Travel News: Airlines, Tourism and Airfares

he Westin Austin at The Domain Inspires Wellbeing In the Heart of the City's Premium Lifestyle Center, Close to Leading High-Tech Businesses and Live Music Venues

Nowadays, differentiation is one of the main goals every Hotel aims to as a company, because it has been demonstrated that it influences the positioning and achievement of competitive advantages in the international market. Hotels have thus developed dissimilar strategies to achieve differentiation and obtain the success sought. However, it is well known that success is coveted by all, and each day it becomes more difficult to prevent these tools being copied by other Hotels in the process to obtain same results.

Lodging Interactive, a leading interactive marketing agency servicing the hospitality industry and the publisher of the free Chatter Guard Monthly Benchmark Monitor Report has released its February 2010 report.

VFM Leonardo, the leader in online visual content distribution for hotels, has launched a new episode on VTV Channel: 7 Steps to Successful Travel eBusiness – A Holistic Approach with Robert Cole the Founder of RockCheetah, a hotel marketing strategy and travel industry technology consulting practice.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called upon the entire air cargo value chain to drive efficiencies and improve competitiveness by supporting IATA e-freight. IATA also called for a renewed focus on quality via Cargo 2000 and a more effective and cost efficient approach to security with IATA’s Secure Freight program.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) halved its loss forecast for 2010 to US$2.8 billion (compared to the US$5.6 billion loss forecast in December 2009). The improvement is largely driven by a much stronger recovery in demand seen by year-end gains that continued into the first months of 2010. Relatively flat capacity translated into some yield improvement and stronger revenues.

Two well-known national restaurant industry trade publications recently recognized Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill for innovative operational and marketing efforts. FastCasual.com honored Rubio’s in the Top 100 2009 Movers & Shakers edition and Restaurant Business magazine included Rubio’s in its round-up of 50 Great Ideas in 2009.

New Breakfast Menu Enhances Quiznos’ Convenience Store Growth Strategy

Every once in awhile an author’s think-piece hits the bulls-eye. A recent article by Elizabeth Green titled ‘Building a Better Teacher’ (New York Times, March 7, 2010) does just that. But what does this have to do with hospitality? Actually, it’s a no-brainer.

Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) Board of Directors today declared a dividend of $0.21 per share of common stock. The quarterly dividend will be distributed May 7, 2010, to shareholders of record at the close of business on April 16, 2010. The Board of Directors also authorized $300 million in share repurchases over the next 12 months in addition to the $300 million authorized in September of 2009.