London among two others is least satisfying

                For the first time, the hotel price comparison trivago.co.uk has compared European cities on the basis of the popularity of their hotels. Hotels in Dresden received the highest ratings from travellers. Hotels in the classic city break destinations, such as Amsterdam, Copenhagen and London had the worst ratings. The results were brought together in a Reputation Ranking.
                The trivago Reputation Ranking is an analysis of the European hotel industry and its touristic popularity. It is based on 2.7 million hotel reviews for 13,000 hotels in 50 European cities. With an average of 81.39, out of100, Dresden is the number one city in the Reputation Ranking. Closely followed by Bruges with 80.08 points and Bologna with 78.71 points; the city at the river Elbe has some of the most popular hotels in Europe. Hotels in the Austrian city of Salzburg are also highly favoured by travellers. With an average of 78.59 points, Salzburg is at fourth place in the overall European top list. With 78.10 points, Venice just makes it into the top five.
                British cities barely make it into the European Reputation Ranking. Hotels in the English capital, London (69.89) are ranked last, and Birmingham's hotels second last with 70.90 points. The city of Edinburgh has the best online reputation in the United Kingdom, in 29th place with 75.23 points. The Greek capital  Athens  is at 46th position with 72.69 points, the Danish capital Copenhagen (71.26 points) in 48th place. Not much better are the overall ratings for hotels in Amsterdam (71.56, place 47) and Paris (72.93, place 44).
                High prices for hotel accommodation do not always guarantee good quality. Therefore cities where the average price for a standard double room is very high, appear at the bottom of the Reputation Ranking. Geneva, the most expensive city in October out of the top 50 cities in the trivago Hotel Price Index, is only at position 39 in the Reputation Ranking with 73.75 points. Copenhagen with 71.26 points is at place 48. Hotels in famous cities seem to get away with providing a room of a lower standard for a high price. Classic destinations such as Rome (74.39, place 37), Istanbul (74.32, place 38), Milan (73.58, place 40) and Paris (72.93, place 44) are in the lower third of the Reputation Ranking.

Jaz Hotels set for major expansion in Egypt
                Jaz Hotels, Resorts & Cruises, Egypt's most successful hotel company, is set to undergo the largest expansion to its portfolio to date with more than 15 properties in the pipeline, 9 of which will open during 2009 and 2010. The expansion includes the addition of three new hotel properties in the Nabq area of Sharm El Sheikh and the launch of two five-star deluxe Nile Cruise Ships.
                In Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt's most popular holiday destination for holiday makers, Jaz Hotels, Resorts & Cruises will open six new hotels and resorts by early 2010 immediately adding more than 1,000 rooms to its portfolio in this popular Red Sea resort. The four-star Sol Y Mar Sharks Bay is the first to open, located only ten minutes away from Sharm El-Sheikh International Airport and close to the beaches of the Red Sea. Additional Sharm El Sheikh openings include the four star Sol Y Mar Naama Bay with a total of 200 rooms, appealing to divers and families with spacious apartment style accommodation and the five-star Iberotel Mercato, located in the heart of the Mercato Promenade with its stylish restaurants and cafes as well as some of the biggest international brands.
                Jaz Hotels, Resorts & Cruises has also finalised a management agreement to operate a new five-star beachfront resort hotel in the Nabq area of Sharm El Sheikh, offering over 600 rooms across the entire complex. The new properties will be added to the group's extensive portfolio under the brand of Sol Y Mar Riva World. The three hotels will be named as Sol Y Mar Riva Beach, Sol Y Mar Riva Club and Sol Y Mar Riva Mar. Located in the beautiful Madinat Makadi Resort, near Hurghada, the new Iberotel Makadi Palms features 102 spacious self-catering studios and apartments overlooking the executive nine-hole, Madinat Makadi Golf Course and swimming pool. Equipped with kitchen facilities, the property is ideal for families who can use the facilities of the Madinat Makadi resort with its range of restaurants and beach activities. At Taba, early 2010 also sees the opening of the much awaited Jaz Royal Taba. Located on its own golden sandy beach just 12-km from the Taba border and the Gulf of Aqaba and 37-km from Taba International Airport, the new hotel will open as a five-star all-inclusive hotel.

SA to host UNWTO Summit in 2010
                As a reflection of the importance of major sporting, business and cultural events to re-inspire tourists to travel to global destinations, the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and the South African Government announced that the T&T, world's first international Tourism, Sport and Mega-events Summit will be held in Sandton, South Africa from February 24th - 26th 2010. The summit will provide a forum for active discussion, debate and direction around the leverage of mega-events as a vital force for sector growth and advancement in national development strategies.
                A number of major global events will be held in 2010, including the FIFA World Cup in South Africa; the Commonwealth Games in India; the World Exhibition in Shanghai, China and the Winter Games in Canada. With this taken into consideration, the UNWTO seeks to align the global T&T sector's leadership to create a framework for leveraging sport and other mega-events (including cultural and entertainment events, exhibitions and business conventions) for economic growth. This process must take into account the economic, social and environmental consequences for host nations and the massive multimedia opportunities for nation branding and export promotion.
                South Africa's Department of Tourism and Department of Sport, as well as CNN International as global media partner, will be working in partnership with the UNWTO. South African Minister of Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk said, “We know that we, as a developing country, cannot afford to have underutilisedinfrastructure after the World Cup and we understand that we must plan ahead to make sure our infrastructure and skills investments do not go to waste.”
                The summit will be held parallel to the annual Meetings Africa, Africa's top business tourism exhibition hosted annually by South African Tourism.

