Travel Extra February 2016 by Travel Extra

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K C I PRICES AND OPTIONS FOR 2016 P I’M P U ICELAND FIRING UP TOURISM ME VANCOUVER DIRECT FROM DUBLIN 4AM at Dublin Airport

Dublin’s Hotel Crisis

12 Apostle

e e r F

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION

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FEBRUARY 2016

VOLUME 21 NUMBER 22

A world to explore

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NEWS

SWITZERLAND experienced its

Vancouver bound

warmest December on record, with temperatures 3.4C above average. Switzerland’s stripper visa programme expired on January 1, which, since 1995, allowed women outside the EU to work as strippers and cabaret dancers for up to eight months.

Canada, Jamaica and Mexico pick of new options

KENT A proposal was put forward to develop the World War II forts off the coast of Kent into luxury suites, bars, restaurants, retail outlets, banqueting rooms and rooftop terraces. The forts were built to defend England against a Nazi invasion.

he most exciting new destinations direct from Ireland in 2016 are Vancouver, Cancun, and Montego. A new Air Canada Rouge three weekly service to Vancouver will start on June 10. Two charter routes: to Cancun and Montego bay in Jamaica, Dublin’s first service to Jamaica for twenty years and a first ever service to Mexico. Vancouver direct will open the north west seaboard and the cruise market to Alaska. It follows two new routes to Nova Scotia in 2014 and 2015. Aer Lingus is joining Ethiopian on the Los Angeles route from May 4, three or four weekly, and then launching a new service to Hartford Connecticut in September, as well as joining United on the route to New Jersey’s rival to JFK, Newark. Hartford is midway between New York and Boston in a big Irish hinterland, neatly located for those seeking

new England autumn and ski experiences. Aer Lingus also have three new European summer routes to three different countries, Murcia, Montpelier and Pisa from Dublin, to Dusseldorf from Cork and Alicante from Belfast. Ryanair responded to an Aegean

announcement by adding a DublinAthens service of their own (the ferry point for the many under-served Greek islands is Piraeus), and then Vigo in north western Spain from Dublin, with the possibility of more summer 2016 routes to come.

CANCUN A big hit with the

MONTEGO BAY Luxu-

didly as this regular winner of world’s most liveable city awards, take a trip to the lookout to get your bearings,stroll the seawall,try the boat tours,and go island hopping, check out gardens and easy access to great mountain resorts.

RUSSIA A report by the Association of

Tour Operators of Russia said that Russian tourists are travelling to Thailand, Vietnam and India in exchange for Turkey and Egypt.

UNESCO The ancient city of Hatra in

Vancouver at sunset

Iraq was added to the Unesco list of World Heritage Sites under threat. So too were the Old City of Sana'a and the Old City of Shibam in Yemen.

SIX NEW DESTINATIONS FOR 2016

Irish as soon as it launched, a curving headland of beaches and resorts, with great Yucatan experiences nearby, headlined by Chichen Itza.

rious all inclusive product with nearby ziplining, river rafting, canyon tours to see crocodiles and the fatuous palm-fringed beaches.

HARTFORD Once home to MONTPELIER Lively Mark Twain, his house is the pick of the local attractions. Great launch point for the leaf and ski playgrounds of upstate New York and New England. Hang out in the Mortensen Riverfront Plaza.

and studenty ancient city with easy reach to the Med and the Pyrenees, the treasures of Languedoc are within easy reach.

VANCOUVER

Few cities celebrate their waterfront as splen-

VIGO Galicia’s second destina-

tion from Ireland, with its famous Puente de Rande, is close to some of the best beaches in Europe, Playa del Vao, Playa Samil and Islas Cies. Hike the Senda del Agua.

NEPAL In a bid to revive its tourism industry after last April’s earthquake, Nepal is offering free visas to Chinese visitors.

DUBAI expects 10,000 people to attend

mass yoga sessions at the two-day XYoga Dubai Festival on February 19 and 20. Dubai’s new zoo and safari park is slated for mid-2016. It will feature 1,000 animals and 100 species of plants.

IRAN’s I Run marathon will be open to in-

ternational runners for the first time on April 9, but women are banned from taking part because of local laws.

S KOREA Plans for a Universal theme

park in the Hwaseong region, South Korea were revived after being on hold for three years, The park is expected to open in 2020.

VIETNAM opened a 500 hectare safari park at Phu Quoc, featuring 3,000 animals across 140 species, including Bengal tigers, gazelles and rhinos.

LAS VEGAS saw a record 42m visitors in 2015.

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CONTENTS

THE KNOWLEDGE Travel Extra Advertising & Subscriptions 59 Rathfarnham Road Terenure Dublin D6WAK70 t+3531 2957418 Editorial Office Clownings Straffan Co Kildare W23 C6X9

Managing Editor: Gerry O’Hare gerry@travelextra.ie Editor: Eoghan Corry eoghan.corry@ travelextra.ie Publisher: Edmund Hourican edmund@bizex.ie Sales Director: Maureen Ledwith maureen@bizex.ie t: +3531 291 3700 Sales Manager Paulette Moran paulette@bizex.ie t: +353 (0)1 291 3702 Accounts and Advertising: Maria Sinnot maria@bizex.ie T: +3531 291 3707 Distribution Manager Shane Hourican shane@bizex.ie t: +3531 291 3706 Pictures: pix@travelextra.ie Sunday Supplement & Online: Conor McMahon conor@travelextra.ie Chief Features Writer: Anne Cadwallader anne@travelextra.ie Contributors : Eanna Brophy eanna@travelextra.ie Marie Carberry marie@travelextra.ie Carmel Higgins carmel@travelextra.ie Cauvery Madhavan cauvery@travelextra.ie Sean Mannion sean@grafacai.ie Catherine Murphy cathmurph@yahoo.com

Travel Extra takes no responsibility for errors and omissions. Origination: Typeform

Printer: W&G Baird Limited Greystone Press Caulside Drive Antrim BT41 2RS

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3 News Where to go,h ow much to pay 6 Hotels: News 8 Brochures: Year of China 10 The year ahead: Looking west 12 Destinations: Luxembourg, South

Africa, Turkey, Iceland, Washington, New York, Australia, Down, Val Thorens, Val d’Isere, Hurtigruten, Sri Lanka, Georgia, Cornwall 34 Holiday World: Guide to the show 58-63 Flying: Airline and airport news 66 Afloat: A quantum leap

68 Camping: Euro 2016 options 70 Ireland: Home holiday news 72 Global Village Inside the travel industry 74 Postcards: News from the trade 76 Window seat: Our columnists 77 Pictures: Out and about

Know before you board

t has been a whole three months since you last went on holidays? That is sooooh last year. Believe us, everything has changed in the meantime..

SECURITY At Dublin, 4am has become the new 5am. Dublin airport has brought forward the security shift times to 4am in a bid to beat the early morning gridlock at the airport with the 15 machines in Terminal 1 under particular pressure. Queues at T2, which is used by Aer Lingus and long haul operators, have also intensified. The situation may be eased by the introduction of automatic tray return in 2016. Queue times for security at Dublin airport are regulated and penalties kick in if they extend beyond 30 minutes, so they do their best to move you along. If you are running late, present staff with your boarding pass and they will fast track you. For speediest throughput, use the queues to the right of the security area.

T2 has all the trendy destinations, Emirates and Etihad alternating on gate 407 the first on the right after you have descended Ireland’s longest escalator. Gates 401-6 downstairs are blocked off for much of the day by US pre-clearance. Heathrow and Gatwick flights are always on the next nearest gates. If you are flying to the Canary Islands prepare for a long walk to the last of the 400 gates. Even this is preferable to the walk from T2 back to the 300

Passenegrs pass through Dublin airport

gates at T1 for some Aer Lingus flights.

T1 Trans-Atlantic flights using T1 include Air Canada, ASL, Ethiopian and Westjet. Lufthansa, BA, SAS and some Aer Lingus flights are to be found at the 300 gates. Cityjet and the charters are to be found at the 200 gates. These are a bit tricky as arriving and departing passengers are mixed here, which means you cannot return to the main shopping area if you have passed through to the gates. Ryanair are at the 100 gates, a long curved walk from the terminals but there are retail and food options at the pier. Prices are the same as in the Loop. MOBILE Ryanair has now gone mobile so the charter operators are the only ones still using paper boarding passes. APPS Dublin Air-

port app shows gate numbers, check in numbers, baggage belt and an estimated time to clear security. Passbook allows passengers to store any number of mobile boarding passes directly into the app, meaning that they do not

need to have actual printed copies of their tickets: Air China, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Lufthansa, Qantas and United are among those signed up.

FAST TRACK

DAA has a membership system allowing parking in the short term car park and fast-track. Book on the website. Fastrack does get crowded at peak times 5am-8am and DAA are adding capacity to fast track in T2 from January and T1 from July. There is also a separate VIP service which can be bought by commuters to celebrate a special occasions such as honeymoon.

SELF-TAG Aer Lingus are planning to roll out self-tagging.

CHECK-IN Aer Lingus have the most, 29 check-in/bag-drop desks at T2. The number of desks dedicated to check-in versus bag-drop vary on a daily basis depending on passenger loads however we tend to have more bag-drop than check-in. SHOPPING

The Loop shopping area on the approach to the 300 gates has been up-

graded with a sleek new curved aisle and the approach to the food hall has been extended with more dining options.

LOUNGE There is also a great relaxation area in T1 as you approach the food hall with free wifi and lots of power charge points and another near security with window views of the apron. The Terminal 1 Anna Livia lounge has been extended to bring together the former Anna Livia lounge and the BMI executive lounge into one large unit. The extended lounge has seating for 110 customers with facilities bringing it into line with the south side lounges in T2. Economy passengers to use the facility for a walk-in price of €20 for three hours. Etihad have the best lounge in the airport off the walkway from T2 to T1, Aer Lingus have a two storey lounge next door while the Anna Livia lounge in T2 is accessible to Priority Pass holders, Cinstruction has started on a new loun ge airside of US CBP. US CBP The US

border area has been rearranged to speed things

up and four more officers deployed at peak. Since ESTA the only form to be filled is a customs declaration. Passengers travelling on an ESTA and US Citizens can use 18 self-service Automatic Passport Control kiosks reducing the time they spend with an US Officer to less than 30 seconds. All of Aer Lingus’s US-bound flights, including afternoon flights, now preclear in Ireland. The Ethiopian service to Los Angeles does not use CBP.

BUSES The depar-

tures road to Terminal 1 has been upgraded. Aircoach, Airport Hopper, Ardcavan, Bus Eireann, Citylink, Gobe, Goldline, John McGinley, Kavanagh, Dublin Coach N7, Wexford Bus and Dublin bus routes are located at the back of the multi-storey car park and the coach park opposite T1. There are notices in the terminal locations by zone. If you arrive to T2 it is quickest to exit by the left hand doors and walk to buses outdoors.

PASSPORTS

The self service immigration gates at Terminal 1 are simple once you have used them once, scan in your passport, then advance to the next gate and look at the camera. They are only valid if you have a chip in your passport and you are over 18. The next step in passport technology is biometric but the bad news is that it is not going to happen for many years until all 28 EU countries can agree a standard.

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TRAVEL IN 2016

he next six months will go a long way to determining the future of the Irish holiday industry in Ireland. Just over 30 new direct routes will start from Ireland in 2016, highlights include a new Air Canada Rouge three weekly service to start on June 10, and two charter routes: to Cancun and Montego bay in Jamaica, Dublin’s first service to Jamaica for twenty years and a first ever service to Mexico. Vancouver direct will open the north west seaboard and the cruise market to Alaska. It follows two new routes to Nova Scotia in 2014 and 2015. Aer Lingus is joining Ethiopian on the Los Angeles route from May 4, three or four weekly, and then launching a new service to Hartford Connecticut in September, as well as joining United on the route to New Jersey’s rival to JFK, Newark. Hartford is midway between New York and Boston in a big Irish hinterland, neatly located for those seeking new England autumn and ski experiences.

er Lingus also have three new European summer routes to three different countries, Murcia, Montpelier and Pisa from Dublin, to Dusseldorf from Cork and Alicante from Belfast. Ryanair are full of surprises as usual. They are to return to Belfast International, starting with a four daily Gatwick service but promising further based aircraft and up to five new routes by year end. When Aegean announced Dublin to Athens for the summer, Ryanair responded by adding a Dublin-Athens service of their own (the ferry point for the many under-served Greek islands is Piraeus), and then Vigo in north western

Hot in 2016

Places to go and sights to see in the year ahead

Cancun gets flights direct form Dublin for the first time this summer

Spain from Dublin, with the possibility of more summer 2016 routes to come. Michael O’Leary has 180 aircraft on the way, and some new direct routes to Germany could follow those recent high frequency services to Amsterdam and Brussels that have plunged prices to northern Europe. Cluj in Romania is a new route from Blue Air. The big question mark over Norwegian’s new service from Cork to Boston will not be resolved before Easter, but Cork will see its biggest expansion for years in the coming months, Cityjet adding routes to Nantes, La Rochelle and a charter to Menorca, Iberia Express will add Madrid, and Aer LIngus Regional will ad Leeds Bradford and Southampton. Shannon has a new Edinburgh service and Knock has Flybe services to Birmingham and Edinburgh, as well as an interesting Falcon Holidays charter to the Costa Daurada.

ooking eastwards Turkish wil continue to expand at breakneck speed and move towards a treble daily service. Emirates have added daily circular service from Dubai to Cebu and Clark in the Philippines, much more interesting than Manila to international tourists. Etihad will be returning to double daily later in 2016, having reduced their service. China Southern, Lufthansa and Finnair are all looking at expanding in the irish market to grow their eastbound connections while BA have streamlined Heathrow connections since Aer Lingus moved to T2 and British Airways moved to T5.

reland’s travel agents are also looking at a big year ahead, with most of them now operating as tour operators in their own right, sourcing their beds from the big bed banks to match the

prices on the internet. Tour operator brochure prices are running about 10pc higher than last year, and the politics of North African have not helped by causing traditional markets such as the Canary Island s to be swamped by tourists would normally travel to Tunisia and Egypt. Turkey is another story. Preferred holiday destination of 112,000 Irish tourists a year, it has just lost 23pc of its market when the Russians stopped coming. The shiny new resorts of Belek and Antalya need new customers fast, and their high end all inclusive product will likely come on sale at giveaway prices. Also worth watching are the new luxury brochures on offer in the Irish market by international tour operators. Lead in prices are generally lower when a holiday company enters a new market, so honeymooners might snatch a bargain in the coming days.

igger, sleeker and more innovative cruise ships continue to slide down the shipyards of Europe. Today’s cruise ships have viewing pods, virtual skydiving, and bumper cars on board. Royal Caribbean will launch two in the same month, the giant Harmony of the Seas and the action packed Ovation of the seas. Norwegian, Carnival and MSC are building and ordering new ships with better restaurant choice, up to 17 on each ship, and activity choice and water parks, but there is a worrying trend here. The services that used to be free, high end restaurants and menu choices in established restaurants, are increasingly being charged for. Norwegian jacked up service charges per room per day twice in 2016. While cruises on trendy new ships can be expensive, entry level cruises are offering even better value as they get the hand me down ships.

Thomson Discovery is likely to be a big favourite for the Irish market when she starts cruising from Palma in June. The force is landing in Disneyland this summer, with the parks undergoing their biggest makeover since 1998 to make way for Star Wars attractions. Universal Orlando is also planning another Harry Potter attraction in 2016, having used the brand to boost market share and attendances in their never ending competition with Disney.

hat’s next? The talking is continuing in bringing Ireland its first direct route to China and Qatar are also in discussion with the airport. Aer Lingus, should it get the aircraft, could announce as many as five new routes in 2017 to the USA. Destinations like Dallas, Miami, Houston, and Denver are in their sights. But aircraft are scarce.

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HOTELS

AIRBNB A self-published study by

Airbnb claimed that it contributed €202m and 2,020 jobs to the Irish economy in a year.

www.travelextra.ie

CORK’s five-star Castlemartyr Resort was

praised for offering emergency accommodation to local families affected by flooding after Storm Frank hit Ireland.

STR Global’s hotel performance survey

found that room occupancy in Europe was up 0.8pc YOY to 68.1pc for November 2015, down 3.3pc in the Middle East-Africa region to 69.2pc, down 1.8pc in the Asia Pacific region to 70.4pc, and down 0.6pc in the Americas to 59.7pc.

DOUBLETREE by Hilton is rolling out a premium perks option in the Americas called the Little Extras Upgrade, offering premium in-room WI-Fi, snacks, beverages and an in-room coffee brewed for a nominal extra fee. Costs from $25pp. IHF According to the latest IHF Hotel Barometer, nine out of ten hotels and guesthouses reported increased business and 60pc have hired new staff in 2015. 92pc of hoteliers plan to refurbish their properties and invest in product development in 2016. The IHF reported increased demand for three-day Christmas packages. U2’s Clarence hotel recorded profits of

€400,000 last year. The four-star hotel was booked out for the week the band played the 3Arena.

GIBSON Hotel appointed graffiti artist James Early as its third artist in residence. Accor is to buy FRHI Holdings, parent of hotel groups Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotel, for $2.9bn. TRAVELODGE completed a £100m three-year modernisation programme that brought room improvements at over 500 hotels, including the addition of king size Dreamer beds

HYATT is the latest hotel group to be

hacked with half of its hotels affected in data breach discovered in November.

PORTLAOISE

Heritage Hotel and Leisure Club joined the Great National Hotels and Resorts Group.

CONNEMARA Sands Hotel in Clif-

den was awarded a 4-star rating by Fáilte Ireland.

ACCOR

search feature.

Hotels rolled out an emoji

HILTON started to trial a stricter cancelation policy at 24 hotels with a $50 cancellation fee any time after the booking is made. DALATA

agreed to buy the Tara Towers hotel on Merrion Road for €13.2m.

CARTON Lucius Farrell was appointed Deputy General Manager at Carton House

RADISSON Blu Hotel & Spa Limerick announced its ELITE team training programme for 2016. IHG Intercontinental Hotels Group opened the International Bordeaux-Le Grand Hotel.

Harvey’s points

Another ratings award for feted Donegal hotel arvey's Point in Donegal Town topped the list of Trivago’s top 50 hotels and

guesthouses in Ireland, based on user ratings. Harvey’s Point has also won the Tripadvisor Irish hoetl of the year.

TOP TRIVAGO HOTELS CONNACHT

Killarney Park Hotel in Kerry, Heaton’s Guesthouse, and Pintetrees B&B in Antrim also finished in the top four

TOP TRIVAGO HOTELS LEINSTER

1, Oranhill Lodge, Oranmore, Co Galway, 94.59 2, Waterfront House, Enniscrone, Co Sligo, 93.88 3, Jameson Court, Galway, Co Galway, 93.71 4, Woodside Lodge, Westport, Co Mayo, 92.97 5, Augusta Lodge, Westport, Co Mayo, 92.55 6, Sea Breeze Lodge, Galway, Co Galway, 91.54 7, Kinlay Hostel, Galway, Co Galway, 91.12 8, Sharamore House, Clifden, Co Galway, 90.41 9, Kinvara Guesthouse, Kinvara, Co Galway, 90.35 10, Buttermilk Lodge, Clifden, Co Galway, 89.77 11, Linden Hall, Westport, Co Mayo, 89.62 12, Glenlo Abbey, Galway, Co Galway, 89.50 13, The Twelve, Galway, Co Galway, 89.33 14, Westport Plaza, Westport, Co Mayo, 89.23 15, Park House, Galway, Co Galway, 89.10 16, Mount Falcon Estate, Ballina, Co Mayo, 89.05 17, Ballynahinch Castle, Clifden, Co Galway, 88.99 18, Gleeson’s, Roscommon, Co Roscommon, 88.42 19, Cromleach Lodge, Castlebaldwin, Co Sligo, 88.42 20, The Lodge at Ashford Castle, Cong, Co Mayo, 88.28

1, Avlon House B&B, Carlow, Co Carlow, 95.06 2, Evergreen, Swords, Co Dublin, 92.84 3, The Marker, Dublin, Co Dublin, 92.26 4, The Merrion, Dublin, Co Dublin, 92.08 5, The Westbury, Dublin, Co Dublin, 90.93 6, Clifford House, Rosslare, Co Wexford, 90.74 7, InterContinental Dublin, Dublin, Co Dublin, 90.65 8, Killiane Castle, Wexford, Co Wexford, 90.63 9, Glasson Hotel, Athlone, Co Westmeath, 90.58 10, Powerscourt Hotel, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, 90.47 11, The Westin Dublin, Dublin, Co Dublin, 90.27 12, The Shelbourne Dublin, Dublin, Co Dublin, 90.22 13, Druids Glen, Co Wicklow, 90.09 14, Whitford House Hotel, Wexford, Co Wexford, 89.53 15, The Croke Park, Dublin, Co Dublin, 89.45 16, Sheraton Athlone Hotel, Athlone, Co Westmeath, 89.37 17, Ariel House, Dublin, Co Dublin, 89.33 18, Pembroke Hotel, Kilkenny, Co Kilkenny, 89.30 19, The Gibson Hotel, Dublin, Co Dublin, 89.27 20, Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin, 89.21

1, The Killarney Park Hotel, Killarney, Co Kerry, 95.56 2, Heaton’s Guesthouse, Dingle, Co Kerry, 95.53 3, Ballybunion Guesthouse, Ballybunion, Co Kerry, 94.98 4, Emlagh House, Dingle, Co Kerry, 94.69 5, The Ross, Killarney, Co Kerry, 94.56 6, Algret House, Killarney, Co Kerry, 93.99 7, Adare Country House, Adare, Co Limerick, 93.27 8, East Clare Golf Village, Bodyke, Co Clare, 91.62 9, Doolin Hostel, Doolin, Co Clare, 91.51 10, Doolin Cottage, Doolin, Co Clare, 91.33 11, The Europe Hotel & Resort, Killarney, Co Kerry, 91.22 12, The Old Anchor Inn, Dingle, Co Kerry, 90.78 13, The River Lee, Cork, Co Cork, 90.75 14, Old Weir Lodge, Killarney, Co Kerry, 90.60 15, The Dunloe, Beaufort, Co Kerry, 90.57 16, Hayfield Manor, Cork, Co Cork, 90.55 17, Cork International Hotel, Cork, Co Cork, 90.41 18, Grove Lodge, Killorglin, Co Kerry, 90.29 19, The Cliff House Hotel, Ardmore, Co Waterford, 90.21 20, Bunratty Heights, Bunratty, Co Clare, 90.18

