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Norwegian Cruise Line has been named “Europe’s Leading Cruise Line” by the World Travel Awards for the fourth consecutive year and also received Europe’s Sustainable Tourism Award for its newest and most innovative ship Norwegian Epic. The 18th annual awards recognize travel companies for delivering an outstanding customer experience and are voted by travel agents and consumers worldwide.

Francis Riley, Norwegian Cruise Line’s vice president & general manager international, accepted the awards during the gala ceremony held in Antalya, Turkey, on September 2, 2011.

Norwegian, which has been honoured with the accolade as Europe’s Leading Cruise Line in 2008, 2009 and 2010, will have four Freestyle Cruising vessels which offer an array of magnificent cruise holidays through Europe ranging from seven to twelve-days in the 2012/13 season.

“We are honoured that travel partners and consumers from around the world have chosen us for this prestigious award four years in a row,” said Kevin Sheehan, Norwegian Cruise Line’s chief executive officer. “Norwegian is dedicated to providing guests with a unique cruise holiday that allows them the convenience and value to experience the rich culture and history of Europe on their own terms.”

From ancient cathedrals to romantic gondola rides along grand canals, guests can see more of Europe in less time while visiting a new and exciting port of call each day. Norwegian’s newest and most innovative ship, Norwegian Epic, sets sail on seven-night Western Mediterranean itineraries from April 29, 2012 through October 17, 2012. Guests have the flexibility to begin their cruise in either Barcelona, Spain; Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy and – on selected dates during the peak summer month – also in Marseille, France, allowing them to customize their holiday to suit their travel needs.

Norwegian Sun offers nine-night Baltic Capitals voyages from Copenhagen, Denmark, which is the only cruise itinerary of this length to include an overnight stay in St. Petersburg, Russia. In addition, Norwegian Jade, cruising year-round in Europe, offers seven-night Greek Isles and Adriatic itineraries from Venice, Italy through early October and 10-and 11-night Eastern Mediterranean and Holy Land itineraries from mid-October through April 2012 from Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy. In an exciting first for the line, Norwegian Spirit will join Norwegian Jade sailing year-round in Europe beginning in April 2012, where she will sail 12-night Grand Mediterranean cruises alternating from Barcelona and Venice through October 13, 2012. Norwegian Spirit will then sail nine-night Canary Islands cruises from Barcelona from November 6, 2012 to April 8, 2013.

With its current “Book Early – Cruise Happy” campaign, guests booking a cruise of more than six nights or an Atlantic crossing from the new 2012/13 programme before October 31, 2011, receive on-board credits of up to $500 per stateroom. Guests will receive more on board spending money the longer the cruise and higher the stateroom grade and, as an added extra, all Norwegian Epic bookings receive an additional $50 per stateroom.

MSC Divina, the third and latest addition to the MSC Cruises’ flagship Fantasia class, was ceremoniously floated out of dry dock B of the STX Europe ship yard in Saint-Nazaire, France on Saturday 3 September and transferred to dock C for final fitting and furnishing ahead of her christening in May next year.

Representing a major milestone in the mammoth build of the new 140 000 ton, 4, 363 passenger cruise ship, the occasion was witnessed by a select group of guests who gathered to applaud the ship which will become the 12th and most magnificent of the MSC Cruses fleet.

“It is a proud moment. Today marks the start of the final one million hours of work devoted to meticulously applying the finishing touches to ensure our new ‘debutante’ is ready and perfectly ‘dressed up’ when she emerges for her debut ‘Grand Ball’ on 26 May 2012 in Marseille, France,” said Emilio La Scala, General Manager of MSC Cruises Technical Department.

Named in honour of Sophia Loren, modern day Italian film goddess and patron of the MSC Cruises fleet, MSC Divina will be appropriately themed as a divine goddess.

This was hinted at for the first time Saturday with the announcement that the ship’s 18 decks (13 of them for passengers) will be  named after the Gods of Ancient Greece ; among them Urano, Afrodite, Aurora, Giunone, Artemide, Zeus, Mercurio, Cupido, Iride, Minerva, Apollo, Saturno, Elios.

