June 2007 Archives

Just had lunch with Cheapflights.co.uk CEO David Soskin and head of international development Hugo Burge.

Hugo has been working on a self-financed travel networking site called Hereorthere.com, which Nathan writes about below. I'm slightly sceptical about the idea, as I can’t see what is new about the concept – but Hugo assures me he has had positive comments from the online community.

Cheapflights is also looking to develop Dohop.com, a sort of OAG service for the consumer, enabling consumers to find flight times. If Heretothere and Dohop take off we could see both become part of the Cheapflights offering.

These are exciting times for David and Hugo - strong growth and ambition. And they are bringing in talented people. For example, Francesca Ecsery-Merrens will shortly be starting as UK general manager. Francesca joins from STA Travel where she was MD of the international division.

Couldn't help myself asking David what he loves and hates about flying:

• Loves: airlines that provide a wide range of films. Virgin and BA get the thumbs up.
• Hates: Being interrupted mid-flight by attendants trying to sell duty free.

And the two things he would like Travel Weekly to do:

1. Lobby on behalf of the industry on environmental issues.
2. Help break BAA’s monopoly of London airports.

We’ve been working on number one – keep watching Travel Weekly for our coverage of environmental issues.

And as for Heathrow, would people put up with gas or electricity being run in the same way as Heathrow? Not exactly a like for like example, but you get the gist. The BAA/Government ping pong is a joke, and the people that suffer are travel companies, airlines and consumers.

Martin Couzins, online editor

There's an episode of South Park called "The Simpsons Already Did It" in which every idea that the character Butters comes up with is met with the titular phrase.

It's easy to feel that way when new travel community sites pop up.

So the cynic in me winced at news that Cheapflights VP head of international Hugo Burge is joining this crowded space with Hereorthere.com, a place for (all together now) sharing and rating travel experiences.

The start up says: "Our mission is to uncover the secret source of travel inspiration. We are on a mission to make it easy, enjoyable and fast to share your travel experiences!"

Simpsons did it.

To be fair one feature did strike me: the ability to filter reviewers by 'lives here' and 'tourist here' on destination pages. Nice.

Hereorthere also promises 'a long list of plans to create innovative tools,' and a tie-up with Cheapflights is obviously a possibility. So you never know: my cynicism might come back to bite me.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

With Glastonbury out of the way we're fast approaching party season, and flyMonarch.com emails to tell us about a game it has produced to promote its five-times-weekly service to Ibiza.

DJ-themed online thingy 'Mix and Match' is part of an ongoing link with clubbing brand Hed Kandi, purveyor of those benign mix CDs with cartoon honeyz on the front. (Monarch also unveiled a Kandi-liveried aircraft back in April.)

As for the game, TW Blog was disappointed to find that there is no actual mixing involved, only matching. The turntables simply spin round and dole out 'win' or 'lose' at random. Huff.

Hopefully the prizes (merchandise, club tickets, flights, one trip to closing party weeked in September) are good enough to inspire clubbers to pass this on and justify the press release's 'viral' claims.

NB - In the words of the press release this is Monarch 'targeting a youth audience for the first time', which is interesting given the forthcoming shakeup of the Monarch Group's brands.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

This isn’t new but it’s timely and thanks to Lawrence Hunt, CEO at Silverjet for pointing this out.

A timely reminder of what’s just around the corner for millions of travellers this summer. No wonder Heathrow owner Ferrovial is asking the government for help to improve queues, baggage handling headaches etc.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Have to give Kev at Travolution a link for pointing us to this astonishing video.

It's a seven-hour wait on the tarmac, courtesy of Delta Airlines and New York JFK, captured and edited down to seven minutes by a disgruntled passenger.

As Kev observes, this is more evidence of the potential power of user-generated content. It will be interesting to see if Delta responds.

UPDATE: Bill Geist has responded to the video with the tenth of his Air Laws series. Good stuff.

UPDATE 2: Some prize wit has left this comment on Youtube: "DELTA stands for Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport!" Can't see anything from the airline though.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Still very uneasy times for Thomas Cook Group staff, but today we report a few encouraging words about the post-merger recruitment market.

