News in Brief: Monday March 10
Qantas has added five new regional routes to its domestic network, in response to customer demand for direct services to a range of holiday destinations.
The new additions include: Brisbane to Port Macquarie, Melbourne to Coffs Harbour, Sydney to Hervey Bay, Sydney to Hamilton Island and Brisbane to Miles.
“Customers would previously have to travel via another port, now they are able to travel directly to their holiday destinations,” Qantas Domestic chief executive Lyell Strambi said.
“We looked at ways we can better use our aircraft, particularly on the weekends, and found network improvements resulting in additional aircraft being free to support these new routes.”
Under the changes, Melbourne passengers travelling to Coffs Harbour will save around two hours in travel time.
Tourism New Zealand has unveiled a new trade website to help travel sellers learn more about New Zealand and how to sell it.
The site provides training tools and resources such as online modules and the 100% Pure New Zealand Specialist program.
TNZ’s new general manager Australia, Tony Saunders said the new trade website provides a strong platform to further promote the training scheme.
“New content providing regional selling points has been added and new itineraries have also been developed and added for each region,” he said.
Attracting new international air capacity to Australia is on the agenda for Tourism Australia as it leads a high level delegation of Australia's leading airports at an aviation route development forum in Kuching, Malaysia.
Routes Asia 2014, from March 9 to 11, is expected to attract 800 aviation professionals from 90 airlines, 230 airports and 20 tourism authorities across the region.
Seven Australian international airports – Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth – together with Destination NSW, Tourism Victoria, Tourism NT and Tourism WA – will be represented on the Australian stand.
TA executive general manager destination development Katherine Droga highlighted the 'Team Australia' approach as a competitive advantage.
"The airlines tell us they like our coordinated approach and the fact that they are getting a clear and consistent picture of what Australia's destinations and our airports have to offer, and the level of marketing support they can expect when launching new services to our country," she said.
To mark four years in Australia and New Zealand, Expedia’s Travel Agent Affiliate Program (TAAP) has launched an incentive on bookings to the US.
For every $4k of bookings made to the US in March, agents will be awarded a $50 travel voucher, with no limit to the number of vouchers on offer.
The milestone comes as Expedia TAAP ANZ manager Stuart Udy reported nine record trading weeks.
“Last month we confirmed bookings to 591 different destinations,” he said.
The introduction of a common visa for travel to Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda has been highlighted at ITB Berlin.
The change, which took effect on January 1, will remove complications around movement through East Africa as well as save travellers a great deal of “red tape” time, according to Mike Kirkland, chairman of Africa specialist Bench International.
The tourist cross-border visa costs US$100.
Free upgrades or a bonus extra night on three night stays at the waterfront Harbour Grand Kowloon are available for Aussies visiting Hong Kong this winter.
The property is located 45 minutes from the airport, five minutes from the eclectic Tsimshatsui district and two minutes from the Whampoa shopping and entertainment precinct.
Agents have just three weeks left to take advantage of the 7.5% Early Payment Discount from Insight Vacations, Trafalgar and Contiki.
The savings are available across all 2014 Europe and Britain programs when booked and paid in full by March 31.
As part of its Year of the Horse celebrations, Helen Wong’s Tours has slashed the prices of its China and Vietnam group tours by $200 per person, and is offering travel agents a $50 Coles voucher for every person they book during the sale.
To benefit from the offer, bookings and deposits must be made before April 4 for travel from May 1 until the end of November this year.
Driveaway Holidays has extended its EarlyBird Europe Sale to March 31 2014 with a range of discounts available on car rental across Europe and the US.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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