1, Harvey’s Point, Donegal Town, Co Donegal, 96.44 2, Pinetrees Bed & Breakfast, Ballymoney, Co Antrim, 95.09 3, The Gregory, Belfast, Co Antrim, 93.07 4, Rose Park House, Derry, Co Derry, 92.80 5, Keef Halla, Crumlin, Co Antrim, 92.26 6, The Merchant Hotel, Belfast, Co Antrim, 91.01 7, Lough Erne Resort, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, 90.65 8, Tara Lodge, Belfast, Co Antrim, 90.41 9, Radisson Blu Farnham Estate, Cavan, Co Cavan, 90.25 10, Cullentra House, Cushendall, Co Antrim, 89.93 11, Curran Court Hotel, Larne, Co Antrim, 89.71 12, Belmore Court, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, 89.59 13, Portrush Holiday Hostel, Portrush, Co Antrim, 89.57 14, Canal Court Hotel, Newry, Co Down, 89.57 15, Solis Lough Eske Castle, Donegal Town, 89.51 16, Harpers Boutique B&B, Belfast, Co Antrim, 89.48 17, Apple Apartments Belfast, Belfast, Co Antrim, 89.42 18, Roe Park Resort, Limavady, Co Derry, 89.30 19, Groarty House & Manor B&B, Derry, Co Derry, 89.22 20, The Fitzwilliam Hotel Belfast, Belfast, Co Antrim, 89.21

TOP TRIVAGO HOTELS MUNSTER

TOP TRIVAGO HOTELS ULSTER

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Page 008 - 009 Brochures 07/01/2016 11:14 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 8

OFF THE RACK CLASSIC RESORTS

oneymoon, anniversary, birthday, retirement? Whatever milestone is steaming into your life like a high-speed train – you need to mark it in style and what better way than a dream holiday somewhere really exotic? Whether it’s going west (Mexico, the USA and the Caribbean) that takes your fancy – or the other direction, Thailand and the Far East, the Classic Resorts brochure has it all, and more. Butler service is on hand at the St. Regis, Abu Dhabi with white sandy beaches and desert landscapes on your doorstep (not to mention the shopping – bling all the way!). There are adults-only holidays in a wide range of hotels, such as the Barceló Bavaro Beach in Punta Cana, Mexico, on one of the world’s “Top Ten” beaches. I recommend Cuba highly as a destination too. Get there before everyone else does. Classic offers accommodation

in the iconic Nacional Hotel (the ambiance is distinctly pre-Castro) located in the heart of Havana overlooking the sea. Varadero Beach is Cuba’s most-established beach resort and there are plenty of five-star hotels here with which to combine a stay in Havana – which is totally unmissable and lives up to its reputation 100%. Barbados is a top-end Caribbean island with wonderful resorts and hotels such as the Turtle Beach in six acres of gardens yet within walking distance of St. Lawrence Gap and its bars, restaurants and nightlife. St. Lucia is an island on the other end of the spectrum – relatively undeveloped, although even it has a “Sandals” resort, located on a peninsula where every, single room has a sea view. You get the picture? Then get the brochure. Classic Resorts means luxury all the way.

TOPFLIGHT WORLDWIDE

hina and India have – the two biggest countries in Asia with so much to offer the traveller who feels they have seen it all – have joined other global nations in the Topflight Worldwide brochure. Topflight particularly recommend taking a “taster” tour and they have 11 of India alone such as the “Classic Tour of the Mystical South” featuring all the colours of Rajasthan or the “Tour of Classical India” which also takes in Nepal. You can experience China for the first time with a “Shanghai to Beijing Highlights of China” 14-day tour – after which you will be more familiar with this vast and varied country opening up to western tourism. If a beach and some serious R&R is more your bag, there’s nowhere like Bali in Indonesia to enjoy both the hedonistic

Anne Cadwallader’s Brochure Reviews

and the spiritual – along with s o m e b e a c h bumming. If you want to mix adventure and exotic beach holidays, then you can indulge in both with trips to South Africa where there are city and wine-tasting options along with journeys on the much-lauded “Blue Train”. In Kenya, Topflight offers a sevenday tour taking in the Masai Mara and Serengeti – so you can walk in David Attenborough’s footsteps while witnessing the “Great Migration” of animals following the rains. Toplight is a wholly-Irish owned company so there are cast-iron guarantees of good value, security and the experience of years knowing what Irish travellers want from their holidays abroad.

INSIGHT INDIA

ndia is such a vast country – actually a subcontinent – that it seems to me to make sense to travel there, at least the first time, on an escorted tour with an experiences company such as Insight Vacations. Combining luxury with getting to see and experience the real India is what travellers want, whether it’s a two week extravaganza or a mini-tour lasting between three and six days. The brochure makes it clear that these holidays are for everyone from young to old (photos of grey-haired pensioners having a ball are very reassuring if

you’re worried at all about the food and transport). All-inclusive tours come in at under €200 a day - and that’s for the best-ofthe-best in dining, hotels and touring, all in the comfort and security of an escorted tour. The Nepal tour even comes with an optional helicopter ride over Mount Everest. The romance of travelling through India by train is included in the tour to Shimla so you get the sights, smells, tastes and spectacular vistas of this fantastically-varied country – crammed into a tour you will remember all your lif

China time TOPFLIGHT ITALY

Topflgiht Worldwide feature and extended China programme

or me, To p f l i g h t and Italy are synonymous. There seems to be literally nothing about Italy that the company does not know. Every possible combination of holiday whether beach, or city or opera or weddings or adventure or alpine is catered for within its specialist Italian

DISCOVER TRAVEL

iscover Travel of Midleton, County Cork,specialise in Asian and Far Eastern holidays but also focus on Egypt, the UAE and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. The company offers accommodation in three to five-star hotels and even features its own “orchid” hotel rating system (reassuringly). This kind of personalised touch shows how experienced the company’s staff are in the locations they offer with small, bespoke tours of some areas for those who want to dip a toe in the water in new locations. I liked the fact that the day-to-day itineraries of, for example, their “Thailand Discovery” tour (11 days) is so de-

brochure. The Italian Lakes are a specialism within a specialism and there are pages and pages of photos of lovely hotels beside lakes Garda, Como and Maggiore for you to salivate over. Opera buffs will focus on Verona and walkers over Trentino – gateway to the Dolomites.

the tour. Some brochures are mainly just photographs of hotels, wall-to-wall, with relatively little written description of the area. This brochure is different as whoever has put it together appears to genuinely want to impart vital details to the reader. It shows respect for the traveller and respect for the country being visited that a tour operator would take as much trouble as this to highlight what you can expect if you are prepared to travel this far for a really special holiday.

TOPFLIGHT THAILAND

hailand just seems to grow and grow in popularity with holiday-makers young and old. The islands with their glistening beaches are a lure for both back-packers and luxury-seekers. So much so that Topflight have a brochure now dedicated to Thailand, promising the quality holidays they are

tailed with more than just a cursory description of each and every place and attraction on

known for in Europe to those who want to travel for some eastern promise. The food is great, the beaches simply out of this world and the hotels are luxurious and welcoming – so what’s not to like? Topflight offers tailor-made holidays in this modern-day Garden of Eden – so take a bite!

Page 008 - 009 Brochures 07/01/2016 11:14 Page 2

OFF THE RACK

Anne Cadwallader’s Brochure Reviews

TOPFLIGHT SKI

Having an ice time in Val d’Isere

h e n booking y o u r winter-snow holiday, surely top of the “Must Have” list is a friendly, knowledgeable and well-trained ski representative. You can buy just about everything else – but a friendly face is priceless. Topflight say all their ski-reps are continually trained, friendly and reliable. And if you’re in a strange country, doing something totally unfamiliar (ski) in a hostile environment (a seemingly precipitous Alpine slope) these are valuable commodities. Topflight in 2016 has seven countries in which to ski to and thirty-six resorts to choose from with over 300 different hotels, apartments, chalets and other accommodation. Maybe you want a home-from-home chalet experience with all your meals cooked for you and the personal attention of a chalet host? No problem. On the other hand, maybe you want a large hotel with a swimming pool and spa for soaking away those aching muscles after a long-day on the pistes? Or a cutesy wee Alpine wooden “gasthaus” with roaring log fires? The ski holiday market is nothing if

not competitive and even before you go, you can get extra value by booking ski or snowboard

courses. For the non-skiers, holistic massages, reflexology, aromatherapy, steam baths, saunas and facials galore await those whose idea of hell is to zip down a steep slope covered in frozen water at 40mph. For those who find that experience exhilarating, the choice in the Topflight brochure is endless. For those with children, the Topflight brochure gives you the low-down on the basics like insurance, tuition and equipment. It’s really all here with details on kindergartens, free lift passes and recommended resorts where both they and you can enjoy your holiday. But enough of these practical details – what you want to hear about is the romance of the deep, deep snow – the pretty villages, the comfortable beds, the gluhwein, the onion-domed churches, the après ski … Well, it’s all here in the Topflight brochure. Dazzling blue skies, large and impressive hotels, sleigh-rides, steaming outdoor heated swimming pools and more bars and restaurants than you could visit in a year. Bring it on!

TOPFLIGHT AMERICAS

opflight put the success of their American partnership down to their partnership with major airlines such as British Airways, Virgin, Etihad and Emirates. But I think the attraction of the entire continent of America must also have something to do with it. Whether its huge landscapes, or theme parks, or city breaks or adventure or exploring – the continent is so vast and varied that virtually any holidaymaker will find something to satisfy their wanderlust. Topflight says tours are making a comeback and they offer a range from “Southern Highlights” (featuring Houston, New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Memphis) to “Eastern Highlights” (both

FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 9

sides of the border between the USA and Canada). The company points out that Canada is still relatively unexplored as a holiday destination by the majority of Irish travellers. You can visit Toronto or Vancouver paired with a trip to the Rocky Mountains. Going south, the brochure includes Mexico and the Caribbean islands of St. Lucia, Antigua, Jamaica, Aruba, Barbados and Cuba. Topflight can organise personalised itineraries of these romantic locations. Holiday-makers from both sides of the Irish border are fully protected by Topflight, a wholly-owned Irish company – so you can go exotic without risking your hard-earned vacation money.

INSIGHT AMERICA

remium hotels in the best places, special experiences and priority access, plenty of legroom on touring coaches, highlight evenings, smaller group sizes and concierge service and luggage handling. You get the picture? Yes, Insight Vacations are determined to well and truly bury the old reputation of escorted touring. You can read all about how they will take you to the USA, Canada and South America in style in their new 2016 brochure. The “Luxury Gold” brand promises to take the best care of you throughout your holiday with individual tour directors looking after all the arrangements right from airport. Hotels, they promise, will be exceptional with one-off extras to keep you coming back. De-luxe coaches, iconic trains and classic cruising ships are waiting out there to take you wherever you wish to go through the continent of America, north and south. For example, you will stay inside the National Parks in the USA in historic lodges and grand hotels. Authentic experiences await you (see

list on page 21 for the “Treasures of the Incas” tour) along with epicurean dining and distinctive hotels. If you’ve never visited the southern states of the US, how about their eight-day “Southern Glamour” tour visiting Atlanta, Savannah and Charleston. Or how about travelling from New Orleans through the heartland of the US, right up to Chicago by way of St. Louis, Nashville and Memphis? The east coast is different again, of course, and there’s a eight-day tour from New York to New York via Newport, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington DC. For those of you who are hooked on classic train journeys, there’s a TransCanadian tour from Vancouver to Toronto and Niagara Falls on board “The Canadian” through three National Parks and the town of Whistler. This is about as far from the old concept of “coach touring” as it gets – while retaining the essential attraction of seeing as much as possible in fairly short order with the benefits of a guide to tell you what you’re looking at!

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Page 010 andalucia 08/01/2016 12:02 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 10

DESTINATION SPAIN

The white villages of Andalusia

The living museum that is Vejer de la Fonterra ith its white houses, narrow streets and friendly people The Moorish hilltop town of Vejer , on the right bank of the river Barbate. has a reputation as the most spectacular of all Andalucía's pueblos blancos, or white villages. It is impossibly charming with events to enhance the setting such as candle lit nights on Saturdays, cobbled streets, craft shops, flamenco bars, tapas restaurants, pretty squares and the exquisite Jardin del Califa from which to watch the sun set in the valley below. Tarifa, a picture postcard port close to the Strait of Gibraltar is just

15 miles across the trait, so close you can see the lights of the cars in Morocco at night. Narrow strains mean that the wildlife has to pass close by to holiday in the Med. We boarded an excursion boat to see pilot whales, bottle nose dolphins, and a performing menagerie, rising playfully to accompany our boat and pose for selfies. Down at the Cabo de Gata national park there are desert villages, pilgrimage sites and towns straight out of a movie

p p r o p r i a t e l y, most of them are called Frontera.

Vejer de la Fonterra, Conil de la Frontera, even Jerez de la Frontera. Tour guide interview Luisa Garcia told me why. “The name comes from the middle ages when this was the border with the Castilian kingdom and the last Moorish kingdom to be conquered.” The 300 sunny days a year, the great beaches, those small cobble stone villages close to the coast, and most importantly, the people, should make this region a La Liga first division tourist hotspot, but its location, 215km west of Malaga, 150km south of Seville, 250km east of Faro, means it still has a frontier town feel about it. Like the Cadiz team, it has slipped to division

three of the big league, in profile, though not in terms of its beauty. High local unemployment means lower prices, you can find a meal for a third of the price in the honey pot tourist locations.

he people who claim the pueblos are unspoilt by tourism really mean they are not Torremolinos. Spain’s own discerning holiday makers have been coming here for generations, and the Irish who come across these places tend to keep quiet about them. Come and enjoy. Just don’t tell anyone.

Beach relaxation at Conil de la Frontera

Tour guide Roberto Darmiento at Cadiz cathedral

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FEBRUARY 16 PAGE 12

DESTINATION LUXEMBOURG

his an odd place to build a city, a sheer cliffed plateau over a rocky valley with a small river running through, a borrowed landscape for shepherds and sheep rather than Bourgers eating burgers, criss crossed by the ancient bridge and the “new” 1966 bridge that enabled a modern city to be built atop the next hillside, shining back at the chocolate box original. In Luxembourg each crevice has a little surprise. They have urban vineyards here, real ones sitting on the cliff wall, not the back garden pretend ones in other places. When they examined the cemetery of the Neumunster they found the monks had suffered from gout they found cemetery down at Neumunster abbey. Good living indeed.

ometimes you cannot avoid thinking that people who call Luxemburg the Gibraltar of the north have never been in the Gibraltar of the south. Luxembourg has a big history for a small place. It was once a bastion, impregnable, unmoveable and full of its self importance. French engineer Carnot came up with the comparison with Gibraltar in 1795 when it withstood a seven month siege. For seventy more years it stood there like a war on the face of the superpowers, and almost

Snall treasure Eoghan Corry visits Luxembourg, the size of Limerick only with better wine

Urban vineyard in Luxembourg

started the Franco-German early in 1866. The reverberations of that crisis led to two world wars in the last century. So it is no wonder that Luxembourg has been keeping its head down snce. This is a big burden for a small place, and so it proved for Luxembourg. They pulled down the fortress and left us a playground of caverns beneath, the Casemates du Bock where tourists trundle through.

here are 23km of casemate walkways, of which three kilometres are open visitors. At one time 1.200 soldiers manned 25 cannons in two rows, firing three cannon shots an hour to avoid suffocation. Towers are for flags, conveying how one country’s history is better than

another’s. Tunnels are gunpowder history. Down here in the dark such certainties are subject to shadows and subtleties. In recent decades an artefact of another war has rivalled it as a tourist attraction. Americans go to see where George Patton is buried, victim not of war, but of an automobile accident when the war was over. In all 5,075 Americans are buried in the well kept war cemetery. This little Duchy is a good place to take stock of the history of Europe in its successive waves, everyone ganging up on Spain followed by everyone ganging up on France followed by everyone ganging up on Germany. There, that will saved us a lot of time listening

Clockwise: Luxair in Dublin, the futuristic Mudam art museum (mudam.lu), the Casements, and the grave of Patton

to tour guides recviting battlefields, wars and dates.

here the history comes p e e p i n g through in the streetscape, abbey and churches, it is little history. And in its festivals. The country’s most famous saint Willibrord has strong Irish connections. A Dancing Procession continues be held in Echternach every year on Whit Tuesday in his honour. Outside Steiler bar and restaurant it proclaims in four languages that this is the oldest pub in Luxembourg, 1691 when the Irish were about to come with the brigades. How timely. Everything is within touching distance in such a small place, even Luxembourg’s royalty. There used to be 16 grand duchies. Tuscany was the first. Now there is one left. Soldiers of his tiny army change the guard outside the Palace. No grand displays here. If there is grandeur to be found it is Luxem-

bourg’s proud modern city, founder of the EU and one of its capitals (the small town of Schengen is celebrating two decades of being associated with a forward-looking visa policy). You get the impression this place is living small and thinking big, outside what would be called the box in a powerpoint presentation. When you live in a country that is the size of county Limerick, you need to think outside the border line, if not the box.

uxembourg has a surprising number of stylish places to stay among its 6,000 tourist beds and more Michelin stars per head than any other European country, “When you come from a small place,” tour guide Elke Begas told us, “you are condemned to focus on quality rather than quantity.” It has the highest proportion of foreign residents (70pc) and places of all grades and mannerisms to eat and party. There are three lan-

guages including the Moselle Frankonian dialect of Luxembourgish. French is the language of law, German the language of media. People say Portuguese is the fourth language, and everyone speaks English. So that makes five. In addition 170,000 commute into Luxembourg each day, half of them from France, a quarter from Belgium and a quarter from Germany. Even in the heart of the city you are ten minutes to France,20 minutes to Belgium and 25 minutes to Germany The highway in the north has just opening shortening those short distances to everywhere.

hen the office workers go home, the city tends its night scene as proudly as a vineyard. We ended up in Wilma, a karaoke bar where Wonderwall was filleted by a tuneless Irish travel writer. Was that the sound Willibrord laughing at Wonderwall?

n Eoghan Corry travelled to Luxembourg as a guest of Luxair and Luxembourg National Tourist Office. www.visitluxembourg.com n The Luxembourg card touristic passport costs €11 n Luxair flies daily from Dublin to Luxembourg.with prices from €100 return. APG Ireland| 27 Lower Ormond Quay | Dublin 1 | Ireland +353 (0)1 804 5100 m:+353 (0) 86 831 6522

Page 014 S Africa 07/01/2016 14:07 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 14

DESTINATION SOUTH AFRICA

he Cape and the Table Mountain is just the beginning of the tale. For many visitors it starts with the nostrils. “I smell the rum from the devil” our tour guide Sarah Weaver declared, and she was right. The smell is ubiquitous, fruit of the heat and the foliage and the collision of oceans in the turquoise waters in the bay and beyond. It was probably somewhere in the city, around the boisterous bars we frequented at the Victoria sea front, but here at the launchpad to Table Mountain is where we senses it at its greatest strength. Who nose what was in store for us next?

hanks to the cable car it is possible to start your tour of Table Mountain at the top. The beauty of Hoerikwaggo mountain to give it its original name, was attested to in the culture of the Khoikhoi, by the Portuguese whose António de Saldanha first named it Taboa do Cabo, astonished at how much water was tumbling off the mountain, and by the generations subsequent invaders armed with guns or with cameras. Like a Ben Bulben of the bushlands, the hard wearing sandstone that constitute its mantle has a

Corner stone of Africa Eoghan Corry tastes Cape vintage

Hoerikwaggo to the Khoikhoi, Table Mountain qualified as one of the seven natural wonders of the world in 2012

quartzite in it to make it shine like granite in the sunlight, Only in modern times have we had the added benefit of getting there with splendid views over the precipitous top, 225 rand for a round trip. They built the cable car in 1929, and rebuilt in 1958, 1974 and 1997 as the crowds came to gape. The capacity of the current version is 65, but queues at peak season can still extend to two or three hours long. If the wind gets too high they sound a hooter and you watch the tourist scramble for the cable car. Table Mountain claims

more life than Everest. It looks inviting, and tourists are led astray by the descent of unexpected sudden clouds and the plunging temperatures. If you want to walk it set aside a whole day and they recommend hiring a guide. Most people cable up and walk down, but it still takes time and care. And all the way that rum from the devil will fill your nostrils.

t is not rum, however, but wine that excites us we depart for the winelands, Stellenbosch and Franschoek and all those names that sound

like poetry as the corks unpop (or increasingly with new world wines, the screw caps unwind). Sloshed in Stellenbosch has a nice ring to it. Our destination was a stay Richard Branson’s Mont Rochelle hotel and vineyard, a stunning 22bedroom hotel and vineyard just under an hour’s drive from Cape Town that has been rebuilt from head to foot to turn it into one of the best lodges on

the continent. It is steeped in history, the first black-owned vineyard The wine trail and garden trail are the staples of the Irish honeymoon particularly in the years since brides turned their veils away from Mauritius. The rooms come with high tech air conditioning and window fittings, the pool is deep and refreshing and the barman stayed patiently as we

worked our way through vineyard choices. Franschhoek is the gourmet hotspot of the Winelands so where to turn? At the delicious Cle des Montages, Peggy Klement and Laurence Gould hosted us for a gourmet meal. One of the group went to Foliage and came back with equally fulsome praise. Rum from the devil indeed, and pinotage, and history, and the rest.