Lowest fares via SMS for Jet Airways' guests
                Jet Airways, India's premier international airline, announced the launch of a new and exciting initiative for guests to access to the lowest current fares on the airline network from their mobiles on any given day of travel.
                Jet Airways' guests may now send a simple SMS to get the lowest real-time fares available on jetairways.com on a particular sector and date. To get the lowest fare information, a guest has to send a simple message in the following format: LFS Origin Destination Date (in dd/mm format) to 56388. E.g. LFS BOM DEL 25/11 to 56388. In keeping with Jet Airways' commitment to continually enhance the Jet Airways' experience for all its guests, the airline regularly studies its customers and their needs. The introduction of initiatives such as these, along with the airline's existing services of real-time flight updates and prior check-in through SMS, among others, enable it to further raise the bar in terms of overall customer satisfaction.
                Announcing this new initiative, Mr. Sudheer Raghavan, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways said, “This initiative, the first of its kind in the domestic civil aviation industry, is designed to seamlessly offer guests information on the lowest possible fares at that moment. We are confident that it will be popular with our travellers and encourage more people to book their fares online at jetairways.com."
                Jet Airways has always focused on the requirements of guests to make travel easy and introduced several initiatives towards this end. Today, by sending an SMS, one can check his flight status, get updates on his Jet Privilege account, check-in via SMS and now also search for the lowest fare available on jetairways.com.

New iPhone App allows creation of travel itineraries
                Instant Itineraries has announced the launch of a new free iPhone Travel Application available at the Apple iTunes App Store. The paired Instant Itineraries website and iPhone application enable users to quickly select existing travel itineraries and customize them in minutes.
                Both the web and iPhone travel applications allow users to use pre-existing travel plans or create their own itinerary from scratch. Saving a travel plan on the Instant Itineraries web site makes it available on the user's iPhone almost instantly. The free iPhone travel application enables travellers to take their self-contained itineraries with them while they travel. People can access maps from one destination to the next, information about each destination on their trip and photos, ratings and more.
                “The beauty of Instant Itineraries is that it enables people to use the travel experiences of those who have gone before as a basis for their own travel itineraries - then take the knowledge of many people with them,” saysKent Campbell, founder of Instant Itineraries. “It is easier to plan travel when you already have a template to work from.”
                Once logged in, users can customize a travel itinerary and download it to their iPhone. Accessing downloaded itineraries and their destinations does not require an Internet connection. That means no matter how remote the destination, there are no roaming charges to use the downloaded content and users don't have to be in range of a mobile network to access information about their destinations.

APD condemned at WTM
                The UK government's decision to hike Air Passenger Duty, has been described as “schizophrenic” by the UN World Tourism Organisation.
                More than 100 tourism ministers met at World Travel Market  to condemn the tax which came into force at the start of this month. The charges range from a £1 to £15 hike for economy passengers and to a £30 increase for premium passengers. From November 2010 it is due to rise again by a further £30 on long-haul economy fares by £60 in long-haul premium cabins.
                British Airways said that the effect of the two increases would mean the cost of a flight for a family of four to travel after November 1, would rise sizeably. The industry is lobbying hard for this second planned increase to be shelved. The organisation's secretary general Taleb Rifai said, “APD is not an environmental measure, it is an anti-development measure. The British government is schizophrenic. It says it is committed to promote development in poorer countries yet at the same time it has introduced a tax that is a terrible blow to their development.”
                He added, “APD will not only hurt poorer countries but also hurt the UK's own tour operators.” UNWTO assistant secretary general Geoffrey Lipman added, “With so much uncertainty underlying the global economy, this is not the time to do anything to upset the delicate economic balance.” No one from the government was present to defend the tax which has been universally condemned by the tourism sector.

Travel and tourism showing 'signs of recovery'
                The contribution travel and tourism makes to the world economy is forecast to dip by 5.5% next year, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. Travel and tourism's contribution to world GDP has fallen to less than 9.3% this year  from 9.6% in 2008 and will level out “at best” in 2010. However, there are tentative signs of recovery and the long-term forecast for travel and tourism is 4% growth over the coming decade.
                Speaking at World Travel Market, WTTC President and CEO, Jean-Claude Baumgarten said, “Travel and tourism clearly continues to face challenging times, especially if the tentative recovery underway loses momentum or if the (H1N1) influenza pandemic were to intensify and become more virulent.” Baumgarten also called for governments to be supportive towards the tourism industry and not to put obstacles in the way of the tentative recovery. “Policy-makers need to be wary about placing extra burdens on this previously dynamic sector, at this crucial time when profitability is already under severe pressure. If the challenging times facing Travel and Tourism are ignored by governments,” he said, “then its role in employment creation and poverty reduction could be seriously undermined.”
                Adrian Cooper, Managing Director of Oxford Economics, WTTC's research partner, joined Baumgarten. Cooper said, “In the aftermath of the financial crisis that started last summer, the global economy contracted at its steepest rate in post-war history”. However, recent indicators suggest that the global economy has passed its trough and some forecasts for 2010 are now being upwardly revised. “Key recovery drivers are unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimuli, reviving credit markets and recovering asset prices”. However, he warned, “But there are good reasons for caution and a second dip into recession early in 2010  what we call the double-dip scenario, cannot yet be ruled out.”
                Travel and tourism growth in 2008 slowed to 1%, as significant momentum was lost in the second half of the year and the deterioration intensified early in 2009, resulting in International air passenger traffic contracting by 6% year on year in the first eight months of 2009;  Widespread losses across all regions, although currency effects and domestic tourism have provided some support.