next battleground for travel Web sites
Posted on: Wed, 2007-02-14 06:50
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next battleground for travel Web sites
U.S. Internet travel companies, well entrenched at home and in Europe, are preparing to slug it out for dominance in Asia, where economic growth and increasing Web usage make the region a tempting target, leaders of two travel companies said.
Without predicting when it would happen, both Priceline, the No. 4 U.S. online travel agency, and travel search site SideStep see Asia as the next frontier, their CEOs said at the 2007 Reuters Hotels and Casinos Summit in Los Angeles.
The race to establish footholds in Asia is part of a trend among travel sites, which have almost saturated U.S. markets and must look abroad for growth opportunities. Source: Newsbeyond.com
Through the “India-China Friendship through Tourism Year,” the two countries are hoping to accelerate tourist flow, Indian Tourism Minister Ambika Soni.
The announcement follows the start of a four-day official visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing to India on Sunday.
Foreign ministers from both countries are to finalize setting up of a hotline next week, as part of the move to enhance economic, strategic and cultural ties, including unveiling of a logo for the joint tourism year. Source: Newsbeyond.com
A former Labour minister claimed more than £16,000 in mileage and a Tory backbencher over £5,000 in taxi fares, figures released last night showed, putting MPs' travel expenses under detailed scrutiny for the first time.
Liberal Democrat Norman Baker published a breakdown of MPs' £5m annual travel bill in what he described as "an important victory in the battle to make parliament and the use of public money more accountable to the people". The figures were released to him after a freedom of information tussle with the Commons authorities.
Janet Anderson, Labour MP for Rossendale and Darwen and a former culture minister, tops the list of mileage claimants at £16,612 for the most recent year, April 2005 to March 2006. MPs can claim 40p a mile for the first 10,000 miles each year and 25p thereafter. Source: Newsbeyond.com