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This week in Opportunities:

Great Deals Abound for Consumers: Global Hotel Prices Drop 12%
Opportunities Watch!
Executive Movers! See who's going where?
Travel Executive Employment Report

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OPPORTUNITIES NEWS & TRENDS

Great Deals Abound for Consumers: Global Hotel Prices Drop 12%

The average price of a hotel room around the world fell by 12 percent last year, according to the latest hotels.com Hotel Price Index. This fall in prices paid was driven by price drops across every continent. Hotel prices in December 2008 were more than one tenth lower than they were the year before and room rates were just 1 percent above their level in January 2004, when the Hotel Price Index was first launched. The hotels.com HPI tracks the real prices paid per hotel room rather than advertised rates. It is based on prices actually paid by customers for 68,000 hotels across 12,500 locations around the world. The HPI report issued today examines hotel prices for the period October to December 2008, compared to the same period the year before. The HPI tracks the real prices paid per room by hotels.com customers around the world using a weighted average based on the number of rooms sold in each of the markets in which hotels.com operates.

Some of the notable findings about U.S. destinations included in this year's report:

• New York was the most expensive U.S. destination of those tracked in the global list, with prices averaging $255 during Q4 2008 - a fall of more than one-fifth (22 percent) compared to the same period in 2007.
• Washington, D.C. saw a 3 percent increase in prices to $184 in Q4 2008 versus $179 in the same period in 2007. Demand for properties in the nation's capital grew as travelers planned trips for the presidential inauguration.
• Among the United States, New York was the most expensive destination, followed by Hawaii and Massachusetts. The least expensive states for travelers in Q4 2008 were Idaho, Nevada and South Dakota.
• New York topped American travelers' lists as the most popular domestic city destination, followed by Las Vegas, Orlando, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
• For Americans venturing outside the country, Toronto was the most popular destination for U.S. travelers, followed by London. Paris, Rome and Hong Kong also made the top 10 list of international favorites for American travelers.
• For international travelers visiting the United States, New York, Las Vegas and Miami were the top destinations in Q4 2008.

Carl Sparks, general manager of hotels.com, said, "While hotels faced a challenging environment in the fourth quarter, they rolled out the welcome mat to travelers like we have never seen before to fill rooms. Properties are continuing to offer compelling rates and added value options, so it continues to be an excellent time for people to plan trips and secure great deals."

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OPPORTUNITIES WATCH!

371-Room JW Marriott-Branded Resort & Spa Planned for Coco Beach, Puerto Rico in 2011

Marriott International will introduce its luxury JW Marriott brand in Puerto Rico in 2011 with a 371-room resort and spa under a recently concluded management agreement with Redwood Capital Advisors and Coco Beach LLC, a joint venture of Empresas Diaz and Janna Hospitality. The resort will be located approximately 20 miles east of San Juan's Luis Munoz Marin International Airport on a 27-acre oceanfront site and will be part of the existing 1,000-acre, master-planned development called Coco Beach Resort. Included in the development is an existing 36-hole championship, Tom Kite-designed golf course which was host of the 2008 Puerto Rico Open. For dining and entertainment, the resort will have an open, casual all-day restaurant with terrace seating offering beach/pool views, a specialty dining restaurant and a beach/pool bar. A focal point of the public areas will be the resort's spacious lobby, bar and lounge which will change character throughout the day and invite guest to linger over coffee, gather with friends or colleagues for impromptu meetings or simply to relax. For recreation, the resort will offer a 17,775-square-foot world-class spa and fitness center, an outdoor swimming pool, facilities for water sports, access to the championship golf course, a 6,370-square-foot casino and a kid's club. Other amenities will include an executive club lounge, 24-hour room service and a business center. For conferences and social events, the JW Marriott Coco Beach Resort & Spa will offer 20,919 square feet of meeting space including a 12,000 square-foot ballroom divisible into multiple sections, seven individual meeting rooms in varying configurations, two board rooms and five hospitality suites, one of which is divisible into two sections. There are 43 JW Marriott hotels currently in operation worldwide with another 20 under construction or planned for opening over the next 36 months.

OPPORTUNITIES EXECUTIVE MOVERS!

AGENCIES: Expedia, Inc., the world's leading online travel company, has appointed long-time Expedia veterans Dhiren Fonseca and Gary Fritz to lead its global Partner Services Group (PSG). The two will be jointly responsible for the company's global supply strategy and relationships with thousands of supply partners worldwide. Together, Fonseca and Fritz have 20 years of experience with Expedia. They transition into their new positions from their respective roles as senior vice presidents of corporate development, where they were focused on corporate strategy and worldwide mergers and acquisitions. During their corporate development tenures, they led Expedia's acquisition and integration of 15 companies, and drove long-term Expedia corporate strategy. Fonseca helped found Expedia.com as part of the management team at Microsoft that brought the online travel company to life in 1995. He had already been a long-time Microsoft employee. He has served in a number of roles at Expedia over the years, at one point leading the company's supply strategy and supplier relationships. Fritz joined Expedia prior to its acquisition and subsequent spinoff by IAC, and has served in a variety of corporate strategy, development and long-range planning roles. Prior to Expedia, Fritz was with the global consultancy McKinsey & Company in both Washington, D.C. and London.

