Latest news with #travelagencies
Travel Weekly
10 hours ago
- Business
- Travel Weekly
Travel Weekly agency survey results
Travel Weekly agency survey results A new Travel Weekly survey sought to understand how travel agencies and their clients have been impacted by consumer confidence, the economic outlook, changes at the federal government level and recent air travel safety incidents.
Trade Arabia
7 days ago
- Business
- Trade Arabia
Diriyah at ITB Shanghai to boost China tourism links
Diriyah Company, the developer behind Saudi Arabia's ambitious 14-sq-km City of Earth urban project, is strengthening its tourism ties with China this week through a high-profile presence at the ITB Shanghai travel trade show. The three-day event, which comcludes tomorrow (May 29), will allow Diriyah to engage with leading Chinese travel agencies, airlines and other key stakeholders in China's rapidly growing hospitality sector. It comes at a time when Chinese visitors to Saudi Arabia are growing rapidly, with a milestone of 140,000 visitors from China to the Kingdom in 2024. This influx was driven by a simplified online visa process and growing air connectivity. It marks ongoing progress toward the Kingdom's goal of welcoming 5 million Chinese visitors annually by 2030. ITB Shanghai follows a successful three-day cultural activation that Diriyah Company hosted on a standalone site in the city where over 1,000 people had the opportunity to experience a wide range of Saudi cultural traditions demonstrated by artisans and craftsmen as well as meet the Diriyah team. Diriyah's Shanghai presence, held at the North Bund International Passenger Center, offered guests a chance to sample traditional Saudi coffee, experience the aroma of rare spices and marvel at the skills demonstrated by traditional weaving workshops. As the number of Chinese travellers to Saudi Arabia continues to grow, Diriyah is offering the opportunity for tailored experiences, from curated galleries with Chinese-speaking guides to dining in one of the many Saudi and global culinary experiences located in Bujairi Terrace and Zallal. Authentic hospitality experiences await visitors at the recently opened Bab Samhan, a Luxury Collection hotel, the first of Diriyah's nearly 40 hotels, set in a landscape that celebrates centuries of Saudi history and heritage. In October last year, Diriyah Company also participated in presenting Saudi heritage and culture to a global audience from a Chinese UNESCO World Heritage Site through its stand at the Visit Saudi pavilion during the 'Saudi Travel Festival' in Beijing, China. China is also playing a vital role in Diriyah's development with many of its leading construction firms appointed to work on several key projects across the 14 square kilometer development area. The firms include China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) who are working on the Northern District and Royal Diriyah Opera House; China Harbour Engineering Company is undertaking bulk excavation works and a joint venture between China Railway Construction Corporation (Saudi Branch) and China Railway Construction Group Central Plain Limited for the relocation of a number of King Saud University facilities. Diriyah stands as a symbol of the growing cultural and economic ties between the two nations and will foster and strengthen even closer links through its presence in Shanghai at ITB and its hugely successful cultural activation.-TradeArabia News Service
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- The Guardian
Holiday bookings to Japan are down - could a 90s manga comic's earthquake prediction be to blame?
A grim prediction made in a manga first published a quarter of a century ago is being blamed for a dramatic fall in holiday bookings to Japan from several Asian countries. Flight reservations to Japan from some of its key tourism markets have reportedly plummeted, with some linking the fall to The Future I Saw, a Japanese graphic novel based on the 'prophetic' dreams of its author, Ryo Tatsuki. The cover of the original, published in 1999, refers to a 'great disaster' occurring in March 2011 – the date Japan experienced a deadly earthquake and tsunami. In a new edition containing additional material that was published in 2021, Tatsuki said the next major disaster would occur on 5 July 2025. Her claim has fuelled sensationalist social media posts warning people to stay away from Japan. While there is no scientific basis to the claims that are fuelling online speculation, Tatsuki's dreams have been given credence by her previous reference to March 2011, when an earthquake and tsunami killed more than 18,000 people in north-east Japan and triggered the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The impact of her latest prediction is being felt most in South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, which used ForwardKeys data to gauge the impact on airline bookings. Average bookings from Hong Kong were down 50% year-on-year, it said, adding that those between late June and early July had plummeted by as much as 83%. A travel agency in Hong Kong said the manga had already affected people's holiday plans, with bookings to Japan during the April-May spring break down by half from last year. Greater Bay Airlines said it was initially puzzled that reservations for spring were lower than in previous years, given that demand is usually high during the cherry blossom-viewing season in Japan and the Easter holidays in Hong Kong. 