo.

1976 Travicom the first multi-access central reservations system, founded

by BA and British Caledonian, based on Apollo & eventually to become part of Galileo.

1987 Galileo formed by nine European carriers, British Airways, KLM Royal

Dutch Airlines, Alitalia, Swissair, Austrian Airlines, Olympic, Sabena, Air Portugal and Aer Lingus.

1987 Amadeus founded by a consortium led by Air France and Lufthansa 1990 Worldspan founded by Delta, Northwest Airlines, and TWA. 1992 Galileo merges with Apollo system (United Airlines).

1996 Ryanair takes inventory offline 2002 Aer Lingus goes offline.

2001 Travel Distribution Services acquires Galileo 2006 Travelport formed agrees to merge Galileo with Worldspan 2010 Aer Lingus bring inventory back online, American Airlines attempt to take inventory offline from Travelport.

2014 Ryanair bring inventory back online on Travelport with Amadeus to follow.

GDS systems outide of Ireland, Irish agents do not have access to their inventory.

It is no longer regarded as an option for a low cost point to point airlines to stay aloof from reservation systems, most two sector airline books are too complex for a simple internet engine, especially when issues like transfer times come into play.

The “direct is better” argument is seldom heard nowadays and not just because airlines have had another think.

The naysayers underestimated the cacophony of the new internet age. The business of selling and buying a holiday became, if anything, more complicated.

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ravel agent and consumer buying one both got more access to information, but the sheer volume of background noise drowned out the ability to make an informed choice.

Meanwhile a whole raft of travel websites emerged who found it more convenient if the airlines kept providing reservations via the GDSs rather than deal with them individually, to avoid the expensive process of having to create their own data streams.

Further databases emerged feeding these websites. These databases were, in turn, bought up by each other or by traditional GDSs. n Amadeus is used by Air-Savings, Anyfares, CheapOair, CheapTickets, ebookers, Expedia, Flights, Jetabroad, Opodo and Tripsetc. n Travelport is used by BookIt.com, CheapOair, ebookers, Expedia, Flight Centre, Hotels, Hotwire, Orbitz (of

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TECHNOLOGY which it owns 48pc), and Trailfinders. n Sabre is used by Lastminute.com, Priceline, Travel Guru, Travelocity (which it owns) and Zuji.

Amadeus and Travelport came to dominate the Irish GDS market as Sabre almost opted out altogether, although they have a full time representative in Ireland.

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hen IATA introduced their New Distribution Capability last year, it sent a shudder through the GDS sector.

But GDSs say that they already have products in the market with capabilities that IATA says its (NDC) will deliver.

Cork based Fergal Kelly, vice president of content for Travelport, said that Travelport is already implementing the capabilities that are

IATA panel discussion on technology offered by NDC using readily available technologies and standards.

“The technology barrier which IATA claims as the reason for NDC being implemented, simply does not exist,” Kelly said.

Amadeus said that it, too, already has capabilities that NDC claims it

alone would enable.

Amadeus added that it supports the goals of NDC “both philosophically and with the development of our own platforms, where most of these functionalities are already available.”

NDC is an initiative to develop an XML-based language standard for

travel agent distribution, for the purpose of selling a wider range of airline products and services through travel agents.

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here are more lucrative ways that the airline and GDS industries can combine.

More airlines are putting their ancillary products into GDSs, making it easier for agents to book them.

Airlines and GDSs are finally filling the “black hole of ancillaries, Jay Sorensen, president of IdeaWorks said recently.

He said that adding a la carte features to travel

agency systems has been the “holy grail” of airline distribution. Some ancillaries have profit margins of 100pc.

Travelport’s Merchandising Platform is now used by 50 airlines and was instrumental in closing breakthrough deals with lowcost airlines Easyjet and, eventually, Ryanair in March 2014.

Amadeus Light Ticketing, launched with Easyjet, enabled comparison between low cost and legacy fares. Amadeus currently sells ancillary services such as lounge access and checked bags and sports equipment for 14 airlines, through travel agencies in 45 countries, up from just 28 in 2012.

Sabre is currently booking ancillary services for nine airlines, with three more soon to be online and 21 more in the pipeline.

AUSTRALIA FOR LESS

Get further discounts on already great rates in Australia Book online at hertz.ie/australiaoffer or call 053 915 2500 Terms & Conditions apply. Book in August for travel up to the end of November.

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POSTCARDS FROM THE TRAVEL SCENE

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he attraction of Namibia was showcased at a media event in Dublin by Marc Reading and Eva Adriaans.

Marc Reading is a veteran promoter of Africa and teamed up with his colleague Tony Flynn of Ethiopian Airlines, one of four airlines who offer one-stop options to Namibia from Dublin, in this case through Addis Adaba (the others are Amsterdam, Doha and

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irtuoso in Las Vegas brought 5,670 travel professionals, including 2,714 travel advisors and 2,404 preferred partners, from 103 countries at the Bellagio Resort & Casino, ARIA Resort & Casino and Vdara Hotel & Spa for Virtuouso Travel week.

The event was re-titled to make a luxury travel conference sound more like fashion week. Attendees engaged in a series of four-minute “speed dating”

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ndonesian tourism hosted Irish travel trade at a golf event in Portmarnock to showcase the country’s 160 world class golf courses.

Igde Pitana Deputy tourism Minister of Indonesia said Indonesia is haven for golfers. “Which is why golf can be developed into sport tourism.

Golf is similar to yacht tourism, both have communities all over the world.

Their target market is middle-upper

Frankfurt) Eva pointed out that Nambia is ten times the size of Ireland and has a small population by regional standards of 2.4m.

Picture shows Marc Reading of Talking Stick Marketing, Eva Adriaans of Sense of Africa, Karl Lonergan of Club Travel and Tony Flynn of Ethiopian Airlines at the Namibia media event in the Horbour Master.

meetings, 10-minute meetings, and a series of Globetrotting sessions.

Picture shows Siobhan Byrne Learat of Adams & Butler with Nathan Lump, Editor in Chief, Travel + Leisure at a reception at the Grand Patio, Bellagio during Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas where she was awarded an A-List category award by the magazine.

The delegates were hosted at Bellagio, Vdara, and Aria.

class people and they have strong presence in countries such as Japan, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia,” Picture shows John Spollen of Cassidy Travel, Maria Mayabubun Deputy Director of Wonderful Indonesia tourism ministry, Martin Skelly of Navan Travel, Igde Pitana Deputy tourism Minister of Indonesia, Gordon Penney and Philip Airey of Sunway.

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nsight Vacations hosted 58 travel trade and media as they launched their 2018 USA and Canada brochure at a lively event in The Residence in Dublin.

Sharon Jordan will be leaving on maternity leave soon, Eilish Wall will be stepping into her role as senior sales director, and Louise Jordan, a former colleague at Sunway, will be joining the Travel Corporation on maternity cover.

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an Short and Natalie Dorrington of Crystal Cruises hosted 30 agents and key customers on board Crystal Symphony in Dublin.

Crystal Symphony is going in for an refurb this September and will reemerge with new dining options, an entirely new class of room designated as Seabreeze penthouse suites, capacity reduced from 922 passengers down to 848 and unlimited, free internet for the

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isney invited 46 travel trade and partners including a large representation of their Dublin team to tour Disney Magic on her stop in Dublin.

Magic is known as the Art Deco ship, in contrast to her sister ship, Disney Wonder, which is decorated in the Art Nouveau style. It has a redundant funnel, in a bid to recreate the cruise ships of Walt Disney’s youth which he

The 2018 USA & Canada Premium Escorted Journeys brochure features 16 itineraries throughout North America.

“We believe travel agents are the heart of our distribution and we are 100% focused on the trade,” Sharon Jordan said. Picture shows the Travel Corporation team at the event, Paul Melinis. Louise Jordan, Eilish Wall, Charlie McNally, Sharon Jordan, Merissa Beck, and Egle Godliauskaite.

duration of each cruise.

Silk Road will be replaced by a new Nobu venue entitled Umi Uma. The Lido will be restyled and reorganised as The Marketplace, offering buffet style tapas and ceviche during the day, and become a Brazilian styled steak housea churascaria at night. Picture shows Nan Shortt, Natalie Dorrington and Alissa Gustafsso of Crystal Cruises on board Crystal Symphony in Dublin.

hankered after. The ship got a waiver for yellow lifeboats which, along with the black, red, and white colors of the ship itself, match the colors of Mickey Mouse instead of the standard safety orange.

Magic sailed Magic sailed Disney Cruise Lines’ inaugural Northern Europe itineraries last year. Picture shows Mark Frias-Robies and Karl Moen of Disney at the breakfast event.

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 9

POSTCARDS FROM THE TRAVEL SCENE

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ublin’s House venue turned South Beach as Yvonne Muldoon, Jenny Rafter and friends launched the latest Aer Lingus destination in North America – Miami.

Many of the passengers will be tying in with cruise departures from the city, and the route has already attracted many non-Irish passengers, who will be connecting from British cities, plus many through Paris’s Charles de Gaulle air-

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onan Keating. Riverdance and Affiniti were lined up as the star attractions at the Qatar Airlines Gala ball in the Intercontinental Hotel in Dublin.

There was no doubting the star pf the how: Akbar Al Baker, the effusive CEO of the airline who commented how the average age of 26 on Qatar airlines compares with their counterparts on US carriers “you are served by grandmothers

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en years have gone by in the blink of an eye and we’re looking forward to the next ten,” Beatrice Cosgrove said as she celebrated ten years of Etihad’s service on Dublin-Abu Dhabi with an event for travel trade.

Etihad hosted 40 key travel trade members and partners at an event to celebrate the decade on the Dublin-Abu Dhabi route with some retro photographs and a hand drawn video.

port, Yvonne Muldoon said that the decision to fly on Wednesdays and Fridays was designed to tie in with cruise ship Saturday departures.

Aer Lingus will be hosting agents on the route during September and the airline team says they intend working closely with the trade.

Picture shows Yvonne Muldoon of Aer Lingus watching Seb Sarrasin, Greater Miami CVB.

on US carriers.” The Chief Commercial Officer for Ireland has not joined Qatar yet, but Jonathan Harding and Glen Mintrim were on hand. Picture shows the Qatar Airways Dublin crew, Richard Bradley, Alexandra Dubarry, Alexander Kane, Curtis Smith, Amanda Stokes, Andrei Balla, Barbara Casanova, Patrick McKinney, Denise Dillon, Jenifer Pease, Michelle Gibbons, Jose Villar and Laura Yeates.

Picture shows the Etihad team, Etihad team who hosted 40 travel agents in the Shelbourne Hotel an event to celebrate ten years on the Dublin-Abu Dhabi route: Robert Duff, Valerie Murphy, Lisa Hammond, Lisa O’Leary Beatrice Cosgrove, Shannon O’Dowd and Mo Rahma.

Abu Dhabi’s new terminal would have been due to open last month but has been delayed until February 2019.

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DESTINATION AUSTRALIA

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ourism Australia had a very successful product but a problem. They had three amazing pieces of product, the reef, the rock and the bridge.

The problem was moving the international tourist, particularly the short stay international tourist beyond that.

Australia has long been a backpack venue before the Irish started moving there in vast numbers around 2002.

The figures were astonishing, peaking at 72,000. We became top 10 source destination for Australian tourism.

The Irish backpackers also moved in large numbers, making Ireland the second or third biggest taker of the one year (average 11,000 a year) and two year (average 4,000 a year) visa schemes.

Australia liked the Irish because we spent more than comparable European markets and dispersed beyond the gateway points of Sydney and Melbourne.

You could find Irish tourists, as well as the ubiquitous back packers, everywhere.

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ourism Australia’s wants to grow international visitation by 7pc and spend from $115 billion to $140 billion by 2020.

The big question is how they will treat traditional loyal and high-spending, but distant, markets like Ireland as they chase the more populous and more local Asian markets.

Australia’s response was to work closely with the trade in

Lunch under the Bilboa tree

Sound bites Five years ago Australia looked to food to grow tourism. How did the aftertaste feel?

Australia was one of the first tourist boards to recognise the value of food in driving tourism the more mature markets. In 2015 they recruited trainers for Australian specialist campaign in key 17 markets, including Ireland.

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ustralia expert is a very useful tool to help agents put together itineraries for Australia,” Ricky Dunn of Tourism Australia explains. “We spent a lot of money putting this together.

There is a training component.”

“You complete five modules and can call yourself an Aussie specialist four point this gives you a little bit of credibility I suppose.

“More than that there are some very useful tools. There is an interactive map of the country where you can click on a city and get itinerary suggestions around that city. There are fact sheets and trade resources.

It works with three core modules. It is mobile friendly tablet friendly you can do it on your PC. In Britain there are 3,000 registered Aussie specialist agents and 2,000 of these qualified by completing the modules.

“In addition, the South Australian Tourism Commission and Tourism Northern Terri-

tory teamed up to create an Explorer’s Way module featuring the route between Adelaide and Darwin as a two-week trip.”

“For the agent there are a lot of sales resources there are industry rates and freebies. Gives you more credibility makes it easier to sell make the job easier. Please have a look at www. aussiespecialist.com.

H

eavy resources were put into the Restaurant Australia campaign.

The worldwide campaign positions Australia on the basis of its food and wine story and has included the Invite the World To Dinner event at MONA in 2012 and Noma’s residency in Sydney in 2016.

This year Tourism Australia paid $800,000 to host the Restaurant awards. John O’Sullivan, head of Tourism Australia, says it’s money well spent.

“This is the Oscars of food,” he says. “It’s like us winning a Summer Olympics of sport.

We think it’s a pretty modest price to pay.”

“Our research shows once you have been to Australia you have a completely different perception of food and wine here to what you had before you came. Food and wine is such a key driver in international travel.”

“The tourism sector is an SME sector if you look at the sector as a whole it is made up of a lot of small and medium enterprises besides the big airlines and hotel groups.

“If we get this right with international visitation and spend, not only restaurants but also people wanting to sample products through the farm gate and cellar door.

Everyone will benefit.. That is the beauty of tourism.

Ricky Dunn of Tourism Australia and Simon Mamouney of the Australian Embassy in Dublin

www.aussiespecialist.com

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SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 14

DESTINATION AUSTRALIA

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country restaurant, ninety minutes from Melbourne, in one of Australia’s few spa regions, a place patronised by the local Djadja Wurrung people for tens of thousands of years as a sacred place with healing powers and more recently

by Melbourne population in quest of health, wellbeing and, or course as befits the fusion food capital of the world, fine dining.

