The first leg of the visit was just a few hundred yards at Dover Docks, in the Coach, to board P&O’s refurbished Pride of Canterbury. On the boat we enjoyed upgrades to the Club Lounge: very comfortable with freedom from baby buggies and very good value at £12 which including free newspapers and Champagne .

The UK has had a love affair with Ibiza for well over 30 years. It began as a hideaway and then the package holiday market found it. Split in appeal to those who liked the towns and the nightlife and those who provided the quieter parts, it attracts vast numbers of us. But it is still seen, primarily, as a summer destination. Ibiza is now going to try and persuade us to winter there as well just as we do in the Canaries. Part of the problem has been that there have been many fewer flights to Ibiza in the winter but Ryanair has stepped in and will provide an all round service to complement the others.

Tourism to the Gulf countries is relatively small but growth is likely given the amount of investment that is being ploughed in an attempt to get us to visit. Abu Dhabi is anticipating growth of 10% for next year and 15% for the following two years. We have previously carried stories about what Abu Dhabi has to offer and it certainly shouldn’t be thought of like Dubai as a luxury destination. Hotel rates are reasonable and with all the competition amongst gulf airlines, prices are reasonable.

No the headline isn’t a typing error; this is the new slogan to entice us to travel to Slovenia. Will it work? Ask in a year’s time and we’ll find out. That’s a problem with finding quick pithy lines to help you remember. Australia came out with “where the bloody hell are you?” which certainly generated the publicity if not always the numbers.

Whatever slogan is chosen, about 2.2 million visitors have gone to Slovenia this year and, by year end, it looks as though overall tourism will have dropped by only about 1% making Slovenia a success story in many people’s eyes. The UK is the fifth largest provider of visitors but to the capital, Ljubljana, we are the third