TRAVEL AWARDS THE 2017 WINNERS RYANAIR THIRTYYEARS THIRTYEURO QATAR MAKING PLANS FOR DOHA Turkish Airlines: Business win
Free
Irish airports record year
Ryanair leads Europe
R U YO DE A R R T PE PA
Win Peaks
MARCH 2017
VOLUME 22 NUMBER 3
Irish travel trade salutes its champions
page 039 12/05/2016 12:10 Page 1
UL Arena, Limerick SATURDAY 18th & SUNDAY 19th FEBRUARY 2017 EXHIBITOR PROFILE • Adventure Travel
• Hotels
• Airlines
• National and Regional Tourist Organisations
• Airports • Caravans & Motorhomes
• Overseas Property
• International Camping Sites
• Weddings & Honeymoons
• Car Rental Companies
• Over 55’s Holidays
• Coach Tours
• Rail Holidays
• Cruise Companies
• Theme & Leisure Parks
• Ferries
• Travel Agents / Tour Operators
• Golf • Escorted Tours
• Travel Related Services
• Health Tourism
• Tourist Attractions
• Home Holidays
• Travel Accessories
BOOK YOUR STAND NOW! VENUE
2017 DATE AND TIMES
ORGANISERS
CONTACTS
UL Arena University of Limerick Limerick Ireland t: +353 (0)61 213 582 www.ulsport.ie
Saturday February 18th 12.00pm - 5.30pm
Business Exhibitions Limited 59 Rathfarnham Road Dublin, D6W AK70 Ireland t: +353 (0)1 295 7418 f: +353 (0)1 295 7417
Maureen Ledwith - Sales Director t: +353 (0)1 291 3700 f: +353 (0)1 295 7417 e: maureen@bizex.ie
Sunday February 19th 12.00pm - 5.30pm
www.holidayshow.ie
Paulette Moran - Sales Manager t: +353 (0)1 291 3702 f: +353 (0)1 295 7417 e: paulette@bizex.ie
MARCH 2017 PAGE 3
NEWS
www.travelextra.ie
A world of appeal
T
he Holiday World Show Dublin, which took place this weekend, saw almost 35,000 people make their way to the RDS Simmonscourt for personalised expert travel advice, show-only deals and tips for the bargains of 2017. The increase on numbers from last year indicates the popularity of this award-winning show still holds strong and the continued appetite for budget-conscious holiday options. Edmund Hourican, of Business Exhibitions organiser of Holiday World Show Dublin said “Our 2017 show has been more successful than ever before with visitor numbers up 11pc on last year. Exhibitors have seen increases in business as people feel more confident when it comes to booking holidays for the year ahead. The increased attendance figure reflects the new buoyancy the travel trade and the range of new offerings and routes available to Irish consumers.”
DOHA
The big marquee new destination for 2017, there is a visa free stopover available from Qatar airways.
HARTFORD
Daily from Aer Lingus since September a route
Guanajuato’s State Ministry of Tourism (Mexico), Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group (Belgium), Govardhan Ecovillage (India) and Dutch Travel Trade Association (Netherlands) were the winners of 13th UNWTO awards at Fitur in Madrid. UNWTO reported that International tourist arrivals grew by 3.9pc to reach a total of 1,235m. King Felipe VI of Spain presided over the event celebrating the launch of the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development in the El Pardo Palace in Madrid.
CHINA Visitors to China will have their fingerprints collected starting this week, China’s Ministry of Public Security announced Thursday. HAVEN
Holidays plans a £3m efurbishment of the indoor swimming pool complex at their popular all-action park of Hafan Y Mor in North Wales
VIENNAhad 28,439 Irish visits last year up 8.4pc, bed nights are up 9.8pc to 65,108.
Minister Shane Ross at the opening of Holiday World 2017 Exhibitors reported increased holiday bookings, which was echoed in the Irish Travel Agents Association’s recent quarterly survey results that revealed that 95pc of Irish travel agents saw an increase in their turnover in 2016 compared with 2015. In an exhibitors’ poll taken this afternoon at
the Holiday World Show, 90pc of the exhibitors revealed that they plan to exhibit again next year. The Visit USA Pavilion proved very popular among visitors, with the 49 participating exhibitors showcasing a range of American breaks.
THE EMERGING DESTINATIONS
AMSTERDAM Once served by just one airline from Dublin, now Ryanair and KLM are competing with Aer Lingus, expect prices to plummet.
UNWTO
that opens up New England.
ICELAND New fl ights from Cork and Belfast, Iceland tourism has trebled in recent years and it is easy to see why. KRABI Used to be two-stop, now one stop through Doha from July, previously most people had to get an internal fl ight from Bangkok. MIAMI Aer Lingus’s marquee
route from the autumn opening up west Florida and cruise opportunities.
MUNICH
Four airlines competing with the arrival of Ryanair and Transavia on a route dominated by Aer Lingus and Lufthansa, watch for onward connections.
SPLIT New Aer Lingus service to Croatia, Dubrovnik also gets new fl ights from Belfast and Zadar is already served.
THAT MOMENT WHEN THEY BURST WITH JOY At our Family Life resorts
*On selected dates. Offer is subject to availability, terms and conditions apply. Thomson is fully bonded and licensed by CAR (TO 021)
NEVADA Casinos in Nevada won $11.3bn from gamblers in 2016, still short of the pre-recession record set in 2007, THAILAND has changed its 30-day visa exemption rule, tourists can only re-enter the country via a land border twice in a calendar year to prevent long stay visitors from visiting neighbouring countries and qualifying for another visa-exemption period. MICHAEL PALIN won the Edward Stanford travel writing award. PASSPORTS Foreign minister Charlie Flanagan introduced an enhanced online application tracking service for Irish passports, allowing applicants to a track progress of their application with a progress bar animation and a web-chat social media service. AUSTRALIA
is to use facial recognition rather than passports to process arrivals by March 2019.
MAMMOTH
received a record-breaking 20.5 feet of snow in January and will stay open until July 4:
LIMITE D CHILD FREE PL ACES AVAIL A BL E *
MARCH 2017 PAGE 4
THE KNOWLEDGE Travel Extra Advertising & Subscriptions 59 Rathfarnham Road Terenure Dublin D6WAK70 t+3531 2957418 Editorial Office Clownings Straffan Co Kildare W23 C6X9 Managing Editor: Gerry O’Hare gerry@travelextra.ie Editor: Eoghan Corry eoghan.corry@ travelextra.ie Publisher: Edmund Hourican edmund@bizex.ie Sales Director: Maureen Ledwith maureen@bizex.ie
t: +3531 291 3700 Sales Manager Paulette Moran paulette@bizex.ie t: +353 (0)1 291 3702 Accounts and Advertising: Maria Sinnot maria@bizex.ie T: +3531 291 3707 Distribution Manager Shane Hourican shane@bizex.ie t: +3531 291 3706 Pictures: pix@travelextra.ie Sunday Supplement & Online: Mark Evans markevanspro@gmail.com Chief Features Writer: Anne Cadwallader MICE editor Clinger Corry Contributors : Marie Carberry marie@travelextra.ie Siobhan Coakley Carmel Higgins carmel@travelextra.ie Cauvery Madhavan Sean Mannion Conor McMahon conor@travelextra.ie Catherine Murphy cathmurph@yahoo.com Cathy Wilson
Travel Extra takes no responsibility for errors and omissions. Origination: Typeform
Printer: W&G Baird Limited Greystone Press Caulside Drive Antrim BT41 2RS
CONTENTS
3 News Holiday world 6 Hotels: News
www.travelextra.ie 10 ITIA Awards: This year’s winners 26 Afloat: A quantum leap 28-33 Flying: Airline and airport news 34 Global Village Inside the travel industry
35 Writer awards: Yvonne Gordon win 36 Window seat: Our columnists 37 Pictures: Out and about
Travel Insurance guide
M
any people have a fixation on price as the determining factor when choosing travel insurance. But there is a substantial difference between policies in terms of coverage, the level of excesses and what cover is available only as an optional extra.
BUSINESS
travel is not covered by 25pc of annual policies and is an optional extra for 28pc of them. Cover is standard with 47pc of annual policies.
SEPARATION
A third of annual policies won’t provide cover for your children (or stepchildren) if they don’t live with you.
CHILDREN
travelling independently are not covered by half of all annual policies and other insurers are likely to regard children as travelling independently even if one parent puts them on a plane and the other collects them when they get off. They insist that children are accompanied by a responsible adult for the whole journey.
WINTER sports
bills for medical treatment abroad can be huge, despite this, a fifth of skiers don’t bother with insurance at all, while only a third of those who do buy a policy check that it covers them for winter sports. Just 30pc of annual travel policies include winter sports cover as standard, while 63pc offer it as an optional
You never know when and where: River ambulance in Venice extra and 7pc don’t include it at all. Check the terms carefully. Some exclude off-piste skiing altogether, others insist that you have a guide, for example. Many policies restrict the amount of skiing you can do within the year.
AIRLINE fail-
ure is covered by just 34pc of annual policies provide this cover as standard, while it is an optional extra for 4pc of annual policies; 62pc don’t provide cover at all. However, the elaborate bonding scheme does not cover most ticketonly air fares you buy direct from an airline.
at all, but others charge as much as u500 of a claim before you receive a penny from your insurance. With medical expenses the average excess is u85, with a range of zero to u600. For cancellation, the average excess is u80, with individual insurers charging anything from nothing to u300. For loss of deposit is the average is u40 and maximum u300; the equivalent figures are u80 (maximum u250) for lost baggage, u10 (maximum u120) for delayed baggage and u80 (maximum u420) for legal expenses.
Three quarters EXCESS limits on AGE of annual policies have your insurance can vary widely according from one insurer to another. Some charge no excess
a maximum age of 75 years or less, and 27pc have a maximum age of 65 or less. It is essential
that any pre-existing medical conditions are declared to the relevant provider as failing to do so could invalidate the policy.” Cover might already be there from your bank as part of your current account. Although “packaged accounts” are much maligned, they can offer the elderly a cheap way to get travel cover. Even where insurers did not have maximum age limits, premiums are often so high as to be unaffordable. One policy has a maximum age of just 34.
LENGTH of holiday is important. Some policies allow you to be overseas for a maximum of 17 consecutive days, 45pc of annual policies limited trip coverage to 31 days abroad while others will cover you
even if you are abroad every day of the year.
BREAKING the journey could invalidate your insurance, if you have a backpacker policy but need to come home for a few days, some insurers won’t cover you when you resume your travels. Coverage will automatically cease for 57pc of backpacker policies, regardless of whether or not you intend to resume their travels abroad. PETS If your return
from holiday is delayed, will your travel insurance cover the cost of an extended stay in kennels for your pets? Fortysix per cent of policies provide such cover, with limits typically varying from u50 to u750.
Route Dublin to St. John's St. John's to Dublin
Frequency Daily Daily
Departure 8:37 A.M. 11:15 P.M.
Arrival 10:00 A.M. 7:17 A.M. +1
Date May 1, 2017 - October 28, 2017 May 1, 2017 - October 27, 2017
MARCH 2017PAGE 6
HOTELS
www.travelextra.ie
DALATA has appointed Sandra Doyle as General Manager at Clayton Hotel Burlington Road, formerly the Burlington Hotel and then the DoubleTree by Hilton. A graduate of the Shannon College of Hotel Management, Doyle has also managed the Morrison Hotel and the Clyde Court Hotel, Lansdowne Road. DUNBRODY House, the four star country house hotel operated by celebrity TV chef Kevin Dundon and his wife, Catherine, reported record profits of €180,000 in 2015 up from€160,660 in 2014 employing 50 people in peak season. ST JOHN GOGARTY The
group that operates the Oliver St John Gogarty pub in Dublin’s Temple Bar reported profits of €4.9m in 2016 up 57pc.
B&B Ireland reported bookings were
up 15pc in 2016, revenue rose 19pc to €9,002,646, foreign visitors account for 90pc of bookings and demand exceeded supply in Galway, Kerry, Cork, Dublin, Clare, Donegal, Antrim and Kilkenny,
Serial hotel award winner Harvey’s Point in Donegal
Dingle darlings
IBEROSTAR Hotels & Resorts
continues on the expansion trail, and is to open another hotel, the IBEROSTAR Club Palmeraie Marrakech, in Morocco in April. The group also reported a 10pc rise in turnover to €2.03bn in 2016.
DALATA are rebranding Clayton Hotel
Burlington Road (formerly Double Tree Hilton Burlington Road); Clayton Hotel Limerick (formerly Clarion Hotel Limerick); Clayton Hotel Cork City (formerly Clarion Hotel Cork City); and the Clayton Hotel Sligo (formerly Clarion Hotel Sligo).
AIRBNB
claimed it generated 403,500 inbound guests to Dublin spending €221m was €4,900.
CASTLETROY Pat McDonagh,
owner of Limerick’s Castletroy Park Hotel is to invest €9m and add 30 bedrooms.
DOONBEG Donald Trump’s Doonbeg hotel won best overall resort at the Golfers Guide to Ireland Awards in Carton House. Martin Mangan of Dublin’s Conrad Hotel accepted the award for Best Golf Hotel. STARWOOD will open Ireland’s
first Aloft hotel spring 201opened Ireland’s 8 at Blackpitts in Dublin’s Liberties and will be operated by Dublin-based Pembroke Hospitality, with 202 loft-like guest rooms and the brand’s signature WXYZ bar and Remix lounge on the top floor of the eight-floor hotel.
DUBLIN
Corporation granted planning for Eamon Waters’ new seven-storey, 124-bedroom hotel beside the Radisson Blu on Golden Lane, which was last month granted planning for 103 more rooms, bringing the total to 255.
SMITHFIELD Planning permission was granted for a 175-bedroom, five to seven-storey hotel in Dublin’s Smithfield at 6-11 Hendrick Street TULLYGLASS House Hotel in Antrim is planning a £5m refurbishment.
