Visiting London

Last year just over half a million visitors came to London then had come in the previous year. Spending by those tourists rose to 10.5 billion pounds. Masked by those figures, however, is the fact that overseas visitor numbers are down but visits by us to London are up by a million to 11.3 million.
Now London is launching a campaign to persuade all of us to come to or return to London. Under the banner "Only In London" they are publicising 100 London sights that they claim even the residents might not know. They hope this investment of 2 million pounds will yeid up to an extra 60 million in revenue. And to kick it off they had a four page wraparound around the Evening Standard yesterday which had some 20 of those sights.
Forgive me as someone who knows London (but doesn't live there) but some of the suggestions seem quite well known like marvelling at the collection of mummies at the British Museum, visiting Tate Modern, seeing a red panda at London Zoo or going to the free National Portrait Gallery. I quarrel with none of these choices of things to do but are they unusual for the visitor? Holding a bar of gold at the Bank of England? Now that's a different idea. A cruise on the Regent's Park canal is different. And come to think of it, this weekend sees the annual canal cavalcade of boats at Little Venice. There should be about 150 of them and since good weather is forecast for this bank holiday weekend,it will make a pleasant day out. See the link below for more details. http://www.waterways.org.uk/Events/CanalwayCavalcade09
And if you want something cheap to do try walking on the south bank from Southwark Bridge to Waterloo Bridge. You can pass Shaespeare's replica Globe Theatre, Tate Modern, National Theatre and the National Film Theatre, the Hayward Gallery as well as the book marker, thegardens, restaurants and just watching the river and the boats go by.

An Update on Mexican Holidays

The outbreak of a flu virus in Mexico has prompted some of the strangest media coverage. On the one hand, there have been the stories of returning holidaymakers suffering from flu like symptoms and the spread of the virus to other countries and on the other, plaintive stories of people who have had their holiday plans dashed as tour operators cancel their package holidays.
It is too early to establish how severe this scare is but comments from Michael O’Leary of Ryanair claiming that it is only a tragedy for slum dwellers in Asia or Mexico and that a couple of strepsils for the rest of us will do doesn’t help.
To those going to Mexico in the next few days, the Foreign Office travel advice means that ABTA members will probably cancel the bookings. In this case, holidaymakers are entitled to alternative arrangements or a refund. For those of you seeking compensation, forget it. Just about every travel insurance policy would rate this as outside the control of the travel agent or tour operator. If you have booked flight and accommodation separately then you will need to check with both to see what their attitude is. For example, British Airways still is flying to Mexico
Thomsons, First Choice, Airtours, Virgin Holidays, Kuoni, Cosmos and Thomas Cook are amongst those tour operators who have all stopped holidays to Mexico for the next week at least.

Choosing Your Holiday Online

There was a fascinating piece of news from Google last week which was announced at a conference hosted by Travolution, a specialist travel trade publisher.
Research by Google shows that if you book online, on average it takes you 29 days to make up your mind. Before finally booking, you visit 22 sites and make 12 online searches. By the time you have done this, discussed it with whoever and made up your mind almost a month has elapsed.
This research, of course, covers the Google website and misses the other search engines but Google is the biggest so you there is probably something in what they say. The internet has a reputation for being easy and for delivering fast results. Travel agents and traditional travel companies have often said that we use the internet for research and then a large number of us still prefer to use the travel agent to book our holidays and trips.
So what does this research mean?
I think we still like to look around a great deal. In the old days when I would visit friends just after Christmas the piles of holiday brochures they had may have been replaced by a a pile of websites. A lot of us aren't rushing in. We are carefully considering what is about. A large number of us may not be being seduced by time offers, you know the sort of thing. Book in the next 24 hours and save £5.
More interestingly is why we are visiting so many sites. Is it a case of not trusting some? Is it the fact that we think we have a wider choice and expect there to be very different pricing or offers across these sites? Is it that sites are so complicated that we visit so many in order to get to those that are uncomplicated and easy? Or is it something really simple such as a liking for looking at travel websites?
Who knows? But I bet the travel and holiday providers would like to because this research will make them think.

