Ole! Singapore Girl to promote Spain

Source: TravelMole Newsletter
http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1148149.php?mpnlog=1&m_id=_rm~AbY!Y!

Ole! Singapore Girl to promote Spain

Singapore Airlines and Spain Tourism Board have signed an agreement aimed at boosting tourist arrivals to Spain.

Under the deal, both parties will jointly explore and implement activities to promote tourist traffic to Spain, by way of Singapore Airlines’ services between Singapore and Barcelona.

Both have agreed to commit funds through to the end of this year to support advertising and promotional campaigns, as well as familiarisation programmes for trade and media, among other plans.

Since launching thrice-weekly flights to Barcelona in 2006 with Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, the SQ service has been increased to seven times weekly, using Boeing 777-300ER.

Beyond Barcelona, Singapore Airlines customers can connect to the Spanish cities of Bilbao, Madrid, and Palma de Mallorca on codeshare partner Spanair’s services.

“The signing of this MOU means a lot to us since it’s the first of its kind signed by Singapore Airlines with a European destination to cover several target markets,” said Angela Castaño, director of the Spain Tourism Board.

Key target markets under the agreement include Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore.

Source: TravelMole Newsletter
http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1148149.php?mpnlog=1&m_id=_rm~AbY!Y!

Luxury brands thrive as the economy strengthens: study

Source: EyeforTravel Newsletter
http://www.eyefortravel.com/news/business-travel/luxury-brands-thrive-economy-strengthens-study

Published: 06 Jun 2011

Companies are reinvesting in travel after having to tighten their belts during the recession. And luxury brand hotels are in a “fantastic position” to benefit from this since they rely significantly on business travel, according to a new report.

According to iPerceptions’ Hospitality and Tourism Industry Report for Q1 2011, luxury brands are benefitting from the increase in discretionary income and corporate travel budgets more than any other tier. Luxury brands were among the most negatively impacted by the recent economic downturn. Economic indicators such as increases in employment, disposable incomes and corporate budgets for business travel, all point to the reasons of their strong recovery.

Important findings from the report include:

• Business travel increased from 29 percent in Q4 2010 to 32 percent in Q1 2011, while leisure travel decreased from 63 percent to 60 percent during the same time period.

• Luxury hotel stays increased from 36 percent in Q4 2010 to 44 percent in Q1 2011. As a result, there was a decrease in visitors who stayed at midscale and economy hotels.

• Technical difficulties increased from 14 percent in Q4 2010 to 18 percent in Q1 2011 for visitors who came to make a reservation and encountered booking problems.

• Business travellers continued to have difficulty finding specific information related to their stay, such as conference room details, maps/distance to meeting locations and shuttle service.