Heaton’s Castlewood House named best little hotel
T
ripadvisor readers’ choice lists for 2017 feature some perennial favourites and some rapidly rising newcomers. In January Harvey’s Point near Donegal town was named tenth in Europe and Ireland’s best hotel for the fifth successive year and tenth in Europe. In another boost for the north west, the Bishop’s Gate hotel in nearby Derry was named 14th in Europe and named number two in the British rankings. Harvey’s Point Hotel tenth in Europe ranking, chosen by TripAdvisor readers, was up three places from its 13th place in 2016. Harvey’s Point was placed ahead of Ashford Castle, The Merrion Hotel Dublin, Killarney Park Hotel and Hayfield Manor Cork. Harvey’s Point was also ranked ‘No 1 Hotel in Ireland’ for service and came second in Ireland for ‘Romance’. TripAdvisor’s Top 25 Irish hotels; 1 Harvey’s Point, Donegal; 2 Ashford Castle, Cong; 3 Merrion Hotel Dublin; 4 Killarney Park (also named Ireland’s best luxury hotel); 5 Hayfield Manor, Cork; 6 Castle Durrow; 7 The Brehon Killarney; 8 Dunloe
Beaufort, Co Kerry; 9 River Lee Cork, 10 Villa Rose Ballybofey; 11 Lake Hotel Killarney; 12 Dromoland Castle, Newmarket on Fergus; 13 Marker, Dublin; International, Killarney; 14 Shandon Hotel Portnablagh; 15 Ariel House, Dublin; 17 Rathmullan House; 18 Adare Manor; 19 Europe, Fossa, Killarney; 20 Castle Leslie; 21 Harbour Inn, Buncrana; 22 Ballygarry Hotel, Tralee; 23 Killarney Royal; 24 Clontarf Castle; 25 Lodge at Ashford Castle. TripAdvisor’s Top 10 Small Irish hotels: 1 Castlewood House, Dingle (also named 13th in Europe in the small hotel category, Ireland’s best bargain hotel and tenth in Europe in the bargain hotel category, and ahead of Harvey’s Point as Ireland’s best hotel for romance), 2 Bellingham Castle, Co Louth (named 24th in Europe), 3 Lough Lein Country House, Fossa, Co Kerry, 4 Heaton’s Guesthouse, Dingle, 5 Ballyfin Demesne, Co Laois, 6 Talbot Hotel, Belmullet, 7 Fernhill House Hotel, Clonakilty, 8 Roundwood House, Mountrath, 9 MacNean House & Restaurant, Blacklion, Co Cavan 10 Currarevagh House, Oughterard, Co Galway.
Caiseal Oirr hotel in Angry was named 24th in Europe in the bargain hotel category. Pax Guest House in Dingle was named Ireland’s best B&B and 15th in Europe. Creevagh Heights in Carrowmore-Lacken was named 20th in Europe in the B&B category. The Pillo Hotel in Ashbourne was named Ireland best family hotel ahead of Fitzgerald’s in Adare and Kelly’s of Rosslare. London was voted number one destination, with Dublin ranking 22nd in the European category. The best beaches category was dominated by Kerry., 1 Inchydoney, Co Cork, 2Derrynane Beach, Caherdaniel, Co Kerry, 3 Inch Beach, Co Kerry, 4 Lahinch Beach, Co Clare, 5 Rossbeigh Beach, Glenbeigh, Co Kerry Dublin had two of the top five attractions: 1 Kilmainham Gaol, 2 Blarney Castle, 3 Trinity College, 4 Muckross House, 5 Kilkenny Castle Harvey’s Point hotelier Deirdre McGlone said: “This award belongs to our dedicated team, each of whom play their part in the Harvey’s Point success story. Our thanks to our many guests who wrote so favourably”
66 HOTELS WERE SOLD IN 2016
C
BRE predicted a slowdown in hotel sales in 2017 following two record years. They including 66 hotel sales worth €805m in 2016, while some Dublin
hoteliers may decide to capitalise on the demand for hotels in the capital and bring hotels to the market in advance of an increase in new supply coming on stream from 2017 onwards
According to CBRE, ‘some slowdown in transactional activity is expected in the hotel sector in 2017 following two record years.. The report says that an
increase in forward-funding transactions is expected in the hotel sector this year. Meanwhile, some 30 Dublin pubs were sold in 2016, totalling more than €43m among them.
RDS Hall 3, Ballsbridge
Presented by
WEDNESDAY 22nd MARCH 2017 EXHIBITOR PROFILE
VISITOR PROFILE
• Airlines
• International Hotels/Resorts
• Airports
• Insurance
• Attraction Tickets
• Media
• Bed Banks
• National/Regional Tourist Organisations
• Car Rental • Cruise Companies • Ferries • Financial Services including Credit Cards
• Technology and Communications Companies • Theme & Leisure Parks • Ticketing Agents
Travel Agent Proprietors, Managers and Frontline Travel Professionals.
PROMOTION OF THE SHOW A comprehensive promotional programme will ensure a high turnout of travel agent proprietors, managers and frontline travel professionals.
FREE EXHIBITOR & VISITOR CAR PARKING
• Trade Associations
• Golf Resorts and Related Services
• Travel Agents
• Ground Handling
• Tour Operators
• Health Resorts & Spas
VENUE
BOOK YOUR STAND NOW!
RDS Hall 3 Anglesea Road Ballsbridge Dublin DO4 AK83 Ireland t. +353 (0)1 668 0866 w. www.rds.ie
2017 DATE AND TIME
ORGANISERS
CONTACTS
Wednesday 22nd March 2017 2.00pm – 7.00pm
The Irish Travel Industry Trade Show is organised on behalf of The Irish Travel Agents Association by Business Exhibitions Limited 59 Rathfarnham Road Terenure Dublin D6W AK70
Maureen Ledwith - Sales Director t: +353 (0)1 291 3700 e: maureen@bizex.ie Paulette Moran - Sales Manager t: +353 (0)1 291 3702 e: paulette@bizex.ie
To pre-register for fast track entry and to find out more about the event log on to:
www.irishtravelindustrytradeshow.com
110601 TE_TRADE SHOW 2017_V2.indd 1
2/8/17 2:06 PM
MARCH 2017 PAGE 10
ITIA AWARDS 2017
All the award winners pose for their annual photograph,
T
he lubrication began, as with so many great nights in the city of Dublin, in Sam’s Bar where Sharon Jordan and The Travel Corporation team kept the thirsty travel professionals of Ireland whetted before the awards ceremony started. Michael Doorley and his team at Shandon Travel and Marie Grenham’s Grenham Travel in Athlone were popular winners of the Travel Agency of the year while the individual awards went to Sandra Mooney for leisure travel professional of the year and Niamh Gleeson the corporate travel professional award. The coveted long haul
And the winners are: Industry celebrates the pursuit of excellence in Irish travel
airline award was won by Emirates for the second time after an Etihad four in a row. Thomas McNally won the travel supplier representative award for the first time, Rebecca Kelly, having won for three years in succession had attracted her colleague Erica Oglesby on to the short list that also included 2013 winner Lee Osborne of Bookabed. And Martin Penrose of Ifonly. Karl Tyrrell’s Booka-
bed won the accommodation supplier award for the sixth time in seven years having ceded it two years ago. Bookabed won the supplier support team award, it was won for the previous two years by MSC and prior to that by Amadeus. Seven award winners were winning seven in a row, Royal Caribbean won best cruise line, Aer Lingus in the best airline to Europe category (they retained best airline to
Panoramic view of the Round Room as Martin Skelly speaks
North America as well), Irish Ferries for best cruise company. Amadeus as the best technology provider, New York for world wide city and the Spanish Tourist Board for best tourist board while Austria won the best ski destination for each the six years awarded and Universal Orlando the world theme park award for each of its five years it has been awarded. An innovation last year was a pictorial memor-
arium and tribute to members of the industry who died during the year, which drew a round of tributary applause from the audience. Portugal for best summer destination and Turkish Airlines for best business class to Europe were worthy first time winners. Tanya Airey of Sunway, Sharon Jordan of The Travel Corporation and Teresa Gancedo of the Spanish Tourist Board won three awards
Cormac Meehan speaking at the event
each, John Spollen of Cassidy Travel, Rebecca Kelly of MSC and Yvonne Muldoon of Aer Lingus and Lee Osborne of Bookabed two each. And then it was back to Sam’s Bar in pursuit of the award for the last man or woman standing. Roll on 2017, back to the Round Room in the Mansion House and Miriam O’Callaghan, hopefully, imploring ciúnas. To paraphrase the Thomas Davis song, lubrication once again.
MARCH 2017 PAGE 12
ITIA AWARDS 2017
Brian Hynes, Miriam O’Callaghan, Sharon Jordan and Paul Melinis,
T
he Travel Corporation ESCORTED TOUR OPERATOR: portfolio of INSIGHT VACATIONS products picked up two awards in the night and eleven in the history SPECIALIST CRUISE of the awards, Uniworld having COMPANY: UNIWORLD dominated the specialist cruise category and Insight the esand Provence.” corted tours category. “Our new product for Insight VacaSharon Jordan looked forward to tions, Luxury Gold is going really well further expansion in 2017. “Uniworld with itineraries such as our new Peru is up year-on-year with guests booking tour, Treasures of the Incas selling a higher category rooms and exploring number of seats for the 2017 season. our new exotic locations such as India Other destinations such as Southern and the Ganges. The Danube continues USA, India and Canada are also receivto be the biggest seller out of Ireland ing a lot of interest from past and profollowed closely by the Rhine and our spective guests.” 8 day south of France cruise, Burgundy
THANK YOU We’re delighted to have won ‘Best Ultra Luxury Cruise Company’ at the Irish Travel Industry Awards 2017. We’d like to thank our loyal travel agents for voting for us. +353 (0)1 611 0560 | salesuk@silversea.com
Mary Denton and Tanya Airey of Sunway accept the award for best European Sun Tour Operator from John Barry of category sponsor Hertz unway celebrated their 50th year in business and EUROPEAN SUN TOUR began their 25th year of OPERATOR: SUNWAY operations to Morocco with three awards, the European tour operator long haul and specialist LONG HAUL TOUR tour operator awards, making it OPERATOR: SUNWAY eleven award in three categories in the history of the awards. Tanya Airey commented SPECIALIST TOUR ““We have been honoured and OPERATOR: SUNWAY humbled by all our friends and colleagues in the travel trade tive Sunway truly is the REAL package who voted for us. These awards are a holiday company. true testament to the high quality of We are now also offering Beach service and variety of options that we Breaks to your favourite Winter and strive to provide for our customers.” Summer Sun destinations. The worldSunway was founded in 1966 by Roy wide, specialist and cruise team were Beatty, Tanya’s Grandfather. Originally delighted to win their fif5th Irish Travel opened in Blackrock as a Corporate and Industry award for Best Longhaul Tour Leisure Travel Agency, Operator and second award for Best In 1991 Sunway started Tour Oper- Specialist Tour Operator. Sunway are ations to Morocco and has since ex- agents for some of the world’s leading panded their programme over the years holiday companies and have an exto offer more than 75 destinations cellent reservations team of specialist worldwide. staff on had to cater to their customer’s “We have also added three new des- needs. Sunway offer 70 destinations tinations for Summer 2017: Costa Dor- worldwide including Summer & Winada - Salou, Cyprus and Sardinia. With ter Sun, USA & Canada, Worldwide, their mix of Winter and Summer Sun Cruise, River Cruise, Adventure and Esholidays that include accommodation, corted Tours, Club Med, Mark Warner flights, 20kg baggage, transfers and Beach Clubs and Sunsail.” the services of a Sunway representa-
S
Emirates team which won the best long haul airline award Helena Sweeney, Jennie Guzman, Lisa Rabbitte, Jane Masterson, Enda Corneille, Noeleen Daly, Aurelie Tommasino, Anita Thomas, Front: Filippo Rocchi and Lotfi Temimi with Vincent Harrison of Dublin Airport mirates marked 30 years of operations, and the introduc- LONG HAUL AIRLINE: tion of double daily flights EMIRATES from Dublin to Dubai. “We always try to go the extra mile “Five years ago, when we said we were going to start operate from Ireland for our customers and the award is people said we were nuts,” Country testament to the consistent service our teams provide not only in the sky but manager Enda Corneille says. “We are one of the largest airline also in our sales office, at the airport and brands in the world but take nothing for across the network in our lounges. You granted, so we are thrilled to once again know when you choose Emirates that be voted by our industry peers for this your journey is going to be extra special and that’s something we like to call the Best Long Haul Airline award. Emirates difference.”
E
A big thank you to everyone who voted to make Irish Ferries your ‘Best Ferry Company’ at the Irish Travel Industry Awards. We’re working hard to make sure we continue to lead the way for you and your clients in 2017.
Get in Touch: Trade Support 818 300 400 tradesupport@irishferries.com www.irishferries.com
or
Op
2016
y
e ra t o r
rr B e s t Fe
L613
N WIN ER
k F i xe d L i n
BEST FERRY COMPANY
BEST FERRY COMPANY
MARCH 2017 PAGE 14
ITIA AWARDS 2017
Jason Whelan of Blue Insurances accept the award for best travel insurance provider from category sponsor Stephen Sands of Riviera Travel
B
lue Insurance have dominated the award for ‘Best Travel Insurance Provider’ at the Irish Travel Industry Awards for six years. Ciaran Mulligan, Managing Director said of the win, “We are delighted and are extremely grateful. Blue Insurance is an Irish company and was formed in 2003 with just one brand. It is now successfully established as Ireland’s leading travel insurance provider. They currently employ over 75 staff in both Ireland and the UK. Specialising in Travel Insurance, Blue Insurance also offers gadget, pet, wedding, breakdown, bicycle and car hire excess insurance. The company, whose recognised direct brands include Multitrip.com and
TRAVEL INSURANCE PROVIDER: BLUE INSURANCES Gadgetinsurance.com, started selling 2 Year Car and Home Insurance in Ireland in June 2015. Blue Insurance has won awards for business each year since opening, including Best Travel Insurance Product by the Irish and Northern Irish Travel Trade. The company has also won the Deloitte Best Managed Company’s Award for the past four years winning the Gold Standard accolade recently.