May is Scotland's Whisky Month

As part of the big Scottish Homecoming initiative, this Friday, May 1st, sees the start of Whisky Month. There are 30 events during may scattered right throughout Scotland kicking off on May 1st with the 10 day Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival. This year, the Speyside is celebrating it’s 10th birthday so they have pushed the boat out over the event ending with Capercaille and firework display at Abelour on the 9th to complete the festival.
The month ends with the Islay Malt and Music Festival with events across the Islay distilleries.
So why so much emphasis on attracting you and I to go to all these distilleries. We know the contribution that whisky as a drink makes to the Scottish economy both in jobs and income. But it also a significant boost to tourism. It is reckoned that £20 million was spent at whisky visitor attractions and Scots tourism officers hope that this whisky event will add another 30,000 visitors to the already considerable numbers who go there.
Most distilleries now have visitor centres so they can cater to all the family whilst the adults sample the wares. But since some of the distilleries are not the easiest to get to you have to travel through some of the most beautiful parts to get to them. That might encourage you to return to explore the area knowing that there will be a distillery at the end of a day.
For non whisky drinkers like me it has little appeal. How whisky is made is of some interest but at the risk of being shot down I would imagine that having seen one distillery process, the others are broadly similar. But some of the remote parts of the Scottish countryside are the attraction. And if I drop a couple of people off at a distillery and pick them up later that’s fine with me.
For more see www.homecomingscotland2009.com/whiskymonth

The Budget and Holidaymakers

Last Wednesday was, of course, the budget. I have desisted a quick response because there is usually something lurking that takes a while to ferret out but so far those with more financial nous than me haven't spotted more to affect tourists than those below.
To listen to the industry you would have thought it was terrible because the chancellor did nothing about Advanced Passenger Duty (APD), and the tax rises he announced some time ago. The chancellor didn't rescind the tax which is what the industry had been hoping so the rise forecast for November will still go ahead. That means on a short haul flight the APD will rise to £11 (and from 2010, £12) If you go to the US it will rise to £40 (2010 £60) and to somewhere like Australia or New Zealand it will be be £85 in 2010. If you fly business class then next year the rise could be as much as £170.
Dermot Blastland of Thomson Holidays pointed out that by 2010, a family going to the Caribbean could end up by paying an additional £600 in taxes and Mark Tanzer of ABTA pointed out that APD generates £2 billion for the exchequer.
So the taxes for flyers that had already been announced stay in place.
The change that hadn't been expected will hit those people who have second homes which they make available for holiday lets in the UK. At the moment they get tax breaks but these will disappear from next April. This is expected to affect about 100,000 people Some doom laden forcasters are saying that this will force down house prices still further. Conversely, those having holiday homes abroad which they let will be entitled to claim retrospectively the same sort of tax breaks until the phasing out next April.
As usual with the budget, some you win and some you lose but the person who wins the most is always the chancellor!

Going to Thailand?

For the last six months or so, tourists going or considering going to Thailand have probably wondered whether it was a good idea. At the end of last year, the main airport in Bangkok was effectively closed by anti government protests. A little while ago a summit in Pattaya had to be postponed because of protests and over Easter protests again surfaced in Bangkok. During this time there were the usual advisory notices from the Foreign Office urging people not to visit. Countries as diverse as Australia and Russia urged travellers not to go there.
If you’ve already booked or were considering going does this sort of news deter you? Should it? Does media coverage concentrate on only spectacle as opposed to how ordinary activities are affected? On one hand, you have the media saying how difficult life is and on the other the tourism people saying how unaffected tourists will be. Who do you believe?
During the recent Easter reporting it appears that hotels stayed open and bus and train services were largely unaffected including the SkyTrain. The tourist attractions and the shopping areas were open and seemed to be largely unaffected. At the time of writing, there is an emergency decree in force at the time prohibiting gatherings of more than 5 people, (you should check if, you are leaving shortly, whether this is still in place), but this should not affect tourists. Roads were closed but this can happen anywhere and was short lived. Try going through Edinburgh at the moment as they prepare for the new transport system!
Tanes Petsuwan, the UK Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, has thanked the travel industry for supporting Thailand during this period and continuing to sell it. They hope 750,0000 of us will visit Thailand this year and overall tourism is very important to the economy.
So it appears that whilst protests occurred, tourists were largely not inconvenienced. They could still enjoy their holiday but did it put people off from considering Thailand in the future? It probably has to some extent so how do you really find out the true state of play. The answer is probably to do, if you can, what I did. Talk to someone in the place that you’re going to and ask them what life is like at the moment. That information is far more useful than what sometimes appears in the media.

A Holiday for St George’s Day?

