So who’s best placed to challenge the duopoly in aircraft manufacturing? As we saw in the first entry in this series, it could be firms from as disparate a set of countries as Canada, Brazil or China. This blog entry looks at the chances that it will be a Chinese company. But first let’s think about what the market structure in plane manufacturing actually means.
Tourism Blog
Boeing and Airbus: Breaking the Duopoly?
In the past few days the aviation industry’s biggest trade event, the International Paris Air Show, has taken place. For the public the Show offers a chance to see flying displays and the latest aircraft paraded by the major manufacturers. This is a similar event to the Farnborough International Airshow which takes place next month in the UK.
Poverty and Tourism
Last week I began a series of entries on tourism and ideas of extreme tourism in particular. Beginning with space tourism, I moved on to consider the stereotypes, demographics and regulatory sides of extreme and adventure tourism. This developed into a third entry on dark tourism and the motivations, constraints and morality of that sub-sector. Most recently, I posted about the impetus given to tourism in fragile parts of the world, by the ‘last chance to see’ culture.
Doom Tourism: Last Chance to See?
In yesterday’s entry I looked into the growth of dark tourism, a fascinating example of one tourist activity revealing its historical, emotional, moral and cultural underpinnings. Today I want to cover a slightly different form of extreme tourism, one that is motivated by desires to experience, visit and see an environment, creature or event before it disappears: ‘last-chance’ ‘doomsday’ or simply, doom tourism.
Dark Tourism: Disaster Must-Sees
Japan’s nuclear policy went back to the drawing board this week, as PM Naoto Kan signalled a change from its plans to rely on nuclear for more than half the country’s energy needs. Kan said that more natural and renewable energy would be needed in Japan’s power mix. He mentioned wind, solar or biomass as possible alternative energy sources.
Tourism Risk and Uncertainty
In the last entry on space tourism I looked at an example of extreme tourism - a more out-there version of action or adventure tourism. This involves activities which could be said to involve deliberately putting yourself in situations where the outcome is risky or uncertain. What could be riskier, you may think, than being blasted into space, experiencing space travel before returning to Earth?
Space Tourism Ten Years On
Ten years ago, Dennis Tito became the world’s first space tourist. Since that first private flight, which cost Mr Tito an estimated $20m, six more space tourists have paid for a 'seat' on one of these trips. In addition to the huge ticket price, these seven have had to endure months of training to equip them with the fitness and skills to handle space travel. They then flew on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to and from the International Space Station on trips lasting between 9 and 15 days.
Consumer Attitudes and Travel Patterns
The third part in this mini-series of entries on the tourism industry takes its lead from a recent article in Travel Weekly. This kind of industry overview from leading US-based travel editors gives an insight into developments in, and the likely impact of, changing consumer attitudes and travel patterns.
Thomas Cook in the News
In yesterday’s entry on the big slowdown detected in UK demand for holidays, I referred to a Guardian article on the impact of this slump on Thomas Cook’s summer holiday bookings. While the firm reported strong growth in Scandinavian markets and reasonable expansion in central Europe, the UK showed a different picture. Thomas Cook is one of the UK’s largest retail travel providers. It has strong brand-recognition in this country.
UK Tourism Slows: Signs of Things to Come
Where will the UK consumer take their holidays this year? There’s a welter of bad economic news around for us all. Public sector workers and the general economy are likely to suffer as spending cuts bite and tax hikes dampen demand. Perhaps the Coalition Government hopes that by pre-announcing so many of their austerity measures, consumers’ expectations have been managed downwards. If things then don’t turn out quite as badly as they feared, economic growth will rebound.
Air Capacity Up but Risks Persist
Yesterday’s blog post about the nascent recovery in the aviation industry is followed today by reflections on the actions of carriers to boost capacity on some of their main routes.
Aviation Ready for Take-Off
In the clearest signs yet of recovery, several news items point to the renaissance of the global aviation industry. These are the indicators of a resurgent world tourism economy, built in part on growing demand in south-east Asia amid positive soundings in other regions. As I blogged the other day, the hospitality sector is beginning to anticipate better times. Today’s entry focuses on aviation.
Unique Boutique Loses its Mystique
In yesterday’s Tourism blog I outlined the major brands owned and controlled by the top six hotel chains. In the analysis that I carried out it was clear that not all chains occupied every segment of the hotels market. Some firms tended either towards covering all segments, as in the case of Accor and Wyndham, or they focused on the high-end segments of the market, such as Hilton and Starwood.
Hotel Chains and Brands
Reading a Travel Weekly article the other day, my eye was drawn to reported signs that the hotels sector is back in the mood to expand. The piece went on to outline plans by the International Hotels Group (IHG) to set up a series of new hotel brands in China and the Americas.
Jet Fuel Costs Go Sky-High
The crisis in Libya is having a savage impact on its citizens and those expat workers trying desperately to get out of the country. We have caught momentary glimpses in the media recently of the fight for survival in the oil-rich state just across the Mediterranean Sea from Europe. But the impact of the Libyan revolution on our everyday lives is beginning to be felt in other ways too.
The Splendid Isolation of Cruises
The return to service of the cruise ship, the Carnival Splendor, following an engine fire last November, illustrates the scale, opulence, but also the fragility of cruise operations in this fast-growing sector of the travel and tourism industry. Carnival has over 50% market share of this lucrative sector and, along with competitors Royal Caribbean, the company has been at the forefront of bringing new, mega-sized cruise ships on stream.
Fads, Fashion and Followers
Social networking is clearly not just a fad. It’s a growing phenomenon that connects individuals, organisations and societies, producing outcomes ranging from the seemingly inconsequential conversation piece to the wildfire exchange of information that enables revolutions. The organisations may change, as My Space and Bebo wane, while Facebook and Twitter boom, but the conversation looks set to continue to expand.
The Revolution Business
It may seem small-minded to think of the travel and tourism business when a country’s future is at stake. The scenes of revolution being acted out live on TV in Tahrir Square in Cairo are of great concern on a geo-political as well as at a social and human level. Few observers will have failed to be impressed by the scale of the protests in Egypt in recent days.
ATOL Extended But Not Far Enough?
Biz/ed’s tourism blog has covered the issue of customer protection when travel firms go bust on many occasions. Most recently it was at the time of the demise of FlyGlobespan.
Pontin's Disney Work
News emerged in The Observer newspaper over the weekend of plans by Pontin’s new owners to revamp its UK holiday camps. The £25m ‘makeover’ as it was described, will see Disney-style costumes and attractions appear at the downmarket operator. Alex Langsam, whose Britannia Hotels group rescued the holiday firm from insolvency last week, was also keen to slate Pontin’s previous owners for under-investing in the business.