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 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.

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?

CD-Traveller reader, Kirti Sharma, is seething over the cost of downloading an app abroad. Read her rant and tips on how to keep the cost down, here

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.

As I type this, I am watching Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal face off in the tennis season’s first Grand Slam final. The rivals are serving us up yet another tennis classic – the pair have been playing for almost five hours and the quality has just gotten better and better.

Three times yesterday I was on the receiving end of a scam purporting to come from American Airlines. Don’t open the e-mail, just delete it.

It’s exactly six months to until the Olympics but this landmark date seems to have been overlooked amidst all the fuss about new born babies needing a ticket to the Games.

Last week I waxed lyrical about London. The capital, I declared, had entered the most extraordinary and exciting year, with the Olympic and Paralympic Games guaranteeing a summer like no other. Factor in a cornucopia of cultural events like the Lucien Freud exhibition and next month’s London Fashion Show and it’s safe to say that I was definitely looking forward to being a Londoner in 2012.

In the aftermath of the Costa Concordia cruise ship tragedy on January 13, the announcements by government ministers from Turkey and Greece that they are introducing measures to give cruising in the Mediterranean a boost couldn’t have come at a better time.

More than 371,00 immigrants who were admitted to Britain, claimed state benefits in the UK last year, according to official figures compiled by the government for the very first time.

Hurray! Following the departure of its leader Colin Barrow, Westminster council has decided to drop its plans for off-peak parking charges.

In the wake of last Friday’s Costa Concordia cruise ship tragedy off the Italian coast, you’d be forgiven for being put off booking a cruise this year.

It’s understandable that the unforgettable image of a ship lying on its side will see many consumers shy away from cruises, but the CD-Traveller team won’t be among them.

A couple of days ago, I got offered a job back in Beijing (as regular readers of this website will know, I recently spent a year working in China) totally out of the blue. China is arguably the only country to have emerged from the financial crisi relatively unscathed yet this time around I wasn’t remotely tempted to take up the offer.

Just before Christmas we carried the news that the government was going to ban excessive charges used by companies when you use a credit card. Now we have easyJet’s answer to what is planned.

Expect to pay more from next Tuesday when you book a Ryanair flight. There is a new levy/surcharge/fee to cover what it calls “the EU’s new eco-looney ETS tax.”

Last week we told you how airlines et al had been ticked off for the silly surcharges that they imposed on people paying by credit card.

To all our readers near and far, a very Happy New Year. Thank you for your fantastic support in 2011.

CD-Traveller came a long way in 2011. All due to you. If you don’t read what we write, it becomes just an ego trip (and that was suggested in the early days!) so it’s important to know what you want to read.

Now Christmas is over, do you have an armful of brochures, spend hours in travel agents or watch endless TV ads? According to Conrad Advertising 50% of people who had booked a holiday last year looked at TripAdvisor as part of their research.

Who thinks of Boxing day as an important tourism day? To many, today’s activities are linked to shopping, sport or recovery from the quantities eaten and drunk the day before.

To all our readers near and far, a very Merry Christmas

ABTA has suggested that watch we watch on TV or at the cinemas will have an effect on where we might go on holiday.

By the end of next year the government intends banning excessive/hidden fees charged by airlines (indeed by any company) where payment is made by credit or debit cards. On the face of it this is good news. Look deeper and it might be so great.
Why my scepticism?

On Wednesday, the European Court of Justice decided that all airlines flying in and out of the EU would have to pay for carbon emissions from January 1st next year. Make a wild guess who’ll end up paying?

Yet again the time approaches when rail fares rise again. We moan, we complain, the media highlight how much annual season ticket costs but rarely do we consider the effects on tourism.

Later today we’ll get to know the outcome of Transport for London’s high court challenge against a proposed tube drivers’ strike on Boxing Day

A survey by HolidayExtras.com has revealed that nearly six-and-a-half-million people flying in and out of the UK in the last year failed to turn their phones off.