On Monday, November 12, 2007, I visited the ExCeL Centre in the London Docklands for the annual World Travel Market. I have been to this event several times before but it never fails to amaze me. The event is a business to business gathering of global travel trade industry and each year it seems to get better. People from each corner of the earth convene to meet, network, negotiate and catch up on the latest developments in the industry.
November 14th, 2007
Thursday, November 1st, 2007 was a day of celebration in the myguideTravel offices. It wasn’t that we enjoyed a record haul of candy on Halloween but rather that our contract with the Scottish airline flyGlobespan expired. For those of you unfamiliar with them, please allow me to explain why it was such a joyous occasion. In late 2006, we partnered with Ireland West Airport Knock to establish the first scheduled trans-Atlantic air services from it to the USA. The team at IWA Knock worked tirelessly to get the service up and r
unning and we supported the launch of the non-stop flights to Boston Logan and New York JFK airports by taking a hard block of inventory from flyGlobespan on all their departures. It was a massive financial commitment for us but we felt that it was a prudent investment and that we were entering into a mutually beneficial partnership with the airport authority and airline to ensure the success of the endeavor. There was plenty of enthusiasm on both sides of the Atlantic and, with Tourism Ireland also offering support, we were convinced it was going to be a success. Boy, were we wrong!
November 11th, 2007