Michael Doorley of Shandon Travel accepts the travel agency award from Volker Lorenz of category sponsors Amadeus ork based ShanTRAVEL AGENCY OF THE don travel won the best large YEAR: SHANDON TRAVEL travel agency in Ireland. Michael Doorley says UK customers to booking with and Irish “we are delighted to win the most pres- supplier. Brexit has had a somewhat tigious industry award for 2016 Best negative effect but we think that this is Travel Agency with over 10 employees only making it a late booking season. [ we have 34 employees] . Even after We are still looking for extra staff 43 in business there is great satisfaction in our Bantry and City offices but we in winning – never give up. It may read find that the HR recruitment site www. like a cliché to say that it is down to our rezoomo.com is an excellent source. excellent staff but in effect without staff Membership of Worldchoice is a big commitment success would not follow. benefit with negotiations with principles I can dictate the culture and direction done centrally for over rides a big time of the company but without committed saver; well worth the membership fee as input from staff in accounts, marketing, transparency ensures that we get 100 pc social media and web content, category over rides back to us. 90pc of our conmanagers and eventually sales and res- ventional holiday itineraries and long ervation staff, success would not follow. haul travel are tailor made. Our greatest satisfaction in 2016 was Competition is as tough as ever, inin our continued success in selling our cluding the internet, but there will alEuropean camping family holidays on ways be a space for professional well the UK market. 90 % of our bookings run “bricks and mortar “travel agencies. is done online with no resistance from
C
THANK YOU We were delighted to win Best General Cruise Company at the Irish Travel Industry Awards, and we couldn’t have done it without you! Providing extraordinary service for our guests is at the heart of everything we do, and our travel partners are a huge part of that, so we want to say a huge THANK YOU for continuing to provide the fantastic service that keeps us at number one.
VISIT CRUISINGPOWER.IE
Olwen McKinney and Trish O’Leary of Amadeus accept the award for Best Technology provider from category sponsor Stephen Sands of Riviera Tvl
A
madeus’ award for the Best Travel Technology Provider set another record. “It is particularly satisfying for us as we have now won this particular honour seven times in a row,” Volker Lorenz says, “and the entire Ireland team are very thankful for the continued vote of confidence we receive from our customers.” “It is a great honour for me to be heading a team in Ireland that is 100pc committed to making the lives of travel consultants in Ireland easier.” “A lot of time, money and effort goes into our products and solutions which is why Amadeus is the largest investor in
TECHNOLOGY PROVIDER: AMADEUS travel technology in Europe.” “But it is crucial to make them work for every single agent, and every single travel consultant, in their very own way.” “This is what we strive for everyday and it is fantastic to see this effort recognised. So we would like to thank everybody who voted for us and we promise that this recognition will only spur us in 2016.”
MARCH 2017 PAGE 15
ITIA AWARDS 2017
Marie McCarthy and Dermot Merrigan of Irish Ferries accept the award for best ferry operator from Hasan Mutlu of category sponsor Turkish Airlines rish Ferries were voted as IreFERRY COMPANY: land’s Best Ferry Company for IRISH FERRIES the seventh year in succession. Dermot Merrigan of Irish Ferries ceptionally high standard that the Travel describes it as “an achievement of which we are all genuinely proud. Re- Industry demands for their customers.” “That is why we strive every year to taining the award is a wonderful thing, but what is most important to us is the raise the bar that we set ourselves and to affirmation that our travel agents and exceed expectations in terms of quality, their customers continue to enjoy a value, comfort and safety. When choospleasant and friendly experience with ing Irish Ferries, travel agents know that their customers are in very good hands.” Irish Ferries.” “We at Irish Ferries know that the “We take great pride in the quality of satisfaction of their customers is our what we do and how we do it, be that online, ashore or on board. However at enjoyment. It is rewarding in itself to Irish Ferries, we are under no illusions know that our long-standing relationregarding the stiff competition that we ship with our partners in the travel inface for business each and every year dustry remains as strong as ever. Their and are also very conscious of the ex- appreciation, cooperation and support is
I
Amanda Middler and Connie Georgiou of Silversea accept the best luxury cruise line award from Hasan Mutlu of Turkish Airlines ilversea won best ultra cruise company something Amanda LUXURY CRUISE Middler feels “demonstrates the success and strength of the re- COMPANY: SILVERSEA lationships we have built with the Expeditions offer unique, awe-inspiring trade over the years.” journeys to some of the world’s most “Sailing to over 800 destinations exotic destinations, including Antarcspanning all seven continents, Silver- tica and the Galápagos Islands, aboard sea takes you to more destinations than our fleet of luxury expedition vessels. any other cruise line. Our small, lux“As the luxury cruise industry exury ships glide into secluded harbours pands year on year, Silversea continues where others cannot go. to focus on innovation and offering su“All-suite and spacious ocean-view perlative European service. accommodation comes with butler “The addition of Silver Muse will service. Beautifully appointed lounges expand Silversea’s fleet to nine ships in and bars offer an elegant yet relaxed 2017, and will once again significantly ambience. Gourmet dining; beverages raise the bar in the ultra-luxury cruise including wines, beers and spirits; and market with enhancements to the on on board gratuities are always included. board experience. “For the curious traveller, Silversea
S
Winners of 3 Irish Travel Industry 2017 Awards h BEST EUROPEAN SUN TOUR OPERATOR h h BEST LONGHAUL TOUR OPERATOR h h BEST SPECIALIST TOUR OPERATOR h
The REAL Package Holiday Company Summer Sun from Kusadasi 7 Nights
€299pp
Cruise from
€999pp
NCL Epic Cruise 7 nights
Winter Sun from
€199pp
USA & Canada from
€439pp
Beach Breaks from
€189pp
Worldwide from
€465pp
Lapland from
€899pp
River Cruise from
Club Med from
€705pp
Morocco 7 nights
Flight & Hotel 3 nights
1 & 2 night Trips
7 Nights - All Inclusive
Orlando 7 nights
Dubai 3 nights
Rhine Cruise 7 nights
Adventure Tours from India 8 Days
€1505pp €1059pp
Summer Sun, Winter Sun and Lapland packages include: Flights, accommodation, transfers, 20kg baggage and Sunway representative. Cruise, Beach Breaks, USA & Worldwide include flights and hotel/cruise accommodation. Adventure and River Cruise include flights, hotel/cabin and scheduled itinerary. Subject to availability. T&cs apply.
Contact your local Travel Agent | www.sunway.ie | 01 2366 845 Licensed and Bonded No: TO 101
MARCH 2017 PAGE 16
ITIA AWARDS 2017
The Turkish airlines team which won the best business class to Europe, Onur Gul, Hasan Mutlu, Julie Curran, Alper Kanburoglu, and Onder Gencer accept the award from Vincent Harrison of category sponsor Dublin airport
T
urkish Airlines are a first time BUSINESS CLASS AIRLINE TO winner for best business class airline to EUROPE: TURKISH AIRLINES Europe. Hasan Mutlu General Manager Turkish Hasan Mutlu, General Manager of Airlines Ireland. Turkish Airlines,Ireland said: Turkish Turkish Airlines has been in the Irish Airlines has been recently awarded market since 2006 has been growing “The Best Business Class to Europe” by every year. the Irish Travel Industry Awards 2017. We are now flying to over 290 dif“We would like to thank all our trade ferent destinations and have 334 aircraft partners for this prestigious prize, which and are the market leader for destinawas a huge surprise on the night. tions such as Tel Aviv and Cape Town. We are overwhelmed by the well Turkish Airlines also holds “Europe’s wishes and congratulations we received Best Airline” title for the sixth consecuby our industry colleagues. We hope to tive year, by Skytrax Survey in 2016. continue our success in the Irish market We will also be announcing a big and we gratefully appreciate your sup- sponsorship deal very soon with one of port and assistance as we strive for the Ireland;s best known concert venues” highest standards of service delivery”.
Veronica Flood of Tour America accepts the most Innovative ITAA Member Marketing Campaign: from John Barry of category sponsor Hertz our America were MOST INNOVATIVE delighted to received the award MARKETING CAMPAIGN: for most innovative comTOUR AMERICA pany at the recent ITAA awards. For us this award confirms that we are first ever Cruise Luxury Suite in Ireland, a company that never stands still, that we are the only Irish company who has we pro active not re active, and that we won a Deloitte Best Managed Company encourage our team to be creative and (8 year in row). We have won Royal innovative. In particular I would like to Caribbean’s top award for Ireland, and thank Veronica who heads the Market- MSC top award for selling their suite ing and Digital team at Tour America, product in Ireland. she is continuously thinking outside the We are a company that put their staff box, and my job as a leader is to always first, we want to encourage and inspire encourage her to be different, and sup- our team to be the best in the Industry port her and her team with their ideas. and we believe we have the best staff, These awards are very important for who take excellent care of our customer. our team and show our customers that Tour America & Cruise Holidays have we are a company that truly cares. We over 56% repeat business, we want to couldn’t do what we do without our continue and grow this. We are a very wonderful suppliers who are incremen- niche company and we don’t ever want tal in our success. And we want to thank to be complacent or have ego’s about each and every one of them. awards. So my role is to keep us focused 2017 has been a very exciting year and continue to grow.” for Tour America so far, we opened the
T
Dermot Lee, Jenny Rafter, Yvonne Muldoon, Ivan Beacom, John Keogh, Andrea Hunter, Brian Cassidy with Vincent Harrison from category sponsor Dublin Airport
A
er Lingus have dominAIRLINE TO EUROPE: ated the best airline to Europe award since the AIRLINE TO N AMERICA: Travel Industry awards were AER LINGUS inaugurated in 2011. They have previously won the best airline sions, and Fam Trips. to North America in 2011-2 Aer Lingus has increased our visibiland 2014-5. ity in the Irish market through talent acThe introduction of new services and quisition therefore increasing the sales a Yvonne Muldoon said “Aer Lingus has been in growth mode for the past team. This has enabled the department to 12 months launching new transatlanimprove the lines of communication tic routes to Los Angeles, Newark and and accessibility via our trade support Hartford Connecticut. The Aer Lingus sales team has taken line and email. The feedback from our a proactive approach working hand trade partners regarding to increased enin hand with our trade partners across gagement has been very positive and we Ireland through joint marketing cam- look forward to growing the business paigns, trade promotions, sales mis- partnerships throughout 2017.”
MARCH 2017 PAGE 17
ITIA AWARDS 2017
Hertz team which won best car rental company: John Barry, Paul Manning, Shauna Mullery, Noeleen Furlong, Mars Losak, Pierre Waddington and Damien Driver, with MC Miriam O’Callaghan
H
ertz are won the award for Best Car Hire provider for the fourth year in succession. On accepting the award John Barry, Head of Sales commented. “We at are delighted that the members of the ITAA have bestowed on us this honour. Hertz pioneered the concept of Car Hire and today in our 99th year we continue to strive to be the best at what we do. We look forward to working with the incredible members of the Irish Travel Trade throughout 2017 and to make sure we endeavour to give our very best service and support” Operating the Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty vehicle rental brands in ap-
CAR HIRE COMPANY: HERTZ proximately 10,000 locations throughout the world. Hertz Global is one of the largest worldwide vehicle rental companies, and the Hertz brand is one of the most recognized Travel Brands in the world. Product and service initiatives such as Hertz Gold Plus Rewards, Carfirmation, Mobile Wi-Fi and unique vehicles offered through the Adrenaline, Dream, Green and Prestige Collections set Hertz apart from the competition.
Antonio Padeira and Ana Celina Tavares of VisitPortugal the award for best destination from Yvonne Muldoon of category sponsor Aer Lingus
P
ortugal was a first time winner of the SUMMER SUN summer sun desDESTINATION: PORTUGAL tination award. Ana Celina Tavares said this Best Summer Sun Destination renovation of 30 buildings of historical 2017 Award. It belongs as much too all interest and monuments that will be our partners in the market, as to us. We used for Tourism and for the training receive this award with a great sense and qualification of the future generaof responsibility. It motivates us to do tion employed in this sector. Our oath is even better and to work hard towards to always make people feel welcomed to Portugal, wherever they come from. development of the Tourism sector. We are confident that this path of VisitPortugal has projects to deconstant collaboration and shared velop and improve new products such knowledge is the right way to continue as cycling, walking, nature and active promoting Portugal in Ireland and to tourism, as well as the MICE segment; help develop and improve both our tourto re-invent history by investing in the ism offer and your business.
MARCH 2017 PAGE 18
ITIA AWARDS 2017
Kathryn MacDonnell, Teresa Gancedo and Inmaculada Bernabeu of the Spanish Tourist Board accept the award for best tourist board from category sponsor Stephen Sands of Riviera Travel
S
pain has been Ireland’s leading sun destination for seven decades with a consistent performance of attracting around 1.8m visitors since the industry first moved from pilgrimages to more exciting holiday escapades in the 1950s. The tourist office for Spain in Dublin is celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2017. Teresa Gancedo, who has been director of the Dublin office since September, says “all the
TOURIST BOARD: SPANISH TOURIST BOARD team at the Spanish Tourist Office are delighted to have won “Best Tourist Board” at the Irish Travel Industry Awards. None of this would have been possible without all your support. We are also really proud for receiving one more year the awards of Best Winter Sun Destination: Lanzarote and Best European City destination: Barcelona. We are delighted to see
our efforts rewarded and we are looking forward to continue our work with all of you inspiring Irish people to discover new great experiences in Spain.” Spain’s trade profile has been boosted by frequent trade events in Dublin, fam trips guided by the effervescent Kathryn MacDonnell, and hostings of the ITAA and ITOF conferences.