A great French-trained chef, Anna Wolf, meets an artist and falls in love.

He could build, and they found a plot of land on the edge of Lake Daylesford in 1979. What could possibly go wrong?

The Lake House in Daylesford has come riding up the charts as one of the subcontinent’s great eateries. The restaurant now has a luxury hotel with 35-rooms, winning awards as Australia’s best regional hotel,.

Anna’s daughter Larissa operate the front of house. “What has happened is that both the property and the town have evolved to become a destination in its own right. So now you have people just coming up for lunch.”

“The vision was never to create a luxury hotel, it was to create a restaurant that was worthy of a journey, as the Michelin

Hot Plate A fine dining haven 90 minutes from Melbourne

Larissa Wolf-Tasker shows off the wine collection in the Lake House, Daylesford, 10,000 bottles and counting

Guide says.”

That was the benchmark for Anna. She now has two chef’s hats, the Aussie equivalent and has become a champion of Australian food.

D

aylesford, like many towns in the Great Dividing Range north of Ballarat, had a short innings as a gold mining town.

Founded by an enterprising Galway man, John Egan, in 1848, and he a party of searchers found alluvial gold in 1851 on ground now covered by Lake Daylesford initiating the local gold rush.

By 1859 around 3400 diggers were on the local diggings. The post office opened on 1 February

1858 [5]and a telegraph office was opened in August 1859. The gold was gone within a decade, and a quartz mine kept the semblance of town economic life together A small nineteenth century tourism industry clustered around the spa springs, with 65 mineral springs, the Daylesford-Hepburn Springs region has 80pc of Australia’s known mineral water springs. Spa developments including Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa, Mineral Spa at Peppers Springs Retreat and Salus Spa, Lake House.

The local delicacy is bull boar which is a sausage made from beef, pork, garlic and spices, named an en-

dangered recipe by the Slow Food Movement. It was not served up at the Lake House, instead we had slow cooked confit duck, apple and currant chourcroute, and 12hour shoulder of Flinders island saltbush lamb, roasted with Moroccan flavours, chick peas, Mount Franklin organic Musquee de Provence pumpkin, yoghurt/tahini dressing, parsley pine nut and coriander salad

L

arissa beams with pride as she shows us through the garden. “We didn’t go in with a grand plan.

My mam is Russian, so you don’t plant anything that is not edible. All the ugly fruits, the apples

that look like they have bruising but are actually the most delicious to eat, she grew all those. Every time we turn over a rock we grow our own food.”

“We grow some of our own food. We do what we need to do with the local markets, talking to the local farmers. All these restaurants that say we grow our own food in that patch out the back are lying. It is just not possible. Even for us.”

“Our restaurant seats 40 seats to 100 seats.

When we first opened we had a beautiful kitchen garden. We had our own vegetable patches. To grow enough food to feed a hundred people even if we were full just two days a week, we would

need 500 acres.”

“People are fed by that by the marketing machine. In the country, you cannot fake that. We work with four organic farms who work in different climates around the region.”

“They are the experts.

They know the land.

They know the seasons, they know what works.

We know what we want It is easy to have a conversation with somebody that grows your food. We are fortunate, but it has been thirty years in the making.

We trust them to grow great produce, they trust us to know how to cook it, and hopefully what ends up in the plate is a snapshot of the region.”

HOT SPRINGS: WHAT’S HOT

■ The largest concentration of naturally occurring mineral water springs in Australia and the largest critical mass of holistic practitioners in the Southern Hemisphere. Treatments and therapies at one of the many indulgent Day Spas, picturesque main street, artists studios and galleries - including the famed Convent Gallery, award winning restaurants, cellar doors, provedore stores and coffee palaces.

■ Lake House: one of Australia’s best restaurants sitting on the shores of Lake Daylesford, try a wine tasting session in the 10,000 bottle cellar prior to a unique shared table lunch in the new waterfront pavilion. There are 33 rooms and suites set on six acres of waterfront gardens and the Salus Day Spa. Since 1984 the property has been

an icon of the region,+61 3 5348 3329 www.lakehouse.com.au ■ The Chocolate Mill sources the best local and international ingredients and has selected the finest Belgium chocolate to create all natural hand-made chocolates and serves award winning hot chocolate in the cafe. +61 3 5476 4208 www.chocmill.com.au ■ Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa: promotes communal, shared rituals of traditional bathhouses in the region’s mineral waters. Explore the curative effects of mineral water, salt water and steam in their facilities which include an aroma steam room, salt therapy pool, relaxation pool, and spa couches submerged in mineral water with relaxation decks. : +61 3 5321 6000 www.hepburnbathhouse.com

Clockwise: The Lake House, chocolateer Nikki Starton , a directional sign at the Chioclate Mill and Lake House fare ■ Eoghan Corry travelled to Australia courtesy of Emirates who fly double daily to Dubai and onwards to Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney and of Tourism Australia www.australia.com

A couple of destinations A supersized choice Smart has North America covered with brand new direct flights from Dublin to Miami fly direct to: los angeles new york washington boston chicago orlando

san francisco toronto newark hartford MIAMI

over 140 connecting routes

2341 AL_Transatlantic Business & Finance Full_240x330mm_FA.indd 1

02/08/2017 10:06

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 16

DESTINATION CRUISE

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ourneys around the world on Silversea ships are truly amazing, being small ships they can visit places where larger vessels cannot navigate.

Apart from the luxury of having a suite complete with ones own private deck, sitting area TV, Wi-Fi, there is nothing like enjoying the views sitting in comfort and privacy. Silversea cruises are for the discerning traveller, Silver Whisper has a capacity of 388 passengers and a crew of 295, hence the service and attention to detail is ensured under Captain Luigi Rutigliano.

Each suite has its own butler service, thus ones every wish is catered for - what drinks you want in your fridge, what favourite fruit you wish to have, apart from “room service” if you wish to dine in your suite. Service is superb, each course being delivered and served in perfect timing. Apart from the wines served on the inclusive packet, the ship also has a selection of more rare wines.

Being Italian, Prosecco is always in your fridge and cocktails are a delight to try in several of the ships bars.

A

part from all these luxuries, there is a Spa, hairdressing Salon, swimming pool and Jacuzzis and well equipped gym. A wonderful way to start the day is a Sunrise Walk around the running track on the top deck with a personal trainer, followed by a stretch class and, if you so desire, yoga and pilates. Abs classes and a complimentary Foot Print Analysis is also available. The early morning sunrise walk is truly magnificent in the clear air at the beginning

Silver feeling

Carmel Higgins cruises Scandinavia with Silversea Silver Wind of another day. Anyone whose visited Florida is used to being told “another beautiful day in Paradise” well this is certainly true on and early morning walk on board.

Exectuive Chef Ratko Jeremic demonstrated how to make a beef “Stroganoff” and a Risotto Alla Milanese from the Italian Chef Luca D’Arcangelo. You can taste what is cooked whilst sipping a glass of your favourite tipple, I learned how to cook a delicious Beef Stroganoff to cater for 25 people.

And of course they gave handouts of the recipes.

T

here is so much to do in a day sometimes it is difficult to fit it all in, but everything is optional. Organised shore excursions can also be booked in advance or before “close of sale” deadline for each port. There is a shore concierge service team to

help you make the most of your visits.

I went on was the Baltic Sea cruise, picking it up in Hamburg, a city worth spending time there for a couple of days, however while sailing on Silver Whisper, there are several day excursions to see the city, whether the Hanseatic gems or Hamburg by land and sea. Before visiting Hamburg, the ship began its journey in Southampton then on to Belgium, where you can visit Bruges, Ghent or do a Canal Cruise or do Belgium chocolate tastings. Holland, another port of call, where many passengers enjoyed their visit to Amsterdam with the Van Gogh Museum, Ann Franks House, a canal cruise and the famous Rijksmuseum.

As we sailed from Hamburg in the evening sun passing houses, people walking their dogs along the sandy shores of the estuary, our next stop was Skagen Denmark

nFor more info. www.silversea.com silversea.cruiselines.com n Silversea’s Silver Wind departs on a 10-day voyage on September 8 2018 from Copenhagen to London, Tower Bridge. Fares start from €5,100 per person based on the double occupancy of the Vista Suite. www.silversea.com.

sailing through the night.

After dinner there was the most amazing ballet performed in the theatre.

Ballet and contemporary dance was performed by two principal ballet dancers from the Opera de Paris and the Opera di Roma. They performed dances from Giselle and an Piat “Pas de Deux”.

I

n the morning there was great excitement at arriving at Skagen, (pronounced Skane). Having sailed along the Jutland coast ,this pituresque area has been a favourite of well off travellers, artists and architects. This 600 year old market town where the Baltic Sea and the North Sea meet was originally a fishing village renowned for its herring industry. It became popular with Impressionist artists towards the end of the 19th century because of its evening light and they became known as the Skagen painters. The Queen of Denmark has a Yacht there and visits throughout the year.

Skagen is the second

largest destination in Denmark outside of the capital Copenhagen. The houses are mostly painted yellow with red tiled roofs, a picture postcard town. I was amazed that the gardens, surrounded by white fences were mostly kept in pristine order, considering the winds that sweep around the tip of Denmark.

Skagen has lots of sand dunes, sometimes the area looks like a desert.

When we docked, we were greeted by a brass band, then taken by coach through the town and to the tip of Denmark, where a special vehicle something resembling a tractor and a train carriage with ginormous wheels drove along the beach where the two waters meet. One can stand in the two seas, many of our group took off their shoes to be photographed with one foot in each of the seas, truly a memorable experience.

Legoland is just outside Skagen, Hans Christian Andereson, the Danish fairy tale writer lost his heart to Skagen.

B

ack on board we all prepared for our next visitCopenhagen. Of course there is so much choice when on board whether to dine at one of several restaurants, or enjoy dining outdoors on deck with a steak or king prawns on the stone. Alternatively, you can dine at the exclusive restaurant Le Champagne where Relais & Chateaux chefs create French inspired dishes, that can be complemented by fine wines.

There is a $40 charge for dinner, plus wines.

There is also a 24 -hour dining menu in your suite, a coffee corner in the Oberservation Lounge and several lounges where music and dancing are all included.

Of course there are several shops on board selling high fashion clothes, and a jewellery shop specialising in Rare Gemstones. For those who enjoy a little gambling theres a Roulette Tournament in the Casino on deck 5

N

ext day we arrived in Copenhagen. A visit to the famous Mermaid is a “must see”, she must be the most photographed lady, then through the city, visiting the palace buildings, en route to the airport to fly home.

Silversea has just introduced their newest ship Silver Muse. If you wish to go on a world Cruise, look up La Grand Bellezza, visiting five continents, 21 countries, sail across the Pacific to Hawaii. The Silver Whisper will weave a path to heavenly islands like Bali, and Lombok and a host of exotic islands, she’ll follow the route of the ancient spice traders to Sri Lanka and the Persian Gulf.

Really Silversea is worth every cent, you can expect quality service and excellence in everything it offers to its passengers, Happy Sailing

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 17

DESTINATION AUSTRIA

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he great revelation came, as great revelations have tended to since Moses’ time, half way up a mountain.

It was supplied by a Wicklow walker, Patricia Duffy of the Roving Soles waking Club, as to how hiking trails work so well on the Tirolian Alps and are so enticing even for the gloriously out of shape.

Going up Lugnaquilla takes so long because it is a gradual ascent. You actually cover about three hills before you hit the mountain at all.

Here in Austria you have the luxury of these great gondolas which bring you up the first thousand metres, and then you are high in the hills and you are climbing so fast it is a real sensation of being on top of the world.”

The top of the world, with a beer. “Because this is sky country we could walk into an amazing restaurant on the side of a mountain instead of sitting on the grass with a soggy sandwich.”

W

estendorf and Kirchberg are magic names for Irish tourism in winter. When the snow melts and the edelweiss blooms, the mountains do not go away.

We stopped by to see the summer offering, the Austrian villages that we know, only greener and flowerier and with a 20pc discount.

The local tourist board showed off some of the celebrities, the Hahnenkamm with seven peak mountaineer Paul Koller, Kitzbühelerhorn and Ranggenalm Runde with Fritz Minard, the most accessible of the Wilder Kaiser peaks the 2,242m Goinger Halt, Schnapps tasting atSchnapsbrennerei Erber, Brixen e-biking

High pitch

Eoghan Corry hikes through theTirolean Alps Eoghan Corry on the Kitzbuhelerhorn in Tirol, Austria through Kitzbühel and Schwarzsee and a taste of the KAT Walk - the “Long-Distance Walking Trail with Comfort” that travels over six stages across the Kitzbühel Alps, 6 stages106 kilometer6.350 elevation uphill.

“Our stars are our mountains,” Christoph Stöeckl of Kirchberg Tourism says, ‘we have smooth mountains, nice villages with a lot of tradition, landscape that skiers know from winter, and good huts where you can hike or bike.

E-biking is an interesting story.”

The e-bike does not exactly do the work for you it just helps you up the steeper hills. “You can go by e-bike and hike the last 400 or 500 metres.”

“St Johann is tremendous,” Gernut Reidel says. The Wilder Kaiser is the chancellor. We have easier walks in the valley. We have good offer with our climber card when you can take the bus and train for free.

The mountain kart down the mountain is new for 2017. And we are building a new ten person

gondola facility for the winter season.”

T

he food is a surprise. Competitive fine dining has become a sport among the mountain huts as compelling as the giant slalom.

Austrians deprecatory attitude towards fast food outlets from America may be partly based on their perception cherished and repeated that they invented fast food.

The original fast food was, of course, the sausage.

And still the sausage reigns supreme, easier to relate to than lederhosen or yodelling.

S

alzburg is the gateway. By-pass it at your peril. A walking tour guide skirted us over the bridge and back through the landmarks of the city, Mozart’s birthplace, the Mirabell palace where a famous scene in THAT film was set (Salzburg people show barely disguised disdain for the sound of the music, the musical and movie which brings many English speakers to Mozart’s city), and to lunch by cable car to the

n Eoghan Corry travelled to Tirolia as a guest of the the St.Johann in Tirol and Brixental Tourist Boards. Flights were provided by crystal Holidays.

