Archive for the ‘Travel News’ Category
When it comes to cabin crew Virgin Atlantic Cabin Crew are probably the most recognisable, with their fitted red suits and silk neckties they certainly stand out from the crowd. They are also very highly regarded to with a large proportion of travellers voting them the most attractive with a 53 per cent majority.
Leaving other airlines cabin crews standing in their dust, it has been suggested that gaining the title has been credited to their sexually charged global advertising campaign which glamourised air travel with Virgin Atlantic with suggestive images, lots of attractive male and female crew and plenty of subtle innuendos. Also Richard Branson himself has always stressed the importance of appearance of his crew believing it is vital for customers to have an enjoyable and memorable flight, because the way you show yourself and behave has an impact on the people you serve. Many people will associate bad service with scruffy staff, because if they can’t make any effort with their appearance then they probably won’t make much effort when serving you. On their cabin crew recruitment page it states: ‘You’ll be the face of the airline. As such, your grooming should always be immaculate – even after a long, tiring flight.’
The survey of 1,000 people conducted by the Business Travel and Meetings Show found that after Virgin Atlantic, Singapore Airlines came in second place with only 18 per cent of the vote, even after been repeatedly being named the best cabin crew in the world. Third place went to Arabic airline Etihad’s with 18 per cent of the votes.
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Last year looked like it spelled the end for the much loved Pontin’s holiday resorts with them going into administration, however after a successful takeover by Britannia Hotel Group for a reported £20million, which has safe guarded 850 jobs nationwide. Pontin’s had to call in the administrators in November after they had a huge drop in bookings, even after an increase in people taking holidays in the UK.
Britannia owner Alex Langsam announced that he’s planning a £25million makeover of the resorts, with the intention of adding some Disney-style Magic to the family orientated resorts. He stated to the Observer that he wants to reinvent the parks as themed seaside destinations for pre-teens, although he plans to keep the famous ‘bluecoat’ entertainers at the five Pontin’s resorts. These are Brean Sands in Somerset, Camber Sands in Sussex, Pakefield in Suffolk, Southport in Merseyside and the Welsh resort of Prestatyn Sands and Mr Langsam also stated that “these are ‘wonderful’ locations.
He told the newspaper: “The most important thing for me is getting some of the kiddie generation in, getting the kind of stuff kiddies like into parks on a large scale. The bluecoats will stay, because if it aint broke, you don’t fix it. But there will be people dressed up in all sorts of different ways, too.” He also said he would try to emulate some of the things that are done so well at Walt Disney World in Florida. Adding: “If I go to the Disney site in Florida, I’m back to being a child. It’s the adults that enjoy it as much as the kids.”
According to the Passenger Shipping Association (PSA) the number of Britons taking a cruise in 2011 is set to increase by eight per cent, up to a total of 1.77 million people. More people look to be taking a cruise holiday 2011, because travellers are dissatisfied with the service from airlines after a year of strikes and many, many delays.
PSA spokesperson Penny Guy puts the promising figures down to cruises offering good value for money and all-inclusive options. ‘With all-inclusive you know what’s included, you get food, transport and entertainment, which for the children is often excellent.’ Cruise holiday are a great all rounder, you get top class service from start to finish, with all your travel needs taken care of and no worry of long airport delays.
Kevin Griffin, managing director of cruise operator The Cruise People agrees, pointing out that ‘drinks packages in particular will make greater inroads in the year to come by offering on-board credit for alcohol or free wine with meals. Family cruises are also a big growth sector, with multi-generational cruises doing very well,’ he explains.
Fly cruises are also on the increase, because of the ease of everything been booked in one place normally for a great set price, with easy to find cruise holiday deals for 2011. Also after the problems caused by the ash cloud crisis last year, people are looking for safer ways to book, so they don’t lose out financially if and when problems occur. For example in 2010, those who booked flights separately lost their holidays while those who booked a package were refunded or had their dates altered.
P&O launched their largest cross Channel ferry yesterday at Dover port, their new vessel the Spirit of Britain dwarfed its sister ships when it took to the waters off the Kent coast. Their new passenger ferry is 700 feet long and almost 100 feet wide, and can carry more than 1,000 cars as well as 2,000 passengers. It is also as big as any ferry can get for this route due to port restrictions.
Compare those statistics to its older sister ship the Pride of Calais which is just 500 feet long. 90 feet wide and can hold just 550 cars. The Spirit of Britain cost £157million to build, has three vehicle decks instead of the usual two and has an increase in freight capacity because it can take up to 180 articulated lorries at once, compared to just 85 on the old ship.