There will be something decidedly transcendental about one of the most novel additions to the ship: the aft Garden Pool, purpose designed and decorated as a heavenly up scale  area for quiet retreat, philosophizing or simply gazing into the infinity of a sunset.

Construction of MSC Divina started over a year ago and a total complement of 74 mega-blocks, each consisting of a set of large pre-fabricated hull components, were used for assembling the ship. Work on the keel is nearly completed. Already 50 % of the fitting out has been done which includes completion of the electrical networking, plumbing and public areas.  Work has also already started on 400 of the 1751 cabins (one hundred more than her sister ships MSC Fantasia and MSC Splendida). 

As the most advanced of the trio of Fantasia Class cruise ships, cutting edge technical changes on MSC Divina include more powerful propulsion motors, rated at 21.8 MW each (compared to 20.2 MW on the MSC Splendida), brand new alternators and state-of-the-art HVAC chillers. The ship will also feature a new reverse osmosis system for fresh water production that requires 40 percent less power and therefore assuring less environmental impact.

The “Hello Canada Campaign” executed in collaboration with the Canadian Tourism Commission and Dragon Trail was recognized as best e-marketing campaign in China by the prestigious trade publication Travel Weekly China in its 10th annual awards ceremony at the Shangri-la Hotel Beijing. The other two finalists included Tourism Australia and Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

The annual TravelWeekly China Awards recognize the most outstanding performers in China’s travel industry. Since its debut in 2002, this event, organized by TravelWeekly China – a leading trade publication of the travel industry in China, has won recognition from the industry for its fairness, transparency and creativity. The award selection process starts with nominations by Travelweekly China’s panel of judges from the tourism industry. The winners from each category are then selected based on the total number of votes garnered by the readers.

After receiving Approved Destination Status (ADS) from the Chinese Government in June 2010, the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) set out to launch its first major marketing campaign in China, leveraging digital marketing and social media to influence Chinese consumers to choose Canada as one of their next vacation destinations. Utilizing the Internet and social media to influence and educate consumers about Canada as a tourism destination is incredibly powerful in the Chinese market. With over 485 million Internet users in China (Source: CNNIC, June 2011), more than in any other country, of which 92% engage in social media channels not including blocked sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Foursquare, more than 80% of Chinese travelers research and educate themselves about destinations and brands online. According to the Digital Influence Index 2010, social media is the most influential medium in modern China, more than travel agents, newspapers, magazines, or TV. 95% of Chinese Internet users believe that a company that is engaged on micro-blogging is more trustworthy.
On the other hand, FIT Travel in China is increasing due to a growing trend for individualism and not wanting to be part of traditional tour groups. According to the Boston Consulting Group report (“Taking Off, Travel and Tourism in China and Beyond”, March 2011), a huge portion of the market has been underserved. As a result, customized travel experiences are becoming more important due to increased affluence.

The “Hello Canada” campaign was the first of a multi-phase campaign execution in China by the Canadian Tourism Commission, followed by the second phase of the overall strategy, Explore Canada. The campaigns leverage the very active and engaged social media landscape, featured a highly interactive and engaging, social media driven online game, built on Dragon Trail’s proprietary TripShow platform. Chinese consumers virtually traveled to Canada by literally flying from Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou to Vancouver or Toronto to complete one of three virtual itineraries in Canada to either explore Canada’s west or east coasts or complete a coast to coast trip. Each completed virtual trip was eligible to win one of three ‘real’ Canada trips. Various components in the game were designed to increase viral spread, and social media engagement on China’s social media sites including SNS, micro-blogging, video and photo sharing websites.

The goal was to increase brand awareness and to capture consumer data (including email addresses and cell phone numbers) to execute future marketing campaigns with reduced advertising spend, as well as to increase the following on China’s major micro-blogging platform and Twitter equivalent in China, Sina Weibo.  In the six-week campaign period, over 1.2 billion overall media impressions resulted in over 3.3 million visitors to the campaign website, which was integrated with the Chinese version of Canada.travel, driven by a combination of media spend executed by advertising agency DDB, search engine marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, and viral spread, where participants invite friends or spread the message on social media sites.  Over 230,000 clean consumer data records were captured, and the followers on Sina Weibo increased to almost 40,000 from 0. Due to internet hackers that become active when contests promise prizes, technology resources are essential in order to deliver clean data, resulting in high open rates of future email campaigns. Last year, Dragon Trail developed the Chinese website CanadianRockies.cn in partnership with Banff Lake Louise Tourism in Alberta/Canada, followed by a social media driven launch campaign that was able to capture almost 100,000 consumer records with no media and advertising spend. The Canadian Tourism Commission and industry partners are now starting to leverage these valuable permission based consumer databases to lure Chinese consumers, especially the higher-yielding affluent FIT and Semi-FIT travelers to Canada.

