Travel Weekly Yes Minister Campaign

It's good to see Travel Weekly getting behind a campaign to create a dedicated tourism minister.

A few years ago FES were in Brussels listening to MEPs debating the impacts of the TOMs on UK based Tour Operators and it was obvious then that travel & tourism was and after thought in many ministers minds.

Travel Weekly’s campaign demanding that the next government creates a post for a dedicated tourism minister has won high level backing from within the industry.

Since the Yes Minister campaign was launched in the March 5 issue of Travel Weekly, bosses of some of the trade’s biggest firms have written to support it.

A Downing Street petition is online..

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• Sign the Yes Minister petition at Number10.gov.uk

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Tui Travel UK managing director Dermot Blastland said: “The lack of understanding – and subsequent lack of support for our industry – means that inappropriate policies continue to be forced upon us. We cannot and should not sit back and allow that to continue.

“It is for these reasons that we therefore welcome and wholeheartedly support Travel Weekly’s campaign. We will be encouraging our colleagues across Tui UK & Ireland to sign your petition. We believe the whole industry should pull together to force a change for the future.”

The Co-operative Travel managing director Mike Greenacre said: “The appointment of a senior minister – with primary focus on the concerns and the long-term interests of the travel and tourism sector – would, I believe, be essential to ensuring that whether it is compliance, tax, regulation or employment, supporting our industry can only be beneficial to government in the long term.

“We will be encouraging the whole of our team to support the petition. This initiative will be part of a number of actions that the wider industry is involved with, and I particularly refer here to the excellent work being undertaken by Abta to be at the forefront of lobbying in the years ahead.”

Travel Counsellors chairman David Speakman supported the call for a minister, but warned the industry that any greater focus on its activities would mean it will have to address some of the “sharp practices” that currently leave customers at risk.

“Of course, the travel industry should have its own representative within the government, but the industry should be very careful of what it wishes for,” he said.

On Wednesday, Abta will launch its first manifesto in the House of Lords. One of the five key demands is for a dedicated tourism minister.

• Sign the Yes Minister petition on Number10.gov.uk

Best for Valletta

FES have a soft spot for the Island of Malta, ever since we did out first consultancy work out there so we are please to see that the Port of Valletta has won the Best International Mediterranean Port Award 2009. This was announced at the third edition of ‘Premios Excellence En El Sector Cruceros', taking place in Malaga, Spain earlier this month. The event was hosted by Cruises News Media Group.

Winners in different categories have been chosen by more than 5,000 passengers in a survey through the website www.cruisesnews.es and cruise users' forum www.forodecruceros.com. These are the only international awards for the cruise industry in Spain, which annually recognise the work of the companies, ports and destinations through the cruise customer opinion.

Dr. Anton Micallef, Chairman of VISET Malta plc, operators of the Valletta Waterfront and the Sea Passenger Terminals commented, "This Prize is a call sign for achievement as it is a wake-up call for constant vigilance. It is a milestone on the road to setting standards at the Valletta Port. We need to achieve business growth steadily and prudently as not to be misled into replacing our relentlessness with complacency".

Valletta was declared co-winner along with Venice, both Ports obtaining the same number of points .

North Korea - The Great Adventure

Flicking through our newspapers at the weekend we stumbled upon this great piece in the Guardian, written by Carole Cadwalladr about her trip to North Korea

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/feb/14/northkorea

Sounds excellent!

Mid Atlantic Record

Five hundred representatives from 14 countries attended Mid-Atlantic last week, which is a record. “This year we had 140 sellers of which half came from Iceland, and 230 buyers of which 150 came from the United States and Canada,” said Steinn Larusson, organiser.

Interesting new local offers presented this year were sightseeing Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon from the air, swimming in the cold north Atlantic Ocean, private tours with a Viking guide in full regalia, and guided bicycle tours around Reykjavik. “We were thrilled to meet buyers from three continents right on our doorstep,” said Ursula Spitzbart the owner of Iceland Bike – a new business that offers guided bicycle tours in Reykjavik.