Not only is it St George’s day but Shakespeare’s birthday as well. No further on are we in the discussion of whether we should have a public holiday to celebrate England’s saint’s day. (Although for this year, I think there is an argument for having a day off after yesterday’s budget. Maybe we should have a day off after every budget to cheer us all up!)
It is still only St Patrick who gets a public holiday and then only in Ireland. England Scotland and Wales still talk about it but nothing happens. The racing broadcaster, John McCririck, was on GMTV this morning putting the case for a public holiday but his argument linking British troops (not English but St George is also the patron saint of Christian soldiers) and why we should have day of celebration was lost on me. After all. we all know that St George wasn’t even English. He may have been Greek and today it is eastern Europe that he is most widely celebrated. It seems the French may be responsible for our links with St George. In the 600’s, he was widely venerated there so when the Normans invaded in 1066, his appeal came with them. If we must have a saints day how about St Thomas a Becket day to celebrate standing up to the government of the day. If someone else, what about King Alfred.
But do we need a holiday so close to Easter?
I still think that the time for a holiday is between September and Christmas when we have that long drawn out nearly 4 months of darkening nights and no breaks. Get rid of one of the bank holidays in May and move it to October so the autumn gets a break as well.

Do we need a Tourism Investment Bank?

It seems a simple question on the face of it. Where has this idea come from? Philip Riddle, the Chief Executive of Visit Scotland is suggesting to both the Scottish and the UK governments that such a bank be created to put cash into the tourism sector.
But isn’t the UK domestic tourism business doing rather well at the moment? Aren’t you and I seriously considering having our holidays in the UK this year? If that’s the case isn’t our cash going to support the growth of UK tourism anyway? There are countries that have something similar. Austria, France and Spain are cases in point but they are all in the eurozone and are suffering downturns in tourist numbers. If we were suffering a tourism decline then maybe we should consider something like this.
In an interview in “The Scotsman”, Riddle said that the UK (or maybe Scotland, I am not sure) could come out of this recession with a thriving tourism industry.
And that’s the rub.
One good year will not put the tourism industry on its feet after the declining years when more of us go abroad. Tourism is worth a lot of cash and a lot of jobs to our economy. Most companies involved in tourism are small companies. Across the board small companies have felt the lending crunch. But should they get preferential treatment over other industries?
But as Riddle was quoted as saying. At present building materials and land are cheaper. Investing in a downturn can be advantageous because eof those reduced costs. The other thing that has been noticeable in this recession is that people seem set on having a holiday. It’s not a luxury it is part of the necessary recharge of human batteries. So a well thought through investment plan seems a reasonable thing that investors would want to back. So why not through the normal banks?
Not an easy question to answer, I’ve decided but definitely one that we as taxpayers and tourists should give a thought to.

Parks For People

Open spaces like the green belt,the national parks and everyones little local park are highly prized oases of calm away from everyday bustle. Often the smaller ones are taken for granted until sometimes they disappear. So when money is ploughed into improve them it gets little publicity apart from in the places concerned.
£14 million pounds has just been allotted by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Big Lottery Fund's Parks for People programme. So what is the money used for? The obvious answer is planting and maintaining but in fact there is more than that in this large grant. It helps train tour guides and encourages people to arrange events within the parks so we, as tourists, get the most out of them.
The lucky places getting a share of the cash are;
Coventry: War Memorial Park
Crieff: MacRostey Park
Falmouth: Gyllyngdune Gardens
Kilsyth: Burngreen Park
Lichfield: Beacon Park, Minster Pool and the Garden of Remembrance
Quorn: Stafford Orchard
Stevenage: Town Centre Gardens
Sunderland: Barnes Park
There are a further 13 parks up and down the country that have been awarded some funds to enable them to create a project to get full funding like the seven above.
the Heritage Lottery Fund invests some £20 million per year (so far £400 million in 300 different projects)in public park projects so for those of who who would like access to lottery money to improve your local parks and open spaces then you have until 31 of August to get your application in. You'll find details at www.hlf.org.uk

is it Cheaper to Holiday Abroad?

Thomas Cook runs a Holiday Cost of Living Survey and the results have just been published. It claims that places like Majorca, Cyprus and mainland Spain are still cheaper than the UK. But all these places are in the eurozone and we have been told that the eurozone has become expensive because of the fall of the pound against the euro. Can this be right?
This survey compares prices in resorts as opposed to the actual cost of the holiday and checks nine individual items. They include such items as cigarettes and a UK newspaper. Now when you consider some of those some have always been cheaper like the cigarettes. And only about 25% of people smoke so for 75% there are no savings. A UK newspapers always more expensive abroad and how many people buy them when you’re abroad anyway. Judging by the overseas circulations, not many. This could well be the case when the basket of items needs to be updated to reflect what real people buy; postcards, stamps, a 3 minute mobile phone call as well as the meal and the price of drinks. And what about bread, cheese and some items of fruit?
Even allowing for my criticisms, Goa seems to be the cheapest place at £14.10 for the 9 items. Its £30.75 in Cuba, £34.01 in Egypt, £42.50 in Majorca, £34.66 in Spain and £45.38 in Cyprus but £48.51 in the UK. Coffee costs only20p in Goa but a whopping £4 in Egypt.
Perception is everything and the insurer, LV has issued a survey saying that a quarter of UK adults will holiday in the UK because of the cost. The responders estimate that a week in the UK will cost them on average £477 whilst those going abroad will spend £728. That’s a pretty big saving for the 25% LV says will holiday in the UK. But will they? Estimates by holiday makers can be inaccurate because prices vary where you shop. Until you get to your destination you won’t know what you’ll pay.
Both surveys are probably a bit misleading. It’s up to you. It might be cheaper if you buy carefully either abroad or here. What neither says is that overall prices like food and travel have gone up wherever you are so wherever you go it will probably cost you more than last year.