'We expected around 80% of the seats to be taken, but actual reservations came to only 40%,' said Hiroki Ito, the general manager of the airline's Japan office, told the Asahi Shimbun recently. The airline – along with Hong Kong Airlines – has reduced services to Japan, even as officials pleaded with travellers to ignore the rumours. Yoshihiro Murai, the governor of Miyagi – one of three prefectures hardest hit by the 2011 disaster – said the unfounded story had started to affect tourism to the region and implored people to ignore them. The trend is out of sync with a tourism boom that has seen record numbers of people visit Japan since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. A record 3.9 million people visited in April, encouraged by a weaker yen, while the government is hoping the annual number will grow to 60 million by the end of the decade. The public broadcaster NHK said the manga had spawned more than 1,400 videos on YouTube – which have together been viewed more than 100m times – some of which added to the sense of alarm with predictions of a volcanic eruption and a meteor strike. The re-published version has sold almost 1m copies, it added. Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world due to its location on the Pacific's seismically hyperactive 'ring of fire'. But experts point out it is impossible to predict the timing and location of earthquakes with any accuracy. Concern that the country could soon be struck by a major earthquake intensified last August, when the then prime minister, Fumio Kishida, cancelled an overseas trip after seismologists warned that the risk of a 'megaquake' occurring off the country's Pacific coast had increased after an earlier quake. In April, a government taskforce said a quake of up to magnitude-9 in the Nankai Trough, located off Japan's Pacific coast, would kill as many 298,000 people and destroy more than 2 million buildings, adding that there was a roughly 80% chance of such a quake happening in the next 30 years. Tatsuki, meanwhile, has warned people not to take her predictions literally. In a recent interview with the Mainichi Shimbun, the artist said she was pleased that her work had raised awareness of the need to prepare for natural disasters, but added: 'It's important not to be unnecessarily influenced … and to listen to the opinions of experts.'
Reuters
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
US imposes visa bans on India travel agents for facilitating illegal migration
WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Monday that it was imposing visa restrictions on owners and other staff at India-based travel agencies that it says knowingly facilitate illegal migration to the United States. An unspecified number of unnamed people linked to travel agencies in India were being hit with visa bans under the Immigration and Nationality Act based on information gathered by the U.S. mission to India, department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement. Washington often issues visa bans without publishing the names of those targeted. "We will continue to take steps to impose visa restrictions against owners, executives, and senior officials of travel agencies to cut off alien smuggling networks," Bruce said, without detailing how the travel agents had facilitated illegal migration. The move comes amid President Donald Trump's broad crackdown on migration to the United States and efforts to deport undocumented immigrants in the country. The U.S. embassy in New Delhi has repeatedly posted on its social media sites warning for Indian nationals visiting the United States not to overstay their authorized period of stay in the country, warning they will face deportation and a permanent ban from entering the country for doing so.
Hospitality Net
13-05-2025
- Business
- Hospitality Net
Help, I Love My Kidnapper
'One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We are no longer interested in finding the bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back' – Carl Sagan Blink twice if you need to be rescued. __________________________________________ Picture this: you're locked in a room for 25 years with someone who takes your wallet, controls who you talk to, insists you smile through it all, and occasionally lets you feel like you're winning (but only if you give even more). Healthy relationship? Not quite. Congratulations. You're living the dream known as hotel distribution. Welcome to OTA Stockholm Syndrome where the captors hide behind shiny apps and billion-dollar ad budgets, charge a 30% 'friendship fee,' and somehow... we've started calling it a partnership. Once upon a time, right after 9/11, hotels were desperate. The guests were gone, the phones were silent, and along came these charming online travel agencies, flashing easy bookings, new visibility, and promises of partnership. They weren't just a helping hand – they were the creepy neighbor who helped fix your fence… then quietly claimed your backyard as part of theirs. And we fell for it. We latched onto them. Threw them a parade. Wrote them thank-you notes. Handed over a spare key... and forgot to ever change the locks. Fast forward 25 years. Now we're trauma bonded. So bonded that we defend them on LinkedIn panels: 'But they bring me bookings!' 