The growth of China market could generate additional $300 million a year in tourism revenues for Canada by 2015.

According to Derek Galpin, China/India Managing Director for the Canadian Tourism Commission based in Beijing: “We are aiming primarily at affluent, high-spend and well-educated 25- to 34-year-olds in this initial campaign. Our research shows that they are the most inclined to long-haul travel, and then to get out and explore Canada once they arrive. The importance of leveraging the Internet and social media in China is critical for a destination such as Canada in order to influence consumer in this complex and competitive market.”

“In order to reach the target audience identified by the Canadian Tourism Commission, we leveraged our deep understanding of the Chinese consumer behaviour to make use of the inborn competitiveness of people born in the 1980s, which is the perfect basis for all sorts of consumer competitions such as online campaigns and contests, which made this group engage in the virtual trip game – and therefore also with the Canada brand”, says Jens Thraenhart, President of Dragon Trail.

Acentic, a leading supplier of broadband systems and digital interactive TV (iTV) for the hotel industry, announced the launch of Acentic Cloud Services to enhance hotel entertainment offerings with faster and more reliable distribution of HD movies and content, with no geographical boundaries.

Beginning September 30, 2011, all HD movies and content will be distributed to Acentic’s hotel partners via Acentic Cloud Services rather than satellite.

The central feature of Acentic Cloud Services is the Content Distribution Network (CDN) based upon Amazon AWS. Acentic has chosen AWS because of its open, reliable and powerful technology. The CDN is designed broadly open for all kinds of content reception and distribution, plus it has the ability to accept and integrate further content providers, enhancing future partnerships and cooperations.

Content transmission via the cloud provides key benefits for hoteliers:
- Simplified distribution of thousands of HD movies and content compared to transmission via satellite.
- Faster transmission with no negative effects on HD picture quality.
- No geographical transmission boundaries as with satellite. Acentic can easily transmit movies to additional continents, including the United States and Asia.
- Cost-effective decentralised movie distribution and virtual storage space lets hotels share content with each other, significantly reducing transmission costs.

“Exactly 10 years ago in September 2001, Acentic evolved from VHS tapes to satellite transmission for movies and further services to hotel customers. A decade later, we reach another milestone in hotel technology innovation by moving to the cloud. With the opening of our new office in Asia, the cloud allows us to expand our reach to Asia and further geographic markets with rapid worldwide content transmission,” said Richard Robinson, CEO of Acentic.

Acentic Cloud Services will initially focus on movie distribution. The company plans to gradually extend cloud transmission to more Acentic services, including high-speed Internet access, mobile apps, system support, and more.

Amadeus is working with SITA, the world’s leading specialist in air transport communications and IT solutions, to empower Amadeus Altea customers to offer real-time baggage tracking information and worldwide baggage reconciliation to passengers, whilst reducing the costs associated with mishandled baggage.

Altea Baggage Tracking is based on the integration of SITA’s leading baggage messaging technology with the passenger and baggage servicing capabilities of Amadeus Altea Departure Control. SITA BagMessage is a unique service used by more than 500 airlines and close to 200 major airports and is the most comprehensive source of information on baggage movements globally. The result of the collaboration is a single, integrated environment which allows airlines to provide passengers with real-time status updates regarding the location of their baggage through multiple channels.

“The airport itself is one of the last frontiers in delivering the ‘total trip experience’. If airlines are to overcome this challenge, it is important that they address the issue of mishandled baggage, which is a persistent problem for the industry and a very disruptive issue for passengers. In fact it’s an area where technology can make a real difference, and Amadeus’ and SITA’s vision for the airport is to deliver solutions based on collaboration and data sharing between all relevant parties, including airlines, airports and ground handlers. Our work with SITA shows how sophisticated technology can deliver real improvements to the passenger experience” said Julia Sattel, Vice President Airline IT, Amadeus.