Obese People Buy 2 Seats?

United Airlines has announced that obese people will have to buy 2 seats unless there are spare seats on a flight.
As you might imagine, this has caused a little ripple of comment. Ripple did I say? In Chicago where United is based, the Chicago Tribune has had 265 comments on their website. The online news report, Huffington Post has had 786 comments with 67% of people polling on the site in favour.
Southwest Airlines has had this policy for some years but I can't recall it being implemented very often. Air France has something similar but in Canada discrimating by weight is illegal.
The definition used by United is not a medical one so in some ways it seems fairer. If a passenger can't lower the arm rest or buckle a seatbelt after having an extension added, then they are liable to being removed from that flight if there was no extra seat. Or if they are aware there might be a problem they can buy two seats.
So is this blatant discrmination or making it fair on other passengers? The Fat Rights Coalition called it a blatant attempt at making money and accused the airline of discrimination. Others have pointed out that flying on an airbus instead of a boeing gives you an extra 2 inches width.
Supporters of the idea point out that neighbours get cramped in and have difficulty moving about. Others say if weight becomes an issue, a small person should get extra luggage allowance so that the system is fairer.
Could it happen here? Will Ryanair, easyJet, Flybe, Jet2, Globespan and no frills airlines in Europe copy it? Is it discriminatory? Does it contravene the Human Right Act?

Fancy a Day Trip To France?

You know the holiday season has begun properley when the strikes start.
For the last few days French fisherman have blockaded ferry ports in Northern France in protest against cod and sole quotas. They could blockade their own ministry in Paris or the EU in Brussels but lining ships across harbour entrances seems more in their line. So British holidaymakers in France and French holidaymakers in Britain trying to return home are held up through no fault of their own as are hundreds of lorries either side of the channel.
One union leader has even suggested that the chunnel be blocked in solidarity with their "colleagues" and threatened to start it today. MEP's from differing parties have been trotted out to say what a bad thing this disruption is.
And this happened last year and has happened before that going back at least to the early 1990's.
So why aren't the authorities prepared? I can pretty well suggest where strikes will be over the summer because they happen like clockwork. And all timed to inconvenience holidaymakers.
I am aware that the blockade was lifted by the fishermen to allow some ferries to sail but it was just as swiftly reimposed. The French courts have threatened fines if the blockade isn't lifted but will any notice be taken of them?
Quotas won't be raised for French fishermen. That would upset other countries with fishing fleets so the only alternative seems to be for the French government to increase it's financial subsidy or whatever expression they like to use so the EU can live with it. Or deal with the fishermen by removing their boats. What do you think will happen?
Well at least Eurostar, Le Shuttle and the airlines are seeing an upturn in business but the poor holidaymaker still takes the brunt.

Attracting more Tourists to Oman, Thailand and the Maldives

Tourists mean money. Tourists mean economic growth so in the straightened times we find ourselves in, some countries are doing their utmost to get us to visit them.
In the Middle East, neighbours are trying to clone Dubai's success. Oman aims to quadruple the number of tourists visiting there to 12 million by 2020 and has therefore announced it is spending $10 billion on airport expansion, 10 new resort developments and a major convention centre. Will Oman look like Dubai does now in a few years? Perhaps I should see Oman in the next year or two so that I can see what I am told by people who've been there, is a prettier and more traditional place.
Thailand had been hit by opposing political factions who virtually closed Bangkok last Decemeber and have disrupted an international gathering in Pattaya and led to some ugly incidents in Bangkok this month- at least according to TV and newspaper reports. So the Thai government reacted to the issues in December by waiving all visa fees until June 4th this year. After the latest troubles will it extend it again? Usefully for those of us who have had to change planes at Bangkok before going on to places like Australia, it is now possible to leave the airport for a few hours' sightseeing without needing a visa. This year the tourism authority is hoping 750,000 of us Brits will go there as part of the 14 million tourists they expect.
Think of the Maldives and the impression is of warmth, shimmering waters and sun drenched beaches. And its a bit expensive and posh. But this is going to change (not the weather or the attractions but the expensiveness). The government is going to allow the building of 2 and 3 star hotels as well as guesthouses. And some will be built on uninhabited islands. The idea is to attract a wider market and those backpackers and students who head for India and Sri Lanka but stay away from what has always been seen as a luxury resort.
So in the standard brochures of five years from now, will Oman and the Maldives become common offerings and join Thailand?

