Up in the Air . . .

BRISTOL Airport has become the first airport to launch a Trip Finder feature on their website. The innovative feature allows passengers to search for flights using the month or day they want to fly and to filter results by types of holidays – including winter sports and city breaks. This gives passengers the flexibility to plan a holiday around their busy schedule and is ideal for those searching for a weekend getaway.

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Website for Travelers Visiting Japan

All Nippon Airways (ANA) announces the introduction of a new website "Japan Travel Planner" aimed to help travelers visiting Japan discover the beauty of the country by obtaining valuable travel information.

The two informative current websites "ANA Experience Japan" and "Taste of Japan" were integrated into the new " Japan Travel Planner" website which offers enhanced research and travel plan creation functions making it easy to find the best ways to get to sightseeing spots. By selecting a location and the desired traveling time, a recommended itinerary of the trip will be created and an option to make a reservation for an air ticket will be given.

Through this new "Japan Travel Planner" site, ANA will introduce not only the most popular sightseeing spots, but also many hidden attractive locations throughout Japan, strongly contributing to the accomplishment of the Japanese government tourism target of reaching 40 million overseas visitors to Japan in 2020.



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Aruba Redesigned

ARUBA Tourism Authority happily invites visitors to explore its all-new Aruba.com. The new and improved Aruba.com is the island's official destination for travelers planning their next #Caribbean vacation.

Created in eight languages to provide visitors from all over the world with a warm and welcoming #Aruba experience, the new site has been completely redesigned to make exploring, planning and booking a vacation to Aruba even easier.

Immersive video and imagery bring travelers face to face with the Aruba locals and repeat visitors, while a fresh, intuitive design and navigation inspires them to explore all the adventurous, romantic and relaxing things the happy island is known for.

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Dive, dive, dive

FEATURING dive destinations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and the Maldives ZuBlu provides an easy-to-use platform allowing guests to discover new and exciting #dive destinations in #Asia. The website marries a powerful search tool with an exciting range of dive destinations, eco-friendly resorts and conservation experiences, putting the power of discovery and choice into the hands of ZuBlu’s guests.

ZuBlu ensures conservation and sustainability are at the heart of its business. Each resort listing displays an ‘at-a-glance’ summary of sustainable practices, as well as information about conservation activities. And as part of its commitment to the environment, ZuBlu donates a percentage of revenue to local conservation organisations.


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Bidroom and Visa buddy up for European cardholders

IN the EU, almost half (49%) of internet users have booked holiday accommodation or travel via the internet. In the UK specifically 83% of people used this method to book their holiday in 2017.

As more and more consumers turn to online travel agencies to book their travel, Bidroom offers an alternative method of finding affordable hotel accommodation online. The platform provides a 0% commission private booking channel with direct reservations, in turn Bidroom asks hotels to provide members between 5%-25% discount compared to the advertised prices on major hotel booking platforms.

European Visa cardholders can register at visa.bidroom.com to enjoy six months free access to the membership-based booking platform enabling them to browse through over 120,000 hotels and apartments worldwide.

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Glimp is Helping Kiwis Travel Cheaper

GLIMP'S website was founded in 2016, following a high demand from Kiwis wanting to compare prices on utilities, internet, credit cards, insurance and mortgages. Glimp now offers an easy and free solution to compare travel insurance providers and plans.

With the travel insurance comparison tool on Glimp, Kiwis can compare a range of options based on their destination and flying date. The comparison tool will then offer a variety of options likely to suit their travel needs, along with a full breakdown of what is included in the cover of each plan. The entire process of comparing travel insurance companies generally only takes less than five minutes.

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The Growing trend of expat living and travel abroad

THERE is growing interest in the concept of storytelling lives and travel abroad, particularly in the younger demographic. Young American Expat, the online digital storytelling platform of the 9 million Americans who live abroad, has recently launched YoungExpat.com.

Founded in 2015 initially as a blog, Young American Expat grew organically given its name and also simple concept – showcasing the lives of those abroad from the American expatriate community. This works two ways – showing Americans back in the USA the lives and idea of life abroad of the community abroad, as well as those abroad the Americans who are, at present, residing in their current location overseas. Young American Expat went through a revamp last year and is currently operating as the platform of digital storytelling.

YoungExpat.com will initially be a blog that will be managed by Young American Expat, which will be open to aspiring expat and travel writers from all nationalities who are looking to share their own stories and opinions about the expatriate lifestyle, in particular, from a younger point of view.

Founder Richie Santosdiaz says, “Young Expat will initially be a blog, like how Young American Expat started when I created it back in 2015. However, I see much potential to expand this and later down the line bring a dedicated team to run and explore other ways of digital storytelling beyond a blog.”

According to the US State Department, there are approximately 9 million Americans who live abroad. With respect to the globally, around 3.1% of the world’s population would be considered expats.

