World Travel Market’s visitor satisfaction levels have increased dramatically cementing WTM’s position as the premier global event for the travel industry, independent research reveals.

Visitors to WTM 2009 rated the exhibition as better than other industry events, including ITB Berlin, in a range of categories with WTM being particularly strong for meeting and networking and keeping up to date with the latest trends.

The independent research of 2,058 visitors to WTM 2009, by Fusion Communications, also reveals increased levels of satisfaction compared to WTM 2008. An impressive eight out of ten visitors in 2009 came away feeling completely satisfied or very satisfied.

Overall, WTM 2009 met or exceeded the expectations of 94% of visitors.
The research also reveals WTM remains an extremely important place to do business with a massive 91% stating the event is imperative for their business and an impressive 97% of visitors likely to return in 2010.
Furthermore, 85% of visitors feel attending WTM gives them a competitive advantage over their rivals.

International media, which increased by 12% to 2,839 for WTM 2009, are in agreement with visitors with a massive 86% rating WTM as the best event or among the best events in the travel industry, including four out of ten stating WTM is the best event.

World Travel Market Exhibition Director Simon Press said: “It’s great to see that visitors are delighted with the experience of World Travel Market 2009 and view the exhibition as the best in the industry.

“WTM 2010 is expanding with a new floorplan, seminar content and networking functions offering greater opportunities.

“The findings from the independent research firmly cements World Travel Market’s position as the premier global event for the travel industry.”

Budding chefs and food lovers have a packed menu to choose from over the next few months in Eastbourne as the resort’s Culinary Arts Studio introduces new evening demonstrations designed to set taste buds alive.

From combining flavours and spices with Pan Asian Cooking to Eating Humble Pie, and from learning how to use all of the meat with Butchering and Cooking Meat to a Mystery Basket, an evening finding out how to produce wow factor dishes with a versatile mix of ingredients. Eastbourne will be hosting a series of exciting evening events from March to May this year, with those attending invited to learn from the best with professional Chef Steven Cooke leading the demonstrations with lots of tasters, recipes, and questions and answers throughout.

Eastbourne Borough Council Cabinet Member for Tourism, Cllr Susan Morris said “The new cookery demonstrations from the Culinary Arts Studio are a fantastic idea for the spring months ahead and the perfect excuse for a fun evening out, while learning some great culinary skills at the same time! The Studio is a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen and anyone attending will be able to view top techniques up close, before taking recipes home to try out for themselves.”

With spring fast approaching and the evenings getting lighter the new evening demonstrations offer an alternative night out for both residents and visitors.

Located at the Eastbourne campus of the University of brighton, the Culinary Arts Studio is located in a beautiful position at the foot of the South Downs and offers a unique experience for anybody visiting the town.

Taking place on Wednesday evenings from 6.30pm – 9pm the courses make a great excuse for a mid-week break and leave visitors with the day free to explore the seaside resort.

By day, budding chefs can be inspired by a vast selection of local restaurants including the award-winning Hungry Monk at Jevington, famous for inventing the Banoffi Pie, or explore local food and drink makers including the nearby English Wine Centre or Middle Farm, home to the National Collection of Cider and Perry.

The Culinary Arts Studio evening demonstrations cost just £25+VAT and include the chance to sample dishes, take recipes home, and pick up tips from Chef Steven Cooke.

To book visit the online shop at www.visiteastbourne.com or telephone the Studio on 01273 643361.

Plus the demonstrations are also available to book online from www.cookery-holidays.com with a stay at an Eastbourne hotel.

Travelport, one of the world’s leading providers of global distribution systems (GDS), has won the accolade of ‘best technology provider’ at the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association (SPAA) Annual Travel Awards held in Glasgow on 5 November.

Travelport scooped the award amongst 400 guests who attended the gala dinner ceremony at the Hilton Hotel.

The awards recognise leading travel suppliers to the local agent community and have been held for 17 years.

Winners were drawn in 23 categories from agent votes collected since September.

On collecting the award, Margaret Paton, sales manager for Travelport UK based in Scotland chimed:

“it is a great honour for us to receive this award – it hasn’t been an easy year for anyone in the travel industry and to receive such prestigious recognition is wonderful motivation for our team based in Scotland and affirms that the good work we are doing locally to support our agents is being acknowledged and praised”.