David Speakman, whose Travel Counsellors had made clear its intention to mop up good staff squeezed out by the merger, says the company is already receiving applications from Rochdale.

Meanwhile, industry watchers told Travel Weekly:

• That a wide range of SMEs are 'poised to use this opportunity to recruit talented individuals'
• That the merger would be 'a bonanza for online companies looking for staff.'
• That online companies and call centres could be a better bet than independent agencies

So at this stage online, call centres and homeworking companies are being tipped as the best hunting grounds.

If you disagree, or are affected by the merger and looking for work yourself, share your tips and experiences in the comments or email twblog@rbi.co.uk.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Zounds! The Daily Star's take on Tony Blair's last day in power - see page four today - starts with the ex-PM reading none other than...

An old-style, pre-Esterson Travel Weekly.

Okay, he isn't a regular reader. That we know of. The shot comes from an interview with Blair back in November 2005, in which he pledged his support for a national tourism training academy.

Here's one of the originals as it appeared on our cover that week - click on it to launch the archived digital edition and read what he had to say.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

This post comes from Silversea Cruises UK director of training development Brian Hordon.

The online editor of Travel Weekly recently highlighted some research by Boo.com which found that agents are the source of travel information least trusted by consumers.

Travel review websites were in second position, which raises the issue of travel agent vs internet yet again.

Brian Hordon, director of training development, Silversea Cruises UK

• PlayStation Invades French Airports - Kotaku
  Sony Computer Entertainment France and Aéroports de Paris have signed an agreement to install video game stations in both Roissy/Charles de Gaulle and Orly
  (tags: airports entertainment sony france paris)
• Bugaboo daytrips
  Family-friendly day trips from around the world - a marketing campaign for vomitously trendy pram manufacturer Bugaboo. But a beautifully presented Flash site with a few nice ideas.
  (tags: day-trips activities)
• Coach service offers gadget charging - Springwise
  Oz operator Contiki is fitting its coaches with 'electronic charging units' so its young demographic can feed their cameras, mp3 players &c on the road. From trendspotting service Springwise
  (tags: coach australia gadgets)

Well at least we know where the Transport Salaried Staffs Association stands on the Thomas Cook / MyTravel job losses. On 10 May we quoted TSSA senior regional organiser Rick Justham saying that he could see “a lot of benefits” in the merger.

“This could be something that secures the future of high-street travel agencies in the long term. I’m hoping the combined company will pack a bigger punch,” he said.

But yesterday union general secretary Gerry Doherty said:

This will mean less choice in the High Street when it comes to holiday bookings.

We warned when the German owned Thomas Cook announced this merger that it would be the British workforce that would pay the price because of our weaker labour laws. This has now come to pass.

We now have only two big players in the High Street with the recent spate of mergers, and that cannot be good for prices or consumer choice.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Quick update on what Martin posted on the Thomas Cook Group redundancies last night. Here's a graph from Yahoo! Finance showing how the stock price dipped yesterday evening (and is recovering today 12 noon: has plunged again after a brief recovery this morning).

Meanwhile on the Travolution blog Kev echoes Martin's observation that 'heads were always going to roll in order to help make £95m of savings':

Unfortunately mergers always lead to business functions from existing companies being combined. Couple this with the obvious pressure from the internet and the old model was clearly unsustainable.

This is cold comfort to anyone who is affected by the cuts, but as Kev also points out TCG have promise to "redeploy" some agents into other business areas.

And remember that homeworking agencies Future Travel and Travel Counsellors said shortly after the merger was announced that they considered the inevitable redundancies a 'recruitment opportunity'.

Finally here's a link to the full Transport Salaried Staff Association response, which also expresses concern about the effect agency closures will have on price and consumer choice.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

A week to the day since the Thomas Cook Group started trading and it has announced it is to shed up to 2,800 jobs.

Heads were always going to roll in order to help make £95m of savings as labour costs represent 70% of businesses' overheads, but now we have had the scale of the job losses confirmed.