Many people believe when construction of the Channel Tunnel was completed it would spell the end of the cross Channel Ferry company P&O because extra competition as well as pressure from increasing cheaper air fares. However with the launch of the Spirit of Britain it shows how resilient this form of transport actually is and popular for many people it still is.
Millions of people still continue to use the service for their holidays to get to and from the continent, as well as thousands of container lorries. One thing that boosts popularity is the fact that prices to cross the Channel remain much lower than in previous decades, currently as little as £30 per person, with the fare for the car included.
A spokesman for the company, Brian Rees, said today: “In the 1990s there were predictions that every ferry service on the south coast would close, but it never happened. There’s a bit of romance about getting on the ferry. It’s part and parcel of your holiday. You can change your money and do a bit of shopping. The tunnel is ruthlessly efficient, but you need to break your journey somewhere anyway and have a bit to eat if you’re driving to most places on the continent. And there’s a whole new market for us at the moment because of the stress and hassle of flying. In contrast, you can load up your car with the kids and their toys, turn up at Dover half an hour before departure, and off you go.”
Speaking about the volume of freight now being transported, Mr Rees added: “The amount of freight has grown enormously over the last 25 years and most of it is going by sea. The volume going by ferry now is phenomenal. It used to be a quarter of our business, now it’s half, in spite of the recession.”
He also found that the way people travel has also changed as well as the size of families which means although its roughly the same amount as in the past the extra space on board for cars was much needed hence the huge increase on the Spirit of Britain.
Mr Rees said: “When the Pride of Calais was built, cars going on board would have contained families of four or five, he said. Now it’s much more often families of two or three, along with lots of single people and couples. It’s vehicle space we need.”
Disney have welcomed another cruise liner to their family, the Disney Dream, which got the cartoon fans all excited at its arrival last week as many turned out to catch a glimpse of the new 4,000-passenger cruise liner.
This will be the third ship in the Disney Cruise Line fleet, the Disney Magic and the Disney Wonder were launched in the late 1990’s and they also have a fourth ship under construction called the Disney Fantasy. Holidays from the ever popular family cruise line can be booked from a number of outlets including virginholidaycruises.co.uk and the Disney Dream is scheduled for the popular Caribbean route where you can enjoy fun in the sun with the likes of Mickey, Pluto and Donald.
This new liner which cost more than $900 million has a range of state of the art features such as a high-speed water slide that takes riders out over the side of the ship and back again, it also like its predecessors is designed to evoke the golden age of cruising, with early 20th-century Art Nouveau and Art Deco styling. Both the Disney Dream and the Fantasy are 50 per cent bigger than their predecessors with larger than average rooms and family-friendly features along with adults-only activities, ideal for your summer holiday 2011.
Disney Dream will initially sail short itineraries to Castaway Cay and Nassau in the Bahamas, however with the launch of the new ships Disney hope to lure back its returning passengers by offering these new, larger state of the art ships, Michael Driscoll, editor of the Cruise Week newsletter, said:” It gives their repeats (customers) something different to do. Their kids are older. It’s a logical way for them to progress.”
Disney Dream
Dozens of passengers are hurt as heavy storms thrashed Royal Caribbean’s The Brilliance of the Seas cruise liner in the Mediterranean. The luxury liner was battered by an intense storm as it sailed to its final destination the port Alexandria in Egypt after a 12 day cruise. Passengers said the water crashed over the 12-deck ship’s 10th floor windows as what should have been a peaceful cruise of the Mediterranean turned into a living nightmare.
Photos taken aboard show a trail of devastation left across the ship with the Christmas tree in the main atrium left upended, rooms were ruined and windows were smashed. British and American passengers were also injured however none were severely injured, the worst effect suffered from shock and many were left with cuts and bruises.
Speaking about the storm, Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said the damage did not affect the vessel’s seaworthiness, stating: The damage was not concentrated in one area of the ship. Some areas remain closed but most public areas are open.”
The facilities onboard the £350million Brilliance of the Seas include an indoor rock-climbing wall, a seven-storey atrium surrounded by shops, a casino, a string of restaurants and an Indian Raj-themed solarium. First launched in 2002 the liner cruises around the Caribbean, the Mexican Riviera and the Mediterranean and when the storm hit it was coming to the end of a 12 day cruise around the Mediterranean which visited Spain to Italy, then on to Greece and should have got to Egypt.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond revealed in an interview with the Sunday Times that the ban on carrying liquids in hand luggage at UK airports is to be eased and could be phased out completely by 2013 and that airports would begin to relax restrictions next April.
