Zahi Hawass Gets World Tourism Award

Who he you may well ask.
Dr Zahi Hawass has headed up the Supreme Council Of Antiquities in Egypt for the last six years. As such he is responsible for the archaeological excavations throughout the country, it's musuems and those travelling exhibitions that go around the world.
With his trademark cowboy hat he has become quite a television personality who has raised the profile of Egyptian antiquities ( if they weren't high enough already) so that he is quite a recognisable figure.
His wikipedia biography points out that he some critics. It would be hard for him not to have some since has greatly improved the way some sites are looked after. You can't walk around and remove things as souvenirs from spoil heaps as easily as you once could.
So here is an award that is justified. His efforts have greatly aided Egyptian tourism and if they aren't all of his own making, so be it. What matters is that what Egypt offers the tourist is worth seeing and it is protected for future generations to see.

Airlines, the Disabled & Seat Width's

I have no idea when the width of airline seats was last determined but it doesn't seem to have taken account of the fact that people are larger these days. Just as people have grown taller through a better diet, people's girth has increased though not necessarily due to diet. Certain illnesses cause weight to be put on and the individual has little choice but to put up with it as a friend of mine did many years ago which resulted in regular monthly hospitalisations to try and deal with it.
So the recent decision by the Canadian Supreme Court to throw out an application by Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz and Westjet to charge for an extra seat for people who were obese or for disabled passengers who needed them has been welcomed by organisations concerned with the disabled. The airfares policy, in Canada at least, will be "one person, one fare."
My point is that, laudable as this decision is, and I hope that it is accepted by airlines wherever they are based is that seat comfort needs to be frequently visited. 350 years ago King Charles I was viewed as being of average size and he was a shade under five feet tall. Today the average size of a man is nearly five foot ten inches and that has increased by a couple of inches since WWII. Naturally body weight and girth has increased. So sometimes, for someone pretty average, an airline seat can be uncomfortable. As and as for leg room...
The issue for the airlines is that if they widen seats and give more leg room, commercially they lose because there are less seats to sell. Some charge you more for giving you extra leg room. Some may take the view that in times of a downturn, one way to attract passengers is to give them a little more space and that, allied with customer service will encourage passengers to choose them.
Oh well, I can dream!

Travelling to the US soon?

Anyone travelling to the US in the next two months should be aware that there are two different I-94 forms in existence and you need to complete the “right” one.
The I-94 form is a green form that all UK and Irish citizens (and all EU non visa holders) who do not have a visa need to complete before you meet the immigration people. Without it you can't gain admission. Usually you get given the form when you check-in but all flights carry a stock of the forms and it seem that some of those issued to airlines are the new forms. If you are issued with the new form, you will be sent back to collect a “right” form to complete. That often means you are at the back of the queue again which can add up to an extra 30-45 minutes.
So how can you tell one from the other?
If the form asks you for an e-mail address, the telephone number of where you are staying and where the visa was issued and when then you have been given the wrong form. You should ask for another form or pick one up when you get to the immigration hall.

How Important is Tourism?

With the World Travel Market now over for another year, residents can get back to normal for a while. The buses, the DLR and the restaurants will be returned to them. And they will probably enjoy it. But tourism is an integral way of life for the economies both local and national throughout the world.
If you think of Stratford-upon-Avon, Land's End, Blackpool, the Brecon Beacons and a host of other places, tourism is their lifeblood. they rely on you and I to visit and sepend money. But how important is it to Britain?
According to a new study from Deloittes commissioned by Visit Britain and the Tourism Alliance, the visitor economy is worth £114 billion to the UK. Make life too difficult for tourists and they stay away. It still came as a bit of surprise though when Barbara Follett, the minister responsible for tourism said that half of the shrinkage of the British economy in the third quarter of this year was due entirely to the downturn in the hospitality and tourism sector. That is of huge significance. One industry has had such a significant impact. You might have thought that the banking and financial sevices sector might have had such an effect. But no, tourism and hospitality has been the single most industry to have affected our economy in that period.
When you see a minister put it like that you realise just how important tourism is to us all.