There now follows a period of consultation for employees. Not good for them and not good for the city - Reuters reports that shares in the Thomas Cook Group, which opened at 326p on their debut on the London Stock Market last week, were 2.7 percent lower at 311-1/2p following the announcement.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Let’s hope the weather is boosting takings right now. If the clouds are getting you down then check out my selection of top holiday pop videos from Youtube. They put a smile on my face...

1. Holiday Rap, MC Miker G & DJ Sven
2. Holiday, Madonna
3. Summer Holiday, Cliff Richard
4. Summertime, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
5. Dreadlock Holiday, 10cc

What do you think? Put together your own top five (here's a Truveo search for music videos on Youtube tagged 'holiday') and post them in the comments section.

UPDATE: Vote for which of Martin's choices is the worst on the Travel Weekly homepage. The poll will be up until Wednesday June 4...

Martin Couzins, online editor

Americas4u director Andrew Winstanley, a member of the Travel Weekly Cruise Club, sends this account of a visit to the Holland America Line vessel...

Cruise ship visits are great, but nobody who runs a travel business has time to spare. So is it worth taking a whole day out to tour a liner?

After visiting Holland America Lines MS Veendam in Dover I can say categorically that the answer is yes. There really is no substitute for seeing the product first hand.

I and around 130 other agents were met at Dover by the Holland America team, who split us into groups for an escorted tour of the ship.

Whilst MS Veendam is now 11 years old it is still a five star experience. There are exquisite works of art on most decks and it was interesting to compare this smaller 1200-berth ship with some of the superliners I have visited.

Despite its age, the ship isn’t stuck in the past. The new Explorations Café – powered by the New York Times – is an elegant coffee shop with Internet access.

I was also surprised at how good the children’s facilities are in Club Hal and the Loft, and teenagers will be delighted with their own adult-free Oasis on the sports deck.

There are all the other luxuries you would expect, such as the Greenhouse Spa and signature restaurants, but one attraction I had not seen before was the Culinary Arts Centre, where guests can watch world-class chefs in action.

With travellers seeking more and more from their holidays this extra twist could prove a big draw.

So my advice is get out and see what you are selling – it will help you match your clients to the right cruise.

Andrew Winstanley, director, Americas4u

Ed: for more on this theme see 'Training is vital for cruise agents' from last week's Travel Weekly

Shame on us for not spotting this before - MyTravel has posted an extremely funny ad on Youtube.

It's part of the 'Pimp My Travel' competition, in which the public are invited to create their own ads for the brand, part of the Thomas Cook Group since its merger with Thomas Cook.

One minor detail, though: MyTravel's hometown is down as Rochester Rochdale (oops - it was the end of the day...). Not for long...

Nathan Midgley, web producer

When UK travel writers put the words 'outrageous' and 'airline' in the same sentence, the word 'Ryanair' is rarely far behind.

So it's nice to see the colourful low-cost get a run for its money from Ecuador's Icaro Air, which is staging underwear fashion shows on its aircraft (hit the link! There's video!) to entice punters.

Shameless. TW Blog is appalled, obviously, and will be getting on board as soon as possible to give IA a piece of its mind.

Spotted on Bill Geist's Zeitgeist blog. Thanks Bill.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Right on cue after the iffy 'stay away from agents' advice published on MSN last week (read reactions by Travel Weekly and on Travel Rants) Classic Collection Holidays managing director Nick Munday emails this piece of virtuoso sarcasm...

My barber recently told me of a fantastic idea he'd had that would completely revolutionise the hairdressing industry: Haircutonline.com.

The benefits to the customer would be immense, he assured me. A new style and cut would be just a click away!

Step 1: Download your choice of style. As a convenience to its customers Haircutonline.com would only make three basic styles available online owing to the difficulty of certain haircuts.

Step 2: Grab your scissors and follow the online instructions. At this point a flashing disclaimer would warn the customer that as Haircutonline.com was acting solely as an agent, rather than a principal, it could not be held responsible for any accidents that might occur during the process.

