ith this issue, Travel Weekly
inaugurates a new look and a fresh outlook.
Updated graphics are part of the story, but we have re-examined
our editorial content and added several new features, as well.
The changes reflect, in part, the changes in Travel Weekly's
readership over the past few years. To thrive in today's
challenging environment, today's subscriber -- agent and supplier
alike -- has a sharper business focus, a more sophisticated
approach to agent/supplier relationships and large reserves of
entrepreneurial drive.
Our new sections are designed to complement our strong news
coverage and bring to our readers critical information to help
their businesses grow.
The Buzz section will give readers insights
into the industry they won't find anywhere else. In her
Travel Confidential column, veteran industry
journalist Michele McDonald will keep readers one step ahead of the
"official" news. Before it's in a press release, before it's
announced in a news conference, you'll read about it in Travel
Confidential.
In the new Cybertalk section, you'll catch
rants, raves, quips and jabs culled from the ongoing industry
discussions on TravelWeekly.com's Forum.
Buzz also includes the Travel Weekly Portfolio
anchored by the exclusive Travel Weekly Travel Stock Index. This chart will map
the weekly fortunes of 20 public travel companies in the U.S. and
Europe, and report how industry stocks fare compared with the Dow
Jones Industrial Average and Standard and Poor's 500 index for the
same time period.
Also in the Travel Weekly Portfolio, by special arrangement with
Goldman Sachs, we'll be charting that firm's cruise, lodging and
gaming indices, and, by special arrangement with Blaylock &
Partners, we'll publish the Blaylock U.S. Airline Index.
In another regular feature, an industry executive in the news
will be In the Hot Seat, where a Travel Weekly
editor will explore the topic-of-the-moment with a newsmaker in a
short, incisive Q & A.
We've also engaged provocative online expert Philip C. Wolf,
president of PhoCusWright, to write a monthly column for our
Opinion pages. Equally provocative is our new
editorial cartoonist, Milt Priggee, whose work you may have seen in
Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post and USA Today.
And, in response to readers' requests, we'll be alternating
special Hotel News and Airport
News sections.
The Agent Life section has been completely
reconceived. It's been expanded to two full pages, and will include
an agent profile, an example of agent-supplier cooperation that
resulted in a big win for both (Hand in Hand), nuts-and-bolts
suggestions for running an agency (5 Things), peer advice from
niche destination experts (The Perfect Itinerary) and a rotating
column written by leading industry authorities. Agent Life will appear every other week.
You will see a completely new look for our destination
sections, as well as additional important features to help
travel agents sell and market destinations. Our Sales
Pitch boxes will give pointers for selling featured
destinations, and you'll see information provided by important
objective industry resources, such as Star Service
and Intelliguide Professional.
You'll still find, by the way, many of your favorite sections:
the By the Numbers research column, Travel
Product News, Fam Trips and Mark Pestronk's
Legal Briefs all have been retained.
We have, however, retired two sections, though not their contents:
Stories that would have appeared in our Business Travel Update now
will be found in the regular news pages, and items that used to be
in Clipboard will find their way into other areas of the paper.
Keep your eye out for more changes as we complete the rollout of
this redesign. In future issues, Travel Weekly will bring you
analytic stories on the strategic direction of major travel
industry companies written by top business writers.
We'll also continue to have special "impact issues" that examine
aspects of our industry in depth. Next week we'll be looking at the
industry's Top 50 Travel Agencies, and in July we'll look at Who
Makes What, a survey of industry salaries from hotel service
personnel to airline presidents.
Arnie Weissmann
Editor in Chief