Tourism and Getting Around London

You may have never heard of the World Travel Market,(WTM) ,but this week it has featured on BBC Breakfast, Metro, The Times and a host of other media Why? Because tourism ministers from around the world were in London and some of them have been held in massive queues as almost 50,000 people a day have headed for Custom House in London's Docklands for WTM.
Barbara Follett, the new Minister forTourism has apologised to passengers for the delays caused by Docklands Light Railway and London tube problems whilst websites linked to the travel trade have been receiving vitriolic comments about the state of transport and moving vast numbers of people around London.
They are learning what most of us who visit London know. At peak times it's difficult to get around and being jammed under some person's armpit as you stand on a train, tube or bus isn't fun. But it takes a host of visiting ministers to get it on news bulletins.
WTM is one of two huge travel trade exhibitions that take place each year. Here thousands or resorts, destinations, hotel companies vie to persuade travel agents that there's is the best area to visit, the best hotels in to stay in or the best service providers for us, the consumers to have. And this year it seems bigger with more money being spent to persuade travel agenst that when they come to sell us their products they should promote to us their products. It could be that in these economic times they need to shout louder so that they get a share of what might be a decreasing number of tourists. It could be they committed money before the downturn hit.
What they now know is that, if they are going to hold events like WTM in Docklands the infrastructure has to be able to cope. Buses yesterday went up narrow streets to take delegates there but they had to wait while cars came down because there is room for only one lane of traffic at a time. Residents were bemused at the length of the queues and how much longer it was taking. At 9 in the morning it took me an hour and a half to get from Waterloo to Custom House and most of that was spent as a sardine at Canning Town whilst I read posters extolling how London was achieving integrated transport.
Anyone who goes to concerts, sports events and pop festivals knows the problems that occur in moving lots of people. Some media were saying, if we can't cope with WTM crowds how can we handle the crowds for the Olympics? Thn answer is that they are building new transport systems to cope. We've heard it all before. Now overseas countries are wondering too, having experienced it at first hand. This time we better get it right or tourists- like some WTM delegates- will stay away in future.

Memories of the QE2

The title makes it sound as though I have sailed on her many times so let me straightaway say I have never even been on her and now, I never will. A regret. Like not having flown on Concorde. Both I wish I had done but as with many others, I feel that this ship was quite an iconic feature of the last forty years.
As she sailed of to begin her new life in Dubai ( seemingly reluctantly as she hit a sandbank but I think that was due to the tugs rather than her), a large crowd saw her off. To anyone who has been on a pier when she was tied up you will know just how big she was.
I remember the pre launch newspaper gossip. What was she to be called? Queen Victoria, which was what the old Queen Mary was though to be going to be called until King George V thought otherwise so maybe that would be the name. But no, it was to be QE2..
A number of abiding memories remain. The bomb threat and parachutists landing on the vessel; the carrying of troops to the Falklands in 1982 when, again huge crowds lined the docks (making it more poignant that she sailed for the last time on Remembrance Day) and finally a personal memory.
For the Australian bicentennial in 1988, the QE2 was moored in Sydney. I was there for a few days and we hired a 28 footer sailing boat and went onto the harbour. He waves were large and it became so windy, ferries were stopped. But we didn’t know, we just took in more sail. Sydney was awash with ships of all sizes and types for the celebration. As we steered through them we came up alarmingly close to the QE2 Then we knew she was big,- very big. And surrounded by tall ships it was quite a sight.
So what remains of her in your memory? Share them with us here.

A New Home for the Maldives?

The Guardian ran a story yesterday that was widely picked up by press around the world.
Although there seems no confirmation on the website of the new president, Mohammed Nasheen, The Guardian says that because of climate change, the islanders will start looking for land elsewhere that they can move to if climate change causes their islands to be flooded.
Most of the 1200 plus islands ( about 570 miles south of India) that make up the Maldives are only about 4 and a half feet (1.5 metres) above sea level so are very susceptable to water levels.
It appears that Nasheen favours India or Sri Lanka as potential new homes because the culture, climate and foods are similar but, apparantly, Australia is also on the list.
We are getting used to countries buying up companies, football clubs and the like but not huge tracks of land for resettlement. Given their reliance on the sea, fishing, golden sands and fine sunny weather, and considering what the weather has been like in the U.K. of late, I can't see Nasheen rushing to bolster our housing market by buying over here!