Hohensalzburg Fortress overlooking the city.

The Getreidegasse is the action street, its streetscape designed by strict building codes and a zeal to preserve ironwork period signage. An American accent said “this is the most photographed McDonald’s in the world” outside the fast food outlet that squashed the M into an iron frame. Two of my colleagues turned around to add to the collection the photographs that were taken.

Until 11am, the delivery vans make their way up and down through the street to add to the bustle.

One man had a Golden State Warriors future, four boys in blue word matching tee shirts and shorts and Austria 2017 emblazoned and a flag at the crest. Red Bull, sneaking its way into many of the shop sigs as it has inveigled its way into many aspects of life in the city. At one end, the towering cliff wall through which the tunnel was dug, and then a little small turn to the right with the hills in the background.

The shop signs are the signature of Getreidegasse, ornate iron work hanging and supporting

what would be standard street awnings anywhere else, the Chinese restaurant with Chinese characters, a representation of a h husband and wife like they walked out of one of those barometers in your granny’s house.

Schneider, Enger, Berlitz, Wanger, Swarovski, brand names all retro-engraved and all in a row.

And we turn once more into a narrow tunnel and walk past ornate painted crockery and china dolls.

Then a turn again, into an open courtyard, the white light in each direction, flowers, whitewashed walls and overhanging roofs to keep the deluge away.

Outside the Cathedral we find Fergal, latinised to Vergilius, who was responsible for the beginning of post-Latin Christianity here.

He stands tall on a pedestal, with an implausibly long mitre, to the right of the four statues on the right on front of the cathedral. Mitres were not around during his time but this does not matter to the passers-by nor to the man from Aghaboe in County Laois preserved in marble, as a stage is setup with speakers in advance of a music festival.

You could imagine Fergal rocking with the beat, the man from the homeland of Electric Picnic enjoying the party. Mozart and the Von Trapps and other begrudgers, beware.

T

he real music, perhaps, could best be auditioned back on those enchanting mountainsides. You hear it as the sun goes down and the baking heat quickly turns cold, chilled by altitude and deep falling shadow.

Back to Patricia Duffy, who picked out the colours as a highlight of the experience “The green is so beautiful in the mountains. We have a lot of heather and reds and browns which are fabulous too.

“Here the greens were amazing. The flowers were stunning, real Alpine flowers, the colours were to strong, the purples and the yellows and the pinks. It was just a great feeling to be waling among it.”

“We met these amazing cows, all over the paths, and their cowbells resounding all over the mountains.

The hills were alive indeed.

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 18

ACCOMMODATION & BEDBANKS 2018

B

ed banks have evolved dramatically over the past 16 months, never mind the 16 years since they first emerged on the travel trade landscape.

Pat Dawson, CEO of the ITAA says dynamic packaging now represents in the region of 70pc of most travel agent’s sales and that gfigure is growng, not declining.

Travel agents have had a bewildering range of choices. There are at least nine major players in the Irish market playing for the business of agents and even more in the B2C market, with more than 100 bed banks fighting for the leftovers.

So what will differentiate one bed bank from another? One trend is that bedbanks are focussing less on the size of the portfolio and more on curated properties.

There is a scrap for the key markets beloved of Irish holiday markers, some of them unique to Ireland as opposed to other tourism markets.

Two major players have come to cominate the market with the rest coming in behind.

T

wo major trends have emerged in the bad bank market over the last 12 months.

After the trauma of the collapse of Lowcost in July 2016, Irish agents have run back to more familiar territory.

Beneficiaries from this

Bedbank special All changed after a dramatic year Hoteliers hiked rates for booked customers when Lowcost failed include the large players most notably the dominant Bookabed but also Getabed. Smaller players like innstant travel have gained market share, as has Globe hotels, Jeff Collins operation which ws indpendent of the expansion of Best4Travel as are getabed.eu headed up by John McKibbin, Ben Greene’s bebank.net and Travelcube, headed up in Ireland by Peter Friedrich. These are now firmly back in the market.

The number of bed banks remain bewilderingly large despite the disappearance of one of Thomas Cook brands

Hotels4u in December 2015. But agents worry about the extent of their exposure. The question is, how much do they worry?

A

ccommodation-only suppliers to the trade, also known as “bed banks” first emerged in 1999 and hit the headlines over the coming years as they led to an sharp increase number of agents using bed banks rather than selling traditional packages.

The theory was simple, old style package holidays were dead. Agents

wanted access to hotels, and in the cacophony of choice they needed someone to wholesale those beds for them.

Traditional bed banks provide their services in three ways, acting as principal, agent or supplier. Some of the main players are;

I

nitially it was independent providers who have grown quickest in this segment.

With about 70 bed-banks are already active in European holiday destinations, destination-based bed-banks began to take over traditional tour

operator functions such as bundling procurement volume and capacity management.

Perhaps inevitably the big tour operators responded with bed banks of their own. TUI, Thomas Cook, Rewe and FTI began to build bedbanks of their own with varying degrees of success. These were dedicated to supplying hotel capacity to tour operators and travel agents in order to compete with the independent providers.

For hoteliers, new providers offer an opportunity to diversify their distribution channels,

reduce dependence on large clients and win additional business.

Tour operator head offices were moving away from procurement and production and towards product designers and marketers as a result.

AGODA is aa consumer bank specialising in securing the lowest discount hotel prices in Asia Pacific. Based in Singapore with operations in 13 other Asian cities, Agoda’s network includes 308,000 hotels worldwide..

WHAT TO TELL CONSUMERS

M

ost consumers will not know what a bed bank is, basically a middle man who strikes deals with hoteliers, predominantly in Mediterranean resorts. The beds are sold on to travel agencies who put them together with flights and sell them to customers as bespoke holidays or “dynamic packages. The value a bed bank brings to the transaction is to provide a much wider range of choice than an individual agent can hope to muster, and to negoti-

ate better rates by buying in bulk.

When a bed bank fails, many holidaymakers won’t know that they are affected. As far as they’re concerned, they’ve gone through a travel agent and bought flights and accommodation, without getting involved in any complexities about the involvement of a middle man.

But anyone in the middle of a holiday could be faced with a demand to pay again for accommodation.

When a bed bank fails customers will have to pay their bills in resort

and reclaim the funds from the bed banks’ travel agency partners.

Most customers are unaware that their bookings are involved.

Monies received from agents is held in ring-fenced client accounts and will be returned by the On Holiday Group to agents in the next few days”. Fgents sourced alternative accommodation, which is quite likely to be the same hotel, just booked through a different bed bank.

Category Stephen Sands of Rivera and Thomas McNally of Bedsonline, ITIA award winner 2016

BEDBANK. net Represened by

Ben Green of Arrow Tours in the Irish market, Bedbank.net were among the original Med specialists in the business, offering 10,000 hotels, villas and apartments worldwide. Popular destinations include USA, Canada, Greece, Cyprus, Mainland Spain, the Canary Islands, Balearics, mainland Portugal, Madeira, Malta, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Bulgaria, Croatia and the Caribbean

BEDS ONLINE Hotel-

beds/Bedsonline offers 75,000 hotels across 180 countries and is in 120 source markets worldwide, selling exclusively to tour operators and wholesalers around the world. They are headed

up in Ireland by Thomas McNally and have made great strides in the Irish market, with double-digit growth in roomnight bookings as a source market and destination in 2015 in comparison with the previous year. This summer season, Irish travellers’ preference for sunny destinations is clearly shown in their top 5 choices: Algarve (Portugal), Lanzarote (Spain), Orlando (Florida), Mallorca and Costa del Sol (Spain).

BEDSWITH EASE part of the Broadway Group

BETABED part of the Truly Travel Group who also own Alpharooms & Teletext Holidays. A recent Joe Duffy raised an issue with a honeymoner

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 19

ACCOMMODATION & BEDBANKS 2018

Beverleigh Fly and Lee Osborne of Bookabed whose booking had not been processed

BOOKABED

was launched by Karl Tyrrell in 2005. Since then it has grown to the largest bedbank in Ireland, currently employing 35 staff and has expanded its services into England, Australia and the USA, winning awards such as Best Ac-

commodation Provider in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017 and Best Customer Service within the Irish Travel Industry in 2017.

“Great pricing and excellent customer service is what we have always tried to pride ourselves on” Karl Tyrrell says.

“We have updated our website’s offerings to

the Irish travel trade.

It started out offering accommodation. Now it does much more than and has become a one stop shop for all agents.”

“The company has moved with the times and is constantly trying to stay ahead of the competition” Lee Osborne, Director of Sales says.

“Over the years we have

added new and exciting products, such as low cost flights, scheduled long haul flights, filters, maps and Trip Advisor reviews to make things easier for the agents and help them remain ahead of their clients in terms of knowledge, price and easiness of booking”.

Bookabed’s latest product offering is the “anywhere” search.

When selected, it will allow agents to search European sun holiday and city break destinations under one search.

Agents will no longer have to search individual destinations which can be very time consuming.

Anywhere search is now live on the Bookabed website and will be followed by other enhancements to the website coming throughout 2017 and 2018.

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 20

ACCOMMODATION & BEDBANKS 2018 BOOKING The consumer bank established in 1996, part of The Priceline Group, is considered to be Europe’s leading online hotel aggregator based on total room nights sold.

EXPEDIA Ex-

pedia, represetned in Ireland by ATTS, says that half of the Irish Travel Agency community have already opted into their Travel Affiliate program.

Expedia TAAP is supported in Ireland

by ATTS Travel Representation Solutions.

ATTS provide on the ground local contact for account sales and support to Expedia TAAP enquiries.

The big advantage of Expedia TAAP is the commission for bookings made through the Expedia website. Agents have easy access to rates and inventory available through the huge buying power of the global Expedia brand.

“Reliability, security and price are the main attractions to the program,” says Mirco De Pellegrin who heads up the Expedia TAAP in Europe. “Agents are confident working with Expedia TAAP because they know we are a secure partner plus highly competitive. Commissions are paid automatically on a monthly basis so agents don’t have to invoice or chase unpaid commissions.”

FLYCRUISE

STAY declan

Hughes’s B2C operation offers negotiated rates they say are lower than the industry average for many reasons Declan Hughes says: “we don’t have high overheads and expenses, therefore we pass those savings directly to our valued international client base. We don’t seek high commissions and are happy with less than 50pc of the industry average. In addition, we receive commissions from all hotel bookings when clients checkout of their hotel. It’s known in the travel industry as a consumed commission, which allows us to negotiate lower rates.

Book now pay later gives options on free cancellation rates, along with the option of selecting a date for payment.

Loyalty points are generated with every hotel booking which can be converted to money off the next hotel booked online.

From the time customers on free Cancellation rates only book right up to the time they pay, they periodically scan the hotel reservation, and should the rate drop, notify them to rebook at the lower rate, not applicable to instant purchase rates.They recently launched a certificate of excellence to hotels.

GETABED

were established 26 years ago and have become the longest serving accommodation only company

in the sector.

They say they are the only truly dedicated trade only accommodation only supplier in Ireland and Britain, getabed continues to take a strong hold in the Irish market. They are represented in ireland by John McKibbin.

A dedicated call centre is on hand to assist agents, priding itself in its service and attention to detail when dealing with agent partners. getabed works closely with agents; alongside their in-house contracts team, coupled with excellent supplier relationships, resulting in securing the best rates and products to match customer’s requirements, which often leads to unique pricing on key products benefitting both the agents and their customers.

Being trade only, there is no direct to consumer website, all focus is on their agents, concentrating on creating constant dialogue to understand and more importantly service the agent’s needs.

GLOBE Trade

only operation which are preferred suppliers to Travelsavers Ireland and one of three accommodation suppliers to Travel Centres. Founded in 2004, they have three exclusive suppliers, and future contracts are being signed only on an exclusivity basis. They will launch a new Globe site later this year which

Linda Macken of ATTS/Expedia with Darren Yeates and Lisa Cusack and of Midland Travel

Santiago Farellones will include added functionality and a faster to book process. We will offer more exclusive partners online via the globehotels.ie website than ever before with unique deals especially in the Middle East and Asia.. “I know the Irish agents and what they need,” Jeff Collins says.

Many agents already have TARSC back office systems which integrate with Globe..

GROUP LEADER Bob

Haugh’s venture is designed for anyone who wants to buy groups. The system invited hotels to bid for group business.

GTA Part of Kuoni Group, GTA provides accommodation and ground travel products including hotels, transfers, sightseeing tours, attractions, restaurants, shows and experiences from over 45,000 supplier partners worldwide.

Powering global travel through its XML connectivity and booking sites, GTA processes over 21,000 bookings every day, selling 14m room nights a year in 30 languages online and connecting clients in 190 countries. hour emergency duty office.

All bookings are live availability and bookable via the websites, direct connection XML or call sales support for more assistance and advice.

HOTELOPIA

Part of TUI Travel PLC empire (the world’s largest vertically integrated travel company), Hotelopia is a leading European hotel aggregator, offering discounted accommodations to both the business and leisure traveller at 40,000 hotels, in 2,800 destinations. They are also in the reviews business and now have 220,000 reviews on 50,000 hotels and apartments.

HOTELS. COM Probably the

largest and most widely recognised hotel aggregator in the world, The database of more than 70,000 properties worldwide includes bedand-breakfasts, condos and all-inclusive resorts.

Features of their travel affiliate program is an option for affiliates to co-brand their site, enabling them to “build on the trust and recognition consumers have for the Interactive Affiliate Network name (IAN also includes expedia, hotwire, tripadvisor, and a number of other leading online travel sites) while

retaining the look and feel of your own site.”

The consumer brand offers reviews about many of the properties listed, destination guides that provide a wide variety of dining, shopping, sightseeing, nightlife, and cultural information for 220 cities, and website functionally like multiple language and currency options for better conversions, and 24/7 Call Center Support for ‘Special Internet Rates’.

HRS

German based corporate specialist which offers negotiated rates to corporate buyers with the flexibility to allow company employees to search for and book their own hotel rooms. Their recent survey of Irish corporate buyers are the most extensive ever compiled by an accommodation supplier on business buyers.

INNSTANT

Darryl Ismail’s Innstant Travel’s advantage is higher commissions, 20pc in many cases, exclusive deals with hotel groups and early online booking discounts. The

John McKibbin of Getabed with Jeanette Taylor and Mary Denton of Sunway

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 21

ACCOMMODATION & BEDBANKS 2018 group is comprised of two main divisions.

