Author: Lee Fletcher
British travellers are not impressed by the UK government’s increases to Air Passenger Duty (APD), according to the results of a recent survey. The 2013 Flights Survey, which was carried out by TripAdvisor, a travel website that assists its customers in gathering travel information, revealed that 77 percent of its 1,100 respondents felt that APD should be scrapped. The duty is scheduled to suffer a further increase in April this year, and for a proportion of those surveyed the rise will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, with 27 percent of them saying that the cost of APD…
In its bid to constantly outdo itself, Dubai is about to open the world’s tallest hotel, replacing the previous world’s tallest hotel that is situated in…Dubai! At 1,164 feet tall, the newly opened JW Marriott Marquis has torn the ‘Biggest Bed & Breakfast’ record from the – frankly diminutive – Rose Tower Dubai, which sits at a stunted 1,093 feet tall. Staff at the Guinness Book of World Records will have had to carry out a hasty rewrite to the tome’s pages concerning excessive hostelries, as the new Marriott’s 72 floors – spread over 355 metres – trample all before…
Serious shoppers from all over the world see the UK as a purveying paradise according to the results of a recent survey. The study carried out by VisitBritain, the UK’s tourism authority, has produced figures that prove just how important foreign shoppers are to the nation’s economy. The tourism agency reported that around 18 million foreign visitors spent GBP4.5 billion in the UK’s retail outlets last year. That equates to around a quarter of foreign tourists total spend in the UK finding its way into High Street tills. The analysis of what the money was spent on was perhaps predictable;…
A Chinese shipyard is in the process of updating its facilities in preparation to build a full-size, serviceable replica of the ill-fated RMS Titanic. Nanjing, China-based CSC Jinling Shipyard Company appears to have won the contract to build the vessel from Clive Palmer, the billionaire Australian businessman who is funding the project. While aesthetically the ship will be the exact image and dimensions of the iceberg-prone original, nervous potential passengers will be pleased to know that it will be powered and navigated by the latest technology. Similar to the original, it will have 9 floors and 840 cabins, to carry 2,400…
Whitbread-owned Premier Inn, a budget hotel chain with its headquarters in Luton, UK, has reported strong sales growth in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year. The hotel brand reported sales growth of 14 percent during the 11 weeks to February 14, Whitbread’s fourth quarter. Total room nights sold by the brand in the first 50 weeks of the year were up by 11.2 percent to 13 million. Revenue per available room (revPAR) grew by 1.6 percent, and occupancy grew by 1.1 percent, to 77.4 percent. The company’s UK regional revPAR was only down by 0.3 percent for the quarter,…
British and French tourists are among the dead after an Egyptian hot air balloon catastrophe at dawn this morning. It is reported that at least 19 foreign tourists, including British and French nationals, died when the balloon crashed near Luxor, Egypt. Only two people are believed to have survived the crash after eyewitnesses claimed to have heard a loud bang while the balloon was at a height of 1,000ft, following which it fell from the sky in flames and crashed into a sugar cane field. The tourist contingent aboard the balloon is believed to have comprised two French, two English,…
A boom in long distance rail travel in the UK between 2011 and 2020 has been predicted by a recent study. The report from rail technology company, Amadeus, claims to be based on data and best practice modelling techniques from the company’s research team, based on feedback from over 100 authoritative sources. It predicts that long-distance rail travel will see an increase of 238 million passengers to 1.36 billion by 2020 compared to 2011, a gain of 21 percent. ‘The Rail Journey to 2020’, is the title of the report that analyses the expected influences on rail travel in Europe…
The Spanish owner of two UK airports and contract holder for a third is likely to offload the properties later this year. The airports could change hands as Spain-based Abertis, which currently owns the Cardiff and Belfast airports and has the contract to operate Luton Airport, looks to sell off some of the 29 airports that it owns worldwide in order to bring down its debt. To make inroads into reducing its GBP12.2bn debt, Abertis is expected to begin by selling Cardiff airport to the Welsh government by as early as next month. That deal has been negotiated since late…
VisitEngland, the tourist board that is responsible for promoting tourism in England, has entered the next phase of its current marketing campaign. The multi-channel campaign, which is intended to boost domestic tourism during the coming year by promoting short breaks, is now concentrating on England’s rural attractions. It is part of VisitEngland’s three-year, ‘Growing Tourism Locally’ project, and follows the previous segment of the campaign, which had the country’s beaches and coastline as its theme. There will be six interlinked promotions during the campaign, which has been running since January and will come to an end in March. The key…
While the majority of resorts make a point of taking care of their physically challenged guests by providing them with additional services, a resort in Maine has been running a programme that has been helping handicapped people to enjoy the thrill of physically-demanding sports. The resort, Sunday River, in Maine, has been adapting to the needs of disabled people who want to ski. The resort has adapted its facilities to the changing needs of various kinds of skiers, and it is now commonplace to see people of all abilities skiing in the area. Even those with severe disabilities, like blindness,…