If you’re thinking of coming along to Kensington, Olympia for this show at any time over the next two days, then many parts of the UK will be showing off local food and drink.
On the One North East stand they will have Pan Haggerty Pies, Durham Brewery Beers and Northumberland Bog Myrtle Gin. Competing against the Irish and Scottish whiskies will be Coquet Black Rory Whisky. And still discussing whisky, there will be a few distilleries on the Visit Scotland stand with samples for you to try like Glengoyne. Staying with the alcoholic theme, the Discover Gosport & The Royal Navy Submarine Museum stand may still have rum to sample

That is the name of the new advertising campaign that is being launched by the Spanish Tourist Board at the end of this month. Some 13.8 million visitors went from the UK to Spain last year and we accounted for over a quarter of all tourism. Therefore Spain sees us as a very important market.
Spending €40 million (say about £36 million) this campaign will be worldwide and run until at least the world cup.
The approach that the advertising will take will be to focus on Spanish lifestyle.

Is there something about tourism that encourages attractions and destinations to attract us with offers of drink or is it just coincidental that some events this week offer us this lure?
In the town hall in Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire, the annual Camra Beer Festival starts tomorrow with free entry. After that it can cost you between £2 and £5 depending on when you go. Complementing this, in the market place there will be a background to the brewing heritage of the town including what is called a “taster” of the new National Brewery Centre. But Burton isn’t only about beer. The National Forest is nearby and Burton acts as one of the gateways to it.

The hotel chain, Jurys, has polled 4,000 Britons to see what they thought were the most unwelcoming cities in the UK. It will probably come as no surprise to you that London was considered to have the worst customer service. People also thought that the locals were ruder than other places. A third regularly didn’t say thank you and over half failed to smile at passers-by. Jurys concluded that this didn’t augur well for us when tourists visit us en masse for the Olympics in 2012.
Is all this a fair accusation at London or indeed, the next most unwelcoming cities of Glasgow, Bradford, Birmingham or Liverpool

In continuing our focus on British Tourism Week, the smallest county in England, Rutland, is lucky to have one of the best waterside areas, Rutland Water. Apart from sailing, boating or fishing there is a popular pastime in walking and cycling around. This week there is a discount off bicycle hire. Strange to think that Rutland Water is only about 30 years old and that it is man-made. What life was like in the villages that disappeared can be found in the Normanton Church Museum.
Like a lot of other local tourism destinations, there is also a free offer just for residents. Barnsdale Gardens (they were the ones developed and featured by Geoff Hamilton on BBC’s Gardeners’ World) are open to locals for no cost this week (www.barnsdalegardens.co.uk).

UPDATE: 18th March. BA has announced that there will be extra flights as more volunteers have come forward than they expected so do check on the link below to see if things have altered since the original flightplan was drawn up.

BA has announced the standby measures it has put in place to get passengers away during the 3 day strike planned from March20th-22nd. You can see the details and how you might be affected at http://www.britishairways.com/travel/strike-ballot/public/en_gb?refevent=HOME_URGENT_CENTRE.
Only about 850 flights out of the 1,950 scheduled to fly will be cancelled. From Gatwick all long haul and about half of the short haul flights will fly. From Heathrow about 60% of long haul will fly but only about 30% of short haul. All affected passengers will be contacted by BA.

[ March 17, 2010; 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm. 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm. ] www.gotobelfast.com/system_pages/whats_on_config/events_details.aspx?id=476
starts at midday at the City Hall with a carnival through the city and then a free concert buy you do need to obtain tickets from the Belfast Welcome Centre. The concert starts at 1pm.

Sarah-Jane Goodall, senior sales and marketing manager for Namibia Tourism Board, chats to CD Traveller about swimming, sightseeing and the rewards of a holiday in Namibia – one of Africa’s youngest countries.

Tourism Week most TV channels that I saw ran the story about the beacons being lit all along Hadrian’s Wall. This virtually signalled (literally as well) the beginning of the week although the official opening is at the Celtic Manor Hotel-site of this years Ryder Cup-today.
There is a lot available to enjoy this coming week, some free, some with a charge. Perhaps the offer by the Despite what I wrote two days about how the British Airways story might damage the start of British National Trust for free entry next weekend is the most appealing as they have properties throughout England and Wales. (For reasons, I don’t understand, Scotland had their British Tourism Week last week although a few events are still to take place.
Throughout the week, we will be highlighting some of the events taking place around the countries.
Let’s start off with one of the great UK holiday destinations,- Blackpool.

[ June 16, 2010 to June 20, 2010. ] www.bbcgardenersworldlive.comNEC Birmingham,
There is a booking fee of £1.50 per ticket in additional to the prices.
Day tickets: Adults £19
Seniors £17
Cildren (5-16) £16 [...]