The wholesale division includes 275,000 unique hotels, apartments and vacation homes, more than 45,000 tours and attractions, 20,000 plus sports, show and concert tickets, 18,000 transfers and in excess of 15,000 car hire locations in 198 countries – all with live availability.

Innstant Connect, the technology division, powers fully hosted online platform solutions for the travel industry.

The companyebsites; offers push and pull XMLs as well as customized white-label solutions.

Product includes hotels, transfers, car hire, tickets, tours, attractions, flights (all 4 GDS and LCC’s) booking engines and channel managers.

MED HOTELS Expedia_ATTS In England this is

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can provide the entire package.

TRANS HOTEL Spanish

Wendy Cameron of Superbreaks and Jeff Collins of Globe Hotels

Thomas Cook’s trade Mediterranean and bed bank while Hotels4u worldwide beach propis the consumer accomerties. Thomas Cook ditched their B2C brand modation brand. Focusing on the mass-market, Hotels4U in Decemebr 2015. The company volume end of the sector it says its Thomas bought Hotel4U in 2008 Cook-ownership enhanfrom the Centurion Holiday Group for £21.8m. ces its buying power and gives it access to SUPER exclusive deals. The trade brand has in excess BREAK.com, of 118,000 properties, English hotel bed bank of which about 5,000 specialist and subsidiTravel Representation Solutions_215x149_IE.pdf 1 23/08/16 are directly contracted ary of Holidaybreak

PLC, Super Break has 35 years of knowledge and provides hotel and apartment stays offering 1700 hotels across 400 British cities and towns, and another 3,500 hotels in Europe and elsewhere, 2-5 star hotels, flight inclusive breaks, rail travel, Eurostar, mini-cruise breaks, transfers. Extras include theatre tickets, sight17:18 seeing and events. They

Grupo Transhotel consists of six companies related to the tourism sector, offering its portfolio of more than 60,000 hotels and all types of services throughout the world for 78,800 travel agencies worldwide.

TRAVEL CUBE The GTA

online booking site headed up in Ireland by Peter Freidrich offers excursions, attraction tickets and accommodation including 6,300 properties in 74 beach resorts and coastal destinations. They have added 400 new sightseeing tours and attractions for 2015. They say a multi-million euro investment in technology

helps process thousands of bookings daily.

VENERE Another online leader in the European hotel bed bank sector, Italy-based and Expedia owned venere. com offers 100,000 lodging properties ranging from 1 to 5 star luxury hotels.

YOUTRAVEL

English based but operates in Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Russia, Sweden and France, and made tentative efforts to break in to the Irish market in Paul Richies’ time there before he moved to Lowcost. Its main focus is the Mediterranean, with a slight bias towards Greece and offers 4000 hotels. It sells via agents as well as direct to consumers. Youtravel offers agents a standard commission of 15pc.

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 22

TECHNOLOGY

Travelport talk technology

T

Sinead Reilly on Travelport’s move beyond GDS

Sinead Reilly, Catherine Brennan, Tara Hynes and Joanne Madden of Travelport

ravelport is a highly-differentiated travel technology and commerce platform, processing approximately $79billion of travel spending each year.

Where we really differentiated and leaders, are in the key areas of: n airline merchandising and personalization; n hotel & car hire content and capability n Beyond Air distribution; n Mobile travel technology n E Commerce design, development , and provision of commercial payment solutions.

We do so much more than basic point-to-point air travel. By aggregating travel content across approximately 68,000 travel agency locations representing over 234,000 online/offline travel agency terminals worldwide, serving millions of end consumers globally. Our leading global travel provider content helps attract more travel bookers onto our platform - driving greater value for the travel providers, increasing their addressable customer base.

Some 400 airlines, including an industry-leading portfolio of low-cost carriers are now fully

bookable in our system.

Pioneering the practice of enabling airlines to bring the same content they show on their websites into the indirect channel, we are the first GDS to achieve this status and are using it to bring a wide range of compelling content to the market. Over 230 airlines can show their full range of fare families to enable upsell of ancillary products. Having content drives better revenue per seat, this presents more revenue opportunities for travel agencies.

We have 650,000 hotel properties (of which over 500,000 are independents), over 37,000 car rental locations and sold over 65 million hotel room nights and over 94 million car rental days in 2016. . Agents who give us a call can hear how our Travel Commerce Platform can support your bottom line!

A

rtificial Intelligence is used in Trip Search, our new mobile-centric API. This encompasses the speed of search, relevancy of response and accuracy of data. We use artificial intelligence and machine learning tech-

nology to return relevant and fast results and drive a truly personalized experience. Our customers can automate their workflows to deliver fast, intelligent real-time search, pricing, booking, change, payment and integrated itinerary creation across all touchpoints.

Travelport Digital is the brand that encompasses our Mobile and Corporate Booking Tool engines and was created specifically to deliver products which will future proof our business and enable our customers to grow alongside us, in partnership, by improving the end-to-end customer experience of the traveller through the provision of innovative digital travel solutions. In addition to industry-leading travel apps, Travelport Digital (provides advanced mobile services, including real-time mobile messaging, dayof-travel solutions and ancillary upsell opportunities.

Travelport Digital has it’s HQ here in Dublin, employing almost 300 people in a brand new state of the art office in Fenian St. We have also expanded eNett, how travel agencies pay travel providers, beyond the core

hospitality sector into air travel, including LCCs. eNett’s net revenue has grown from $2 million in 2011 to $150 million in 2016.

Travelport Merchant Services is a welcome addition to the Travelport range of E Commerce services. We work with travel companies to provide more relevant and competitive merchant fees on credit/debit card transactions. With impending EU regulation changes whereby it will no longer be acceptable to pass on the merchant service fee to the card holder, Travelport Merchant Services is even more relevant to the trading agent

T

here is an increasing range in complexity of the travel offers that are out there, but one of the reasons agencies are not only still in business, but continue to do well, is because of the personalised service they provide.

However, research indicates that customers now expect their past behaviour to be reflected in communications to them, for offers to be made that are relevant and an increasing number to be location specific, which

again brings us to mobile.

Travel intelligence is a k ey part of building the future travel distribution business today. It enables agents to provide offers that are relevant, tailored to known buying behaviour and to connect through the channels its customers chose to engage with and at the right time.

Done correctly, intelligent automation will help drive high travel performance to free up more travel consultancy time to do value added work. Data and analytics can also serve up much more relevant content to mobile apps while delivering content in a way that matches the change in traveller shopping.

And all of this, in terms of mobile, data and analytics, improved personalisation and intelligent automation/robotics, is going to require even tighter alignment between agencies and their chosen technology providers if they are going to address and capitalise on the opportunities ahead of them.

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s the booking p r o ces s h as evolved beyond just a basic ticket, so has the traditional GDS concept. Travelport is now

a highly differentiated travel technology platform. A recent survey by Cowen and Company, said that 64% of Travelport agents have seen growth in ancillary sales.

That compares to the average of just 45% for non-Travelport customers. Enabling Travelport customers to maximize the return on trip on those cross sell and upsell opportunities.

We continue to develop and adapt our technology to provide the desktop of the future.

Looking at the digitally connected traveller and the growth of mobile, we believe that in the next 3-5 years, 70% of the activity that generates bookings in our system will originate from a mobile device.

For Travelport and people in our space the shift to mobile means a massive investment to make travel search both more refined and faster serving up more relevant content to mobile apps.

Our platform captures over 4 billion travel messages a day. These can be utilised to provide rich and intelligent data. Serving up much more relevant content to mobile apps. Delivering content that matches the change in traveller shopping.

By leveraging digital technologies, we are continually transforming our platform to drive more profitable interactions and better experiences for the global travel economy and our customers.

It is Travelport’s opinion that automation will continue to develop the way we search, plan and book travel to provide faster results and provide offers that are relevant, timely and tailored to known buying behaviour.

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 23

TECHNOLOGY

N

o matter where they’re jetting off to, travellers value the expert opinions of a travel professional.

The successful agent is the one who knows how to convert that knowledge into bookings.

There are several Travelport technology tools which can support that endeavour.

One great way to improve the customer experience is to provide a more personalised service that combines a travel consultant’s own expertise with that of others. Directly checking TripAdvisor reviews to offer valuable advice and comparisons, being able to visually differentiate hotel properties using built-in maps to check if the hotel is in the right spot, or identifying the superior aircraft seats via SeatGuru are all great ways to please

tween more than 40,000 airports. The number of fares filed by those airlines has multiplied enormously. The challenge for the agent is to find rapidly the right handful of suitable and available options at a price that will be acceptable to the consumer.

A Kathrina Gallogly, Aisline White, Chris Boba, Martina Coogan, Steven Ratcliffe and Neil Gleeson of Travelport Digital. Matina has since joined United to hed up their Irish operation even the most demanding travellers. Travelport have these built into the Smartpoint platform to empower travel professionals. Sharing that information (from a recognised online source) with the client first hand, adds credibility and re-

moves the need for the traveller to do so themselves. (Once the traveller goes online to check these sources, the likelihood of them coming back to actually book with the consultant has been dramatically reduced)……Use the tools

that have been built into Smartpoint to offer all the information required, make the booking and capture the sale.

Booking choice is no longer just about the price alone. Hundreds of airlines now fly many thousands of routes be-

ny offering that does not address all these is unlikely to convert to a booking, so agents need to quickly search and then book all the extras - such as bags and meals - from both traditional as well as low cost flights, without the tedium of checking details from multiple websites.

The power of our Smartpoint platform enables Irish travel agents to deliver that world of choice in an increasingly crowded space.

Smartpoint enables the

The power of the platform Our Travel Commerce Platform is leading the transformation of the travel industry.

It allows us all to connect, interact, share, create and sell better experiences for today’s travelers and it creates new value for the future global travel economy.

Discover the power of the platform at travelport.com/platform

consultant to drive high performance and deliver results in a fast and efficient single point of sale.

There are search tools available within Smartpoint which enable the consultant to cast the net as wide or as tight as they might need to on any given search.

Like most sectors in our digital age, travel is constantly adapting and evolving through technology to become more efficient. A constant influx of new technologies, such as wearables, artificial intelligence, bots and virtual reality, have all contributed to the creation of an ‘experience culture’ where everyone expects instant and engaging experiences.

While the modern traveller does not belong to one particular age group, a new generation is pushing new habits and priorities.

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 24

TECHNOLOGY

The Amadeus overture

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panish travel technology company Amadeus says the acquisition of Navitaire has changed the game as far as its offering for travel agents is concerned.

As a result of the acquisition Amadeus now offers 80 low cost and hybrid carriers and bookings from this sector grew 17pc last year. Offerings include Ryanair’s business plus fare which became available on the Amadeus system.

Navitaire focuses more on the low-cost and hybrid segments in the airline industry.

Formerly a subsidiary of Accenture, it was acquired for $830m in July 2015 and provides technology services to 50 airline operators, This year Navitaire, unveiled the world’s first Virtual Reality travel search and booking experience. At the close of June, 130 airlines had signed up to Amadeus Airline Ancillary Services for the indirect channel, including Malaysia Airlines and Middle East Airlines in the second quarter of 2017. 101 of the airlines had already implemented the solu-

A

tions,. 54 airlines contracted the Amadeus Fare Families, system which allows airlines to distribute branded fares, and 46 had implemented it at the end of June.

Amadeus say travel agency bookings are outperforming GDS industry growth of 2.2pc and that market share has expanded by 1pc to 43.2pc.

Europe contributed 39.5pc of Amadeus’ business compared with 17pc in North America, where Sabre is dominant.

Founded as a GDS by Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa and SAS in 1987, Amadeus provides research, pricing, booking, and ticketing to travel providers and travel agencies through its CRS. A separate IT business offers software that automates processes such as reservations, inventory management and departure control.

Amadeus says 75pc of airline bookings made through its system worldwide are with airlines that have a content agreement with Amadeus. New contracts or renewals of existing content agreements were signed with

Olwen McKinney and Trish O’Leary of Amadeus with Audrey Headon of Headon Representation, and Siobhan Boskett of Amadeus 21 carriers in 2016, including LATAM, Virgin Australia, Emirates, Air Cairo and Etihad.

Two Travel Intelligence products were launched last year: Amadeus Performance Insight, described as a cloudbased open architecture solution that allows airlines of all sizes to better understand their performance and Amadeus Booking Analytics, which allows airlines monitor bookings by route, airline, booking class, and agency point of sale.

Amadeus and The Boston Consulting Group launched an itinerary management app

personalised for the consulting firm’s workforce worldwide based on the Amadeus Mobile Platform.

This year Amadeus launched product suite from Amadeus’ Travel Intelligence division, Destination Insight, aims to put DMOs in the know with analysis of up-to-date travel data, removing some of the guesswork often involved when making key marketing decisions.

A new product FareKeep gives travellers the option to hold a specific fare and protect it from increases for a small fee while searching for

fares through an Online Travel Agency, metasearch site or airline website.

In the first half of 2017, 753.4m passengers were boarded onto flights operated by airlines using at least Amadeus Altéa Reservation and Inventory modules or Navitaire’s New Skies solution.

The operation in Ireland won the best technology provider at the Irish travel industry awards every year since their inauguration in 2011 and best supplier support team award for four years in succession between 2011 and 2014.

Astral gets a reprieve

er Lingus long serving and robust in house booking system Astral is not going to be replaced, despite hints over recent years that a decision was imminent to replace it.

While revealing that the current system is not running on its own for some time because is so old, Aer Lingus told Travel Extra that “Astral continues to be the backbone of our IT infrastructure and we have no immediate plans to replace it.”

At one stage 20 airlines worldwide were customers of Aer Lingus for PSS services.

Aer Lingus has never been in a standard client

through the entire value chain the travel agency, via the GDS, and everybody who is involved, I believe the cheapest solution for the customer and the cheapest solution for the airline it’s providers on the online base in cutting out those things.

Checking in customers since 1975 supplier relationship with one of the major GDS’s and the airline has always claimed that this gave it added independence.

Last year an Aer Lingus executive said “we want to play a lead role in replacing our current in-house PSS with a more enhanced version currently not on offer

from traditional providers. We have worked on very sophisticated business cases.”