Body Scanners to be introduced at US Airports

Last week, the New York Times said that the familiar walk through metal scanners that are seen at airports anywhere in the world will be replaced in the US. What will succeed it will be body imaging devices which amount to a virtual strip search. This has been tested for some time and it is reported that these tests having been successful,the TSA (Transportation Security Administration)wanted them to become standard at all US airports.
Critics claim that the images amount to an invasion of privacy as it provides detailed naked images. Supporters say that the images are anonymised and will not be stored after screeing is completed. Some members of the European Parliament claim that such equipment violates our data protection legislation and the fundamental rights of people.
So is this a genuine security device that will help stop potential terrorist outrages and smuggling or will this be be, as some claim, a use of technology that won't really add to the existing security measures.
You have to make that decision but it does look, at least in the US, that this is what the future will be.

Buying your Foreign Currency

If you’ve been abroad this Easter, you will have had to get some local currency. The signs at the Bureaux de Changes (we don’t seem to have a suitable English phrase) will have said things like “best rates”, “won’t be beaten” and maybe, “commission free.” Whatever they say, at lot of us moan at much money we receive for each pound we change.
Some comment just before Easter won’t surprise some as they claim we may not be getting good deals. One currency provider that lets you book in advance, FairFX.com, claims that some commission free deals are actually costing us up to 15% more.
How? Because of poorer exchange rates and other charges. According to their research some 58% of us look for commission free/0% commission signs because we think we will get it cheaper. FairFX.com is calling on the Office of Fair Trading to enforce transparent advertising to protect consumers.
On a similar theme, a specialist tour operator to Morocco, Fleewinter, has alerted it’s customers to the fact that exchange rates on Moroccan dirhams were high over here. One of their staff said that they were offered just 8.2 to the pound but if they tried to sell them back on the return of their holiday, they were getting over 14 to the pound. On £100, it was pointed out, that meant a loss of £55. The suggestion was wait till they get to Morocco before they change their currency.
So is it the case? Going to Egypt I was pretty much assured of getting better rates there than here but that might have changed in the last year or so. It does seem though that some popular destinations like Morocco and Tunisia don’t appear on the lists of currencies freely available from the main providers. But even then, the most popular currency, the euro is at about €1.112 in the papers but the tourist rates are about €1.05 making a 6 cent difference. For each £100 that’s a €6 difference. So the obvious things to do are
1 Look at a number of suppliers first and choose
2 Buy online and in advance if you can because you will often get a better rate and if the currency rises against the pound you will still get the rate you agreed and if it goes down, then I’ve always been given the new, higher rate.

Luton: A No-Frills Airport.

We're used to the idea of no-frills or budget airlines. These are airlines who provide a cheap price for a basic service, a service which involves little more than getting you from A to B. For anything else you pay but at least you have the right to decide what you pay for. Money earned in this way is called ancillary revenue. Last week a report from Collinson Latitude estimated that no-frills airlines were earning $12 in ancillary revenue for every passenger they carried. So for an airline that carries 1 million passengers for example, that adds up to an additional $12 million a year.
Now at looks as though we are seeing the concept of no-frills airports.
We are used to being able to drive to an airport to drop off and collect passengers. You are in and out fairly quickly. Birmingham Airport introduced a fee to go to an area to drop off passengers whereas previously, I think, you used to get 15 minutes free parking. Now Luton has followed.
From the beginning of May, it will charge £1 to drop off passengers. The alternative is that passengers be dropped off in what they call the mid term car park (ie a place a bit further away from the terminal than the short term car park so they can’t charge as much money for parking there.) which will cost nothing. Passengers will then have a free 2 minute bus ride to the terminal. But of course the buses will only pick up every so often so this will add more time than the 2 minutes suggested by the press release.
But Luton already charges £1 for a luggage trolley (which you don’t get back when you return the trolley unlike other airports), £1 for a clear plastic bag to put your liquids in (that must cost them fractions of a penny so the mark up is huge!) and £3 for a speedy way through security. Clearly the owners (who also own Cardiff and Belfast International) have their greedy eyes on the ancillary revenue volumes that no-frills airlines make. With 10 million passengers a year going through Luton, if they get only 1 million that get dropped off and picked up they will make £2 million extra per year for doing nothing other than installing a pay machine.
The Air Transport Users Council, the consumer watchdog for airline passengers, has quite rightly spotted that people, faced with these costs may switch airports. But what if there is no alternative? If you only have one airport near you or you flight destination only has planes flying from that airport you are stuck.
But do you know what really stings? The comment from Luton Airport themselves. According to the Daily Telegraph, Nic Hutton, of Luton Airport said "We have made this investment so that getting to the airport is easier and more convenient for all our passengers. Dropping passengers off can be a stressful experience; we have therefore given careful consideration to providing the right facilities and enough time for people to unload in a secure environment. Making a small charge reminds drivers of the ten minute time allocation and keeps the traffic flowing. By offering a choice of options we can provide an airport experience to suit the needs of all our passengers."
Stressful experience! This greedy £1 imposition will add to that.
An airport experience to suit the needs of all our passengers! What does that say about what they think of passengers?

