Emirates' boost for arrivals in Australia

A survey of Emirates forward bookings has found Australia is the number one long-haul destination for travellers using Emirates’ new service from Newcastle in the UK.

The Newcastle-Dubai service commences on September 1, with Australia beating Thailand as the favoured destination for travellers. Newcastle is Emirates' sixth UK gateway.

After Newcastle, the road show heads for Houston on August 29 to promote Emirates' December 3 launch from the city. Events are also taking place in Miami on September 6 and in Dallas on September 28.

In Canada, road shows to support the new Toronto service, which begins October 29, will take place in Toronto on September 19 and later in Calgary on September 24.

Now a major player in travel to Australia, Emirates' road shows are aimed at generally raising awareness, primarily within the travel and tourism industry, ahead of the start of the new services. They involve trade presentations, dinner functions and press briefings.

Changes at the top in Denmark

First Choice Holidays has announced that MyPlanet International and Hannibal & Marco Polo are now under the managing directorship of René Andersen.

MyPlanet’s former managing director Annelise Dam Larsen left the business on August 17, after 28 years with the company, the last nine years as managing director.

There will now be a move towards greater synergies between MyPlanet and Hannibal & Marco Polo: and given its annual turnover of more than half a billion Danish kroner, it will create a very powerful unit on the Scandinavian travel market.

Business to Australia alone from the two companies stands at 15,000 guests annually. MyPlanet and Hannibal & Marco Polo will continue their business as two independent brands.

René Andersen will be responsible for MyPlanet’s 95 employees in Holstebro, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Sydney, together with Hannibal & Marco Polo´s 46 employees in Aarhus and Copenhagen.

For the Australian division of MyPlanet it is business as usual and they will continue to report into MyPlanet in Denmark.

Joint ATEC and PATA distribution conference

ATEC and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) are inviting leaders of the Asia Pacific tourism industry to participate in a new, innovative tourism distribution forum to discuss one of the biggest areas affecting profitability and success in the tourism industry.

The forum will take place in Sydney on October 17 and 18 this year.

The panel of experts and keynote presenters will provide an insight into the new and emerging trends that will drive and mould the future of the tourism industry, in areas such as distribution, aviation and the online environment.

Among others. the panellists will include:

· Peter De Jong - President and CEO, PATA

· Anna Pollock - CEO, Desticorp and Founcer, The Icarus Foundation

· Andrew Burnes - chairmman, AOT and Deputy Chairman, Tourism Australia

· Scott Blume - CEO, Zuji

· Tim Russell - Managing Director, Amadeus

· John Borghetti - Executive General Manager, Qantas

· Con Korfiatis - CEO, Viva Macau

· Geoffrey Lipman - Assistant Secretary General - UN World Tourism Organisation

For full programme and registration details, click here

Reaching the media

How does a travel product get noticed in the international media?

That was the basis of an interview with Selling Down Under editor and publisher. Alan Dean carried out by the Australian public relations company, The Publicity Ship.

If you are a small to medium sized Australian travel product, whether it be a tour, property or attraction, the interview makes some intersting observations.

Worth taking a look at here.

The Publicity Ship, whose team have worked in the travel media world for some time, run a special service helping Australian travel product get a toe in the door of the international market

Not so foolish advice

It's always nice when we learn to do things for ourselves. For instance, I'm pleased that I can now patch a hole in a wall by myself. But there are limits. If I find a leaky pipe, I don't think I'm ready to fire up a propane tank and solder it.

That's the way a recent article in The Motley Fool starts off with a few tips on the advantages of using a travel agent.

From offering the best deals to learning a client's specific travel preferences, the article makes the point that it's always better to use a professional travel agent than go it alone.

The Motley Fool, which for years has been giving some good advice to those who respect money, ends up by stating: "without an agent, you're on your own".

The article was written by Selena Maranjian, who prepares the Fool's syndicated newspaper column -- and she has no axe to grind, as she has no background in the travel industry

According to her profile, Selena sports a BA in anthropology from Brown University, a master's in teaching from Brown, and an MBA from Wharton. Before starting with the irreverant Motley team back in 1996, she taught high school history in Maine, amused herself at an administrative post at Harvard, and worked briefly in the "real world" in Manhattan.

Her thoughts on travel agents makes good reading for any High Street agent anywhere in the world who is feeling the pinch from on-line competition: you might even want to pass the article on to clients. You know the saying, when the going gets tough....

ATEC-PATA Tourism distribution forum

The Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) and the Pacific Area Travel Association (PATA) will hold a new, innovative tourism distribution forum in Sydney, October 17-18, to discuss one of the biggest areas affecting profitability and success in the tourism industry.

A panel of experts and keynote presenters will provide a balanced insight into new and emerging trends in areas such as distribution, aviation and the online environment that will drive and mould the future of the tourism industry.

Open to industry leaders and senior management, the event will take a hands-on, interactive approach to stimulate and encourage debate and dialogue, harnessing the views of our industry from the Asia Pacific region.

Find out more here

A need for change in Germany

Does the average independent German travel agency need to rethink its strategy and become more of a niche or destination specialist? That could be the answer (or part of it) following the recent news that as many as 773 travel agencies around the country closed down last year.

There are 11,866 full-time travel agencies in Germany compared to 15,000 eight years ago.

Most of the agencies shutting up shop blamed falling sales and lower commissions – while on-line travel sales went through the roof in 2006, with sales of the top 30 sites reaching close to AUD 4 billion equivalent (almost double that of 2005), according to survey carried out by leading German travel industry publication FVW.

The major on-line earners were Deutsche Bahn, ahead of Expedia and Opodo. As many Germans use the Internet to buy their train tickets (and rail is a popular form of travel in Germany) the on-line boom statistics are obviously not giving the whole picture.

According to research by Selling Down Under, none of the agencies who closed down last year were active Aussie Specialists – which is one argument for specialisation. Agencies that develop a reputation for niche marketing, or quality destinational knowledge are more likely to survive the changing trends in travel.

According to the FVW survey German travel agents combined revenues increased by only 0.7 per cent to AUD 33 billion equivalent in 2006 with an average profit margin of less than 1 per cent (yes, 1 per cent!).

German travel agents are targeting sales growth of up to 3 per cent this year, the same target figure as 2006.

Rewe Touristik, with its agency chains Atlas, DER and Derpart, remained the largest German travel distribution conglamerate last year with a turnover of AUD 6.8 billion equivalent.

In second place was the QTA consortium with sales of AUD 5.8 billion equivalent, ahead of rival consortium TMCV (turnover: AUD 3.9 billion equivalent). TUI Leisure Travel came fourth in the charts with a turnover of AUD 3.8 billion equivalent.

TUI Germany recently redesigned its tui.com website to win new customers, but they have stepped back from operating it as a full-service online travel agency. Instead, travel agents can link directly to the website and earn commission on resulting sales.