CD Traveller » Travel rumblings

Where is your rose from?

Editor — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 05:00:36 +0000

Roses rule on Valentine’s Day. Acknowledged as the universal symbol of love, they account for 75 percent of the arrangements sold in local flower shops throughout February.

If you’re wondering where your Valentine’s rose is from, chances are the answer is Colombia. More than 500,000,000 Colombian flowers have been shipped to countries around the world to meet the February 14 deadline – including over five million roses into the UK. That’s enough flowers to go round the world at least eight times!

Thanks to the near perfect growing conditions in the Sabana de Bogotá, just outside the capital city, Colombia has become known for its high quality roses, carnations et al. What’s more when you purchase Colombian flowers, you are helping provide safe and financially rewarding work for more than 200,000 workers in Colombia who work directly or indirectly for the country’s second biggest export business.

Augusto Solano, president of Asocolflores, the Association of Colombian Flower Exporters, explains: “In 2011 over USD 5 million was spent by the Colombian flower industry on local social programmes that directly benefitted more than 90,000 workers and their families. Be it low-cost housing, schools, university programmes or medical services, the money spent on flowers throughout the world is directly fed back to the people who grow and look after them.”

The message? If you’re shopping for roses, choose a Colombian one. You’ll be giving a gift not only to your loved one but to the 200,000 workers who grow the beautiful buds. Now that’s what we call, spreading the love….

The half term getaway

Editor — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:00:30 +0000

It’s that time again when the media loves to tell us that airports will be busy, roads will have jams and the ferries will be full to bursting point. Yes the great half-term getaway begins today. But are that many of us trying to escape the snow and the cold?
A few days ago the media were running scare stories saying the weather conditions could disrupt, if not ruin holiday plans but that has –so far- turned out to be hot air and nothing else.
Over the last few weeks tour operators have been offering deals off half-term holidays instead of placing a premium on the prices. As late as this morning you could still get some deals. It suggests that some of us have decided to stay around and enjoy home delights.
Eurostar says that they will be carrying 230,000 people during the coming week – up 10% on last year. ABTA hasn’t released figures yet but the betting is that the popular destinations will be the usual suspects such as the Canaries, Spain and the Balearics.
This year could be a good one for the skiers. Snowfall in the last few weeks in the popular resorts has been long lasting and there has been a lot of the white stuff particularly at the higher levels. The World Snowboarding Championships take place this weekend in Oslo, Norway and, coinciding, with half-term, fanatics may be bound there rather than the usual snow destinations. Again, offers on skiing holidays over half-term have been available at rates better than last year in some cases.
So it’s coming up to 7pm as I write this and there seem to be no real problems in the usual places for holiday traffic. Road works and accidents seem to be the main cause of delays. And that’s it!
Whether you’re going away or staying at home, enjoy yourselves.

VisitBritain challenges MPs to highlight their greatest tourism assets

Editor — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:00:57 +0000

VisitBritain is asking MPs across the country to nominate an attraction in their constituency, that overseas tourists should visit in 2012. The challenge to the nation’s politicians is part of the tourism agency’s ‘Share Your GREAT Britain’ campaign, aimed at enticing overseas visitors.

Here at CD-Traveller towers, we’re not interested in what floats the MPs boat: we want to know what YOU would show to friends and relatives from around the world who are planning to visit the UK in 2012. Perhaps it’s a castle or a coastal walk. A museum or a stadium.

Share your suggestions by posting a comment below, or by using a ‘10 GREAT Reasons’ app on VisitBritain’s LoveUK Facebook page or by sending a personalised postcard that can be downloaded from visitbritain.org.

What kind of traveller are you?!

Editor — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:30:35 +0000

Cheapflights has identified key traits and practices of individuals, based on their smart phone choice!

The results of a recent survey which saw more than 700 people take part, suggests that iPhone users are the most romantic, Android users the most adventurous and Blackberry users the biggest spenders on holiday.

“It might seem like just a bit of fun, but in an age where people are so brand driven, the type of mobile you carry really does provide an insight into aspects of your personality. We took this thinking a step further and applied it to travel behaviour, which enabled us to determine the type of traveller a user is, based on their choice of mobile phone,” says Nadine Hallak, Travel Expert for Cheapflights.co.uk.

