13. Business travel

Traveling on business has been one of the growth sectors of the travel industry in the past decade. Yet a decade ago many business travelers were still being forced to share aircraft cabins with squalling children and laid-back tourists.

Now the trend is to pamper the executive not only with his or her own compartment away from tourists but to give business travelers greater control over environment – eating when they want to, for example – as well as acknowledging the demands of work.

Improved travel management is one of the most corporate interests as the benefits of controlling business travel costs become more apparent.

There are tourist companies that provide business services. Those are fax and telephone communications, secretarial services, answering service, business meeting arrangements. There are business facilities for business travelers at hotels, airports, on airplanes.

Leading international hotel chains now find that business travelers account for over 60 per cent of their occupancy. The benefits of an international chain of business hotels is the major part of the reason for the move to buy world-wide hotel chains.

The new computer systems offer a real prospect of improving the efficiency of business travel booking and the service they provide truly meets the customer’s needs.

Business travel will develop faster than other types of tourism in future. Tourist companies will provide more services. They will collect information on markets and trade partners, provide economic data on monitors, arrange negotiations, offer pre-convention and post-convention tours.

As the world’s economies become ever more integrated, and the ability to travel becomes both cheaper and easier, business travelers are increasingly wooed by a travel industry anxious to win their custom.

14. Package holiday

The growth of the low-cost airline industry and internet booking has hit tour operators hard by making independent travel easier than ever. The appeal of the package holiday model to a new generation of tourists has seemed ever more attractive.

People are under more and more pressure professionally. This is putting more and more pressure on their personal lives and as a result, they have greater expectations of their holidays than ever before. Because of this, people are becoming more demanding and they are looking for a higher degree of personal attention. There is a growing number of people who appreciate that they are offered a special experience for sports lovers and families in exceptional locations.

Every year most tourist companies and leisure groups open new super-deluxe hotels and all-inclusive resorts, which offer room service, spa treatments, and other luxury services that reflect all requirements of modern holiday-makers.

package holiday – організований туризм, який включає різні види обслуговування (проживання, перевезення та ін.).

leisure group – об‘єднання туристичних компаній і фірм, яке спеціалізується на організації комплексного відпочинку.

all-inclusive resort – курорт з комплексним відпочинком.

to appeal – приваблювати.

super-deluxe hotel – готель найвищого ґатунку.

spa treatment – лікування на водах.

to hit – вдарити.