Truly Malaysian spirit fuels Holiday Villa’s growth
Holiday Villa Hotels and Resorts celebrated its 25th anniversary recently and, in the understated style of this company, the event was marked with a private “yee sang” (raw fish tossing) lunch for the media and a separate one for staff. "We just wanted to celebrate the milestone with our media [...]
Travelzoo Hong Kong launches iPhone app
The Hong Kong version of the app follows successful launches in North America and Europe. The app has been downloaded more than 400,000 times since its release a few months ago.Katherine Lau, general manager for Travelzoo Hong Kong, said a significant percentage of Travelzoo Hong Kong’s existing [...]
Making Social Media An Asset To Your Hotel, Part 3: Sales & Marketing
[This is the third posting in our article series, Making Social Media an Asset for Your Hotel. The previous article is available here.]Marketing using social media requires a different discipline and expertise from traditional and online marketing. Just as radio ads don’t translate well to televi [...]
Survivor Wego prepares for next phase of growth under new CEO
In the world of travel start-ups, you could call Wego, the travel search website once named Bezurk, a survivor.Even the co-founders, Craig Hewett (left) and Ross Veitch, would admit they were too early. The market wasn’t ready, customers weren’t ready and perhaps even they who started it seven [...]
Carlson Wagonlit Travel turns in record year
Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) reported a record performance in 2011. Sales volume grew by 15.2% to US$28.billion, compared to US$24.3 billion in 2010. The number of transactions, managed by CWT, increased by 7.2% year over year to reach 61.9 million.The company attributed its strong growth in 2011 [...]
WITNext Summercamp to coach and match talent with right travel job
One of the most common laments I hear in my conversations with industry folks – whether from hotels, airlines, convention centres, travel agents, tour operators – is how hard it is to find good quality staff these days.By good quality, they mean, young, enthusiastic, energetic, clever, creative [...]
Accor tailors Mercure for China
Accor has re-engineered its Grand Mercure brand for the China market, which was unveiled at the inauguration of Grand Mercure Shanghai Zhongya by Accor (pictured left), the first hotel adapted to the new positioning.Grand Mercure combines Accor’s extensive China and international hotel experienc [...]
Making Social Media An Asset To Your Hotel, Part 2: Operations
[This is the second posting in the series, Making Social Media an Asset for Your Hotel, by Brand Karma. The first article is available here.]For a hotel’s operations staff, daily and trended reports of guest satisfaction surveys (or solicited guest feedback) provide critical insights into oper [...]
Growth in Distribution, IT Solutions boosts profit at Amadeus
Growth in its Distribution and IT Solutions businesses boosted Amadeus' adjusted profit for 2011 by 20.7% to total €487 million for its full financial year ended December 31.This was backed by like-for-like revenue growth of 5.8% to total €2,712 million and an increase in EBITDA (Earnings be [...]
Dusit Thani to focus on meetings and Asia markets
The news coming out of Bangkok has not been exactly good these past months but hoteliers in the city remain resilient and optimistic that customers will not lose faith as Thailand struggles to pick itself up as one of Asia’s favourite destinations.The Thai government has, after all, declared this [...]
