eNewsWire

Amid the doom and gloom of a poor summer and talk of the credit crunch, increasing numbers of Britons are choosing to spend their hard earned cash on holidays in less than traditional locations. Sales of holidays in luxury destinations, such as the Caribbean, are on the up in 2008, says www.holidays-direct.co.uk.

As falling house prices and rising fuel costs begin to bite, British holidaymakers are making sure they get a holiday to remember this year. An analysis of holiday bookings made through online travel agency www.holidays-direct.co.uk reveals an increase in the number of people booking holidays in destinations more traditionally associated with the luxury end of the market.

This is in contrast to an overall caution by holidaymakers and strongly suggests that if people are investing in a holiday, they are making sure it is a memorable one.

The poor weather in Britain has certainly been a good thing for the travel industry as thousands each week jet off to the sun.

This summer has seen higher than average sales for holidays in the Caribbean, Dubai, Thailand and Tunisia.

Holidays in Spain and Egypt are once again the top selling summer holiday destinations.

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The Multilingual PR Forum (www.multilingual-pr.com) is a new knowledge centre for international web marketers and PR professionals to share tips and discuss issues related to multilingual online PR campaigns.

Created by Web Certain, the UK-based agency that specialises in multinational, multilingual search engine optimisation, the Forum addresses the need for a place to collate information about the unique issues that PR professionals face when dealing with online PR campaigns across multiple languages and in different markets.

The forums are open to anyone to register and discuss topics such as;-
Social media optimisation
Copywriting for both human editors and search engine robots
News release distribution in multiple languages and countries
Performance tracking – in any language
Co-ordinating global PR campaigns
New developments and techniques in online PR
Blogs and RSS
The link between SEO and PR – and the use of PR as link-bait

Web Certain’s Managing Director Andy Atkins-Krueger explains why he launched www.multilingual-pr.com: “Multilingual search marketing is at the core of our business because we have an international workforce managing campaigns for clients operating in countries all around the world.”

“We have found that news distribution is a hugely useful SEO tool and the most effective way to manage an online reputation, but editorial rules and opportunities vary greatly from country to country.”

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The Icelandic budget airline Iceland Express has announced details of its end of summer sale.

Iceland Express today revealed details of its end of summer sale, offering travellers to Iceland incredibly low fares for a limited time only.

Flights will cost as little as EUR 70, GBP 56 or DKK 535, including taxes and fees, to Iceland (and back if you want) from Barcelona, Berlin, Billund, Copenhagen, Eindhoven, Frankfurt Hahn, London, and Paris.

Flights must be taken between 18 August and 15 September 2008 and bookings must be made online either today or tomorrow (Tuesday 19 August).

The airline points out that the offer is first-come-first-served and that there is limited availability.

Iceland Express is Iceland’s low-cost airline and has been operational since 2003. Five years later, the successful business now offers flights to Iceland from 14 destinations around Europe.

Iceland Express has plans to begin operating two new, more environmentally-friendly Boeing 737-700s in September and begin a new route to London Gatwick in spring 2009.

To book cheap flights to Iceland, or for more information on Iceland’s low-cost airline, take a look at www.icelandexpress.com

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Europe’s newest – and biggest – national park is up and running in South Iceland, and it is hoped massive investment will bring massive rewards.

Since opening Europe’s largest national park in June, Icelandic authorities have been busy improving the facilities and getting the word out.

The Vatnajokull National Park in south Iceland incorporates the old Skaftafell and Jokulsargljufur national parks, as well as the entire Vatnajokull glacier.

The Icelandic travel website www.South.is describes Vatnajokull National Park as ‘the meeting point of extremes’ – a sentiment instantly confirmed by the statistics.

Vatnajokull glacier is the largest in Europe and covers six active volcanoes under its 8,000 square kilometres of ice. Fire and ice are extreme contrasts; but the National Park’s sheer size is quite extreme too: 13,000 square kilometres, or 13 percent of the entire country.

Turning the entire glacier into a national park was a move intended to draw attention to the rapid melting of Iceland’s glaciers and to aid researchers in highlighting the reasons.

In contrast to the scientific community, tourists are set to be the second big winners. The Park aims to have completed construction of its second visitors’ centre shortly, and an additional four visitors’ centres will be completed by 2012.

In addition to this, the network of rangers’ stations will increase from four to 11 under the current 10 million euro investment plan.

In return for the investment, Iceland hopes to see a total increase of five to seven percent in visitor numbers to the country over the next few years.

South.is is the website for the tourist industry in South Iceland. As such, it is an invaluable English-language resource for those interested in the region.

The site contains lots of useful information, including details of current events, accommodation, restaurants and attractions, including Vatnajokull National Park. South.is is also home to an inspiring collection of photographs from South Iceland.

More information on the new Vatnajokull National Park and South Iceland in general, can be found at www.south.is

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