Author: Lee Fletcher

The small town of Monmouth in southeast Wales has embraced modern technology to claim an audacious first in world tourism, by becoming a ‘Wiki-Town.’ The Daily Mail has reported that from tomorrow, visitors to the historic birthplace of King Henry V will be able to use their mobile phones to scan barcodes at points of interest and instantly access Wikipedia pages that give full details of the landmark that they are looking at. The information will be selected from hundreds of available pages on Wikipedia that detail Monmouth’s culture and history, and foreign visitors will be able to access the information…

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Ireland-based low-cost airline, Ryanair, has announced that it is scrapping its scheduled summer flights to the Greek Islands of Rhodes and Kos a month before the season ends. The airline claims that its decision to cancel the routes is due to the authorities on the two islands ‘reneging’ on a promotion agreement, and it announced the cancellation of 82 flights a week from October 2, 2012, on 11 routes to Kos and 13 to Rhodes. The services affected will be those to Rhodes from Stansted, East Midlands, Liverpool and Bournemouth in the UK, and to Kos from Stansted, Leeds Bradford…

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John Lewis, a UK-based chain of high street retail stores, has signed an agreement with Swiss-based tour operator, Kuoni, to locate travel stores in four John Lewis department stores around the country. The first four travel stores are earmarked to open by the coming autumn in the John Lewis stores located in London Oxford Street, Reading, Southampton and Cardiff. Kuoni is in the process of looking for new staff for the stores and expects to create nineteen full time jobs. The stores are likely to be fitted with similar hi-tech equipment to some of Kuoni’s existing stores, and include the…

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Virgin Atlantic, a UK-based airline company, is to end all of its services between London and Kenya from September this year. The London to Kenya service, which has been in operation for the last five years, is being axed due to rising fuel costs and falling passenger numbers, according to Virgin Atlantic’s president, Sir Richard Branson. However, it has been confirmed that customers who have already booked flights with the airline after the September 23 deadline outbound, and the final return from Nairobi the following day, will be given a full refund or moved to an alternative carrier. Alternative airline…

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A survey by The Trading Floor, a part of Callcredit Information Group and the manager of a database of car insurance data on 8.8 million motorists, has revealed the owner occupation profile of caravans in the UK. The survey revealed that the top six professions for caravan ownership are teachers, engineers, company directors, police officers, civil servants and nurses, indicating that four of the top 6 professions for caravan ownership involve workers in the public sector. In 2011, there was a 5 percent increase in UK holidaymakers choosing to holiday at home rather than taking the option of travelling abroad,…

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Providing ease of access to travel visas could create 5 million jobs according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. The WTTC and the United Nations World Tourism Organisation made their case for the job creation at the T20 meeting of tourism ministers in Merida, a resort town on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsular. It was stated that the G20’s role was important in this, and that the action could also boost international tourist numbers by an additional 122 million, while generating an extra USD206 billion in tourism exports by 2015. Key to the evidence presented were findings showing that of the…

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On a global scale more than one billion tourists will take a trip that crosses an international boundary during this year. UN officials announced the figure for international travel to a meeting of tourism ministers in Mexico this week. Speaking to the tourism ministers from G20 countries, Taleb Rifai, head of the UN World Tourism Organisation, said, ‘We will have more than a billion tourists, that means one-seventh of humanity. This has never happened in history.’ While 980 million tourist arrivals were recorded worldwide in 2011, the figure is expected to rise by 3 to 4 percent, to finally deliver…

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Sandals Resorts, an operator of all-inclusive resorts for couples in the Caribbean, is offering couples that marry at one of its resorts the opportunity to totally customise their celebrations. Sandals is launching its, ‘Your Wedding. Your Style’ concept at all of its fourteen Caribbean properties, for couples that want to personally style and fulfil their dream wedding. Sandals claims that with choices on everything from colour palette and wedding accessories, to bespoke experiences, couples can be provided with everything that they need to create their perfect ceremony and reception. To assist couples in constructing their personal dream day well in…

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Travel disruption is expected this weekend as air traffic controllers from Portugal’s air navigation services provider, NAV, prepare to step up their strike action. Airline passengers travelling to or from Portugal this weekend should be prepared for delays and cancellations as the nation’s air traffic controllers begin three days of strikes. The workers are planning intermittent, two-hour strikes throughout Thursday, with a 24-hour strike planned for Friday, meaning that the disruption continues into the weekend. The planned work stoppages are the latest action taken by air traffic controllers in an ongoing protest against government plans to cut salaries and restructure…

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Marriott International, an American-based worldwide operator and franchiser of a broad portfolio of hotels and related lodging facilities, has announced its 250th hotel in Asia. The milestone property is located in Bo’ao, China and is part of Marriott’s 129 open hotels and 121 development projects on the Asian continent. When completed, the properties will provide 75,000 rooms across 15 countries. Marriott International operates seven brands across Asia – The Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott, Bulgari, Renaissance, Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Courtyard and Marriott Executive Apartments, providing a broad range of accommodation options from luxury to mid-scale. Simon Cooper, Marriott International’s president and…

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