And the greatest benefit of all? Haircutonline.com cuts out the middleman, saving the average male customer a massive £7.00!

While telling me this my barber gave me a cut that was executed with all the expertise and experience that a professional acquires during years of personal service, and which seemed such good value for money at just £7.00.

I wondered whether he had been sniffing too much setting lotion, or been reading up on the benefits of bed-banks and dynamic packaging. Was it purely a coincidence that I went home and registered the domain name Dontbookyourholidayonline.com?

Nick Munday, managing director, Classic Collection Holidays

Travolution editor Kevin May tells a good tale from an event he attended last night. The government's tourism minister Shaun Woodward refused to provide details of his own carbon footprint despite asking Kev for his.

Makes a mockery of the government's insistence on us all keeping a hawk eye on our carbon footprint - especially in the week environment secretary David Miliband launched the government's carbon calculator.

Good work, Kev. Keep it up.

I know there are a good few golfers in the travel trade, so if you're one of their number have a read of our piece on five of the best UK golf holidays.

I'm more a fan of the 19th hole myself and judging by the picture I reckon the 19th would be rather cosy at the Marriott Dalmahoy Hotel and Country Club, Edinburgh. Enjoy...

Martin Couzins, online editor

Amid the flurry of deals Airbus has been doing at the Paris Air Show (with Etihad and Qatar among others; our stablemate Flight's blog has been covering it in detail) I missed a barely believable story.

Apparently an anonymous buyer has ordered an Airbus A380 for private use. Yes, that's the vast 'superjumbo' that looks like an airborne beluga whale.

The jet has a $300m price tag and is too big and heavy for most airports to accommodate, so 'impractical', 'extravagant' and 'a bit nuts' don't begin to cover this. Naturally the environmental lobby is aghast, and one can hardly blame them.

So, the $300m question: should it be allowed?

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Today's advice from MSN Money - don't use a travel agent to buy a holiday. And why? I quote from Sarah Modlock's article:

"Avoid the travel agent altogether and get online to research, compare and book at a time to suit you.

There are also several excellent hotel and holiday review sites which can provide ideas and recommendations and reveal facts and tips about destination that you won't find in a brochure.

You can then contact hotels direct and negotiate on price."

The main thrust of the article is that parents pay more for holidays in school holidays rather than term time. No surprises there then - peak demand because schools are off and (in the summer) the best weather equals higher prices.

That's the way the market works. But let's be clear - it has never been cheaper to buy a holiday and prices are driving travel agencies out of business. Whatever time of the year you choose to holiday you will be able to get an awful lot for your money.

As Darren on Travel Rants rightly points out, Sarah Modlock's is a one-sided article which omits to tell consumers that their direct booked holiday might not be bonded, which could be problematic if the holiday goes belly up and you have children with you.

And what of the expertise a travel agent can provide? Product knowledge, recommendation, add-ons, bonding, competitive prices, peace of mind and a real person to handle the financial transaction.

Clearly, the web has a role to play in researching a holiday, but try visiting a good travel agent. You won't be disappointed.

UPDATE

A travel agent has posted a defence on the forum related to the MSN article. A quick precis:

• Hotels and airlines are putting their prices up, not agents
• Is it worth the risk of it all going wrong with no professional to look after you for the sake of a few quid?
• If small independent agents close, the big four (two) will have a monopoly and put their prices up even more
• Agents do not control taxes. Do you blame the garage for the increase in fuel?

Martin Couzins, online editor

(And TW Blog finds a new candidate for the travel lookalikes gallery on its own doorstep, when someone points out that features ed Matt Hampton is the spit of...)