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Across the border

WHAT do you get if you mix some adventure junkies, Mexican Nationals, an American company, and a lot of tenacity to succeed? You get the website launch of GoHikeMexico.com, an adventure travel startup, with a proven track record of 8x growth and more than 2,000 travelers in two years.

#Mexico is a lot more than all-inclusive resorts in Cancun and Cabo San Lucas. There is 6,910 miles of shoreline, most with warm waters and amazing beaches. There is jungle, desert, cenotes, caves, mountains reaching over 18,000 ft. and one of the seven modern wonders of the world. This is the perfect country for American #tourism.

GoHikeMexico has focused on trekking and hiking in Mexico, because it is often overlooked in the adventure travel industry. This is an opportunity to educate and share, not only amazing expeditions, but the warmth of the culture as well. GoHikeMexico’s vision is to put Mexico on the map as an adventure travel destination.

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Travel hacks . . .

A London-based start-up is the first website in the world to offer hotel switching, allowing travellers to split their stay across two hotels at a single destination in order to experience more of the cities they visit and save as much as 70% versus staying in a single hotel. The site currently has access to over 59,000 hotels across more than 180 countries.

The idea for Nightly.travel stemmed from co-founder Santiago Navarro’s personal experience with manual hotel switching, a travel hack used by many savvy travellers today to manually search multiple sites and book multiple hotels in one city destination. Santiago used this trick to experience five-star hotels for three-star prices, often amazing his peers.

Hotel switching, also referred to as a split stay, is already very popular with families booking Disney holidays in Florida, but Nightly.travel is now bringing this new way of booking hotels to all travellers, leading to great coverage from publications such as Cosmopolitan, the Sun, Life Hacker, The Points Guy, and Forbes.

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Riding the waves

KITESURF holiday booking platform kitesurfholidays.com enables kitesurfers to easily plan their next dream #holiday through matching up accommodation options in classic #kitesurfing destinations with kite schools, equipment rental and kitesurf guiding.

With kitesurfholidays.com (https://www.kitesurfholidays.com) accommodation providers are able to sign up to the platform in 20-25 minutes and can add photos as well as full details of room types, their facilities as well as details of local beaches, towns and bars.

If they provide lessons or equipment hire then they are also able to set these up as packages and become a one-stop-shop for booking a kitesurf holiday. If they only provide accommodation then they will automatically become linked with local kite schools to ensure that kitesurfers who book accommodation can then easily find lessons or equipment hire.

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147th Open at Carnoustie

AS anticipation grows for The 147th Open at #Carnoustie, a new website has been unveiled by Carnoustie Country as an online hub for the region’s 34 outstanding golf courses and accommodation providers. With preparations underway for the world’s oldest Major, Carnoustie Country has also unveiled a new legendary marketing campaign intended to underpin its reputation as a world-class #golfing destination boasting a golfing legacy stretching back over 450 years.

Providing insider knowledge about playing golf and staying in the east of #Scotland as well as detailing the very latest offers, the new Carnoustie Country website has been written and designed with the visiting golfer in mind. Featuring a chronological history of The Open at Carnoustie along with dedicated sections on links and inland courses – many of which were designed by legendary architects such as Old Tom Morris, Willie Park Jr and James Braid – the new website is brimming with information about golf in Angus, Perthshire and Fife.

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Website launched for rugby fans ahead of World Cup in 2019

JAPAN National Tourism Organization (JNTO) launched a brand new website to provide information to travellers for the #Rugby World Cup 2019 held across #Japan. The aim of the website is to highlight important details of the twelve host cities including access, local food and drink, places of interest and model itineraries. It is a great opportunity for rugby fans who are visiting each city for the games to explore the local area pre and post match. 

The site will also provide information on where each team is playing, the times and locations of each match plus general match venue details such as stadium access. JNTO will continue to add new information to expand the website as the official kick-off approaches , with the first game to be played in Tokyo between Japan and the winner of the Europe qualifiers on Friday, 20 September, 2019. 

Future additions include the most recent event news, details about fan zones and further sightseeing information. To learn more about the Rugby World Cup 2019’s Japanese host cities, please visit: visitjapan2019.com. The website is available in English, French and Italian. 

The Rugby World Cup 2019, Japan will be held from 20 September to 2 November, 2019, with the final match to be played at International Stadium Yokohama. 


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Accessibility guides for England and Scotland

VisitEngland and VisitScotland have launched a website for #tourism businesses to produce accessibility guides.  The guides are a new way for tourism operators to increase business by providing potential visitors with important #accessibility information in a user-friendly format.

As well as being easier for businesses to complete, the new guide format standardises how information is presented making it easier for disabled customers, their friends and family to compare venues.

