According to a recent market research report, the number of tourists visiting Thailand is expected to reach 20.03 million by 2011.

In the first quarter of this year, the number of foreign tourists taking holidays in Thailand also increased 5.4 percent to reach 3.82 million.

In the first three months of 2007, Thailand’s tourism receipts increased 9.6 percent year-on-year to reach 142b baht.

Visitors from Australia and New Zealand have increased in the last few months. The number of Australians going to Thailand has increased 18.1 percent to reach 136,877 and the number of New Zealand visitors rose 7.9 percent to reach 23,648.

As a result of government efforts, Thailand’s tourism industry has enjoyed continuous growth in revenues. In fact, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) estimates that tourism revenues will reach 547.5b baht in 2007, up from 486.3b baht in 2005.

In order to boost growth, TAT will also be promoting Thailand in new markets such as South America and the Middle East this year.

Source: E-Travel Blackboard

The Thomas Cook Group has announced that it will be cutting 2,000 across the company and all members of staff will be taking part in redudancy consultations lasting 15 months from this summer.

The former MyTravel headoffice in Rochdale will close, accounting for 900 jobs along with a nearby customer support division.

Many details of the job losses are remaining confidential for the time being as a series of union meetings and 90-day staff comsultations are set to take place.

The group plans to close 150 high-stree retail outlets, which will affect up to 900 retail staff.

UK and Ireland chief executive John Bloodworth said: “We will offer re-employment to all our sales people, although it may not be in the same town or city.”

The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association has described the cuts as “draconian”.

Navman, a satellite navigation systems supplier has compiled a list of the most downloaded destination by UK customers, which they say are the top holiday destinations for British travellers.

Mediterranean holiday hot spots, as well as the Canary Islands, dominate the list, along with a number European cities.

The vast majority of places on the list are in Europe, but Jamaica and the Dominican Republic both make an appearance.

Majorca, currently one of the most popular family holiday destinations, tops the list and Paris is the most downloaded European city.

Navman has pictures and description of their top holiday destination ready to download

The full list is;-

1. Majorca
2. Ibiza
3. Cape Verde
4. Tenerife
5. Gran Canaria
6. Costa del Sol
7. Minorca / Menorca
8. Corfu
9. Paris
10. Cyprus
11. Algarve
12. Amsterdam
13. Tuscany
14. Bulgaria
15. Egypt
16. Jamaica
17. Dubrovnik
18. Mexico
19. Salzburg
20. Dominican Republic

Now is a great time to pick up last minute holiday bargains

A slower than usual start to the holiday booking season, widespread assumptions about a heatwave in Britain and huge competition among travel agents and hotels has led to bargain holidays that are cheaper than ever.

Many holiday companies are reported to be selling last minute holidays at reduced prices.

Holidays in Spain offer the biggest bargains, the average price of a trip to the Costa Blanca is now just £240 for a family of four, nearly 14 per cent less than last year.

Overall, the cost of holidays in the most popular destinations is five per cent lower than it was a month ago. This represents a saving of £56 for two adults and two children.

However, holiday firms have reported an upsurge in bookings in the last fortnight as wet weather covers much of Britain.

Source: This is London

Dublin is one of the world’s top 20 cities in terms of hotel performance, according to the latest Deloitte’s HotelBenchmark TM Global Ranking Index.

Dublin is in 16th place in the index which assessed hotel performance on a global scale and compared 165 cities around the world.

European hotels in general are the best performers with 12 cities in the top 20. Venice is in the number one spot, followed by Paris.

Edinburgh re-entered the top 20 and Rome, London, Moscow and Geneva also appeared.

Ireland recently hosted the Ryder Cup, which contributed €128 million to the Irish economy.

Mary Gara, Director, Consumer Business, Deloitte, said: “It is not surprising to see Dublin re-enter the top 20 in 2006. Dublin has experienced significant growth in both business and leisure travellers in the past year – and based on current trends these numbers will continue to grow during 2007 and beyond.”

“In fact, recent estimates show that business tourism could be worth €1 billion to the Irish economy over the next six years.”

Dublin is a popular citybreak holiday destination, especially due to the many regular cheap flights to Dublin from all around the UK.

