Travel Source Network Acquires Drake Travel Network Lawrence Finn Next year may be volatile for the host agency business Lawrence Finn, President and COO of Travel Source Network (TSN) announced yesterday the acquisition of Drake Travel; a wholly owned subsidiary of Drake International and a Canadian host agency with a network of 100 home based agents. Finn described the acquisition as "an exciting finale for TSN in 2005 that is consistent with the expansion strategy we committed to back in June." He added that TSN will continue to grow through a combination of acquisitions and organic growth in 2006.  [Full text]

IATA CHIEF ANNOUNCES TRAFFIC RESULTS - SOUNDS CAUTIONARY NOTE Giovanni Bisignani "Slowing growth will continue to make the operating environment difficult," says IATA Director General and CEO The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released industry traffic results for the first 10 months of 2005 showing a weakening trend for both cargo and passenger traffic. Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's Director General and CEO announced the results at the Annual General Meeting of the Arab Air Carriers Organisation in Sanaa, Yemen. October passenger traffic grew 6% compared to the same month in the previous year. This is considerably slower than the 7.9% recorded for the January-October period and is the slowest single-month growth recorded since January 2004. [Full text]

UNWTO RE-ELECTS FRANCESCO FRANGIALLI AS SECRETARY-GENERAL Francesco Frangialli Frangialli seeks to further extend tourism's contribution to poverty alleviation through sustainable development. The United Nations World Trade Organization (UNWTO formerly WTO) General Assembly has re-elected Francesco Frangialli to the post of Secretary-General from January 1, 2006 until the end of 2009. Frangialli was re-elected by 85 votes to 14 on Tuesday. "I am very honoured to have been endorsed once more," he said after the results were announced. "The 85 votes in favour show there is broad support for the guidelines and management of the Organization. It would be worrisome if we were all in agreement," he stressed. [Full text]

NOAA REVIEWS RECORD-SETTING 2005 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON 2005 equivalent to two hurricane seasons - poor outlook continues The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season is the busiest on record and extends the active hurricane cycle that began in 1995 - a trend likely to continue for years to come - according to the U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The season spawned 26 named storms, including 13 hurricanes in which seven were major (Category 3 or higher). Letters of the Greek alphabet were used to name storms for the first time since storms began acquiring names in 1953, as Hurricane Wilma exhausted the original list of 21 names. [Full text]

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