We take a look through the Travel Weekly archives in our 50th year to find out what was making the headlines 10, 25 and 45 years ago…
2009
• Travel Weekly and the director of Pride London urged the industry to recognise the value of the LGBT market, with firms encouraged to engage with the community to build relationships.
• New anti-fraud organisation Profit received the backing of consumer affairs minister Gareth Thomas and Tory MP Nigel Evans, with the industry warned it might be particularly targeted due to the recession.
• Protests in the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique disrupted travel plans, with P&O Cruises and Azamara both rerouteing ships, while The Co-operative Travel announced a joint venture with Cosmos to sell its own package holidays.
• Specialist cruise agents raised fears that lines had cut prices too early in the year to allow room for movement further down the line, but some agents were also under fire for giving away commission to further reduce headline prices.
1994
• Retired agents and consultants who were not full-time employees of travel agencies faced being cut out of Abta committees under new proposals.
• Thomas Cook invested £1 million in an expansion of its Irish business, while the Walt Disney Corporation confirmed it was considering building its own fleet of ships following the end of its tie-up with Premier Cruise Line.
• Going Places decided to build on its UK activities brochure with its first overseas holiday programme, but five branches were closed following the merger of the Pickfords and Hogg Robinson chains.
• Lunn Poly claimed its shops were more productive than its rivals’, claiming it had sold 1,690 holidays per shop since the launch of its summer brochures, compared with 1,150 per Thomas Cook shop. However, Cook’s Peter Shanks rebutted the claims, insisting it had sold 1,580 holidays per shop and had outperformed Lunn Poly in the crucial post-Christmas period.
1974
• Horizon’s collapse triggered militant noises from out-of-pocket Spanish and Greek hoteliers about turfing Brits out of hotels. But an executive for Horizon’s new owners, Court Line, said there were “no problems in the field” and all customers were being accommodated.
• Abta’s plan to create a fund for an emergency consumer advertising campaign finally dissolved due to a lack of pledges from members. The final nail in the coffin was the withdrawal of a £3,500 pledge from the Spanish National Tourist Office, which some saw as a backlash from the Horizon collapse.
• Four of the UK’s leading charter airlines – Court Line Aviation, Britannia Airways, Laker Airways and Monarch Airlines – banded together to warn against part-charter operations being permitted on scheduled services, claiming the existing charter airlines could accommodate demand.
• Meanwhile, Peter Diethelm was tipped to become managing director of the new long-haul company being formed by Kuoni Travel and Houlders World Holidays.