AIRLINES: AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings, Inc., has announced that Christopher White has joined the company as director of public relations, a new position. Reporting to Tad Hutcheson, vice president of marketing and sales, White will oversee media relations and external and internal communications on behalf of AirTran Airways and will be based in Atlanta. A native of St. Petersburg, Fla., White brings 11 years of communications experience to AirTran Airways. He most recently worked for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) where he served as Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Strategic Communications and Public Affairs. White also worked as TSA's Southeast Public Affairs Manager. Prior to joining TSA, he was a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Atlanta. White also worked as a senior account executive with public relations firm Cohn & Wolfe and served as a Public Information Officer for the Gainesville, Fla., Fire Rescue Department. Prior to beginning his public relations career, White served as an Air Traffic Controller and Trainer in the United States Air Force. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in public relations from the University of Florida... Virgin America, the California-based domestic airline, has announced the appointment of Holly Nelson as the company's Chief Financial Officer. Nelson joins Virgin America in April, and will oversee the award-winning airline's financial operations, including treasury, tax, financial planning and analysis, accounting, financial reporting, budgets, procurement and fleet planning. Nelson brings 23 years of financial experience in the commercial aviation sector to the Virgin America team. Nelson most recently served as Senior Vice President Finance and Controller at XOJET, Inc. Nelson also served as Senior Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer at JetBlue Airways. In her six years at JetBlue, Nelson was instrumental in taking the airline into the public markets and contributing to its successful growth. Nelson has also held senior positions with Northwest Airlines, Inc., Eos Airlines, Inc., Nabisco Brands, and KPMG. Nelson is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire... US Airways has announced that Hector E. Adler will join the airline as vice president of InFlight Services effective April 1. Adler brings 35 years of airline and inflight services experience to US Airways, and will oversee the airline’s 6,600 flight attendants. He will also oversee the airline’s inflight dining department, and will lead all facets of onboard products and services. In his new position, which is subject to approval by the company’s board of directors, Adler will report to Captain Ed Bular, senior vice president, Flight Operations and InFlight. Adler most recently served as senior vice president, Guest Experience for the former Eos Airlines, where he was responsible for the onboard and airport experience. Prior to this Adler was vice president, InFlight Services for Northwest Airlines, where he was responsible for onboard service operations, including catering services and product development, and where he had direct line management of more than 10,000 flight attendants. Before that Adler worked for United Airlines as a director of International InFlight Services. Prior to his work at United, Adler was vice president of InFlight and Dining Services at Pan American World Airways, responsible for all cabin service operations, including catering services in the U.S., Europe, Africa and South America. He started his career as a flight attendant with American Airlines and held a variety of positions with the carrier over a 15-year period, the last being regional manager of International Flight Service. Adler earned a Master of Arts in Literature from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts from City University of New York. He is fluent in Spanish and Italian, and conversational in French and Portuguese.

CRUISE LINES: Ambassadors International, Inc., announced that Mark Detillion has joined the Company today and will become the Company's Chief Financial Officer effective April 1, 2009. Detillion has expertise which includes performance and profitability analysis, and venture funding. For the past eight years Detillion served as the vice president of finance and chief financial officer for Cruise West in Seattle, WA. Prior to Cruise West he spent several years as the chief financial officer for Shilo Inns in Portland, OR. He also served as the director of finance for Holland America Lines. Detillion holds a B.A. in Accounting from the University of Washington and is a certified public accountant in the State of Washington.

TRAVEL TECH: YTB International, Inc., a provider of Internet-based travel booking services for travel agencies and home-based independent representatives in the United States, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Canada, has announced that Bobby Simpson, renowned international business strategist, will be the new Director of Canadian Operations for YTB. Prior to joining YTB, Simpson provided start-up leadership and organizational development for a telecommunications marketing company where he helped grow the distributor-marketing base from 5,000 to 50,000, and grew annual revenue from $35 million to $245 million in a two-year span. As the Director of Sales for a global sales company with an $8 million sales budget, he was responsible for revenue growth with yearly increases of 35% culminating at $600 million. Over the span of his career, Simpson's strategic retention and business-building efforts have increased revenues for the companies he has worked for by nearly $328 million.

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