The former head of Aer Lingus, Willie Walsh, has taken over as chief executive of British Airways. On his first day in the job he praised the record of his predecessor, Sir Rod Eddington, who pursued a cost-cutting program and reduced BA staff numbers by 14,000 over five years. More cuts are expected when BA relocates its Heathrow operations to the new Terminal 5 in 2008. Willie Walsh arrived at BA five months ago and worked alongside Eddington in the hand-over period. It was a period that saw militant action by BA workers who disrupted summer services with wild-cat strikes in the wake of the sacking of some catering workers.

FITCAR, the debut tourism fair for Venezuela, ran from October 5 to 8 in Caracas. Qatar´s participation in this event marked the first time that Arab emirate has exhibited in South America. The show was a great success, with 43 countries participating and 481 international visitors including eighteen tourism ministers. On the opening morning, Mr. Francesco Frangialli, secretary-general of the World Tourism Organization visited the Qatar Tourism Authority´s stand and was welcomed by Mr. Jan Poul de Boer, acting director general, and Mr. Musa Jamali, QTA representative.

A report this week from international pressure group Tourism Concern is severely critical of some of the post-tsunami reconstruction in parts of South and South East Asia. More than nine months after the disaster, Tourism Concern has found that because of land disputes related to the redevelopment of tourism, thousands of people remain homeless.

The historic quarter of Mazatlan, in Mexico, is being considered for designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Pacific port hosts the International Symposium for the Conservation of World Cultural Heritage from November 9 to 12 for the Mexican Committee of the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). ICOMOS is a 7,000-member conservation group that counsels the United Nations Education, Science, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on World Heritage List nominees.

Sol Meliá Hotels & Resorts has recently re-launched its website solmelia.com working on a new look and making it more user friendly. Now from the revamped www.solmelia.com site, Netizens may book one of the 50,000 nights from only €20 per room. As part of its celebrations for the new site, Sol Meliá has introduced new offers and promotions. The new Spanish dot-com gives travelers an easy way around the problem with a special offer search engine. The search engine can be used in two different ways: either find the guaranteed lowest online rate for Sol Meliá´s hotels and resorts in your favorite destination, or find the most outstanding special offers worldwide for the dates that you want to travel,” says a statement from the company.

Offering a new option to its customers, Golden Tulip Hotels, Inns & Resorts has announced a new service to search and book hotels online, in real time for mobile device users. As per the information available, this mobile service allows business and leisure guests to have instant access to all Golden Tulip Hotels, Inns & Resorts at any time and arrange travel plans wherever they are. Travelers may contact the hotel for more information and/or book directly on their mobile gadget.