trektorial

Amadeus today released a new survey that, for the first time, captures sentiment around emerging airline fee-for-service models, also known as ‘a la carte’ flying, from the people who are most impacted by them: air travelers. The telephone survey of 2,000 random adults in the U.S. (ages 18 or older) was conducted Oct. 16-20. Completing the “Flying A La Carte” survey were 735 adults (366 men and 369 women) who had flown at least once in the last 12 months. The margin of error is +/- four percent.

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A new survey of more than 900 American Express Travel agents suggests that travelers this holiday season are savvier than ever before, fulfilling their vacation plans in the midst of the current economic downturn by finding smart ways to save. Consumers are stretching their vacation budgets, seeking value in every aspect of their travel plans and cutting costs wherever they can through measures such as redeeming reward points to offset costs, taking shorter trips, visiting alternative destinations, staying closer to home and choosing less expensive hotels.

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Cruvee, the wine lifestyle aggregation platform, launches today at www.cruvee.com. Cruvee tames the vast wealth of wine-related information and media and intelligently tailors it in real-time to wine consumers based on their tastes and preferences. In addition, Cruvee offers a wide range of wine-related tools and applications previously not found in a single location and builds in social networking capabilities to create a dynamic online home for anyone’s wine lifestyle. Along with this site, Cruvee is rolling out a beta version of Cruvee for Wineries™ which provides unprecedented web intelligence, buzz monitoring and consumer visibility opportunities for wineries at www.cruvee.com/ForWineries.

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Booking.com, the international online hotel reservation service that is part of priceline.com, announced the launch of a new service that will allow hotels of any size, including smaller properties, inns and B&Bs, to offer direct bookings through their own websites.

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Curaçao Now will wow consumers who are looking to plan a budget-friendly, entertainment- and activity-filled Caribbean vacation. In addition to a $100 per person airfare credit, Curaçao Now offers value-added deals from nearly 70 hotels and resorts, car rental agencies, attractions, museums and other tourism service providers. Visitors traveling to Curaçao between Aug. 15 and Dec. 15, 2008, or May 1 and July 1, 2009 can take advantage of these island-wide offers.

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Consumers thinking about getting away this fall now have more reasons to take a vacation. Hyatt Resorts announced its “Three for Free” promotion in partnership with American Express at its resort properties in the U.S., Caribbean and Mexico.

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With gas prices maintaining never-before-seen levels and airlines simultaneously cutting flights, reducing perks and increasing fares, many consumers have been left to wonder if the days of cheap travel are over. Not so, says Cheapflights.com, the search engine that continues to make it easy for travelers with flexible schedules to find cheap deals to destinations around the world. In its just-published report entitled “Travelnomics: Getting a Good Deal in Today’s Economy,” Cheapflights offers easy-to-understand analysis and advice behind the multitude of challenges facing the travel industry. A number of strategies for consumers looking to score a good deal are also outlined in the report.

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Ten years after Starwood Hotels shook up the hotel industry with the launch of W Hotels, the innovative hotel giant will again reinvent hotel design with the debut of its newest brand, aloft hotels. Created to shake up the staid, traditional select service segment of the hotel market, aloft is designed to deliver urban-influenced, modern and vibrant design and an energetic guest experience at an affordable price point.

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