“The added value we can create from the additional revenue makes the business case for the airlines. The cost is not significant. If you see the distributions costs in today’s world, you go

A

er Lingus has been using middleware from Datalex which enables it to communicate within the PSS inventory and the online booking engine. “It is complicated but it serves the purpose very well.”

“We will keep on investing in this technology. It is not so simple like to buy a machine

like a hi if for your living room. It needs to communicate with departure control system and the online booking engine.

If you consider the landscape of interfaces we have to programme it is not easy to understand by someone who is not familiar with that technology.”

“We believe it is worth making the necessary investment from the airline side to comply with the new standard the communication between the PPS inventory and the booking system.

“So far, going into the NDC area, is still a huge potential for improvement from an efficiency point of view for the en-

tire industry.

“We are in large parts compliant already with what NDC envisages because our customers want it. We don’t see it at the pain we are glad.

“The contents we can offer on the Internet for example legroom, all comes naturally in the booking flow. We know that from modern retail providers like Amazon, we must go that way.

“It is a consumer friendly solution, such are the fees due to buy an airline tickets, plus the added value products, from a customer and from a producer’s perspective and the lowest as opposed to what have we have today.

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 25

TECHNOLOGY

Kristian Rocher and Sean O’Kelly Sabre

SABRE SERVICES 16 AGENCIES IN IRELAND

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urrently there are 16 Sabre agencies in Ireland, including one in the North. Locations are spread across Dublin, Limerick, Kerry, Cork and Antrim Saber’s sole sales and account management person based in Ireland Sean O’Kelly works with a regional team at EMEA HQ in London.

The leading GDS in the USA, Sabre offers Irish travel agents access to many of the world’s top travel suppliers, 420 airlines, 750,000 hotel properties, 260 tour operators, 52 rail carriers, 39 car rental providers and 17 cruise lines. T There are two major launches in 2017 include Sabre Red Workspace. which Sean says is “the first real work platform for agents with a graphical interface created by Sabre, a one-stop shop that generates additional revenue and new sales opportunity with customised and relevant content for every agent’s workflow and needs.”

Red Workspace is designed to streamline agencies’ workflows by placing all travel information, including GDS inventory, in a single place, without a lot of clutter.

The solution has the capability to handle multiple GDSs, will use GDS

formats or offer a graphical view, as well.

It promises “decision support tools and predictive data insights that enable agents and suppliers to create personalised experiences.”

T

he Traveler Experience Platform includes a mobile travel risk management feature that provides a smarter, faster, more accurate approach to locating and communicating with traveling employees.

It is part of a suite of travel technology products in a consumer-grade mobile experience delivering self-service in-transit travel bookings, itinerary management, payments, expense integration, and safety capabilities to the connected business traveller.

He says it is for, travellers “looking for a seamless experience and corporations striving for a positive return on investment. Corporate policies are automatically adhered to when business travellers book or rebook trips, expenses are automatically captured and stored and a detailed expense report is auto-filed when the trip is complete, all from the traveller’s mobile device.

Sabre’s new travel itinerary management app,

TripCase. gives travellers tools to manage their trips in one intuitive experience in a single place.

TripCase is connected to powerful technology and integrates FourSquare, Pebble, Samsung and Checkmate.

So far 30m trips per year are managed for travellers by TripCase and 110,000 travel companies and 40 airlines are integrated with the app.

Sabre is also a business partner with a global network that leverages to the benefit of our customers.

Sean says “an example could be an independent TMC bidding for a client with most of their travellers based in Ireland but also a significant number in other locations. You cannot realistically compete for that business without partner agencies in those locations to provide local currency fares and ticketing.

That is where Sabre can help. We find suitable partners, make the introductions, and facilitate all the technical set-up so that your Irish based consultants can service travellers in local currency via a partner’s IATA. If you are an agency with a bigger vision and want help turning it into reality, then give me a call.”

Turn your payments into

profit

Amadeus B2B Wallet is a flexible virtual card payment solution that adapts to your business. It offers you the choice to earn, borrow or save when paying travel suppliers.

Unlike the use of personal credit cards, Amadeus B2B Wallet reduces risk and helps protect you against supplier default and is completely free to implement.

For more information visit www.amadeus.com or email sales@ie.amadeus.com

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 26

AFLOAT LABADEE Maintenance and restoration got under way at Royal Caribbean’s private island Labadee.

UNIWORLD are to refurb its 2009 River Beatrice into a luxurious super ship.

OCEANIA cruises added a new dinner event to La Reserve.

ROYAL CARIBBEAN cut the first piece of steel for its Quantum Ultra ship, destined for the Chinese market, and revealed the name will be Spectrum of the Seas. The 4,180-passenger ship will be the fourth in the line’s Quantum class of ships and will debut in 2019.

ROYAL CARIBBEAN is cancelling a previously scheduled cruise on Allure of the Seas, saying the ship needs maintenance work in dry dock in January.

REGENT Seven Seas Cruises unveiled its new 2019-20 voyages season, comprising 118 new sailings, departing from March 2019 to June 2020 aboard four of the world’s most luxurious cruise ships, Seven Seas Explorer, Seven Seas Mariner, Seven Seas Voyager and Seven Seas Navigator.

HOLLAND America Line’s Explore4 promotion returned with alluring offers on more than 600 cruises from March 2018 until April 2019.

OCEANIA Cruises, unveiled La Cuisine Bourgeoise, by Jacques Pépin.

SILVERSEA adjusted the dining and dress code for Silver Muse.

CELEBRITY cruises and Canyon

Ranch launched sleep-themed spa treatments.

SAGA cruises revised dining and beverage options on Spirit of Discovery.

CUNARD’s Queen Elizabeth revealed

the hosting details of QE2 fiftieth anniversary celebrations.

DISNEY Cruise Line is believed to be in the market for a second private island, which could feature a Pirates of the Caribbean theme.

Picture shows Mark Frias-Robies and Karl Moen of Disney Cruises.

BAHAMAS paradise cruise line re-

fined their brand and announced an expansion plan.

AMAwaterways announced that travel industry leader Filomena Andre will be Godmother for their 2018 river cruise ship AmaLea.

AMERICAN Queen steamboat com-

pany named Marissa Applegate as Godmother for new river cruise ship American Duchess.

CRYSTAL’s new river cruise ship Crystal Bach was named by renowned soprano Anna-Maria Kaufmann at Rudesheim-amRhein, Germany. Crystal river cruises dropped their complimentary Michelin restaurant meal in Budapest or Vienna for all but the top category of bookings.

The to-be-unveiled see-through walkway seen above the new trademark aft pool and entertainment area of MSC Seaside, which is currently under construction

MSC double up

Seaside and Seaview to launch within six months

T

he float-out of MSC Seaview in Trieste proved a milestone in the company’s $10bn expansion plan.

MSC Seaview, the second of the 4,134 passenger Seaside generation class ships, is set to come into service in June 2018, just six months after her sister ship MSC Seaside this December.

Antonio Paradiso, Managing Director for Britain and Ireland, told Travel Extra that the two ships are “game-changers for the cruise industry”. He said that while many new ships focus on interior activities, these new ships will be “following the sun” and the emphasis is on the outdoors experience in sunny climes.

They will feature buffet restaurants with al fresco dining in the sun, 360-degree promenade area, and outdoor panoramic elevators plus a pool area with sunbeds at the aft of the ship. And warm nights in the Caribbean or Med will be enjoyed on deck – with another first at sea as the forward pool will be covered over

in the evenings and the area will be transformed into an outdoor nightclub venue.

“They will have the highest ratio of outdoor space of any cruise ship,” Mr Paradiso added. The 154,000- ton Seaview will be almost identical to Seaside “more twin than sister”, Mr Paradiso told Travel Extra large.

Both will feature aft balcony suites with outdoor tubs, an expanded Yacht Club, nine restaurants, a seafood restaurant with a chef’s table, a restaurant exclusively for families and a steakhouse, plus 20 bars.

The two ships – each with a maximum capacity of around 5,200 passengers – are the biggest ever built in Italy, with up to five to six thousand shipyard workers involved in constructing them on any given day at the docks in Monfalcone At a ceremony to ‘float out’ Seaview, at which seawater was pumped into the dry dock, MSC Cruises CEO Gianni Onarato said of Seaview: “Our vision has been inspired by our passion for the sea and we are ap-

pealing to guests who are seeking the classic elements of a holiday – sun and sea – taken to the next level with a one-of-a-kind fully immersive and interactive seaside experience even whilst cruising.” MSC has 10 new ships coming into service by 2026.

Features of MSC Seaview include: the Condo on the beach design offers more outdoor space per guest than before, with a 360 degree outdoor promenade, situated low to the ocean and outdoor shops and dining.

Some of the balconies will be terraced, so guests can sun bathe and relax from the privacy of their own staterooms and 76pc of the 2,066 staterooms have an ocean view or balcony.

The inaugural 2018 season will launch in the Mediterranean, stopping in Genoa, Naples, Messina, Valetta, Barcelona and Marseille; and then, for winter 2018-2019, she will journey to Brazil and South America calling at Santos, Ilha Grande, Buzios, Porto Belo and Camboriu.

RETURN OF THE FERRY DAY TRIP

S

tena is encouraging Irish holidaymakers to take a day trip by foot from Dublin to Holyhead or Rosslare to Fishguard and time on Welsh soil from €6.50.

This day trip fare is available on selected days

when you book 48 hours or more in advance.

Stena says it gives people the chance to enjoy a day out across the Irish Sea for less than what it would cost to buy a daily Leap Card for Dublin Bus. Ferry companies are

concerned about the impending exit of Britain from the EU and the slide of sterling, but the move could have an upside the return of duty free on ferry sailings.

The practice came to an end in 1999 when the EU

scrapped the sale of taxfree alcohol, tobacco and perfume while travelling between member states.

British voters’ decision to exit the union could pave the way for a return of duty-free shopping.

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 27

AFLOAT

Another big year

Dublin port hosted 115 cruise ship calls to August

D

ublin hosted a record number of cruise ship calls in 2017.

Dublin port hosted 109 cruise ships in 2016.

One of the unknowables is about Britain’s exit from the European Union is the effect on the cruise market and the viability of basing sheds in English ports such as Southampton, Dover and Harwich.

Dublin is to build a new cruise terminal a few years after the proposed demolition of the Alexandra Basin to enable larger ships to come in and turn as part of a u230m project to expand its facilities.

That scheme will be completed in four years.

The Alexandra Basin Redevelopment will deepen and extend berths, enabling it to handle bigger vessels and facilitating their berthing closer to the city centre.

The port’s head of corporate communications. Pat Ward says that the-

CORK Port is to build a new terminal to

cater for cruise arrivals, with Cork likely to attract a record 100-plus arrivals next year. With 97 ships booked in, over 200,000 passengers are expected to visit the area.

ROYAL CARIBBEANoutlined the changes to the Nextcruise future cruise programme CRUISE Co headed by Tipperary man Seamus Conlon is to create Europe’s largest cruise travel agency with the purchase of a German operator. Full story here.

DISNEY cruise line said it is to build a seventh new ship.

MSC cruises extended its final payment date for bookings and rolled out a MSC Masterchef at Sea programme

PRINCESS Cruises, P&O Cruises and Cunard Line are to offer same-sex marriages at sea.

Crystal Symphony in Dublin

port will be able to accommodate two cruise ships of 330 metres as well as other 220 metre ships at the same time when redevelopment is completed at the end of a five-year plan.

THOMSON

cruises revealed details on entertainment line up for new ships

changed The port could be ready for the ROYAL CARIBBEAN the NextCruise future cruise programme.

2020 cruises stop on the question of a terminal to rival the likes of South- COSTA neoClassica is to leave the Costa ampton, Amsterdam or Barcelona, Cruises’ fleet in March 2018.

Ward said.

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18/08/2017 16:17

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 28

THE FLYING COLUMN

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

NORWEGIAN Air said all flights on its Cork transatlantic route are sold out for the first three weeks of August, less than a month after they began.

QANTAS

recorded the second highest profits in its history,

RYANAIR launched Alexa voice recognition under year four of its so-called always getting better programme. Ryanair celebrated carrying its one billionth passenger since its first flight took off from Waterford to London Gatwick, in July 1985.

AER LINGUS load factor in July was 88.4, passenger traffic in July was up 10.7pc.

STOBART Group said its aircraft

leasing business, Propius Ltd, has signed an agreement to purchase three Embraer E195 jet aircraft with a special purpose company managed by German Operating Aircraft Leasing.

CONSUISSE AG successfully passed the Site Acceptance Test for its Shannon ATC Centre Voice Communication Control System Main Enroute Operational System for the IAA at Ballycasey.

SHANNON Airport is looking for advice on how it can “improve overall competitiveness” and become a “challenger brand” to rival airports in Ireland

RYANAIR expanded its euro bond pro-

gramme to €5bn from €3bn

LOGANAiR is in discussion with British Airways on an expanded codeshare agreement.

ALITALIA is to have its license re-

newed by ENAC when it expires in Nov 2017.

Commissioners who issued a new invitation to tender that will lead to the sale of the carrier as a unit, possibly with ground handling unit separated.

SAS is to fly from Shannon to Stockholm until the end of September.

SYRACUSE Former Congressman James T Walsh - of the Walsh visa and the peace process - is lobbying for Syracuse Airport in upstate New York to get a direct connection with Ireland. The airport’s Christina Callahan says talks are ‘beyond the preliminary stage’.

KNOCK Ireland West Airport is aiming to join Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Belfast as a transatlantic gateway. Airport marketing manager Donal Healy said 120,000 people from the catchment area travelled to the US last year.

BA British Airways apologised to passengers after an IT failure at Heathrow and Gatwick that caused ‘total chaos’. BA said it has ‘some issues’ at check-in.

ETIHAD’s Wicklow born acting CEO

Ray Gammell says the market is challenging.

Although the Abu Dhabi airline carried a record number of passengers, it suffered a loss of $1.87bn due to one-off charges and fuel-hedging costs.

Aengus Kelly has 1,539 aircraft to play with, Domhnall Slattery has 921

Aercap leads

Gus Kelly has 1,539 aircraft, Domhnal Slattery 921

A

erCap, headed up by Aengus Kelly, reported a portfolio of 1,539 aircraft, 2017 Q2 net income of US$282.9m and total revenues up 2pc to $1.26bn, with $9bn in available liquidity.