• Web site attack hits Italy tourism sites | U.S. | Reuters
  More than 4,500 small tourism sites within the Italian '.it' domain have been attacked by a trojan program capable of taking over a computer and recording information from it
  (tags: tourism italy internet)
• The new seven wonders
  Vote for the new seven wonders of the world - vote closes in 17 days.
  (tags: architecture history tourism)
• Airline issues | McCluskey Blog
  The tourism marketing agency's blog has an interesting post on female flight attendants - is it sexist to use them in advertising?
  (tags: airlines advertising marketing)
• Coolcapitals.com | Amsterdam, Antwerp, Vienna, Zurich
  Very slick travel ideas and planning site for these four cities - and yes, slick does imply 'slightly iffy to navigate', but it looks great and there's some decent content here.
  (tags: city guide holidays)

Greenpeace was out in force at London City, Manchester, Edinburgh and airports this morning, offering passengers the chance to trade in their evil, planet-throttling domestic flight (boo! hiss!) for a cuddly train ride (aaaawww).

Good to see the complicated matter of carbon emissions tackled with such subtlety - Qatar Airways and US Airways, who just put in orders for Airbus's new, more fuel efficient A350, should hang their heads in shame. What good will that do?

Anyway, marauding around a terminal in fancy dress puts the environmental group in uneasy company - back in January EasyJet did the same thing to protest air passenger duty rise.

There will be inevitable disagreement about which protest was the more noble, but one thing is clear: propagandists everywhere are realising that there's no audience more captive than a check-in queue...

I've just received this photo from a friend who takes the ferry to work from Manly to Sydney city centre.

It is a much recommended experience for visitors to the city, as Manlyweb.com points out.

"The seven nautical miles via the magnificent waterway of Sydney Harbour is the original and still best way to travel, arriving at Manly Wharf - a brand new food and wine oasis at Manly Cove. Sydney Ferries' famous Manly Ferry makes the 30 minute trip regularly, day and night."

Just don't do it right now unless you are in it for white knuckles.

Martin Couzins, online editor

• HopStop.com - Subway and Bus Directions for New York City (NYC)
  ...and Boston, Chicago and Washington, with a couple of other destinations in beta. Includes city guides, user recommended journeys and integrated Yahoo maps which beef up the basic journey planner.
  (tags: city transport bus train)

"If we don't get change by negotiation, we'll start court proceedings."

...so said Office of Fair Trading spokesman Ray Hall on BBC News 24 this morning (watch the clip).

As you'll recall, back in February the OFT gave airlines three months to start incorporating non-optional extras such as air passenger duty and fuel surcharge in their headline prices.

It announced today that 'a minority' of them still have not done so, although it stopped short of naming names.

Well, it hardly needs to. A quick trawl of the web will suffice, and the BBC quickly 'found' (though none of them were hiding it) that budget carriers Ryanair, EasyJet, Fly Thomas Cook and Jet2 were among the offenders, though all four say they are in the process of making changes.

It is not hard to see why they might want to drag their feet. Diminish a low-cost's ability to slap did-I-just-see-that fares on the nearest flat surface and you take away its most effective way of luring punters.

So will these warning shots from the OFT tip the balance? Or will it be forced to take the tough action predicted by Abta two weeks ago?

• Springwise: Claiming compensation for duped passengers
  Confused by the law regarding compensation for delayed or cancelled flights? Dutch agency EUclaim sorts out claims for a 27% cut.
  (tags: aviation eu compensation delays)
• TripAdvisor trots out social network | CNET News.com
  The travel review site is to allow users to import contacts from Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, MSN, etc etc.
  (tags: networking consum)

Quick bit of housekeeping: there are two new things I'm trying out. Firstly an automated feed from Travel Weekly's del.icio.us, which will dump any useful links I've found into a blog post like this one at the end of each day.

Secondly Twitter, a 'micro-blogging' service that lets me share what I'm currently up to. (Within reason.) You can find it about halfway down the sidebar.

On a related matter, Travolution Blog has started a 'Twit List' (very apt) of travel blogs which are currently twittering. Here it is - works just like the T List, of which Kev also posted a definitive version recently.

