This week, a new report, the 2024 US Outdoor Adventure and Activities Traveler, revealed three in four travellers believe outdoor activities are an essential part of their travels.
I am not someone you would traditionally consider an “adventure traveller”, or even “an outdoorsy person” – and I’m OK with that. Bungee jumping, canyon swinging, ice climbing and hiking have very little appeal for me, personally.
However, I’ve just wrapped up our new adventure travel special report, and all of a sudden, cliffside camping in Victoria has piqued my interest (the view looks spectacular), and now, thanks to a story our very own Myles Stedman covered on emerging adventure destinations, I’m actually curious about visiting the ‘Stans one day.
I used to think that adventure was really meant for young, fit, men who barely broke a sweat once they’d climbed a mountain and planted a flag on top. But now adventure travel has diversified and there are experiences for everyone, regardless of their age, experience, ability or travel style.
I chatted about this with Shannon Stowell, Chief Executive Officer of the Adventure Travel Trade Association, who’s heartened to see so many people embrace adventure.
“There are a lot of folks from different backgrounds, with different lived experiences, who wanted to do these things, but they’ve never felt like [adventure travel] was for them,” he told me.
“I’m really excited that more people are feeling free to pursue activities, even though, in the past, maybe they didn’t see people who looked like themselves [in adventure travel].”
Let’s swing into other news. It doesn’t always work out when you go back to an ex (I’m looking at you JLo and Ben Affleck), but it looks like Virgin Australia and New Zealand’s romance has reignited, following authorisation of a new codeshare agreement by Australian and New Zealand regulators.
The ACCC gave it the green light back in June, but the New Zealand side of the partnership has finally come around.
Virgin Australia customers will be able to directly book Air New Zealand flights into Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch, complementing Virgin Australia’s Queenstown services.
Meanwhile, Velocity members will also be able to earn and redeem Velocity Points, and eligible members and guests will have access to lounges when flying across to New Zealand.
It’s results season, and unfortunately, Corporate Travel Management’s figures didn’t quite match up to the bold predictions it made a year ago.
The business revealed an overall revenue lift of 9% to $716.9 million, as well as underlying NPAT increase of 22% to $113.3 million.
According to Managing Director Jamie Pherous, the results were due to inflation and stagnant economic growth during Q2 in the North American market.
However Pherous noted a strong H2 seems to be bouncing back in ANZ and North America, creating “further momentum” entering FY25.
Moving along, Jetstar is facing a class action brought on by Echo Law, which is representing customers who had tickets for flights that were cancelled between 2020 and 2022.
The airline allegedly failed to refund customer payments for impacted flights, instead issuing travel credits that were apparently of much lower value.
“By acting in this way, Jetstar has enjoyed significant financial benefits at its customers’ expense,” Echo Law argued.
Meanwhile, manual passport stamping will now be a thing of the past in Europe, as the EU has confirmed it will switch on its Entry/Exit System (EES) from 10 Nov 2024.
This will see non-EU citizens scanned through the automated IT system when they cross a border in Europe, which will capture their face, name, fingerprints, date and time of entry.
The idea is that the EES will help simplify movement across the continent. It will also record entry refusals and visitors who overstay their entry.
And lastly, in sad news, an Aussie airline legend has recently died – John Ward, who oversaw Qantas’ landmark acquisition of Australian Airlines in 1992.
John was at Qantas for 25 years, as both MD and CEO between 1989 and 1993. He had many achievements during his career, including shifting the carrier’s strategic focus from being an exclusive international airline, to laying the foundations for the company’s privatisation in 1993. He also helped to develop and introduce business class to the world.
Former high-profile Qantas operations executive Roger Lindeman gave us a call and shared his fond memories of John with us.
“Having worked at Qantas myself for 43 years, I have many memories of John, he was a thoroughly decent, respected human being and I, along with many other Qantas ‘oldies’ are saddened by his passing,” he said.
Plenty of John’s friends and former colleagues have shared on the Travel Daily LinkedIn page how much they respected his leadership and enjoyed working with him. Of course, many have noted the great work he achieved during his career, but more have left beautiful messages speaking of his emotional intelligence, generosity, kind heart and empathy.
Like John, let’s all hope that the legacy we each leave behind is wrapped up in the positive impact that we had on the people around us and how we made them feel.
Enjoy the weekend,
Jo.