The survey also concluded that some 14 million hours per year are spent searching for flights while at work, with Blackberry users spending 38 per cent more time searching for flights during working hours than either iPhone or Android users.

Get ready to wake up to snow

Editor — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:00:16 +0000

The CD-Traveller team dug ours out days ago, but if you haven’t already done now is the time to start searching for your scarves and thermals. Forecasters have warned that snow is on its way this weekend, as Arctic conditions tighten their grip across the country.

But if you think we have got it bad in Britain, think again. Our European cousins are even worse off: Berliners are battling temperatures of minus 14C, while in Warsaw its minus 20C and in Paris and Prague, it’s minus 8C and 17C respectively. Brrrrrr!

Time to experience Africa or book that break in Barbados ?!

Can we trust TripAdvisor?

Editor — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:36:44 +0000

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ordered TripAdvisor to rewrite some of its marketing claims following complaints by a whole host of hotels that the site had said that its holiday reviews could be “trusted”.

The ASA’s ruling comes as no surprise to anyone at CD-Traveller towers. TripAdvisor reviewers might be asked to sign a declaration that their reviews are real and that they have no incentive or competitive interest with the places commented on, but it doesn’t deter foul play and several members of the CD-Traveller team have been offered discounts and upgrades in exchange for positive reviews. (Rest assured, as morally upstanding citizens we have always refused!)

So should we be turning away from TripAdvisor? Not necessarily, says CD-Traveller. Sure some of the reviews maybe bogus but there are plenty of accurate ones too. The message? Use TripAdvisor but treat it with caution: keep in mind that, like anything, if something sounds too good (or gross) to be true, it probably is.

Tube unions are holding us to ransom

kaye — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:00:51 +0000

The transport unions are at it again. It’s a new year, but the same story: despite being generously paid as it is, they want yet more money.

Tube staff have been offered a bonus of £500 – or an extra £20 per shift – to work during the Olympics but have rejected it as wholly inadequate.

Their rejection smacks not only of greed but of selfishness: if the Bob Crowe, the RMT union leader, and his cronies had accepted London Underground’s not unreasonable offer, it would still have cost fare and taxpayers in the region of £7 million.It is also unpatriotic in the extreme. The 2012 Olympic Games are our chance to showcase the city of London to the world and, to do that properly, we need a transport system that will run smoothly – not one that will be held to ransom by its mean spirited staff.

Tube unions: if you’re reading this, it’s time for a change of heart. If the Olympics are to be a success, not a shambles, then we all need to be prepared to make sacrifices.

Are we using social media for travel?

adrian — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:50:41 +0000

Peter Yesawich

Every destination whatever its size seems to have a Facebook page, tweets regularly and is connected to LinkedIn. How useful is this to us? Is it having an impact on the way we decide?
Peter Yesawich is one of the leading travel forecasters and researchers in the US. He was at the Los Angeles Times Travel Show last weekend to try and help the travel industry explain what was happening at the moment given the downturn in the economy.
Like us in the UK during the last 2008/9 recession, the travel trade saw it coming. Like us they discounted flights, holidays and offered discounts. There was a small boom afterwards. This time, Yesawich suggests, the industry hasn’t read the runes correctly and they have put prices up because they thought there wouldn’t be a decline. In the US consumers are telling the travel industry that things are expensive and they will be careful how they spend. That’s not dissimilar to our attitude.
The internet, he says, has given us more work. We alter our Facebook status, tweet, catch up on e-mails and spend an extra hour a day coping with social media. That means we’re “time poor” and is one reason why we are using travel agents more. And which group is using them more than others? The young. The reason, he suggests, is because they recognise how time consuming the researching and booking can be so they opt out and let someone else do it for them. For the last three years, the use of travel agents has been going up. In the UK usage is also rising but many of us thought it was because of the ATOL bonding system which gave comfort to bookers after a wave of collapses.
We have always opted for a week or fortnightly holiday. Now they are shortening. Americans have always had fewer holidays from work but now the trend is for long weekends, say four days. And 30% of Americans take holidays within six days of booking them. Why? They are looking for deals and, Yesawich says, 20% of people will respond to an unsolicited e-mail for a break. For the industry, it means they have to market to us all the time. We have noticed in the UK that the traditional booking time of January and February is still important but not as much as it once was.
For the American traveller who is time poor, they don’t want to spend too long travelling to their destination; 30% of them took a holiday within 50 miles of where they lived. We know in the UK and Ireland that those taking a short break will travel up to roughly two hours so maybe the staycation industry will see more of us. But in two hours we can be in southern Spain, Northern Italy, the Algarve and all of France.
The other feature of Americans is the amount of stress in their lives and he suggests that this is why spa holidays are growing at such a pace. Twice as many Americans will take a spa holiday rather than an activity one like golf. Is it any wonder that Romania, Turkey, Greece and other countries are promoting spa holidays to us?
The big question is how important is social media in persuading us what to do and where to go? Using research he has conducted across many years he calculated that only between 2 and 3% of Americans who travel and have a Facebook page have been influenced by social media to travel. This is way below what many proponents of social media suggest. But Yesawich says it is growing; it shouldn’t be ignored but print media, the magazine, the newspaper, the television story continue to be as important in helping us decide.
Just now social media seems overated.