Ilya Gutlin, Vice President SITA Airport Solutions, said: “The air transport community is working together to reduce the rate of mishandled luggage. This collaboration with Amadeus is an example of SITA’s Intelligent Airport vision and how SITA is helping to improve the experience for the passengers. SITA BagMessage is the most comprehensive global source for baggage information and in the future passengers will have real time updates on their luggage available to them when SITA’s technology is used.”

The first phase will cover 54 airports worldwide involving integration between the Customer Management module of Altea DCS and airport baggage handling systems, so that baggage can be tracked from the point of check-in throughout the journey. The second phase will involve integration with the Flight Management module of Altea DCS in order to communicate precise information on baggage for load and balance control.

Over time, Amadeus and SITA will work jointly with airport operators to connect more airport systems worldwide to SITA BagMessage in order to achieve a comprehensive baggage tracking capability across the air transport community.

Through the sharing of information at the airport, Altea Baggage Tracking will enable airlines to not only improve the customer experience, but also to drive cost savings. According to SITA’s 7th Annual Baggage Report, despite a significant improvement in the mishandling rate over the last four years, 29.4 million bags were delayed on arrival in 2010 which translates into a cost of $2.94 billion for airlines. IATA has outlined a $1.2 billion savings target for 2012, to be achieved through the deployment of self-service baggage tagging and the development of baggage tracking solutions such as Altea Baggage Tracking.

A recent study from Amadeus, Navigating the Airport of Tomorrow, included a survey conducted by JD Power, which found that over 34% of passengers had experienced baggage issues on their most recent flight.The survey also found that 37% of travellers said they would like to use their mobile to receive real-time baggage arrival updates.

A recent survey by BDRC Continental found that 49% of business travellers are “very likely” to replace their number one choice hotel brand for one that offers free Wi-Fi. In order to help business travellers plan ahead, Airport Parking and Hotels (APH) has compared the Wi-Fi costs in UK airport hotels and airport lounges which is available in the Know Before You Go section of the website at www.aph.com/wifi.

The research compares the cost of Wi-Fi access in airport hotels within 15 minutes of major UK airports highlighting the cost of access in hotel rooms, conference rooms and public areas. This includes the cost of Wi-Fi access in the private lounges of the same 24 airports.

Of the 93 hotels surveyed, only 44 were found to have free Wi-Fi in public areas including The Quality Hotel at Edinburgh Airport and The Best Western at London Gatwick Airport. With regards to Wi-Fi access in conference rooms, 66 offered access with only 36 making this available for free or included in the price of the room.

The research also found that the highest cost of hotel Wi-Fi was a substantial £8.16 per hour or £16.33 for 24 hours at a major hotel brand in Birmingham. There is also a large difference in the cost in rooms versus the cost in public areas with one Aberdeen hotel offering customers free Wi-Fi in public areas and a £15 charge for 24 hours in hotel rooms.

With regards to Airport Lounges, these were found to offer Wi-Fi access at a lower cost or included in the price of the lounge. However, three airport lounges of the 24 reviewed were found to charge for Wi-Fi with the Executive Lounge at Cardiff Airport charging £5 per hour, the Servisair Executive Lounge at London Gatwick Airport charging £3.02 per hour and The Aviance Lounge at London Luton Airport charging £1.50 per 15 minutes.

Airport Parking and Hotels (APH) is the UK’s award winning airport parking operator and booking agency, after winning the Best Airport Parking Company at British Travel Awards 2010. This year APH also celebrates its 31st year as a retailer and operator of pre-booked airport parking and travel extras. APH offers parking at all major UK airports as well as airport hotels packaged with parking and airport lounges. APH is also a carbon balanced company and has, through support of the World Land Trust, helped purchase more than 1,000 acres of endangered rainforest.