■ Eoghan Corry flew to Cape Town on Turkish Airlines’ One Stop service via Istanbul. The stopover in Ataturk airport is two hours and there is a stop in Johannesburg but passengers do not deplane. ■ He stayed at Sun Internationals 5 star Table Bay Hotel at the V&A Waterfront and in Richard Branson’s Mont Rochelle resort in Franschoek

Clockwise: ,views of Table Mountain and cable car, Eoghan Corry on Table Mountain

H NG OLIDA NI

YEARS

MPANY CO

ARD W AW IN

page 015 07/01/2016 12:34 Page 1

1966

2016

SUNWAY HOLIDAYS

Award Winning Holiday Company Celebrating 50 Years in Business

1966

Roy Beatty, Founder, Sunway (1966)

Sunway is a 100% Irish owned family business which was founded in 1966 by Roy Beatty. The company then passed to Roy’s daughter, Madeline Kilbride in 1974 and to his granddaughter, Tanya Airey in 1998. Tanya’s father Jim Furlong, has remained Chairman of Sunway since 1974. Tanya’s husband Philip Airey is a Director of the company and her cousin Brian McGovern is Financial Director. Sunway originally opened in Blackrock as a corporate and leisure travel agency, and in 1991 started tour operations with Morocco being its first destination. The company expanded with the opening of Sunway shops throughout Dublin and also through the major development of its corporate and incentive travel business. Sunway, now located in Dun Laoghaire has always prided itself on bringing the best holiday destinations to the Irish market and is recognised throughout the Industry as an authority on all aspects of the travel business.

Sunway Travel Dawson St. Dublin 1986

2016

Awards

Madeline Kilbride, Managing Director, Sunway (1966-1998)

This year, Sunway a third generation family business, is delighted to be celebrating 50 years in business and is Ireland’s largest Irish owned tour operator. We offer the Irish holidaymaker a choice of over 70 destinations worldwide including: Summer and Winter Sun, Worldwide, USA & Canada, Cruise, River Cruise, Sunsail, Neilson, Mark Warner Beach Clubs, Club Med, Escorted Tours, Adventure Tours, Weddings & Honeymoons and Santa visits in Lapland. Sunway is proud to be celebrating our 50th year in business and look forward to another 50 years providing exceptional holidays at competitive prices.

Over the years our Industry Awards include: Best Long Haul Tour, Best Specialist Tour Operator and Best Sun Holiday Tour Operator as voted for by the Travel Trade. To add to the accolades Sunway has also won Travel Trade Awards for Ireland’s Favourite Travel Agent, Best North America Tour Operator, Best Agent Friendly Company and The Irish Travel Industry Award for Supplier of the Year. A Travel Savers award for Excellence in Customer Support and Best Travel Agent award from the Blue Insurance Travel Media Awards which are voted for by members of the media. Tanya’s awards include: Image Business Woman of the Year, an Irish Travel Industry Award for her contribution to the Irish travel and a recent Irish Travel Trade Industry Achievement Award.

Sunway through the decades

Sunway advertise trips to Majorca 3rd November 1972

Sunway Travel Shops in Blackrock, Sutton and Cornlescourt, Co. Dublin 1972

Sunway’s Corporate Program 1986

Sunway’s full summer program 2004

Sunway Travel Shops in Blackrock, Sutton and Cornlescourt, Co. Dublin 1972 (Left: Madeline Kilbride)

Sunway wins multiple travel industry awards for Best Summer Sun, Longhaul and Specialist Tour Operator, Best Travel Agency and Best Agent Friendly Company. (Tanya & Philip Airey)

1996 Sunway launch website www.sunway.ie and Online Booking facility in 2000

1995 Sunway commence a worldwide programme with the launch of South Africa

Licensed and Bonded No: TO 101

Sunway begin tour operations in Morocco, summer 1991

USA & Canada program launched, 2007, Cruise holidays launched in 2010

Summer 2016 on sale now

Summer and Winter Sun, Worldwide, USA & Canada, Cruise, River Cruise, Sunsail, Neilson, Mark Warner Beach Clubs, Club Med, Escorted Tours, Adventure Tours, Weddings & Honeymoons and Lapland.

Visit www.sunway.ie

| Call 01 2311800 |

Contact Your Local

Travel Agent

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Page 018 Turkey by anne 07/01/2016 14:09 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 18

DESTINATION TURKEY

hen you look at your newlybronzed face in a mirror at the end of a week away and tell yourself honestly “I could come back here again – in fact I will”, then you know you’ve been holidayed. Being brutally honest, however, it didn’t start off so good. At the end of over four hours in the air, we landed at Dalaman Airport through some impressive cumulo-nimbus clouds and wondered if, at the end of September, we’d left it too late in the year. Our coach arrived at the Sensatori, Fethiye, being rocked by potholes in the, ahem, rather rustic road outside and, within minutes of foraying onto the beach, himself impaled his foot on a thorn. The first night was spent listening – and watching – the most impressive thunderstorm either of us have ever witnessed, shaking the walls and windows. We wondered if the hotel’s electrical system could survive (it did – although there were a couple of very brief power outages). After that inauspicious start, however, it was upwards all the way.

Talking Turkey T

Anne Cadwallader and Gerry O’Hare sample Seansatori by Falcon in Fethiye

he Sensatori formula has worked elsewhere (Crete, Sharm-el-Sheikh, Tenerife, Ibiza etc) and the latest in the range, 13kms from Fethiye on Turkey’s “Turquoise Coast”, opened in May 2015. It works because you know what to expect when you book your holiday. All-inclusive luxury, sparking cleanliness, excellent service, food nearly 24/7 and a range of swimming pools and a nearby beach. The large, modern site is surrounded on one side by a pine-fringed stony/sandy beach with

WHAT’S HOT

■ Freshly-squeezed orange straight from the fruit – why can’t ALL hotels manage this? ■ The large range in the buffet – you really can eat healthily all week ■ The cleanliness of the pools and entire hotel site – not a mozzie anywhere ■ The availability of adults-only areas

WHAT’S NOT

■ Albanian liver? Yoghurt soup? ■ Dalaman Airport – what a kip. ■ Seething humanity queuing up for a Burger King or KFC. Nowhere quiet and air-conditioned to sit quietly ■ The hotel sits completely on its own – so if you want to take a walk outside, there’s not much to see – although that is likely to change and development looms ■ So funny that the Thomson rep giving our “Welcome Talk” didn’t even mention the six-hour storm that had kept us all awake most of the night.

views of tree-clad mountains and a wide bay dotted with islands. On-site, there are hibiscus, baytree hedges, oleanders, vines growing up the accommodation blocks, grassy areas – all newlyplanted but growing well.

e chose a swim-up room – so called because when you open the sliding doors in your room, the pool is a mere few steps away, past your own sun-loungers, at the end of your own tiled or decked patio. It’s as near as getting a private pool as makes no difference – but with all the benefits of a modern, low-rise (max 3-storey) hotel complex completely on your doorstep. We had, for example, within 50 yards of our room/deck/pool, an adults-only bar, a kiosk serving cocktails and icecream throughout the day, a lunch-time snack-bar, a lovely little patisserie where we could enjoy a tea, biscuit or cakes from 10am to 7pm and another large swimming pool. The beach was a whole 100 yards away. Wooden boardwalks and a jetty and steps into the sea mean you can swim without even getting your feet

sandy – although there are showers along the beach to wash the sand from between your toes and off your sandals. The jetty was a perfect viewpoint for spectacular sunsets.

ood is a vital part of any holiday. At the Sensatori, you have a choice of eating from a vast range of t h e m e d evening foods at night as well as the usual massive breakfast and lunch selection buffet with tables al fresco or indoors. There is a range of a la carte restaurants (easily bookable via computer stations) to ring the changes (one Italian, one the “Sunset Grill” and others specialising in Mid-Eastern, Asian and Turkish cuisine). We particularly liked the “Basilico” Italian restaurant which serves pizza and pasta and salads as well as grilled meats and delicious desserts.

The head-waiter here was a scream and added some Italian drama to the evening. The temptation with a buffet restaurant is to eat too much and come home heavier than you left. But it was entirely possible to eat a lot, but healthily, at the S e n satori Fethiye with an e v e r changing selection of salads and delicious fruit. The tomatoes, the freshly-squeezed orange juice and the luscious peaches at the Sensatori Fethiye were quite the nicest I have ever experienced, and that says a lot. As for the baklava … not so healthy. Turkish lamb and beef are, perhaps, not up to Irish standards but that’s more than made-up for with the range of kebabs and various types of kofte available (minced lamb/beef mixed with

herbs and spices). If you’re a really plain eater, perhaps stick to poultry (the turkey in Turkey is great).

he rooms are not huge, but they are plenty large enough for two and – while not all rooms have baths – the shower-rooms are spacious and easy to use with modern raindrench units that make washing your hair a pleasure. The rooms are sound-proofed too, which is just as well as the hotel is becoming a favourite with honeymooners. There is plenty of hanging space and an iron/board and kettle with tea/coffee. TV stations include Sky News, BBC World News and BBC Entertainment, CNN, MTV, National Geographic, various film networks, Eurosport, Nickleodeon, Disney etc. The air-conditioning (and we needed air-conditioning as the temperature rose to 40C most days – and stood at 38C even in the early evening) is efficient and virtually silent (no nasty wheezing through the warm nights!). Each room has a free mini-bar which included water, soft-drinks and beer replaced daily. Rooms come equipped with luxurious white bath robes, towelling slippers and a docking system for your MP3 players (not just iPhone but any player). Outside your room, all drinks at the bar are included until midnight and there are inside, outdoor, adults-only and swim-up bars serving cocktails, wine (including prosecco-type) on tap. Wifi is free in your room and throughout the hotel – and it actually works.

■ Gerry O’Hare and Anne Cadwallader travelled to the Sensatori Resort Fethiye in Turkey’s Dalaman as guests of Thomson. They enjoyed all inclusive board arrangements at the newly opened hotel. Thomson operate weekly flights over the Summer to Dalaman from Dublin and Belfast International Airports..

Page 020 Iceland 07/01/2016 14:10 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 20

DESTINATION ICELAND

eople cannot get enough of Iceland, The name makes people smile. Getting there is easier than ever before with the low-cost airline Wow entering a market that had been dominated by charters. It makes the short twoday break viable and possible. Like any country that is two thirds the size of Ireland, two days will not suffice but will give you enough of a taste to whet the appetite to return. Icelandic tourism works in a pretty simple circus. Within a couple of hours of Reykjavik you will have a selection of geological wonders, beaches, waterfalls and historic sites that will linger long in the memory. Goldfuss, the golden waterfall is the signature attraction on the liquid side, but, this being Iceland there is plenty of fire as well.

ne of the most curious sights is the exhaustive geyser, called gesysir, which gave its name to all geysers around the world. “It needs resuscitation” our guide Sverrir Ragnallson told us. Thankfully such resuscitation,

surf and surf main course.. Back in the 1970s said Rúna Magnúsdóttir, my companion at the restaurant, when the family went to eat out they claimed the only place in town that had food. It was the Hotel Marina, the restaurant was like a canteen and we all had frozen fish more meatballs. When you are asked for a burger you got a meatball between two buns. Nowadays Reykjavik food, in common with the revival of Scandinavian culinary excellence, prides itself on its offering.

Iceland where the continental plates collide

The crack in Iceland D

Iceland gets a new direct flight from Dublin

which is to be achieved through detergents and foam has been banned. There are lots of places to wander where the steam issues forth and the earth bubbles. For the most famous and newest of all, you don't have to go far from the airport. The blue Lagoon came about as a

rewsult of the construction of a power station in the 1990s. Iceland’s Disneyland, Sverrir Ragnallson commented with a wry Icelandic smile.

teamy thermal water and snowflakes is a combination you will never forget, no matter how far and how often your travel: . Despite what the geysers and waterfalls might claim, Iceland’s signature attraction is the Blue Lagoon, a giant steam bath that is so close to the airport (13 kilometres) you could pop in after checkin. The pool is a newcomer even in a landscape as fragile as Iceland’s. It emerged during the construction of a geothermal power station in 1976. Modern changing rooms were built at the entrance in 1992 and have been upgraded since to cope with the growing Lagoon squad.

■ WOW air’s new direct service from Dublin to Keflavik operates on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Flight time is 2 hours and 20 mins.

You can see why they come. When you plod your piggies into the silicon in waste-deep water it is impressive a bath as you will have anywhere. No self-respecting world traveller nowadays can return on the two and a half hour Wow Air flight to Dublin without the photograph of themselves immersed in the warm water with the steam rising and, if you want the full effect, a few icicles as a distant backdrop.

riving home the message of the personality of Iceland is the big task facing the country over the next 10 years. It is more than lava streams, beautiful waterfalls and ancient parliamentary sites. The food movement in Reykjavik is one of the signs of how the product has evolved. Perhaps the best restaurant in town is Kos. It is famous for its cocktails, but I preferred a Viking beer to wash down my arctic char starter and my

andering home in the dark it is hard not to be impressed with the comfortable, familial safe ambience of the midnight city. They tell me that the police force in Reykjavik have only killed one miscreant in its entire history and that happened two years ago. It sent a shock through the system. Visitors from the USA must wonder how it happened at all . Eight years ago, says Inga Hlin Palsdottir of Icelandic tourism, the image of Iceland was all about the landscape. We had to remind our markets that people lived in Iceland too. First the scenery, then the people. Thet’s something to blow steam about.

Goldfuss, Pingvellir pond, bathing in the Blue Lagoon, and northern lights

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FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 22

DESTINATION USA

ames Smithson had never set foot in America but liked the fact that they fought the English in 1812. He decided he would set up the Smithsonian Institute, and 16 of his museums are now the treasury of Washington DC. Aaron Goldbeck should know. He conducts bicycle tours (Bike and Roll) around the US capital, a two hour pedal through history. Best leave the introduction to him: ‘We are standing here on the National Mall and directly behind me you can see the American History Museum. Half of it is under repair right now. If you do go there the key thing to see is the flag that inspired the American National Anthem in 1814, written by Francis Scott Key viewed the shelling of Fort McHenry. To the left is the natural history museum with its distinctive green dome, the most visited museum in the USA, with one of the most visited exhibits, the Hope Diamond. Further down, under a white dome, is the National Gallery of Art. Switch to the other side of the National Mall and

A capital experience O

Thje Washington memorial has reopened to the public after restoration due to earthquake damage

you find the American Indian museum, which has the best food of any Smithsonian. After that you have the Hirshhorn, the modern art gallery which is a personal favourite. Finally there is the National Air and Space Museum, which probably has the highest concentration of 12 year old boys per square foot of anywhere on the planet. Hit that one early before it gets busy.”

n Dupont Circle you come across a little bit of Ireland, an embassy of hospitality to rival the political embassy which is at the heart of the city’s socio-diplomatic circle. The local Irish pub bears the name of James Hoban, architect of both the White House and Leinster House. And across a little green space was our home for the duration of our short stay. Clareman Mark Roche

PLACES TO EAT, STAY AND PLAY

n Dupont Circle Hotel with its sleek design, eclectic artwork and coveted location is surrounded by The District’s bestt restaurants, nightlife and entertainment and some of the city’s most treasured monuments and eponymous parks. n Bike and Roll, 955 L’Enfant Plaza, provides an overview of the city as you bike to and learn about the major sites on and around the National Mall and Capitol Hill, including the Capitol Building, Supreme Court, Smithsonian Museums, World War II Memorial, and Washington Monument +1202 8422453 www.bikethesites.com n Odyssey Cruises 600 Water Street SW offers a distinctive three-course menu, prepared fresh onboard daily and the chance of a spin around the dance floor with live music. +1866 4048439 www.odysseycruises.com/washingtondc

n U DC Metro Food Tours offer culinary tours of U Street, known as "Black Broadway", and once the home of Duke Ellington, the cuisinefollows the history of the neighborhood, www.dcmetrofoodtours.com n Award-winning chef Jose Garces helms Rural Society, an Argentine steakhouse, at Loews Madison Hotel 1177 15th Street NW. Check the eggs benedict or steak and egg specials. n Great breakfast option is Muze at Mandarin Oriental, Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, local produce combined with the distinctive flavors of South-East Asia, try the Chessapeake crab caks breakfast, www.mandarinoriental.com n The Gibson, 2009 14th Street NW +1202 232-2156, as close as you get to a speakeasy while staying on the right side of the law. The atmosphere anhances the flavour of the signature cocktails.

Garland is GM of the Du sylvania Avenue is virtuPont Circle Hotel, part of ally a monument to the Doyle Collection . He slaughterhouse celebrity. But fine dining eventuhas a $55m development to show us, called level ally made it past the beltnine, with 15 suites and way too, there are 2,000 elite-tier business facili- restaurants and more than ties. Nine of the suites on 100 new ones open each level nine, which has a year. n i c e pallindromic ring to it, have their own private terraces overlooking the city. All of the rooms on the floor have their Mark McDonnell own spa tub and shower. The rest of the house is shower only. “Ten years ago the Bathroom floors are heated which is popular steak restaurants were THE restaurants,” says in Washington’s winters. The hotel’s executive Mark McDonnell, Artane chef David Fritsche is in- born chef at the Mandarin creasingly sourcing food Oriental. “A lot of money was coming from the locally. government side and they a s h i n g t o n , went to steak restauwith its tran- rants.” An Irish chef, Cathal sient population of America’s Armstrong, steward of legislators, lawyers, bu- the Eden Centre, is reaucrats and general among the city’s most hangers-on, was always a highly rated. Washington DC’s faplace to get great steak. mously low-lying skyline Capital Steak on Penn-

is not going to change anytime soon. Buildings cannot be ten feet taller than the width of the street upon which they are built. Nor is the source of the city’s unique atmosphere: the tide of people that come from all over the USA to the playgrounds around the Capitol and White House. Washington DC attracts 19m visitors annually, 1.6m of them international. They come to marvel at the monuments on the mall (there was a monumental mall in Washington long before the word was hijacked by the retail trade). Think of Dublin on All Ireland hurling final weekend. The residents of the city carry on which disregards far the bit big events that is happening within the beating heart of its existence. The vistors arrive, fill the restaurants and sidewalks, and leave again without having made any long lasting impact on the culture or prevailing mood of the city..

n Aer Lingus fly 4w from Dublin to Washington DC departing 12.45 arriving in Washington at 15.35, with the return flight leaving Washington at 17.20, arriving in Dublin at 05.30, operated by Airbus A330 aircraft. Aer Lingus customers travelling to Washington via Dublin are able to onnect with 34 onwards connections across North America.

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We’re laid-back

We’re upbeat

We’re Egypt

See you by the Red Sea SHARM EL SHEIKH - HURGHADA www.egypt.travel

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DESTINATION USA

he best bit, and I am not sure if this is a good thing, is the elevator ride to the top. The One World Observatory atop the rebuild World Trade Centre in Manhattan is a marvel of technology. A busy team researched the history of every building on the lower side of Manhattan so the animators of the inelevator video screens could imagine a time lapse history, unevenly and warped at different rates for different eras. The effect is galvanising, scrubland to city, meadow to metropolis, all in the space of the 47 second race to the top, skyscrapers sprouting on three of the four sides of the lift as you rise. After that the visit becomes a bit transactional, a short introduction, and a viewing gallery where the information points and information personnel are long on many things but short of information, before you exit, this being theme park territory, through the gift shop. Thanks for the $32, wanna buy the tee-shirt? Now move on. It is not at all like the viewing gallery on the old World Trade Centre twin towers, where they built two open decks before realising that suicide tourism was a thing and making jumping to ones death more difficult

Out of the Darkness Eoghan Corry visits the 9-11 memorial and new One World Observatory in New York

One World Observatory: symbol of the new Manhattan

spoiled the view. The views across the city are great, but it is the virtual bits that you remember. Not just the elevator, but the virtual glass floor. And the descent when the lift capsule appears to leave the confines of the tower entirely and sail around it in a great arc before re-entering through windows that obligingly slide apart. Want to go up? Maybe somewhere you can see this place, both the Empire State and the new World Trade Centre, is the place to go, like the Top of the Rock.

o commemorate Manhattan’s hour of darkness, descend into the cellars nearby. This time an escalator takes you down past parts of the fabric of the old, destroyed, World Trade Centre, into the bedrock. The New York skyline we see today rises form this rock foundation. A shattered fire truck is the most striking artefact on show. But here again, the action is from recorded video and audio, the hijackers coming through security, the voice of one of the hi-

Clockwise: Ranger Douglas Treem and Elis Island, fire engine in 9-11 museum and Sean Tallon’s name on 9-11 memorial

jackers who inadvertently broadcast his instructions to passengers to Air Traffic Control. Pick up the headphones and you hear the ghostly voice of a flight attendant Betty Ong. “I’m No. 3 on Flight 11, our No 3 got stabbed, our purser got stabbed. Nobody knows who stabbed who, and we can’t even get up to business class right now because nobody can breathe. “ And the cockpit is not answering their phone, and there’s somebody stabbed in business class, and we can’t breathe in

business class — somebody’s got Mace or something. The ground crew got the flight number wrong. She had to ask twice were they still there. “Who are you hun?” asked a sleepy supervisor when she had told them everything already. It was not like the movies. Except maybe that scene in get Smart where Leonard Stern tries to contact Homeland Security. It was VERY real. Very chilling.

STAY AND EAT

■ Hotel Beacon 2130 Broadway at 75th Street New York, NY 10023 Tel: (212) 787-1100 www.beaconhotel.com This cosy boutique hotel is a 4-minute walk to the subway and 7 minutes to the American Museum of Natural History. The contemporary rooms have kitchenettes, marble bathrooms, flat-screen TVs and free Wi-Fi. Suites add separate living areas with sofa beds and/or extra bedrooms. ■ Hudson Eats, Brookfield Place www.brookfieldplaceny.com Brookfield Place, originally and still also known as the World Financial Center,

he storyboards and videos are heaving with information, a little more analytical question and with more depth than we might expect from the often trite analysis current in popular culture of how 9-11 came about. I watched Osama Bin Laden’s life story with some eighth-graders. A visual suggested that Bin Laden hated America because they were sending troops to the Middle east. At the end of it all they got two messages: “we helped this guy” and

is a complex of office buildings located across West Street from the World Trade Center site in the Battery Park City neighbourhood of Manhattan, New York City ■ Delicatessen www.delicatessennyc.com 54 Prince St, New York, NY 10012, United States Phone:+1 212226-0211 ■ Shake Shack https://www.shakeshack.com 215 Murray St (between West St & North End Ave), New York, NY 10282 Hip, counter-serve chain for gourmet takes on fast-food classics like burgers & frozen custard

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FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 26

DESTINATION USA

“I would send millions of more troops.” Crystal clear, out of the mouth of an eighth grader. That was the solution to conflict.. I searched amid the names, carved in stone outside and photographs in endless oblongs beyond the height of the tallest visitor. My cousin Sean Fegan (in that extended Irish cousinly way, my uncle was married to his aunt), looking playful and unconcerned from his wall like he did at the last wedding we attended, and Sean Tallon from Donadea in Kildare, whose aunt was in my class at school, his ridiculously oversized fireman’s hat atop his head. Sean Fegan’s body was never recovered. Seen Tallon’s never stops turning up.

eff Levine conducted our little group around the Whitney Museum, where the location has become an exhibit in itself.

