“AP TRAVEL AND LEISURE DIGEST for week of Nov. 30 - Daily Mail - Charleston” plus 4 more |
- AP TRAVEL AND LEISURE DIGEST for week of Nov. 30 - Daily Mail - Charleston
- TRAMS Founder Launches Leisure Pops - Travel Agent
- Glen Arbor's blu in Travel+Leisure - Traverse City Record Eagle
- Industry Expert From Barclays Capital Forecasts Equity Valuations In Hotels ... - The Wall Street Transcript (blog)
- Top five travel and leisure voucher codes for 30 November- 06 December 2009 ... - Your-Story.org (press release)
| AP TRAVEL AND LEISURE DIGEST for week of Nov. 30 - Daily Mail - Charleston Posted: 30 Nov 2009 11:15 AM PST This content has passed through fivefilters.org. | |
| TRAMS Founder Launches Leisure Pops - Travel Agent Posted: 30 Nov 2009 09:05 AM PST
Rosen, best known as the founder and owner of TRAMS Inc until its sale to Sabre-Holdings in 2007, also served as general manager of Sabre Leisure worldwide. When Rosen sold TRAMS to Sabre there were over 11,000 agencies using Trams Back Office and over 40,000 travel agents using ClientBase. Rosen launches his new venture Leisure Pops this week in conjunction with Luxury Travel Expo in Las Vegas. "Leisure Pops will provide agency and industry suppliers with a creative interface where it's needed most - at the point of sale," Rosen said. "Leisure Pops is a merchandising system as it uses intelligence form the point of sale to help agents direct sales to preferred suppliers and to add value to client relationships. In the end it will deliver more commission revenue." Leisure Pops are "Pops" or on screen reminders that appear from a software application that is installed and runs on a travel agent's desktop. At the appropriate time within the travel transaction Leisure Pops will 'Pop' with intelligent information and links to help agents sell more preferred suppliers and more add-on products. The agent controls all 'Pops', Rosen notes, so only intelligent, value-added content is shown from preferred suppliers. "Leisure Pops will never inundate agents with too many Pops because agent users control what Pops are seen," Rosen said. Leisure Pops are intelligent - they know the agents preferred suppliers, know what agents are looking for and what options agents are receiving. They are programmed to add more value for clients and generate more commission revenue. When searching for a product, the preferred supplier options automatically 'Pop,' thus bringing more attention to the preferred option and more preferred supplier sales. When selling a product, Leisure Pops automatically searches for add-on options – and deals - that agents can then offer to clients. This adds more value for the client and more commission for the agent. Leisure Pops can assist agents in meeting supplier sales benchmarks and consortia goals that may qualify the agency for higher incentive pay, for example. And it allows individual agents to maximize sales opportunities while the transaction is happening. All that information prior only in the back room and not available at the point of sale when needed will now automatically Pop for the agents when applicable and when most effective. For example, an agency may have blocked space or higher commissions on a specific cruise departure. With Leisure Pops when an agent queries for available for cruises close to that departure Leisure Pops will automatically Pop to remind the agent of their special offer plus provide links to easily integrate or move the agent to the appropriate place bringing all data with them automatically. Leisure Pops intelligence can also help agents to sell more upgrades, a vital source of revenue. Leisure Pops automatically offers upgrade options and special deals, giving agents the ability to better serve clients and make more commission. Other key features include the ability to make offers specific to travel dates, destination or origination point, travel type, fare range, supplier, payment type and more. Leisure Pops only displays highly content-relevant offers that benefit agents and travelers. The leisure agent – or agency manager - decide what 'triggers' or what activity generates a Leisure Pop. Triggers can be dependent upon reservation system viewed, information requested, or information received back. Leisure Pops reads all major leisure supplier websites as well as all four GDSs. Leisure Pops also saves time and makes add-on booking extremely efficient for the agent. Not only does Leisure Pops "Pop" or remind the agent of the opportunity, but then Leisure Pops copies data from the agents system (GDS or local) into the reservation system being used, and also copies confirmation data back to the agent's processing system. Add-on bookings can literally be done with four clicks. "I feel strongly that the right "Pop's" - intelligently programmed at the point of sale - can really help agents, and the suppliers supporting those agents," Rosen said. "Plus if we can make the process easy and efficient, it helps everyone. Agents must work more closely with their clients and know them better to offer pertinent and special product offerings. Leisure Pops is the great way to do this," Rosen said. "Leisure Pops will close the gap in travel agents and supplier merchandising." The price for an agent is $10 per month, Rosen says, but notes that several suppliers and agency groups are sponsoring select agents so they get access to Leisure Pops free. Typically these suppliers provide Leisure Pops to their top producers or preferred agents. Agents can e-mail info@leisurepops.com to see if suppliers or groups they are working with sponsor Leisure Pops for their select agents. While agents can program their own pops there is a very small fee per pop for agents to cover the design and content of the pop. Free 30-day trials are available and installation is quick. A new website, www.leisurepops.com offers detailed information on the program as well a Power Point presentation with sample screens and a Q&A. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. | |
| Glen Arbor's blu in Travel+Leisure - Traverse City Record Eagle Posted: 30 Nov 2009 04:44 AM PST | Published: November 30, 2009 07:35 am Glen Arbor's blu in Travel+Leisure
GLEN ARBOR -- The restaurant blu has been named one of the 25 "American Hot Spots." Travel+Leisure magazine said the restaurant features "French and American classics from locally sourced ingredients, plus a panoramic view of Lake Michigan." Chef Randy Chamberlain cooks his "inspired cuisine" at 5705 S. Lake St. He makes extensive use of local food, sometimes coming up with the night's menu after 4 p.m. in the day. He and Cherry Capital Foods will be hosting a dinner for growers and suppliers in December, to showcase what blu can do with their products. Call 334-2530. 