Further expansion of services from Leeds Bradford Airport has been announced with the announcement of new all year flights from Leeds to Geneva.

Jet2.com currently offers flights to Geneva during the winter ski season and due to the popularity of this route, is now offering flights during spring, autumn and summer.

Geneva is one of the most important routes to the popular Alpine ski resorts of France and Switzerland, but the city is also an important commercial centre and the starting point for many holidays in Switzerland, as well as being a popular short break holiday destination.

A total of 10,000 seat a week will now be available on flights to ski holiday resorts from Leeds, a rise of nearly 30 per cent. This included the 11 flights a week to Geneva.

Jet2.com boss Philip Meeson, said: “We are committed to continue to offer diversity and choice at low cost prices from Leeds Bradford – Geneva is a perfect example of this. Ski lovers will be delighted with our increase in services whilst a year round service will prove a huge plus for leisure travellers, not to mention the business community.

“The lakes and mountains are a great draw for tourists and of course Geneva is a huge centre for commerce, especially finance, and we expect business links between Leeds and Geneva to flourish as a result.”

Source: Easier

A charity is targeting 10,000 hotels in Spain, Turkey and Greece in a compaign to make them more sustainable.

The Travel Foundation will offer advice to owners of holiday properties in Mediterranean countries about how to adopt more sustainable practices by saving energy, sourcing local supplies and managing waste properly.

Posters with tips for hotel staff will be displayed in key areas, such as kitchen along with notices for customers in public areas.

Travel Foundation chief executive Sue Hurdle said: “The idea of 10,000 hotels saving up to 25% of their water and energy use is a big deal.

“We’re keen to demonstrate that small changes by tourism businesses can make a really big difference to their bottom line - and locally to destinations. With the growing interest in ‘green’ issues in the UK as well, businesses can use sustainability to appeal to customers – and in fact risk getting left behind if they don’t.”

Don’t believe the hype, but do your research and you’ll be able to take advantage of great deals on mainland Spain and Turkey holidays for summer 2007. That’s the message from www.holidays-direct.co.uk.

Recent publicity about £5 bargain holidays this summer has misled many holiday shoppers, says online holiday booking agent www.holidays-direct.co.uk, but the truth is there are lots of cheap holidays available in popular holiday destinations.

Although recent news stories have been widely exaggerated, there are significant bargains to be found this year. It is particularly easy to book cheap holidays in Turkey and find mainland Spain holiday bargains this summer.

Recent stories about summer holidays being on sale for as little as £5 have caused a flurry of publicity in both mainstream news circles and tourist industry media. Naturally, such extreme bargain holidays are very rare and the truth behind the headlines is that room rates have been lowered in some of the most popular summer holiday destinations – leading to very customer-friendly price reductions for summer 2007.

Paul Reeve of Holidays-Direct said: “The £5 summer holiday bargain is somewhat like the gold at the end of the rainbow, only slightly more believable. It’s a shame there has been so much attention focused on this as it is very true that there have been significant reductions in many resorts in Turkey and Spain. There is a wide range of really good deals to choose from and many resorts are cheaper to stay in than they were last summer.

For example: 7 nights in Turkey this July costs as little as £169 per person. 7 nights in Spain starts at just £199 per person *

New cheap flights to Israel will start this November, following the open skies agreement from the Israeli government who are keen to promote the country as a winter sun destination to rival the Red Sea holiday resorts.

Thomsonfly has announced that it will operate three flights a week from Luton and Manchester to Tel Aviv.

Also, El Al is using a Boeing 747-400 on five of its twelve flights from the UK to Tel Aviv, which increases capacity to an extra 1,000 seats a week.

The Israeli government has been lobbying European low-cost carriers to add routes to the country during the winter holiday season.

Sharm el-Sheikh other resorts on the Red Sea in Egypt are currently the most popular winter sun holiday destinations, followed by the Canary Islands. It is the Red Sea resorts that will be in the most direct competition with Israel.

As well as having reliably hot weather throughout the winter, the Red Sea resorts are renowned for their high quality resort hotels and superb diving opportunities.

We think of holidays as the perfect way to forget about the stresses and strains of day-to-day life, but more than half of employees find it difficult to switch off their work worries when they are on holiday.