There’s an app for that. Or not

Dr Kirti Sharma — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:00:03 +0000

With the increased use of iPhone and smartphone apps these days, there are many apps available for travellers to use while away. For example, currency converter apps, hotel/flight finders, hotel review apps, transport booking apps. However, what most travellers don’t realise or come across is the increased cost of using such apps when travelling outside of Europe.

Prior to travelling, we can spend increasing amounts of time using smartphone apps to search for flights/hotels and assume that we can use these apps just as easily when abroad. I was also looking forward to travelling and being able to instantly share quick travel pictures/updates with friends/family via social networking sites such as Twitter. Ah, but that’s just not the case. While travelling in India for two months, I discovered that updating my Twitter feed once and checking Facebook for a few minutes cost me as much as £18. One word: ouch! We take 3G for granted here, but switching on a 3G data connection (data roaming) for a few minutes can turn into a rather expensive experience.

However, it’s not just the social aspect: while travelling through India there were many occasions when we thought to ourselves, “let’s just check the current currency conversion rate” or “let’s check TripAdvisor to see this hotel’s reviews before making our final booking”, – only to realise that to do so would mean switching the data roaming on, ultimately resulting in a hefty mobile phone bill! This became a major annoyance that quite often resulted in me ranting at various people “why, why bother having all of these wonderful apps to help travellers if you can’t use them while you’re travelling”.

Rant over! Apps aficionados should bear the following in mind:

Check with your mobile phone provider what the charge is per MB for data roaming while abroad (e.g. O2 charge £6 per MB). Also check if there is a cap on the data roaming limit.
Find out how ‘data hungry’ common apps are, that you would wish to use: e.g. apps incorporating lots of images (think Facebook) will use more data.
Look for free wifi hotspots when abroad: most McDonalds and local coffee houses offer free wifi for a short period of time. Most hotels have WiFi but the cost of using this can vary ( in India hotel WiFi costs ranged from £1-£26 for 24 hours of access).
If you’re intending to stay in one country for some time, think about swapping the SIM card in your phone with a local SIM card and 3G data plan.

Brits want to book holidays to escape 2012 events

Editor — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:00:53 +0000

David Cameron may have declared late last year that “In 2012 there will be only one place to be: Britain.”

However a survey by ABTA has revealed that at least 12 percent of Brits are looking to escape on holiday, in order to avoid once in a lifetime events such as the London Olympics and Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The older generation are particularly keen to take off: 22 per cent of the over-65s are reported to be planning a trip away, compared to 18 per cent of 55 to 64-year-olds.

Olympic officials and travel industry insiders are said to be concerned by the polls findings. They shouldn’t be. Here at CD-Traveller towers, we’re confident that once winter is out of the way, the excitement about this year’s extraordinary events will start to build and the majority of Brits will happily stay put.