• Travolution [Twitter.com/travolution]
• Hotel-Blogs [Twitter.com/hotelblogs]
• BlogOnTravel [Twitter.com/blogontravel]
• Albert Barra [Twitter.com/albertbarra]
• Abel Gonzalez [Twitter.com/abelgv]
• MapMyName [Twitter.com/Cortomaltese]
• Explore Blogs [Twitter.com/explore]
• Blog de Viajes [Twitter.com/morrissey]
• Trivop.com [Twitter.com/trivop]
• Select World Travel [Twitter.com/selectworld]
• Travel Weekly Blog [Twitter.com/twblog]

TW Group's footage from the ITT Conference is now available - a full 18 minutes of commentary from industry folks.

There's also a small version in the sidebar of our homepage. If you missed any coverage head to Travel Weekly's ITT landing page or the TW Group event blog, where Travolution ed Kevin May was posting live.

• BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Firm rockets into space tourism
  EADS is to join Virgin in the race to develop an aircraft for commercial space flight
  (tags: space tourism aviation technology)
• Long weekends sub for long vacations :: Travel Industry Wire
  Workers in the States are taking less two-week holidays and more short breaks. Sound familiar? Thought so
  (tags: holiday breaks weekends)
• Are the AA's hotel reviewing days numbered? (The Caterer Blog)
  Travel Weekly's stablemate Caterer reports more evidence of the drift away from traditional travel / hotel guides and towards consumer review sites
  (tags: consumer review star ratings hotels holidays)

Our stablemate Caterer's blog reports more research on the growing appeal of consumer review sites.

You've heard a lot on the good and bad of consumer reviews - remember the Sunday Times expose we wrote about late last year? - but a nice additional detail emerges from this new research (by architect Woods Bagot): apparently over two-thirds of people aged between 35 and 54 now favour user-written sites.

With baby boomers a growing force in the market, this is a telling little statistic. As post author Mark Lewis cheekily asks, 'are the AA's hotel reviewing days numbered?'

(NB - Does Caterer Blog's header remind anyone else of one of those galleries at the fair where you shoot tin ducks? Or do I have too much latent aggression?)

TW Blog attended Tourism New Zealand's annual Lost Days jolly last night, and returned not just well fed and suitably refreshed but with an idea for a new image gallery.

Pictured below is me with Travel PR's Rebecca Holloway, who bears a startling resemblance to...

Well, I'll give you a clue: senior features reporter Jo Gardner was later seen on the roof terrace of New Zealand House spreading her arms and declaring to someone named 'Jack' that she was 'flying'.

So Rebecca becomes the first inductee to our flickr gallery of travel industry lookalikes. Get in touch if you have any candidates.

Some new galleries up on flickr today - check out pics from...

• ITT Conference
• ITT golf tournament
• Travel Weekly Roadshows 2007
• Dynamic Packaging Roadshows 2007

Research from Boo.com has shown that Brits trust travel websites and consumer reviews more than they do travel agents.

Here are the grim results from Boo's Travel Trust Index:

1. Family and friends
2. Online travel sites and reviews
3. Brochures
4. Magazines and newspapers
5. Travel agents

No great surprises here - a similar shift is happening in every industry, and Boo, a travel website which publishes consumer reviews, is hardly going to come out and recommend that you get in touch with a travel agent.

But don't agents deserve a lot more confidence? The research flies in the face of predictions from the likes of online players like Steve Endacott at the On Holiday Group and TUI corporate director of strategy Thies Rheinsberg who believe that in the future travel agents are likely to be responsible for 50% of tour operators' sales.

And what about all the success stories Travel Weekly publishes about high performing travel agents? What about the ten agents who recently scooped honours in the Travel Weekly Agent Excellence Awards for the Midlands and the east of England? I could go on.

So what do travel agents make of this apparent lack of trust in their abilities? Yah boo sucks to this piece of research is what I think.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Okay, it's only number two in a very occasional and very fluffy series, but TW Blog does receive the odd missive from agents praising a supplier and I think it's worth sharing them.

So over to Karin Roberts of City Travel Company, North Wales, who has written in about a good experience with Kirker Travel...

Just after my clients had paid their money and left the office Kirker called to say they had underquoted at £170.00 per person x 4, quite a sum. I said I would try to sort it out, but Kirker called me back to say no need to worry, they had sorted it all out for no extra fee.

