Archive for March, 2008
Commercial blogging becomes illegal
Mar 31st
As holidaymakers around the world continue to show growing dislike to online hotel reviews made by the hotel itself, the European Union makes it illegal.
From April 6 EU‚s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive comes effective. It makes it illegal for companies to write blogs or reviews about themselves, or to pay anyone to do so.
This practice is known as commercial blogging, or flogging.
The new EU law covers misleading practices and aggressive practices. The unfairness of the practice is evaluated based on whether or not it has affected the consumer‚s decision to purchase.
Dubai to host tourism summit
Mar 31st
Dubai will be hosting the Global Travel and Tourism Summit April 20-22. The summit will see industry experts and government representatives come together to discuss important issues in tourism.
Tourism and travel employ 231 million people around the world, 10% of the global GDP comes from tourism. A major issue in tourism today is sustainable development, which will be one of the topics at the summit.
The Dubai department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Jumeirah group, Emirates, Nakheel and the World Travel and Tourism Council are hosting the summit in Dubai.
Fingerprinting plans put on hold for Terminal 5
Mar 27th
BAA‚s plans to fingerprint all passengers travelling through Heathrow‚s new Terminal 5 have been put on hold after concerns were raised about the legality of the security measurement.
UK‚s data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner, is investigating the plan after a complaint by a privacy campaign group.
As arriving and departing passengers from both domestic and international flights are mixed on arrival to Terminal 5, the BAA decided to take fingerprints of all passengers on check-in desks and at the departure gates to ensure those checked in are boarding the plane.
But there are concerns that taking fingerprints is an invasion of privacy.
A BAA spokesman said: “We will be working closely with the Information Commissioner and the Home Office over the next few weeks to agree the best approach going forward.