Visit Suffolk, HomeAway, Datalex, Onefinestay, Ebookers, Farelogix, Dolphin Dynamics, Farelogix, Vayable, EZY-Go, RyanairHotels and Egypt also get a mention in our scan of briefs and other items making the news on February 15.
Visit Suffolk has unveiled a 14-week Curious County campaign. The digital marketing campaign aims to highlight quirkier places around the county such as the UFO trail at Rendlesham Forest. A microsite has been developed for the campaign with seven themes including history and heritage, arts and culture and family. A twitter handle @curiouscounty and Facebook page have also been created to support the promotion.
Datalex has recruited Dominic Clarke as its new head of sales. Clarke brings experience from both distribution and ecommerce sectors following previous roles at British Airways, where he helped establish ba.com, EB2 International (acquired by Sabre Airline Solutions) and Mobile Travel Technologies.
Onefinestay has appointed Matt Turner as vice president of marketing. Turner,who joins from BSkyB where he was director of online sales and marketing, is charged with increasing online presence, extending into further cities and building digital campaigns.
HomeAway has embarked on its first television sponsorship campaign which is being aired on Really TV. It features 10 British families armed with GoPro cameras who film rental holidays booked via the UK service. The campaign, created by Hypernaked, carries the strapline 'We found a place to....'. The
Ebookers has made its hotel application available on Android. The Orbitz-owned online travel agency reports a 102% increase year-on-year in visits to its Irish site from mobile devices while bookings for the service have gone up 110% year-on-year.
Farelogix has unveiled it's Airline Commerce Gateway enabling carries to distribute fares and other ancillaries across various distribution channels.the platform includes a pricing engine and merchandising system.
Go Travel is implementing a selling system across its five agency locations via Dolphin Dynamics. The platform gives the retailer access to low-cost, charter and GDS flights as well as bedbanks and car-rental suppliers. The Dolphin technology also enables the agency to improve booking processes and eliminate manual transfer of data.
Vayable, the experience marketplace, has unveiled its Ambassador program enabling users to identify the top guides via a badge on their profile or experience page. The badge is awarded to the guides who have provided the most tours and received the most reviews.
Online leisure booking service EZY-Go.com has launched offering travellers packages, tours and activities in Asia. The platform already offers inventory in a number of destinations including Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam and plans to add additional territories and partners in the future.
Ryanair says it has received record visitors to its ryanairhotels service in January. The low-cost carrier says traffic jumped 300% to more than 5.5m compared with December 2012. Ryanair's hotel content is powered by HotelsCombined.
And finally...
The Egyptian tourism minister is planning live webcams in popular resorts including Luxor and Aswan to reassure tourists. At a recent conference in Milan the minister, Hisham Zaazou, stressed the importance of the tourism industry to the destination.