So We Are Going Abroad for Easter: Why?

According to the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA), 2 million people are heading overseas for the Easter break. There are two important facts beneath this headline.
The first is that there has been a large last minute booking rush by people so those people who have been saying that, more than ever this year, we are leaving it till the last minute appear to be right. Will this happen for summer holidays as well? For those of us who haven’t booked for summer yet, it means we have to consider how late we can leave it given that tour operators have cut back on the number of holidays available.
The second point is that this figure of 2 million means that more people are going abroad than last year. But we are in a recession. Shouldn’t the numbers be down?
There are some possible answers. It could be that people are taking a short break rather than a longer holiday this year and summer figures could dip. It could be that the need for a holiday has become so important to many of us that we will do what we have to get that holiday. A holiday then has become a bit like Charlie Brown’s blanket from the cartoon strip, Snoopy;- it’s a bit of security in an odd world. Another thought I have is that maybe this recession is bottoming or people can see the way out of it. Finally, the recession is not hitting some people as much as the media might have us believe.
We are going to places where the pound has not fared so badly against the local currency; Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia and Cuba are in the top of the lists but so are Spain and the Canaries. But Spain and the Canaries are euro areas. The “experts” are saying that numbers will be down in euro countries. So how do we explain that? Two possible answers come to mind. The first is that such a lot of go there that even a largish dip would still leave it in a top position and the second is that people are determined to have a break in a place they know will give almost guaranteed sunshine despite the increase in costs. There is another answer; as I said earlier, people can see the way out of the recession or it isn’t as bad as it seems.
Whatever the answer, ABTA members have 5,900 travel agencies throughout the country and that covers a heck of a lot of people. If they say that’s what happening, it is. This isn’t an industry fudge to talk up travel

British Airways and Concorde

What a difference a couple of days make.
Earlier this week I was congratulating BA on the calm, understated pleasant flight I had.
Yesterday The Times reported that BA was considering selling the Concorde it has at Heathrow to a group of investors in Dubai where it will be grouped with the QE2 and marketed as a joint tourist attraction..
BA seems to have a blind sport about Concorde. This was a plane that was one of the handsomest planes ever designed; this was a plane that, thirty years on, was enough to cause people still to look skywards and marvel at it and this was a plane that was full for just about every day trip that was chartered on it.
So why doesn’t BA use it as a tourist attraction in its own right? It backed the London Eye with its name yet with Concorde, a name with which it was intimately linked, it does nothing.
As The Times points out, Air France has one of its Concordes outside its HQ at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. We used to have a model as you entered Heathrow but that went a few years ago. Usually at the end of an article in “The Times you get a handful of comments. By 5.30 this morning there were 61 and most were critical of the attitude of BA.
Concorde is a plane that stirs people.
British Airways , as a brand, has been tarnished by the oddities that management over the years has done, the silliest being the painted tailfins that meant little to people and which Mrs Thatcher ridiculed by tying a handkerchief over. The Terminal 5 debacle was badly handled. So why add to things by not turning its last remaining Concorde into a tourist attraction in this country.
Or does it want a hat-trick of errors.

