This year's World Youth and Student Travel Conference (WYSTC), held in Barcelona September 20-23, played host to the inaugural Global Youth Travel Awards.
The awards formally recognize outstanding performers in several fields of youth travel and reward those members who contribute so much to the industry and community.
Continue reading "Announcing the 2011 Global Youth Travel Award winners" »
Global business travel hotel bookings grew by 10.2 percent over prior year in August, up from July’s 5.8 percent increase, Pegasus Solutions reports.
Bookings for both the business and leisure markets showed continued resilience despite the US and European economic debt and credit crises that overshadowed the month.
Certain regional leisure markets did experience sensitivity to local economic pressures, however the overarching trend was solid growth, according to Mike Kistner, chief executive of Pegasus Solutions.
“While the hotel industry is strongly influenced by the economy, leisure and business travellers don’t take their marching orders from it,” said Kistner.
Continue reading "Hotel bookings defy economic gloom" »
The Government is coming under increasing pressure to slash air passenger duty for the whole of the UK after chancellor George Osborne reduced the tax on long-haul flights from Northern Ireland.
ABTA hailed the reduction as a "welcome first step" and a "clear indication that the Government is listening to the industry's concerns over the damaging effects of APD."
Continue reading "Tax slash brings hope for UK air passengers" »

BOSTON – The owner of a small Central Massachusetts airport has sued the U.S. Secret Service for $676,000 for damage he says was caused by President Barack H. Obama’s security detail during a visit last year.
Robert Stetson, owner of the private Marlborough Airport, filed suit Tuesday in federal court in Worcester.
Stetson says in his suit that Secret Service vehicles caused severe damage to the runway and grass apron of the airport when the presidential helicopter landed there in April 2010.
Obama was in Massachusetts to inspect severe flooding in the area.
Continue reading "Marlborough Airport sues Secret Service for $676,000 claiming damage caused by President Obama's security detail " »
Health officials said Tuesday that 16 people, including one in Missouri, have died from possible listeria illnesses traced to Colorado cantaloupes, the deadliest food outbreak in more than a decade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that 72 illnesses are linked to the fruit, including fresh cases in Missouri.
Continue reading "Listeria deaths rise to 16 in the US - deadliest food outbreak in more than a decade" »