Travelport also won third place in the SPAA Travel Quiz 2009 category.

The event was sponsored by Travel Weekly and Amadeus

The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing’s (DTCM) Representative Office for the UK and Ireland has been selected as the ‘best tourist board’ and awarded a trophy by The British Travel Awards, acknowledged as the largest arbiter of public opinion on travel industry performance in the UK.

The British Travel Awards is the largest awards programme in the UK created to reward the best companies in travel. Recognised by consumers and travel professionals throughout the UK, The British Travel Awards are widely referred to as the “Oscars” of the travel industry and are easily the most recognizable of all travel industry accolades amongst consumer and industry professionals alike.

The BTA recognition comes close on the heels of DTCM UK and Ireland office who were presented with the Best Tourist Board award in September by the leading travel trade publication Travel Trade Gazette (TTG) – an award voted for principally by the UK travel agents.

Mr. Khalid A bin Sulayem, DTCM Director General, said: “The recognition by both travel industry decision-makers and consumers is a matter of great pride and satisfaction for all of us at the DTCM. This will motivate us to raise the bar for our services offered to the travel industry and tourists, especially in the UK which remained a top source market for Dubai’s tourism industry.” Winning ‘best tourist board’ awards twice in the space of just a few months is a huge achievement for the DTCM and its team in London.”

He praised the hard work and dedication of the staff members at the DTCM office in London headed by Mr. Ian Scott who received the award at a dinner event attended by over 1000 travel industry professionals.

Mr. Ian said a panel of senior travel industry figures looked at the activities of tourist boards in the UK and DTCM emerged as the very best. This is the first time ever that DTCM’s UK and Ireland office has won the ‘best tourist board’ awards.

He said industry recognition was critically important as it raises the DTCM profile and also validates that the work being done by DTCM was setting the standard in the UK travel industry, more important than ever in such challenging times.

Deloitte LLP audited the votes which were collected online until 30 September to ensure The British Travel Awards maintains its reputation for integrity, independence and transparency.

It begins with industry nominations in all categories from April until 16 June to arrive at a suggested shortlist of nominees before open consumer and industry voting begins in July.

With categories spanning over seventy types of holiday experiences, transport, destination, cruise, customer service, holiday extras, and accommodation – The British Travel Awards is quite simply the benchmark for excellence when it comes to finding out who really is the best in the business. With over 90,000 votes cast in 2008 – The British Travel Awards is the largest arbiter of public opinion on the UK travel industry today.
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Colleagues at ABTA are wishing Chris Thompson, Travelife Sustainability Manager, good luck as he has been shortlisted for ‘Best Personal Contribution’ at the highly prestigious Virgin Responsible Travel Awards.

Winners will be announced on Wednesday at 11.00 am, as the leading players in sustainability gather in the Platinum Suite 4 at WTM.

The Responsible Travel Awards organised by responsibletravel.com aim to celebrate those individuals, companies and organisations in the travel industry that are making a significant commitment to the culture and economies of local communities and providing a positive contribution to biodiversity conservation.

The shortlist was selected by a panel of 13 prolific judges at a recent judging day held at The Royal Geographical Society, London.

Chris began his career in sustainable tourism, when he was appointed to set up a Responsible Tourism Unit at the Federation of Tour Operators (FTO) in 2002 after a long period working for mainstream tour operators. He first encouraged all the FTO members, who are the largest mainstream tour operators in the UK, to agree and sign a statement of commitment to sustainable tourism. He also successfully launched a Travel Foundation Industry Unit, which brought  FTO, ABTA and AITO members together to develop much needed sustainability tools in collaboration with the Travel Foundation.

He then focussed on setting up the Travelife Sustainability System, which was initially established as a tool for tour operators to measure the sustainability performance of a tour operator’s supply chain.

Travelife Sustainability System audits hotels and ranks them according to their sustainable practices. The top performers are accredited with a Gold, Silver or Bronze Travelife award. Tour operators supporting the scheme promote these achievements through brochures and websites, which give consumers more choices when it comes to choosing ethical holidays. For the system, Chris has won funding from the EU, established buy in from European tour operators, has launched a Travelife Directory and ensured that thousands of suppliers across the world use the system.

