What's Up With Airline Ticket Sales? Fees!

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 4, 2013) - Airline companies are raking in the revenues for baggage and change fees this year and showing near pre-recession profits despite flat sales reported by the Airline Reporting Corp. And, according to findings in the latest issue of Tours.com's Travel-Intel, the flying public does not seem to mind.

The weekly publication sheds light on new indications from government reporting agencies as well as a recent study through J.D. Power & Associates that present some surprising findings about consumer satisfaction and flying as the summer vacation season gets underway.

Surprisingly, there is much to be said for adaptation, according to Travel-Intel, a weekly travel industry publication from Tours.com that goes to more than 140,000 sellers of travel in the U.S. and Canada.

The article on airline travel trends is one of six features in the latest issue of Travel-Intel, a news publication that focuses on the state of travel today and what's new in a variety of locations and destinations.

In other news, Travel-Intel looks at the top five most-missed American attractions, for U.S. vacationers who take to the road. Seen the Seattle Space Needle recently?

To help those in need of a day off or a week or two spent in retooling their lives, Travel-Intel introduces SHA Spa in Spain, a destination in Europe that is still considered a bargain, even for recession-weary American travelers. The luxury spa on the Mediterranean offers a mixture of medical/pampering packages that answer the call for such life-changing goals as weight loss and detox, as well as beauty and rejuvenation. SHA is a member of the exclusive Kurtz-Ahlers collection of hotels and resorts.

Finally, Travel-Intel offers several features on cruising, starting with a rundown of the recently-adopted Cruise Passenger Bill of Rights and complementing that with a look at the Celebrity Solstice and the Celebrity Cruises' plans for sailings in Alaska this summer.

Travel-Intel, a division of Tours.com, monitors the travel industry with weekly updates on trends, news and destinations for a database of more than 100,000 travel agent subscribers in the U.S. and Canada, and an overflow of tour companies around the world. The publication dispatches writers to travel conferences and popular travel destinations to bring back the latest intel.

Although Travel-Intel is direct-mailed, current features and archives can be viewed at www.travel-intel.com.

"Travel is a fast-moving industry that is as much about nuts and bolts as it is about beauty and exploration. We try to keep our fingers on the pulse of travel and focus on what our readers, who are in the industry, need to know. But we also strive to inform consumers about trends and destinations for the decisions they have to make," says Lark Gould, content director for Travel-Intel and Tours.com.

Gould, a veteran travel journalist who has been covering the travel industry for more than 20 years, puts her incisive perspective into the weekly publication, with features and news updates on the 1st and 15^th of each month. These issues are complemented by the Travel-Intel "packages" publications that detail great deals to be found at hotels and resort locations worldwide. Travel-Intel is also posted as a stand-alone site on Tours.com. Gould also serves on the editorial team for travel in the online communities section of the Washington Times.

About Tours.com: Tours.com since 1995 - The Official Directory of Tours & Vacations Worldwide. Tours.com has a deep and searchable database of vacation and tour companies searchable by company name, destination and/or activity. A comprehensive one-stop Travel Resource section, plus the Find a Travel Agent Specialist search allows one to search for travel agents with in-depth knowledge in their chosen specialty.