A survey by Office Angels, a UK based recruitment agency, revealed that a very high number of people worry about their workload when they should be concentrating on building up their suntan or planning the next stop on their tourist itinerary.

Most of the people surveyed said they only fully enjoyed three days of their holidays as they are thinking about work too much on the other days.

Three quarters keep their mobiles switched on so work can contact them and an astonishing one in seven said they were glad to return to work at the end of their holidays.

Ten per cent of those surveyed only took holidays once a year.

David Clubb, managing director of Office Angels, said “To make the most of your break, think of it as a meeting - the better prepared you are, the better the outcome.”

He continued: “Put aside plenty of time before your last day in the office to brief colleagues on any outstanding work or potential problems they will need to know about while you are away and you will be much more likely to enjoy a relaxing time.”

Find and book your ideal relaxing holiday with the minimum of stress, whether it’s a beach holiday, cruise trip, exploring European cities or skiing with Holidays-Direct

A record number of Blue Flags, awarded in recognition of safety and quality, have been awarded to beaches in Cyprus.

A total of 52 beaches in Cyprus have now been awarded with Blue Flags as three more beaches have recently been added.

The three new beaches given Blue Flag status are CTO Beach in Larnaka, Dhassoudhi Beach in Limassol Town, and Governor’s Beach, off the Larnaka to Limassol Road

Blue Flags are only awarded for one season at a time, subject to stringent checks to European Union Standards. Cyprus has enjoyed an increase in the number of Blue Flags being awarded each year since the scheme began.

As well as the 52 Blue Flag beaches in Cyprus all the other beaches in Cyprus (100 in total) were found to be of acceptable quality
Monitored frequently over the whole summer period, all beaches were found to be of acceptable quality and 49 of them were awarded with a Blue Flag.

The owners of the QE2 have announced that the cruise liner will be turned into a luxury hotel in Dubai.

Following a refurbishment the ship will be berthed at the luxury man-made Palm Jumeirah island in Dubai.

The QE2 was previously part of the Cunard fleet and is now owned by Dubai World. Sultan Ahmed bin Sulaymen, chairman of Dubai World said: “Dubai is a maritime nation and we understand the rich heritage of QE2. She is coming to a home where she will be cherished.”

Carol Marlow, Cunard president and managing director said: “We are delighted that when her legendary career as an ocean liner ends there will continue to be a permanent home for her that will enable future generations to continue to experience fully both the ship and her history.”

The refurbishment programme will aim to recreate the QE2’s original interior design and a new QE2 museum will be opened at the Palm Jumeirah.

The QE2 was launched by The Queen in September 1967 and has made 25 world cruises, 800 trips across the Atlantic and has carried over 2.5 million passengers.

The Marrriott Hotel group has teamed up with Ian Schrager, the founder of the infamous Studio 54 nightclub to launch a new worldwide boutique hotel brand.

The new hotels promise to deliver a “one of a kind feel” to business travellers and will be rolled out across Europe, the US and Asia.

Planned locations include New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, Boston, and Las Vegas in the U.S.; London, Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Madrid, Barcelona, Milan and Rome in Europe; and Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Bangkok, Seoul and Tokyo in Asia.

Ian Schrager is credited as being the inventor of the boutique hotel concept with his late business partner Steve Rubell. He will be responsible for the concept, design, marketing, branding and food and beverage.

Marriott will oversee the building development process as well as operating and managing the hotels.

One hundred hotels will be developed within the new brand, the first five will be underway in the next year, the remaining 95 to be rolled out over 10 years.

Each hotel will have at least 150 rooms.

Budget airline Easyjet has announced new flights to Vienna from Luton and other airports around the UK.

From winter 2007 there will be new regular flights to Austria and Romania.

The daily service will be the first by the airline. All flights to Vienna from the UK are currently being run by Austrian Airlines, which operates five flights a day.

Winter tickets from the airline’s other bases, including Stansted, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle, will go on sale over the next few weeks.

Visitors can step back in history on a Vienna city break. The imposing Austrian capital has been home to many of the world’s most famous musicians including Mozart, Strauss and Brahms and beautiful music is still played there today by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Today on a Vienna city breaks, visitors can expect opulence and luxury to surround them, with the best in music and cuisine being available.