Chris Thompson said: “It’s a great honour to be considered for the Responsible Tourism Awards. The industry has been an easy target for many who want to criticise its actions, and all too often tour operators have failed to fight back. I hope that my work shows that tour operators are far from complacent about their responsibilities. I would like to expand the system we have developed to cover all tourism businesses and experiences, and our greatest challenge now lies in persuading consumers to participate in taking the sustainability of destinations seriously.”

Mark Tanzer, ABTA Chief Executive said: “Chris’ deep understanding of the travel industry has ensured that his work in encouraging the leading companies in our sector to adopt sustainable practices has been successful. We are all wishing Chris the best of luck for the Awards.”

Founded by responsibletravel.com the Awards are run in association with headline sponsor, Virgin Holidays and partners World Travel Market, The Daily Telegraph and Geographical Magazine.

The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing’s (DTCM) Representative Office for the UK and Ireland has been selected as the ‘best tourist board’ and awarded a trophy by The British Travel Awards, acknowledged as the largest arbiter of public opinion on travel industry performance in the UK.

The British Travel Awards is the largest awards programme in the UK created to reward the best companies in travel. Recognised by consumers and travel professionals throughout the UK, The British Travel Awards are widely referred to as the “Oscars” of the travel industry and are easily the most recognizable of all travel industry accolades amongst consumer and industry professionals alike.

The BTA recognition comes close on the heels of DTCM UK and Ireland office who were presented with the Best Tourist Board award in September by the leading travel trade publication Travel Trade Gazette (TTG) – an award voted for principally by the UK travel agents.

Mr. Khalid A bin Sulayem, DTCM Director General, said: “The recognition by both travel industry decision-makers and consumers is a matter of great pride and satisfaction for all of us at the DTCM. This will motivate us to raise the bar for our services offered to the travel industry and tourists, especially in the UK which remained a top source market for Dubai’s tourism industry.” Winning ‘best tourist board’ awards twice in the space of just a few months is a huge achievement for the DTCM and its team in London.”

He praised the hard work and dedication of the staff members at the DTCM office in London headed by Mr. Ian Scott who received the award at a dinner event attended by over 1000 travel industry professionals.

Mr. Ian said a panel of senior travel industry figures looked at the activities of tourist boards in the UK and DTCM emerged as the very best.

This is the first time ever that DTCM’s UK and Ireland office has won the ‘best tourist board’ awards.

He said industry recognition was critically important as it raises the DTCM profile and

also validates that the work being done by DTCM was setting the standard in the UK travel industry, more important than ever in such challenging times.

Deloitte LLP audited the votes which were collected online until 30 September to ensure The British Travel Awards maintains its reputation for integrity, independence and transparency.

It begins with industry nominations in all categories from April until 16 June to arrive at a suggested shortlist of nominees before open consumer and industry voting begins in July.

With categories spanning over seventy types of holiday experiences, transport, destination, cruise, customer service,

holiday extras, and accommodation – The British Travel Awards is quite simply the benchmark for excellence when it comes to finding out who really is the best in the business.

With over 90,000 votes cast in 2008 – The British Travel Awards is the largest arbiter of public opinion on the UK travel industry today.

- According to PhoCusWright’s European Online Travel Overview Fifth Edition

Even as the U.K. travel market struggles under the weight of global economic pressure, online travel bookings are projected to increase by 3% in 2009 according to travel industry research authority, PhoCusWright Inc., in the new report PhoCusWright’s European Online Travel Overview Fifth Edition. With online leisure and unmanaged business sales of nearly £17.1 billion, nearly half of the U.K. travel market is booked online. U.K. online leisure and unmanaged business travel penetration grew by five percentage points to reach 45% of all bookings in 2009.

The overall U.K. travel market is expected to contract by 8.9% in 2009. Gross bookings will fall to approximately £37.6 billion for the year. Nearly all segments of the mar­ket have been affected, although traditional carriers and hotels are bearing the brunt of the slowdown. The short-term outlook remains bleak, with a return to 2007 booking levels not expected until 2012.

