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TRAVEL ROUND-UP: Airlines for America, Amadeus, Gol, and More…

A summary of the most exciting recent news in travel marketing and media in the U.S., U.S.-Hispanic and Latin American markets. If you're trying to keep up, consider this your one-stop shop.

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A summary of the most exciting recent news in travel marketing and media in the U.S., U.S.-Hispanic and Latin American markets. If you’re trying to keep up, consider this your one-stop shop.

U.S./U.S.-HISPANIC MARKET

American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) signed an agreement to acquire SMT, a travel management company (TMC) based in Finland and a subsidiary of Finnair. SMT has been an important partner within the GBT network for the past 27 years. When the transaction is completed later this year, the company and its staff will formally join the GBT family.

Airlines for America (A4A) released its summer 2016 air travel forecast, which projects passenger volumes. Approximately 231.1 million passengers (2.51 million per day) are expected to fly in scheduled service on U.S. airlines from June 1 – Aug. 31 compared to 222.3 million passengers over the same time period in 2015: a 95,500 passengers-per-day increase. This includes 30.5 million travelers (331,000 per day) on international flights. To accommodate the record volumes, airlines will be offering 2.78 million seats per day to meet demand, which equates to an increase of 109,400 seats year-over-year.

Amadeus published its report Shaping the Future of Luxury Travel, which revealed how global consumers are increasingly spending their disposable income on experiences rather than material goods as well as opportunities that the luxury travel market will face over the next decade. Some key findings from the report include:

  • That North America and Western Europe account for 64% of global outbound luxury trips, despite only making up 18% of the world’s population.
  • That a human desire for more rewarding experiences provides an essential catalyst to evolve and improve travel industry quality and service standards
  • That a hierarchy of luxury travel needs must be identified, ranging from 5-star quality and service standards to exclusive VIP privacy and security

The report was developed with data from Tourism Economics and with dozens of expert interviews with global luxury travel experts across specialist travel concierge agencies, airlines, hoteliers as well as intermediary suppliers through Connections, a global networking event organizer for luxury travel providers.

The Travel Marketing Forum, part of #PortadaLat on June 8-9 in Miami’s Hyatt Regency Hotel, is going to bring together all the big players in travel marketing from the Americas, including Volaris, Grupo Posadas, Best Western, Royal Caribbean, Hyatt, Sojern and many more. Get your early bird tix!

LATIN AMERICAN MARKET

GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes, the largest low-cost and best-fare airline in Latin America, showed a decrease in its preliminary numbers regarding air traffic for April 2016, as well as the accumulated traffic for 2016. The number of departures and seats in the total system decreased by 21.9% and 11.5%, in the month and year-to-date, respectively.

InterContinental Hotels Group signed two new-build properties in Peru: one in Lima, the country’s capital city, and a second in Piura, a strategic business center in the northern part of the country. Both properties are expected to open in 2019 and will be developed through a joint-venture between Grupo Centenario and Grupo Agrisal.

Expedia and Amadeus IT Group announced a new global, long-term agreement that enables Expedia to offer air, car, rail, cruise, and hotel products through the Amadeus global distribution system, and adds Orbitz Worldwide brands in addition to the Expedia, Hotwire, Travelocity, Wotif Group, Expedia Affiliate Network and Egencia brands covered by the previous agreement.

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