Jennifer Callister and Michaela Banks of Royal Caribbean accept the award for best cruise company from Hasan Mutlu of category sponsor Turkish Airlines
R
oyal Caribbean have been undisputed champions of cruise since the awards. began. Jennifer Callister says “at Royal Caribbean, we are proud to deliver extraordinary experiences, through our innovative ships and our awe-inspiring destinations. This year has been truly remarkable for the brand, and being recently recognised as Ireland’s Best General Cruise Company at the Irish Travel Industry Awards has cemented our reputation for excellence. This accolade, along with the awards the brand has won across the island of Ireland, is truly inspiring and reflects the success and commitment or our passionate team. What makes these awards so special is that they reinforce that our guests
CRUISE COMPANY: ROYAL CARIBBEAN and travel agents believe in what we’re doing- this recognition is hugely important to us. We in turn appreciate the incredible work that travel agent partners are doing to raise the profile of cruising and Royal Caribbean amongst holiday makers. Our Club Royal programme is industry leading and we are thrilled that so many agents are engaged in the programme. We have a fantastic partnership approach across the island of Ireland and I am optimistic about the year ahead and the opportunity to strengthen these relationships.
Thank you! For voting Amadeus your Best Travel Technology Provider for 7 years running at the Irish Travel Industy Awards.
‘11
‘12
‘13
‘14
‘15
‘16
‘17
MARCH 2017 PAGE 19
ITIA AWARDS 2017
Wilhem Nest of the Austrian Embassy Accepts the award for best ski destination from category sponsor Yvonne Muldoon of Aer Lingus
A
n unsurprising victory for the sixth time. Austria is the birthplace of the Arlberg skiing technique, preferred by the Ski Club of Ireland teachers at Kilternan. It is a great spot for freeriding, and for skiers who like their skiing to come with chocolate-box pretty surroundings and unpretentious après-ski. The country offers four glaciers (Hintertux, Kitzsteinhorn, Stubai and Sölden) and some of Europe’s most reliable snow in the Arlberg region.
SKI DESTINATION: AUSTRIA Irish favourite resorts include Söll, Westendorf for Kitzbühel and Leogang for Saalbach-Hinterglemm, appealing villages with attractive wooded slopes as well as stark glaciers while the après-ski is renowned. The Ski Amadé region might be Europe’s largest linked ski area, the 280km linked Skiwelt region can rattle 50km or more from you each day, but generally speak-
¡Gracias!
Lanzarote, a unique island
ing Austria’s resorts are relatively small. Even the larger resorts often incorporate several small villages in one valley, like Bad Gastein and Stubaital. It can work to the advantage of families and those on a budget when a small resort is linked by lifts (or bus) to large, interconnected ski areas such as SkiWelt and the Kitzbüheler Alpen, as accommodation is often cheaper and family-
Echedey Eugenio of Lanzarote Tourist Board, Geraldine McFadden of Aqua Suites and Amado Vizcaino of Lanzarote Tourist Board accept the award for best winter sun destination from Yvonne Muldoon of category sponsor Aer Lingus
I
ncreased air lift has meant that there is no sign that the 200,000 Irish going to Ireland’s favourite Canary Island each year will stop any time soon, leaving it ahead not just of its sister islands Gran Canaria, Tenerife and Fuerteventura but of entire countries, getting more visitors on its own than Greece. The CSO said passenger figures from Dublin to Lanzarote are back to pre-recession levels. People go because of the guaranteed winter
Thank you one more year for your support. We look forward to welcoming you and your customers to sunny Lanzarote and continue to be your favourite winter sun escape! Best wishes for a successful 2017!
WINTER SUN DESTINATION: LANZAROTE sunshine, absence of jetlag, the choice of charter and scheduled services available less than four hours of flight-time away and because it is around four degrees warmer than southern Spain. The reinvestment in product and good value restaurants make it a long established favourite with the Irish. Off-peak season is the summer, which also suits the Irish market.
Lanzarote is the most easterly and most exotic if the chain. Holiday-makers gravitate towards Puerto del Carmen, Matagorda, Playa Blanca and Los Pocillos but there is a smoking volcano to climb. While all the Canary Islands have their extinct volcanoes, Lanzarote is the place to have a drop of the crater – literally have your food cooked by smouldering nature.
MARCH 2017 PAGE 20
ITIA AWARDS 2017
Sandra Mooney of Cassidy Travel receives the leisure agent of the year award from John Barry of category sponsor Hertz
S
andra Mooney won the travel professional of the year Katrina McMullan, Christine Rickard, Louise Brennan Ormsby and Liz Wright. Sandra says: “after nearly 30 years within the travel industry it is a great honour to receive the award for Travel Professional of the year. I am very fortunate that I continue to work within this very fulfilling industry, considering times have changed significantly from when I first started. Over the years I have worked with some remarkable & inspirational people, and still do so to this day with all my colleagues in Cassidy Travel. These are individuals like myself, who are lucky to combine their passion of travel with their careers. Travel is an extremely rewarding career, that has allowed me to visit some incredible destinations and continues to do so, this definitely keeps
LEISURE TRAVEL PROFESSIONAL: SANDRA MOONEY CASSIDY TRAVEL the fire burning!! Only recently I visited Vietnam and this was truly inspiring. Don’t get me wrong, like us all, I love those lazy sunbed & cocktail holidays, but seeing other cultures and traditions opens one’s eyes and mind to new experiences and adventures. The great thrill for me is being able to advise, help and recommend these destinations to my client’s. When a client comes back and shares their superb experience and holiday, its lovely knowing I helped them, this is the best reward for me. I am often asked by people “why should I use a travel agent”? For me I ask them, “How much do you really care about your holiday”? An unassuming question and
something all clients should ask themselves. I don’t know much about cars, but would I buy one without a professional advice, no. An expert can give you their personal opinions, experience and recommendations. I have clients from the start of my career that I consider friends, and know exactly what holidays they would love. Some of them have taken a risk & loved what I suggested and recommended. As all my friends and colleagues can verify, this business takes a lot of hard work and effort. That said, it is always different, fun and never ever boring and subsequently one of the greatest jobs and industries to work in.
Niamh Gleeson of FCM Travel Solutions receives the ITAA Corporate Travel Professional award from John Barry of category sponsor Hertz
N
iamh Gleeson is CORPORATE TRAVEL the third from PROFESSIONAL: NIAMH FCm to win the Corporate travel proGLEESON , FCM TRAVEL fessional award in the SOLUTIONS four years of the award, following Rhona McCann, Lelia Gregory, The corporate industry has evolved so Catherine Monaghan much since I first started, we now offer and Karen Gleeson. She says “I came to the travel indus- the complete service package and have try in a somewhat roundabout way. Ori- moved on from just booking straightginally, while in my last year of school, forward flights and hotels. Technolmy plan was to take a place on a Soci- ogy and its evolution in this area plays a huge role in this and there is always ology course. However, fate had a different ideas something new to learn, a more efficient and I instead ended up on a Travel and way of doing things or a new service to Tourism course in Stillorgan like many help make our client’s end to end exof my colleagues in the industry. As perience more complete. Fortunately we have the backing of I look back 15yrs later and as the reour company globally, in this area, and cent recipient of the ITAA Corporate it makes all the difference in how we Travel Professional Award I am amazed how this small change in my plans has can help our clients. I work with some of the best people brought me to where I am today. in the business. My team and current I have always worked in corporate travel. I started as a junior consultant team leader are the ones who support and am now a senior consultant with me day to day. I may have won the FCM. I have been with FCM for the ITAA award but in my mind it was a last 10 year and have been fortunate to team effort. If there is a volcano erupting, a snow work on a variety of accounts. storm or an airline strike the teams pull For several years I was working on together to get through the additional one of our top 10 client accounts before more recently changing pace to a client workload. We also share information portfolio of my own. Every single daily and it’s our collective knowledge day is different and it is this difference which makes us so strong. This is a key which also makes the role so interesting ethos of FCM and one which I value highly and why I enjoy and am still and exciting. working for them after so many years.
MAGIC isn’t imaginary
It’s just very well planned
VACATIONS REIMAGINED AUTHENTIC DISCOVERIES . SIGNATURE HOTELS . REGIONAL FLAVOURS
INSIGHT VACATIONS INSIGHTVACATIONS.COM
We are delighted to have won Best Specialist Cruise Company for Uniworld Boutique River Cruises and Best Escorted Tour Operator for Insight Vacations at the 2017 Irish Travel Industry Awards. It is an incredible honour to be recognised as the best and an industry leader. We would like to extend our thanks to everyone that voted for us. Your continued support is incredible and sincerely appreciated.
UNIWORLD.COM
BEST SPECIALIST CRUISE COMPANY
BEST ESCORTED TOUR OPERATOR
MARCH 2017 PAGE 21
ITIA AWARDS 2017
Beverleigh Fly and Lee Osborne of Bookabed accept the award for best accommodation only supplier from category sponsor Stephen Sands of Riviera Travel
Pam McGuinness and Orla Markey of Crystal accept the award for best ski tour operator the award from John Barry of category sponsor Hertz rystal won the ski award for the fourth year in succession. SKI TOUR OPERATOR: Orla Markey said “the CRYSTAL HOLIDAYS Crystal Team would like to thank everybody who voted for us and are coming into my 20 year anniversary delighted to have received Best Ski with Crystal Ski, and my team here in Tour Operator at the Irish Travel Indus- Dublin aren’t far behind me, Bernie with try Awards 2017. her 18 year anniversary, both Leoni and We love the mountains and are pas- Kasia celebrating 10 years. As a team, sionate about making ski holidays easy we all look for something different in to book and enjoy. We offer a wide our own ski holidays, doorstep skiing choice of resorts, more flight options for the advanced skier, family friendly and an enhanced expert in-resort service resorts with childcare, lively après ski for our mutual customers. Our sales to mention just a few requirements. I team here in Dublin are just as passion- believe I have come full circle now with ate about skiing as your customers and a 14 year old that over -takes me on the we as a team look forward to our annual piste and a 4 year old that is just itching ski breaks, exploring new resorts, build- to ski in March. ing our Product knowledge and keeping Again a big thank you to all who up to-date with all the new infra-struc- voted for us, we are so proud to have ture that is happening to our ski resorts. collected this award.” As Product and Sales Manager I’m
C
T
he European City Destination award reflects the growing interest in Barcelona, which has pulled away from Copenhagen and Amsterdam as a second tier citybreak destination outbound from the Irish market and is closer to the big three of London, Paris and Rome. With over 2,500 hotels on sale through the trade and flight connections
EUROPEAN CITY DESTINATION: BARCELONA through three major airports, it has become a familiar leisure break. Las Ramblas is as familiar to the Irish tourist nowadays as Temple Bar. Gaudi’s treasure trove city is not just a destination in itself, it is a gateway to a greater province, the Ryanair
destination of Gerona is a jewel in itself, as is Tarragona south of the sunseeker paradise of Salou (“the beach of Europe”), Portaventura of the giant roller coasters and a cluster of villages that deserve more notice from tourists.
Thank you from all the team at Crystal Ski for voting us Best Ski Operator at the ITIA awards!
B
ookaBed won the accommodation supplier of the year awards for the sixth time in seven years and also the support team award. “We have continued to focus on improving user experience of our websites, increased distribution via xml partners and off line travel agents and improving our already high standards of customer care” said Karl Tyrrell, MD of BookaBed. “Staff numbers have increased in areas such as product/contracting, sales, customer service, admin and our fast
ACCOMMODATION ONLY PROVIDER: BOOKABED growing flight+hotel section in order to provide a better service our loyal and ever growing customer base. We would like to express how grateful we are to the agents that book with us and for their loyal support for the past 10 years and wish them all every success for 2017”
Mary Farrell of Top of the Rock, Reginald Charlot and Tryphavana Cross of NYC & Company, the award for best city destination from Yvonne Muldoon of category sponsor Aer Lingus
R
eginald Charlot and his team at NYC & Company, represented in Ireland by Tryphavana Cross, have repeatedly won the best city worldwide award. New York City has so much to offer, new attractions including Opry City Stage (April), Gulliver’s Gate (Spring), National Geographic ENCOUNTER: Ocean
WORLDWIDE CITY DESTINATION: NEW YORK Odyssey (Fall), the NFL Experience Times Square (Fall), and the Empire Outlets (November). Ntance include Lower Manhattan (with new hotels, attractions and world-class infrastructure), Staten Island’s St. George (New York Wheel and Empire Out-
lets) and Hudson Yards Previously opened attractions include the The Met Breuer (opened March 2016), Westfield Center (opened 2016), Whitney Museum of American Art and One World Observatory (both May 2015).