“Tourism is like a wall of brick, and each stone has a purpose,” said Larusson, who has organized Mid-Atlantic from its inception eighteen years ago. “Each year someone introduces a new tourism product, such as the Reykjavik bike tour, and existing businesses evolve and adjust their product offering.”

Icelandair hosted the Mid-Atlantic workshop and travel fair with the purpose of bringing together buyers and sellers in the tourism industry in order to support and maintain a steady flow of tourists to Iceland. It is a key event for the tourism sector in Iceland.

Next year’s event takes place in Reykjavik from February 3-6.

Kashmir Skiing

There's a good piece in the Guardian this weekend about skiing in Kashmir - there's also some great pictures too here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/gallery/2010/jan/31/skiing-adventure-kashmir

Suprising Syrian Souks

Tourist numbers in Syria rose 12% again last year from 2008 levels. Although the government deems almost any foreigner who enters to be a tourist this is more encouraging news for a country that has been under US sanctions since 2004 for its support of militant groups.

Syria, which contains several important sites of antiquity, including the ancient city of Palymra and the wonderful Crak de Chevaliers, received around six million tourists, including 1.1 million Syrian expatriates and 3.6 million Arabs, in 2009, the state media said.

The ruling Baath Party has taken steps to liberalise the economy after decades of nationalisation and bans on private enterprise and relations with the west have improved recently.

We had the opportunity of visting Syria a couple of years ago and we found the people absolutely wonderful and welcoming with one particular anecdote serving to illustrate the generosity and sincerity of the people.

A small party of us were taking a look at the old souk of Alleppo, the largest indoor souk in the world. Typically, the souk was a chaos of people, stalls, animals, motorbikes - with local traders and shoppers charging about in all directions. Amidst this swirl of activity, one of our party dropped his wallet. In fact, he didn't even know he had dropped it until it was returned to him a little later by a small syrian boy who was no more than 12 yrs old. The boy had sought him out and followed him to return the wallet which contained, in USD, the equivalent of perhaps a years salary for a local trader.

He sought no reward, but was, it's fair to say, generously compensated!

Wondreful country and wonderful people.

Gordon's Great Flop

Last night we saw the first episode of Gordon Ramsey's Great Escape to India (Channel 4), part of their new 'Indian season'. While the idea was dangerous to start with the programme is pretty dire. Sending Gordon Ramsay to India to look at the cooking and people could have been great..instead, it was patronising and embarassing.

Gordon Ramsay has been having a rough old time of it lately what with his resturants loosing the Michellin star, although no doubt this film was in the can long before that, so this could have been a good opportunity to re-brand the Ramsey image, as a caring, thoughful, chef - first and foremost. But Gordon just isn't that sort of bloke.

Sending Ramsay to India should've shown a more tactile and reflective man, humbled by the great food which was often made in difficult circumstances. Sadly, we didn't get Gordon's Great Escape, but instead Gordon patronises just about everybody!

While there is no question that Ramsay was very impressed with what he came across, there's also no question that he was an appalling spectacle while he did it. In one segment, he was shown how to make an amazing biryani using a whole goat. Instead of being visibly wowed, he instead told the 86 year old chef that native that his biryani was "authentic".

Later in the show, he went to a remote bit of India and chowed down on a chutney that blew his little mind. Instead of explaining the differences between the Brit curryhouse chutneys and the Real Deal to his incredibly warm host, he instead preferred to nudge his 90 year old mothers and say "F*** me. I thought she was dead."

The rest of the time was spent shouting loudly in English to 'the natives'! In a kitchen segment toward the close of the show, we saw Gordon in a kitchen full of chef who couldn't speak a word of English. His response was to gesticulate wildly and repeatedly holler "STAR. ANISE. STAR (waves hand in air) ANISE?" When one chef understandably grinned and waved back, Gordon's reply was along the lines of 'Jesus. What an idiot. He thinks I'm trying to say hello'.

It's a good job the people he met were kind, open and welcoming people or this show would have been completely unwatchable....

Sorry Gordon - can do better.