Average age of the fleet was 7.3 years and the average remaining lease term 6.4 years.

Domhnal Slattery headed Avolon reported its portfolio of owned and managed aircraft doubled to 574

(921 including orders) in Q2 2017, up from 227 a year ago.

The company has 347 aircraft orders and commitments and financial liquidity of US$4.1bn. Average age is 4.9 years and average remaining lease term 6.8 years.

Avolon’s customer base has grown to 151 airlines in 64 countries. Avolon completed its $10.4bn acquisition of CIT Aviation during Q2, making it the world’s third largest aircraft les-

sor after GECAS and AerCap. Avolon’s owned and managed fleet totalled 574 aircraft, more than doubled from its fleet of 227 a year ago. The average age of Avolon’s owned fleet is 4.9 years, with an average remaining lease term of 6.8 years at end of Q2.

A wholly-owned, indirect subsidiary of Bohai Capital Holding, it did not report financial results.

BA AGENTS OPTION TO AVOID $10 GDS CHARGE

B

ritish Airways is giving travel agencies an option to avoid the airline’s $10 GDS booking surcharge.

The charge,to be put in place Nov 1 follows similar moves by Lufthansa.

BA has partnered with TPConnects to es-

tablish a direct connect to British Airways’ res system. The connection has IATA’s New Distribution Capability standards, giving agents access to ancillary services, rich content like photos and videos, and personalised preferences.

TPConnects said it

holds the highest level of IATA NDC certification as an IT provider and aggregator.

BA’s content will be shown in the same search results as other carriers. The connection gives agents access to ancillary services, rich content like photos and videos, and personalized

Alex Cruz CEO of BA

RESIDENTS OBJECT TO WESTON

R

esidents living in the areas around Weston Airport have been making submissions to raise concerns over possible changes at the airport or aerodrome in a consultation on Weston

by South Dublin County

Council..

Residents are worried that Weston’s owners want to expand the airport substantially, possibly catering for commercial passenger and cargo flights and turning it into a regional airport.

Weston is Ireland’s second busiest airport by aircraft movements.

Kildare North TD, Catherine Murphy told a meeting that there is concern over developments being introduced under the guise of safety.

The South Dublin-Kildare boundary almost bisects the physical runway but planning approval for its use is limited to the South Dublin segment, which is closer to recent housing developments.

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 29

THE FLYING COLUMN

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

Battle for Berlin

Ryanair claims German carve-up of 2nd largest airline

B

usinessman Hans Rudolf Woehrl, emerged as a potential bidder for Air Berlin.

He emerged amid reports Lufthansa intends to buy up to 70 of Air Berlin’s aircraft and take on 2,000-3,000 of its 8,600 employees.

TUI AG moved to safeguard the jobs of 700 of its employees who work on aircraft leased to ailing Air Berlin.

EasyJet is planning to take over up to half of the 70,000 flying slots currently offered by airberlin at Dusseldorf, for routes to Munich, Berlin,

Regulation continues to have difficulties re publishing audited accounts with its annual report. The IAA’s submission for the CAR’s Strategic Plan 2017-2019 points out a lack of aviation sector expertise within the CAR. This has led to an over-reliance on external consultants, some of whom do not understand legacy or constraining issues at Dublin airport and whose recommendations have been overly academic. It should be a key focus for the CAR to increase its aviation sector expertise in the coming years in order to improve confidence in its decision making.

DUBLIN AIRPORT Work is to

start in September on a dedicated detention centre at Dublin Airport for people due to be deported. DAA’s Dublin Airport Central building was short-listed in the Sustainable Buildings Excellence in Environment category for the 2017 Chambers Ireland Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

WOW Air suspended the Cork to Reykja-

AIR BERLIN

Turnover u 3,785 Loss -u 781.9m Passengers 28.9m Load factor 84.3 Fleet 118 (17 long haul) Destinations 52 Hubs Dusseldorf, Tegel

CAR The Commission for Aviation

Thomas Winkelmann CEO of Air Berlin

Zurich, Hamburg and Copenhagen.

Michael O’Leary said Ryanair is interested in bidding for the whole of insolvent German carrier airberlin, but it needs access to more data on

the airline’s finances, Ryanair said it would be interested in taking on insolvent Alitalia if it can be restructured.

Free th nking ble independent

vik route, launched in May as a year-round service which offered onward flights to the US. The airline cancelled a small number of flights from Cork in September and early October.

CORK airport passenger numbers are up 6pc, attributed to a strong summer schedule.

The USA on our doorstep

With full US Preclearance at Shannon Airport, there is no need to waste precious time in a queue when you land in the USA. Just pick up your luggage and walk out the door to the time of your life!

Declan Power declan.power@shannonairport.ie

Isabel Harrison isabel.harrison@shannonairport.ie

shannonairport.ie

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 30

THE FLYING COLUMN

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

TAP Portugal is to revive its prior desig-

nation and rebrand as TAP Air Portugal from mid- September 2017,

ALITALIA The Commissioners running

Alitalia in bankruptcy are seeking to reorganise its network, with a focus on increasing operations domestically and its central long-haul Rome Fiumincino hub.

CORKAirport appointed Con Dooney as

General Manager of Operations and Safety.

Cork airport passenger figures for July were 6pc up on Jul16, attributed to a strong summer schedule, several new routes and the launch of direct transatlantic flights to Boston Providence with Norwegian Air International

ROUTES Four Irish airports have been nominated in the aviation marketing awards World Routes which takes place in Barcelona in September.

EMIRATES Passengers who were aboard an Emirates aircraft that crash-landed in August 2016 are suing Chicago-based Boeing for an alleged malfunction of the aircraft’s electronics.

MONARCH Airlines is “reviewing its current business model” to deduce optimum size and shape of the airline.

E-passport gates have taken since February 2015 to install

AEGEAN have extended the Dub-

lin-Athens service from September 23 until January 8, resuming on March 28.

IAA reported their busiest ever July with 112,200 movements. Europe /US traffic is up 5.6pc, overflights up 0.8pc, terminal traffic in Dublin up 4.1pc, Cork up 2.6pc and Shannon down 4.1pc.

RYANAIR blamed air traffic controllers and bad weather in July as its on-time performance dipped slightly to 83pc of 69,000 flights.

Ryanair has overtaken Air Berlin as offering the most seats at Palma de Mallorca.

BA British Airways announced London Heathrow-Nashville using Boeing 787-8, 5w from May 4. British Airways is to go daily with A380 from London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare from May 2018, moving the aircraft form Heathrow-Washington.

BBC

ranked EasyJet as the worst airline for delays at British airports. Out of the top 10, Aer Lingus was ranked best, with Ryanair three places behind.

MANCHESTER Airport CEO Andrew Cowan and Ken O’Toole CEO of Stansted (ex-Ryanair) are to swop roles. Both airports are owned by Manchester Airports Group.

SAA South African Airways appointed

Vuyani Jarana as its new CEO, replacing acting CEO Musa Zwane.

DHL Express Ireland revenue rose 5pc to €88.45m and pre-tax profits rose 53pc to €2.47m in 2016

EFG Inflight Ltd celebrated their 10th birth-

day

G

E-gates on way

ood news for passport queue victims at Dublin airport, 10 e-gates each in T1 and T2 will be ready by the end of the summer.

The gates will provide automated passport validation and security

Standfirst

checks on passengers through facial recognition technology. Irish and other EU travellers over 18 with e-Passports and holders of the Irish Passport Card will be able to use the e-Gates in the first phase of the project. The e-gates are provided by

Lisbon-based Vision-Box which has installations at 70 international airports and at the Eurostar stations in London St Pancras.

The e-gates in Terminal 1 were removed in May in what was reported to be a maintenance row.

AER LINGUS SAY SHORT HAUL ‘UNSUSTAINABLE”

A

49-page Labour Court submission by Aer Lingus said short-haul operation by the airline is “structurally unsustainable.”

The submission said short haul has been negatively impacted by Ryanair’s improved customer focus. Aer Lingus

is also concerned about the threat it faces on US routes from Norwegian Airlines.

Arguing against a cabin crew pay claim, the document says cabin service managers in Aer Lingus earn €63,000, 38pc more than in EasyJet and cabin crew on €38,000 earn 31pc more

than EasyJet. It conceded that the Ryanair campaign is proving successful in changing perceptions of its brand.

The document warns that IAG could pull back funding from Aer Lingus if proposed pay increases go through.

Stephen Kavanagh

DUBLIN AT ANNUAL RATE FOR 1986

D

ublin Airport passenger numbers in July were up 6pc to passengers, a new monthly record.

British route traffic was flat at 896,000. Continental route passengers were

up 7pc to 1.7m, transatlantic up 18pc to 404,000, other international (mainly Middle East) up 8pc to 91,000, and domestic up 22pc to 10,000. Year to date up 6pc to over 16.9m.

Almost 79,000 passen-

gers (158,000 sectors) used Dublin Airport as a connecting gateway in July, a 30pc increase. So far this year, connecting passenger numbers have increased by 42pc to just over 406,000.

On time performance

has improved by 2pc so far this year. Dublin Airport handled as many passengers in July 2017 as in the whole of 1986 and is handling as many passengers as Heathrow did in the early 1980s

u

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 31

THE FLYING COLUMN

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare AMERICAN Airlines will close their check-in counters 75 minutes before the flight departure time owing to enhanced US bound security checks at Dublin airport to allow passengers to pass security checkpoints in enough time. American say the change has been made with immediate effect. “We ask that all passengers plan ahead their journeys to ensure that they clear the check-in process in sufficient time.” Picture shows Caitriona Toner of American Airlines, HAINAN Airlines did not include Dub-

lin in plans to open six international routes despite reports of ongoing discussions, Shanghai-Tel Aviv, Beijing-Prague-Belgrade, Shenzhen-Brisbane, Chongqing-New York JFK, Chengdu-New York JFK and Shanghai-Brussels. Reports have re-emerged that Hainan Airlines is close to agreeing a direct scheduled flight from Dublin to Beijing for winter season.

ETIHAD says the new Group CEO will St Carthage, Aer Lingus’s newest A330

Extra A330 bonus

Aer Lingus increase trans-Atlantic on winter schedule

A

er Lingus unveiled what it says is its largest ever winter schedule, including 350 extra transatlantic flights, 106,000 extra long haul seats and 300,000 additional seats in all.

A new Airbus A330-300 will be in operation for a full winter season and Aer Lingus will fly12w to the American West coast.

Aer Lingus are introducing lowcost fares in response to Norwegian, with minimal baggage allowance and flexibility.

There is a new winter route to Bilbao, 47,000 extra seats to key European cities of Hamburg, Bordeaux and Zurich, 50,000 more seats to Birmingham and 56,000 more seats on new peak morning flights from Dublin to London.

This Winter is our biggest yet with considerable expansion of our longhaul and European networks,” said Mike Rutter, Chief Operating Officer. “While summer is traditionally the time of year to jet off, winter is certainly gathering pace and this

year’s schedule boasts great value and choice across the UK, Europe and North America.

Headset improvements are next on the agenda for Aer Lingus with new long-haul meals, and a €1m entertainment system upgrade.

This autumn there will be new south apron gates for short-haul walk-on, walk-off. Aer Lingus has 600 more front-line staff than two years ago.

RYANAIR PAX HIT 12.6m FOR JULY

R

yanair hit a world record 97pc RYANAIR MONTHLY PASSENGER NUMBERS load factor for the first time in July.

The airline also set a monthly record in July of 12.6m passengers, up 11pc, with 125.1m passengers.

Rolling traffic was 125.1 passengers in the 12 months to end July. This was the 39th successive record month for Ryanair passenger numbers.

The growth trajectory mean that Ryanair are unlikely to fall below July 2016, August 2016 and April 2017. Ryanair hit 95pc 10m passengers in a month until November. load factor on seven occasions, July and August 2015, The 97pc load factor is a record. Ryanair previously September, October, November 2016, and February and recorded a load factor of 96pc four times, in June 2017, in May 2017,

start in 2018 and the hiring is nearly finalised.

The role is currently being carried out by Wicklow-born Ray Callely.

AMERICAN will be making cuts to

its JFK hub and concentrating on Philadelphia which is seeing transatlantic growth.

SHANNON Airport is to receive a special €1m payment from the Exchequer to help protect it against flooding.

NORWEGIAN is seeking Captains

and First Officers to operate on Norwegian Boeing 737 MAX aircraft on Transatlantic and European routes out of a Dublin base.

EXECUTIVE HELI The num-

ber of helicopters that landed at the Galway racecourse during the annual Galway Races increased by 25pc.

RYANAIR added another 25 connecting airport-pairs at Milan Bergamo. Ryanair launched a dedicated booking platform offering Erasmus students fare discounts, free bags and tailored travel offers.

AMERICAN Airlines is to fly Philadelphia-Budapest, Prague , Zurich and Chicago-Venice seasonal services in 2018 and is dropping Manchester-JFK. ATLANTIC Pre-tax profits at Shan-

non-based aircraft maintenance firm Atlantic Aviation Group doubled to €1.48m.

RETAILINMOTION Dub-

lin-based inflight services firm Retail inMotion added a retail consultancy contract with Aer Lingus.

APOLLO Aviation Group is to purchase 38 aircraft in the first half of 2017 for a total gross purchase price of $910m.

FLY Leasing appointed Julie Ruehl as its Chief Financial Officer

SMBC Peter Barrett said SMBC Aviation

Capital aims to become the world’s leading jet lessor. It is currently ranked fourth in the world after GECAS, AerCap and Avolon. Annual Report and Accounts here.

u u

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 32

THE FLYING COLUMN

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

WOW air are to increase Dublin-Keflavik

from 11w to 14w from May 14 2018. Wow announced four 4w routes from Keflavik to Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati and St Louis, staring Apr/May. Keflavik-Stansted is to begin April 25 daily. Connecting one way fares of €130 were promised (one newspaper mistakenly reported these as direct from Ireland).

DUBLIN Airport has introduced baby-feeding rooms in T1 and T2 located beyond passenger security screening, beside the retail area in T2, and the food and beverage area in T1. Dublin Airport now has direct flights to 185 destinations in 41 countries operated by 47 airlines.

QANTAS PWCfacturing attractiveness rankings placed Ireland 14th ahead of Spain and France.