MARCH 2017 PAGE 22
ITIA AWARDS 2017
Marie Grenham of Grenham Travel accepts the travel agency of the year award from Volker Lorenz of Amadeus
M
arie Grenham’s and Grenham TRAVEL AGENCY OF THE Travel in Athlone were the popular win- YEAR: GRENHAM TRAVEL ner of the travel agency of the year award for agentheir recollections of members of their cies of less than ten staff Grenham families who travelled to the States in travel has a very interesting tapestry of the early 1900’s - it is fascinating to listhe social, cultural and economic chanten to their stories.” ges over the decades John also had a bar, grocery and hardJohn Grenham procured a licence as a ware store. The premises is located on shipping agent in 1911. He was an agent the circle of the left bank area in Athfor the White Star and had passengers lone, a part of the town is renowned for on the ill fated - Titanic 1912. its historical background and old world Marie Grenham says “to this day, ambience. we have customers who call in to share
Thomas McNally of Bedsonline accepts the award for best supplier representative from Stephen Sands of category sponsor Riviera Travel
T
homas McNally, Best Supplier rep- SUPPLIER REPRESENTATIVE: resentative says: THOMAS McNALLY “is award caps what has been a fantastic year Partner Representative of the year at the both personally and professionally for me and Bedsonline as a World Choice conference in November, this one will take some time to get over! brand. Thank you so much to all of our fanOur business continues to grow from strength to strength in Ireland and I am tastic agents who voted for me! It is an truly honoured to have been awarded absolute pleasure to work with you and support you on a daily basis, and I will Best Supplier Representative. It was a massive shock to win Trade continue to do so, as we work together to ensure 2017 surpasses the successes
Denise Harman of CWT accepts the Corporate Travel Agency award from Volker Lorenz of Amadeus
C
WT Ireland won the Corporate travel agency of the year. Johan Wilson, CWT Ireland and Britain’s VP and country manager, commented: “We are delighted that the industry has once again recognised us as the best TMC. During my first few months working with the CWT Irish and British teams, I have seen what incredible work is done every day for our clients and I know that this award is very well deserved. It’s an excellent start to 2017.” CWT is a global leader specialised in managing business travel and meetings and events. CWT serves companies, government institutions and non-governmental organisations of all sizes in
L
iam Keller was the inner of the contribution to the industry award. Cormac Meehan said on the evening: They and their family and workforce have made a flourish in three European countries. In the main holiday season they sleep 2,00 people per night. They bought a business in Ballinasloe that had an IATA license. They serendipitous purchase of a caravan in 1977, set the seed for the foundation of Keller Campotel, the concept of fully equipped
CORPORATE TRAVEL AGENCY: CWT more than 150 countries and territories. By combining both the expertise of its people and leading-edge technology, CWT helps clients derive the greatest value from their travel programme in terms of savings, service, security and sustainability. The company is also committed to providing best-in-class service and assistance to travellers. In 2015, sales volume for wholly owned operations and joint ventures totalled US$24.2bn. As part of its commitment to responsible business, CWT is a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact Ten
Dave Cole of Universal Studios accepts the best visitor attraction award from category sponsor Yvonne Muldoon of Aer Lingus
A
n award is a good way to get an exciting year off to a start, and it is going to be another exciting year as Universal Studios Florida with another addition to the g new water park Volcano Bay. Universal Orlando consists of two theme
WORLDWIDE THEME PARK: UNIVERSAL ORLANDO parks (Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure), a night-time entertainment complex (CityWalk) with the Blue Man Group, and four Loews Hotels (Loews
Portofino Bay Hotel, Hard Rock Hotel, Loews Royal Pacific Resort and the retro-themed family Cabana Bay with two large pools, a lazy river and a bowling alley.
INDUSTRY AWARD: LIAM KELLER and erect tents intrigued Liam Keller and the dream came with a reality with the fit=out of mobile homes with gas barbecues. They led the way by having the first children’s clubs on campsites. Liam Keller has been responsible for pioneering this type of holiday in Ireland.
Liam Keller of Keller Travel accepts the award for lifetime achievement from Daragh Hanritty of Cork Airport and ITAA President Cormac Meehan
★★★★
� r a �� d �
★
Featuring:
Wedding & Honeymoon Destinations at Home and Abroad
Date for your diary: YOUR TRADE DAY • Friday 26th January, 2018 REGISTRATION
www.registrationdesk.ie/holidayworldtradeday
VENUE
RDS Simmonscourt • Simmonscourt Road Ballsbridge • Dublin 4
EXHIBIT
Media Partner
Please contact Maureen Ledwith, Sales Director t: + 353 (0)1 291 3700 e: maureen@bizex.ie or Paulette Moran t: + 353 (0)1 291 3702 e: paulette@bizex.ie
DUBLIN - Holiday World 2018 Show dates
BELFAST - Holiday World 2018 Show dates
RDS SIMMONSCOTURT
TITANIC EXHIBITION CENTRE
Fri
Jan 26th
10am - 1pm
Trade Only
Fri
Jan 19th
1pm - 6pm
Trade and Public
Fri
Jan 26th
1pm - 6pm
Trade and Public
Sat
Jan 20th
11am - 5.30pm
Trade and Public
Sat
Jan 27
11am - 5.30pm
Trade and Public
Sun
Jan 21
11am - 5.30pm
Trade and Public
Sun
Jan 28
11am - 5.30pm
Trade and Public
th th
st
To find out more log on to: www.holidayworldshow.com
d �ull of w�nders...
★★★★★
MARCH 2017 PAGE 26
AFLOAT IRISH FERRIES upped the game on Irish sea crossing with an Everybody Free motorist fare that charges only for the car involved, with all accompanying passengers, including driver, travelling absolutely free-ofcharge, up to a limit of six persons. DUBLIN’s last remaining dry dock closed after 160 years to facilitate the redevelopment of the port. . CELEBRITY Silhouette will be visiting Belfast, Dublin, Waterford and Cork during 2017 and Celebrity Cruises is planning to host three seminars in Ireland. CLIA’s Executive Partner Conference
brought together 200 delegates including 46 cruise executives from 21 countries.
REGENT Seven Seas Cruises launched 100 summer 2018 and spri a ng 2019 itineraries aboard Seven Seas Voyager, Seven Seas Mariner, Seven Seas Navigator, and the newly launched Seven Seas Explorer. CARNIVAL Cruise Line’s next new
ship, will offer a series of four-night Bermuda cruises from New York in spring 2018,
P&O Cruises will open a seafood restau-
rant, Shell & Bones, on Pacific Dawn. Beauty and the Beast will be performed on Disney Dream sailings from November 6.
PONANT has appointed sailing expert Olivier de Kersauson special advisor on the design of its four new 184-passenger expedition ships ROYAL CARIBBEAN
patented four “of the Seas” ship names including Symphony of the Seas (likely name for the line’s next Oasis-class ship), Valhalla of the Seas, Sunrise of the Seas and Icon of the Seas.
MSC Cruises officially began construction of MSC Seaview at the Fincantieri Shipyard in Monfalcone. Gianni Onorato, CEO of MSC Cruises, told invited journalists that the Mareviglia class will feature wearable technology, single cabins and more family restaurants. STRANGFORD A new £6.2m ferry commenced service between Strangford to Portadown, replacing the aging MV Strangford, which was built in 1969 and had seen better days. CUNARD increased specialty dining
charges on its three ships, Verandah on Q Mary 2 and Q Victoria up from $35 to $49.95, Verandah on Q Elizabeth up from $15 to $25 for lunch and from $24 to $35 for dinner, Kings Court on Q Mary 2 and Lido on Q Victoria up from $15 to $17.50, Lido on Q Elizabeth up from $10 to $17.50.
SILVERSEA will homeport Silver
Muse, in Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades for two years from October 2017. It will end the 2017/2018 season with a transatlantic leaving Fort Lauderdale and visiting New York and Newfoundland on the way to Dublin.
SEABOURN Encore was named by soprano Sarah Brightman in Singapore.
View from a visiting cruise ship in Dublin port
Tale of 133 ships
Dublin Port heads for record as construction begins
F
red Olsen’s Boudicca became the first call of the 133 cruise ships that are scheduled to call to Dublin in 2017, 125 to Dublin port. A further eight are scheduled to call to Dun Laoghaire. Dublin port hosted 112 cruise ships in 2016. The port reported volumes up 25pc over four years and 13pc ahead of the peak year of 2007. Areas to be examined during the current masterplan consultation are the pro-
posed development of a unified ferry terminal for the Port’s main ferry operators incorporating immigration, customs, security and other border inspection functions and the development of the 44 hectare Dublin Inland Port adjacent to Dublin Airport for port-related activities. Dun Laoghaire harbour projects such as an Irish international diaspora centre, an east pier urban beach, a proposed cruise facility and a marina
village at the west pier were debated by councillors, as well as a report from LHM Casey McGrath which raised questions about potential demands for repayment of European Union grants, concerning St Michael’s Pier, the former home of the Stena HSS ferry, ownership issues at Dun Laoghaire Harbour, valuations of the company’s €38.3m asset portfolio, a pension fund deficit and legal costs.
HIGH DEMAND FOR DIRECT IRISH CRUISES
S
everal cruise lines are sailing direct from Ireland over the coming 18 months. CMV and Fred Olsen have scheduled direct sailings from Ireland in 2017. Cruise Maritime Voyages and James McGinley Travel from Gortahork are selling
cabins on CMV Magellan on five direct departures from Dublin in 2017, the fjords on June 5, Iceland on June 14, Spain, Portugal and France on June 26, the Seine on July 7 and Scotland and the Faroes on July 14. Lead-in prices start from €719 for an inside cabin on
the Seine trip. Fred Olsen have two departures from Belfast, April 30 to Norway’s Fjords, May 8 to Scotland and one from Killybegs to Canada on July 30. Royal Caribbean did allow a group chartered by Lee Travel in Cobh to board three years ago. James McGinley
DOOLIN FERRY AWAITS CLEARANCE
D
oolin Express, due to offer the fastest surface crossing time to the Aran Islands in just 15 minutes from April, is still awaiting clearance from the Department of Transport which could impact on the viability of the route. The new ferry will take
25 minutes from the old 35 minutes crossing time from Doolin Pier to Inis Oírr. Doolin ferries acquired the fast ferry Blanche Hermine from Vedettes du Golfe having served islands in the Golfe du Morbihan, an almost enclosed sea near Vannes in southern Brittany.
Doolin Express will sail at a minimum speed of 19 knots. The company also serves Inis Meán and Inis Mór,. Another operator also serves from Doolin along with those running from Rossaveal, Connemara and a freight-only link from Galway Port.
The largest craft until now to serve the islands, Tranquility takes 100 passengers and the veteran Queen of Aran with the same capacity. Doolin Ferries, founded by Bill O’Brien in 1970, also runs excursions by Cailín Ór with 72 passengers to the Cliffs of Moher.
BOOK BY 6 MARCH & SAVE UP TO BOOK EARLY & SAVE UP TO
£280!
*
MARCH 2017 PAGE 28
THE FLYING COLUMN
Aviation with Gerry O’Hare
RYANAIR’s finance chief Neil Sorahan said the sale-and-leaseback market is ‘hot’ at the moment. SHANNON CEO Matthew Thomas
told Limerick City and County Council that half of all foreign direct investment in Ireland can be found within 60 miles of Shannon Airport.
SPIRIT Airlines says it now has four complaints per 100k pax, down from 11.
ROCKWELL COLLINS said the self-bag drop at Dublin Airport reduces passenger check-in time by 60pc
BRUSSELS Airlines has pulled its Belfast route less than year after launch.
RYANAIR said it is cutting seats from and reducing services at Athens and Thessaloniki despite new routes to Katowice & Krakow, expanding in Italy and Spain with a record Barcelona schedule and Madrid Schedule, launched their winter schedules for Milan Malpensa, expanding in Israel with 15 new routes from Eilat and Tel Aviv and confirmed that London-Osjiek was cancelled. Ralph Anker’s Anna Aero analysed the “best, most and worst” Ryanair airports over the past ten years, 2,800 air services, from 250 airports including 80 bases. SHANNON Group lodged a planning
application for a new aircraft hangar, the airport’s tenth, with the capability to accommodate the A380. All of the airport’s hangars are now fully occupied and Shannon Group recently appointed a design team to meet demand for additional space, draw up plans and seek planning permission for a new hangar brining capacity to 50,700sqm.
SAS Scandinavian is seeking an air-oper-
ator certificate in Ireland with sites in London and Spain to counter a cost base that is 20pc higher than rivals.
NORWEGIAN are to increase Dublin-Oslo from 3w to 6w from late March. KNOCK Airport reported a profit of
€112,206 in 2015 thanks to State Public Policy Remit operational funding of €598k.
STEPHEN KAVANAGH said Aer Lingus are considering a winter seasonal route to Las Vegas (see newspaper interview here) when the airline’s A330s are not deployed on other routes. Kavanagh said that Dublin airport should privatise its terminals, and drew a predictably unimpressed reaction from SIPTU.
KEVIN TOLAND told the Institute of International and European Affairs that constraints restricting the number of flights between 11pm and 7am could make things horrific and a huge disaster as current planning permission conditions terms reduce flights from 100 to 65 during runway rush hour, 5:30am to 7am. FLYBE
blamed a slow start to 2017 on bad weather and poor consumer confidence. Load factors are down.
Cleared for take off: Bjørn Kjos
NAI: Lift off at last
No more obstacles to Norwegian Stewart/Providence
N
orwegian Air confirmed that Providence will become the second of two new bases for trans-Atlantic flights that the airline plans to operate with its new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Norwegian Air had already promised $69 one way introductory flights from Stewart Airport (60 miles North
of Manhattan) to Cork and Shannon. Travellers from New York can take Metro North to Beacon station and then take Leprechaun Bus Lines to the airport. Stewart, from where Norwegian will launch an Edinburgh service this summer, is near the heavily Irish American areas such as Or-
ange County, Pearl River, Rye and Westchester. Norwegian Air says its round-trip to Ireland is the cheapest ever offered .US labour unions called on President Barack Obama to halt Norwegian’s Cork flights plan. Ryanair said only technicalities remain in its deal to feed Norwegian long-haul flights.
THIRTY YEARS LATER THIRTY EURO FARE
N
eil Sorahan of Ryanair slaims that Ryanair average fares will fall 15pc from €33.
He made the statement in a series of interviews after Ryanair reported Q3 average fares down 17pc to €33, with passenger numRYANAIR AVERAGE bers up 16pc to 29m. The official report 2004 €40 2011 €45 also unusually reiter2005 €39 2012 €48 ated Michael O’Leary’s 2006 €41 2013 €46 warnings about the 2007 €44 2014 €48 second carry-on 2008 €42 2015 €46 bagThe Q3 average 2009 €35 2016 €40 2010 €39 2017e €33 fare can turn in seven
or eight euro below the annual average but the trend is towards historic lows for the airline. In a series of post-results interviews NeilSorahan said Ryanair’s average fare will fall 15pc further, brining it through €30 for Q3 2017. Michael O’Leary says that Ryanair will reduce their average fare to €30 in five years.