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| Posted: 30 Nov 2009 08:28 AM PST November 30, 2009 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published Travel and Leisure--Airlines, Hotels, Resorts, Cruise Lines, and Restaurants Report offering a timely review of the sector. This Special Report contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs, Equity Analysts and Money Managers. Please find an excerpt below. View Details of This Special Report Recent Wall Street Transcript Special Reports. Felicia R. Hendrix joined Barclays Capital in September 2008, and is currently a Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst who follows the leisure sector. Prior to joining Barclays Capital, Ms. Hendrix was at Lehman Brothers, where she began in April 1998. At Lehman she began following the leisure sector in February 2000, and the gaming and lodging sector in 2004. Ms. Hendrix achieved second-team status in Institutional Investor's All-America Research Team for the leisure sector from 2002 to 2005, and she achieved third-team status from 2006 to 2009. In 2009 she was also voted runner-up in gaming and lodging. Prior to assuming coverage of the leisure sector, Ms. Hendrix was a Research Associate who covered the gaming sector. Before joining Lehman Brothers, she was a Research Associate at Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co., where she also followed the gaming sector. Ms. Hendrix began her Wall Street career as an institutional equities salesperson at Needham & Co. She earned a B.A. from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business. Ms. Hendrix is married with two children. TWST: Let's switch over to hotel companies. Among the companies you cover, generally speaking, how are they performing and how healthy are their balance sheets? Ms. Hendrix: Balance sheets are extremely healthy. I think since the last recession, focus has always been on the balance sheets, and through this one certainly. With many companies getting close to breaching covenants, everyone worked very hard to either amend credit facilities or to improve liquidity, cut dividends, cut cap ex in the industries that I cover, in general. Balance sheets are solid. As far as performance, the lodging stocks as of July 1 basically have been on fire. In the past six months, Starwood (HOT) is up 135%, Marriott (MAR) is up 61%, Host Hotels (HST) is up 178%, clearly outperforming the 30% S&P increase in the past six months. And what was driving that was the stocks got to historically low valuations, and folks looked at these stocks and they said, "Okay, I know that there is risk in 2009, I know there is risk in 2010, but these are good solid businesses; they are cyclical stocks. And in 2011 and 2012, the performance of these stocks is going to look a lot different than today. And we are going to buy these stocks today for then." As you may know, I downgraded this sector on July 1 to a sell. Starwood and Marriott and Choice (CHH) are sells. Host, I've kept my equal-weight rating. A good part of the downgrade came from the belief, and this has definitely manifested itself, that numbers at the time were too high. Those have come down. The industry is really suffering since this recession's recovery is going to be slower than it historically has. I just wasn't ready to give these companies credit today for something that will happen in 2011 and 2012. Did I underestimate the power of the investment community wanting to look out past 2009 and 2010? Yes, lesson learned. But these businesses are still recovering. Pricing is still going to be down next year. The folks who were buying up for 2011 and 2012 were looking at normalized valuation. Our estimate for normalized valuation for Starwood is $26, and it's now $32; for Marriott $27, and it is $27. So the question that a lot of people are asking right now, including me, is, "Is the 2011 and 2012 recovery now fully priced into these stocks and do you buy them now?" A lot of people who missed this massive move are struggling with that exact point. Some of them are short the stocks and the question that they are asking is, "Well, I'm short these stocks, but what drives them down is the majority of the investment community is looking out so far." There are not a lot of answers to that. So they are really tough stocks where they are right now. The remainder of this 37 page Travel and Leisure--Airlines, Hotels, Resorts, Cruise Lines, and Restaurants Report can be immediately viewed by purchasing online. The Wall Street Transcript is a unique service for investors and industry researchers - providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs and research analysts. This 137 page special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online. The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse the views of any interviewees nor does it make stock recommendations. For Information on subscribing to The Wall Street Transcript, please call 800/246-7673
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| Posted: 30 Nov 2009 09:24 AM PST
Published Monday, November 30, 2009, 17:23 (Your-Story.org)
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