Revamped and ready to go, the website of Barbados has had a facelift. Visitbarbados.org has been launched out to create a fun, interactive website that is informative and easy to use. "This is such a thrilling moment for us. We can now assure those looking for up to date, accurate information on Barbados a single source to easily find what they need. It´s as easy as click and go," commented Bill Silvermintz, Vice President of Marketing for the Americas at the Barbados Tourism Authority.

EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou and owner of easyGroup is actively considering plans of opening low-budget hotels in Dubai. "I am told that there are five-star properties in the area. We would look at short stay options for the low-cost traveler," he told Khaleej Times in an exclusive interview. Earlier, speaking at Entrepreneurs in Dubai conference, he said: "We believe in expanding through franchising.

A new brochure produced by national tourism marketing agency, VisitBritain, gives tourism businesses access to an extensive range of opportunities to market their products and services in the UK and around the world. The free comprehensive guide is a part of VisitBritain´s objective to increase its engagement with the industry and raise the value of British tourism towards euros 100 billion by 2010.

Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., the carrier controlled by U.K. billionaire Richard Branson, posted a full-year pretax profit of euros68 million ($124 million) as demand for long-haul flights spiked. Sales for the year through February were euros1.63 billion, the company said in an e-mailed statement today. The airline reported pretax profit of euros 20.9 million for the 10 months through February 2004 on sales of euros1.27 billion.

Italian state-run airline Alitalia cancelled 196 flights last week due to a strike staged by traffic controllers in several Italian cities. Alitalia said it was scrapping 116 international flights and 80 domestic flights. The four-hour walkout is scheduled to start at noon.

Tourism company Thomas Cook AG, Europe´s second-biggest travel operator, informed that former T-Online boss Thomas Holtrop will become the company´s chief executive. Mr. Holtrop resigned last year as chief executive of T-Online, Deutsche Telekom´s Internet arm. He will join Oberursel-based Thomas Cook´s board of directors in September before becoming the new CEO on Nov. 1. Current Chief Executive Wolfgang Beeser, who was brought in to help reverse the company´s slide last year, will become a member of the supervisory board.