Neil Sorahan
IAA REPORTS BUSIEST JANUARY
T
he Irish Aviation Authority confirmed that air traffic grew by 7.5pc (or 81,373 movements) in January 2017 compared to the same month last year. The combined figure for commercial flights at Shannon, Dublin and Cork
airports was up by 3.8pc in January 2017. Individually, the January 2017 figures for the three State airports, when compared to the same month in the previous year are: n Dublin up 4.3pc with an average of 489 commercial daily movements.
n Cork down 4.2pc, with an average of 42 commercial daily movements. n Shannon up 5.6pc with an average of 42 commercial daily movements. There was an increase of 5.3pc in Ireland’s overflight traffic movements (flights, which do not
land in Ireland) and North Atlantic Communications flights (Europe /US Flights) recorded an increase of 8.5pc in January. There were 24,682 overflight traffic movements and 35,661 North Atlantic Communications flights during the month.
MARCH 2017 PAGE 29
THE FLYING COLUMN
Aviation with Gerry O’Hare
Heading for 30m
Dublin airport growth triggers runway and terminal
I
rish airports reported record numbers in 2016 with Cork ending seven years of decline with a return to growth. Dublin reported a record 27,907,230 passengers, up 11pc (although 600,000 transfer passengers were double counted), Belfast grew by 15pc to 5.15m in 2016, Belfast City reported 2.67m, down marginally on 2015, Cork grew by 8pc to 2.23m ending AIRPORTS 2017 seven Belfast Int 5,150,000 y e a r s deBelfast City 2,670,000 of cline, and Cork 2,230,564 K n o ck Derry 284,000 Donegal 45,000 was up Dublin 27,907,230 7.3pc to Indreabhán 20,000 a record Inis Mor 12,000 734,031. T h e Kerry 325,000 f i gures Knock 734,031 mean that Shannon 1,749,367
RYANAIR announced a new Luxemburg-Barcelona route. Routes from Germany will be announced in the first half of February and from Stansted in late February. ETIHAD Airways has moved to Terminal 1 at Dublin Airport
QATAR Airways, which launches its
service from Dublin to Doha on June 12, held a recruitment day in the Hilton Hotel Dublin.
MANCHESTER airport CEO Cork born Ken O’Toole said the airport is in talks with US authorities to become the first English airport to offer customs pre-clearance for travellers
WIZZ Air CEO Jozsef Varadi said he will fly from Dublin but won’t pick a dogfight with Ryanair, keeping costs lower than Ryanair and not ‘alienating’ passengers.. DUBLIN Airport and Cork Airport were shortlisted for two awards in the upcoming Moodie Davitt Digital Awards. Dublin now accounts for 68pc of the air passengers to and from the island, up from 67pc last year, compared with 19pc for both Belfast airports (12.5pc for Belfast International and 65pc for Belfast City), 5.4pc for
Cork and 4.3pc for Shannon. If the 4.8m ferry passengers are considered Dublin still accounts for 61pc of the passengers arriving and departing the island
SMBC Aviation capital concluded the first aircraft delivery of 2017.
BOEING’s unannounced order for 100 737 Max aircraft was from SpiceJet.
UNITED eliminated its fuel hedging team as it pars management.
MARCH 2017 PAGE 30
THE FLYING COLUMN
Aviation with Gerry O’Hare
SHANE CASSELS TD told the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee that the former government Gulfstream IV jet was plagued by breakdowns and “we are well shot of it. It broke down before leaving for Paris just five years after it was bought, leaving then Taoiseach John Bruton on the tarmac. On another occasion, it blocked Air Force One on a runway. NORWEGIAN Air Argentina was officially registered as a company in Argentina and will fly both domestic and international flights BRITISH Airways launched seasonal
flights from Manchester to Alicante, Malaga, Ibiza, Palma, Mykonos and Nice.
CNN Aviation Editor Jon Ostrower said
airlines are petrified of being in a @realDonaldTrump tweet. One has even developed a crisis comms plan if they are.
BOMBARDIER and CityJet finalised their purchase agreement for up to 10 CRJ900 Aircraft COLM BARRINGTON, former chairman of Aer Lingus, is to join the board of Finnair. TRANS ATLANTIC Fifty North American airports will have a non-stop connection with at least one airport in Europe this summer, up from 46 in 2012.
DAA staff sent €2m in donations to Irish charities.
BMI regional increased its baggage allowance from 20kgs to 23kgs,
IATA said global airline passenger demand was up 6.3pc in 2016 with 700 new routes. United Airlines two-day 2017 Global Leadership Conference in Chicago saw 700 leaders from around the world, including Chief Executive Officer Oscar Munoz pack more than a quarter of a million meals for children suffering from malnutrition in El Salvador.
RYANAIR launched new winter routes from Dublin to Tours 2w and Valencia 2w. CITYJET acquired Cimber from SAS. A survey by the Central Bank suggested Ireland now has 1,132 aviation leasing firms.
NORWEGIAN leapfrogged Southwest as the first 737 Max operator. AERCAP said it expected more wide body deferrals. Aercap amended and extended two term loan facilities for the total amount of $2.25bn. AVOLON expanded its owned and managed fleet by 72pc% to 262 aircraft in 2016. CITYJET signed a conditional purchase agreement for six CRJ900 aircraft, and has taken options on another four.
CAR published the draft decision on the
interim review of the 2014 determination of the maximum level of airport charges at Dublin airport.
Airline CEOs at the Airlines for Europe summit in Brussels
Legacy-LCs unite Airlines for Europe hold first birthday summit
M
ichael O’Leary’s vision of a European aviation model where are the low-cost carriers look after short haul routes and feed the legacy who just do long-haul seems closer to coming to pass. Just as Ryanair are signing deals to feed the networks of Norwegian and Aer Lingus, the airlines for Europe conference in Brussels struck the same theme. The summit in Brussels brought
EUROPEAN AIRLINES 1 Ryanair 116.m 2 Lufthansa Group 109.7m 3 IAG 100.7m 4 Air France-KLM 93.4m 5 EasyJet 74.5m 6 Turkish Airlines 62.8m 7 Aeroflot Group 43.4m 8 Norwegian 29.3m 9 Air Berlin Group 28.9m 10 SAS Group 28.1m 11 Alitalia 23m 12 Pegasus Airlines 24.14m 13 Wizz Air10 22.78m 14 Aegean Airlines 11.6m 15 S7 Group 13.15m 16 TAP Portugal 11.72m 17 Finnair 10.87m
together Europe’s largest airlines. The group of CEOs (“we agree on more topics than we disagree”) joined to request EU action on taxes, ATC strikes (22 separate strikes in Europe in 2016), the ICAO deal, airport charges and the prospect of foreign flights slipping under the radar of EU emissions limits. Thomas Reynaert told the summit that A4E :managed to push successfully for the removal of the €2.50 increase of the Italian boarding tax” Michael O’Leary said, sitting beside Carsten Spohr: “our job in Germany will be to keep Carsten honest.” Spohr retorted: “O’Leary used to talk about Lufthansa disappearing ‘now he needs lawyers to stop us talking about the Air Berlin wet lease. In case Jean-Marc Janaillac would feel left out, O’Leary interjected a discussion on low fares: “even Air France offers the occasional low fare.” O’Leary reiterated the Ryanair and Norwegian plan to start joint feeder flights from summer 2017 onward, talking up Donald Trump among other subjects, and declaring “I think that legacy carriers such as Air France-KLM and Lufthansa will
work within five years with Ryanair and EasyJet. We’ll feed them their long haul because we can do it much cheaper. He said Ryanair is ready to buy more Boeing planes if others defer and prices are cheap, but that’s not yet happening. “If you look at the three big legacy carriers in Europe BA, Air France, Lufthansa they’ve begun to realise that the old model is now under threat: We make money on longhaul, we lose money on short-haul, but short-haul feeds long-haul. Because now they’re increasingly facing competition and threats to the long-haul market from the Gulf carriers. They can now no longer support loss-making short-haul feeder services. So they’re looking around for new ways of lowering the cost of feeder services and the obvious way to do that is to take feed from lowcost carriers at their hub airports,. Famously when Mme Bulc met the airlines for Europe group she asked them to help formulate transport policy. Michael O’Leary interjected to say: “Yes, we will help you.” Mme Bulc should be careful what she wishes for.
HOGAN DEFENDS ETIHAD MODEL
T
wo competing aviation conferences brought a cast of aviation heavy hitters toDublin. At the Airline Economics Growth Frontiers Dublin at The Shelbourne Dublin, David Siegel told
delegates “aircraft leasing investment no longer a well kept secret.”Over in the conference centre Steve Udvar-Hazy told the Air Finance conference: ‘the lessors are always profitable, the airlines are sometimes profitable.”
Takeaways from the conference include the statement by James Hogan that the Etihad partnership model is working, AerCap’s Gus Kelly said he was not interested in Boeing 777X or Airbus A330neo, Pegasus Air-
lines would like A320neo faster given good performance. I Ireland’s aircraft leasing sector is gearing up for a surge based on Asia growth. AerCap reported transactions covering 458 aircraft in 2016.
MARCH 2017 PAGE 31
THE FLYING COLUMN
Aviation with Gerry O’Hare
Cityjet at the cusp Pat Byrne in expansion mode as Cityjet buys Cimber
C
ityJet’s purchase of Cimber Air was confirmed last month, with a SAS wet-lease contract, up to 10 more new Bombardier CRJ900. Six were ordered plus four options), to replace 11 Cimber CRJ900, 23 CRJ900 in CityJet operation in peak 2017. CityJet announced the acquisition of Cimber A/S, the Copenhagen-based subsidiary of SAS Scandinavian Airlines and a major six year wet lease contract from SAS to operate regional services from Copenhagen. CityJet’s current wet lease contract with SAS will increase from three years to six years and the Irish airline has also placed order/ options for up to 10 new Bombardier CRJ900 jets to replace the current Cimber A/S aircraft during 2017 and 2018. The acquisition of Cimber and the
NORWEGIAN is expected to open
four new bases in 2017, Stewart (for New York) Providence RI (for Boston), Edinburgh and Riga.
LUFTHANSA Deutsche Lufthansa
and Etihad Airways announced a catering and aircraft maintenance partnership that could lead to a broader alliance.
WIZZ Air’s 19pc growth in 2016 was the fastest among Europe’s top 20 airline groups, average growth rate was 22pc over the past decade. AMERICAN Airlines dropped seatback video screens in new B737s, claiming that 90pc of passengers now bring their own device. AER LINGUS
January traffic up 12.3pc over same month in 2016.
Cathal O’Connell Cityjet Commercial Director and Pat Byrne CEO Cityjet wet lease contract came into effect from 31Jan. CityJet has taken control of Cimber and will continue to operate its Copenhagen network on behalf of SAS using Cimber’s current fleet of 11 CRJ900 aircraft. SAS and Cimber A/S operate services on behalf of SAS to more than 30 Euro-
pean destinations. With the addition of the Cimber aircraft, CityJet’s fleet of CRJ900 jets will increase to 23 this summer, operated exclusively on behalf of SAS, with all aircraft in SAS colours and crewed by CityJet staff.
HELI SERVICE A Eurocopter 135 helicopter emergency medical service helicopter visited Cape Clear, West Cork, and Cork City, as part of a promotional tour of Munster. BRENDAN FINUCANE A documentary premiered in Dublin about Dublin-born Brendan Finucane who became a poster boy for the RAF during the war when he shot down the German fighter pilot Adolph Galland.
Free th nking ble independent A Fresh Approach As an independent airport we have a fresh approach to doing business with our customers. With more flights, more destinations and more choice it’s time you gave Shannon some fresh thought.
Isabel Harrison isabel.harrison@shannonairport.ie +353 (0)61 712 629
Isabel Harrison Shannon Airport
ll l e d ing b ine ith
Declan Power declan.power@shannonairport.ie +353 (0)61 712 403
shannonairport.ie
u
MARCH 2017 PAGE 32
THE FLYING COLUMN Aviation with Gerry O’Hare KERRY BERLIN INTEGRATING SYSTEMS DELAYS
Surprise route announcement of the month was the Ryanair’s 2w winter service from Kerry airport in Farranfore to Berlin to commence in November. Shannon-Schonefeld remains bookable.
FACTCHECK asked if Michael
O’Leary and Ryanair are right about Dublin Airport charges and concluded Ryanair claimed that the DAA’s charges were rising did not provide evidence to support the claim that charges were rising, but rather figures showing their annual payments had been increasing, which is not the same thing. Just one fee, the third party reduced mobility fee, has increased from 35c to 44c per passenger. Where in 2016 the DAA charged separate rates per passenger for departures from Terminals 1 and 2, from March 27 this year, those rates are consolidated.
R
yanair hope to feed Norwegian and Aer Lingus long haul by May 2017. In reply to a question from Travel Extra, Michael O’Leary CEO of Ryhanair said: “We are all working hard to make it happen for the summer of 2017.
:The problem is we are on Navitaire which is a pretty inflexible reservations system. We are not on the GD’s. We are on a form of GDS light. Our technical people are working with Aer Lingus’s technical people and Norwegian’s technical people to find a way to allow them to see our inventory
and sell our cheap seats as feeders into them. The actual physical handing over of the passengers and the transfer of the bags in Dublin at Norwegian’s airports, that is reasonably straightforward, we could do that reasonably quickly. We are certainly prioritising it within Ryanair.
I know it is prioritised in Aer Lingus and Norwegian at the highest levels. The tech teams are working it out and as soon as we get it worked out, I would be hopeful we would be feeding into someone, be it Norwegian or Aer Lingus, by April or May of this year.”
ANNA aero analysis showed that Ryanair
has 1,486 routes operating during summer 2017, 150 more routes than it served summer 2016, ahead of American (1,040), Delta (979), United (940), Easyjet (840), Southwest (738), China Southern (573), Wizz (536). Thomson (512) and China Eastern (499).
PAPAL VISIT At a press conference in Rome Michael O’Leary offered to fly Pope Francis on his Ireland visit.
WRIGHTS
of Howth opened ‘A New Taste of Ireland’ airside in T1, beside the 300 gates.
WOW air said they are to introduce cut price business class on their Keflavik one stop services to the USA.
