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| Royal Caribbean International's President and CEO Adam Goldstein meets with guests onboard Grandeur of the Seas following its arrival in Freeport, The Bahamas. // Photo by Royal Caribbean |
The fire on the Grandeur of the Seas topped the news this week. The Royal Caribbean International vessel experienced a fire in the aft portion of the ship, prompting the ship to dock in Freeport, The Bahamas. We’ll have a further update on the vessel’s current situation, including reactions to the situation by top travel agents, on www.travelagentcentral.com Monday and in our Cruise Newsletter.
In digital marketing news, we all got a reminder of the danger of misleading reviews this week when a hotel executive was caught posting reviews on TripAdvisor without revealing his industry affiliation. The fake reviews included five-star raves about the executive’s company’s properties, as well as less-favorable reviews about rivals.
On a lighter note, the recent good run of press for travel agents continued this week with a favorable editorial in the Washingtonian. This positive publicity comes at the same time as things are looking up for the travel industry – on Tuesday, the Conference Board reported that Consumer Confidence had climbed to a five-year high.
Finally, in case you missed it, don’t forget to check out our special sneak preview of Couples Barbados. This is the first Couples Resorts property outside of Jamaica, and our Caribbean editor got a chance to see it along with several of our 35 Under 30 agents.
Speaking of which, applications for this year’s 30Under30- if you’re a rising travel star, don’t hesitate to apply at www.travelagentcentral.com/30under302013.