The Manhattan skyline with the new World Trade Centre and (right) gleaming sign of the new Manhattan

It is the full stop on the High Line, Manhattan’s old dock railway turned tree-lined linear park, a project that started as an artistic exhibit itself when the photographs of Joel Sternfeld were first put on display nearly two decades ago, American art was underappreciated, Jeff explains, until the museum was established in the 1920s, and as if to illustrate the point, describes the collection’s nomadic

PLACES TO SEE

■ One World Observatory http://oneworldobservatory.com/ One World Observatory opened its doors in May 2015 ■ Nine-eleven Memorial www.911memorial.org The 9/11 Museum opened in May 2014 ■The Whitney Museum www.whitney.org The Whitney Museum of American Art — known as "The Whitney" — is a New York City art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art ■ Ellis Island for a tour Tour of the

existence since. In mid town museums are elbowing for space. Down here in the meat packing district, where the alsations used to go out in pairs, it is like an icon. Jeff explains that you can pass form level to level to level without passing indoors, with a living breathing city all around, like the best of American artwork. Here you will find Hoppers. Lots of Hoppers. His Early Sunday

museum and recently completed Peopling Of America Center www.LibertyEllisFoundation.org Ellis Island is a symbol of American immigration. Tour the Ellis Island Immigration Museum and research your family history. View genealogy records of your ancestry ■ Brooklyn Unplugged Tours Learn more about what Brooklyn has to offer ■ CityPASS The CityPASS provides free (and often priority) entry to six of the city’s most iconic attractions and museums. www.citypass.com/newyork

Clockwise: Tom Travers and cocktail maker Mike Manjo serve the best Manhattan in Manhattan to Deirdre Conroy and Eoghan Corry, jogger on the waterfront, The Whitney museum galleries and a sign welcoming walkers to the High Line.

Morning, his Soir Bleu, as well as the great boxing painting by George Bellows, Dempsey and Firpo and Central Park 1900 by Cork’s finest, Maurice Prendergast.

ack in the bar of the Hotel Beacon they have the best Manhattans in Manhattan, conjured up by barman Mike Manjo. A bit of rye, a sweet vermouth, and then bitters. You can use different bitters, it changes each Manhattan and makes it that little bit different. “We use Jim Beam bourbon. You could use a high end premium bourbon but you want notice it in a drink are putting that much vermouth in. The vermouth is the key. “ “A true Manhattan is a work of art. You have to stir it, you don’t shake it. So it is clear. You have to use the right cherry too, we use a high end brandy cherry, the Marasca cherry.” Cocktails are a legacy of Prohibition. “They made it in their basements in their bath tubs. They needed to disguise the flavour.” The bar is spacious and airy, and highlights of Mike’s menu include the Louisiane, Parisian Chuck, Oaxaca Smokeout, Pisco Sour, Mint

Julep and Dark & Stormy Tom Travers, a familiar sight at Dublin’s Holiday World, manages the Hotel Beacon. “This was always an apartment hotel for people who people who wanted hotel services with apartment size apartments so our rooms are much bigger than most mid town hotels”. “It is a great place to base yourself as a tourist. You don’t feel like a tourist on then upper west side, you feel like a New Yorker. “You can come out and enjoy the local restaurants and shops. During the day you can go mid town to see the major attractions you can come back here at night and leave the madding crowds behind you. The best times to visit is January and February. It does have some drawbacks. But that’s when the lowest rates occur. “ “Also July and August because the corporate travel world stops travelling and the city is less busy.” Tom Travers says more than 10pc of his visitors are Irish. “The Irish are great visitors to have. They are very knowledgable and they really take advantage of everything New York has to offer.”

or Manhattan as she should be seen, take to the water. The Staten island ferry takes you past the icons for free. It you want to stop in the icons, take the $18 day cruise from Battery Park.. In the 54 years that Ellis Island was open they processed 12m immigrants with an efficiency that would put your average airport security queue to shame. Our guide Douglas Treem recreated the mixture of excitement and tension. What is your name? Where are you coming from? Where are you going to? What do you do for a living? “ “The inspector believes you, so does Uncle Sam.” ‘Ten per cent were taken aside.” “Other cases tricky, complicated. Nothing human was alien to them. Their job was to understand. The medical inspection was a climb up the stairs. If you had a dodgy knee you were taken aside. If you were short of breath. If you bounded up the stair with enthusiasm, they might take you aside for possible mental derangement.” It figures. Those guys obviously got to invent the Manhattan.

■ For more ideas, including shopping, dining, tours, museums, sightseeing, green spaces and more, see www.nycgo.com ■ Aer Lingus fly twice daily from Dublin to New York and daily from Shannon to New York. They will launch Dublin to Newark in September. Economy fares start from €239 each way and business class fares start from €969 each way.

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SUMMER IN

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FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 28

DESTINATION AUSTRALIA

12 Apostles & 297 sacred places A

Eoghan Corry on the coastline of Victoria

One of the world’s most famous ocean drives: the twelve Apostles on Australia’s southern coast at sunset

lmost every crossroads in Australia has a memorial to the fallen in the first world war. They have April parades and minutes’ silences to commemorate the lives lost at Gallipoli and Suvla Bay. When I asked Jidah Clark how many memorials there are to aboriginal fallen in the frontier wars of the 1860s, I was met with an incredulous look. “None,” he said. Not one. It might be added that 50,000 Australians died fighting for the empire, and 180,000 aboriginals died on their own lands. They may well never have existed. A complicated history for a complicated land.

hey have 297 art sites in this area (Gariwerd to the aboriginals) centre of creation stories for many of the Aboriginal communi-

ties in south-western Victoria, around the areas where some of the worst of the massacres and poisonings took place. None of them get direct sunlight. The oldest rock paintings are the same age as the Lascaux paintings in France. Jidah had brought us to Billimina rock overhang was once a meeting place for the Jardwadjali people. There are others Gulgurn Manja. Manja, Ngamadjidj. Wando Vale is the Auschwitz of aboriginal culture. The British reduced the local population from an estimated 100,000 in 1788 to 3,500 in 1850. By 1917 the handful of survivors were concentrated on the two surviving mission stations Framlingham and Ramahyuck, largely against their will, and children were separated from their parents and

placed in children's homes or with white families.

t Brambuk Cultural Centre there is a visitor centre grasping at the remnants of the lost culture, there were once language groups 38 languages in the region, and 500 languages in Australia, all extinct or in terminal decline. The shop and reception is manned by whitefellahs, a grainy enlarged photograph represented the lost generation, their faces pixilated beyond anything recognisable like a medieval statue. Only one story has survived, the video tells us, as there are no blackfellas to give a tour. “The body parts of our people were collected and sent all over the world,” said Jidah Puundaa Yirneen Clark, to give him his full name.

“There is a big military culture in Australia, ANZAC day and all that. They don’t recognise the wars that took place in Australia. More people were killed and they were fought for a longer period, about 140 years, where are our heroes represented in the monuments in Canberra or anywhere else?

wimming in the ocean was once banned here,” Roger Sullivan says at the surfing museum in Torquay, an hour or so south of Melbourne on the road to the Twelve Apostles. “It was considered indecent.” Everything changed when the gospel of Duke Kahanamoku came from Hawaii and Australian designers introduced the short board to surfing, reducing 9 foot to 6 foot and the eight from 20kg to 5kg.

First generation Malin man and triple world champion Mick Fanning, who survived a near death experience with a shark last summer, is among those who are celebrated at the little shrine to one of the sport’s most famous beaches. Even when the wind comes from the Antarctic, rather than the tropics, Australians love their surf. “The best surfer on the water is the one having the most fun,” Roger says. “You are tapping into an energy that is generated thousands of kilometers away. The range of experience that you can have on a wave is great. You can be completely encircled by the water. It is pretty rare to encounter a surfer who is not smiling.”

t was an unforgiving coast. They have storyboard marking the sites of the most famous

shipwrecks, Tom Pearse the cabin boy on the Lockhart and Eva Carmichael the Irish doctor’s daughter survived who survived three shipwrecks The coastline here is distinctive, the ocean fringed with white, the colours more subtle than we normally associate with Australia. Fragile as the landscape is the wildlife, there are 28 endemic plants in the Grampians, struggling to survive the invasion. “It is a very different landscape,” Greg Clements says. “The sandstone makes the terrain soft, with those boulders coming down on it. The Otway snail is very rare, don't step on one.” The world’s most recognised limestone stacks, the Twelve Apostles will astonish you from the beach, the cliff top or a helicopter flight. We tried all three.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC HAS IT ALL

Email: uk@godominicanrepublic.com Visit: www.godominicanrepublic.com Study: go-dominicanrepublic.eu

Page 030 Destination Ireland Down 08/01/2016 09:25 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 30

DESTINATION IRELAND

ace day was the worst. The Downpatrick races would be scheduled, adn the clay would start disappearing form St Patrick’s Grave. It took a long time for any tourists to find evidence of one of the world’s best known saints. St Patrick, already lumbered with a boisterous festive day and some improbable legends, is finding a new life as a tourist attraction. Some market-savvy Mournesiders have come up with a 92 mile linear driving route linking 15 key sites, some famous, some less so: the Ruins of St. Tassach’s church where Saint Patrick was given the last rites, or the holy wells at Struell, Grey Abbey and Inch Abbey, and the big stone where he is lain at Downpatrick Cathedral. The stone was placed to stop pilgrims taking handfuls of clay away from the grave. Especially on race day.

ark Mohan looks after tourism in the area, and has developed the new walking trail between Armagh and Down. It extends across country to meet the canal towpath at Tandragee, following the tow path into Newry, picking up the Mourne Way, the

St Pat & All That Eoghan Corry footsteps the patron saint thorugh Down

Saul: A 1930s church on an ancient site

northern side of the mountain, Murlough way, Kilkeel way and through a network of small roads into Downpatrick. There is an initiative to join the Christian heritage sites from Boyne Valley to Downpatrick and Croagh Patrick, through Faughart, across Ravensdale, across Carlingford Lough by boat and across the trail to what is the Mourne way.

he designated home of St Patrick’s story, St

Patrick’s Centre in Downpatrick was never officially opened, the heritage site director Tim Campbell says. They planned an official opening ceremony but it never happened. It probably suited the saint. “There are two signature attractions here,” he says, “the mountains of Mourne and St Patrick.” Heritage centres are and this one thuds through the storyline, slavery, shipwreck, mission, the Book of Armagh and modern scholars. Videos have been remas-

tered and interpretation updated. New effects include shimmering silicates to represent the sea.

aul church is a 1930s construction on an ancient site. Dean Henry Hull explains how people would come to the site and look into his dark church so they tried to make it look brighter. “My theory is that Patrick learned his Irish here, so when he went to Dublin they did not really

understand what he was saying. He felt at home among these hills.” “You can see Slieve Patrick, where the Catholics placed a statue in 1932. They needed a striking figure to model Patrick on. They modelled him on the Church of Ireland archbishop.” For something really impressive, call by Struell. The bathing houses are now roofless and the stones shaken by history. But the place retains its grandeur. “This was a huge pilgrimage place,” Tim Campbell says.

“People used to walk barefoot from Galway to Struell Wells. It was a precursor to Lough Derg.” “The mission of the trail is to bring people together irrespective of their faith, politics or ability, in the spirit of St Patrick. We want to get away from snakes and shamrocks and green beer.” “As well as being a historical figure he can still bring people together. What better role model in this part of Ireland.”

Clockwise: Lunch stop at The Cuan Licensed Guest Inn, Strangford Village, Dean Henry Hull in Saul Church, Slieve Donard hotel at the heart of the St patrick trail, the forgotten pilgrimage site at Struell baths and the Stragford to Portaferry ferry

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Holiday World

CARAVAN & MOTORHOME SHOW

Show

RDS Simmonscourt, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 Fri 22 Jan 1.00pm - 6.00pm • Sat 23 Jan 11.00am - 5.30pm • Sun 24- Jan 11.00am - 5.30pm PRESS OFFICE EE CM10

EE CM13

CM3a

CM2a

CM3

CM2

CM6 S21

S20

D15 CM8

CM14

ADVENTURE TRAVEL

A25 A24 A23 A22 A21

THE AMERICAS

A20

CARIBBEAN

A19

B15

B16

B13 B14

C14 C13

AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST

A17

D11 E13a E13 D10

E12

B11

C11

E11

B10

C10

D8 D7

B7 C6 C7

OVER 55’s HOLIDAYS WEDDINGS AND HONEYMOON DESTINATIONS

H16 H17

H14 J11

H15

H13 J10

H12 H11

H10 J9

H9 J8

F11 G12 G11 F10 G10

E10 E9

F8 E7

A15

A14

B5 B4

C3 D3

A12

B3 A11

B2 B1

K12

L13 L12

K11

K10

K7 K8

M10 N9

P12 R12 P11 R11 P10 R10

N8 M8

P9 R9

M7 N7

P8 R8 P7 R7 P6 R6

S13

S12 S11

ATM

S10 S9

H5 H6 J6 J5 H3 H4 J4 J3

L5 L3

K2a

L2a

M6 N6 M5 N5 M4 N4 M3 N3 M2

N2 N1

P5a R5a P5 R5

S7 S6 S5 S4

P4 R4 P3 R3 P2 R2

P1 R1

EXIT A10 A9 A8 A7 A6 A5 A4 A3

H1a G1

P14 R14

CATERING AND ENTERTAINMENT

P13 R13

M11 N10

L11 L10

S14

N11

K4 F4

P15 R15

E5 E4

S16 S15

M12 N12

F5 G6 G5

C5 C4

K14 K15 L16 L15 K13 L14

A16

A13

CARAVAN AND MOTORHOMES

F13 G14 F12a G13 F12

CRUISING

F16 F15 G15 F14

E14

B12 C12a C12

A18

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

D12

S17

INSPIRE CAFÉ BAR

T2 T1

T1a

ORGANISER’S OFFICE

BROCHURE STORE

EXHIBITOR’S RESTAURANT

HOME HOLIDAYS

S19

CM1

CM4

D13

D12a

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERREAN

CM7

CARAVAN & MOTORHOME SHOW

S18

DISCOVER:

CM9

CM11

ENTRANCE

OUR EXHIBITOR LIST Holiday World Show

A Taste of Donegal Food Festival M12/N12 Abbey Chiropractic and Wellness Centre E13a Abbey Hotel Donegal Town M12/N12 Abbey Travel Adventures E12 Abbeyglen Castle Hotel R14 Accident & General F12a

Acorn Insurance Life A21 Advantage Austria C1 Aillwee Cave P4 Air Canada/Air Canada Rouge K4 Air Transat K6 Alabama Tourism G5 Algarve Tourism Bureau M10/N9 Allianz - Travel Insurance G15 Aluna Vacances - Ardeche (Sunelia) A14 American Holidays F4/G4 An Post E8

Andalucia Tourist Board H7/J7 Antalya Service LLC K15 Armagh City Banbridge + Craigavon Borough Council N4 ASL Airlines France L6 Association of Hotels and Resturants of Latvia D6 ATB (Agencia de Turisme de les Illes Balears) H7/J7 ATTS Travel Representation Solutions L8 Axencia Turismo De Galicia H7/J7

Balearic Islands H7/J7 Barbados Tourism Marketing INC F11 Basque Country tourism Board H7/J7 BeckettHanlon Worldwide Property G8 Belleek Pottery Visitors Centre M1 Berrua - Cote Basque (Sunelia) A14 Best Holidays In Italy H15 Birr Castle Gardens and Science CentreM1 Blue Insurances/Multitrip.com E2 Brochure Broker S5 Bunratty Castle Hotel M1

Butlers Chocolate Experience M1 Cambrils Tourist Office H7/J7 CaminoWays.com K9/L9 Camping La Garangeoire A12 Camping La Grande Métairie A12 Camping Domaine de la Brèche A12 Camping Le Pin Parasol***** A13 Camping Sequoia Parc A12 Camping Village de la Guyonniere A18 Canary Islands H7/J7 Carlow Tourism P9

Carrickc Cascade & Lifest Cassidy Castel l Castello Castle H and Nei Ca Castlero Castro M Ca Caucasu Causew Celebrit Ce Charles China N Clare To Classic Clayton Clickand Co Cobh To Col D'Ib Coláiste Colaiste Comhal Commo Connect Costa C County Cruise.c Cruisep Cruisesc Cuba To Cyprus T Czech To Dawson Deep So Derry Vi Discove Discove Discove Discove Discove Discove Dom Pe Domaine - Vosges Domaine - Heraul Domaine - Ardech Dominic Donegal Donegal Donegal Doolin C Doolin F Doonbeg Dublin's - The St Dublinia Dubrovn e-travel Ear Edg Egy Elit Den Em Em Em Em Enjoyire Ethiopia Europe A Eurotel Exo

page 032-033 08/01/2016 12:42 Page 2

M1 J7 L9 A12 A12 A12 A13 A12 A18 J7 P9

Carrickcraft S13 Cascade Wellness & Lifestyle Resort M10/N9 Cassidy Golf Holidays L2a Castel le Domaine de la Breche A12 Castellon Tourist Board H7/J7 Castle Hotels & Mansins in Austria and Neighbouring Countries C1 Castlecourt Hotel Resort N3 Castlerosse Hotel & Holiday Homes P12 Castro Marim Golfe M10/N9 Catalonia Tourist Board H7/J7 Caucasus Travel L11 Causeway Coast & Glens Borough M7 Celebrity Cruises B9/C9 Celtic Horizon Tours A6 Charles Taylor Trading D13/D15 China National Tourist Office D3 Clare Tourism P2/R4 Classic Resorts K2a Clayton Hotels P1 ClickandGo.com H9 Cobh Heritage Centre N8 Cobh Tourism N8 Col D'Ibardin - Cote Basque A14 Coláiste UISCE S14 Colaiste na bhFiann S1 Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann XX1 Commodore Hotel Cobh N8 Connecticut Office of Tourism F7/G7 Costa Calida - Region of Murcia H7/J7 County Kildare Failte P5/R5 Cruise.co E11 Cruiseparadise.ie F9/G9 Cruisescapes G12 Cuba Tourist Board F10 Cyprus Tourism Organisation D9 Czech Tourism B2 Dawson Travel.ie A2 Deep South USA G5 Derry Visitor & Convention Bureau K3/L3 Discover Boyne Valley N11 Discover Bundoran M12/N12 Discover Mayo P15/R15 Discover New England F7/G7 Discover Newport Rhode Island F7/G7 Discover Travel A7 Dom Pedro Hotels M10/N9 Domaine De Champe - Vosges (Sunelia) A14 Domaine de la Dragonniere - Herault (Sunelia) A14 Domaines Les Ranchisses - Ardeche (Sunelia) A14 Dominican Republic Tourist Office G10 Donegal Community Chamber M12/N12 Donegal International Airport M12/N12 Donegal Tourism M12/N12 Doolin Cave M1 Doolin Ferry - O'Brien Line P2 Doonbeg Community Development R2 Dublin's City Hall - The Story of the Capital M1 Dublinia M1 Dubrovnik and Neretva Tourist Board C8 e-travel.ie K1/L1 Earthly Emporium B14/B16 Edgewater Holiday Park Fermanagh CM11 Egyptian State Tourist Office D5 Elit Dental Clinic M2 Embassy of Brazil K2/L2 Embassy of Chile E6 Embassy of Lithuania H12 Embassy of Slovakia C2 Enjoyireland.ie S11 Ethiopian Airlines C10 Europe Airpost L8 Eurotel Altura M10/N9 Exodus Travel E13

Exploration Dome Hall 5 Firefly Foot & Ankle Clinic D12 Fitzpatrick Group of Hotels F3 flightsrights.ie T4 Florida's Beaches H5 Follow the Camino F12 Formentera H7/J7 Fortina Spa Resort Malta G14 Fram Nature - Landes (Sunelia) A14 Fred.Olsen Cruise Lines G12 Fuerteventura Tourist Board H7/J7 Garryvoe Hotel P7 Georgia Department of Economic Development G5 Gites De France Morbihan and Marne A15 Glasnevin Cemetery Museum M1 Gran Canaria H7/K7 Great National Hotels & Resorts S2 Greater Boston CVB F7/G7 Greater Fort Lauderdale H5 Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau H5 Grupo Hotels Real M10/N9 Guinness Storehouse M1 Gweedore Chamber of Commerce M12/N12 Heritage Island M1 Hidden in Spain J6 Hilton Vilamoura As Cascatas Golf Resort & Spa M10/N9 Hilton Rose Hall ME9 HOCHsteiermark Tourism C1 Holiday Green - Var (Sunelia) A14 Holiday Inn Algarve M10/N9 Hotel Altstadt Vienna C1 Hotel Westport S4 House of Waterford Crystal M1 Hungarian Tourism B1 Hurtigruten J9 Ibiza Tourist Board H7/J7 Imagine Ireland N5 India Tourism C3 Inishowen Tourism M12/M12 Insight Vacations E3 Interlude - Ile de Re (Sunelia) A14 Intrepid Travel F14 Irish Golf Review S3 Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) A3 Island Of Gozo G13 Istria Tourist Board C7 Jamaica Tourist Board E9 Jewel Resorts E9 John Galligan Travel A4 Kansas/Oklahoma Travel & Tourism E5 KBC Bank H14 Kilkenny Tourism R9 Killarney Tourism P11 Killybegs Tourism Representatives M12/N12 King Johns Castle M1 Kinsale Chamber of Tourism & Business M8 L'Atlantique - Sud Bretagne (Sunelia) A14 L'Escale Saint-Gilles - Sud Bretagne (Sunelia) A14 L'Hippocampe - Haute Provence (Sunelia) A14 La Loubine - Vendee (Sunelia) A14 La Pointe Du Medoc - Medoc (Sunelia) A14 La Ribeyre - Auvergne (Sunelia) A14 Lac De Panthier - Bourgogne (Sunelia) A14 Lake Resort & Vilalara Thalassa Resort M10/N9 Lanzarote Tourist Promotion Board H7/J7 Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority E1 Le California - Pyrenees Orientales (Sunelia) A14 Le Clos Du Rhone - Camargue (Sunelia) A14

