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.
August 14, 2009
• Market analyst Mintel warned that forthcoming rises in Air Passenger Duty posed a “significant threat” to the long-haul market, particularly for lower earners. But overall, a report it published suggested a positive outlook for long-haul travel, saying the sector would be less impacted by the recession than short-haul.
• Meanwhile, it was reported that terrorist attacks in Majorca were unlikely to have a major effect on tourism in Spain and the Balearic Islands.
• Advantage opened up its conference to non-members to try to attract new agents.Meanwhile, Butlin’s opened its £20 million Ocean Hotel at Bognor Regis two weeks early with £1.5 million in advance bookings.
• Airports were accused of failing to meet the needs of disabled passengers, a year after EU regulations designed to protect passengers with reduced mobility came into force. Charity Leonard Cheshire Disability made the claim ahead of a Civil Aviation Authority report on the persons with restricted mobility regulations, which was due out in September.
August 10, 1994
• Thomas Cook and Going Places slashed discounts on Thomson summer 1995 holidays for the crucial early-booking period, following the operator’s refusal to raise commission levels. The retailers knocked 5% off Thomson’s brochure prices while offering 15% off other operators’ holidays.• Kuoni product director Sue Biggs was promoted to deputy managing director after 12 years with the company, which also announced that it was targeting the family market for the first time. Meanwhile, non-Abta retailer The Global Travel Group revealed it had poached Airtours salesman Doug Smith to spearhead its expansion.
• Italy crept into Lunn Poly’s list of top-10 destinations for the first time, attracting as many bookings as Florida and Gran Canaria, as a result of the devaluation of the lira making the destination more affordable.
August 8, 1974
• Thomson Holidays drew up a “fair trading charter” to feature in all its summer 1975 programmes, to clarify what clients could expect if holiday arrangements went wrong.
• Meanwhile, holidaymakers began to flood back to Greece after at least two operators restarted flights there following the ceasefire in Cyprus. Operators also resumed normal operations to Turkey.
• UK airlines including British Airways sought fare rises on a wide range of domestic routes from January 1, following applications for rises of up to 25% from November.
• Ex-UK cruise bookings for August were 50% up on last year to 21,600, according to Ocean Travel Development. Cunard chairman Victor Matthews said the withdrawal of the Franconia ship did not herald the end of major passenger liners, and the QE2 would provide transatlantic travel “for years to come”.