Since a failed plot to blow up transatlantic airplanes in 2006 passengers in the UK have been restricted to carrying just 100ml of liquid in their hand luggage, which has proved unpopular for many travellers. Bottles of water, cosmetics and perfume that was brought through security screening points had to be confiscated before you could continue and parents have to test baby food in front of security staff if they want to carry it on board.
Mr Hammond said he sympathised with parents with young children. He said: ‘I have seen mothers tasting it, and doesn’t it taste foul? The good news is that by 2013 the ban on mush will have ended.’ Mr Hammond also said he planned to make the system more flexible and that aerosols, gels and liquids in containers larger than 100ml will be the first part of the ban to be relaxed. Also passengers travelling from outside the European Union will be able to carry liquids bought in duty-free shops on to connecting flights within Europe, although those liquids will still have to be carried in clear plastic bags and put through screening machines.
From the 1st January next year tourists who are staying overnight in Rome will be charged an accommodation tax in a bid to increase revenue, following in the footsteps of other Italian cities. Anyone who choose to stay in four and five-star hotels will be pay €3 (£2.50) per night and anyone who chooses other accommodation will be charged €2 (£1.70) per night.
This follows plans by Venice to tax visitors in an attempt to raise revenue for the city, the plans could see tourists been charged an entrance tax when they arrive in the Italian city, either by train, plane or cruise ship. The plans which have been drawn up by the Italian government are needed to raise much needed revenue for the city, for restoration of palaces, churches and monuments.
As the credit crunch affected many people the popularity of taking a holiday here in the UK increased and the term ‘staycation’ penned. However after a couple of poor summers that could only be described as a ‘washout’ and us entering another big freeze of a winter for the second year running it seems that fewer people are now looking to the UK for their 2011 holidays.
According to a survey Sixty-seven per cent of Britons are preparing for at least one holiday in their own country in 2011 compared with 73 per cent in 2010 and as many as 36 per cent of Britons think they will spend more on their holidays in 2011 than they did this year, with 14 per cent of those questioned intending to splash out more than £8,000 as people look to achieve their perfect getaway.
It’s no surprise though that people do look to go abroad now for their holidays as many travel companies slashed their prices this summer to try and entice people to go abroad and with prices on the up here in the UK it could end up been cheaper to actually go abroad, even with the extra taxes.
According to the survey which was carried out by TripAdvisor up to two thirds of people are planning at least one long-haul trip abroad, with many yearning for warmer temperatures. In regards to impending strikes after a year of travel disruption 31 per cent of potential travellers fear that union action could upset their plans and adding to that 28 per cent said they were ‘concerned’ about the effects of a rise in Air Passenger Duty.
TripAdvisor spokesperson Emma O’Boyle said: “Overall, 2011 looks more positive for both travellers and the travel industry.’Britons intend to travel more often and will spend more money doing so, but will proceed with caution as the industry emerges slowly from a very difficult year.”
As part of a new trail, passengers travelling from Manchester Airport will have their eyes scanned at check-in by hi-tech machines which can recognise an individual’s iris as they walk around. Manchester Airport will be the first UK Airport to trail this system which is part of a government backed scheme.
The system is meant to criminals from swapping boarding cards between arriving at the airport and getting on a plane because the person is scanned not the ticket. Currently the tail is only voluntary and passengers who agree to take part will have their iris scanned at check in and it will then be used to identify them as they enter the security search area when it is scanned again.
At the moment the system is only in the early stages of development and the firm behind the technology Human Recognition Systems, say the early results have been ‘very positive’ in terms of accuracy. The aim is to use the new technology to speed up the security check in as well as allowing international transfer passengers to mix with domestic travellers in the departure lounge because they would be securely identified before boarding their flight.
A spokesman for the airport said that the technology would speed up the process as the machines could potentially be installed on a corridor and the passenger would not even need to stop to undergo the check. However airport bosses have stressed it will not currently replace any step of the security process and passengers can refuse to take part in the pilot.
Mike Fazackerley, Manchester Airport’s product director said: “We are always keen to develop innovative technology solutions to improve our passengers’ experience of the airport. We are always keen to develop innovative technology solutions to improve our passengers’ experience of the airport. People are already familiar with the concept of iris recognition. This technology has the potential for a number of uses in a busy airport environment including security because it can recognise individuals when they are moving around. Although it is in its very early stages of development, using this technology for transfer passengers could make Manchester more attractive to airlines as a hub airport in the future.”