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This week in Opportunities:

Survey Finds Growing Travel Insurance Business
TIA Reports 1.1% Rise in April Travel Price Index
Visa Survey Finds Americans Ready to Vacation
The Empire State Gets Some Empire Execs
Opportunities Watch!
Opportunities Networking!
Executive Movers! See who's going where?
Travel Executive Employment Report

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OPPORTUNITIES NEWS & TRENDS

Survey Finds Growing Travel Insurance Business

No, it might not necessarily be the most exciting part of the travel industry, but it is becoming highly lucrative and is increasing in size every year. We're talking about travel insurance, and if the latest survey is any indication, it might be time to take another look at the careers begin developed in this industry segment. The first ever Travel Insurance Market Survey, conducted on behalf of the US Travel Insurance Association (UStiA), revealed that Americans spent more than $1 billion on travel insurance last year. According to the survey, over 17 million travelers purchased travel insurance policies from UStiA member companies last year; and more than 80 percent of these were per trip travel insurance plans that included coverage for trip cancellation. The survey also found that more Americans are buying travel insurance online, with online travel insurance sales virtually doubling from 2002 to 2004. Founded in 2004, the UStiA is a national membership association of insurance carriers, third-party administrators and allied businesses involved in developing, administrating and marketing travel insurance and assistance. Other key findings from the 2004 Travel Insurance Market Survey include: Travel agencies sell more than 35 percent of all travel insurance provided by UStiA members. Together, cruise lines and tour operators sell 40 percent. Other popular channels include online agencies, airlines, broker/aggregators and credit card companies. Consumers' top misconceptions about travel insurance are that credit cards cover trip cancellation and that travel suppliers provide reimbursements to travelers who have to cancel trips. Americans are most likely to purchase travel insurance plans that include trip cancellation insurance are traveling internationally or on cruises. For more information, visit www.ustravelinsurance.org.

TIA Reports 1.1% Rise in April Travel Price Index

Travel might just be getting a bit more expensive. The Travel Industry Association of America reported that the April Travel Price Index (TPI) rose 1.1 percent from the previous month and 5.8 percent over April 2004-the largest 12- month increase since last November. Spiraling gasoline prices played a major role, up 10.2 percent from the prior month and 24.4 percent against April 2004. Lodging prices fell 1.6 percent from March, but rose 5.4 percent over one year ago. Airfares climbed 3.6 percent from the previous month. TIA's monthly TPI measures the seasonally unadjusted inflation rate of the cost of travel away from home in the United States and is based on data collected for the monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Visa Survey Finds Americans Ready to Vacation

According to data released by Visa USA, Americans are preparing to vacation in record numbers this year. Overall travel and entertainment spending volume on Visa-branded payment cards from Jan. 1 through mid-May 2005 has increased by 15 percent over the same period in 2004. Visa expects this increased growth trend to continue through the 2005 summer travel season. "Increased spending on cards for travel suggests consumers are feeling confident about the economy, and are taking time off to enjoy vacations with their families and friends," said Wayne Best, senior vice president of Business and Economic Analysis for Visa USA. "After 9/11, Americans understandably stayed close to home, spending their money on consumer and household goods such as cars, flat-panel televisions and home furnishings. Now, with the growing economy and greater job stability, there appears to be strong momentum shifting back to travel." Although Americans have returned to vacationing, today's consumer continues to hunt for good deals, a trend that is reflected in lower average ticket prices for airline and auto rental purchases. Throughout the year, airlines have experienced strong sales, with Visa card volume growth of 11 percent. However, intense competition has caused the average individual transaction for both airline tickets and car rentals to decline approximately 3 to 7 percent across the board (see tables below). In contrast, consumers have been willing to pay more for lodging. The average lodging ticket has increased almost 4 percent since 2005, to $195.76. Other related summer recreation categories also are seeing heightened activity. Strong volume growth in the sports and recreation and amusement park categories in 2005 (increases of 14 and 13 percent, respectively) also indicate a busy summer season.

