Today’s Here & There covers updates from airlines/airports, hospitality/restaurant, cruise line, some interesting and notable travel industry surveys, travel companies update, awards and recognitions and career changes in travel industry.

Airport, Airlines:

• The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and a university will jointly set up a research center by 2014 to develop and test innovative air traffic management solutions to increase air traffic capacity in the long run, as Changi Airport put in place short- to medium-term measures. The moves are aimed to ensure the airport, one of the busiest in the world, stays ahead of the potential congestion and delays that an increase in travel demand will bring.

• Dubai tourism department and Emirates Airline have announced plans to launch a new campaign called Hello Dubai 2013. This campaign will promote the emirate as a global destination. The campaign will start on April 15 and will run until August 5.

• Etihad Airways has surpassed its target of carrying 10 million passengers in 2012 and is set to achieve a 22% increase on the total of 8.41 million passengers for 2011. The passenger growth for Etihad Airways is mirrored by its equity partners. By the end of 2012, Air Berlin is expected to have carried 33.4 million passengers, Virgin Australia 19.5 million passengers, Aer Lingus nearly 11 million passengers, and Air Seychelles 241,000 passengers. Etihad Airways and its equity partners will have collectively carried more than 74 million passengers in 2012, with cooperation between the five airlines greatly contributing to passenger growth. Based on year to date figures, Etihad Airways will have carried 73% of all passengers at Abu Dhabi airport, a 5.3% increase on 2011’s figure of 67.7%.

• The Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) says it hopes  to be a leading Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) worth over N30 billion in the next three years. NAMA also has some other big “dreams,” the most significant being the making of “a low-incident ANSP (zero-accident)” airspace in Nigeria.

• The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced full-year traffic data for 2012 showing a 5.3% year-on-year increase in passenger demand and a 1.5% fall for cargo. Load factors for the year were near record levels at 79.1%. Demand in international markets expanded at a faster rate (6.0%) than domestic travel (4.0%). In both cases emerging markets were the main drivers of growth.

• The Global Airport Operation industry is growing. Over the five years to 2012, industry revenue has increased at an estimated annualized rate of 3.5% to $120.3 billion, including a 4.9% jump in 2012., according to a report by IBISWorld.

Hospitality, Restaurant Performance:

• Pizza Inn Holdings’ second quarter (ended December 23, 2012) net income decreased $0.2 million to a loss of $120,000, compared to net income of $56,000 for the same quarter of the prior fiscal year.

• Marriott International Inc., the leading hospitality brand,  announced its entry into the Bangalore market with the launch of its signature Marriott Hotels & Resorts brand. This new hotel will be called Bengaluru Marriott Hotel Whitefield.

• Bed-Bugs.co.uk announced the signing of an exclusive licensing agreement with New York based bed bug specialists Dana K9 Inc. The agreement allows Dana K9 to use, install and distribute Bed Bugs’ Hotel Environmental Monitoring System within New York State and New Jersey.

Cruiseline Performance:

• Carnival Cruise Lines set a one-week reservations record, taking gross bookings for 187,283 guests between Jan 28 – Feb 3, 2013. Carnival President and CEO Gerry Cahill attributed the record booking activity to a number of factors, including continued recognition among consumers of the exceptional value, particularly given the line’s $500 million Fun Ship 2.0 product enhancement initiative, strong support from travel agent partners, as well as recent sales and marketing activities.

Travel Industry Survey Results:

• A recent survey from Deloitte & Touche has revealed that one out of four travelers spends 75% or more of their stays in their preferred hotel brand. 47% of surveyed stated that the room rate was of high importance; among other factors rating highly were location, free parking and comfort.

• The U.S. Travel Association said year-end figures show travel exports grew more than twice as fast as overall exports in 2012 to $168.1 billion, the third consecutive year of double-digit export growth for travel exports.