Le Col Vert - Landes (Sunelia) A14 Le Fief - Loire Atlantique (Sunelia) A14 Le Malazeou -Ariege (Sunelia) A14 Le Ranc Davaine - Ardeche (Sunelia) A14 Le soleil Fruite - Drome (Sunelia) A14 "Les Logis D’orres - Hautes Alpes (Sunelia) A14 Les Pins - Pyrenees Orientales (Sunelia) A14 Les Trois Vallees - Pyrenees (Sunelia) A14 Les Tropiques - Pyrenees Orientales (Sunelia) A14 Letterkenny Tourism M12/N12 Lika-Senj County Tourist Board C8 Limone Place - Italie (Sunelia) A14 Louth Tourism M11 Maine Office of Tourism F7/G7 Malahide Castle & Gardens M1 Malawi High Commission C10 Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board A11 Maldron Hotels & Partners N1 Mallorca H7/J7 Malta Tourism Authority G13 Manchester City Football Club H13 Marina Club Lagos Resort M10/N9 Marina Kesh Fermanagh CM11 Mark Warner E10 Martha's Vineyard Chamber of Commerce Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism F7/G7 Mayo The Adventure Capital P15/R15 McGuill Travel A5 Menorca H7/J7 Mexico Tourism Board D1 Mid Ulster District Council M3 Midleton Park Hotel & Spa T2 Mississippi Tourism G5 Mobile Massage X1 Moneycorp G8 Monte Santo Resort M10/N9 Moroccan National Tourist Office E7 Motivation Weight Management D11 Mount Usher Gardens S7 Mourne Mountains & Ring of Gullion M4 MSC Cruises H9 Musicals and More M9 Nantucket Chamber of Commerce F7/G7 National Wax Museum Plus M1 NCL D7 New Hampshire Ski Group USA F5 New Hampshire Tourism F7/G7 New Orleans/Louisiana Office of Tourism G5 Newfoundland & Labrador Tourism L5 North Cyprus Tourism Centre K13 Northern Ireland Tourist Board K3/L3 Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) D7 Nourishing Aloe A25 Nuevo Mundo D2 NYC & Company F1 Oceanbooking.com K7 Oceanico Golf M10/N9 OLCOTE in Ceylon C5 Ontario Tourism Marketing K5 Oranmore Lodge Hotel Conference & Leisure Centre P13 Oriel House Hotel Cork T2 Orlando Flexticket E4 Passport Service H8 Pedras da Rainha M10/N9 Penina Hotel & Golf Resort M10/N9 Perla Di Mare - Corse (Sunelia) A14 PhoneWatch C13/C14 Polish National Tourist Office B11/C11 PortAventura H7/J7 Premier Travel A9

Princesa Yaiza & Fariones Hotels Quality Hotel Youghal R&R Jewellery Racket Hall Country House Ramada Plaza Resort and Suites Rathgar Travel Region Of Valencia Residence Lisa Maria - Corse (Sunelia) Ring of Cork Riu Hotels & Resorts River Rhee Heritage Development Riviera Travel Rocky Mountaineer Royal Caribbean International Rubina Resort - Espagne (Sunelia) Salou Tourist Board Salzburg Tourism Seaspray Holiday Park Rossnowlagh Select Hotels of Ireland Sequoia Parc Seychelles Tourism Board Shannon Ferries Siam Park Silversea Cruises Simon Shopping Destinations Smilebright Smithwick's Experience Kilkenny Sole-Mates South Carolina South West England Spanish Tourism Office Spring Hotels Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau St John's International Airport Authority Stena Line Stillorgan Park Hotel Sunelia Vacances Sunway Travel Taipei Representative Office in Ireland Talbot Hotel Carlow Talbot Hotel group Tenerife Tourism Corporation Tennessee Tourism Texas Tourism The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel The Connacht Hotel The Family Adventure Company The Lake Hotel Killarney The Old Flax Mill Coleraine The Outing/Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival The Safari Expert The School Adventure Company The Talbot Collection Tipperary Tourism Tirol Tourist Board Tiroler Zugspitz Arena Titanic Experience Cobh Topflight Tour America Tourism Nova Scotia Tourism Thailand Tourisme Quebec Tourist Agency Medea Travel Tourist Board of Sibenik Knin County Trabolgan Holiday Village Trailfinders Tralee Chamber Alliance Travel Department Travel Escapes Travel the Unknown

H6 R8 P14 R8 H1 A8 H7/J7 A14 P6 L10 M6 J5 L4 K1/L1 A14 H7/J7 C1 CM11 S10 A12 B7 R4 H7/J7 J8 H4 A22 M1 A23 G6 J10 H7/J7 K7 C4 L5 K12 T2 A14 D7/E10 B6 T2 T2 H7/J7 G5 F2 H5 R13 F14 N6 M6 R3 D2 F14 T2 R10 C1 C1 N8 C1 B9/C9 K8 B5 K6 K14 C8 P8 H2/J2 R11 T3 G12 F13

Travelmood G2 Trinity College Dublin M1 Tunisian National Tourist Office D4 Turismo De Santiago De Compostela H7/J7 Turkish Airlines K11/L11 Turkish Culture and Tourism Office K10/L8 Unique Japan Tours A1 Uniworld Boutique River Curises H10 USIT E12 Vermont Department Tourism F7/G7 VIA Rail Canada F8 Vilamonte Farm House M10/N9 Villaggio Dei Fiori - Italie (Sunelia) A14 Visit California J3 Visit Cornwall J10 Visit Ennis P3 Visit Florida H3 Visit Kentucky Association G5 Visit North Carolina G6 Visit St Petersburg/Clearwater H5 Visit USA Ireland G1 Visit Wexford S8 Visit Wiltshire J10 VisitFLANDERS L12 Vorarlberg Tourism C1 Waterford Tourism P10 Waterways Ireland S12 Wendy Wu Tours B4 WestJet L5 Westport Plaza Hotel N3 Westtoer Tourism L12 Wicklow Brewery S7 Wicklow County Tourism S7 Wicklow Lighthouse S7 Wicklow's Historic Gaol S7 Wien Tourisamus C1 Windosor Travel M10/N9 Woodlands Park R11 Youghal Tourism R7 Zadar County Tourist Board C8 Zambia Tourism Board C10

CARAVAN & MOTORHOME SHOW BPerfect Cosmetics B12/S16 Bunk Campers CM7 Camperworks Accessories & Fittings CM7 Cosy Campers CM9 Dreamer Campervan CM14 Dyson Ireland F16 Edinburgh Outdoor Clothing Co CM10/11 Elddis Motorhomes CM14 Gepida L16 Hobby Motorhomes CM14 Irish Camping and Caravan Club S17 Leisure Asset Solutions E14 Nomad Campervans CM7 Pemberton Leisure Homes CM1/4 Rapido Motorhomes CM14 Rimor Motorhomes CM14 Rushin House Caravan Park S15 Smyth Leisure CM1/4 Swift Holiday Homes CM8 Swift Motorhomes Rio/Bolero/Kontiki CM14 The Caravan Club H16 Thompson Leisure CM14 VW Autohaus Campervan Conversions CM14 VW Leisure Drive Campervans CM14 Wallace Mobile Homes CM8 Willerby Holiday Homes CM1/4

List correct at time of going to press

Page 034 Holiday World 08/01/2016 14:07 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 34

HOLIDAY WORLD SHOW

The Low Down

When:

Friday 22 January 1.00pm – 6.00pm Saturday 23 January 11.00am – 5.30pm Sunday 24 January 11.00am – 5.30pm Trade Only: Friday 22 January 10.00am – 1.00pm How Much: Adults €7 OAPs €4 Students €3 Children Free Family Price: €10 2 Adults & ALL their children DART: Don't forget that the DART has great family rates on Saturday and Sunday. How Many: 50,000 visitors Who's there: 2,000 travel experts from 55 countries, tour operators, travel agents, hotels, national and global tourist organisations, airports, airlines, theme parks, bus, coach, car, rail, camping, travel services, adventure holidays, ferry and cruise companies, caravans and motorhomes, Where From: n Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland n Europe and the Mediterranean n The Caribbean n The Americas n Africa and the Middle East n Asia and the Pacific n Caravans and motorhomes n Wedding and honeymoon destinations n Adventure Holidays n Tour operators Official Opening: Friday 22 January at 2pm Official opening Website: www.holidayworldshow.com Over 55s Show: Explore the ENDLESS OPTIONS for Over 55s Hotel-based holidays in Ireland Sun holidays at special senior rates Cruise bargains, including over 55s only cruises Trekking & walking activity holidays City Breaks Next Year: Belfast 20-22 January 2017 Dublin 27-29 January 2017

JAN 22-24 2016

WELCOME FROM TRAVEL AGENTS ASSOCIATION

elcome to Holiday World, the perfect start for your 2016 holiday. This is where Ireland meets the rest of the world. This is your invitation to meet the people who can help turn holiday dreams into reality. The Holiday World Show comes at a great time of the year. It comes when everyone's thoughts start to turn towards holidays and planning for the year ahead. This show provides the perfect backdrop, allowing people to search for the best offers, find new ideas and make plans for the holiday of a lifetime or a simple get away from everyday life. The motto Travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer has never been more true. The Holiday World Show allows us to open a window on a world that is waiting to be discovered and provide life long memories and enriching experiences for all. New to Dublin is a vibrant mix of destinations to open our minds and broaden our horizons. Destinations such as Brazil, Slovakia, Jamaica, Cuba, Ethiopia and Tanzania. As well as our traditional popular destinations for the Irish holiday maker in North America, the Algarve and a whole host of Spanish options. Of course Spain continues to be the most popular destination for the Irish holiday maker with 1.3 million of us holidaying there in 2014. The tens of thousands of people who will pass through Holiday World this year will be

treated to an unprecedented choice in terms of quality, affordability and advice. Over 1,000 travel industry experts from all over the globe have travelled here in order to share their intimate knowledge and love for their destination with you. Take full advantage of their presence and glean as much inside information as you can. And don’t forget all of the destinations and holidays showcased this weekend are available to book with your ITAA Travel Agents all of whom are fully licensed and bonded for your protection. ITAA Agents represent a wealth of knowledge and experience which combined with their extensive online resources offer you the very best of both worlds; in-depth knowledge combined with real, honest to goodness personal service. Travel Agents offer you the opportunity to book your holiday secure in the knowledge that you are getting sound professional advice, your money is safe and should you need assistance before, during or after your holiday your agent is ready, willing and able to help you. The spirit of exploration has always been strong in Irish people. In the modern world we see that through the desire to travel and see new places, experience new things and broaden our horizons. This is a positive attribute, and with surveys showing that one in two Irish people intend holidaying abroad, it can only help us to engage positively with the

world we share. We also need to remind ourselves that we are all ambassadors for Ireland. Whether it's when we travel abroad, or simply talking to friends and family from overseas, we should remember to encourage people to visit our shores too. We have a unique and vibrant capital here in Dublin, we need to remind people that our sprit has not changed, the 'craic' is better than ever, and the hospitality and rich history are a treasure trove waiting to be discovered by holidaymakers. The travel industry has shown an ability to adapt and grow. It has met challenges with a steely determination and an innovative approach to trading that has allowed it overcome obstacles and offer better choice. The Irish appetite for travel remains strong and is set to grow as we emerge into more positive economic times. Wherever your travels may take you to this year, be assured you have begun in exactly the right place. Enjoy your time at Holiday World and your 2016 holiday, wherever it takes you. If one of our ITAA Travel Professionals can assist you along the way we will be delighted, after all that’s what we’re here for. Best wishes for a happy and enjoyable Holiday World.

Martin Skelly President ITAA

Louis F Muschketat of Eaglesflying, Alaska the American bald headed eagle, Minister Michael Ring and Maureen Ledwith of Buisness exhiibitions

page 035 sicily resend 08/01/2016 10:54 Page 1

alf an hour from the beaches, out of view of smokey Mount Etna and up a foggy hill the undiscovered Sicily is waiting for tourists. “They preferred to come here, it was easy to defend, cool weather, and rich with water.” Tour guide Domenico Marino was talking about tourists who arrived 11 centuries before Christ, but he might be talking about passengers on the Ryanair Dublin to Comino flight. When he described the central plateau of Sicily as "a lake within an island,” it was easy to see what he meant. Sicily has an honoured place on the travel map from Ireland, the Mediterranean beaches, famous north coast spots like Taormina and smokey Etna have become part of tourism culture. But it is odd how

FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE35 empty the island is. Outside of Taormina and Palermo, off the beaten track, there aren't many tourists around. The Villa Romana del Casale, just outside the town of Piazza Armerina, has an incredible collection of Roman mosaics. They include beautiful mosaics of girls in bikinis and what may be the oldest representation of skiing in the world.

hrow in Caltagirone with its colourful ceramic steps, Rocca di Cerere Geopark and the Pergusa Lake, the Mineral Park Floristella Grottacalda, the medieval city of Piazza Armerina and the stolen (and returned) 5th century BC Greek statue known as the goddess of Morgantina Polis in the museum of Adrione, Enna, in the centre of the island, has been de-

DESTINATION ITALY

Hidden Sicily Eoghan Corry heads for the misty and ancient central hills of the Med’s centre piece

Mosaic inVilla Romana del Casale, who said the bikin was invented in 1946?

scribed as a huge stone with a town on top, like cupcake icing. The analogy is no accident, the

pastries of Enna are a delicacy you will search long and hard to emulate. Food matters here. The

most important island in the Mediterranean has had lots of callers, all the great Mediterranean cultures stopped in, Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Moorish, Spanish, and some notable nonMediterranean ones like the Normans and even the Swabians to leave their mark.

t turned the island into a giant museum, not just the temples, cathedrals, palaces and mosaics, but also language, placenames, social mores, tropes, attitudes and the food. Some of the oldest wine grapes grown come

The colourful ceramic steps of Caltagirone

from here. In Roman times Scilliy was the vineyard for the mpire. At Tenuta del Nanfro winery we sampled some of them. Sicily is famed for its white wines and ancient grapes such as Minella Bianca, but red Aglianico and Primitivo have been winning some palates, and a bud-warming Luoghi d’Incanto 2007 which won our lifelong affection. One last thing, hire a car. Sicily doesn't have a well-developed public transport system even worse than mainland Italy.

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Page 036 Holiday World 08/01/2016 09:53 Page 1

JANUARY 2016 PAGE 36

HOLIDAY WORLD SHOW

JAN 22-24 2016

Are the Irish the most-travelled people of all?

Proud tradition H

Las Vegas is Ireland’s third fastest growing outbound destination despite having no direct flights

oliday World 2016 once again highlights the fact that we are a nation with one of the highest propensities to travel in Europe. Every Irish person travels six times a year, three and a half times higher than the European average.. That travel broadens the mind is as true today as in Mark Twain’s time, people who travel extensively cannot be prejudiced Tourism spreads economic largesse unevenly and in contrast to the industrial sector, to the rural and coastal areas most likely to be affected by peripherality and depopulation and where agricultural conditions are often

poorest. Tourism impacts disproportionately on less developed countries. Outside Europe, tourism is the most sustainable form of aid you can give a developing country, bringing propensity to everyone from the porter to the taxi driver to the hotel manager to the government. Africa, the world’s poorest continent gets just 2pc of world tourism. Bringing that up half a percentage point would mean more than a year’s aid allocations. Within Europe some of the biggest tourist numbers are attracted to the poorest countries and the ones most affected by economic downturn, such as the Mediterranean sunbelt.

ir traffic works both ways, as the home holiday industry has found. Outbound air routes are crucial for inbound tourism, aircraft are filled in both directions (tourism ministers sometimes forget this, their focus is often on inbound tourism). Ireland can offer one of the most educated audiences on the planet when it comes to international travel. We have one of the most developed markets for travel services, appropriately for a nation that is the headquarters of the world aviation business. half of the world’s fleet of leased aircraft is managed from Ireland, the very concept was invented

here by Tony Ryan and his colleagues. Ireland’s international success in airport management has been celebrated by a plethora of recent awards. Most of the traffic on the world’s busiest intercontinental routes pass through Irish air traffic control and they have a track record of rising to various challenges down the years, such as 9-11. Much of the modern airport and aircraft experience was invented in Ireland. Duty Free shopping was invented in Ireland by Brendan O’Regan. His other contributions, and the contributions of his contemporaries to the evolution of the tourism product are not so well known: from his hotel management school came

an Irish association with the hospitality industry worldwide, from Bunratty the inspiration for what is now termed cultural tourism.

ur travel agents and tour operators have set the highest standards with regard to customer care, the consumer legislation is only catching up with these standards and attempting to impose them on the aviation industry. The travel business is one of the most regulated consumer retail sectors. But even in advance of regulation the travel industry had set up a standards regime of its own to make sure customers got compensated in the event of a business failure.

The business of selling holidays was among the first to embrace technology and be transformed by it. Many of the developments being embraced by other service and retail sectors are old hat in the travel business. They are good at supplying all the information that the customer needs in an easily accessible format. Airlines, hotels and holiday companies are all vying to be at the cutting edge of information technology. This attention to detail has meant that the traditional holiday package and the charter flights that carry the package holiday makers are very much alive and well. Come along and see for yourself.

Page 037 Nova Scotia 08/01/2016 09:58 Page 1

he five Fishermen restaurant in Halifax Nova Scotia has an international reputation for its exquisite lobster. People travel long distances to dine there. But nobody had ever flown in from Ireland before. Europe Airpost flies weekly from Dublin to Halifax, so a small group of us decided to take the trip to a restaurant most famous for being used as a morgue for the victims of the Titanic. It is a five hour flight, and four and a half hour return with the wind at your back. In pre motorway Ireland, I have spent longer driving to Dingle for a pint. “When the Titanic went down in the early morning of April 15 1912,” our bekilted tour guide Richard Arnold

FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 37

DESTINATION CANADA

Titanic Trip T

The graveyard at Fairview Lawn commemorates 150 Titanic victims

told us, “the survivors went on to New York City. Halifax was the city that did its recovery.” “Until we had the movies nobody came to these cemeteries. After the movie there was a parade. We had to figure out how to deal with the crowds.”

he reponse was quic. MackayBennett cable boat was chartered by White Star Line to go out with sacks. Every sack had a number. As they picked up the bodies they went into the sacks. The first body went into sack one, all the contents with the body went into the bag.”

As the sea yielded up the dead, 328 bodies were recovered from the Atlantic, of which 59 were shipped out by train to their families, 116 were buried at sea and the rest were buried in three separate cemeteries in Halifax by estimated heritage in

the Catholic, Jewish and Protestant cemeteries. Fairview Lawn has the most, 121, in three lines of graves in gentle curves aligned with the contours of the graveyard. The stones are in the shape of the hull of a ship, with a number and a name. Many are still unidentified, the random number of a cable-ship sack is their epitaph. Striking Celtic crosses stand out from the granite blocks, Ernest King from Clones is among Irish names proliferate on headstones. Movie fans come to the grave of Joseph Dawson, an Irishman who worked in Titanic's boiler room, although he has nothing to do with the Jack Dawson of the film. After that it was to the

restaurant. It was worth it. The lobster was THAT good.

urope Airpost CEO JeanFrançois Dominiak is to extend the service from Dublin to Halifax in Nova Scotia next summer from July to mid-October 2016. This will be three and a half months, instead of two months for the 2015 season. He said that while the service is a niche leisure market they are anticipating non leisure business. The passenger split is 25pc Dublin and 75pc Paris, where the flight originates and finishes, satisfaction ratings on the route were 97pc, Europe Airpost/ASL may increase frequency.

Eoghan Corry floew to Halifax with ASL Aviation, who are represented in Irleand by ATTS - Travel Representation Solutions +353 (1) 8828679

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Page 038-039 Holiday World 07/01/2016 16:19 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 38

HOLIDAY WORLD SHOW

JAN 22-24 2016

Holiday World 2016 opens in the RDS Simmonscourt

Face to face A

ITAA presdient Martin Skelly, Minister Michael Ring and Maureen Ledwith of Business Exhibitions

s the holiday business changes rapidly, so does Ireland’s premier travel and holiday fair. This year people are looking at the various new options and value for money propositions being presented to the Irish holiday maker, and there are 1,500 experts all assembled under one roof to tell them how to get it. In recent years the show has a new dimension. The Over-55s Show gives those with more time on their hands the opportunity to check out hotelbased holidays in Ireland, sun holidays at special senior rates, cruise bargains, including over 55s’ only cruises, trekking and

walking activity holidays and city breaks. The visitors to the Dublin Holiday World at the RDS this month are more savvy and better prepared customers than previous years. The hunger for information about the 70-odd destinations where Irish people now travel for their holidays has grown with each of the show’s 20 years. “They have access to a great deal of information not just from guide books and the internet but from word of mouth of their friends and family who have also travelled. They come to the show looking for first hand knowledge,” says Maureen Ledwith, sales director of Holiday World. Three times as many

people take a longhaul holiday compared to ten years ago and the cruise sector has grown even faster. Adventure and experience are the themes of this year’s Holiday World Show with a new dedicated adventure travel section. The show is also offering impressive good value. The average holiday is cheaper now than they were twenty years ago, even before you consider inflation. In recent years over 50,000 visitors have attended the exhibition annually; market research indicates that most people go to the Holiday World Show to look for ideas and expert advice from assembled travel professionals.

oliday World Show is divided into zones to help information gathering and to help you find experts who answer questions face to face. Exhibitors include tourist boards, tour operators, travel agents, airlines, hotels and their marketing groups, ferries and the fast growing cruise sector. All 32 counties are among home holiday exhibitors. The show is organised on behalf of the Irish Travel Agents Association by Business Exhibitions Ltd.

oliday World provides a unique opportunity for the consumer to meet, network, negotiate, conduct business and stay abreast with the latest de-

velopments in the travel industry. If you have a passion for adventure, culture, cruises, city breaks, ecofriendly, beach or safari holidays, or are considering a career break Holiday World 2016 is the ultimate show to get information from some 1,500 travel and tourism professionals who will be ready to give one-to-one advice and information. Over 700 exhibitors representing 70 countries will be available at the show to provide you with face-to-face information on how best to access your dream holiday. The Holiday World Show, now in its 24th year, has become the biggest single event in travel and tourism in Ireland, providing an anticipated 50,000 visitors with the unique opportunity of meeting with over 1,500 industry professionals for personal advice and infor-

mation.

taged annually in Dublin under one roof, Holiday World is a must attend travel exhibition for both business and consumer. The show brings together hundreds of exhibitors from all around the world with tour operators, travel agents, hotels, airports, national and international tourism organisations, as well as theme parks, adventure travel, airlines, bus, coach, ferry and cruise companies and more besides. Those seeking the independence of a camping or caravan holiday are also particularly well catered for, with this burgeoning sector very well represented at this year’s event. “Hundreds of special low price deals are available for show visitors for holidays and short breaks.

