Today’s Here & There covers updates from the airline industry, hospitality industry outlook for 2013, travel industry survey results, updates on travel mobile apps and thought provoking reads like – What does it take to fly for free? Increasing demand for self-service functionality at airports. 

Travel Industry Survey Results:

• The Hertz Corporation, has revealed that British men are feeling the pressure after almost one third (31%) admitted to trying to pass off hired or borrowed items as their own just to impress a date.

• A research study conduced by Text100 on travel and tourism industry is available as downloadable whitepaper. This report talks about:
  • Travel patterns across the globe (example, how is staycation marketing picking up)
  • Various decision parameters in planning a trip and how these parameters vary worldwide
  • Impact of social media in trip planning
  • Various technologies used during vacation
  • Purchasing preferences across three regions

• A study by Insites Consulting reveals that,
  • In real world discussions in Western Europe concerning desirable travel destinations, US topped the list at 45%, Australia was second with 25% while Canada was third with 20%.
  • Air France was the leading brand among airlines. It was discussed in the last four weeks among 38% of those who responded. British Airways and Lufthansa came second and third at 36% and 35% respectively.

• For the second consecutive year, TripAdvisor travelers have named Presidente InterContinental Cozumel Resort & Spa among the top 25-finest hotels in Mexico on the website’s distinguished Travelers’ Choice list.

Interesting Read:

• Does a traveller really need self-service more self-service ability at airports? Interesting article by Amadeus where they talk about their pilot self-service baggage checkin project at LHR.

• What does it take to fly for free? When we redeem our airline miles and fly free, are we really flying free? Interesting pointers here.

Airline / Airport Update:

• Aircraft flying into UK and Irish airspace are set to enjoy seamless data link service as they enter continental airspace from the North Atlantic and move across Western Europe. This is a result of UK NATS and the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) working together with SITA, the air transport communications specialist, to deliver Controller Pilot Data Link Communication(CPDLC) services to the British and Irish area control centers.

• According to the latest report released by the Department of Transportation (DOT) this week, U.S. airlines mishandled 3.09 bags per 1,000 enplaned passengers last year. DOT considers a bag mishandled if it’s “lost, damaged, delayed or pilfered.”. That’s an 8% drop from the year before and a 56% improvement over five years ago, when the airlines misplaced 7.05 bags per 1,000 passengers.

• Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson still continues to be the busiest airport (since 1998) in the world. This is primarily because of Atlanta being the home base for Delta Airlines (one of the biggest in the world) and also the location of the airport – 80% of US population can be reached in a two hour flight.

• Middle East’s biggest carrier Emirates expects to see 18 – 20% income rise this year. For the first six months of the current fiscal year its net profit jumped by 104% to 1.7 billion dirhams from 836 million dirhams in the corresponding period of the previous year. Currently, Emirates operates a fleet of 197 wide-bodied Airbus and Boeing aircraft. By spring 2014, the airline expects to have a fleet of 210 aircraft.

• Aer Lingus reported a 2012 net profit of €34.1 million ($46.1 million), down 52% from €71.2 million in 2011.

• Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Europe-based airport systems group has signed a contract with the U.K.’s East Midlands Airport, part of the Manchester Airports Group, for the delivery of the Passenger Flow module of its Airport Realtime Collaboration (ARC) suite.

Travel Mobile App Update:

• A new app called Travelgram makes your iPhone photos look attractive by automatically adding location stamps. Simple to use; date, time, and location information is automatically added to shots you take with the app.

• Travel Wallet, a frequent flyer and loyalty program management has released new app for Windows Phone 8. The app is available as free download. In the new version of the app, users will be able to sync their data with Microsoft’s SkyDrive.

• Burpple, application that caters specifically for amateur food-snappers with a that combines services of Instagram, Path and Pinterest to showcase daily eats. Burpple earlier launched an iOS app and last week they have launched an Android app.

• Click A Taxi has launched the world’s first and only global taxi app. The free app now enables more than 1 billion people to order a taxi (with an inventory of 3,00,000 taxis) almost anywhere, domestically as well as globally in 50 countries. The global service is currently in beta with over 2,000 taxi companies that have been handpicked for the global network to ensure quality and safety

Hospitality Update:

• According to TravelCLICK’s Jan’13 North American Hospitality Review (NAHR),
  • Hotels continue to see a steady increase in occupancy and revenue performance
  • For the first quarter of 2013 through the fourth, the current outlook is for moderate growth, with continued ADR being the key driver
  • For 2013, committed occupancy across all segments is up 2% compared to a year ago. Based on reservations currently on the books, ADR is up 4.9%, compared to the same time last year. RevPAR is up 4.1%
  • Group sales are the driving force behind occupancy growth in 2013, up 2.2%. The survey found that group occupancy is showing the strongest gains in the second and third quarters
  • The transient segment, comprised of individual business and leisure travelers, which has been responsible for the majority of hotel sector growth in the past, is up 1.2%
  • February looks to be the strongest month of the quarter with occupancy currently up 4.7% and revenue per available room (revPAR) up 8%, based on current reservations

Miscellaneous:

• Indian railway’s total approximate earning for the 10 months from April 2012 to January 2013 has been INR 101,223 crore which means it needs to earn INR 34,000 crore in the next 2 months to meet the target. A loss of INR 3000 crore was estimated due to the rollback of fare hike that was introduced in last budget.

• US Passport Online, the leader in the online passport expediting industry, reports a targeted increase in sales by one-hundred percent for the months of January

• China Intercontinental Communication Center (CICC), a media production arm supervised by China’s State Council Information Office, partners with 3rd Planet to co-organize the largest consumer tourism initiative online. The massive project, Wonders of the World (WOW) will be launched to consumers globally in the first quarter of 2014.