“British travelers have had to cope with currency devaluation on top of the recession, and both have driven significant changes in travel patterns,” says Carroll Rheem, director, research at PhoCusWright. “For example, the blow to domestic travel has been relatively soft while the fall-off in U.K. visitors to the Mediterranean has been significant. Online channels also benefit from these trends as consumers turn to the Internet to help them discover and sift through the many attractive holiday options in the marketplace.”

Although approaching maturity, U.K. online travel penetration continues to grow in 2009 as online channels outperform other booking methods. Airline Web sites dominate other suppliers online, representing over half of online direct sales in the U.K. Hotel company Web sites are expected to grow in line with the market, and tour opera­tors are projected to make the greatest gains online among suppliers.

“U.K. tour operators have invested heavily in marketing efforts to drive customers online and in technology to enhance the user experi­ence,” says Peter O’Connor, PhoCusWright’s market analyst, U.K. and France. “Selling a combination of pre-packaged, dynamically packaged and decoupled travel components, their share of U.K. online direct travel is expected to increase through 2011.”

Despite the strides tour operators have made, online travel agencies (OTAs) will lead growth for all online channels in 2009 and help the U.K. online travel market continue to mature and retain its current position as the largest online travel market in Europe.

PhoCusWright’s U.K. Online Travel Overview Fifth Edition is a comprehensive analysis of the U.K. online travel market. It reviews air, hotel, rail, OTA, car hire and tour operator sectors. Pre-order this report for US$750—the expected publication date is November 13, 2009.

A complete review of the European travel market including U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia and Spain is provided in the full report, PhoCusWright’s European Online Travel Overview Fifth Edition. The special introductory price of $1,950 (save $300) is available through November 30.

Both reports will be available to PhoCusWright’s

Global and European Edition subscribers.

About PhoCusWright Inc.

PhoCusWright is the travel industry research authority on how travelers, suppliers and intermediaries connect. Independent, rigorous and unbiased, PhoCusWright fosters smart strategic planning and tactical decision-making.

PhoCusWright delivers qualitative and quantitative research on the evolving dynamics that influence travel, tourism and hospitality distribution. Our marketplace intelligence is the industry standard for segmentation, sizing, forecasting, trends, analysis and consumer travel planning behavior. Every day around the world, senior executives, marketers, strategists and research professionals from all segments of the industry value chain use PhoCusWright research for competitive advantage.

To complement its primary research in North and Latin America, Europe and Asia, PhoCusWright produces several high-profile conferences and trade shows in the U.S. and Germany, and partners with conferences in Canada, China and Singapore. Industry leaders and company analysts bring this intelligence to life by debating issues, sharing ideas and defining the ever-evolving reality of travel commerce.

The company is headquartered in the United States with Asia Pacific operations based in India and local analysts on five continents.

Britons holidaying closer to home helped UK tourism enjoy a bumper July this year, figures today showed.

The number of trips taken in the UK by Britons involving at least one overnight stay in July 2009 rose 20% compared with July 2008, with spending rising 13%, the VisitEngland organisation said.

The number of trips taken for holiday purposes rose even more – increasing 32% compared with July 2008 and resulting in 2.1 million leisure holiday trips being taken than in July last year.

The July figures meant that the total trips (including business trips and visits to friends and relatives) taken by Britons in the UK in the first seven months of 2009 have risen 4% compared with January-July 2008.

A dip in business travel, however, has meant that the rise in spending on these UK trips by Britons in the first seven months of this year has been limited to just 1%.

VisitEngland chief executive James Berresford said: “These results are further proof that the great visitor product on offer in England is back on everyone’s lips, on their minds and here to stay.

“We intend to work with the whole of the English tourism industry to ensure this trend is sustainable through 2010 and beyond. We are seeing people shun outbound travel and opting to take a break in England.”

He went on: “There are still a number of businesses suffering, specifically those in the business travel market.”

Steve Chelton, insurer development manager for Swinton, the UK’s leading high street retailer of travel insurance, said: “So many people choosing to holiday in the UK will be a big boost to the local economy, especially for those areas of the country that rely on tourism.”