Sustainable Tourism: Antarctica

For quite a few people the lure of going somewhere out-of-the-way is quite strong. Undeveloped areas that show how a country or an area really is as opposed to what tour operators have created means that certain places are not prepared for tourism. Others are so fragile from an economic or environmental standpoint that many people question whether tourists should be allowed to go there at all.
One such place is Antarctica. It isn’t a place many of us can afford to go to but that doesn’t mean to say that the number of visitors is low. The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators says that the number of visitors had risen seven fold over the last twenty years. You could argue that the number was low then and the number is low now at just 45,000 visitors last year. But in the last two years we have had one ship sunk and two more have run aground. Can Antarctica cope with this number of passengers? How will it affect the ice pack? What effect does shipping have on the landscape?
Beginning in the US this week is a 10 day meeting at which 400 delegates from around the world will meet to discuss the 50 year old Antarctic Treaty. Primarily to discuss the region as a whole, one such proposal from the US would be to seek voluntary restrictions on tourism in the area. There will be limits on the size of ships that can land and limits on the number of passengers that can go ashore.
Why?
Probably the answer is why not. Do we know enough about the impact, we as tourists make there? Probably not so until we do it makes some sense to have limits until we do know. We do know in the Galapagos, the islands have had expanded populations to meet a tourist demand. Closer to home we have had coastal pathways eroded by visitors.
This is one case when limits should not be voluntary especially since no penalties will be imposed (who would impose them anyway?)
Until we understand more, we should be cautious.

Child Free Zones on Planes

TripAdvisor has reported the results of a survey claiming that 79% of us believe that there should be child free areas on planes. Interestingly they asked whether people had children in the first place and of those who had them, a pretty substantial 71% also thought that there should be areas set aside for child free passengers.
But it was a small survey. Only 509 people were polled and since families with children make up only about a third of the population, it could be that only about 170 people had children.
On that basis there are 170 people like me who wouldn’t mind a children free area. And probably we would also want a mobile phone free area, a fat person free area, a body odour free person area and other free areas as well depending on our personal preferences. The list could be endless. An area where I couldn’t hear Microsoft Windows or Vistas little opening and closing jingle. An area where I couldn’t smell coffee. (genuinely, freshly made coffee makes me feel ill). An area where people weren’t talking loudly as I tried to sleep.
But let’s face it; it isn’t going to happen on most planes. They are just too small.
Maybe on the big Airbus 380 or the Boeing 747’s but anywhere else is impractical.
Now if we had spaceships or a plane like a cruise ship we could partition off areas and put crying children in one, smelly armpit people in another and so on. And because I may be the only coffee hating person in the world, I would have an area all to myself.
Now that would attract me to a particular airline!

South Downs National Park

60 years after the first national parks were set up, the ninth national park covering the South Downs has been agreed to by the government. It ends a long process since the area was listed for national park status back in 1949 when the original act setting up national parks was introduced.
So what does it mean?
The area has the highest level of planning protection that exists so, as many councils and MP’s have been quick to shout, it means many planning issues may be removed from local government to the new, unelected park authority that will be set up. It also means that tourists are likely to be attracted to the area just as they are to all the other national parks we have.
The Conservative MP for Eastbourne, Nigel Waterson has said that he feels this may inhibit improvements to the A27 and that planning applications may be removed to the new park authority. The original aim of the Act was, amongst other things, to provide recreational opportunities for the public. Will this mean then more tarmac car parks and more roadside cafes? Probably not, so why are people objecting?
The campaign for this park has the backing of bodies like Campaign for Protection of Rural England (led by the author Bill Bryson who deserves a major award for the effect he has had on UK tourism) and the Ramblers Association as well as over a hundred other bodies. It seems that it is councils who have objected the most. And maybe “nimbies” who won’t like the tourism advantages that additional numbers of visitors will bring. They probably won’t object to the injection of money in the economy or the price support it will give to the houses they own though!

British Airways: Fit for Purpose

Last week I flew on BA for the first time in about six months. In that time BA has faced all the problems that airlines have had; increasing fuel prices and then hedging fuel at high prices or at high insurance rates, lower demand from its premium paying passengers and the difficulties of merging with Iberia (and before that, Qantas.)
The last time I think I wrote about BA was after the Heathrow terminal 5 opening disaster which, by anybodies view, was a public relations foul-up and brought considerably justified criticism to both BA and BAA.
I have been using Ryanair and easyJet quite a bit this year for the reason that we all do, cost.
So going back and flying BA reminded me of the differences.
And what differences!
No hard sell by the cabin crew; no trumpeting to say we had landed 30 seconds early; no knees bunched up against the seat in front; no walking across the tarmac in the rain or cold; no jostling for seats or being fleeced for carrying baggage.
In my forty minute flight to Manchester there was time for a hot breakfast which had the strange feat of tasting like food despite the fact that it had been heated up in an oven on the plane.
It was all so different and served the purpose; efficient without being hurried; polite without being persuasive and reliable with all the experience that the staff have accrued.
What a difference
Thanks

