Visit London has launched London TV as an “on demand” service on Visit London site, making it immediately available to 137 million broadband users around the world. The broadband service is a key part of Visit London´s digital strategy in the build up to the Olympic Games in 2012. Programming from the channel will continue to be broadcast on airlines and in hotel rooms, black cabs, trains and buses and through television services such as Home Choice.

Tourism industry leaders have called for the appointment of a government ministry with sole responsibility for tourism policy. At present, tourism is part of the functions of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and trade leaders say tourism does not get a high enough priority in government circles. “We hear reassuring words about the importance of tourism from politicians when they take office but within months we end up far down their list of priorities,” said Angela Shanley, chairman of UK Inbound. “All our recent tourism ministers have had other demanding responsibilities and have been unable or unwilling to devote sufficient time to the issues that affect us,” she said at UK Inbound Annual Convention at Ashford International Hotel in Kent.

An animal-rights group is renewing its call for tourists to boycott Alaska after legal challenges failed to end a program aimed at killing hundreds of wolves this winter. The move comes after the Alaska Supreme Court on Friday denied a request by Friends of Animals to halt the program. The judges also refused to review the case. The court did not provide an explanation.

Conrad van Tiggelen, director of the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions, has been elected Chairman of the European Travel Commission. Previous chair Eugenio Magnani, director of the Italian Government Tourist Board, has moved to a Rome-based position within the IGTB. Mr. van Tiggelen joined the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions in 1990, and in 1994 became Manager Midwest at the NBTC in Chicago. In 1995, he was named Marketing and Public Relations Director in New York, but in 1999 moved to Paris in 1999 to manage the NBTC offices in France, Italy and Spain. He returned to New York in September 2001, when he assumed his present position.

After undertaking a major restructuring of its operations, the national airline of Jamaica has achieved its best reliability performance in years. For the past two months, Air Jamaica posted a schedule completion reliability rate of 99.3 percent. In addition, the carrier´s on-time performance also showed marked improvement; currently, the carrier is running at an 86 percent on-time rate.

Recent reports suggest that British Airways pilots have been advised by their union to borrow £25,000 each in preparation for a long strike over their pension scheme. The British Airlines Pilots Association has said it is preparing for an all-out strike of its 2,822 members at BA. The company will announce plans by the end of March to cut the cost of its main pension scheme which has a deficit of more than £900 million.