President's Column

There's likely no group of business people who understand better than travel people, how important it is to keep a close eye on costs and run a 'tight ship' - the past 30 years have taught us that lesson well. But it's also true that the only effective way to understand and promote your product successfully is to 'road test' it. So it makes good business sense to get on the road and travel the world, and this has been a week of contrasts as far as that's concerned. 

Advantage members and commercial partners have been in Dubai - now surely one of our most important leisure and business travel destinations; many travel agents have just taken off to all corners of the USA on Brand USA's annual Megafam, and the Discovery Channel has just announced the 25 most popular 'bucket list' destinations, as chosen by travellers themselves - with the Northern Lights, the Great Barrier Reef and Route 66 declared the Top 3.

Let's not forget, though, that for a number of long-established and popular destinations - Kenya the latest - leisure travel in particular has come to a virtual halt for security reasons. Of course, safety is paramount and never open to compromise, but let's never forget ... 

Click here to read on (including Travel Quiz Glasgow Heat report) ...

SPAA Diary 2014

Coming up this week ...