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HOLIDAY WORLD SHOW

In addition there are also hundreds of free to enter holiday prize draws throughout the show.” Maureen Ledwith says: “After the economic stresses and strains of the past few years, it’s time everyone turned their attention to planning a well-earned break for 2016. “The Holidayworld Show packs expert advice, special offers, notto-be-missed promotions, entertainment and exclusive competitions all under the one roof for a great value-for-money, family day out.”

dmund Hourican, managing director, Business Exhibitions Ltd., organisers of Holiday World Show said “Our professional market research taken at Holiday World Show indicates that most people go along to the show looking for

expert personal advice, and for ideas. They also attend for the opportunity to win one of the many fantastic trips, while at the same time having a good family day out”. “The number and diversity of exhibitors means that visitors are able to gain first hand information to enable them to better plan holidays. In

short, visitors to the show will get advice that is not available from any other source,” he concluded. “It is the only place in Ireland that you can meet, and take advice from over 1,500 travel and tourism industry professionals to assist you in planning the perfect holiday for you and your family.

“As fast as the indus-

JAN 22-24 2016

try changes, the more the benefit of the show,” Edmund Hourican says. “Many more visitors are now using the internet for research before they visit the show. That means they can make better use of their time when they are here.”

at Dawson, CEO of the Irish Travel Agents Association said, “The Holiday World Show is a fantastic event for travel agents and consumers alike. The economic downturn has made it difficult for many to afford holidays the last couple of years but our members

are planning on showcasing unbeatable holiday offers at the Holiday World Show Dublin. Irish travel agents at the show will be focusing on quality and affordability as well as dispensing invaluable destination advice. Recent market research has indicated that one in two Irish adults will take a foreign holiday in 2016.” Holiday World Show 2016 will provide the excitement of new places to visit, and others to dream about. Visitors will receive a free catalogue, children have free admission, and there are hundred of chances to win free holidays and short breaks in free to enter prize draws on exhibitors’ stands. All you have to do is visit, and you could win the holiday of your dreams.

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DESTINATION USA

rlando is as divided as old Berlin ever was. On one end of Orlando’s famous 11-mile long International Drive you have the mouse, on the other end you have the wizard. Never the twain. Geography in Orlando is divided into two spheres of influence, Disney in the south, Universal n the north, with a demilitarised zone somewhere along the middle near Seaworld. No surprise, then, that the shoppers (increasingly shopjocks as well as she-shoppers) who may be rivalling the themeparking mad among the international visitors to Orlando, also have two choices, the Disney sided outlet mall and the Universal sided outlet mall.

utlet malls, originally an opportunity for manufacturers to offload damaged or out of season product, now have a life of their own. Some 41 years after the first one opened, those who come in search of the savings of 25pc to 65pc claimed by the re-

Eoghan Corry goes shopping at two ends of International Drive in Orlando

Retail of two cities tailers can usually find something not worth leaving behind, even if it means a second suitcase home. So where to start? It’s all about the brands, apparently. Orlando Vineland in the southern end of the Drive (Disney sphere of influence) has the higher end brands among its portfolio of 160 stores. Orlando International Premium outlets in the

north (Universal sphere of influence) has more stores, 180 in all. Many are duplicated in both outlets, but the bargain bins, though similar, do not always match. There is another outlet Market Place which is more local in Orlando, and probably better at finding the local product that is becoming so difficult to trace on American shopping expeditions.

IT’S A MALL WORLD AFTR ALL

n Florida Mall 1.8m square feet of shopping with 250 unique entertainment, retail and dining options. 8001 S Orange Blossom Trail (407) 851-7234 www.simon.com/mall/the-florida-mall n Orlando Vineland 8200 Vineland Avenue with higher end brands among its portfolio of 160 stores, (407) 238-

7787 n Orlando International Premium outlets has 180 stores. 4951 International Drive (407) 352-9600 n Outlet Market Place is more local in Orlando, 5269 International Drive (407) 352-9600

he outlets are the lure, the real meat is in the Florida shopping mall where the big brands like Apple Mac, non discountable but unavoidable are to be found. This being Orlando, Florida Mall has got a theme park of its own this Autumn, the bright coloured Crayola Land. Disney has imagineers, these guys have crayonologists. One of the restaurants is a theme park in itself, the phenomenon known as America Girl where you dine with a bright

pink doll at the end of the table. At the end of the meal I was teaching her nursery rhymes in Irish. It gets to you like that.

hopping is like that, much more than shopping, the therapy that goes way beyond retail therapy. . At Last Resort Dick’s restaurant based in Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets, waiters specialise in being rude to customers. Highlights included “here’s your drinks, sort it out,” “My name is Stephen unfortunately I am stuck with you guys,” and “how was

your meal, I don’t really care but I am required to ask.” How many waiters always wanted to say that? The sign at the door says: “if the world didn't suck we'd all fall off.” What did I learn? Follow the Brazilians They win the world cup at shopping every time. And read the coupon book as carefully as you would the docket at a race meet. As we left the guy in the queue had a tee shirts saying: “some people read shirts I think you are one of them.” Retail therapy indeed.

n Eoghan Corry travelled to Orlando with Aer Lingus who fly Dublin to Orlando daily EI121 at 14.00 with additional frequencies next winter over Christmas, mid-term and Easter, The aircraft is an A330-200 in 24-228 configuration. Fares start from u510 each way including taxes and charges. See aerlingus.com.

Clockwise: Stephen the purposefully rude waiter at Dick’s Last Resort, the doll themed American Girl restaurant in the Simon Shop Florida Mall, mal activity, shoppers and Jackie Vasquez outlining the plans for Crayola. Main picture: Crayola-land

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Page 042-043 kentucky 08/01/2016 09:38 Page 1

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DESTINATION USA

f ever a sound was designed to stir the hearts of our people, it is the sound of horseshoe pounding on hard turf. In Kentucky it is a sound that never quite goes away. The tour of Churchill Downs is the best point of contact you could hope for. The museums recreate the sense of excitement when the Kentucky derby is staged on the first Saturday of May, but the real soul of Kentucky racing is a few hours down the road, where the Kentucky Horse Park is probably the only place in the world where you can come face to face with tens of millions of dollars worth of horseflesh, or what might have been worth more if they hadn’t been found not to be able to perform at stud. Imagine the humiliation. The whole world is already putting their tenner on the nose of your progeny for the Derby of three years hence and you discover that, well, she didn’t quite do it for you. Kentucky Horse park has all the whirling pony shows, the white fences and storyboards, the interactive screens and videos, the farriers who will show you where to put your hoof, but it is the memory of face to face contact that you bring home with you. Cigar, John Henry and Da Hoss. The derby has never had an Irish bred winner.

Horse sense The joys of Kentuck

Whiskey, horses and golf, now whdre does Kentucky remind you of?

Even the promisingly named iconic 19th century jockey Isaac Burns Murphy was a true Kentucky man. Wonder if the thought has crossed Aidan O’Brien’s mind?,

exington is where you find the white-railed paddocks, the rolling Blue-

grass region, the unhurried and genteel way of life that seems like a throwback to the deep South of the Movies. Kentucky was split down the middle by that war, 90,000 soldiers fought for the Union armies and about 40,000 for the Confederacy. It was the birthplace both of Abraham Lincoln,

Clockwise: Barrel Roll, Woodford Reserve Distillery, Versailles, Mammoth Cave Formation and Mike Finks on the River

16th president of the United States, and of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States, and so it still has the capacity to change landscape, personality and culture with the turn around a corner. It remains a strongly rural state of small towns and crossroads. Only Louisville and Lexington have large populations. Next door to the whiskeydistilling regions, with their proud waxed bottles, you have dry counties, where no alcohol is sold. White fiddle playing bluegrass juxtaposes with black blues. North Kentucky smells of beer not bourbon, with its predominantly German heritage and suburban pattern of development, belonging to metropolitan Cincinnati. in its churches, restaurants, family names, and an annual Ok-

toberfest. In Covington they are only now revealing the Germanic culture that was pushed aside abruptly when America enter the first world war. As you head south the imagery is thick as the lush green landscape. Even the name. Its name probably derives from the Iroquois word for “prairie.” The fried chicken isn’t exactly promoted by the tourist board, but it made it a worldwide brand. Don’t bring up the good Colonel’s name. And for good measure don’t mention how great the smoking ban is, tobacco is the farmers’ biggest cash crop and a livelihood to many in the state. No introduction is needed to this history. Stray away form the highways and you can almost recognize the terri-

tory settled by Daniel Boone and other frontiersmen in 1769.

oone is only the start of it. The name conjures up images of coal miners in hard hats and farmers, who floated their wares on flatboats down the Mississippi to New Orleans. They opposed the slavers, and sometimes took a return cargo of escaped slaves with them. In Cincinnati the Underground railroad centre is opening next year to portray the network of safe houses that brought more than a few people to liberty in those pre-war days. Cincinnati sided with the North despite its location on the Mason and Dixon Line and its close commercial and cultural

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DESTINATION USA ties with the South. There is also the Kentucky of bourbon whiskey, which was named for the county where it was developed and is still made, of white-suited colonels and their ladies sipping mint juleps on summertime verandas, of mountaineers and moonshiners. At Labrot & Graham distillery, established in 1812, you can see the production for yourself and find out how the distilleries survived during prohibition. Kentucky encompasses a curious mixture of poverty and wealth, ugliness and beauty, North and South. Great writers (Robert Penn Warren, Wendell Berry, and Bobbie Ann Mason) and ballad-singers, some of the ballads having survived in the mountains unchanged for 300 years, remind visitors of you-know-where. The annual Big Singing, held at Benton in western Kentucky each May for more than 100 years, celebrates the heritage of shape-note, or “fa-so-la,” singing. In between the sessions you can check out the local nosh, a hot game-meat stew called burgoo.

he greatest Kentucky celebrity was not Boone or even the Colonel, it was Muhammad Ali. In Louisville you can track his childhood. The house where he grew up is still inhabited, an undistinguished suburban house where Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr., sup-

Louiisville Skyline

Paintsville Lake with mist

ported a wife and two sons by painting billboards and signs and his mother, Odessa Grady Clay, worked as a household domestic. A few miles takes you to the high school to which he traveled, running behind the school bus. The basketball gym where he first trained is more central, as is the sport where allegedly, when Clay was 12 years old, he first met Louisville policeman Joe Martin to report a theft, and Martin promised him to show him how to box so he could look after himself. You can also admire the bridge from which he threw his gold medal after being refused admission to a restaurant because of the segregation laws. Recently it appears that the story

mightn't be true after all, he lost the medal. But the bridge story is better. The self-guided Ali tour is for the knowledgeable and those prepared to go along without the benefit of a helpful plaque. Other visitors should check out the Muhammad Ali Center when it opens next year. Although a portion of the Center will be devoted to his boxing career, the exhibits and programming will focus on peace and conflict resolution. Having seen Ali, it’s now time for Frazer. Fighting of another kind distinguishes the Frazer centre. The museum features magnificent displays of American artifacts dating from the colonial era to the early 1900s – including pieces that once belonged to fa-

mous politicians and celebrities, explorers and soldiers.

In collaboration with the Royal Armouries (Britain’s oldest mu-

seum), the Frazier will display the arms and armor of knights and kings; the possessions of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I; and pieces from Europe dating back a thousand years. Right in the heart of Louisville the Seelbach Hilton, built in 1905 proudly cherishes its tradition as home to Presidents to gangsters. You can have dinner in a room with a secret staircase so gangsters like Al Capone could escape onto the street and avoid police. The city is home to the Louisville Slugger Museum, marked by the world’s largest bat. It looks like a scene from the Simpsons, standing 120 feet tall and weighing 68,000 pounds. The thud of bat and ball we are told, makes the heart sing. No it doesn’t. It is still hooves on turf that does it for me.

Page 044-045 Val Thorens 08/01/2016 11:54 Page 1

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DESTINATION FRANCE t is sometimes a good idea to start at the top.

If you are looking for a December ski destination, there is only one thing that matters. The lifts, the terrain, the après, all the things that get talked about in January and February, all pale into insignificance behind the quality of the snow. Two seasons when the early snow was scarce have reminded us of how important it is to get sure snow. Val Thorens has one message to send and it shouts it loud. As Europe’s highest resort it markets itself quite simply on having the most reliable snow, equidistant between the Mont Blanc massif and the Barre des Ecrins, both of which visible on fine days. As well as the Péclet glacier, there are two other peaks above 3,000m, and an extra one when the fourth of the three valleys comes into play. As purpose built villages go, Val Thorens is well designed and pleasant, with lifts that pass over the village. The S-band of streets will eventually deliver

Med life cure W

Eoghan Corry samples the Club Med ski product

Welcome party for Club Med skiers on their return

you to the highest bar in Europe (the frog) and the highest Irish bar next door (O'Connell's, wonder by two Frenchmen and manned by an Englishman, Tom Angielettin). There is a multi storey shopping and commercial area indoors and a lively night club, Majorca, with a labyrinthine series of rooms to play. The S-shape of the

town means that everything is closer than you think, within a short walking distance through the heated indoor central area. It is not the least attractive purpose-built resort in France, and has built up quite a reputation as a gourmet haven in the heights, Residence L’ Oxalys has two Michelin stars, quite an achievement at this altitude.

hen the resort first opened, ski guide Maxime Bouteiller said, it was claimed that it was too high. He moved form a similar position in Val d’Isere and has grown with the resort since.

The original road up the hills could be cut for days at a time and opened, on occasion, only by tunnelling through the snow. The hotels would be inaccessible because of the huge of snow and lethal

avalanches would threaten its streets at night. A new road changed that. Global warming did the rest. Val Thorens is now the first consideration for a December skier. Club Med has good rea-

Sunway are agents for Club Med snow and sun holidays in Ireland. www.sunway.ie 2311800 and your local travel agent

Clockwise: Folie Douce, photographing the scenery, sunshine at the lift terminus, skiers, Rebecca Lee checks the chocolate fountain and first generation Irish Club Med hostess Emma Dupont, aka Alice in Wonderland

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son to be the first consideration after the Val Thorens consideration. The area is vast and beautiful, 600 km of ski slopes (controversially verified at 493 km), and 18.5 square kilometres of groomed runs, linking the resorts of Val Thorens, Les Menuires, Meribel & Courchevel. There are no buses to take, no cable cars linking the valleys. The three valleys ski area is accessible only on skis. If you miss a last lift or get injured, you can end up taking a 100km taxi ride home from Italy

ast year Club Med chose Europe’s highest resort to open their second snow resort. This is a resort that genuinely lives up to its boast that you can ski

down to pick up their lunch in their all inclusive restaurant. We were greeted by Emma DuPont, a first generation Irish hostess from Chambery who looked after us like long lost cousins and came skiing on the early snow.

I Val Thorens is the highest resort in Europe

from your door. Designed in an S-shape, the majority of the accommodation loops around a central gentle piste that takes you down to where the lifts

and cable cars begin. At Club Med, you need only to step outside the ski room and into your skis. The rental hall is beside the room with the ski

lovers, and there is coffee and croissants for anyone still peckish after the mountainous Club Med breakfast. Central to the Club

Med philosophy is that well fed holidaymakers are happy holiday makers. Club med guests will not eat on the mountain. They will barrel back

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f there is one drawback to being in the only place with snow in lean times, early or late in the season, is that skiable slopes can become crowded, especially on the beginners and intermediate runs. The snow came with on New Year’s week for both the 104-5 and 20156 seasons. On that record Val Thorens will be the first port of call for December skiers for some time to come.

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Page 046-049 Val d'Isere 08/01/2016 09:45 Page 1

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DESTINATION FRANCE

rance’s most famous ski resort used to hide its jewellry like a jealous prince. Only insiders got to admire the view at Val d’Isere, beginners had to slip slide around in the valley, and in a country where few people get to ski for more than seven days a year, that seemed unfair. All changed this winter. A €16m redevelopment of Val d’isere’s oldest ski lift, the Solaise Express (moving people since 1938), is under way. Three magic carpets have been installed at the top of the Solaise, Pim, Pam and Pum, and beginners can now start their journey surrounded by the beauty of the western Alps, looking down the valley to the dam and the lake The scarey chair over the ribbed heights brings them to the gentle slopes of to La Fornet. The infrastructure is amazing. The lift company can put 78,541 on these mountains. Their snow factory is largest in Europe and can make 40pc of the piste skiable when the powdery stuff goes all shy. It is like someone waved a magic wand over a familiar playground and made it better. Val d’Isere’s former problem is that descent to the village is a frightening process, so beginners did not feel welcome there. Not any more. High end chalets are the ideal way to experience Val d’Isere. The key to the chalet experience is if there is more than one seasonaire looking after the guests.

Eoghan Corry finds Val d’Isère a changed place

Uplifting W

Nico Lecomte of Evolution 2000 on teh new magic carpet at the top of the Solaise chairlift at Val d’Isere

now is one of those holidays that you have to have been there to understand. The photographs and videos we love to load in to our smart phones do not do it justice, no matter who often we whip them out to display on our return to the nonwhite world. The smell of the mountain, the cold air in your face, and the shadows, always the shadows as soon as the sun peeps through, don't translate into instagram so it is probably not even worth the effort. Snow doesn’t speak instagram, so experience the real thing. There are seemingly endless options. A highly rated downhill run from the top of the funicular down to La Daille offers seriously fast turns, while the Solaise express offers

WHAT’S HOT

n Lots of ski options, with slopes facing different directions n The famous night (and afternoon) life of Val d’Isère n Huge range of activities for the nonskier and non-ski days n The height of the resort makes it reasonably snow-sure n Family friendly esp for teenagers

access to sun-drenched and wide open piste. The Couloir des Pisteurs is accessed via a 20minute hike, it features a tight width entrance into a skinny, well packed couloir protected from the wind. Check out Léo Taillefer’s run through it on Youtube. When the light is flat there is lots of fun to be had in Le Fornet through the trees; simply grab the free bus to the cable car and explore the forest right below the lift, keep an eye out for avalanche warnings and watch for the occasional cliff that is too big to drop. There is also an amazing run through a hidden valley canyon to the bottom of La Daille to the skier's left of the Semanmille Lift, but go early, before the narrow gully turns to ice.

WHAT’S NOT

n Transfer is longish at two and a half hours from Chambery and vulnerable to weather and rock slides n The expense, particularly for those eating on the mountain. n Lifts that have seen better days. n Did we mention the expense? €300 for a family lunch for four in La Fruitiere beside La Folie Douce.

hile the weather will not always perform, the scenery usually does. Even in a white-out (or, more likely, a grey-out), there is a sense that there is something beautiful lurking out there playing hide and seek in a playful way, waiting to be discovered. The struggle to see the poles that mark the edge of the piste becomes part of the adventure. When you look for poetry it is not just in the classic high mountains that you find it. On the Fornet side of the mountain I always seem to find a different microclimate. The sense of expectation and anticipation riding the Leissieres lift over the ridge is always enhanced by that ever changing view. That scenery beyond the mountain never turns out quite the same as did yesterday or even three hours ago. And then occasionally a biting wind that sweeps your nose and most of your

dignity away. A surprisingly few number of iPhones are lost when they get whipped out to video the passage over the jagged edge mountain ridge from the Leissieres Express chairlift: the pisteurs say three in the last season. The little flattop Dome de Pramecou beside le Grande Motte as if somebody had set up for a picnic. The famous Aiguille Percee beloved of artists and illustrators since the days of woodcuts and dusty tomes before Val d’Isère there became famous. Or the table cloth of the Cascade glacier shoving snow through a valley like a prop forward as if unsure what to do next, global warming having sentenced its sporting career to an 80 year disappearing trick. What will the poor skier do then?

al d’Isère has an air of history and stability about it, important for those who

value such things when the French Alps were invaded by custom-built 1960s steel and concrete resorts. “You don’t fine any other villages at 1850 metres,” Kerstin Grandclaudon of the tourist office says.”60pc of the resort is higher than 2,200metres.” These Alpine resorts around the Swiss and Italian borders have all of these things. What Val d’Isère has is class. Not the glitzy chic of Madonna de Campiglio, or the over priced grandeur of Zermatt. Class and convenience, because, unlike Verbier, you do not have to travel for kilometres to reach the slopes. My first visit to Val d’Isère was as a novice skier with the family in 2002 and I was hooked. Val d’Isère’s little village houses and hotels in traditional stone and wood architecture offer just 15,000 tourist beds, while ready poured

n Eoghan Corry travelled to Val d’Isère as a guest of Topflgiht chalets. Chalet holidays start from €884 per person sharing but watch out for great deals throughout the season. Topflight offer chalets in 4 French resorts for season 15/16 - La Plagne, Meribel Valley, Plan Peisey - Les Arcs & Val d'Isere

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neighbour Tignes has 31,000.

hile Tignes has styled itself for the young and sporty, Val is chasing the pampered. When Yule opens for next season Val will have six five star hotels and 13 spas. It also offers a small museum based in a 1664 house, the oldest in town, that opens between 5 and 7 each day, and a cinema. Both Val d’Isère and Tignes are incentivising private chalet owners in an attempt to release (cold beds, ie unoccupied beds) to the market, extra tourist beds. Airbnb may be about to do that for them. They can get 50,000 people on to the mountains overhead and scatter them quickly on to distance slopes in Espace Killy’s 300km of ski runs, as well as access to some of the highest rated offpiste in the Alps. There are 24 groomed slopes for beginners, 19 intermediate and 12 advanced, but bear in mind many of them hilariously mislabeled by someone who has a sense of humour. The area has 45 chairlifts, 24 draglifts, two funiculars, four cable cars, four gondolas and some parks and pipes were added in recent year. There is an option to upgrade to off piste for €2.80 a day. Private lesson cost €55 an hour . Excursions include

nicular to the Grande Motte is one of the great experiences of the stop and is usually not crowded.