Michael O’Leary at winter routes announcement in Dublin
PASSENGER numbers are up for Irish airports in January, with Dublin Airport reporting overall numbers up by 9pc and on course for 30.4m in 2017, North America up 28pc and transfer passengers up 45pc, for January. Belfast is Ireland;s fastest growing airport with numbers up by a colossal 34pc, largely thanks to Ryanair’s Gatwick route,putting the airport on track for 54m passengers in ast year, in its first full year 2017.Cork was up 6pc with their English serviunder IAG ownership, Aer ces up 7pc and on course for 32.36m in 2017. Lingus added 350 jobs, bringDonegal airport numbers for 2016 increased ing its total to more than 4,000 and 21pc to 45,000. is regarded as the darling of the IAG family. WILLIE WALSH said IAG Group CEO Stephen Kavanagh told`John will not be using Aer Lingus for its planned Mulligan of the Irish Independent low-cost long-haul airline as it is not well that the airline has a limited number known enough outside of Ireland of US gateways to which it can expand. RYANAIR’s latest travel insurance partner Europe Assistance offers cover on an unlimited number of European trips, of up to 28 days each in duration.
Next for Lingus
L
AIR CANADA got a new look to tie in with the nation’s 150th birthday. The Air Canada Rouge brand which operates out of Ireland with 14 flights a week from Dublin to Toronto and Vancouver in peak summer season and year round service to Toronto is unchanged.
IRAN and Ireland signed an aviation MoU to broaden cooperation.
B
Kavanagh worries about missed opportunities If we continue to grow New York JFK, for example, it just improves the efficiency of the hub at Dublin and it means that there’s more connecting opportunities to England and Europe as a result. It is not necessarily the spread of destinations; its more the quality of the network that we’re focused on.” We have delivered more change in the past two years than we delivered in the previous decade. Aer Lingus
has about a 2.5pc share of total transatlantic capacity, flying 1.7m such passengers last year out of a total 11.9m it carried in 2016. The ambition, is to at least challenge the 3pc of transatlantic capacity figure. That would see it add between three and five more aircraft, adding as many 500 jobs. The airline will offer more than 2.2m transatlantic seats this year.
CITYJET PURCHASE 6 CRJ900
ombardier Commercial Aircraft announced that CityJet has signed a conditional purchase agreement for six CRJ900 aircraft and has also taken options on an additional four aircraft. Based on the list price of the CRJ900 aircraft,
the conditional order is valued at approximately US$280m and could increase to $467m, should CityJet exercise all its options. CityJet currently owns a fleet of 8 CRJ900 aircraft which are on wet lease service with SAS.
The airline will also take delivery of 4 new CRJ900 aircraft in early 2017 as per Bombardier’s order announcement on 25 Apr 16, bringing CityJet’s owned fleet of CRJ900 aircraft to 12.
CityJet will operate Cimber’s fleet of 11 CRJ900 aircraft also on wet lease service with SAS as part of its acquisition of Cimber. . These aircraft will be replaced by up to 10 additional CRJ900 aircraft
MARCH 2017 PAGE 33
THE FLYING COLUMN
Aviation with Gerry O’Hare
A380 experience
Emirates plan to bring world’s largest aircraft to Dublin
E
mirates intends takings its A380 to Dublin in mid 2018, but it will likely be used on the second daily flight, the evening service, rather than the morning service where it more likely to be required. As part of a round of interviews given by Enda Corneille , Ireland country manager of Emirates, to celebrate five years of service on Dublin to Dubai he said that when the airport is ready to take the A380, Emirates will be ready to put it on the route The A380 is already on service on routes such as Dubai-Prague. Emirates is the largest user of the airline worldwide with 92 in service and 49 on order. It also has 138 Boeing 777300ER, the airline on service on its double daily flights from Dublin to Dubai. The difficulties to be overcome start with the double decker gate, likely to be constructed at the end of the 400 pier and the upgrade of the
BRUSSELS Airlines is to wet lease three Cityjet SSJ100 Superjets from April 17 on 2-year contract. FINNAIR
is to increase its Helsinki service from Dublin to 9w from March 27..
RYANAIR ’s app is the most downloaded travel app in Europe with 17m. Ryanair launched 200 new routes in 2016, more than any other airline, and reached a deal to offer nine new routes at Stansted.. AER LINGUS REGIONAL’s Donegal services carried 25pc more people in 2016, 40,000 passengers flew from Donegal to Dublin and Glasgow.
SUKHOI repaired six of 11 Interjet Superjet 100s that had stabiliser defects. STOBART
revived the €14m buyout of a 33pc stake in Propius leasing firm that supplies its planes despite a wider plan to merge with CityJet being scrapped.
IN flight bar on baord the A380 runway to take an aircraft loaded with 489 passengers, and extend to refuelling. Using current facilities the A380 would take six hours to refuel at Dublin airport. By December 2018 a further 40 A380s will join the Emirates fleet.
Corneille says: “The earliest it can come is summer 2018. It would be hugely exciting for our customers to have ana A380 experience to Dubai and onwards. It would give us a consistency of service.”
HEATHROW reported 75,676,000 passengers in 2016, Manchester 35m, Stansted 24.3m. London City said Dublin was its third most popular route thanks to competing Cityjet and BA services. It reported 4.5m passengers in 2016, up 5pc. AER LINGUS moved Shan-
non-Heathrow to the earlier time of 7.30am
CANADA FOR EVERYONE
Direct flights
Luggage and meals included
DUBLIN > CANADA DUBLIN
TORONTO
DUBLIN
MONTREAL
airtransat.ie | 00 800 872 672 83
DUBLIN
VANCOUVER
*
DUBLIN
CALGARY
*
DUBLIN
QUEBEC* *with connecting flights
MARCH 2017 PAGE 34
GLOBAL VILLAGE .SEVEN suppliers who are members of Travel Partners bring their roadshow to Sligo on March 29th and Ballinasloe on March 30th, hotels to be decided yet.
BRAND USA are asking agent to
register here for the seven-itinerary 2017 Megafam, their fifth, at. Register bookings made to the USA until April 3 with American Airlines or British Airways, complete the megafam 2017 badge, and pass on as many specialist badges as you can.
Inside the Travel Business
ITIT HAS UNLIMITED CAR PARKING
T
he Irish Travel Industry Trade Show (takes place from 2.00pm - 7.00pm on March 22nd 2017 in the RDS Hall 3. The show will have in excess of 120 exhibitors made up of airlines, bed-
banks, airports, car rental, ground handlers, cruise lines, technology, theme & leisure parks, tour operators/travel agents, travel insurance and national and regional destinations. Spanish sponsored lunch for travel agents, BBQ &
Entertainment for travel agents sponsored by Aer Lingus. Both events will be held in the historic RDS Concert Hall & Library, opened in 1924. Portuguese workshop now part of the Show with 16 exhibitors. For the first
time CLIA has joined up with 8 cruise lines and Spain & USA very well represented. There are plenty of great exhibitor prizes for visitors There will be unlimited free car parking for exhibitors and visitors
FRED OLSEN have promoted Kate
Wooldridge to the new role of sales services communications manager and Carla Ball to specialist sales manager. Zoe Allum f becomes trade support executive.
TRAVELWORLD Darach Cul-
ligan has moved his travel agency business, Travelworld, from Camden Street to Malahide.
WENDY WU Tours Ireland manager John Booty was named best of the group’s 16 regional sales people in 2016. Most popular destinations in the Irish market are China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan and India and the most popular tour is the 16-day Wonders of China. John Warr of Wendy Wu Tours says “The plan is to keep doubling the numbers John Warr says. This year we will do 1m worth and more and we are on track to hit our target. We have achieved two thirds of our target for 2017.” CAR The Commission for Aviation Regulation issued four new travel agent licences, to Island Marketing in Dundrum, Ansar Travel in Coolmine, Makka Travels in Longford, and Fanfare/Irish Film Tours, in Dublin 1. TRAVEL COUNSELLORS Cathy Burke’s 60 Irish Travel Counsellors issued their top ten destinations for January: 1 Orlando, 2 Faro, 3 New York, 4 Las Vegas, 5 Cancun, 6 Lanzarote. 7 Cape Town, 8 San Francisco, 9 Sydney and 10 Lake Garda.
TRAILFINDERS appointed journalism graduate Caoimhe Harkin as a journalist and blogger and Niall Waters as Sales and Marketing Manager. FALCON Belinda Vazquez has been appointed as Head of Ireland for Falcon, Thomson & Crystal, where she will assume responsibility for the WORLDCHOICE Ireland Confer-
ence is to be held in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Galway on Nov 18th 2017.
FINNAIR
awarded its GSA contract to Catherine Grennell-Whyte’s ATTS.
FALCON have increased their deposit
for winter 2017 to €150 for short and mid haul and €300 for long haul. The low deposit is €75 and €300 for families. Falcon have introduced a third party flying system allowing agents to book Aer Lingus flights.
LOCALMARKETING Clem Walshe relaunched his localmarketing.ie.
INDIA Chilka Gangadhar is the new Assistant Director London for India Tourism,
Pat Dawson and Maureen Ledwith announce the Travel industry trade show
Temporary closure Ryanair says it will have holiday division by end Feb
R
yanair says it hopes to reinstate its package holiday division, Ryanair Holidays, by the end of February after announcing it has suspended the service. The temporary shutdown has been blamed on ‘illegal screenscraping and mis-selling of Ryanair flights by the software provider’, according to the company. LogiTravel CEO Tomeu Bennasar says part of the agreement was that it
would develop a “direct connection to the Ryanair booking system”. He insists that the company has “never engaged in scraping Ryanair’s website and is connected to the GDSs and flight consolidators to obtain content. At Logitravel we do not add any fees to the supply of a seat on any airline. For us, the flight seat component has become a commodity product and our only goal is to provide our customers with the best
option for them but we do not make ANY money on the flight component.” Regarding the partnership, he adds: We have enjoyed being part of the project as we hold the Ryanair business model, as well as its CEO in very high regard. Ryanair, however, has taken the unilateral decision to remove Logitravel from the project. This decision was taken one month ago but we offered to continue “
KATHRICE JOINS BLUE WIN-A-CAR FINALISTS
K
athrice Gunning of Cassidy travel is the January finalist in the competition to win a Polo Magnifico run by Blue Insurances. She joins Angela Taylor from Oasis Travel, Helena Kilduff from Skytours, Rose Kane from Kane’s Travel in Longford, Claire Mul-
ligan from Clubworld Travel, Mandy Walsh of Travel Counsellors, Rita Gaughan from Limerick Travel, Kate McGillycuddy from Abbey Travel in Killarney, Nicola Quigley from O’Hanrahan Travel and Ross Waters from Tour America in the competition for a new car. Blue Insurances re-
minds agents to have their own unique login to make bookings count for their monthly draw. Agents can win a bonus place at the final by posting humourous pictures or videos featuring themselves with a car to Facebook or Twitter with the hashtag #DontRenewUnlessItsBlue
Kathrice Gunning
MARCH 2017 PAGE 35
TRAVEL WRITER AWARDS 2017
winner of the Newcomer/Young Journalist Award, Conor Haugh of the Sunday Independent with Charlotte Brenner of Falcon Holidays
winner of the Short Break Award, Jamie Blake Knox, Sunday Independent and Natalie de laune of the Malta Tourist Authority
winner of the Sun Holiday Award, Madeleine Keane, Sunday Independent for a feature on v Malta & Gozo and Marie Claire Porter Sunway.
winner of the Broadcasting Award Mary Fanning, RTE Nationwide for a feature on food in Derry and John Spollon of Cassidy Travel
YvonneGordonis travelwriterofyear
Y
vonne Gordon was presented with the Travel Extra Journalist of the Year Award at a ceremony held to coincide with the annual Holiday World Show. Ten other winners, each for different holidaying categories, were announced on Friday night at a dinner in Thomas Prior House, Ballsbridge which was attended by the cream of Irish travel and tourism writers and broadcasters. The event was sponsored by the Spanish Tourism Office and Costa Dorada. The award winners were chosen by a distinguished panel of senior Irish journalists. This year saw a huge increase in the number of submissions from previous years, displaying the creativity and continuing innovation of travel and tourism journalism in Ireland. Newcomer/Young Journalist Award Conor Haugh, Sunday Independent for a feature on Myanmar, Sponsored by Falcon Holidays Home Holiday Award, Yvonne Gordon, Sunday Times for a feature on Lighthouses, Ballycotton, Sponsored by Fáilte Ireland Northern Ireland Award, Jasper Winn, Country Walking Magazine, Sponsored by Tourism Northern Ireland
Overall winner Yvonne Gordon with Eoghan Corry and Sharon Jordan of Uniworld River Cruise Spain Award Isabel ConShort Break Award Jamie Blake way, Sunday World for a feature Knox, Sunday Independent, Sponon Salamanca, and the Irish Exam- sored by Malta Tourism Authority iner & Sunday Business Post both Long Haul Award Dara for a feature on Tenerife Walking, Flynn, Sunday Times for a feature Sponsored by Spanish TB. on Toronto, Sponsored by Turkish Broadcasting Award Mary Fan- Airlines and Rixos Hotels ning, RTE Nationwide for a broadOverall winner of the Travel cast feature on Food in Derry, Extra Travel Journalist of the Year Sponsored by Cassidy Travel Award, Yvonne Gordon The sponSkiing Award C a t h e r i n e sor of the award for overall winner Murphy, Daily Mail for a feature is Uniworld River Cruise. entitled Chalet Girl, Sponsored by Previous winners of the overall Topflight & Gastein Tourist Board award were: 2002 Cleo Murphy, Austria 2003-4 Pól Ó Conghaile, 2005 Digital Award Janet Newen- Kathryn Thomas, 2006 Muriel Bolham, Journalist on the Run, Spon- ger, 2007 Philip Nolan, 2008 Pól Ó sored by Click&Go Conghaile, 2009 Mark Evans 2010 Sun Holiday Award, Madeleine Philip Nolan 2011 Isabel Conway Keane, Sunday Independent for a 2012 Sue Morrell. 2013-4 Pól Ó feature Malta & Gozo, Sponsored Conghaile, 2015 Isabel Conway by Sunway 2016 Yvonne Gordon
winner of the Home Holiday AwardYvonne Gordon, Sunday Times for a feature on Lighthouses, Ballycotton and Helen Brady of Failte Ireland.
