The best holiday money saving tips for the year ahead

Make the most of your hard-earned cash with Stephen Baker’s 25 top holiday moneysaving tips

A day in… Dundee

Dundee is transforming its waterfront, to draw visitors in. Adrian looks at what there is for the short break tripper

Consumer Focus

From the website:

“Consumer Focus is the statutory organisation campaigning for a fair deal for consumers in England, Wales, Scotland, and, for postal services, Northern Ireland.

Advice for individuals on energy and post is given by Consumer Direct (08454 04 05 06).”

York & World Heritage Status

You might be surprised that York doesn’t have UNESCO World Heritage status. Given its Viking, Roman and church history, its city walls, York Minster and its remaining buildings you would have thought it was a shoe in. But no the city has never applied for the status before. This year it has and is one of 38 places in the UK that have submitted proposals to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. It is this body – or rather a panel of experts appointed by it – that will recommend which 2 names should be forwarded to UNESCO for their consideration. That doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that they will accept them on the nod.

Birmingham Cruise Show

Yesterday I went to the Daily Telegraph sponsored Cruise show at the NEC in Birmingham. So did thousands of you. And even more. At times you couldn’t see the carpet for people. The same, I am told, happened on Saturday. Try buying a cup of tea? Long queues were at those places as well as the stands.
So the organisers should have been pretty happy with the turnout. The exhibitors seemed to have been. At least in one sense. They were rushed off their feet and had little time to sit down. Brochures were being collected by the armload but were visitors just collectors or were they buying? Had they just come to enter the free competitions because just about every stand was offering a prize draw for a cruise?

Tourism and Armed Services Day

Today at over 350 events across our countries, Armed forces day will be celebrated. In some cases it happens tomorrow as well. There will be march pasts by different regiments and crowds are expected, despite the heat, to turn out to acknowledge the efforts that the armed services provide.
Forget for a moment, the obvious role of the armed forces and consider their humanitarian role. When disaster strikes the services go in to rescue people, shore up local services and provide some comfort. Tourists and visitors have often had cause to thank the services for their roles in getting them out of tight spots

Letter from London: Chinese New Year celebrations abound

Each month Jane Egginton brings us her letter from London. This month, Jane gives us the low-down on London’s plans to mark Chinese New Year