Travel Niche Blog

The world’s getting warmer and mankind’s rampant usage of fossile fuels is causing it. We’ll have to change our behaviour and soon if we’re to avoid a climate catasrophe that could change the Earth forever.

But what about the impact of climate change on travel?

Passenger planes are growing in number and people more than ever are using them to holiday and travel abroad. The problem is that the emissions from jets are injected directly into the upper atmosphere where they do the most damage. Nitrous emmissions are particularly harmful.

After the Stern report pointing out the financial consequences of global warming, it seems likely that there will be pressure on the airline industry, perhaps in the form of a carbon tax.

The low cost airlines are particulalry feeling the weight of the media’s scrutiny arguing that they were being “demonised” according to an Easyjet spokesperson.

An alliance of low budget carriers and Iata have argued that aviation industry only accounts for something like 2% of the total carbon emmissions in the EU, and that much of this is due to fuel being wasted as planes too often have to queue to land and have called for more runways rather than more taxes on flights.

Clearly there will be lobbying by the airlines who are only recently seeing optimism for the first time since 9/11 - but it will be the voters who will have the last say.

The question is are we all in favour of tackling global warming when it means we will have to pay (a lot) more for a holiday abroad.

It shouldn’t suprise anyone that the stringent security measures introduced at US airports are putting off business travellers, who apparently turning to Europe for no-hassle entry to conference and congress venues.

The problem for many commercial travellers is getting a visa for entry into the USA. The World Travel Market Report 2006 claims that business travel to the US has fallen by as much as 10% during a period where business travel as a whole has risen sharply.
They also point out that America is losing high spending tourists and visitors from Asia, whı tend to spend more during a visit than their European counterparts. They also argue that Europe is passing by an opportunity to captilise on these new visitors by not doing enough to improve their tourism infrastructre for Asian visitors - though somewhat bizarrely they cite coach parking places for Asians in city centers as an example.
In any case, it’s becoming clear that the stringent security checks are a turn-off for tourists and business travellers. The only question is whether or not they will prevent terrorist attacks.

If you’re going on holiday in a Spanish speaking country and you want to learn a little of the local language before you go, Guardian Travel are offering free Spanish lessons from their website.

There are four lessons available from their site. The first lesson is on how say “hello” goodbye” etc, then the are lessons on finding your way round, wining and dining, and then the final lesson is on expressing likes and dislikes. These are perfect if you want to make an impression whilst on holiday.
The free Spanish lessons are in mp3 format and there are accompanying notes in Adobe format.

I’m thinking about downloading the lot and booking a vacation in Spain; Barcelona’s a great destination.
The Spanish for travellers lessons are available from the Guardian Travel website.

I bought a Sony Eriksson W500i mobile when on my travels at Dubai ariport. It was on a 9 hour stopover from Capetown to Antalya in Turkey and I was bored and could believe how cheap the prices were so I went for it. It cost 220 dollars, which wasn’t bad for airport shopping.
Two weeks after using it in Turkey I had an SMS message telling my that the mobile wasn’t registered in Turkey and I would have to pay 5 Lira to do so. Not bad I thought, but when I went to the Turkish telecomm office I was told I needed some paperwork from customs.

To get that paperwork I would have to pay import tax at 100%, a fee and I’d need to buy a license because the phone comes with a (crappy) in-built radio. the whole process is going to double the price of the phone.

Anyway, there are two things here. Dubai must be an incredibly cheap country to buy electronics and you should save up before going on holiday there. Secondly, if you’re unfortunate enough like me to live in Turkey, an airport purchase could end up costing double the list price!

According to a recent survey reported in the BBC News, Britons are set to spend nearly £100 billion on holidays during 2006. The study by the UK insurance group Axa, looked at all the costs associated with a holiday such as travel costs, hotel bills, car hire - and of course holiday insurance.

Just about half of the amount will be spent on the holiday package itself, with the rest going on new clothes for the trip and spending money during the holiday itself.

Axa gave a  breakdown of statics on exactly how people in the UK spend their holiday money, including:

The Brits’ favourite vacation destinations were Ireland with a reported 22 million UK holidaymakers, followed by Spain with 12 million visitors - and somehow over 8 million people from the UK decided to spend their vacations in France.

What’s interesting in the report are the number of people taking multiple holidays with half of people taking one to three holidays a year, while a fortunate 10% of people were able to afford four or five holiday breaks!

A British Airways 747 lost an engine shortly after take off en route between Los Angeles and London but continued to London anyway - some might think that the prospect of having to pay out £100,000 in compensation to passengers for any delays had a bearing on the decision.Shortly after take off air traffic controllers noticed sparks coming from one engine. The pilot attempted to reduce power to the engine, but it over-heated and had to be shut down. Apparently, after consulting with BA’s operating base, the the pilot of the Jumbo carrying 351 passengers and 18 crew decided to press on to London with just three engines.