METRO NORTH airport rail finally got under way with tender

JET2.COM is recruiting for 50 positions at Belfast International Airport.

Kenny Jacobs and David O’Brien don Oktoberfest hats to announce Ryanair’s 2018 schedule

AER LINGUS

Regional/ Stobart will reduce Dublin-Newcastle from 16w to 7w for winter 2017-18 and Bristol from 23w to 19w. Birmingham is increasing from 4 daily to 5 daily, Manchester to 38w.

BELFAST

International Airport says passengers from the 26 counties rose by 135pc this summer and 11pc of cars on the online car park booking system were registered vehicles in the Republic

AMERICAN Airlines will re-com-

mence its B757 service Philadelphia-Shannon in 2018 on April 5, a month earlier than this year, and it will run until early October.

LUXAIR will increase its Luxem-

bourg-Dublin service from 6w to twice daily from March 25 except Sat with Sash8-Q400 aircraft.

ICELANDAIR announced Keflavik-Cleveland 4w from May 18.

NATS signed a nine-year contract with Belfast International Airport to provide air traffic control and engineering services.

DELTA became the first US airline to offer video chat with the reservations team.

KLM became the first non-Chinese airline to offer customers the opportunity to pay for tickets and ancillaries via WeChat Pay on KLM.com and WeChat.

SINGAPORE Airlines said its his-

toric first A380 from 2007 is “undergoing delease work before returning to the lessor.”

TAROM Eugen Davidoiu, CEO of Romanian State-owned TAROM, resigned after a row with Prime Minister Mihai Tudose over the poor results of the company.

AIR NEW ZEALAND is plan-

ning a new order for long-haul A350 or B777X aircraft, replacing eight B777-200s,to enable it to fly directly from its Auckland to NYC and to Brazil.

R

5 new routes

Ryanair eyes up Germany for next expansion

yanair will add five new services from Dublin airport, to Munich, Stuttgart and Naples for the forthcoming winter season and will also operate new routes to Paphos and Marrakech for summer 2018.

The airline will operate a new double daily service to Munich and a new daily Stuttgart route from winter 2017. Ryanair will extend its fivetime weekly winter service to Naples

into the summer and it will add a new twice weekly route to Paphos in Cyprus and Marrakech in Morocco from March 2018.

At the launch of the new routes in Dublin, Kenny Jacobs told Travel Extra that Germany would be key to the Ryanair expansion and that he anticipated a marketing push to match the new routes from Tourism Ireland.

David O’Brien said Marrakech airport had improved its incentive

scheme, leading to the resumption of a rout that had been dropped.

“Ryanair services from Dublin Airport offer further flexibility and choice for passengers,” said Dublin Airport Managing Director Vincent Harrison. “The two new routes to Germany means that Dublin Airport will welcome a total of 14 new services this year and we now have two new routes in place for 2018.”

ALAN JOYCE SEEKS OUT LONDON-SYDNEY

Q

antas Tallaght-born CEO Alan Joyce challenged aircraft manufacturers to enable it to provide direct flights on longer haul routes nonstop by 2022.

He instanced route such as such as Sydney-London, Brisbane-Paris and Mel-

bourne-New York.

They are also eyeing up Rio de Janeiro for direct flights. “This is a last frontier in global aviation. The antidote to the tyranny of distance.

And a revolution for air travel in Australia,” Joyce said.

“Both manufacturers are developing aircraft

that can almost do the job – the B777X and the A350ULR. We believe advances in the next few years will close the gap, and Qantas has the unique operational experience to be the airline that helps make it happen.”

Alan Joyce

“MAKERS WANT CANCELLATIONS’

T

here was some interesting analysis from AerCap CEO Aengus Kelly at the Q2 results call: He said “Boeing and A irbus de libe ra te ly planned the business

model to enforce airlines to over commit, in terms of the time frame they take the airplane. So they have to go back to them and ask for a deferral and they will increase the pricing and generate an improved

margin because of that. So I don’t think that anyone ever expected the 3 carriers in the Middle East to take delivery of all the airplanes in the time frame they were ordered. That’s the key point. I do believe

the business models are sound and robust for the long term and that over the longer term, those seats will deliver. But not in the original time frame that was envisaged.

RDS Hall 3, Ballsbridge

Presented by

THURSDAY 12th APRIL 2018

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• National/Regional Tourist Organisations

• Car Rental • Cruise Companies • Ferries • Financial Services including Credit Cards

• Technology and Communications Companies • Theme & Leisure Parks • Ticketing Agents

• Golf Resorts and Related Services

• Trade Associations

• Ground Handling

• Tour Operators

An initiative of the ITAA supported by Travel Centres, Worldchoice and Travelsavers

Travel Agent Proprietors, Managers and Frontline Travel Professionals.

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The Irish Travel Trade Show is organised on behalf of The Irish Travel Agents Association by Business Exhibitions Limited 59 Rathfarnham Road Terenure Dublin D6W AK70

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SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 34

GLOBAL VILLAGE

Inside the Travel Business

CRYSTAL Nan Short and Natalie Dorrington of Crystal Cruises hosted 30 agents and key customers on board Crystal Symphony in Dublin. Symphony is going in for an refurb this September and will re-emerge with new dining options, an entirely new class of room designated as Seabreeze penthouse suites, capacity reduced from 922 passengers down to 848 and unlimited, free internet for the duration of each cruise.

MARY McKENNA

of Tour America is inviting support on her 500km cycle from Barcelona to Valencia this September, 3rd to 7th. All funds raised will go to Crumlin Hospital who help so many families.

Mary McKenna is participating in memory of her cousin whose daughter spent 12 days there before passing away from Edwards Syndrome.

“Only for the wonderful care given to Fiadh they would not have had these precious days with her.”

TURKISH Airlines is seeking a Corporate Sales Representative Ireland based in Dublin. The role is to identify and develop new leads via direct sales (customer visits), contact by phone, networking and client referrals. The successful candidate will have strong sales and negotiation skills, effective communication skills and well-developed interpersonal skills ability to multi task, perform well in cross-functional team environment, and assist the corporate sales manager and/or marketing manager in implementing targeted sales and marketing plans and ensure corporate customer satisfaction via providing after sales support.

Requirements are a minimum two years of experience in Corporate Sales or preferably, travel related fields interacting extensively with customers. Fluency in English is required and fluency in any of the following language is an asset: French, German, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese.

FLY CRUISE STAY launched a Certificate of Excellence Award for Hotels & Resorts. Award winners include Royal Hotel Beirut, the Table Bay Mountain, Cape Town, Dosso Dossi Old Town, Sultanhamet, Istanbul and the Kenzi Club Agdal Medina, Marrakesh.

FRED OLSEN Alan Lynch of

Cruisescapes hosted 17 agents from eight agencies on board Fred Olsen’s MS Balmoral in Dublin Only one agent had ever been on a Fred Olsen ship before. The presentation by Fred Olsen Cruises outlined the benefits of small ship cruising: no tendering in busy ports such as St Petersburg, cruising into fjords which are impossible to navigate with larger ships and no queueing for food, silver service is available at all meals if the client prefers.

TULLY’S Travel’s Carlow office. Ideal candidate will have at least 2 years experience within the travel industry.

HOLLAND AMERICA The

prize for longest presentations at a trade event this summer go to Holland America at their agents night and quiz.

Spain and Portugal feature in early booking requests for 2018

Early bookings

ITAA say USA now in third place in early bookings

T

ravel agents say that early booking by clients was the big trend of 2017. “This year has taught us in the trade - and consumers - the advantage of booking in advance. The days of hanging on for specials in key destinations is a thing of the past,” ITAA president Meehan said.

“New accommodation in the likes of Spain, Portugal, France Italy and Greece will be coming on stream for

the summer of 2018 so there might be less pressure.

Travel agents are benefiting from the upturn in the economy, with three-quarters saying bookings for April to June are up on last year.

The Irish Travel Agents Association quarterly survey found that a quarter of agents reported an increase of more than 10-15pc in bookings.

“We’re looking at a year-on-year increase of about 15 to 20pc,” ITAA

President Cormac Meehan told Travel Extra. “The sectors that are up are principally the package holiday market, while the cruise market might be marginally up. Funnily enough, cruising took a bit of a dip last year, but it’s up this year.”

Spain and Portugal continue to be key markets, with the US third place.

“Some agents tell me family breaks five or six days with a New York show or shopping are very popular.”

MARTINA TO HEAD UP UNITED’S IRISH OFFICE

M

artina Coogan will commence as new Ireland manager for United Airlines on September 26.

Martina previously worked with Aer Lingus, Air France/Delta and Travelport’s Dublin based digital subsidiary, Mobile Travel Technol-

ogy.

The latest role put her at the heart of the new world of mobile technology and app development to prepare mobile friendly itineraries for travellers.

United She succeeds Pat Reede who retired as Ireland manager of United Airlines.

During the summer Amit Badiani served as acting Ireland manager of United Airlines.

United Airlines recently marked five years of its nonstop service between Dublin and Washington DC. Since it was launched in 2012, the service has carried 390,000 customers.

Martina Coogan

GERMANY TOURISM NEW CHIEF

G

erman tourism has a new head of the Irish market, with Beatrix Haun replacing Klaus Lohmann as the director of the German National Tourist Office for Britain and Ireland.

Beatrix Haun, German National Tourist Office Haun, who was previ-

ously director of the The German National Tourist Board in France, began her career with the GNTB in Frankfurt as an apprentice travel trade consultant from 1978 to 1981.

She held various roles at the GNTB’s head office until 1985, taking over the role of deputy director in

Paris before assuming full management responsibilities in 2003.

From 2008 to 2011, Haun was head of the GNTB’s office in Vienna, before returning to Paris in 2011 where she has since held the position of director.

Haun said that Ireland

“is ranked among the most important source markets for incoming tourism to Germany.”

Ireland, has 476,115 overnight stays in Germany in 2016. Connectivity is up, with Lufthansa to add a fourth daily service on the Dublin-Frankfurt route this winter,.

u

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 35

Inside the Travel Business

GLOBAL VILLAGE PHOENIX TRAVEL Lee Os-

borne is to take over the Phoenix Travel Agency in Greystones from Alan Perkins.

Lee says it will be business as usual for Lee at Bookabed, where he was Travel Trade representative of the year 2013 and short listed every year at the ITIA awards. Travel Extra wishes Alan the best in his retirement.

Antonio Padeira and Ana Celina Tavares of Portuguese Tourist Board with Yvonne Muldoon of Aer Lingus

ITAA Oporto plans

Data legislation and package changes on agenda

T

he agenda for the ITAA con- Portugal to the Irish travel trade, to lin-Porto route.

Antonio Padeira and Ana Celina ference in Oporto on Friday, include some tours the winelands and the hinterland. Porto is also the third Tavares will host the event on behalf October 13 is hotting up.

There will be five or six crucial largest rivercruise base in the Irish of the Portuguese Tourist Board,. The 150 delegates have a choice of flights presentations, relevant to both agents market.

Planned Aer Lingus flights to Porto direct to Porto with Ryanair or a disand suppliers about changes in legislation coming down the tracks. From this year were cancelled after Ryanair counted Aer Lingus flight to Lisbon January the PCI will dramatically increased the frequency on the Dub- with a train journey to Porto. change the regulations on credit card details.

ITAA CONFERENCE VENUES Other changes will bring corporate travel bookings out- 1975 Burlington 1989 Killarney 2003 Killarney side the bonding system. Fines 1976 Killarney 1990 Killarney 2004 Citywest for data transgressions will be 1977 Killarney 1991 Limerick 2005 Citywest increased dramatically.

1978 Wexford 1992 Limerick 2006 Santry This will be the first confer- 1979 Tralee 2008 MSC Poesia 1993 Killarney ence to be hosted by Portugal 1980 Ennis 1994 Tralee 2009 Portlaoise since the 1999 conference in 1981 Limerick 1995 Killarney 2010 Malaga Cascais. The annual confer- 1982 Limerick 1996 Benalmadena 2011 Seville ence of the Irish Tour Oper- 1983 Limerick 1997 Ennis 2012 Istanbul ators Federation was hosted by 1984 Waterford 2013 Granada 1998 Killarney Portugal in 2006.

1999 Estoril/Cascais 2014 Quantum of the Seas 1985 Cork The tourist board for the 1986 Wexford 2000 Tralee 2015 Jerez region would be to showcase 1987 Limerick 2001 Galway 2016 MS Antoinette the area of Porto and Northern 1988 Killarney 2002 Newcastle 2017 Oporto

ITALIAN CHAMBER TO MAN TOURISM OFFICE

T

he Italian National Tourist Board office in Dublin, first reported

by Travel Extra, will be managed by Francesco Tirelli of the Irish Italian Chamber of Commerce.

Francesco who will avail himself of the help of two more members of staff. The team will look

after all matters of commerce between Ireland and Italy and will liaise closely with the Italian Tourist Board in London They say it will enhance the presence of Italy in this very important market for our country: 17, Old Naas Road, Inchicore. Dublin 12, D12 T8P4.

Italy is Ireland’s fifth biggest outbound market with 350,000 visitors annually. Dublin has 103 flights a week to Italy, of which 15 are to Rome Ciampino, 14 to Bergamo, 13 to Rome Fiumicino, 8 to Pisa and 7 each to Bologna, Milan Linate and Malpensa.

TRAVEL CENTRES Dominic Burke launched a doppelganger competition in the lead up to this year’s Travel Centres conference, participants are invited to find a doppelganger for any member of staff working in a Travel Centres Agency. The winner will attend the conference free of charge with 200 spending money. Register on www.twinstrangers.net and upload a photograph to be matched against 1m other photos in the Twin Strangers database, with a fee of 2.

TRAVEL PARTNERS And then there were eight, the Travel Partners Group have added ferry operator, Irish Ferries to the group. The Travel Partners Group Facebook page now has 600 members and agents are encouraged to join to keep up to date with the Groups’ activities by joining the group page. Dermot Merrigan joins Amadeus, ASM (representing SAS, ANA, OBEO Travel and Your Car Hire), Blue Insurance , Bookabed, Classic Collection Holidays, Cruisescapes and MSC Cruises in the group

TRAVEL CENTRES agents were hosted by Amanda Middler and Lynda McCorry of Silversea aboard Silver Whisper in Cobh for a ship visit and five course lunch.