Summer traffic figures for Europe’s airports released reveal an ongoing contrast between European airport passenger and freight traffic during July. Following a similar trend in June, the overall passenger traffic at European airports increased by +6.9% in July 2011 compared with July 2010, while the overall freight traffic among European airports was flat at just +0.3% for the same period when compared with the corresponding month in 2010. The overall figure for movements at European airports increased +2.8% in July 2011 when compared with July 2010.

The accumulated figure for passenger traffic January to July 2011 increased by +9.0% compared with the corresponding period 2010. The accumulated figure for freight traffic during January to July increased by +3.2% and movements increased by +5.3% during the corresponding period when compared with 2010.

In traffic figures specifically relating to the month of July, airports welcoming more than 25 million passengers per year (Group 1), airports welcoming between 10 and 25 million passengers (Group 2), airports welcoming between 5 and 10 million passengers (Group 3) and airports welcoming less than 5 million passengers per year (Group 4) reported an average increase of +6.8%, +7.7%, +6.8% and +5.5% respectively when compared with July 2010. The same comparison of July 2011 with July 2009 demonstrates an average increase of +11.5%, +16.9%, +17.0% and +15.0% respectively.

Examples of airports that experienced the highest increase in passenger traffic per group, when comparing July 2011 with July 2010, include:
- Group 1 airports – Barcelona (+21.3%), Istanbul IST (+19.4%), Amsterdam (+8.9%) and Munich (+7.4%)
- Group 2 airports – Moscow DME (+17.9%), Istanbul SAW (+17.0%), Helsinki (+16.9%) and Moscow SVO (+16.1%)
- Group 3 airports – Venice (+40.0%), Kiev (+19.8%), Tenerife TFS (+18.0%) and Porto (+14.4%)
- Group 4 airports – Ohrid (+122.0%), Skelleftea (+51.2%), Tallinn (+39.3%) and Malmo (+30.8%)

The ‘ACI Europe Airport Traffic Report – July 2011′ includes 167 airports in total.

A newly launched cruise website has conducted a study of British cruisers in a bid to discover their attitudes towards cruising staff onboard a ship. According to the study, 17% of the respondents ‘don’t trust’ their cruise ship Captain, 64% of which claimed they would lack trust in female Captains more so than males.

?lmost two thirds, 64%, of British cruisers do not trust female cruise ship Captains, according to research conducted by a newly launched cruising website. The study of 1,238 British cruisers was carried out in a bid to discover their attitudes towards cruise ship staff, specifically the Captain of the ship.

bonvoyage.co.uk, the website behind the study, conducted the research in order to gain a stronger understanding of British cruisers and how they felt about certain aspects of cruising. bonvoyage.co.uk was created by the founders of online travel agency sunshine.co.uk.

Initially, the respondents to the study were asked ‘When on a cruise holiday, do you trust your Captain completely?’ to which the majority, 83%, said ‘yes’.

With an aim to investigate the topic further, the 17% of respondents who stated that they did not trust their cruise ship Captain were asked if they trusted female Captains less so than male Captains, or vice versa. Two thirds, 64%, said they did not trust female captains completely. 

Furthermore, of the 17% of respondents who admitted that they didn’t trust their cruise ship Captain, 36% said that they lacked trust in male Captains more so than females.

The 64% of respondents who admitted that they trusted male Captains more so then female Captains were asked why they felt less trust in female Captains. According to the research, 19% claimed they lacked trust in female Captains because women are ‘easily distracted’.

A further 21% of the respondents who cited that they had less trust in female Captains than males, said they felt that way because women had ‘less experience in the cruising industry’ than males.

Chris Brown, co-founder of bonvoyage.co.uk, spoke about the launch: “It was interesting to see that 17% of those we asked don’t trust their cruise ship Captain; however, their lack of trust cannot be too large as they still embarked on a cruise and I would assume that they enjoyed it.  It was surprising to see that the gender of the Captain can influence their trust levels; both male and female Captains would have had to endure the same training process thus meaning they are equally as qualified.”

He continued, “We are extremely excited about the launch of bonvoyage.co.uk and we feel confident that the site will be as successful as sunshine.co.uk. The research we have conducted for sunshine.co.uk has proved to be extremely beneficial, as it has allowed us to get a better understanding of our customers. With this in mind, we are very excited to get to know British cruisers even better.”