Books, Hotel Rooms & A Great Idea

Books fulfil a real need to the traveller and holidaymaker. Easy to carry, they occupy some of the boring bits of the journey and, when you get to your destination be it a hotel room, a campsite or your own home, they join the pile for re-reading or passing to a charity shop.
Some hotels, in days gone by, had reading or writing rooms where you could borrow books and settle down in a comfy armchair. Now, in most hotel rooms you get a Gideon Bible and perhaps something about the chain (if it is one) or the place in which you’re staying and that’s it.
Not so Eurostars Hotels.
They sponsor the rather difficult to say Eurostars Hotels Travel Narrative Award. That means that the winning title is distributed free of charge in all of their hotel rooms. With 51 hotels that means well over 4000 copies of the winning title and that presumes that they aren’t taken by guests and replaced. That print run is higher than some hardback novels get.
It’s a great idea giving hotel guests something to read;- something which they can’t get in the shops until later and something that supports travel writing.
Out of more than 30 entrants, this year’s winner is Temoris Grecko who wrote "The Colors of Africa: A Chronicle of an Encounter with the People of South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya." As it’s name suggests, its about his journey through those countries and the contrasting religions, ethnic differences, lifestyles and regimes.
So to Eurostars Hotels, I offer applause for a simple idea but which makes a hotel guest appreciate a little something extra.

Taking Books on Holiday

I’m quite fond of books. True, I buy more than I read but my excuse is that I save them up to take with me when I go on holiday. In a week I can go through 3 or 4 and there is something appealing about sitting in the sun with a book in one hand and a drink in the other, the only disturbance being a look around to watch the world go by.
There’s something about books; the smell, the feel and the yellower the pages the better. And they pack quite well since airlines exclude books from the baggage weights. You are allowed to take reading matter with you and some people read more than others; who is to say that a dozen books for a 7 day trip is too much. I admit hardbacks take up more room than paperbacks but even some of the “special” airport books have grown to the size, if not the weight of airport books.
So I am a bit put out that that someone has suggested that I don’t need to read books on holiday, I can just buy a Kindle, a Reader or an iLiad (someone has read a book at least to come up with the name).
Why?
Because they are portable, ( so’s a book), easy to carry around (so’s a book) and you can fit hundreds of books onto one machine (that’s a harder argument to demolish) But one of these gadgets (even if they were widely available in the UK) costs the equivalent of about £175 and each book that you download costs between £1.99 and a tenner. So I don’t breakeven until about 40 books. And what’s to say the books I want to read are available to download?. And can I use this gadget on a plane or will the electronics send the plane –and me- spiralling to my doom?
With books someone can lean over and ask whether it’s a good read and interesting conversations take place about their children, their jobs or their illnesses…
Actually, I think I’ve just talked myself into buying a gadget!

British Travel Awards & Your Votes

You may remember that over the last few months we have been asking you to vote for the companies you believed provide the best holidays, flights and so on. All of the votes have been counted and analysed and, altogether, tens of thousands of you voted using the links from either us or Sky Travel, The Sun, Sunday Times and LBC.
The organisers announced that this was now the largest consumer vote in any industry in the UK for awards so on behalf of them, can we offer a heartfelt thanks. Early next week we 'll put up all the winners that you voted for and also the winners of all the prizes that, you as voters, won.
Last night was the awards ceremony which was hosted by Frankie Boyle, one of the stars of Mock the Week. Thankfully, when CD-Traveller, presented some of the prizes we were spared the acerbic tongue that TV viewers are used to! This weekend at 2pm on LBC (for those of you in the London area), Simon Calder will be running through the winners on his travel show; elsewhere it will be on Sky.
Thanks to all of you once again,- and only 9 months before we ask you to vote for next years' awards!

the Monopoly of the National Trust

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the National Trust is a "good thing" Maybe it was but I am not sure anymore.
Showing a visitor around, I was going to take them to see some of the views from the highest points. It happened the land was owned by the National Trust and although I wanted to park there for 20 minutes to show her the view I had to pay £3. That was the price whether I parked for 5 minutes or 23 hours. It’s almost worse than parking charges at your local hospital
And when I got to the next spot it was another £3. Given the state of the carpark I hope my £6 has gone towards flattening the rubble into something resembling a flat surface rather than an obstacle course. If I had paid less, I wouldn't have minded rubble.
The idea of the founders was that we could share the sights and history of the UK. Sharing is getting expensive. How many people drive on and don't savour the sights merely because of these exhorbitant charges?
How about letting me buy a daily ticket that I can use wherever on that day. Or letting me buy hour by hour?