VisitEngland research in 2015 showed that £12 billion was spent on trips where a member of the party had an impairment. Research by VisitScotland in the same year found £1.3 billion was spent on those trips, which includes day trips, domestic overnight trips and inbound trips.

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Picture Credit: WELS.net Wheelchair Access Sign via photopin

Language no barrier for Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines

GRAND Canyon Scenic Airlines (GCSA), the world’s largest and most experienced aerial tour operator, has launched three new language sites for www.scenic.com: Japanese, Mandarin and Korean. 

GCSA is the only aerial tour operator to offer multilingual options for tours from Las Vegas, #GrandCanyon National Park, Grand Canyon West and Page, #Arizona.

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Partner up in Panama

#PANAMA, having recently launched their new golf tourism program, announces the corresponding website Panama Golf Destination is now live and accepting golf travel bookings. Packages for all inclusive golf, accommodations and meals/beverages can be custom tailored upon request.

The following courses are included in the new destination for golf program; Mantarraya Golf Club, Buenaventura Golf Club, Coronado Golf Club and Vista Mar Golf Club (Beaches), Santa Maria, Tucan Golf and Country Club, Summit Golf Club and Club de Golf de Panama (City) and Lucero Country Club (Mountains).


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First impressions

AS Booking.com reveals in its latest research that 46% of travellers believe the first 24 hours of a vacation sets the tone for the rest of the trip.

While ‘traditional’ activities like unpacking bags (63%) and exploring accommodation (60%) top the priority agenda, travellers are increasingly tech orientated, or taking a selfie.

On arrival at a destination they take a picture for social media (27%) and going online to check restaurant reviews (26%) also ranked high.

These elements tend to happen before more traditional aspects; nearly half (47%) have their first vacation treat within the first hour, versus 54% who take pictures and 56% who check emails.

In response, and to celebrate the recent World Emoji Day, Booking.com is creating new emojis relevant to the first 24 hours of a vacation. Over 18,000 travellers were asked for their top five new emojis and Booking.com has brought these to life through illustrations as well as creating a light-hearted petition for Unicode to include them as part of their current list.

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Fish for Lodges

FISHING vacation website fishlodges.com has been updated with a new search experience, allowing users of the site to filter fishing lodges and resorts in the North American Northwest by a wide array of attributes.

"Our search tool has been the defining feature of the site since day one" states "Chief Navigator" Eric Embacher. "Our mission is to help anglers find their ideal fishing lodge vacation with far more efficiency than using Google, and the power of this tool is key to that."

The Search tool allows users to filter the entire set of lodges by 20 of the 124 types of information collected for every fishing lodge. Filters include location, price, fish species and type of fishing, guided or unguided trips, trip duration, lodge rating and number of reviews, and more. Once lodges are filtered they can be compared "apples-to-apples" and then individual lodges inspected in detail.

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Thomas Cook’s German website and travel agents awarded for quality and service

THOMAS Cook, one of the world’s leading leisure travel companies, has been awarded first prize in two separate surveys for the quality of its German travel agents and website.

In a survey of more than 350 websites by 20,000 customers, The German Institute for Service Quality and television news channel n-tv awarded Thomascook.de first prize for the ‘offer and performance’ of its website, and second place for ‘customer service’ and ‘recommendation’.

A second survey, by Germany’s leading consumer comparison and market research company, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Verbraucherstudien, awarded first prize to Thomas Cook’s retail travel agents for both ‘service’ and ‘advice’, and awarded second prize for the ‘ambience’ of its shops. The study was carried out by professional secret shoppers across 20 of Germany’s biggest travel agency chains.

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Tunnel: The Archeology of Crossrail

A new virtual version of the exhibition Tunnel: The Archaeology of Crossrail at the Museum of London Docklands gives people the chance to explore the huge array of artefacts unearthed by Crossrail during construction of the Elizabeth line. 

The construction of the Elizabeth line, London’s newest railway opening in 2018, has given archaeologists a once in a lifetime opportunity to explore some of the Capital’s most historically significant, but normally inaccessible, sites. Since work began in 2009, archaeologists have uncovered more than 10,000 artefacts spanning 55 million years of the city’s history.

The immersive website has been created using a series of 360-degree panoramic images from the exhibition.

The online exhibition takes visitors on a journey along the route of the new railway, with photographs and footage captured during archaeological excavations revealing the stories of Londoners ranging from Mesolithic tool makers and inhabitants of Roman Londinium to those affected by the Great Plague of 1665.

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Czech Republic in your pocket

THE Czech Republic’s official tourism website, CzechTourism.com, operated by CzechTourism, is now available in a version that has been tailored for mobile technology. 

This portal is one of the main resources that CzechTourism provides for tourists to learn more about the beauty of the Czech Republic and obtain basic information necessary for their holidays. With the expanded use of tablet computers and smartphones, the portal is recording ever-growing numbers of visits via mobile technologies.

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