Cora Miguel of Portaventura, Isabel Conway and Marta Farrero of Costa Daurada tourism
Tribute to Michael Keane at the travel writer awards
All the award winners for 2017
winner of the Long Haul Award Dara Flynn, Sunday Times, Ebry Aksoy of Rixos Hotels and Hasan Mutlu of Turkish Airlines
Award collected by David Korowicz on behalf of Jasper Winn, Country Walking Magazine and Fiona Cunningham of Tourism Northern Ireland.
Paulette Moran applauds during a tribute to Gerry O’Hare at the travel writer awards
MARCH 2017 PAGE 36
WINDOW SEAT Last month in numbers 9m The number of visitors to the Cliffos of
Moher visitor centre in the 10 years since it opened
8.77m Passenger number on Ryanair flights in January, a record January for the airline 1.9m January passenger figures at Dublin airport. a recod for the airport 34pc January passenger growth rate at Belfast International, now Ireland’s fastest growing airport iu33 Average Ryanair fare in Q3 2016
iu30 Average Ryanair fare in 2021 according to Michael O’Leary
I
WHERE HISTORY COLLIDES
n “Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities” Ms Betany Hughes plays sophisticated tricks with time and space, which she says need to be reconsidered when contemplating something as huge as Istanbul’s history. The book opens with something which is very new and simultaneously very old, the metro excavations which is throwing up fresh archaeological evidence of the area’s earliest human settlement. Among the finds is an 8,000-year-
Istanbul: Tale of Three Cities. By Bettany Hughes. Orion; 800 pages; £25
old wooden coffin. A recurring theme is that through an endless succession of despotic emperors and sultans, the city’s underdogs have always had their say. She draws parallels between the protests of 2013 and the uprising of 532AD, known as the Nika riots, when passions felt by rival factions
at the hippodrome eveolved into a general uprising against authority. She says the city has always lent itself to rioting: crowds can assemble in its great public squares, and then its steep, narrow alleys can serve either as escape routes or traps. In Istanbul, history is simultaneously present and in some way still unfolding. Long may it remain so.
Busman’s holiday: Teresa Gancedo Every month we ask a leading travel professional to write about their personal holiday experience. This month: Teresa Gencedo Director of the Spamish Tourist Board in Dublin
I
f somebody asked you: “What is your favourite type of music?” What would you answer? Rock? Pop? Flamenco? You would probably answer: “it depends on the mood you woke up in that day”. The same occurs to me with holidays. My favourite holidays, my favourite holidays…the more I think about it the hardest is to decide where I have spent the most wonderful vacation in my life. However, what I do remember from every holiday, whether it was in the north or in the south is that it was always unique every year. The first place that comes to my mind right now is Asturias, in the north of Spain. I still laugh when I remember my dad trying to pour cider in an old sidrería or trying to decide whether to devour an amazing fabada or an excellent cachopo in the town of Avilés.
W
I close my eyes and still see myself walking through its arcaded buildings and watching the sunrise at one of the restaurants at the port to end the day in an ancient casona surrounded by a vast green meadow. Another year, we visited the Basque Country. I was amazed by the contrast between the modern and industrialized Bilbao, its Guggenheim museum and Vizcaya Bridge and the beautiful fortified medieval city of Laguardia where it was hard to say no to another glass of wine offered to us in the colourful vineyards. Another unforgettable experience was the one I lived with my daughters in Galicia. Just like if we had travelled back in time we did the Camino de Santiago from Ribadeo riding stunning light brown horses. However, that was not enough and we decided to take a turn to Ría de Arousa for a truly Galician experience: a mariñeira work day. As I write about it still draws a smile on my face to remember my daughters at the mussel bateas (a wooden floating plat-
Beautiful Asturias form on the sea, with ropes that go into the water) trying to feed the seagulls by lifting their arms with a mussel in their hands. It is interesting what our mind remembers. That is my case when I think about our trip to Seville. As soon as I got off the train from Madrid the fresh orange blossom aroma told me straight away I was there. As I walked through the busy cobblestoned streets of the city centre I couldn’t but smile just by looking at people’s joyful faces and listening to their high voice tone. Everyone seemed to know each other! I just had to join the fun! We stayed in this beautiful hotel with its splendid typical patio and its amazing rooftop terrace where we enjoyed the incredible view of the city,
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
e started the year of uncertainty with the USA readying itself for am inevitable constitutional crisis by imposing a travel ban. Everyone is affected by a travel ban. Airlines have to change crew rosters, travel agents and check in staff have to make neopolitical and sectarian decisions as they do their daily job. The travel community has been inundated with calls from muslims asking if theya re allowed
to travel to the USA under the new regime. Travel bans that single people out by race or religion or are more than blunt instruments. The US, as a nation, is in the process of doing something arbitrary, something that makes racial profiling at airports look mild, banning all the citizens of a grou. Racial profiling in airports has been a contentious issue over the past two decades with the countries
that relentlessly profile by race, like Australia and Israel, being singled out for criticism. The message from the international travel community should be clear. You do not, cannot make borders safer by keeping people out. You do not make borders safer by ramping up the paranoia and xenophobia to extraordinary levels. You make borders and the world safer by welcoming people in.
its typical red tile roofs and the Giralda tower. Nonetheless, the city of Seville is too lively to simply stay in, so hiring a little boat at Parque María Luisa and row all together while singing every single Spanish hit from all times was the best idea of the day! Finally, I am from Madrid and although every time I fly back home is not necessarily a holiday. I still love the hustle and bustle of the city, the crazy Rastro market on Sundays, having a drink at La Latina or simply enjoy sunny days at el Retiro Park. Therefore, going back to what I thought was difficult to answer, I can say now that I do have a favourite place to spend my favourite holidays in: Spain.
IN YOUR NEXT TRAVEL EXTRA: Available to Travel Agents or online March 21 2017
CRUISE ISSUE Royal MSC Celebrity Norwegian TRAVEL INDUSTRY TRADE SHOW
MARCH 2017 PAGE 37
Out and about with the Travel Trade
A and Ieva RamanausJean Maxwell of the ITA y World 2017 in the lida kaite of the ITAA at Ho blin Du RDS Simmonscourt in
Yvonne Muldoon of Ae r mond of Dublin Airport Lingus and Edel Redat the Irish Tourism Ind try Awards in Dublin, us-
McWillliams of Aer Lin Jenny Rafter and Jenna blin Du gus at Holiday world
Dawn Conway of Sunw ay and Kristin Skinner American Holidays of
lin of Hello France at Ho Derry and Mary Creme S Simmonscourt in RD day World 2017 in the Dublin
Maura Maloney of Du blin O’Hanlon of Travelfind Airport and Peter ers dustry Awards in the Ma at the Irish Travel Innsion House
MEETING PLACE
Siobhan Boskett McGuigan and Trish O’Leary of Marek Maslowev of Em Amadeus at the Irish Travel Industry Awards in of Classic Resorts at irates and Fiona Dobbyn Ho the Mansion House RDS Simmonscourt in liday World 2017 in the Dublin
Paul Manning of Hertz, Erica Oglesby of MSC Cruises, Niall McDonnell of Classic Collection and Ray Scully of SHGI at the ITIA awards
Maloney and Shannon Valerie Murphy, Karen Irish Travel Industry O’Dowd of Etihad at the use Ho Awards in the Mansion
Jim Deegan of Irish Rail Tours, Margaret Jeffares Kathryn MacDonnell of The Spanish Toourist Board, Mary Denton of of Good Good Ireland and Howard Hastings of Su and Charlotte Brenner. nway, Eoghan Corry Hastings Hotel Group at the TourismNI event of Falcon Holidays
Brendan Mallon of WTC, Diane Poole of Stena and Christine Donnelly formerly of Falcon Holidays
rkey Guinness and Orla Ma Leona Farrell, Pam Mc ll at the ITIA awards rre of Crystal and Dave Fa
John Barry and Paul Ma Noel Caffrey of CIE tours, Clare McCoy of World 2017 in the RD nning of Hertz at Holiday S Simmonscourt in Du TouruismNI and Noel Murphy of Matthews tours, blin at the TourismNI event in The Ulster Museum,
Mary Kate Lavin of Aer Lingus, Kevin Shannon of Odyssey International and Paula Donaghy of Aer Lingus at the Irish Tourism Industry Awards
ine eania cruises and Ela Alex Farquharson of Oc Cruise Co at the ITIA rs/ oke Bo O’Brien of Travel awards
MARCH 2017 PAGE 38
MEETING PLACE
d Worldchoice Ireland an Carol Anne O’Neill of Holiday at s lor sel un Co vel Cathy Burke of Tra blin S Simmonscourt in Du World 2017 at the RD
Clodagh Oxley of Visit USA Ireland and Decla Power of Shannon air port at the ITIA award n s in the Mansion House
Out and about with the Travel Trade
Frank Dillon of Today FM with Tony and Neal Collins of Topflight on the Today FM ski trip to Kirchberg
Maureen Ledwith of Bu siness Exhibtions and Liam Keller of Keller tra vel lifetime achievemen t winner at the Irish Tra vel Industry Awards
Thomas McNally of Bedsonline and Jason Ferries, Jim Deegan of Whelan of Blue Insurances at Holiday World 2017 Marie McCarthy of Irish Pye of Irish Ferries at ne An at the RDS Simmonscourt in Dublin Irish Rail Tours and Holiday World
Volker Lorenz of Amad of C cruises, Polly Bond eu Antonio Paradiso of MS cca Kelly of MSC Cruises Emma Arnott and Chris Lee of Thailand Tourism Cruisingexcursions.com s, Damien Mooney of and Peter McMinn of be at Holiday World 2017 in the RDS Simmonscourt Travel Solutions Tour America and Re in Dublin s ard aw A at the ITI
Jack Sheil and Pat Da ws Holiday World 2017 in on CEO of the ITAA at the RDS Simmonscou rt in Dublin
nd Dawn Conway of Su Karl Moen of Disney an the RDS Simmonscourt in way at Holiday World in Dublin
Caitriona Butler of Iris h Fe of Brittany Ferries at Ho rries and Hugh Bruton liday world Dublin
Steve Williams of MSC and Antonio Paradiso of MSCat Holiday World 2017 in the RDS Simmonscourt in Dublin
lcon and Kathryn MacAntoinette Young of Fa Tourist Board office in Donnell of the Dpanish s Dublin at the ITIA award
Önder Gençer, Julie Curran, Onur Gul, Hasan Mutlu Jen ny Rafter of Aer Lingu and Alper Kanburoglu of Turkish Airlines at the Irish of s MSC at the Irish Travel and Steve Williams Travel Industry Awards in the Mansion House Industry Awards in the Mansion House
Cora Miguel of Portaventura and Natalia Bel of Salou Tourism at Holiday World 2017 in the RDS Simmonscourt in Dublin
ey ing Travel and Philip Air in Des Manning of Mann s ard Aw ry Travel Indust of Sunway at the Irish use Ho on nsi Ma the
MARCH 2017 PAGE 39
MEETING PLACE
Out and about with the Travel Trade
at teresa Gancedo of the Spanish Tourist Board in jo Rzymowska. of Celebrity Cruise Flood of Tour America s, Liz Wright and Veronica RDS Simmonscourt in Dublin and Antonio martin of Andalusia Tourism of Dublin Port and Lorraine Quinn of Pat Ward the Celebrity at 17 20 Cru rld ise Wo y s at Holiday World 2017 at Fitur 2017 in Madrid Holida Dublin
Robert Duff of Etihad wit Toner and Yvonne Bra h Liz Conlan, Caitriona uverger of American Air lines -
Vicki Wren, Lydia Britton, Tanya Marchetti, Sarah san Mutlu of Turkish Air Onder Gencer and Ha Amadeus, Onur Gul of Fowler and Ashley Toft of Explore at Holiday y of lines, Olwen McKinne A awards world Dublin ITI the at s line Air h Turkis
s nรงer of Turkish Airline Onur Gul and ร nder Ge the RDS Simmonscourt Arijana Bogdanovic, Rebecca Dunne, Georgina at 17 Kelly, Clare Dunne, Karen Ray and Louise at Holiday World 20 Dunne of The Travel Broker in Dublin
Irene Smith, Claire Mu rphy and Charlotte Bre nner of Falcon Holidays at the Awards in the Mansion Irish Travel Industry House
irine Slator and Aida Sk Suzanne Mulligan, Ela ry ust Ind vel Tra h Iris the mantaite of Falcon at House Awards in the Mansion
Nadia Pallas of Sri La nka Flanagan of Premair at Tourism and Eamon Holiday World 2017 at RDS Simmonscourt in the Dublin
Brendan Mallon of WTC, Diane Poole of Stena and Christine Donnelly formerly of Falcon Holidays
Sharon Jordan of The Travel Corporation an d Paul Manning of Hertz at the irish Tourism Ind try Awards in Dublin, us-
of en and Volker Lorenz Daniel Giles of Hurtigrut rld 2017 at the RDS SimAmadeus at Holiday Wo monscourt in Dublin
Roland Monsegu of Camino Ways, Daragh Han- Wendy Ca me ritty of Cork Airport and Martin Toomey of Camino Giles of Hu ron of Superbreaks and Daniel rtigruten at the Irish Tra Ways at the Irish Travel Industry Awards vel Industry Awards in the Mansion House
Kleri Tyropoli of Odyssey International Group and Grainne Quinn of Budget School and Group Tours at the Irish Tourism Industry Awards
e Insurances and MauCiaran Mulligan of Blu ITIA ess Exhibitions at the reen Ledwith of Busin C TT by ed osr spn nt eve awards pre-ceremony
/ turkishairlines
B777 BUSINESS CLASS 24x33cm ING.indd 1
/ TurkishAirlines
/ turkishAirlines
01 525 18 49
9.02.2017 17:40