Travel Business News - North America

AirGuide Business, April 14, 2008

Apr 14, 2008

According to the study, 466,442 direct and indirect jobs were created by travel and tourism economic activity, accounting for 11.4 percent of total employment in the state. This indicates that one out of every nine New Jersey workers has a job in tourism, the state's third fastest growing sector in 2007. Wages and salaries generated by tourism expanded to $16 billion. Visitors from other states represented 66 percent or the largest portion of tourism expenditures while in-state visitors totaled 22 percent of expenditures. The top five visitor origin states are New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and South Carolina. For more information, visit www.visitnj.org Apr 11, 2008

NTA has been encouraging the presidential candidates to address travel and tourism issues, specifically the need for someone in their administration to have a travel and tourism focus. In 2007, NTA initiated its call for an Executive Office of Travel and Tourism to serve as a focal point for security, infrastructure and tourism promotional programming and to facilitate a clear and consistent dialogue on important travel-related issues. "The travel and tourism economy is too important to the long-term health and growth of our nation for it to be ignored, and these significant issues with the airlines magnify that point," Simon said. For more information, call 800-882-8886 or visit www.ntaonline.com Apr 11, 2008

The Airline Reporting Corporation (ARC) reported sales of $7.5 billion for March 2008, an almost two percent decrease compared to March 2007. Total transactions also declined nine percent to 13,828,713 from the same time last year and ARC reports a 3.4 percent decline in total transactions year to date. It offered no explanation for the declines. Domestic fares declined 4.4 percent to $3.3 billion from 2007, as did domestic transactions by 10.2 percent. Total fares reported for March both domestic and international declined 2.7 percent from 2007; however, international fares increased 8.1 percent and domestic fares were up 0.5 percent year to date. Visit www.arccorp.com Apr 11, 2008

The National Tour Association (NTA), which is pushing a grassroots lobbyist effort to convince candidates for public office that the U.S. needs an Executive Office of Travel and Tourism, says the current airline issues underscore the need for the establishment of the office. According to a statement put out by the association, the recent news of hundreds of cancelled flights and airlines grounding planes underscores the need for someone in the White House focused on the condition of the travel and tourism economy. Lisa Simon, NTA's president, said the immediate impact, the long-term ramifications and possible solutions of the airline problems should be looked into by an office that is focused on the tourism economy. Not only leisure travel, but the nation's business is being significantly impacted by the airline problems, Simon said. Apr 11, 2008

Travel Bound reports that it is offering an additional 5 percent commission on all FIT bookings made before June 1, 2008, meaning that the starting commission for North American and Caribbean hotels through May 31 is 15 percent. The program is good for all 2,018 of its hotels in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean and accompanies several hotel discount deals for clients. Hotel stays must begin by December 31, 2008. Visit www.booktravelbound.com Apr 10, 2008

The governors of California and Hawaii have publicly decried a proposed cruise ship rule that would entail foreign-flagged ships to remain in a foreign port for 48 hours before continuing to U.S. ports. The new rule is intended to safeguard U.S-flagged ships from foreign competition. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle, both Republicans, co-authored a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, urging that the proposed rule be rejected on the grounds that it would hurt their respective state economies by causing "unintended disastrous consequences and wide-ranging economic damage." A change is supported by the likes of NCL America, which was operating three U.S.-flagged ships in Hawaii before shipping two out due in part to foreign-flagged competition, who briefly stop in places like Ensenada, Mexico, to fulfill port-call requirements. The joint letter also asks the Office of Management and Budget to initiate an economic impact review before any rule changes are implemented. Hawaii's democrat congressional delegation supports NCL, stating that the line is at a financial disadvantage because it complies with U.S. labor and environmental law. Apr 8, 2008

The Travel Agent Arbiter (TAA) in the dispute between a travel agent and the Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC) regarding the unauthorized withdrawal of funds through Payment Express, announced his decision that the TAA "lacks the authority to hear such a dispute" and therefore could not "docket a complaint nor proceed further in this matter." The case was dismissed "without prejudice," meaning that no decision was rendered on the merits of the dispute. ASTA said that from its perspective there are really two issues at play. First, is the matter of ARC's authority to withdraw funds on behalf of individual airlines under "unilaterally imposed" contacts from the agent's ARC account which was created for another purpose. ASTA said this is an important legal and practical problem for potentially every travel agency, particularly since ARC gave agents only five days to respond to the airline with proof that the claims were invalid. The second is the question of whether an airline can form a binding contract with a travel agent by simply filing an undated policy without additional notice on a website or in a GDS. ASTA said it is crucial to the maintenance of a mutually beneficial business relationship that one party not be able to impose contractual terms on the other without communicating the terms clearly and completely. Apr 8, 2008