MONTH IN REVIEW
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TripAdvisor
reaches half a
billion reviews
TripAdvisor has announced that it
has reached half a billion reviews and
opinions on its website.
The travel planning and booking
app and site receives on average 290
submissions every minute of every day.
The Park Plaza Hotel in Westminster,
London is the most reviewed hotel in
the UK, with over 15,000 submissions
on TripAdvisor. The London Eye is the
UK’s most reviewed attraction with
over 57,000 opinions, and the Aqua
Shard is the country’s most reviewed
restaurant with more than 11,000
reviews.
Stephen Kaufer, CEO of TripAdvisor,
said: “Since launching 17 years
ago, TripAdvisor has revolutionised
the travel industry by creating an
environment where consumers
can share honest opinions of their
experiences and where businesses
can see the rewards of achieving
consistently high standards of service
and value from the community.
“Many savvy businesses report
seeing incremental increases in the
ratings and rankings on TripAdvisor
when they engage with travellers by
responding to reviews and using the
feedback to improve their customers’
experience.”
EXPANSION
Associated
Luxury Hotels
International
expands to the UK
Independent global sales
organisation, Associated Luxury
Hotels International (ALHI), has
expanded its portfolio with hotels
across the world, including the UK.
May 2017
ALHI has added 45 independent
luxury-level meeting and incentive-
focused hotels and resorts to its
portfolio.
The company now operates in
63 countries around the world, with
properties in Asia, Africa, Europe,
Australia, South America and the
Middle East.
The Royal Garden Hotel in London
is the UK property recently acquired
by AHLI.
Mark Sergot, chief sales officer,
said: “We’ve added these hotels and
resorts to our portfolio in response to
the demand we’ve been experiencing
from meeting, convention and
incentive professionals for more
luxury-level hotels and resorts
around the world.”
These new additions are helping
us expand that reputation around the
world. Further, we have also planted
our newest ALHI GSO office in London,
as our first in Europe, just last month.”
TOURISM FIGURES
Inbound tourism
reaches record
high
Visits to the UK reached a record high
in the first two months of the year.
Official figures from VisitBritain
showed that there were 5.2m visits,
up 6% on the same period last year.
Visitors from abroad spent a record
£2.7bn, up 11% on the previous year.
Patricia Yates, director of VisitBritain,
said: “These figures show that 2017
is off to a cracking start for inbound
tourism, one of our most valuable
export industries.
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“Britain is offering great value
for overseas visitors and we can
see the success of our promotions
in international markets. We must
continue to build on our message
of welcome and value in our high
spending markets such as China, the
US and the valuable European market.”
VisitBritain predicts that the growth
will continue for the rest of the year,
with flight booking data showing that
bookings to the UK between April and
September are up by 21% compared
with the previous year.
These figures surpass 2016 which
was also a record breaking year for
inbound tourism, with 37.3m visits, up
3.4% on 2015.
QUOTE OF
THE MONTH
“Direct sell
is not the
only route
to success
for hotel
businesses.”
Paul Wait, the chief executive
of the GTMC, said this in its
criticism of hotel’s direct-selling
campaigns.
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