When you book a hotel in advance, you reserve it by passing details of a valid credit card. Sometimes to get a good deal the hotel or its booking agency debits your card there and then. In which case you would have thought that would be an end to the matter but no, or at least not in one case.
A person booked a stay at a Radisson hotel and the card was immediately debited. 2 weeks after this date she was forced to cancel the card in question as it was believed to be stolen. Upon checking her booking the day before arrival, she called to talk to the hotel to inform them that she no longer had the card, and to ask how to proceed. After nearly an hour of being passed too and fro, she was informed that providing she had ID, she would be fine, as the room was already paid for.

With the climate change conference going on in Copenhagen and the release of the report on air transport by the Committee on Climate Change, the awards by Consumers International (CI) have been overshadowed. One of the awards has been won by EasyJet. But this isn’t any old award voted by travel trade friends. And it isn’t much of an accolade. This award is to highlight corporate irresponsible behaviour.

My first thought on hearing the two names coupled together was that this was some comedy duo that were probably playing in panto as the ugly sisters or the baron’s henchmen this Christmas.

Was I the only one who was a little surprised to hear that Swindon has been chosen to twin with Florida’s Disney World in 2010? Amongst the 500 entries, 3 people had nominated Swindon and it was the entry of Rebecca Warren that was successful.

The interest in green/environmental/sustainable tourism has grown massively over the last decade and just about every destination preaches its green credentials. Brighton, for example, has been voted green capital of the UK. Kent has recently won £700,000 funding from the European Union for “coastal actions on sustainable tourism” whatever that means and Anglesey received funds a little while ago for coastal improvements. From further afield comes an example from South Korea where it is suggested that the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea becomes an ecological preservation area to protect wildlife.

No this isn’t the heroics of airmen in 1940, this is what Tourism Ireland has called their campaign on persuading us to visit Ireland in 2010. And they are putting their money where their mouths are. They will be spending nearly €13 million, (say £11.5 million) to get us to go there. And that doesn’t including smaller sums that Dublin and other places might spend.

This is a big campaign by any standards and one factor surely behind it is the downturn that Ireland suffered during 2009. But Ireland has a number of hurdles to overcome not the least of which is how expensive Ireland has become over the years. Dublin is now seen as more expensive than London so to address that head on is a fairly brave affair. One of the key themes of the advertising that will hit us just after Christmas is a price led campaign stressing value for money.

One part of the travel market that has been hit by the recession has been the market for luxury holidays. People have traded down from 5 star hotels to a lower star rating. Even places like the Maldives are looking at opening 3and 4 star hotels.

Last December at a luxury vacation exhibition in Las Vegas, visitors were lower and some of the exhibitors that I spoke to were concerned that the market for such holidays would be in a slump for some while. Now that a year has gone by it appears that people are returning to this type of holiday.

Stuck for ideas on what to get the jet-setter in your family for Christmas? Try these new travel books for size…

In the first of a new series, CD-Traveller spoke to Bob Schumacher, Senior Director UK and Ireland at Continental Airlines – who recently unveiled its new fully flat-bed Business First seat – about the three C’s in his life: Canada, cruising and, of course, Continental Airlines

From today Gatwick is no longer run by BAA. Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), the owners of London City Airport, take over the running of the airport so what might be expected? In the short term, probably only cosmetic changes like signage, uniforms and names will alter. But what should happen in the longer term?

A problem with the old owners was that, by owning so many airports around London, competition was stifled so the first thing I should like to see is a wider net of destinations. Bring back more North American and Asia Pacific flights so there will be a true alternative to Heathrow and don’t let Gatwick drift into just being an airport for charter holiday flights and no-frills airlines.

Another museum, the Cae Dai 1950’s Motor Museum in Lawnt outside Denbigh in North Wales has been badly damaged by fire. The fire broke out on Tuesday night and has destroyed many of the vehicles including the lorry that was used to take the mail sacks away from the Great Train Robbery in 1963. Now that the roof has caved in, it is not sure if anything can be saved from the collection. But being a 1950’s museum, there was more than the odd vehicle. There were examples of food and everyday items from the time including ration books (I still have mine somewhere about the place) and mock-ups of what kitchens were like at the time.

Last year, (CD-Traveller 10 Nov 2009), I wrote about The Eurostars Hotels Travel Narrative Award. You might remember that this award means that the winning title gets distributed to every single hotel room that Eurostars Hotels have. The Barcelona based group has 53 hotels. (but not one in the UK/Ireland yet.) This means that in over 4200 rooms the winning book is there to be read by any guest.

This year the winner is Paco Nadal

Each year, Frommer’s (the people who produce travel guidebooks and magazines) poll their readers to see what the destinations for 2010 would be. Primarily American vote for this so it does tend to reflect where Americans holiday but this year it includes the Scilly Isles. It doesn’t really say why they were voted for but just gives a potted tourism pitch. I’m not complaining but sometimes when surveys like this take place it would be nice to know what appeals to readers.

There are lots of reasons to visit the Scillies; the weather, the sandy beaches, the subtropical plants that grow there and, lets face it, the fact that you don’t have to change currency or speak another language. Frommer’s only warning is to book well ahead because accommodation is limited particulary in May when the gig races take place.

So what are the other selections by Frommer?

Over the summer we have heard a lot about the decline in the numbers of people travelling to Spain and its islands. Nonetheless, Spain, the Balearic Islands and the Canaries are still the most popular destinations for us when we go abroad. Given all year round warm weather, the Canaries are popular throughout the year. Now the Balearics, (Ibiza, Menorca and Majorca) are trying to convince us that they are winter destinations as well.

The three main Balearic islands had a 12% drop in visitors this year from the UK and more in the case of Ireland. Now they are pushing for more of us to visit the islands when special events are being held or just to enjoy the sports facilities that have been built there. Recently, Rafael Nadal was used to push that message to the travel trade.

There was a lot of publicity last week about the largest cruise ship in the world, Oasis of the Seas, which begins its first cruise on Saturday. We thought that since there was so much publicity you wouldn’t want more from us but no, we were taken to task by some readers for not mentioning it.

The publicity by the media has concentrated on its huge size (225,282 tons, 16 passenger decks) and that it can carry up to 6,200 passengers plus 2,000 crew. By any standards this is big. I’ve lived in smaller villages. The response by writers has been to ask whether it is too big.

Whether you’re staycation-ing or vacationing, CD- traveller tells you what’s happening in the travel world