• At least half of media-savvy mobile users now have at least one restaurant-specific app on their devices, according to new survey-based research from the Interactive Advertising Bureau in partnership with social TV rewards startup Viggle.
  • 55% of survey respondents say they have at least one “multi-restaurant” app on their phones — with Yelp the most popular at 37%, followed by Urbanspoon (24%) and Zagat (9%)
  • 44% of survey respondents report regularly using their smartphones or tablets to search for restaurant phone numbers
  • 39% do so to check out menus
  • 38% use their gadgets to search for restaurant locations
  • 78% of respondents said discounts would make them more likely to order
  • 64% (nearly two-thirds) said loyalty points would have a similarly positive impact

• 61% of adults who are on Facebook voluntarily took a break from the social networking site for a period of several weeks or more sometime in the past and 20% of online adults who once used Facebook say they no longer do so, a new study from the Pew Research Center found.Of the people who took the so-called “Facebook vacation”:
  • 21% said they were too busy while 10% said they just weren’t interested or didn’t have time.
  • 9% of Facebook vacationers said there was too much gossip or negativity on the site.
  • Other reasons for Facebook vacations included religious reasons (how many of you attempted to give it up for Lent?), lack of computer access, health reasons, or no reason at all.

• According to a survey by Orbitz Insider Index, Las Vegas tops sexiest cities and most popular destination lists for Valentine’s Day, Miami is ranked 2nd and New Orleans at 3rd position.

Travel Businesses Update:

• FCM Travel Solutions launched an integrated mobile solution for their corporate travellers worldwide. This solution will help travellers access their itineraries, receive flight status notifications.

• Wego, south asia’s metasearch engine has setup dedicated full-service operation in Dubai. In April 2012, Wego launched www.wego.ae, Arabic language enabled metasearch site targeted at Arab market.

Awards:

• TAM Airlines has won another of the top categories in Business Traveller’s prestigious “Cellars in the Sky”; awards that recognise airlines for the quality of the wines served on board their aircraft. The Brazilian company has received the award for the best red wine served in Business Class during 2012.

• When it comes to looking good at 35,000 feet, Aeroflot cabin crew strut their stuff all the way to the top of the rankings. Perhaps it’s those red uniforms that earned them poll position?  Or maybe voters had seen recent publicity surrounding the latest edition of Aeroflot’s cabin crew calendar, so racy it would make Ryanair’s calendar girls blush.While the Russians may have put their best fashion foot forward, British Airways, flying the flag in red white and blue, came in a close second overall.

• International Game Technology, a global leader in casino gaming entertainment won Best Remote Product of the Year for IGT Casino Remote Game Server (IGT rgs) at the Totally Gaming Awards ceremony presented in London during ICE 2013.

Career Changes:

• LOT Polish Airlines has reappointed Sebastian Mikosz as CEO, who had resigned from the position in September 2010. The financially troubled carrier has been challenged with ongoing management changes. Mikosz is the carrier’s 13th CEO. LOT dismissed CEO Marcin Pirog in December 2012.

• Online reputation management (ORM) market leader for the hospitality industry, TrustYou, has appointed Alan Young as its VP of Strategic Partnerships.

• Penske Logistics:
  • Joe Carlier has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Global Sales from his previous role as Vice President of Sales in the company’s Central region. Carlier has 25 years of sales and operations experience in transportation and logistics.
  • Jeffery A. Bullard now serves as Senior Vice President of Operations in the company’s Central region. Prior to joining Penske Logistics, Bullard was with the private equity firm, Transportation Resource Partners (TRP). While with TRP he served as CEO of Versant Supply Chain.

• Pinnacle Airlines Corp. has named Ryan Gumm as senior vice president and chief operating officer, effective Feb. 5, 2013. Upon the Company’s emergence from bankruptcy, Gumm will become president and chief executive officer, and John Spanjers will retire.

• Kobie Marketing, a recognized leader in the loyalty marketing industry, has announced the appointment of Margaret Meraw to Vice President of Loyalty Operations.