Brendan Breen’s new luxury travel company OROKO Travel are looking for a Luxury Travel Sales Consultant/Creative Travel Specialist “with an exceptional customer service ethic and a natural flair for sales. This role will suit a resourceful, self-motivated, results-driven travel professional who would relish the opportunity to work with demanding clients, source new products and suppliers and design holidays from a blank canvas.”

TRAVEL SOLUTIONS

Cruise Manager, Aaron Fletcher and Norwegian Cruise Lines David Sanderson announced direct flights from Belfast to Barcelona each Sunday morning April-September 2018 for cruise customers to join the Norwegian Epic for its Western Mediterranean seven night itinerary.

Norwegian Epic packages include return flights from Belfast, return transfers between the airport and the ship plus a seven night cruise with Norwegian’s premium all inclusive drinks package included.

JAMAICA Tourist Board Tourism Director Paul Pennicook ended his three-year term of office on August 18. Donnie Dawson will serve as Acting Tourism Director during the interim.

DAWSON Travel Cork are seeking applicants for a part time accounts clerk. Previous travel accounts would be of benefit but not essential. Apply with CV and a cover note to paula@dawsontravel.ie

Francesco Tirelli

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 36

u

WINDOW SEAT Last month in numbers

iu2.5bn Amadeus revenue for the first six months of 2017.

125.1m Number of passengers booked on Ryanair in the 12 months to end July 2017

12.6m Number of passengers booked on

Ryanair in July, its busiest month ever

3,121,469 Dublin Airport handled as many passengers in July 2017 as in the whole of 1986

441,890 Number of Irish visitors to the USA in 2016, fourth largest outbound market for Ireland

17.5pc Percentage increase of Irish visits to Spain in June

76pc proportion of staterooms that have their own balcony on MSC Seaview

HIT THE ROAD FOR CRACK, JACK

B

ob Montgomery’s book is subtitled A personal guide to driving Ireland’s best roads & most interesting places.

Bob is curator of the Royal Irish Automobile club so motoring history is a theme here. There is an excellent overview of Irish history at the start and, as one would expect, lots on motor racing such as the Phoenix Park Grand Prix and the fourth Gordon Bennett race in 1903, Other interests of the author make an appearance, Amelia Earhart’s brief appearance in Derry merits a page, and there is a good page on Tom Crean, who has risen from obscurity in recent decades.

Drive Ireland by Bob Montgomery is published by Dreoilín u20

It has suggested routes but is not too strict with them and a nice balance of the destinations. It is not too Cork and Kerry heavy (a danger faced by all Irish guide books) with substantial and informative material on Donegal, that most beguiling of counties. Knockamany Bends, beloved of motoring fans, merits a mention. This is a guide book that means what it says about observing from the road.

The 50 places you should not meet includes most of the usual suspects but also Bellaghabearna Pass,

Thomond Park Museum,South Pole Inn Anascaul, Tim Healy pass (misspelt), the oft-neglected Oldbridge House and Chester Beatty Library, “Ireland’s wildest place and (oddly) Dalkey Castle. Mischievous spellcheck-crashing typos proliferate throughout the book, but it is not alone in that nowadays.

Highlight of the journey is not a drive at all, an 18 hour 35 mile trek on two sticks of chocolate and there biscuit, a reminder that sports gel and a hand held water bottle for a jog to the shops.

Busman’s holiday: Brendan Barry

Every month we ask a leading travel professional to write about their personal holiday experience. This month: Brendan Barry of Discover Travel.

W

e have one claim to fame in our family and that was attributed to our Auntie Maureen. Throughout the 70s our family holidays were spent in Rosscarbery and the Warren beach in West Cork.

Every morning close to dawn my Aunt used to drag us out of bed to race down the windy road to the beach. Like a woman possessed she would stride along muttering “they’ll be here any minute; HURRY”. Tartan rug in one hand and knitting in the other, she would storm the beach with a vengeance only stopping - exhausted - at the foot of a massive great sand dune; our favourite spot. Carefully she would place the rug down and then proceed to scatter various objects around the vicinity such as

D

fishing rods, towels, buckets and spades.

Then she’d say “They can come all they want now it’s ours”. I believe there must have been a German spy in the area at the time.

I only remember long hot summer days filled with hide & seek in the dunes, diving off the pier at high tide, fishing for bass, picking potatoes, milking cows, mixing feed for the pigs, the occasional trip in the tractor and trailer and waiting anxiously for the horse fair to begin in the square in Ross.

My mother had a friend who was a UN envoy to Cambodia in the early 80s. She recalled the horrors of the Pol Pot era and the terrible suffering these quite gentle people suffered. But in between all this came a story of a huge lost ancient city built in the 12th century, bigger than Manhattan, which had a population greater than London. The temples were gold leafed and ornate.

Middle tower of Angkor Wat Built as a Hindu temple for the Khmer people and later adorned as a Buddhist shrine. By the 17th century the once thriving civilisation had vanished and the city consumed by the jungle. Could all this be true I wondered.

Today my family and I enjoy our mobile home in Owenahincha - a stone’s throw from the Warren beach and Rosscarbery. My kids have grown up

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

ublin Airport processed more passengers last month that they did in the entire year that Michael O’Leary did his Leaving certificate.

Last Friday a record 109,000 people passed through the two terminals. Every ten days a million passengers are coming and going through the island’s biggest gateway.

The numbers come with a downside. Immigration queues are

sneaking back down the corridors of both airports. Security queues, closely monitored, are pushing out towards the alarm point of thirty minutes.

Ryanair’s seat allocation is now being bought by about half of their passengers, according to Michael O’Leary, meaning that those who don’t buy a pre-allocated seat are certain to be dispersed.

Airport car parks are likely to show up full for late bookings.

Dublin airport has five parking options, two short term in terminal 2 and one short term option in Terminal 1, as well as their more distant red (rebranded Express Red) and, cheapest and most distant of all, blue (renamed “Holiday Blue”).

Quickpark have two options, a park yourself option and n express, for those not enthusiastic about a drive to row 120 in the dark after a late night return.

enjoying many of the same pleasures we had experienced. Maybe they haven’t gone quite as far a mixing pig swill, but the jumping off the pier and fishing for the elusive bass still goes on and they have made friends for life in this beautiful rural existence, where nature and simplicity are the order of the day.

My heart pounded as my guide Sok weaved me through the jungle track early in the morning to the East gate entrance of my childhood’s lost city.

Quietly and gently the jungle gave way to the most magnificent sight of a massive structure full of decorated walls and corridors, painstakingly carved by those ancient stone masons. I wandered around dumbfounded as to how they could first build and then lose such a beautiful city. I have visited this place many times since, but my favourite time was when I brought my family there a few years ago to share in all its glory and mystery.

It inspired me to create our Asia brochure, which allows me to share the wonderful journey through Cambodia’s incredible kingdom.

IN YOUR NEXT TRAVEL EXTRA: Available to Travel Agents or online September 19 2017

WINTER SPORTS Austria still the favourite The new Val D’Isere WINTERSPORT TRENDS

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 37

MEETING PLACE

Out and about with the Travel Trade

elan Barry Little, Lynn Halford, Tim Adams, Jennifer Green and Deirdre Wh Anca Chirita, Victoria nt Jensen and Tom Scott of Trailfinders at the Aer eve mi Mia s gu Lin r of E-travel at the Ae Lingus Miami event

Dave Green of Cuba Tra Gohop at the Aer Lingu vel and Rachel Tracey of s Miami event

k on Travel, Tim Kiely, JacS Paul Dawson of Daws at TIG t.ie en ag vel Tra of n Sheil and Paul Sexto President’s Day

Shauna Kelly and Jon ath at the Aer Lingus Miami an Howitt from Topflight event

Sinead Devine, Laura Burke, Elaine McManus and Aoife Devine of Budget Travel at the Aer Lingus, Peter O’Hanlon of at John Keogh of Aer Lin gus Miami event Beacom of Aer Lingus Travelfinders and Ivan nt eve the Aer Lingus Miami

Tom Coade and Gordon Penney at TIGS President’s Day

Amanda Middler of Silversea, Louise Brennan and Kathleen Kinane of Club Travel on board Silver Whisper in Dublin, May 30, 2017

Nadine Farrelly, Lorraine Costello and Sinead Lonergan at the Travel Counsellors s, Rebecca lor sel un Co vel Tra of Mandy Walsh rgan of Ireland mini-conference at Dunboyne Castle ne Lo d ea Sin d an s nt Kelly of MSC Cruise Aer Lingus Miami eve the at s lor sel un Co Travel

Arthur Doran and Tom O’Donohue of Strand Travel at TIGS Presid ent’s Day

Jenny Rafter, Yvonne Mu of Aer Lingus at the Ae ldoon and Dermot Lee r Lingus Miami event

Prize winner Sean McCarthy and Paul James of Club Travel at the Aer Lingus Miami event

Sarah Lee and Mary Ka te Levin of Aer Lingus the Aer Lingus Miami at event

d ne Lennox of WTC an Graham Aldren, Yvon at TIGS President’s Day t gh pfli To Simon Daly of

Clare Dunne of The Tra vel Broker and Dave Ha eems of Trailfinders at the Kimpton hotels eve ynt

vel tte McCann at the Tra e Lisa Nahedh and Anne oyn nb Du at ce i-conferen Counsellors Ireland min Castle

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 38

Out and about with the Travel Trade

bed, Dee Burdock o of Colleen Butler of Booka da Ryan of Tour AmerLin d an Visit USA Ireland event ica at the Kimpton hotels

Sharon Harney of Cassi O’Neill of Worldchoice dy Travel and Carol Anne Ireland at the Aer Lingu Miami event s

ll at

tes and Ciaran Mulha Enda Corneille of Emira TIGS President’s Day

Liz Wright of Tour Am eri America and Ciara Mo ca, Linda Ryan of Tour on the Kimpton hotels eve ey of Freedom Travel at nt

Michelle Anderson, Marie Doherty and Carmen Tracey Teggart and Nicola Stenhouse of Cassi Travel on board Silver Mazzone of Topflight at the Aer Lingus Miami Whisper in Dublin, Ma dy y 30, 20 17 event

Tanya Airey of Sunway and Paul Hackett of Clickandgo at the Kimpton hotels event

Will Walsh and Bettina Haltmayer of Clickandgo at the Aer Lingus Miami event

gus Caroline Quigley and Debbie Murray of Keith Prowse at the Aer Lingus Miami event

Overall winner Eimear Fa Louis O’Toole at TIGS rrell with Bill Smith and President’s Day

yal Caribbean, Clare Jennifer Callister of Ro ker and Clare Doherty of Bro vel Tra e Dunne of Th r Lingus Miami event American Sky at the Ae

Julie Hastings & Caoimhe Moloney-Kavanagh of Sharon Tiernan-Murphy and Rachael O’Con nell at the Travel Counsellor Kavanagh Coaches at the Hastings Hotels ans Ireland mini-conferen at Dunboyne Castle ce nouncement

bed and at the Aer Lin

Jackie Clynch of Booka Miami event

MEETING PLACE

Jimmy Lennox of WTC and John Cassidy of Cassidy Travel at TIGS President’s Day

stMarketing Manager Ha a Joanne Harey Group r Europ ge na Ma ral ne Ge n ings & James McGin Hotels announcement Belfast at the Hastings

Carol Anne O’Neill of Wo Collins of Best4Travel rldchoice Ireland, Jeff and Amanda O’Brien of American Holidays at the Aer Lingus Miami event

dy Travel, Igde Pitana John Spollen of Cassi of Indonesia and Gordon r iste Deputy tourism Min a golf event esi on Ind the at ey Penn

SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 39

MEETING PLACE

erica and Kathy Cashe Cathy Cullen of Tour Amn hotels event of Sunway at the Kimpto

Rowena Shanley and Ba way, Seb Sarrasin of Gr rry Hammond of Suneater Miami CVB, Toni Birthistle of Sunway

ung Airways and Gillian Yo Tara Magee of British nt eve tels ho n pto Kim of Visit USA at the

Volker Lorenz of Amad eus, Noel McAuliffe of Travelfocus and Niall McDonnell of Classic Collection at TIGS Presid ent’s Day

Out and about with the Travel Trade

Holly Best of Virgin Atlantic and Martin Skelly of Navan Travel at the Kimpton hotels event

Helen Kelly of Travel Counsellors, Margaret O’Connor of Old Head and Suzanne Monks of Dublin Pass

Valerie Murphy of Etihad and John Spollen of Cassidy Travel at TIGS President’s Day

can Airlines and Terry Fiona Noonan of Ameri lidays at the Kimpton Ho can eri Sheehan of Am hotels event

Event sponsor Beatrice Martin Skelly of Navan Cosgrove of Etihad and Travel captain of TIGS TIGS President’s Day at

Martin Skelly of Navan Travel, Maria Mayabubun y at Sharon Tiernan Murph of Indonesia tourism, Igde Pitana Deputy tourism Sonia Blakeman and nference at i-co min d lan Ire s lor Minister of Indonesia, and Philip Airey of Sunway the Travel Counsel Dunboyne Castle

of Linda McCorry of Silversea Cruises and Megan nway and Rachel Tracey McNeice of Cassidy Travel on board Silver WhisDeirdre Sweeny of Su tels event ho per in Dublin, May 30, 2017 Gohop at the Kimpton

Fiona Mulvey Headfor t La Skelly of Navan Travel dy Captain, Miriam and Mary McGuinness TIGS President’s Day at

Liz Wright of Tour Am eri Bookabed at the Kimpto ca and Beverleigh Fly of n hotels event

Sharon Harney of Cassidy Travel and Deirdra O’Hare of HRG at the Aer Lingus Miami event

Marian Benton of Map Travel, Suzanne Monks Dublin Pass, Margaret of O’C Helen Kelly of Travel Co onnor of Old Head and unsellors at TIGS

C, Yvonne Lennox of WT Tanya Airey of Sunway, on Consulting and Niamh ad Audrey Headon of He President’s Day Byrne during the TIGS

★★★★

★

Disc�ver a w��ld �ull of w�nders...

2018

★★★★★

BELFAST TITANIC EXHIBITION CENTRE JANUARY 19/21

DUBLIN RDS SIMMONSCOURT JANUARY 26/28

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