News and Events

Media reaction to swine flu

Less than a week ago few people had heard of swine flu. As events unfold I've been watching the media reaction to developments with great interest. First the debate about whether the impact of Twitter was dangerous in spreading misinformation. Then detailed analysis on how much this subject is being discussed on facebook. Now the debate about whether the media itself is fuelling fears.

Pandemic Crisis Preparations

Thinking the unthinkable is essential if you're considering crisis communications, but today's news about the spread of swine influenza has to make us think the unthinkable very fast. 

Air Passenger Duty plans are wrong

Today's Budget announcement that the government is pressing ahead with plans to massively increase Air Passenger Duty is very serious news. The steep increases and the irrational banding scheme which have been proposed mean that people travelling to the Caribbean will pay more than travellers to Hawaii. We think this is an ill-thought out, unfair tax. We fully support every industry effort to get the plans changed.

Trust a constant theme at Trav Summit

Trust was a constant theme of the 2009 Travolution PhoCusWright summit in London this week. Speaker after speaker mentioned its value in their online model

Times Online travel editor insight

Follow the bgb Twitter @bgbcomms

We're tweeting. Are you?

Responsible Tourism Awards Open

The Daily Telegraph ran a feature this weekend announcing that nominations can now be made for the 2009  Responsible Tourism Awards, sponsored by Virgin Holidays and organised by responsibletravel.com.  I've been a judge of these awards for several years and I'm always astounded at the ingenuity and creativity shown by the finalists to help travel contribute more to local communities as well as protecting the physicial and natural environment. It's a fantastic awards scheme for highlighting great new ideas and initiatives that we can all learn from.

Responding to social media

In the past few months I've seen two travel companies experience the impact of critical discussions about their business online. In both instances the discussion started in the UK and was very quickly being commented on across the world.

Top ten actions for online PR

First audit your online PR presence. How easy is it for people to find your site, your news and stories? What can you do to improve it?