[ June 1, 2010 9:00 am to October 1, 2010 6:00 pm. ] Explore inside the Rows stores and help unravel their mysterious past. You will be taken to a part of the city that’s rich in hush-hush history and a tea shop where high tea is definitely on the menu!These tours will give you a much closer look at the city’s unique treasures than ever before [...]

[ May 29, 2010 to June 13, 2010. ] Dorset Art Weeks www.dorsetartweeks.co.uk

The new Sex And The City release means New York is hot right now. A flight over the Atlantic not an option? You can still get a bite of the Big Apple…here’s how

It almost goes without saying that there’s nowhere quite like Australia. For anybody who has been there you either love it or hate it. This headline is being used to launch Tourism Australia’s new 90 second advertisement to persuade us to visit the country. So far so good. It’s the rest of the advert that seems to have upset the some Australians. And in saying “some Australians” I mean the media because, the majority of Australians probably don’t worry about it one way or the other.
What’s so upsetting. The Sydney Morning Herald questioned it by starting an article “What the bloody hell are they thinking?” after a headline that read “Stone the crows, are they fair dinkum about this flamin’ ad?” So what’s the problem?
The problem is that some people claim that it portrays an Australia from decades ago, a place with koalas, Uluru (Ayres Rock), the Barrier Reef, the Sydney Opera House and the bridge, beaches (though maybe not with a piano on it!) and kangaroos in the outback. Critics said that the people in the ad were bogans,( a term similar to chavs) and that they were not typical. One person on the Sydney Daily Telegraph website claimed that , “you don’t need the same old opera house, koala and kangaroo to sell Australia.”
Sorry chum, but you do. Tourism virtually has to pander to people’s preconceptions. You can introduce visitors to other less well-known features later but staple but iconic features are always the visitor seducer. At least for the first trip. In the US and Australia I have been surprised in the past by advertising to the UK that used bowler hats, Cotswold villages, kilted Scotsman, Welsh ladies in black coned hats, castles and the monarchy. It isn’t what we think of as the modern UK but it is what sells. You could say that Australia has good and a wide range of different cuisines. So does Amsterdam, Paris and Singapore. That’s not a distinguishing feature. You could say that that it has breathtaking scenery but so could Columbia, South Africa, Uganda and Pembrokeshire. You could say it has culture but so does Venice and Edinburgh. What you need is something that stands out. Like the opera house in Sydney, kangaroos, koalas, a harbour bridge and mateship. Because that is what people see in films and TV programmes.
If I was the Aussie tourist board, I’d be delighted regardless of whether the ad was any good or not. Why? Because people are talking about it, writing about it and watching it to see what the ad is like for themselves. And that means publicity. And that’s where tourism starts.

Thousands of Brits flock to The Gambia each year in search of winter sun, attracted by the carousel of charter flights between the UK and Banjul. Many never make it beyond the big beach resorts of the Atlantic Coast but those that do soon discover how this tiny country, known as the ‘smiling coast of Africa’, earned its title. Your definitive guide to the ‘real’ Gambia starts here

[ May 29, 2010 to June 5, 2010. ] Dance Festival ,Bishop of Winchester School, Bournemouth

[ May 29, 2010 to June 13, 2010. ] www.dorsetartsweeks.co.uk

[ May 22, 2010 to June 6, 2010. ] Northern Rocks Festival of Geology & LandscapeContact: 01388 528801www.northpennines.org.uk

[ May 28, 2010 to June 6, 2010. May 28, 2010 to June 6, 2010. ] www.stdavidscathedral.org.uk/index.php?id=693
classic and contemporary musical concerts in the Cathedral and other venues

[ May 27, 2010 to June 6, 2010. ] www.hayfestival.com/wales/index.asp?skinid=2
Hay-on-Wye, Herefordshire
One of the foremost literary festivals with offshoots in Spain, Columbia and Lebanon

[ May 30, 2010 to June 3, 2010. ] www.muncaster.co.uk/festival-fools-20105 days of fun as jesters, clowns and street entertainers appeal to both adults and children. At the climax, the Fool of Muncaster is crowned.
Muncaster Castle, Muncaster, Ravenglass, Cumbria