'But they help me with marketing!' "But they're so big and powerful, it's not like I can do anything!" Sound familiar? It's classic Stockholm Syndrome. At this point, if OTAs raised commissions to 50% and demanded a free muffin with every reservation, half the industry would politely ask, 'Would you like gluten-free?' How Did It Come to This? It started small. Just a few bookings here, a small commission there. Nothing too damaging, right? Then came rate parity handcuffs ("Sure, we'll help you but you can't sell cheaper on your own website!"). Then the inventory hijacking ("We'll just quietly scoop up your rooms through wholesalers and sell them cheaper than you do, making it look like you don't know how to manage your own prices." Then the mandatory 'preferred' status extortion ('Pay us more commission – or disappear into the second page, where hotel dreams go to die.') Then loyalty programs ("Just discount your own rates for our loyalty customers… you know, the ones you already earned yourself."). And it went on… and on… and on. Hotels, being the ever-optimistic romantics that we are, kept believing. 'They have our best interests at heart.' 'They would never use my brand keywords to outbid me on Google.' 'They love me for me.' Meanwhile, OTAs were playing 5D mind chess, setting traps three moves ahead – and hotels were still arguing over who gets to be the red checker. Signs You Might Be Suffering from Hotel Stockholm Syndrome: You refer to OTAs as your 'partners' with a straight face. You defend 20-30% commissions because "it's just the cost of doing business." You feel guilty for exploring direct booking strategies, like you're cheating. You celebrate OTA awards like they're Michelin stars. 'Congrats! You paid us the most!' You treat your OTA account manager like a trusted advisor of your pricing strategy. Your OTA share is bigger than direct, and instead of panicking you're bragging about it in meetings. You've stopped comparing commissions to other costs. It's just 'the air we breathe now.' You feel a tiny twinge of guilt (and fear) every time you wish you could cut ties. you could cut ties. You've started wondering if maybe, just maybe… you should thank them in your will. (Because after all, they've already taken everything else.) Why Do We Stay? Because change is hard. Because the trauma is familiar. Because even when they make us bid against ourselves on Google, demand our best rates, bury us under properties that pay higher commissions, and woo away our loyal guests, we keep saying, "Maybe it's just a phase. They're under a lot of pressure, too." Bless our hearts. The truth is, OTAs didn't just bring bookings – they brought full-on, textbook gaslighting. The kind therapists warn you about. They made us doubt our own worth: 'Without us, no one would even notice you.' They dismissed our efforts: 'Direct bookings? Cute idea, but let's be realistic.' They twisted reality: 'Guests don't really want you, they want us to tell them you exist.' And now? We flinch at the idea of independence, like a victim too gaslit to remember they were whole before the manipulation began. Meanwhile, other industries have gotten wise to this. Airlines fought back. Retailers fought back. Even restaurants fought back (have you tried telling a restaurant they must offer a cheaper price on Uber Eats than on their own website? Good luck. It's actually the opposite, prices are almost always higher on food delivery apps). Hotels? We're still writing sonnets to our captors. Oh Booking, I swore I'd walk away… then you dangled a preferred status badge, and I came running like a fool in a loyalty loop. Dearest Expedia, you steal my margins yet gift me occupancy. A thief… with benefits. We're one booking away from writing Fifty Shades of OTA Commission. The Breakup You've Been Waiting For The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. The second step is realizing you are not powerless. Technology has caught up. Consumers are smarter. New tools like those offered by roomangel exist to help guests trust direct channels again, leveling the playing field, giving guests that warm, fuzzy 'this site looks legit and I won't be scammed' feeling – the kind OTAs spent millions manufacturing with slick UX and brand confidence. Now, you can do the same… without the 30% middleman fee and digital codependency. Guests want to book direct, they just need to feel safe doing it. (They also wouldn't mind if your website didn't look like it was built during the MySpace era, but that's another topic.) Look, freedom is scary. Independence takes work. But it's better than handing over 30% of your income plus your firstborn to someone who wouldn't even give you a call on your birthday. It's time to stop calling this a 'partnership' and start calling it what it is: a toxic addiction. And the best part? It's totally breakable. One bold step at a time. Conclusion: Your Exit Strategy Starts Now We're not saying OTAs are evil. (Okay, maybe a little.) But let's call this relationship what it is: co-dependent, unhealthy, and long overdue for a reset. The longer we pretend it's normal, the more we lose – not just money, but something far more important: control of our guest relationships, our brand, and our future. Break free. Take a deep breath. The real world isn't that scary. Trust yourself. Trust your guests. And maybe, just maybe, next time you walk into the ITB conference hall, you'll recognize the captors standing at their sponsor booths – and keep on walking. ______________ Brian Reeves Founder and CEO, The roomangel Foundation About The roomangel Foundation The roomangel Foundation is a nonprofit initiative on a mission to restore fairness and transparency in hospitality distribution. By empowering travelers to book directly and helping hotels reclaim control over their guest relationships, roomangel offers the tools, trust signals, and technology to intermediate hotel bookings. To join the Foundation, visit the website here: Ira Vouk VP Global Partnerships roomangel Foundation
