[ February 4, 2010 9:00 am to February 7, 2010 6:00 pm. ] 4-7 February

Earls Court, London

www.destinationsshow.com

[ January 29, 2010 9:00 am to January 31, 2010 6:00 pm. ] 29-31 January

Royal Horticultural Halls, London                                                                                   

www.adventureshow.co.uk

[ January 22, 2010; January 23, 2010; January 24, 2010; ] 22-24 January 

RDS Simmonscourt, Dublin 4

www.holidayworldshow.com

€8

[ January 15, 2010 9:00 am to January 17, 2010 6:00 pm. ] 15-17 January

Manchester Central

www.holidayshows.com/manchester.htm

[ January 15, 2010 9:00 am to January 17, 2010 6:00 pm. ] 15-17 January 

Kings Champions Centre, Belfast

www.holidayworldshow.com

£5

[ January 8, 2010 9:00 am to January 10, 2010 6:00 pm. ] 8-10 January

Earls Court, London,

www.thefranceshow.com 

Tickets are now £10 each; accompanied children under 16 are free

[ November 5, 2009 9:00 am to November 8, 2009 6:00 pm. ] 5-8 November

Kensington London

http://www.luxurytravelfair.co.uk/

[ October 31, 2009 9:00 am to November 2, 2009 7:00 pm. ] 31 October-2 November,

NEC, Birmingham

http://www.globalsnowshows.co.uk

We are used to the no frills airlines charges us for just about anything that they can come up with but up until now we haven’t faced fees from UK traditional airlines.

Now BA has joined the club.

[ October 21, 2009 9:00 am to October 25, 2009 7:00 pm. ] 21-25th October London Olympia

http://www.metrosnow.co.uk/index.php?id=24

£5 first day, then £9 online, £13 at weekend

Once a year there is a day which, worldwide, is World Tourism Day. This year, Sunday, 27th November.

Did you know that?

No and I bet a large number of people in the travel industry didn’t know either. It is also the 30th anniversary of the very first world tourism day and I bet even fewer people knew that. I see no press releases from Margaret Hodge, who has returned to her job as tourism minister, or her department

A couple of months ago, I mentioned that castles and historic houses in many parts of the UK were getting high visitor numbers because people were staying at home rather than holidaying abroad.

In Germany it is the same. according to Der Spiegel. Visitor numbers are up there as well as Germans also holidayed at home in greater numbers this year.

Not so long ago, when you arrived in Venice you went through a lot of cash quite quickly buying one day passes for the vaporettos, the museums and so on. And you often couldn’t use credit cards. As a family of four, buying three day passes for each of us for public transport meant carrying quite a bit of cash. Being more use to paying for nearly everything on credit cards, the first time I went there I was running short of money quite rapidly.

Tourism is also economic generation or even regeneration.

Let me explain. Investing in something that brings tourists to a destination means that money flows into the local economy. It also provides jobs or prevents jobs being lost. Persuading some manufacturer to base a factory in your area can cost more in development grants and subsidies than it may cost to develop a camp site or an attraction. So, more and more, places look to tourism as a way or killing two birds with one stone.

It was a two hour flight from Xian to the southern city of Guilin and the contrast between the former and the latter could not be more different. Before getting in to the interesting bits its perhaps worth remembering that the city’s Jiangbei Airport is a bit archaic so despite how desperate you may be to use the washrooms avoid the first few you come to as these are basic Chinese style and clearly have not been cleaned since Allcock & Brown flew the Atlantic!

I had a long flight from London to Bangkok last week and, as usual, on long flights people tried to sleep some of the way. So the person in front of me reclined her seat as far as possible so that the video screen in the back of the seat was only a few inches from my face. I reclined mine as well. Immediately from the seat behind came an objection claiming that my seat was hitting her knees.

Syria may have been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons recently but don’t be deterred from visiting, for the reality is very different. Tourists have never been targeted and on arrival, you’ll be warmly greeted by locals looking to shed Syria’s international reputation. CD Traveller is seduced by the country’s capital…

This isn’t quite in the league of Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple but at least I can say this really happened.

At the moment I am in Australia and just back from 4 days in the southernmost state of Tasmania. (more in the Destinations section of Cd-Traveller shortly). We’d been down to a cheese making farm and decided to bring three different cheeses back to Sydney for the family to try. To keep it cool we had put the cheese in the hotel room fridge (yes I know you shouldn’t use fridges but we all do) along with some bottled water we had bought and some chocolate.

You can tell I have been staying in hotels quite a bit again. Things are beginning to annoy me.

Take hotel basins or sinks. They feature all sorts of fancy taps and places to put the soap. Some are more pieces of art than the old conventional type of sink being almost to pretty to use. You just stare and admire them.

Pronounced ‘She-ann’ this central north-western city located in the province of Shannxi is one of the four great ancient capitals of China. Not only has it been the capital city throughout 13 of Chinas major dynasties but it also marks the start point of the countries famous Silk Road. The city has been in existence for well over 3000 years and thankfully for us travellers a significant amount of this history remains for us to marvel at including an impressive fortified wall surrounded by a moat built some 600 hundred years ago during the Ming Dynasty although this was only to replace an earlier earth wall constructed by Emperor Liu Bang in 198BC.

Autumn is on its way; the leaves will be turning colour soon and then dropping. Apart from Scotland where the leaves may not drop because they’re plastic.

Membership of the National Trust for Scotland has reached an all time high of 315,000, me included. Their report says that members contributed 10 million pounds and they received another 4 million in charitable donations. Yet still they have cut 26 full time jobs, 46 seasonal ones whilst 4 sites would close.

While there is no denying Muscat’s many charms, there’s so much more to Oman than merely Muscat; to judge a country on its capital is the equivalent of saying that you’re intimately acquainted with the US because you’ve had a Big Mac.

Two recent surveys, one by Visit England and the other by the foreign exchange bureaux company, First Rate both claim to be able to reveal what visitors to our shores want to see. Unfortunately the two say different things. the findings from Visit England are based on visitor entry numbers and since places like Trafalgar Square and Tower Bridge are free to walk around (unless you want to go into Tower Bridge), visits aren’t counted.

Both Ryanair and easyjet have complained about the landing fees being charged by certain airports. According to easyjet, Luton Airport’s fees have risen by over 25% over the last few years and that it is why it has cut the number of flights operating from there. The same applies to the cutbacks by Ryanair at Manchester, Dublin and Stansted airports.

742 years ago, the local lord of the manor drove a cart through Egremont in Cumbria. It was laden with crab apples and he offered them to the poor. Was this an insult or a gift? Unless you make crab apple jelly with them they are pretty sour as I can testify from the tree that hangs over my garden from the neighbouring churchyard.

Heading off on your hols this month? Only a fortunate few get to fly first class, but take heart; even if you’re in economy (and lets face it, that’s most of us) you can still travel like an A lister. CD Traveller shows you the way to go…

One year on, Beijing is still buzzing from the Olympic Games; indeed it’s estimated that 85.4 million tourists visited the Chinese capital in the first half of this year alone – despite the downturn in the economic market and the outbreak of swine flu. CD Traveller spoke to Sarah Keenlyside – a former Time Out Beijing journalist and founder of Bespoke Beijing, a Beijing based travel service offering travellers up to date insider information about Beijing’s best sights and bites – to get the lowdown on what to see and do in one of the 21st century’s most exciting destinations