Flight 268 never made it to London though because it ran short of fuel. The problem was that flying with three engines meant that the aircraft couldn’t climb high enough to reach cruising altitude. At cruising altitude a plane will usually get a boost from a tailwind and the engines perform more efficiently; saving fuel. Another problem was the pilot had to use the plane’s rudder compensate for the loss of power from the number two engine, which increased drag and fuel consuption.

The pilot had to request an emergency landing at UK’s Manchester airport, where the plane was greeted by four fire trucks and 30 firefighters though passengers and crew were able to disembark safely.
The incident, which happened in February, came days after new EU regulations came into force, making airlines liable for large compensation bills for delayed flights.

Aviation experts expressed suprise at the Captain’s decision to press on to London with just three engines, suggesting instead that the plane should have dumped its fuel and diverted to another airport in the US. The UK’s Air Accident Investigation Branch has recommended that the Civil Aviation Authority and the Federal Aviation Authority should “review the policy on flight continuation … following shutdown of an engine, in order to provide guidance to operators”.

The ultimate decision on saftey matters rests with the pilot on board, but I would love to hear a transcript of that discussion between the crew and BA’s operating base!

It seems the Irish passport office is being flooded with applications from UK and American citizens. Many are speculating that people from the UK and USA are anxious to avoid being singled out on holiday in the Middle East by terrorists.

Under Irish law, anyone with a grand parent from Ireland can apply for an Irish passport. Passport applications from the UK are already double those made in the last year and  applications from the United States have tripled in the last five years. Both Ireland and the UK are members of the European Union, so getting easy permision to travel and work in Ireland isn’t an issue.
When British hostage Kenneth Bigley was captured in Iraq, his family publicly pleaded for an Irish passport. Sadly Mr Bigley was killed anyway, but it’s thought that many tourists travelling to the Middle East would feel safer carrying an Irish passport rather than an American or British one.

Columbia has announced a $4 million ad campaign to lure back tourists.

Over the last few years President Alvaro Uribe has taken a hardline approach against Farc rebels and disarmed paramilitary groups. The result has been that kidnappings have fallen by 73%, and Columbia has launched the campaign to rebuild it’s image as a “safe” tourist destination.
I know tourists seem to have memories worse than goldfish, but it’s my feeling that Columbia have a lot of work to do to repair it’s battered image worldwide. Also $4 million dollars is a comparatively modest amount for a global advertising campaign.

In 2004, 10 tourists were captured by Farc rebels despite the deployment of 100,000 security guards in the National parks and tourist hotspots. Farc were kidnapping 100’s of people each year for ransom, and paramilitary groups were thought to be kiling 3,000 people a year.

Today, Columbians themselves feel safer than for decades, and are ready to try and lure back vacationers to see the Amazon rainforest, white sandy beaches and ancient monuments. Many visitors also come to take advantage of so-called “plastic surgery tourism”.

Many tourists are already chancing their luck, with nearly 1 million foreign visitors arriving in Columbia during 2005. In fact Columbia is again one of the top 10 holiday destinations according to the Lonely Planet.

However, there is still a US goverment travel advisory warning against travelling to Columbia at this time. It seems many tourists are ready to chance their luck!

If you share a love of train travel and dating, then Moments Dating and First Great Western have got together to offer romantic train journeys from London to Bath on a 125 mph high speed train.

The first class train ticket costs £45 but that includes a meal, which is excellent value. During the train journey you will meet a series of blind dates for 3 or 4 minutes each and hopefully a spark will light and you can find romance.

Three or four minutes doesn’t sound long enough for someone to hit it off to me, even in the romatic setting of a railway journey from London to Bath - but who knows?

There are age limits though. All guests must be aged between 23 and 38, but if you’re single and love train travel, then it’s got to be worth a try!

The Observer online has been running a travelogue, “Travels through a midlife crisis”, written by Mike Carter, who is crossing Europe from west to east on his BMW motorbike.

The diary has been running since June and is now into its 11th entry.

Mike writes very well, and of course after two months and 9,000 miles on the road, he certainly has a lot of interesting anecdotes to tell.

He has encounters with prostitutes, run-ins with the local police in Transylvania - it’s all pretty absorbing stuff and well worth a read. Also if you register for the blog, you can suggest Mike’s next travel destination. Many of the commentators share their own experiences of a particular country too. Many recommend sighteeing venues and places to visit; it’s all interesting stuff like me you love motorbikes and traveling.
I must admit stuck here with a young baby, I’m a little jealous of his freedom. I’m looking forward to a midlife crisis motorcycle tour across europe of my own, but I guess that won’t be for a few years!

Mike Carter’s Uneasy Rider Travelogue