The Empire State Gets Some Empire Execs

The gaming resort industry is coming to New York state big time, if the latest round of big time hiring and expansion is any indication. Last week Empire Resorts, Inc. announced that its board of directors elected John Sharpe as chairman, named David Hanlon as chief executive officer and president, and appointed Ronald Radcliffe as chief financial officer and treasurer. Hanlon, 60, brings over 25 years experience in the gaming and resort industries, having led the implementation of successful growth strategies at Rio Suites Hotel & Casino, Resorts International, Harrah's Atlantic City and International Game Technology. Hanlon's involvement with Empire Resorts began in 2003, when he was elected director and vice chairman of the company's board of directors. As the chief executive officer and president of Empire Resorts, he has been charged by the board to implement the company's growth strategy, further building Empire's video game machine business with the New York State Lottery at the Monticello Raceway; developing Native American gaming opportunities at the Monticello Raceway and Concord Hotel & Resort; driving future development of resort and golf properties at the Concord Hotel & Resort and Grossinger's Hotel & Resort -- scheduled to be merged into the company in the third quarter of 2005. Radcliffe, 61, previously worked with Hanlon at the Rio Suites Hotel & Casino, where he served as chief financial officer from 1996 to 2000 and was instrumental in negotiating the sale of the company to Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. In conjunction with these appointments, the company announced that Robert Berman, the prior chief executive officer, has been appointed vice chairman and that David Matheson, the prior chairman, will remain a director. Sharpe, 62, has served as a director of the company since 2003. He most recently served as president and chief operating officer of Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, from which he retired in 1999, after 23 years of service. During his tenure at Four Seasons, the world's largest operator of luxury hotels, Sharpe directed worldwide hotel operations, marketing and human resources.

OPPORTUNITIES WATCH!

Louisiana's L'Auberge du Lac Casino Resort Opens

The gaming business just keeps expanding with major new resorts. L'Auberge du Lac Hotel & Casino, managed by Pinnacle Entertainment, has officially opened in Lake Charles, La., L'Auberge is a 26-story asymmetrical hotel complex with 743 rooms, including several suite configurations and private villas. It features the largest single-level riverboat casino in the United States. The resort has a 30,000-square-foot casino, including 60 table games and more than 1,600 slot machines. For more information, visit www.ldlcasino.com.

Ritz-Carlton Breaks Ground for Dallas Hotel

Ground was broken last week on The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas and The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton. The project includes a 217-room Ritz-Carlton hotel and 70 luxury residences, which are substantially pre-sold, in a 21-story Robert Stern-designed tower. The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas will occupy the first eight floors of the building, and will include a restaurant/bar, 14,000 square feet of meeting space, a 10,000-square-foot ballroom, and a 12,000 square foot spa and fitness center. Since 200l, Ritz-Carlton has successfully opened 23 hotel and resort properties. Ritz-Carlton currently operates 58 hotels in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas and The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas are slated for completion in 2007.

Grand Hyatt Opens First Airport Hotel in Dallas

Grand Hyatt DFW, the only Grand Hyatt located at an airport, is set to open July 1, 2005. The new hotel adjoins the new International Terminal D at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and marks the first Grand Hyatt to be built in Texas. The 298-room hotel features a ballroom/banquet/meeting space, restaurants, lounge, fitness center, rooftop heated swimming pool and fully equipped fitness center with spa treatment rooms. The hotel has 12 levels, eight of which have guest rooms. The hotel will be a prime destination for domestic travelers, as well as the North Texas community, for conferences, banquets, galas and upscale getaways.

Kempinski Expands Managed Hotels in China

Kempinski Hotels has joined the rush to open and manage new hotels in China. The luxury hotel company signed contracts to open the Kempinski Hotel Qingdao in Shandong Province and the Kempinski Hotel Changchun in Jilin Province during 2007. The Kempinski Hotel Qingdao is due to open in early 2007 and will feature 400 rooms, a variety of restaurants, including the famous Paulaner Br‰uhaus, and 20,000 square meters of offices. Qingdao is a seaside city on the southern coast of the Shandong Peninsula bordering the Yellow Sea and Jiaozhou Bay. Opening in mid-2007, the Kempinski Hotel Changchun will feature 400 rooms, a variety of restaurants, such as a Paulaner Br‰uhaus and a restaurant specializing in traditional 'Tan' cuisine, and 5,000 square meters of shopping and boutiques. The hotel is located in Changchun, which has earned the title of "Spring City" of northern China and is the capital of Jilin Province, situated at the heart of the Song Liao plains. Changchun is also home to the car manufacturing plants of Audi and Volkswagen and is historically the first film production base in China. Kempinski currently has hotels open in Beijing, Shenyang and Chengdu, as well as "41 Hengshan Road," a prestigious apartment complex in Shanghai. New hotels also are due to open in Dalian, Shenzhen and Urumqi during 2005. Other signed hotels in China include those in Wuxi, Yinchuan and Sanya. Kempinski has plans to have 20 hotels in China by 2008.

