Argophilia

Αργοφιλία: For the love of the journey.

Orbitz International Flight Deals Celebrate 10 Years

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Orbitz continues celebrating their 10 Year Anniversary with some exclusive deals for their customers. For the Summer, Orbitz is offering discounted International Flights, and International hotel deals. Be sure and check out Argo’s “Quick Booking” evaluation.

The India – China Hotel Room Bottleneck

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Where growth in the hotel business is concerned, the Asia hospitality sector is overdue for even more spiraling expansion. Believe it or not, China and India are the most underdeveloped hotel markets in the world outside the US, according to a report from STR Global. Accordingly, there are over 100,000 rooms under construction in China and 30,000 in India.

Hidden Gems – Turi Beach Resort

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Today’s Hidden Gem is the Turi Beach Resort in Singapore. Situated in the Northeast part of Batam Island, Turi is just 35 minutes from Singapore, but a world away from the cares of man. The lush land and seascapes of this boutique resort could literally liberate you.

Monterey Wine Country Phone App is Vintage Useful

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Browsing the news this morning, I ran across a very nice smart phone app that wineries in Europe could greatly benefit from. By emulating the functionality of one the Monterey County Vintners and Growers Association created, other producers can add great visibility and value for their products digitally.

Europe After Dark Co-Star Eva Galani

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Last Summer we covered a fascinating story about Europe After Dark, an upcoming series covering the European party scene. Today we revisit the upcoming series with one of the Co-Stars, Eva Galani. Eva, gracious as ever, granted Argophilia this exclusive interview where she talks about the series and her own budding career.

Seamlessly Topguest Hypes Best Western Union

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Okay, I have finally had enough. Looking into the travel tech footlocker of startups out there, potential is about all there is out there at the moment. And for Best Western and a company called TopGuest, a bit of scornful ranting due from a Web 2.0 evangelist from the early days. The reason, someone out there in PR land still thinks everything needs to be “seamless” in its integration. BS

A Taste of the Rhine With eWaterways

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If you ever dreamed of seeing the castles along the Rhine, the people at eWaterways have a sampler barge tour you should consider. The world’s best provider of custom and selective cruise experiences, eWaterways offers unparalleled variety in waterborne excursions around the world. And, no wayfarer’s log of travel experiences should be devoid of a cruise along Germany’s fabulous waterways.

Rihanna and Milla Jovovich Help Shakhtar Celebrate

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In news from Ukraine, Shakhtar Donetsk just celebrated their 75th birthday with special guests pop star Rihanna and Ukrainian-born actress Milla Jovovich. The country’s top football side, Shakhtar reached the quarter finals of this year’s Champions League this year. Their new stadium packed to the rafters with 51,000 adoring fans, Saturday’s party for the team is the talk of the region.

Malaysia Lures Singaporeans with Low Cost Holiday Promise

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Malaysian tourism chiefs underlined how important their near-neighbors in Singapore are to the country’s tourist trade earlier today when rolling out new incentives to try and attract more visitors from across the straits. Zalizam Zakaria, director of Malaysia Tourism Singapore admitted “Singapore is a very important market for us”. Singaporeans made up almost 53% of […]

Sabre Launches AgentStream Germany With Resounding Thump

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In travel news from Germany, online travel giant Sabre Group has announced the launch of a social networking platform here in Germany. AgentStream is theoretically designed for travel agents in Germany to be able to engage the social web, at least this is what the over four thousand global participants at AgentStream hope. But aside the obvious PR push of this, is the platform really all that social? It looks more like a push to keep up with Travelport than anything.

Join Google and Women on the Bridge This Women’s Day

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From the Millenium Bridge in London, to Brooklyn Bridge, on the Golden Gate and to the far reaches of the world – literally – Google, and many others, stand together to try and improve the lives of women around the world.

Bing-Kayak: Travel Search or Dumb Meets Dumber?

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The still raging war for online travel supremacy continues with news from Microsoft and Kayak. The pending sale of ITA to Google has spurred some fairly ridiculous allegiances and deals, not the least of which is the latest Bing “slash” Kayak pairing. Let’s face it, Microsoft has already spent two king’s ransoms trying to beat Google, and now this?

US Airways Sabre Deal Calms Travel War Waters

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In airline travel news, US Airways just announced the signing of a multi year contract for full content distribution and merchandising with Sabre Travel Network. This latest news, pertinent to the ongoing wars between the various online agents and service providers, is at least a positive sign for global distribution players.

European Capital of Culture: Spotlight Burgos

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Every year The Council of the European Union selects two cities to act as the European Capitals of Culture. For 2011 those cities are Tallinn in Estonia, and Turku in Finland. But, the process for cities being selected actually began several years ago. In keeping with the process, future cities are due to be selected later this year – to represent the European Union in 2016 and onward.

Tribute to A Sci-Fi Legend: Ion Hobana

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In honor of one of Romania’s and the world’s great writers, Ion Hobana, who made my lovely wife’s childhood that much more rich, I dedicate this short tribute.

Ion Hobana (lower left), 80, died of cancer on yesterday, February 22, 2011 in Bucharest. Hobana was Romania’s best most widely known Science Fiction writer, for Romanians and people around the world, a artist of the perhaps, even the inevitable.

Libya Evacuations: Spotlight On World Cooperation

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The Russian Federation, Greece, and now Turkey apparently intend to facilitate the evacuation of Ukrainian citizens from embattled Libya. In a press announcement from First Deputy Prime Minister/Economic Development and Trade Minister Andrii Kliuev (below), some Ukrainian citizens will now leave Libya via Russian Federation transport.

TripAdvisor & Others at HotelWebsiteMarketing Conferences

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HotelWebsiteMarketing.com has announced a series of conferences to take place across Europe in May and June, 2011. Also, TripAdvisor, Availpro.com, Meetingsbooker.com, reviewPro.com, TIG Global, and other leading travel companies have joined the conferences to speak and contribute. The focus will be on hotel sales, marketing, revenue and e-commerce, among the many other topics.