News & Stories

London. Spa Finder, Inc., a large spa marketing and media company based in New York, is stepping up its international marketing strategy with the launches of Spa Finder Europe and Spa Finder Japan this month. The new Spa Finder ventures will offer regionally targeted spa consumer websites throughout Europe, beginning with the UK and Ireland, and in Japan.

Salzburg. After the trip is before the trip. Never before has this been shown so clearly as by the "Austrian Online Guest Survey 2005", conducted by the Salzburg centre for Future Studies. "Almost two thirds of those surveyed indicated that they informed themselves about their holiday destination on the internet: Up until now, this result has been exploited by as good as none of the tourist associations," Roman Egger says, head of the study at Salzburg's University of Applied Sciences.

Innsbruck. When a four-star hotel offers a vacant double room for an opening bid of 80 euros for two nights on eBay and lets the auction run for seven days it has almost won. The costs for this amount is up to 10.60 euros. Accordingly, the study author Matthias Fuchs bundles the first key results of a study about hotel auctions carried out in Tyrol in order to make concrete recommendations to hotels as: "It is important to us to make clear that this kind of research is not an end in itself.”

New York. Data released by the Travel Industry Association of America and Shifflet & Associates show that last year, for the first time, more trips were booked online than by any other method. One-quarter of travelers who booked accommodation reservations did so online in 2005, up 9 percent from the year before. Hotel chain websites were used most often to make internet reservations, followed by other online booking services, such as online travel agencies.

Dallas. Technology Provider Pegasus Solutions, Inc. announced that the stockholders of the company voted to adopt the merger agreement providing for the acquisition of Pegasus by an entity currently controlled by Prides Capital Partners, LLC.

Chicago. Internet reservations at the central reservation offices of major hotel brands still grow. This shows that hotels are gaining control of their distribution channels.

New York. Donald Trump, the world's best known real estate mogul, just started a new venture in the travel industry. His new web site GoTrump.com is an agency that promises bargains on airfares and hotels, and includes vacation tips from the Donald himself.

Frankfurt/M. Distinguished as the authoritative voice on electronic distribution for the hotel industry, HEDNA, the Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association will bring together a worldwide audience to explore today's most compelling distribution issues at the 2006 HEDNA Conference in May in Frankfurt, Germany.

London. Even on the web, globalisation is reaching its limits: In the future, the creators of hotels.com will explicitly address the demands of each country. Every four weeks another new national website will be released. This means that German customers will be able to find a German website where offers are customised to their travel behaviour. Furthermore, there is a new head of marketing for the German-speaking countries.

Atlanta. InterContinental Hotels Group implements a virtual concierge service, "eHost," for its Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts brand. "eHost " goes live this week in 14 U.S. Holiday Inn properties as part of the system's beta release.