[ June 30, 2010 to July 1, 2010. ] www.royalnorfolkshow.co.ukRoyal Norfolk County Showground, Norwich, Norfolk
adults in advance £18; on the day £19
seniors in advance £16; on the day £17
children in advance £6.50; on the day £7.50
car parking; an additional £5

[ May 13, 2010 to May 22, 2010. ] www.dumaurierfestival.co.uk,Fowey, Cornwall.
there will be paid and free events during the festival celebrating the author of Jamaica Inn, Rebecca and Frenchman’s Creek.

[ April 10, 2010 to April 11, 2010. April 10, 2010 to April 11, 2010. ] www.cornwallflowershow.co.uk
Boconnoc, Lostwithiel, Cornwall
£6 in advance; £7 on the day

Taxis can be expensive but £16,000 must be a pretty long trip. And so this one is. The entire journey is 4,000 miles and takes passengers into the outback of Western Australia.
So what’s so special about this one? Has some footballer or Hollywood film star with more money than sense decided to get some PR by “disappearing” in the outback? Is this another way of raising money for Sport Relief now that the English Channel has been swum and water skied?
No this is another ingenious idea from Australia to help publicise their country and get some more visitors. Last time, you might remember, it was Queensland that ran an international competition to find a warden to write a diary for 6 months on an island. This time it is Western Australia.

[ April 9, 2010 9:30 am to April 11, 2010 5:00 pm. ]
http://www.aztecevents.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=eegs
East of England Showground, Peterborough
adults in advance £5; on the day £6.50
seniors in advance £4; on the day £5.50
children in advance free; on the day £1

[ April 2, 2010 9:30 am to April 5, 2010 5:00 pm. ] http://www.aztecevents.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=sspgs10
Suffolk Showground, (Trinity Park) Ipswich, Suffolk
In advance £4 and children free
On the day £5.50 and children £1

[ September 3, 2010 9:30 am to September 4, 2010 5:00 pm. September 3, 2010 9:30 am to September 4, 2010 5:00 pm. ]

Suffolk Showground (Trinity Park), Ipswich, Suffolk
Adults in advance £4;
Children in advance free

[ August 28, 2010 9:30 am to August 30, 2010 5:00 pm. ] http://www.aztecevents.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=SSuGS

Garon Park, Southend, Essex
Adults in advance £4; on the day £5.50
Children ifree

[ August 20, 2010 9:30 am to August 22, 2010 5:00 pm. ] http://www.aztecevents.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=NSuGS
Royal Norfolk County Showground, Norwich, Norfolk
Adults in advance £4; on the day £5.50
Children free;

[ June 11, 2010 9:30 am to June 13, 2010 5:00 pm. June 11, 2010 9:30 am to June 13, 2010 5:00 pm. ] http://www.aztecevents.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=SEEGS.
Barleylands, Billericay, Essex
Adults in advance £4; on the day £5.50
Children free

[ May 21, 2010 9:30 am to May 23, 2010 5:00 pm. ] http://www.aztecevents.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CGS,Wood Green Animal Shelter, Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire
Adults in advance £4; on the door £5.50
Children in advance free; on the door £1

[ May 14, 2010 9:30 am to May 16, 2010 5:00 pm. ]
Brentwood Centre, Brentwood, Essex
Adults in advance £4; on the door £5.50
Children in advance free; on the door £1

[ May 7, 2010 9:30 am to May 9, 2010 5:00 pm. ] http://www.aztecevents.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=NSpGS
Royal Norfolk County Showground, Norwich, Norfolk
Adults in advance £4; on the day £5.50
Children in advance free; on the day £1

[ May 1, 2010 9:30 am to May 3, 2010 5:00 pm. May 1, 2010 9:30 am to May 3, 2010 5:00 pm. ] http://www.aztecevents.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=SSpGS
Garon Park, Southend, Essex
Adults in advance £4; on the day £5.50
Children in advance free; on the day £1

[ April 16, 2010; 9:30 am; 9:30 am; ] http://www.aztecevents.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=NNGS
Newark Showground, Nottinghamshire
Adults in advance £4; on the day £5.50
Children in advance free; on the day £1

[ April 24, 2010 to May 9, 2010. ] http://www.visitpeakdistrict.com/activities/peak-district-walking-festival.aspx170 walks throughout the Peak District during this, one of the largest festivals throughout the country

[ March 19, 2010 9:30 am to March 20, 2010 5:00 pm. March 19, 2010 9:30 am to March 20, 2010 5:00 pm. ] http://www.britainandirelandevent.co.uk/consumer
at Olympia, London; coincides with British Tourism Week
£10 or 2 adults for £15, children free
watch out for free and discounted offers in the press

[ March 14, 2010; 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm. 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm. ] http://www.london.gov.uk/stpatricksday
The parade starts at midday from Green Park and goes to Trafalgar Square. Expect about 100,000 people to join you watching the parade.
events continue in the square for the rest of the day. The annual festival continues for a few days afterwards