Val d’Isère has two well-signed “Ski Tranquille” areas up high that are suitable for beginners, who can then get the lifts back down at the end of the day.

paragliding (€85), heli tours (€39), speed riding (€90), ice diving (€85), a bungee swing (€50), quads and buggies (€30), ice driving (€60), ice climbing (€93), and dog sledding (€85).

ythology is important in these mountains and few places in the Alps come with as accomplished a mythology as Val d’Isère. Val’s ski mythology, largely conjured up by Charles Diebot, a Parisien who set up the village's first ski school in 1932 and reinforced by the Olympic exploits of Jean Claude Killy, has become

as iconic a part of the culture as when Hannibal marched his elephant over the pass. The nephew of Jean Claude Killy, Dimitri Killy runs the Killy sports rental shop beside the tourist office. Dmitri, burdened with the most famous name in ski, avoided competition through his teens. He told us he is proud of his Irish heritage: great great great grand daddy left Tipperary to fight for Napoleon. Val got its ski reputation and its infrastructure early, its first champion in 1904 and its first lift in 1932. It replenished both early. It seems happy to sit on

both. The six-seat Fountaine Froide chair relieved pressure, transporting up to 3000 skiers per hour at peak times, and Tignes opened the €15m Telecabin de Toviere last year. The long overdue replacement for the Vanoise Express will not be ready until 2016-17.

n the meantime there are ways to avoid the crowds and the queues. Instead of taking the Olympique head fro the Bellvarde next door and ski across to the Loyes Express, it gets you go the same place with the advantage of a guaran-

teed seat. Take the bus to Le Fornet and the gondola to the wide sun soaked blues above before everyone else has skied over from Val d’Isère. To avoid the ski school queue at Toviere and Palafour gondolas in le Lac de Tignes, head over by bus to nearby Lavachet and use the less popular Paquis of Chaudannes lifts. Try the Paquis chairlift instead of the Toviere bubble to get from Tignes to Val d’Isère, ski down Crocus to the Combe Folle drag lift, then down the Violettes blue slope into the valley. The subway train fu-

isten, too, to the sounds of the infrastructure rather than bucolic bliss conjured up by the brochures. Much of your ski day will be on spent on lifts, listening to the hum and the rattle of metal recognised, with your eyes trained below for following gloves and deer tracks. Each pylon of the chairlift growls like a dog as you pass. And then the casual uncertainty when it stops. What crisis has caused this pause? How long? Then, with a jerk, it starts again. The lifts perform too, even if they don’t always behave. They come with moods and peculiarities of their own. District Justices have dealt with cases that have involved less vicious grievous premeditated assaults than some of the ski lifts of Espace Killy: like Datcha and Grand Pre. While we were there two people were helicoptered off the mountain, not from an encounter with the vicissitudes of an unforgiving piste, but because they had an encounter with the notoriously bad-tempered and fast moving ski lift. They come in various

Clockwise: Kerstin Grandclaudon of Val D’isere tourism, 60pc of the resort is higher than 2,200m, Tignes gondola, the two speed magic carpet Pim and Pam, Dimitri Killy grand nephew of Jean Claude Killy with Eoghan Corry

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DESTINATION FRANCE speeds, sizes, designs and vintages, some of the older ones Prone to stopping and leaving you bobbing in space on a steel backed chair. You get the sense as you approach each one that there is a surprise in store. You can never tell the speed of the next one.

omething similar applies to the après ski, which, if you were to believe the Savoiardes, was invented here. The first après ski bar opened in the 1930s and by the 1960s Grande Ourse had established itself as the original of the species. Restaurants on the mountain are pricey, but over on the Le Fornet side the Cascade restaurant has menus for less than €10 and La Sana in the snow square opposite ESF is good value. The après is getting earlier. La Folie Douce is rightly famed for its afternoon session, a cabaret of the hillsides, Johnny Fox’s with snow. You know a show is successful when they charge €2 to look after the skies outside. You can eat expensively at La Fruitiere (consommé a la truffe €22, Entrecote €30) or drink expensively at the La Folie Douce (kir €6, hot chocolate €5). Table conversation is impossible. Communica-

The height of Espace Killy brings some fascinating cloud formations

tion has to be reduced to sign language. Passers-by stop at the top of the mountain to listen to the noise and speculate what the five o’clock ski down will be like after such unrestrained imbibing. The echoes of the call of cabaret leader Kelly Star (another man who told us he is proud of his Irish heritage) are you ready to party could be heard all the way to the top of the Mont Blanc lift. The silence of the mountain, indeed.

eople here ARE ready to party. Coco Ricco is also

engaged in early après, entertainment here is becoming as much pendant as après, and has a sister nightclub Doudoune that only kicks into life when darkness has descended and the pisteurs have taken to the mountain. Latest of all is Dick’s T-bar, which opens at 11 and its sister nightclub The Bunker that opens at 3 PM and bounces along until 9am. Most night life are closely packed in the small streets around the snow front and the Church of St Bernard of the Alps and the market places, with a few in the

trefoil parallel roads and the modern suburbs, Everywhere is accessible, not because everything is walking distance, but because the train rouge offers a ready conveyance from one end of the town and its communities to the other.

al d’Isère can be a little bit too English for Irish tastes and probably not French enough, but scratch the surface and you find the accumulated French family traditional guests that for generations have been coming

here to ply these slopes. Good-humoured French waiters and cafe owners display a welcoming smile my when they have established that the Irlandaise are in town. Our hostess at café St Jacques waltzed through the tables when I sang Bourvil’s Ballade Irlandaise. That was fondue night, an important part of every trip to Val. Death by cheese is the phrase that gets used on these occasions. The racklette comes in a variety of dishes of various providence,

The changes here are less dramatic than at other resorts, and inconsequential to the mood and feel of the place. There are fewer Russians with the collapse of the ruble. Crepe Val’s where he had our fondue in 2003 is still serving the best and looks more or less they . Le Lodge, recommended since the days when guidebooks were the only source of information a holiday planner could access, still looks the same although a trendy bar has been added alongside.

Clockwise: The oldest house in Val d’Isère dates to 1664 and has entry doors at different snow levels, Champagne bottles at La Folie Douce, chairlift above Tignes and the green and blue slopes at the top of Olympique which are a favourite with beginner skiers

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FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 49

he bars of Val d’Isère might usefully be rated in colour codes like the pistes. Black for the ones that offer the most danger, the steepest incline and the greater sense of elation when the motions are whipped up to high speed, full of messy moghuls and lines of sight, with sudden inclines that will defy even the most practiced drinker. On this imaginary getpiste map, the bars can even change colour code in the course of an evening. Bars where it is clear everyone is destined to fall over, at some stage in proceedings. Bars that are just waiting for the temperature or the wind to come from the right direction to make them perfect, but

DESTINATION FRANCE

Skiers at far famed La Folie Douce

nobody expects that to happen anytime’s soon. Bars that have gotten a little too much heat and have got soft and slushy prone to melting into little puddles of tears with every passing cloud before your eyes as the night goes on. Bars that are hopelessly narrow and way too overcrowded, the in-

adequate throughway blocked by small clusters of the clueless, with a collective loss of sense of direction that propels everyone downhill with alarming differences in speed and velocity, always with a sense this is not going to end well. Bars teeming with the swaggering youths who always seem to know the

way while the rest of us potter away aimlessly or boy racers racing down the edge blissful in the knowledge that their actions will never have any negative consequences. Bars with interesting animal tracks (is that a mouton or a chamois?). Bars overlaid with the artificial stuff, which we all know does not com-

pare with the real thing. Bars that don’t yet have a grade four avalanche warning but you know they will probably need it at the end of the night. Bars where you can tell at an instance that the white powder is not going to be of good quality or enough of it to go around. And the iciest of all,

the battle hardened, devoid of emotion or real feeling, so stiff that even a stern, vigorous and aggressive stab of a ski pole right in the middle of the face will be needed to make an impression. And that was just the bar lady.

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DESTINATION NORWAY

etting there by degrees. On no other voyage do you have the same sense of place, the same sense of your progress being measured on some great global chart, like you do on the Hurtigruten Arctic cruise. Every time you wake up on a cruise ship on the Hurtigruten line it is important to check what is happening, what has changed. It is not just the stunning scenery. Can scenery continue to stun when there is such a plentiful supply of it?. The scenery becomes almost routine on a trip that has styled itself for a hundred years as the most beautiful voyage on the ocean. It is also important to check how far north, how far east, how many degrees further from the norm. Nowhere does this sense of excitement and enthralment become more important than you have passed the north Cape. This piece of rocky headland is on the top left hand corner of Norway. Next stop will be the North Pole or, more likely, Svalbard, which, for all intents and purposes, may be the same thing. The journey then does something unexpected, it ratchets up the excitement and introduces a sense of enhanced anticipation and expectation about going east, and starts putting our noses into the ear of the Russian bear, as it were.

ur journey in March 2015 was an eventful one. Most of the customers that had come were charter passengers sent by Irish travel agents in anticipation of the northern lights and a solar eclipse. Both performed to some degree. We saw the eclipse on the shimmering waves through a gap in the clouds.

Eoghan Corry cruises the Arctic circle with Hurtigruten

Bright ice, big lights Magical midnight in Tromso

The Northern lights were fashionably late arriving, like a beautiful woman, and did not reveal enough to remove our sense of anticipation and desire to return to see more. That may have been a good thing, because the lights are seductive and really should take many dates before they have been wooed and won.

he Northern Lights, the far famed aurora borealis were peripheral to the experience. The voyage did something even more spectacular. It tossed us and turned us and threw us in the air. The captain announced one night that he was going through a force twelve. The ship rocked outrageously. The most expensive berries in the world, cloud berries, had been served for desert, and many of them ended up in unexpected places, decorating the drains along the deck and in the lavatories. Our small group of bat-

tle hardened journalists from Ireland drank the Hurtigruten red wine, watched the carnage, and enjoyed the rock and roll, jive and swing, like teenagers at their first dance. The ocean and the climate here are harsh, they are supposed to be. We saw the ocean for three successive days at its harshest and it proved a greater highlight of the voyage than the Northern lights could ever have delivered. As for the climate, we got a blast of that too. When we rushed to deck at night in response to every reputed sighting of the northern lights, sounded out over the tannoy like an air raid warning, we got sand blasted with tiny particles of ice on our faces. The enthusiasm never abated. If he had said the ship was sinking there would not have been such a scramble to the deck. And we pretended we enjoyed the experience. Some of us even did. The wind was cold as a brass monkey’s mam-

malian protuberance. The passengers wrapped and double wrapped in the layers they were told to bring and raised eyebrows at each other in the absence of any other means of communication. I had my long standing weather-beaten Antarctic Hurtigruten jacket and it stood, as might be expected, the worst of the excesses of the weather.

hen, a surprise. The longer you stayed to face the Arctic the more rewarding it became, the greater the sense that you were in one of the last pieces of a planet that had not been tamed by what the marketing departments of tour odorators like to describe in their brochures as “experiential tourism.” It didn’t get any more experiential than a minus 25 wind chill on a dark night in the Barents Sea. What to do to enhance the experience further? Having a personal and national reputation to protect, I had to swim. They led us ashore, Michael

Hirschel from Dusseldorf, Rachel Guy from Dun Laoghaire, and Eoghan from Straffan, like the international revolutionary “viva cold water” ringleaders been brought to the firing squad. We togged out in a gymnasium, and were led along the dock to a basket, akin to those they use for shark dives in South Africa and Australia. Except this time WE were the spectacle, and any chad that had decided to stop by to spend a Sunday afternoon inshore with their wife and chadlings was going to have a great laugh as our expense. I went first, as is my

wont, plunged and reemerged from the water, probably too quickly. More than anyone else, I should know that water that is still liquid is going to be warmer than the air outside. It was warm, a balmy plus two and a half. And the wind when it came to whip my bared shoulders and legs after I had reemerged from the water was not as harsh as I had anticipated. It was like the Barents Sea had warmed me up so much that the cold wind outside would have no occasion to worry me, at least for a few minutes. Michael stayed longest, stretching his legs, and wiggling his

Nordnorge in its natural habitat

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FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 51 toes, and I wished I had done the same. They gave me a certificate to show that I was in the Barents Sea for a swim. All I could think of was the “here be dragons” warning in the medieval seafarer maps, or perhaps those old Ordnance Survey maps which always featured a wing of the workhouse called the idiots wing.

the way offers some interesting displays, a church, a Thai temple and a video depicting this coastline in all its glory. It doesn't really matter if the real Northern Cape is a lump of stone a little bit further up the coast.

efinitely the coolest call of the week was to the snow hotel in Kirkenes, where three time zones meet, (like the words of a Brendan Shine song), Russia is two hours behind, Finland just one hour behind. IN theory you can run around the marker and confuse your smartphone. Astrid Lund showed us through the snow hotel, the pride of the area’s bed stock, all ice sculptures and filter lights.. Why the fire extinguishers? “We are still a hotel and subject to hotel

Northern Cape where the weather changes by the minute

regulations,” Astrid says, “the politicians in their wisdom require us to have them.” A worrying development, coolers have had to be used to keep the snow hotel at the required tem-

perature in recent years due to global warming. Others went husky driving along the ice, the dogs with their tongues sideways from their mouths, occasionally barking with excitement.

Some of the cruise ship excursionists look like they are about to do the same.“We call it boiling point,” said Astrid, “70 degrees north and 30 degrees east.”

n Hurtigruten's Northern Lights Promise, has been re-introduced for next Winter. There will be a direct departure from Dublin on March 22 following the success of the director charter flights from Dublin to Tromso in 2015.

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on't tell anyone about to book a Hurtigruten holiday, but the Northern Cape is a fraud. The real Northern Cape was too inaccessible and provided too great a difficulty to build a visitor centre there, so they picked another spot instead. Not that it matters, it is like being shown the site of the true crucifixion or the tomb in Jerusalem, or

the Battle of Clontarf at Heddigan’s pub. Exactitudes do not concern international tourism. Instead the Norwegians have done a terrific job. They have built a visitor centre which is where most of the cruise shoreexxers to the Northern Cape will spend their time. Because, when the fog comes down which does 27 times an hour, judging by what happened when we were there, there is not much to see. True, in between the cloud will lift and this amazing Arctic scene will come dancing before the eyes of the visitors. But hanging around waiting for pretty stuff is not really an option in a wind of minus 25. So what next, but to drop in to a visitor centre that starts and ends, like all visitor centres do, with the gift shop, and along

DESTINATION NORWAY

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FEBRYARY 2016 PAGE 52

DESTINATION SRI LANKA

arco Polo’s favourite island, Sri Lanka, is a bus stop in the Indian ocean. Everyone came by to spend some time here. Each of them left their own religious, cultural, political and military footprints, often on the same hilltops. It is a dizzying place to visit as a result, palm fringed beaches and some of the holiest spiritual sites in the world, accidental dining where the celebrity is the food (not the chef), and attractions that belong in the top drawer, all within 200 miles of each other and the brochure beach resorts around Bentota, each worth seeing and worth travelling to see as well.

varicious westerners, of course, came to make their claim, Sri Lanka had 150 years each of Portuguese, Dutch and English rule, but it is as if they never had to worry that they would hang around. Nowadays they are

Garden of the Galaxy Eoghan Corry explores the cultural side of Sri Lanka

The stunning view from the climb to the UNESCO World Heritage site at Sigiriya

probably condemned to 150 years of hotel guests each with their own demands.

Sri Lanka wears its cricket legacy and Portuguese-style baila music as casually as the ancient

Clockwise: walking on hot coals in Kandy, Eoghan Corry atop Sigiriya, Emily Fairbairn at the turtle sanctuary in Mirissa, looking back down the climb at atop Sigiriya, elephants take a bath at Pinnawala and the most dangerous thing we saw in Sri Lanka: a hornet warning.

snake deities and Buddhist traditions that seem to lurk around each corner of the narrow roads. And, delightfully, the roads are narrow and the traffic occasionally chaotic. “Some countries drive on the left, others drive in the left, ours is optional,” said our driver, and gave that slightly scarey grin suggesting he meant it. In the fields around the plants are fighting for space, Sri Lanka is a garden, a work of flora in progress. The entertainment area of one of our hotels was built around a 20-year-old banyan tree. Fruit bats hung from the trees around the swimming pool at another. All seem to be thriving: plants, philosophy, people, wildlife. All are inseparable.

ow can they ensure people come to help the Sri Lankan government meet its impossibly ambitious tourism target? Let’s start with the food. Every meal here is a festival. Every dish is an individual work of art, the antithesis of standardized menus that other cultures mistakenly call fine dining. “Every home has their own kitchen,” “the blending of spices varies from kitchen to kitchen.” Food can be expedient as well. Watercress is anti diarrhetic. Kanda curry leaves are useful in diarrhoea dysentery and piles. No, I didn’t know either. Our host hotels outdo each other in palatepleasing philanthropy: banana milk, sweet lassi, papaya and banana yogurt, avocado smoothies,

guava and sugar cane compotes, potato masala curry, white curry, fish ambultiyal, sambaru, string hoppers (red and white), and that is just breakfast. A well-fed holiday maker is a happy holidaymaker. The spices are sold at the tourist traps, but the best stuff is in local supermarkets at a quarter of the price.

t Kandy we sat for the folk opera: part folk dance (Bulgarian sideways in costume) part folk dance (Irish, high stepping), part circus act with cart wheeling Sinhalese warriors and spinning rabans on sticks all with a discordant whine for all the world sounding like a bag pipes that had been left out in the tropi-

■ For details of great fares and connections to Sri Lanka please call Sri Lankan Airlines on 01 6633939 or email srilankan@premair.ie ■ Eoghan Corry travelled to Sri Lanka as a guest of Sri Lanka Tourism. For more information: Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Tel : +44 207 262 1841 infouk@srilanka.travel www.srilanka.travel

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FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 53 cal sun for an hour or two too long We went to see the dramatic but necessarily expedient fire walking and fire dancing, like the tourists that we were, And then on to one of the spiritual centres of the east, where one of Buddha’s canines is kept locked away form view but that did not stop us., the sacred temple of the tooth, queues of pilgrims in white sarongs and bare feet, all clanging gongs like the opening of the old cinema newsreels and rare reminders of more modern influences such as the sign by the stairs saying: “the service of the elevator is available for disabled devotees.” There is something awkwardly tourist about the way to approach these endless temples and caves, the hundreds of statues. A spiritual selfie? (“you cannot have your face shown with the Bud-

DESTINATION SRI LANKA

Josephine Price lighting prayer flames in the sacred Buddhist Temple of the Tooth, Kandy

dha you have to be sideways”), or a prayer. The Buddhists are one of those religions which doesn’t mind.

■ Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, nursery and captive breeding ground for wild Asian elephants has the largest herd of captive elephants in the world. In 2011, there were 88 elephants, including 37 males and 51 females from 3 generations, living amid waterfalls and elephant coloured rocks ■ Kandy, last capital of the ancient kings' era of Sri Lanka in the midst of hills, the 6th-century Lion Rock of Sigiriya built by King Kasyapa, fearful of his brother’s revenge for killing his father, and decorated with glowing frescoes of bare-breasted nymphs. ■ Galle Fort a well preserved example of 17th century coastal fortifications started by the Portuguese,e finished by

he ubiquitous Buddhist flag of five colours seems dramatically contempo-

rary in the rainbow age. “Is Buddhism a philosophy or a religion,” tour guide Susantha Jotila asks. “It started as a phi-

THINGS TO DO PLACES TO SEE

the Dutch and then passed to the English. ■ Kandy Cultural Show performed by the traditional Kandyan dancers on a daily basis with some firewalking to finish. ■ Habaraduwa Turtle Hatchery has released 4m turtles in 35 years. Baby turtles in hordes and tanks holding injured turtles, including a couple of impressively large specimens, swimming about their tanks, recovering in the hatchery until they could be re-released. They come with human names, Monica is taken out of her tank for selfie. There is a pattern of casualties: motorboat, shark and the turtle who

losophy for the intelligent man.” Later, it became a religion, and that we even ask the question nowadays is a reflection on

lost her two front flippers in the 2000 St Stephen’s Day tsunami. ■ Temple of the Scared Tooth Relic is the fifth holiest site in Buddhism. The annual pageant (Esala Perahera) attracts thousands of pilgrims A neat place to people watch (pilgrim watch?). ■ Habarana, popular tourist destination for safari lovers and starting point for safaris in the nearby jungle and Minneriya National Park which is heavily populated by elephants. ■ Golden Temple of Dambulla, largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka towering 160 m over the surrounding plains. The action is

how successful it was. Philosophy mattered when Sri Lanka hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The Tamil campaign and the extermination of their partisans was ruthless. It was raised in conversation, but nobody professed to have any real information. How many died in the St Stephens Day Tsunami of 2000? It was once said 50,000, now 38,000, but it does not matter: the memories are real and some of the individual incidents were major world tragedies in their own right such as the 1,500 who died when a single train was swept away. On the coastline there are some memorials The past is not a foreign country as LP Hartley claimed, just the past. Sri Lanka has more of it than almost anywhere else on the planet.The trouble with bus stops.

spread over five caves of contain statues and paintings with a total of 153 Buddha statues, 3 statues of Sri Lankan kings and 4 statues of gods and goddesses. Murals cover an area of 2,100 square metre including the temptation by the demon Mara, and Buddha's first sermon. ■ Sigiriya geological formation with , with numerous temples and shrines set around a tranquil lake. and stunning views of the surrounding countryside as you climb. ■ Hamabantota, a coastal town that is close to four national parks ■ Anuradhapura, the ruined capital of the old Singhalese kingdom, famous for its massive Buddha temples

Clockwise: Monkeys at Sigiriya, photographing a Toque monkey, Galle and a school group from northern Sri Lanka in Polonnaruwa

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DESTINATION USA

eorgia’s nickname is the peach state. It smacks of dessert. The problem is that by the time dessert comes round, you may not have room for peaches. If, as is oft said in the trade, food is the glue that holds international tourism together Georgia has got the culinary concept by the belly. The region’s come-and-eat story has sizzled and fried. Today you are more likely to find southern fried calamari than chicken, but when they serve chicken they do it with a drawl: “if the colonel served chicken this good he would be a general” went one post. Georgia has big time celebrity chefs in the cities, the trendy flatbreads, peel and eat shrimps and black ruffle fries, the foods of the rich and the poor alike of the country being lovingly recreated for a food-fascinated new age, and the old staples that will never go away. Tripadvisor reviewers picked Georgia as the best state for barbecue, because Tripadvisor reviewers would know. We sampled one of the most iconic food south f the line: treats the state has to offer on a recent

we caught up on the best known: the novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and its movie version. The book is all humidity, Spanish Moss and atmosphere, and so is the Duncan homestead, laid out like it belonged to an age that has never passed. There is another city, Charleston, that claims to be the custodian of America’s glory days but John Duncan had an answer to that: “Charleston is older and finer Savannah is prettier they had 200 years of slavery we had 100.” In one of the squares a statue commemorates William Jasper, the Irishman who saved Savannah in the fight against the British in 1779. A beautiful place to die.