Ryanair & Jonathan Ross

When you see a press report about Ryanair, it usually makes good reading. Their Chief Executive, Michael O'Leary, is not known for bland language; some is more colourful than Gordon Ramsay's so the announcement of his third quarter accounts is uasually not as boring as some that travel companies issue. Ryanair calls for the removal of Harry Bush, "the hopeless CAA regulator" who rubber stamped the crazy plan to build a second terminal at Stasted which Ryanair calls a "gold plated Taj Mahal."

They claim he "stood idly by" whilst security and passport queues grew and passenger charges doubled. They are quite restrained about the introduction of a €10 air travel tax by the Irish government just calling it "inequitable".

And last week they offered to save Jonathan Ross. Yes, they went and issued a press release saying they were willing to rescue him, (I didn't know he needed rescuing). Claiming that Ross was sent to Coventry by the BBC, Ryanair suggested "Ryanaid" and said they would send him some tickets for the flights so that he could see "how the other half, who doesn't earn £18 million a year lives" .

Given that the statement was a teensie weensie bit inaccurate you have to hand it to them for audacity in linking their fare sale to Ross's actions over the last week or so.The previous week they had criticised Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) over charges suggested for rental space for check-in kiosks at Dublin Airport. O'Leary referred to the Irish airport regulator as "useless" and said that the DAA will continue to "abuse its powersI must look at their press releases and have a good laugh more often!"

M.P.'s, Terminal 5 and "national embarrassment"

Cast you minds back. To 6 months ago. When Heathrow's Terminal 5 opened and there were all those problems. Seems a long time ago since then we have reported that. Like all new openings, there were teething problems and those may have been worse than elsewhere or may have been overblown by the media. Now it seems to be working pretty well and we don't here many complaints at all.
Within 10 days of the problem, it was pretty widely reported that the problems were due to BA/BAA issues and baggage software problems.
So all hail the Commons Select Committee on Transport who have issued their report on the problems six months after the rest of us knew. They talk about "serious failings,"and "national embarrassment." In fairness, the committee says that it waited until the problems were resolved before investigating. So it didn't really take them them six months to find out what the rest of us were pretty sure were the problems.
Why do "official" investigations take so long?
By the time this report came out BA and BAA would have fixed those problems otherwise there would be passengers screaming from the building. Journalists would have booked every room at local hotels and be standing at 5am to tell us grisly stories. So why tell us what we know? When it happens again at another opening, can whoever owns that have learnt from what went wrong at Terminal 5? Probably but not from the report, it will have come from all the other information that was around months ago.
I think its because politicians must be seen to be doing things. If they sit on their hands, us voters will think they are doing nothing even if reports like this take ages to produce. Investigation should be done quickly for it to be of much value. So if they get around to having a report on why fuel surcharges take so long to drop, we will probably be using an entirely different fuel by the time the report is published!

Robinson Crusoe, Tourism & a Copper Fragment

Not subscribing to "Post Medieval Archaeology," it has taken me a little while to catch up with story of the excavations on Robinson Crusoe Island off the coast of Chile. It was the BBC website and The Times that alerted me to a story that archaeologists led by David Caldwell from National Museums Scotland had found evidence of an early European occupant on the island.
Since this is the island that Alexander Selkirk ( he whose story was written by Daniel Defoe as Robinson Crusoe) stayed on for four years after he was put ashore there in 1704, locals have renamed parts of the three island archaepelogo after the book such as Mirador do Selkirk and Peurto Ingles.
The excavation at Aguas Buenas found a couple of postholes, a fragment of a copper alloy that has been identified as being from a pair of naigational dividers (Selkirk is known to have had navigation equipment with him) and looked at a nearby gunpowder magazine. It may well be that they have found something relating to Selkirk but it was the quote from Caldwell that was telling.
He said "We hope that Aguas Buenas, with careful management, may be a site enjoyed by the increasing number of tourists searching for the inspiration behind Defoe's masterpiece."
the fact that he mentioned tourism at all is interesting. Why?
Lying about 2.5 hours flying time from the capital of Chile, Santiago, and just under half way between Chile and Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean these islands are accessible only on small 6-
10 seater planes or by boat.The islands, for there are three, were declared a national park in 1935 and a world biosphere reserve in 1977. The ecology is quite fragile. At the moment tourism is numbered in hundreds probably due to how difficult it is to get there.
The effect of Caldwell's comments and the natural inclinition of the islanders to seek revenue could damage this ecology. But Caldwell does say " carefully managed" and that says it all. CD-Traveller has highlighted problems at Pompei and Machi Picchu.
Here there is no problem yet. I hope in 20 years time, I can still say that.