The travel industry is a dog eat dog business where anyone will undercut you for pennies and not very many companies will go out of their way to help you. Kirker is an exception - well done Kirker you get my support any day!

Kev has posted an interesting write-up of Manny Fontenla-Novoa's appearance at the ITT Conference over on the TW Group's event blog.

Apparently an announcement about the future of MyTravel/Thomas Cook staff is due June 21, but for now Manny looks "distinctly uncomfortable whenever staffing crops up in conversation."

Speaking of which we report today that some industry watchers, including ex-Thomson man Miles Morgan, are predicting that high street job losses will be considerably fewer at TUI/First Choice.

Perhaps not the most encouraging news day for agents at Thomas Cook and MyTravel. At least their wait will be over in two weeks...

Voting could not be closer! Our dream wedding competition, in association with Attraction World, has had a massive response, with almost 1,000 of you texting or emailing us with your favourite finalist. (No idea what we're on about? Watch the videos.)

Thanks to all of you who have voted already and if you haven't, you have until noon tomorrow to decide who wins a wedding in Vegas.

To vote:

• Text Helen to 60066 or email travel.weekly@rbi.co.uk with Helen Blair in the subject line
• Text Lisa to 60066 or email travel.weekly@rbi.co.uk with Lisa Cooper in the subject line
• Text Claire to 60066 or email travel.weekly@rbi.co.uk with Claire Reith in the subject line
• Text Vicky to 60066 or email travel.weekly@rbi.co.uk with Victoria Young in the subject line

There's an ongoing debate in the industry about what 'luxury' really means. Is it gold taps? Personal service? Unique experiences?

Here's a thought. Luxury is not about the nature of the experience but about how sustained and how convincing the experience is. It means never seeing the wheels in motion.

What got me thinking about this is the three rather lovely Mr and Mrs Smith hotel guides that recently landed on TW Blog's desk.

At £20 a pop they're not cheap, even with entry-level membership to the Smith club (which entitles you to a variety of treats when you book certain properties) thrown in; and there's nary a hotel here that you couldn't find and assess yourself using Google and a clutch of review websites.

So what are you buying?

Well, Smith books are for a niche: they write up boutique hotels that are suitable for romantic breaks. The experience their readership wants is intimacy, style and privacy, so what you're buying is a product which, because it's beautifully designed and written with flair, extends that experience into the research and booking stage.

After all, the cornerstone of a romantic weekend is the sense that this is a shared secret place - a hard illusion to maintain if you've already read 40 poorly punctuated reviews from previous guests.

And that's luxury: from the moment you start researching your trip to the moment you arrive home, you experience without doubt or interruption the thing that you set out to experience.

Discuss...

Enough said. Created by Masaru Katzumie and Yoshiro Yamashita for the 1964 Games.

From Olympic-museum.de

The Institute of Travel and Tourism Conference begins in Gran Canaria today. Travolution's Kevin May is hosting an event blog, so keep an eye on it for live analysis, gossip and commentary from delegates.

There'll be more from the conference in next week's Travel Weekly, plus news and video on the website.

There seems to be much consternation as to how the new logo for the 2012 Olympics could have ended up looking...well, like that.

Fortunately, TW Blog's marketing smarts put it in a good position to clarify the affair. If you ask me, the graphic was devised in three easy steps:

1. Young people are the answer to everything. Unless the product is SAGA magazine, default to the assumption that it should be Made Edgy So Young People Like It.
2. To make something edgy, find out what music young people seem to like and then copy whatever it does.
3. Young people currently like bands whose artwork revives trashy 80s graphics.

Okay, let's be serious.

Visually, I don't hate the logo as much as most people seem to. My problem with it is that 2012 needs to inspire broad support - much of the UK is ambivalent towards the event, if not actively opposed to it, and work that seems designed to court controversy will not help.

So while I don't buy, as some posters on the BBC do, that the logo has made us 'a global laughing stock' or that it will directly hurt visitor numbers, its polarising effect is another barrier to the UK presenting itself as an enthusiastic and welcoming host.

What do readers think?