What you should know about airport hotels March 14, 2012
Posted by janeefraser in Australia, Hotels, Travel, Travel tips & trends, UK & Europe.Tags: airports, hotels, London, Rydges, Sofitel, Sydney, tourism, Travel
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There are few major cities without a big-brand airport hotel these days. At airports around the world you can get off a plane and head straight to a hotel of four- or five-star standard, with restaurants, exercise facilities and spa treatments on offer.
Sydney is set to get its first true airport hotel next year, with work under way on a 317-room property next to the international terminal. The four-star hotel, which will be operated by Rydges Hotels, will be within walking distance of the terminal and give travellers a room right at the airport, without the need for transport.
While such hotels have done a good job of marketing the benefits of a comfortable bed and a hot shower during a long journey, sometimes it pays to consider other options. First and most obvious is price. Some really know how to charge. I recently paid nearly $200 for just eight hours in an airport hotel in Asia because the timing of my flights did not qualify me for the cheaper day-use rate.
A search for rooms at the Sofitel London Heathrow, which is often touted as the best airport hotel in the world, shows you can expect to pay well in excess of $200 a night during the week, when business travellers are on the move. This is a big expense if you really just want a shower and a way to pass the time.
The other big point to consider… (click here to keep reading this article by Jane E. Fraser)
Enter the human being March 2, 2012
Posted by janeefraser in Travel, Travel technology, Travel tips & trends.Tags: online travel, PhoCusWright, Travel, travel technology, travel trends, Zuji
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Online travel might be booming but it seems many of us still need a human being.
Leading online travel website ZUJI Australia has introduced a telephone line to help travellers make their bookings. The company says the telephone service will work “in conjunction” with its extensive online booking engine, which offers 67,000 hotels, 400 airlines and more than 1 million holiday options.
The managing director of ZUJI Australia, James Gaskell, says the service will help customers individualise their trips and be particularly useful for those making complicated bookings such as multiple stops. ”We hope it will also help our customers who mightn’t be as confident online, or for those who just want the reassurance of a human voice,” Gaskell says.
While some are still looking for human contact, online travel is (more…)
A billion reasons it’s a less lonely planet February 27, 2012
Posted by janeefraser in Adventure travel, Travel, Travel tips & trends.Tags: Flight Centre, Lonely Planet, responsible tourism, Tony Wheeler, tourism, Travel, UNWTO
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Wrap your mind around this figure if you can: by the end of the year, the global tourism market is expected to reach 1 billion passengers a year. That’s not counting people travelling within their own country; it is purely international tourism arrivals.
What does 1 billion tourists mean for the world? Do we celebrate the economic and cultural benefits that tourism brings or do we fear for the sustainability and authenticity of future travel? At what point does the balance actually tip?
“You only have to look at the number of aircraft taking off and landing at airports – and compare that to the figures of a generation ago – to come to the conclusion it must have some sort of impact,” says the founder of Lonely Planet, Tony Wheeler.
“Let’s face it – the thought of countless millions of Chinese tourists getting added into the mix is pretty scary,” says Wheeler. “But who are we to tell them not to go? And it’s pretty exciting to see their sudden interest in the outside world.”
Wheeler says while he sometimes questions the good versus harm ratio of tourism – he names places such as… (click here to keep reading this article by Jane E. Fraser)
Creative Christchurch fights back February 20, 2012
Posted by janeefraser in Hotels, NZ & Pacific Islands, Travel, Travel tips & trends.Tags: Christchurch, earthquake, New Zealand, Relaxing Journeys, tourism, Travel
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It will be a sombre day on Wednesday when Christchurch marks one year since the powerful earthquake that claimed more than 180 lives and turned parts of the picturesque city into rubble. But far from relying on the long process of rebuilding to slowly bring about recovery, the city has been fighting back with an abundance of energy and creativity.
While the complete rebuilding of the city is thought to be at least five years away, visitor numbers are expected to return to normal long before then. The chief executive of Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism, Tim Hunter, says visitor numbers from many overseas markets have already recovered, with the earthquake pretty much now being forgotten.
For the Australian market, which received far more media coverage of the earthquake and its aftershocks, numbers are still down about 30 per cent. ”The issue we have in Australia is that… (click here to keep reading this article by Jane E. Fraser)
Japan back in business February 16, 2012
Posted by janeefraser in Asia, Travel, Travel tips & trends.Tags: Asia, earthquake, Japan, Travel, World Expeditions
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It has taken a long time but Australian travellers are finally returning to Japan. The nation’s tourism industry is experiencing a long-overdue pick-up in demand as we approach the anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that wreaked havoc on large parts of country in March last year.
“With a natural disaster, there’s generally a much quicker recovery than we’re seeing in Japan,” the chief executive of World Expeditions, Sue Badyari, says. ”The recovery has been very slow … we’re sitting at about 30 per cent [sales] of what we were for 2010-11. I think you have to link that to the [fear of] radiation.”
Badyari says the Australian government’s message that it is safe to return to Japan has taken a while to get through to tourists. There has been a notable improvement in bookings since… (click here to keep reading this article by Jane E. Fraser)
Last minute bookings going out of favour? February 14, 2012
Posted by janeefraser in Travel, Travel tips & trends.Tags: online travel, Travel, travel trends, travel.com.au
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Shorter booking times have been one of the strongest trends in travel over the past decade but our habits appear to be changing.
An annual survey of 2200 people by online travel agency travel.com.au shows almost half of us are booking domestic flights one to three months in advance and the most common booking period for overseas flights is four to six months before the trip.
The survey results, released exclusively to The Sun-Herald, show less than five per cent of travellers are booking overseas flights within a month of departure.
The general manager of travel.com.au, Renee Welsh, believes the reversal of the late-booking trend is due to (more…)
So it themes February 10, 2012
Posted by janeefraser in Events, Travel, Travel tips & trends.Tags: cruises, cruising, Travel
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When was it decided that every cruise must have a theme? Food and wine, wellness, photography, comedy, science … think up a theme and it probably exists.
Among those joining the ranks this year is Oceania Cruises, which is offering themed sailings for the first time. The “signature sailings” feature across 10 European voyages, themed around food, wine, music and health and wellbeing. There will be guest performers or presenters on each voyage and activities will include seminars, cooking classes, wine tastings and concerts.
Oceania says groups with shared interests have often cruised together in the past and the theme cruises will create a further opportunity for like-minded travellers to cruise together.
MSC Cruises is currently operating a “diet cruise” in the Mediterranean, presumably… (click here to keep reading this article by Jane E. Fraser)
Onboard dating: matches in the sky February 7, 2012
Posted by janeefraser in Airlines, Travel, Travel technology, Travel tips & trends.Tags: dating, flying, Travel
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It seems many an airline traveller takes a fancy to the person in the seat next to them.
Hundreds of people have left their details on a new website that aims to reunite people who have met on plane journeys. In its first few weeks, wemetonaplane.com has had more than 20,000 page views, as people search for that attractive someone with whom they never traded numbers.
Stories have been logged by people from all over the world, leaving the flight number, date and other details of the flight to help identify the person they are trying to find. A search algorithm is used to find any stories posted by other passengers from that flight, in the hope the attraction was mutual.
The site, which is the brainchild of Sydney businessman Will Scully-Power, is yet to declare a match but he says (more…)
