Travel News

Grabbed this from press release land this morning. Stay at any of any of Four Seasons in Hawaii in the coming months, and you could get a free night’s stay, depending on the length of your trip. The deals vary by property. The Four Seasons Resort Lana’i’s Lodge at Keole is offering a free 4th night to guests who book three nights between now and Dec. 18, 2007. Room rates start at $295. Over at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea (pictured), guests can score a free 5th night with a four night stay booked May 9-June 30 or Sept. 1-Dec. 18.

Check out each Four Seasons property’s individual discount at the link below.

How to Spend a Free Extra Day at Four Seasons

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What is the world of online travel coming to when the leading players in this space start employing fictional characters to pump up their sales and then issue a press release commenting on the escapades of their made-up creatures to boot?

First we had Cheapflight’s “Where the hell is Biggles?” campaign on YouTube, and now we have “The Roaming Gnome” from Travelocity hitting the screens of MySpace.

US-based interactive marketing company Click Here says its latest online effort to showcase Travelocity’s beloved ad icon is realising enormous success.

In a press release, Click Here notes that the gnome is “not all about fun and games” (of course not, gnomes are serious business).

The company adds, “Travelocity’s foray into MySpace with The Roaming Gnome was made with increases in traffic, bookings and brand loyalty/buzz, as well as exposure to new audiences, clearly in mind”.

Case in point: with minimal hype following the profile’s soft launch, The Roaming Gnome has thus far amassed more than 3,300 friends (gnomes have friends???).

To help keep the brand top of mind in the social networking space, The Roaming Gnome’s profile has an array of features for his friends to enjoy, including downloadable icons, wallpapers and profile skins; videos; ringtones; games; a search/booking widget; and access to the Gnome store on Travelocity.

And that’s not all. The Roaming Gnome will apparently “actively” (what!) communicate with his friends via regular blog entries and bulletins.

Well, how do you like that?

There’s only one slight problem from what I can see: It’s not terribly original.

According to urban legend, several years ago a couple of backpackers nicked a gnome from an older couple’s front garden.

For the following 12 months, the backpackers sent postcards to the couple, featuring the gnome in various settings acircular the world–the Pyramids, the Great Wall, etc.

One day, the couple woke up to find their gnome placed comfortably back in their garden, albeit looking slightly worse for the wear.

The story goes that the gnome’s parents (parents???) told a local reporter about the incident and the travelling gnome legend was born.

Then again, he probably didn’t have nearly as many “friends” as Travelocity’s gnome.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Original post by Travolution Blogger

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We at Travolution are all in favour of comments to our blog postings and though we would love to reply to all of them, there are some comments in particular which absolutely deserve editorial feedback.

Amadeus’s response to Tuesday’s “Two down, two to go” blog post regarding the ongoing negotiations between British Airways and the GDSs is one such example.

In its comment, Amadeus, which, like Worldspan, has yet to finalise a distribution contract with BA, observed, “The idea that we would delay discussions on any agreement in favour of a minor short-term gain is wrong. In any case, until 10 April the situation, in terms of booking fees, is the same for all GDSs”.

Amadeus is, of course, correct. I don’t really think the GDSs are trying to take financial advantage of BA.

Rather, the point was that BA has taken more than its fair share of punches during what has become a rather protracted negotiation process, and those who might be rapid to blame BA alone for the delay should consider that there are two sides to every story.

The airline has stood its gcircular despite mounting pressure from the travel trade and the prospect of paying higher GDS fees while it works out the terms of its new distribution contracts.

This tactic, while initially unnerving to BA’s leisure and business travel partners, is likely to result in a greater return for the airline in the long term, which can only benefit its shareholders, travel agent and GDS partners and travellers.

So, for the record, my point was that it is time to put an end to the endless finger-pointing (amusing as it may have been for a while), and to focus on other important issues at hand.

Speaking of which, Heathrow’s Terminal 5, whose successful opening and operation is a critical part of BA’s long-term strategy, is scheduled to open in exactly 363 days.

April 10th may very well be an important date, as Amadeus pointed out, but, in the grander scheme of things, it’s the landmark date of 27 March 2008 which will really make a difference to the future of BA, its agent partners and travellers.

Let the countdown begin.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Original post by Travolution Blogger

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