The impact of APD could be the difference between making a profit or not on Caribbean hoteliers, said the Chief Executive of Sandals Resorts, Adam Stewart, at the start of World Responsible Tourism Day at London’s World Travel Market, the premier global event for the travel industry.

Jamaican hoteliers are planning to press ahead with legal action over Thomas Cook’s refusal to pay the final 5 percent of its hotel bills this August and September. The Jamaican Hotel & Tourist Association said it had obtained a legal opinion which made it clear that Cook had no right to make the discount.

Travelport has announced details of an expanded multi-year content agreement with Southwest Airlines which will utilize the Travelport Universal Application Programming Interface (uAPI). Southwest Airlines is among the first group of airlines to connect via the company’s Travelport Universal API.

The U.S. hotel industry reported increases in all three key performance metrics for third-quarter 2010 in year-over-year measurements, according to data from STR. The industry’s occupancy was up 6.7 percent to 63.9 percent, average daily rate rose 1.6 percent to $99.07, and revenue per available room increased 8.4 percent to $63.34. For year-to-date 2010, occupancy increased 5.2 percent to 58.9 percent, ADR fell 0.7 percent to $97.89, and RevPAR was up 4.5 percent to $57.70.

The Port of Seattle achieved its best ever cruise season in 2010, with a record number of cruise ship calls and passengers. Twelve home-ported vessels and six ports of call made up the 223 dockings at the port. A total of 931,698 revenue passengers moved through the port’s two cruise terminals.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said international passenger traffic strengthened in September, showing a 10.5 percent year-on-year increase. That is significantly stronger than the 6.5 percent rise recorded for August. International freight traffic recorded a 14.8 percent year-on-year increase, which is significantly weaker than the 19.0 percent rise recorded in August.

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