PRCo is delighted to announce its appointment as PR representative for Nira Alpina in Switzerland, a cutting edge new property from Nira Hotels & Resorts.

Perched at the highest point in the small Swiss village of Surlej, the hotel is just along the valley from St Moritz, yet offers a far more enviable location. Not only does it offer a unique ski in, ski out experience for guests and is the first hotel in the entire ski domain to do so, it also features awe-inspiring views from its hilltop position.

Architecturally inspired, the property unobtrusively clings to the mountainside as each floor steps up to the next. This design ensures that every room features a vast sun-drenched balcony or terrace, floor to ceiling panoramic windows and breathtaking views of the crystal clear turquoise water of Lake Silvaplana, surrounded on all sides by the majestic peaks of the Engadine Mountains.

Guests will be able to ascend to 3,300 metres, the highest point in the whole ski area, in just fifteen minutes, without even having to step outside the door of the hotel. A private covered walkway connects the hotel to the upper level of the cable car building.

Bedrooms will be graced with the finest Swiss linen, Egyptian cotton bathrobes and luxurious granite bathrooms with oversized baths and waterfall showers. A state of the art spa will be at guests’ disposal, along with a selection of restaurants offering both traditional Swiss fare and world cuisine.

Nira Alpina will be managed by Nira Hotels & Resorts, the London-based boutique luxury hotel management company launched by MPS Puri in March 2009. Its sister property is Shanti Maurice in Mauritius. Nira Alpina is a member of Design Hotels, which represents and markets a curated selection of more than 200 independent hotels in over 40 countries across the globe.

In front of a record crowd of 600 hoteliers, industry leaders and major suppliers, the winners of the 2011 HM Awards for Hotel and Accommodation Excellence, presented by Sealy, have been announced.

Held at the prestigious Sydney Town Hall (Sep 2) and hosted by television personality Larry Emdur, the HM Awards have, for the 9th time, recognised the accommodation industry’s finest staff, properties, brands and chains across Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.

Major winners on the night were Pan Pacific’s CEO and President, A Patrick Imbardelli (Asia-Pacific Hotelier of the Year), IHG’s COO for Australasia – Bruce McKenzie (Australian Hotelier of the Year), Accor New Zealand’s Paul Richardson (New Zealand Hotelier of the Year), Accor Hotels (Accommodation Chain), Hilton (Hotel Brand), InterContinental Sydney (Hotel of the Year) and Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa (Environmental Program).

Hamilton Island’s qualia picked up three key awards (Australian Lodge, Resort and Spa), while Hilton Sydney also claimed a trifecta (Hotel Bar – Zeta, Engineer – Craig Cavers and General Manager – Paul Hutton).

Over NZD$80,000 was also raised on the night for the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal Trust in the greatest charity display the accommodation industry has seen for years.

“The accommodation industry’s generosity and desire to help the people of Christchurch was  absolutely remarkable,” said HM magazine managing editor James Wilkinson. “I am incredibly proud of the way the accommodation industry dug deep to help our friends and family across the Tasman in what are still such challenging times.”

 The 2011 HM Awards were hosted by HM magazine, presented by Sealy, and co-hosted by AHS Hospitality, Intrust Super, ISIS and Philips.

“Once more we were proud to recognise the industry’s finest, particularly the staff that have been doing such an amazing job over the last 12 months,” Wilkinson said. “Sure a hotel can be rewarded for its aesthetics, style, design and comfort, but it is the people who work in hotels that gives the accommodation industry in Australasia its soul.

“This year, our people categories generated the most interest and in the case of Rising Star, held for the first time in 2011, the most nominations out of the 48 categories.

“On behalf of the team at HM magazine and all of our fantastic sponsors this year, congratulations to all of the winners, highly commended recipients and finalists in 2011,” Wilkinson said.

Four Hoteliers were also inducted into the HM Awards Hall of Fame. Former Mirvac CEO Andrew Turner was joined by Fritz Gubler, Max Player and Gavin Faull, with the trio recognised for their services to education, having been responsible for starting the Blue Mountains Hotel School outside Sydney and the Pacific International Hotel Management School in New Zealand.

The 2011 HM Awards saw not just a record crowd, but also a record number of entries with 1600 this year.