Fontainbleau Resorts Sets New Growth Path

Here's a company that's suddenly back on the growth track. Fontainebleau Resorts has named Glenn Schaeffer, formerly the president of the Mandalay Resort Group, as its president and CEO. Under his direction the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach will undergo a $350 million renovation and expansion. The project, which should be completed in 2007, will bring the total number of rooms to 1,750. The company also expanding its brand to Las Vegas with plans for a new 4,000-room hotel and casino resort on the Strip just north of the Riviera. The Fontainebleau Las Vegas is scheduled to open in 2008.

InterContinental Opens Second Indigo Hotel

InterContinental Hotels Group officially opened the doors of the Hotel Indigo Chicago-Gold Coast. The property is a full-scale renovation of the historic Claridge Hotel, a fixture of Chicago architecture since 1926. The 165-room hotel is part of InterContinental's new Hotel Indigo lifestyle hotel brand designed to address the desires of style-conscious guests who are seeking experience and quality over pure mundane functionality when traveling. The first Hotel Indigo opened in Atlanta in October 2004. Future sites of Hotel Indigo hotels include Sarasota, Houston, Chicago-Palatine and additional hotels in other major U.S. cities are under consideration.

OPPORTUNITIES NETWORKING!

Meet Top Travel Marketers at ATME in Las Vegas

Here's your last chance to network with top travel marketers. The Association of Travel Marketing Executives (ATME) will hold its 25th anniversary conference June 21-22 at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort. As the only worldwide organization of its kind to provide members with an ongoing forum for exchanging creative ideas and effective marketing solutions, ATME's 2005 Annual Conference will "Focus on the Future" of travel industry marketing by hosting a series of conference sessions featuring high-ranking travel marketing executives. The event is capped with the annual ATME Atlas Awards Banquet where Steve Wynn, Chairman of Wynn Resorts, will be presented the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award. ATME is comprised of senior level travel marketing influencers representing all sectors of the industry, including international airlines, hotels and resorts, cruise lines, online travel, state and local tourism offices, car rental companies, technology providers and other leading industry segments. This year's conference will feature revealing presentations and case studies including: Using Brand Power to the Fullest; Internet Marketing - What really matters and how to optimize your ROI; Story Driven Marketing - Learn how your brand starts with your story; Delivering the Brand Promise; How Las Vegas Did It - The anatomy of one of the most recognized campaigns in history. Keynote presentations will be delivered by some of the industries most innovative and seasoned executives including: Jonathan Tisch, chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels; David Kong, CEO, Best Western; Joanne Smith, president of Song - a Delta Company; Henry Harteveldt, vice president of Travel Research of Forrester Research; Andrew Jordan, executive vice president of Marketing & CMO of Wyndham Hotels; and Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, director-general of Bahamas Tourism. For information about membership and attending or participating in the conference, call 800-526-0041 or visit www.atme.org.

OPPORTUNITIES EXECUTIVE MOVERS!

AIRLINES: Northwest Airlines announced that Fay Beauchine, vice president-sales and customer care, will retire next month. Steven Sear, managing director of reservations services, will succeed Beauchine and is being promoted to vice president-sales. Sear will be responsible for Northwest and KLM sales programs for North American corporations, travel agencies, the federal government, national associations, tour operators, cruise lines, consolidators and other distributors. He also is responsible for the airline's sales support call centersÖDelta Air Lines announced that Sametta Klinetob has been named its new director of government affairs in the Washington, D.C. office. Effective immediately, Klinetob will have primary responsibility for managing all regulatory issues and policies at the federal and local level involving safety, security, operational, airport and airways matters.

ASSOCIATIONS: Joseph McInerney will continue to serve as president of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) for an additional three years, under a newly signed extension to his original five-year contract with the trade group. McInerney has more than 40 years of experience in the hospitality industry and is well versed in the various skills needed to operate in association, corporate, and lodging environments.

CRUISE LINES: MSC Cruises named Director of Marketing Gail Nicolaus to head all North American marketing programs for the premium cruise line. In her new role, Nicolaus will report directly to Executive Vice President and COO Ares Michaelides. She will be responsible for the cruise lines marketing plans, advertising, public relations, collateral materials and strategic partnerships and will work closely with Vice President of Sales James Henwood to coordinate marketing and sales programs for the companyÖSteve Hirshan has joined Costa Cruises' North American office as director of national accounts and sales administration. He will report to Joe Cavarra, senior vice president- sales for North America.