Slumdog Millionaire and Mama Mia attract Tourists

In the past, I have mentioned the effect that films and TV shows can have on local tourism long after those have been made. But of course there is an immediate effect as well and, given the recession, two countries that could do quite nicely from it are India and Greece.
The success of Slumdog Millionaire has resulted in the setting up of tours to visit the slums of Mumbai. People seem to want to see the real slums on which some of the film is based so tours of Dharavi, not only the largest slum in Mumbai but the largest in Asia, are growing. The numbers are still small but who would have thought, before this film, that people would want to visit it at all.
Greece, on the other hand, has attracted tourists for millennia. But it has the euro so British tourists have been put off because of the rise in costs. But not all have been put off so Mama Mia has helped reduce the downturn that many were expecting and while the theatre version continues to be played across the world, they have some comfort.
Likewise in Asia.
They may not have films to bolster tourist numbers but things do not seem to be all doom and gloom there. New forecasts from a trade group, PATA, (Pacific) that visitors to South East Asian countries will rise from 62 to 77 million by 2011. Across the Pacific, Chile is forecast to do well although getting there from the UK is not the easiest at present and few tour operators offer packages there. Only Sri Lanka and Burma (Myanamar) are expected to experience declines.
But al Sri Lanka may need to do is to come up with an award winning feelgood film set locally and it could all alter.

Cyprus, Las Vegas & Spain: the Effects of not Having British Tourists

I’ve had some e-mails lately from friends abroad asking me whether it is as bad in Britain as their local media tells them. My answer is to say that it’s not great and there is nervousness but it is nowhere as bad as in some places.
Take Las Vegas for example. It relies heavily in tourists and consequently they have been hit badly as people save their money in case they need it for some time in the future. Revenue from the casinos is down by slightly over a quarter and the price of hotel rooms has dropped by 14%. When I was there last November, 4 star hotels were costing me about $40 (say £30 a night) which I thought very reasonable. The owners were hoping I’d lose money at the tables. So they are suffering far worse than us.
Look at Spain. Brits make up 28% of all arrivals. 16 million of us go there a year but not now the pound is lower. 22% fewer of us are visiting and in a country where 10% of all Spain’s revenue comes from tourism,
this is having a big impact. Even the Spanish are not holidaying in their own country as much as they did so.
Finally, Cyprus, a favourite place for British tourists in the past but now tourist officials are concerned. They fear that Cyprus is seen as an expensive destination and that people will go to less expensive places this year. In 2008, 1.2 million Brits went to Cyprus. Russia sent the next highest number of tourists, just 180,000 so if we stay away, Cyprus will feel the the difference. And will we go? Well probably if the prices come down. Cyprus has a lot to offer the tourist but price at the moment is the main reason the majority of Brits are doing anything. That is why cheaper destinations like Egypt, Croatia, Tunisia, Turkey, Thailand and Bulgaria are doing quite well.
So we are having quite an impact on some countries. And as wait till the last minute to book, you can bet that Spain and Cyprus and some other countries will be advertising to encourage us to desert our shores and soak up the sun there instead

April Fool’s Day: But Would You Notice?

It’s that day again.
I did think that maybe I should create a blog that would make you immediately believe a fanciful story such as the BBC’s Spaghetti Harvest or the Guardian’s San Serife but there is a problem in travel. There are so many stories which you would think were an April Fool’s joke if they hadn’t already happened.
Mr O’Leary’s suggestion at Ryanair of charging to use the toilets on board their planes is one example that comes to mind. The British government’s decision to double the airport passenger duty tax is another. Someone winning against Ryanair’s reluctance to compensate them could be an April fool except that that is just what happened in Sweden. Our government taking almost 60 years to implement a suggestion made then to create a national park based on the South Downs could be an April Fool except that it was announced yesterday so I suppose it will really happen this time.
There have been so many surveys in the last few months demonstrating that, because of the economic conditions and the low value of the pound, people would holiday at home in greater numbers. Maybe that’s not an April Fool joke,- just a summary of the blindingly obvious.
So here’s an April Fool story that no-one will believe. Economy seats on airlines will be wider, more comfortable and you’ll be able to lie down in them. Food will be edible, no plane will be stacked at Heathrow because they will land first time and the crying baby will not be seated next to you or even on your flight. Hotels will have standard showers so we don’t spend ages trying to figure out how to turn them on and restaurants won’t automatically add the tips in to the bill. There will be no air traffic control strikes and no ferry workers’ strikes in Europe this summer and British weather will be sunny and warm yet not enough to have the government appoint a minister for drought.
No. That’s not an April Fool joke.
That’s a pipe dream!