Britons Love to Cruise
The Passenger Shipping Association have reported a further increase in the number of Britons now opting for a holiday on the open sea. The 1.2 million UK cruise passengers in 2006 is an increase of around 12% on the 2005 figure of 1.08 million passengers. The overall growth of the UK cruise market has doubled in the last 10 years with passengers rating good food, itinerary the standards of accommodation and price as the main reasons for booking a cruise.
Tourism Boost for Hong Kong
New figures for the first quarter of the year have shown a 20% year-on-year increase for the number of passenger arrivals in Hong Kong. According to the Hong Kong Tourism Board, the increase in passenger figures is largely due to the opening of the Hong Kong Disneyland and the increase in the number of flights from the UK.
Figures show that there were over 157,000 arrivals from the UK between January and March with March figures alone showing an increase of 30%.
Fruit Veg and now Euros at the Co-op
18 Co-op stores in the Nottingham area are to start selling pre-packed euros at the checkouts. The new initiative is a partnership of the travel business Travelcare and retail arm of the Co-operative group.
Tickets on sale for Heathrow Terminal 5 Flights
Airline tickets for the first flights to operate from the new Heathrow terminal 5 are being sold by BA.
The new terminal which is due to open in March 2008 will be exclusively used by BA which will operate 90% of its flights from the new site. BA has planned a four phase move that will see the majority of their operation move to the new terminal between the opening date and October 2008. The remaining 10% of BA’s services including some short haul services will continue to operate from Heathrow terminal 3. After BA has moved the bulk of its services to the new terminal 5 the oneworld alliance will have exclusive use of Heathrow’s terminal 3.
BA is spending £60 million on providing premium lounges in the new building which will house up to 2,500 passengers and be known as The Galleries. The overall cost of the new terminal site and building is expected to be around 4.5 billion.
With increasing passenger numbers, the new terminal at Heathrow will bring increased demand for supplementary services such as airport parking and airport hotel services to the Heathrow area.