HOTELS & RESORTS: Presidente InterContinental Hotels & Resorts appointed three new general managers to its resorts in Cancun, Cozumel and Los Cabos, Mexico. Michael Oney joins the Presidente InterContinental All-Inclusive Los Cabos Resort as general manager. He brings with him more than 20 years of hospitality experience, having served as the general manager for two InterContinental Hotels: the Del Lago InterContinental Maracaibo, Venezuela and the InterContinental Guayana, Venezuela. He also acted as the InterContinental Brand Standards Chairman-Latin America. Javier Rosenberg has been named general manager of the Presidente InterContinental Cozumel Resort & Spa. Rosenberg's hospitality management experience includes international deluxe, five-star properties in Singapore, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Spain and the U.S. In 2001, he was awarded the Young Hotelier of the World Award by the International Hotels & Restaurants Association and Hotels Magazine. Sandra Rangel has been named general manager of the Presidente InterContinental Cancun Resort. Rangel, who has been with the Presidente InterContinental Cancun and Cozumel properties for the past 10 years, is the second woman to hold the position of general manager for Presidente InterContinentalÖNoble House Hotels & Resorts has appointed Steven Boswell as general manager and Tiffany Boeckman as director of sales at Ocean Key Resort & Spa in Key West, Florida. Prior to joining Ocean Key Resort & Spa, Boswell served as director of sales and marketing at The Portofino Hotel & Yacht Club, a sister Noble House Hotels & Resorts propertyÖThe Washington Terrace Hotel, managed by Memphis-based Davidson Hotel Company, announced that Cynthia Draws-Smith has been named director of sales and marketing. Draws-Smith joins the Washington Terrace from The Jefferson, A Loews Hotel in Washington, D.C., where she served as director of sales and marketing. Prior to that, she served in the same capacity at the Le Meridien Chicago in ChicagoÖCrestline Hotels & Resorts, Inc. named Kathryn Suzanne Sabaka as director of sales for the Hilton Garden Inn Virginia Beach Town Center. The 176-room hotel is located in the Town Center Business district which is eight miles from the ocean and six miles from Norfolk International Airport in VirginiaÖWorldHotels, the Americas, one of the world's leading sales, marketing and distribution companies for independent hotels, has appointed Guy Colangelo as marketing manager. Colangelo, who is located in the company's new Orlando, Fla. office, is responsible for overseeing the company's airline frequent-flyer programs and promotions, and serving as the main marketing services resource for communications activities and internal staff membersÖ

InterContinental The Barclay New York has named Raymond Vermolen as hotel manager. In this position, Vermolen is responsible for leading the day-to-day operations of the 686-room hotel in midtown Manhattan, one of InterContinental's flagship properties in the U.S.ÖBenchmark Hospitality International named Patricia Walsh as controller of Stonewall Resort, the 2,000-acre conference resort located near Weston, W.V. For the past five years, Ms. Walsh was employed as corporate controller for Morrissey Hospitality Companies of St. Paul, MinnÖJoe Massar has been named director of sales and marketing for The Melrose Hotel, Dallas. With more than 16 years experience in the hospitality industry, Massar comes to the property from a position as director of sales and marketing at the Wyndham Arlington Hotel in Dallas/Ft. WorthÖNoble House Hotels & Resorts named Scot Hamilton as director of sales and marketing for LaPlaya Beach & Golf Resort in Naples, Fla. In his new position, Hamilton will be responsible for increasing room sales, group business and developing marketing plansÖPala Mesa Resort, a North San Diego County destination landmark for four decades has announced the appointment of Thomas Anderson, CMP, as senior sales manager.

TRAVEL AGENTS: Thomas Cook AG, Europe's second- largest travel company, plans to appoint former T-Online International AG CEO Thomas Holtrop as its new CEO, replacing Wolfgang Beeser. Holtrop will join the management board Sept. 1 and take over when Beeser retires as planned on Nov. 1. The company is jointly owned by Lufthansa and KarstadtQuelle AG. Holtrop left T-Online in September after parent company Deutsche Telekom AG chose Walter Raizner, head of International Business Machines Corp.'s German unit, to lead its fixed-line unit and oversee T-Online. Europe's largest phone company is in the process of buying back T-Online, which it spun off in 2000 at the height of the Internet boom. In December 2003, Beeser was called out of retirement to replace Stefan Pichler as CEO and bring the company to profit.

TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY: TravelCLICK Inc., a leading provider of hotel e-commerce solutions, appointed Robert Post as president and CEO. He succeeds Richard Gray and Ray Cohen, founders and co-CEOs of the company. Gray will remain chairman of the board. Post joined TravelCLICK in May 2004 as chief financial officerÖ Reservation Center, Inc., a subsidiary of travel industry distribution and settlement services provider Onelink4travel, Inc., has hired James Day as vice president of operations. Day, a veteran travel industry executive with broad financial, operations, and business development expertise, will play a key role in establishing Reservation Center as the key marketing and customer service component of Onelink4travel.

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