Eoghan Corry in Georgia

Life is a peach Chef Julia LeRoy and her audience (reflected) at Atlanta Botanic Garden cookery demonstration

n Centre for Civil and Human Rights (100 Ivan Allen Jr Blvd NW) uses theatrical and high-tech exhibits to recreate motion, sights and sounds to immerse visitors in the American civil rights movement. Try to sit through the abuse and intimidation that was used on blacks in white only restaurants. n World of Coca-Cola (121 Baker St NW) visual and interactive museum dedicated to Atlanta’s native soft drink with multi-sensory theater, an 1880s soda fountain and an opportunity to sample the corporation’s 70 beverages from around the globe. n Georgia Aquarium (225 Baker St NW) North America’s largest aquarium features aquatic animals from around the globe in 10m gallons of water. n Inside CNN Studio Tour (190 Marietta St) behind the scenes of the Global Headquarters of CNN . n JCT. Kitchen & Bar 1198 Howell Mill Road Atlanta warm and friendly restaurant on the Westside serving up

ATLANTA LANDINGS

sophisticated, Southern fare, n Atlanta Streetcar a 4.3km loop connecting downtown’s convention and tourism district to the historic Sweet Auburn district on the Eastside. n Birth home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and International Civil Rights Walk of Fame in the Sweet Auburn neighbourhood. n Krog Street Market, 99 Krog St, renovated 1920s warehouse and the former home of Tyler Perry Studios n Ponce City Market, 675 Ponce De Leon Ave, housed in the fully renovated 1925 Sears, Roebuck & Company building, the largest brick building in the Southeast, to feature a central food hall, leading retail brands, and living and working spaces. n Porter Beer Bar (1156 Euclid Ave NE) cosy restaurant with its handcrafted wooden booths and exposed brick wall, 44 beers on draft or one of the 700 bottled beers.

visit. Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room and its succotash amid the laden tables. There are no bookings, so people queue for their time at the table. It costs $20 for an all you can eat session, they serve just 250 a day and stop serving 2pm. “You need to wear stretchy pants,” Marsha Thompson says.

avannah’s cuisine is not all based on size, tour guide Philip Sellers walked us through the storied streets and squares are dotted with curated small shops

set up by entrepreneurs and little eateries, like Hoppinjohns, the creation of cookery writer and chef John Martin Taylor, which apparently put stone ground grits on the map. In Savannah you think you are in a movie set, as the black horse drawn carriages with red mortarboard tops pull by, clipping and clopping like a southern melody, the passengers refusing to view anything except through an oblong screen. At John and Ginger Duncan’s V&J Antiques

here is a line in Anne Tyler’s novel (and subsequent movie) The Accidental Tourist that in the southeast they say that if you want to go to heaven you have to change planes in Atlanta. It was a bit like that for many Irish people. We fly the Delta service to Atlanta has been around 20 years, and having changed terminal and aircraft, continue to somewhere around. What is this mysterious Georgia that we spend two hours and fourteen minutes in without ever trying to find out more. Atlanta has decided it has enough of transit passengers. It wants more Irish to stop by. What to see? First advantage: the business of getting around has become so much easier. The Atlanta streetcar has been in action for about a year now doing a 2.7 mile loop that opened on New Year's Eve and was de-

n Eoghan Corry flew to Atlanta with Delta. Delta operate daily flights between Dublin and Atlanta., DL177 at 11:20 and DL176 departing Atlanta 20.36 arriving Dublin 9:25 (next day). Economy return fares start from € 885 economy and €2313 Euro in Delta One (Business Class). To book, see delta.com, call Delta reservations on 01 6590298 or visit your travel agent.

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DESTINATION USA

clared free for the first year. After that it will cost one dollar travel. The MARTA from the airport to join this looped line is $9 a journey which, considering the usual cost of transportation in the USA, is a giveaway.

he signature attractions of Atlanta are the CNN studio tour, the world of Coca-Cola and the huge Georgia aquarium, which is among the biggest inland of its kind in the world. We were looking beyond that, and where better to start then the walking tour of the Martin Luther King Jr historic district. The landscape of the great man’s childhood. We passed through the sweet auburn kerb market and sampled best burritos in Atlanta. And then another surprise, René Garcia brought us on part of the project to transform 35.4km of disused rail sections into parks, green space and bicycle greenways through overgrowth

John and Ginger Duncan’s of V&J Antiques with dogs Charlie and Emma

and fringelands. Atlanta’s BeltLine trails attract 1.2m million visitors a year. Appropriately the inventor of the concept was a gentleman called Ryan Gravel.

o many diamond back turtles were being run over on the causeway to Jeckyll Island that they turned

n ECHO Restaurant, King & Prince Beach & Golf Resort, iconic St Suons Island resort with its own beaches, 201 Arnold Road, St Simons Island, 912638-3631. n St Simons Island highlights include Christ Church, Fort Frederica National Monument, remnants of fort and town built by James Oglethorpe between 1736 and 1748, and St. Simons Lighthouse and Museum

part of this complex into a turtle sanctuary. Here children come and navigate their way past the plastic circular tubs and their incumbents, infected, wounded or damaged turtles, like passing through a sick day on the way to the playground, starting with a room full of untidy display cases, storyboards and not-very-fun “fun facts” and exiting, as

ISLAND DRESSING

n Jekyll Island Georgia Sea Turtle Museum and National Historic Landmark District millionaire cottages, site of the first transcontinental telephone call, and first condominium n Driftwood Beach, Jekyll Island, one of the most photographed tree graveyards located at the north end of Jekyll Island.

tourists are used to doing nowadays, through the gift shop with its overpriced tee shirts. Jekyll Island has a feel of faded grandeur about

it. The grandeur, has been given a dusting down and a lick of paint. We watched that sunset from the vantage point of a pier side restaurant with the exquisiteries of local seafood being delivered to the plates below our noses. The sunset smells of dinner. The wild Georgia shrimp and grits festival takes place in Jekyll island in the third week in September, but you don’t have to wait until then. We were driven through the island by our hostess in a convertible with Knee Deep by Zach Brown band (appropriately, from Georgia) with Jimmy Buffett. The music and the landscape converged, like there was no margins. Later on skeleton beach we walked through the sand with the broken branches all around. The following morning

n Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room, 107 West Jones St., Savannah 912-2325997, No bookings for this iconic eatery, queue and hope to get into a living room environment with tables heaving with classic southern produce. n Savannah Old City Walks, Phil Sellers, provides walking tour of historic district, access to period houses not usually available to tourists. n Leopold’s Ice Cream Parlour, 212 E Broughton Street Savannah, try the classic 1950s tutti frutti,. n Bonaventure Cemetery Savannah’s most famous, former location of the famous bird girl statue, used on the cover of the Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, it is now in the Telfair Museum of Art.

as the daylight ramped up it was silent where the troubadour had been singing Roberta Flack and the party glasses tinkling only a few hours before. A lone bird stood on the top of the mast of a dolphin watching craft, one of 11 moored on the pier. The water looked invitingly muddy-marsh dark and salty and beckoning to the swimmer, while the fish jumped in plops pursuing their lifestyle secure in the knowledge that nobody was going to chase them from their habitat. At Fort Frederica there is a church with honey bees in the steeple that was built with hard pine that does not exist any more. The forest was lumbered out of existence. They grow peaches there now, no doubt.

SAVANNAH SCENE

n Wormsloe State Historic Site, with its Avenue of 400 Live Oaks leading to the tabby ruins of Noble Jones’ colonial estate – the oldest standing structure in Savannah. n Tanger Outlet Mall, newly opened north of Savannah in April 2015, with 80 outlet stores n Bubba’s Bistro, Ways Station Shopping Center, Richmond Hill, fine food in the historic Richmond Hill district 912-756-3663. n Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation Historic Site, 5556 U.S. Highway 17 North, Brunswick, GA. 912-264-7333. representing the pre-Civil War history and culture of Georgia’s rice coast.

Clockwise: The house in which Miidnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was set, southern food, the ubiquitous Spanish Moss and sign at Bradley’s

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e arrived in Newquay in mid afternoon on Aer Lingus’ Regional’s 50-seater, pocket sized jet to a pocket-sized airport to a pocket sized car rental desk. Aer Lingus regional started the new Dublin to Newquay service on May 1st, opening up Newquay and its Cornish hinterland to the weekend visitor. For summer it goes from three weekly to five weekly. It seems too good to be true. So we sent to see what Cornwall had to offer. The road signs make you feel at home. St Columb is one of the first that you see when you land at Newquay airport, You pass familiar Celtic spellings: Roscrow, Truro (the town of the three kings, trí rí, Carmon Downs, a combination of English and Cornish. It feels very Wexford, sunlight lighting up the lime trees overhanging the road, a gravelly river meandering alongside the road. Although there is no water in sight the satnav tells us the sea is not far away and the river probably knows it. It flows a little faster in anticipation. The frenetic pace of the mid noughties seems to have eased off. The property boom was unkind to people here. Some people can identify with that. Dublin previously had flights to the region, notably to Exeter, but Newquay is the heart of the action, symbolic of visitors Cornwall, unsure of its place in tourism between a daytime of bucolic beauty spots, cliff paths with scrubby rocky gravel and warning signs about precipitous cliffs,

The crack in Kernow

Eoghan Corry finds Newquay renewed

The tide cuts of St Michael’s Mount from the mainland twice a day, like a baby Mont St Michel

turning inland to overgrown grass and bright yellow wildflowers, and a nighttime of pubs filled with London stag parties or high end restaurants reflecting in the glory of their big-name celebrity chef owners. Cornwall is all of these things.

ood is something of the new currency here. Jamie Oliver opened Fifteen at Watergate Bay in 2002, a little outcrop of buildings a few miles from Newquay. His restaurant looks out on the beach and the bay, white rimmed with tumbling Atlantic waves, and we dined at sunset. The view is the first thing on the menu. A newly wed couple were on the beach having photographs taken. The loud speakers played. The place suit-

THINGS TO DO

n Eden Project offers what it described as “the world's largest rainforest in captivity, stunning gardens and world-class sculptures.” www.edenproject.com/ n St Mawes Passenger Ferry can be

ably flooded with natural sunlight as if the tide had swept in, made more intense by the reflected sand and globe fittings on the ceiling like a cheeky urban intrusion on an ancient setting. “Wish I was a baller” played on the loud speakers. Someone drew something phallic on the sand beneath the window where an elderly couple were dining. The waiters seemed unsure of themselves, reciting a mantra of descriptions like they were casting as extras in the new Poldark. We went for the tasting menu, bursting like the hedgerows with greenery and exotic imagination. Our waiter congratulated us and did the required voiceover. He said the words but, somehow, he didn't have the conviction. For those who live to taste, here is Jamie’s repertoire:

reached in Falmouth from the Prince of Wales pier www.falriver.co.uk/ n Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen. tasting menu costs £65pp for 5 courses and £85pp for 7 courses www.fifteencornwall.co.uk

n Amedei chocolate torte with pistachio crème fraiche and cheese board of tunworth, bath blue and keens n Wood fired beef fillet, bianco perla polenta and porcini n Cornish John Dory, peperonata and salmonoriglio n Tortellini of St Ives Bay crab and pongrattato n Carnaroli risotto or zucchini, mint, hazelnuts and pecorino n Lee Carter’s lobster, fregola di sarda and aioli n Burrata with smashed peas and almonds n St Enodoc asparagus and parmesan. None of the courses failed to match the anticipation or the imagination, and by the time the sky had reddened so had our palates. The kitchen chimneys are as ubiquitous as mining chimneys once more on the vantage points of the coastline. Celebrity

chef Rick Stein came to Falmouth to open a fish and chippery, but there are more authentic and cheaper options. Takeaway fish and chips shops are omnipresent, more likely to indicate an approaching village than a speed limit sign (or increasingly, the bright yellow speed camera). The fish is fresh as it is cheap.

he most authentic and most abiding image of Cornwall can be found in St. Michaels Mount, a baby version of Mont St Michel on the other side of La Manche, a rocky outcrop with its roadway covered at high tide. The village opposite, Marazion (apparently a Jewish market, Margadh Zion) sits like a viewing gallery for this part natural, part spiritual wonder. We stopped in for fish and chips, what else, and

some local brew to Trevor Austin’s Fire Engine Inn where we talked beer and fishing. A few miles along the coast is Mousehole, where the last native Cornish speaker died on St Stephen’s Day in 1777. The language was, thankfully recorded, oddly closer to Breton than to Welsh and, like its sisters, just a p-q step removed from being comprehensible to Irish people. There is a revival movement with a crèche and its own Gaelscoil, but it has a long way to go before it gets to radio, television, road signs and the basic requirements of a minority language in today’s homogenised culture. There is another St Michael’s in Dorset and another in Hampshire. Through in Mont St Michel and Skellig Micheál and it all forms a cross for a passing alien starship. Dan Brown

n Eoghan Corry travelled with Aer Lingus Regional who For summer Aer Lingus fly four days per week between Dublin and Orlando. Fares start from €259 each-way including taxes and charges. n He stayed in St Michael’s Hotel & Spa, who have won Best Spa in Cornwall, Large Hotel of the Year, 2 AA rosettes, and a Gold Green Tourism Award. www.stmichaelshotel.co.uk/

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might even have another novel out of that one.

almouth, is most famous for its deep natural harbour and proud maritime history. The sea is as in your face as you could imagine. The streets of the town all roll down to the pier, (turn left at the oddspelling Finn McCoul’s Irish pub), a finger into the water that becomes a waterborne bus station of services to the various stopping points around the bay with timetables and pleasant posters explaining why you should alight each craft: “fishing tours, pay on board.” The tide is precipitous and fast, or at least the climb down the steps to the St Mawes ferry is precipitous. “Someone pulled the plug out,” says our ferryman. We climb on board and then splash past the collection of yachts moored in the bay. When we pull into St Mawes the bay is full of surfers and body boarders. There is an even smaller ferry departing the pier, the Place Ferry. There is a time and a place for everything, said one of the ferry passengers. “The wrong place at the right time,” said another. The ferryman gave a tortured smile. “Place the jokes in the right ferry,” said a third. St Mawes has a Tudor castle and a series of narrow paths and roads that

St Mawes in midsummer: yachts and flowers

bring you through the flower-margined roads to a tiny church. It is a long drive back around the coast to Falmouth. Travel by water is quicker. The sea was a highway, not a barrier, to previous generations. They would pop over to Rosslare for a game of cards and a glim.

atural beauty and industrial heritage is an unusual combination. The crumbling minehead buildings and slim dormant chimneys clinging to the rocky coast. with the blue sea behind suggest another Cornwall: the one of Sunday night

television. To find Poldark go to the mineheads at Wheal Owles where the series was film or at St Agnes are the defining Cornish images for a generation. Cornwall has a TV image as well, the creation of Winston Graham .It was on a school trip to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford in the 1970s that my female class mates queued to meet Robin Ellis, nearly swooning in their hormonal excitement, Poldark of the series. For those whose youth featured a wild Cornwall where ships were lured on to the rocks, peasants worked the damp, cold

tunnels of the mine and wrongdoers were thrown over a cliff, there was a sense of anticipation that the new Poldark will be even better. They turned to Tallaght to cast Aidan Turner as the new even more smouldering Poldark. My female classmates, sadly no longer teenagers, would approve. Last time round Wheal Roots was renamed Poldark mine to cash in on the publicity. They even found a part for Robin Ellis in the new series. The new Poldark has the benefit of more digital trickery to make the locations more beautiful if that was necessary.

or a real portal into another world go to the quarries. Or rather, the revitalized quarry that is the Eden project started out life as a scar on the landscape and have been turned into an ecosystem in a bubble. From inside, the margins of the pretend rain forest look like a mist, as if the rainforest has generated a little fog that hangs just over the biosphere, that's if you ignore the metal pipes and the superstructure, which it is not hard to do. A new rainforest canopy walkway makes an accessible circular route. If this was Australia, they would have

you bungee jumping off it, but this is Cornwall. Part of the unexpected success in recreating the rainforest in the smell. It is lush and oily, humid and spicy and seedy, the smell you get in the real thing. They have not decided if this is the real thing in Malaysia, St Helena, Seychelles or indeed Hawaii. Rainforest in a zoo, except the captives don’t look unhappy. There are storyboards giving guidance on all of these subjects: Cola is probably the best-known Latin name in the world, they tell us, an African tree with caffeine rich seeds are part of the age old culture of west Africa. Everywhere the West Country accents are a bit of a giveaway alongside the visitors, including some Irish here to pick up university offspring, but, hey, this was the millennium when things did not get thought out completely. The big message” some burnt out tree stumps and a declaration that an area of primary rain forest the size of the biome is lost every ten seconds. Your wallet is your weapon they tell us too, shop for products that look after the forest. Then something really cool: a cool room. You sit inside in the pleasant air conditioning to clear the brow.It doesn’t feel like Cornwall, but do Jamie and Poldark?

Clockwise: dining option in St Mawes, Eoghan Corry at Michael’s Mount, the Eden Project, Jamie’s restaurant and lobster tasting course

€

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AER LINGUS REGIONAL

will recommence its Shannon-Edinburgh service from March 28 2016, flying 6w. It will also base a third aircraft at Cork Airport, flying direct to Southampton and Leeds Bradford.

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

AIR FRANCE will retire its B747400s on January 14 with a two-hour tribute flight over France from CDG, which includes a champagne lunch, inflight commentary and a visit to the maintenance hangar and a drink at the foot of the aircraft. BA is introducing "standardised" check-in

and bag drop closure times at airports. Shorthaul passengers have to check-in and drop-off their bags up to 45 minutes before departure. Long-haul passengers must check-in and dropoff their bags up to an hour before departure. London City Airport is not included, so passengers can arrive 20 minutes prior to departure.

AER LINGUS Keith Butler is new

Chief Commercial Officer of Aer Lingus having been Chief Strategy and Planning Officer.

DRONES Undefr new drone legislation and registration process came into effect from December 21, drones weighing 1kg or more have to be registered with the Irish Aviation Authority. Registration is free until February, when a €5 fee is introduced by the IAA. Picture shows Ralph James of the IAA.

DUBLIN AIRPORT John Sisson

of Dublin Airport spoke at the Airport Council International Europe and Asia- Pacific, Exchange Conference in Istanbul.

AER LINGUS’s early morning 07.50

JFK flight is back on the schedule for for June, July and August

SHANNON Airport handled 101,000

passengers last month, up 4pc YOY.

ATLANTIC Flight Training Academy in Cork Airport signed a contact with Turkish Airlines to train its cadet pilots. Training has begun for the first class of 20 cadets. AER LINGUS and BA expanded

their codeshare agreement to the US, including all flights to and from London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Dublin and Shannon.

AMERICAN Airlines will introduce premium economy to its international widebody fleet when its B787-9 is delivered in late 2016 and to all 777-300ERs, 777-200ERs, 787-8s and Airbus A330s over three years.

AIRBUS reported net orders of 1,007 air-

craft up to November 2015, with 169 aircraft sold last month. The Airbus plant in China is to assemble its first A330 for delivery to an unnamed customer in September 2017.

ZODIAC Aerospace’s new patented de-

sign turns the underused cargo area of a jet into a space for extra seats.

QATAR Airways launched its global mar-

keting campaign, under the tagline ‘Going Places Together’.

SWISS business class passengers will be served dishes from 5* Alpina Gstaad Hotel,

Michelle Thompson, Willie Walsh, Alex White, Paschal Donohoe, Stephen Kavanagh and Catherine Connelly.celebrate three new Aer Lingus routes to the USA

EWR we go again

Aer Lingus Newark inks indicates United tie-in

aving initially promised two new trans-Atlantic routes for 2016 from Dublin by Aer Lingus, the former national flag carrier delivered three: Two of them to start after

NEW ROUTES

n LAX 5w (from May 4, lead in fare €329 one way), n Hartford Bradley daily (from Sept 28, lead in fare €319 one way) n Newark daily (from Sept 1, lead in fare €309 one way).

the summer season, presumably because Aer Lingus has accessed two A330s on the IAG supply chain. The new services are not quite the boom Paschal Donohoe, Willie Walsh and Stephen Kavanagh would have us believe. Newark’s gain is JFK’s loss and Washington’s A330 has been transferred to LAX. n The Dublin-Washington 4w A330 is transferred to Dublin-LAX and replaced by a B757. n The early morning Dublin-JFK B757 is transferred to Dublin-Washing-

ton. n Orlando goes from 3w to 2w to boost LAX. n Shannon to Boston has been reduced, from the Omni Air B767 to Air Contractors B757. Willie Walsh's oft-repeated plan for Aer Lingus is to fill it with connecting passengers from provincial England and Europe that would otherwise go through BA’s hub, Heathrow, turning Dublin into Heathrow's third runway. The daily Newark service goes up against a twice daily service by United, a

partner airline (at least in pre-IAG days) starting in autumn? United feeds as many passengers (15pc) into Aer Lingus’s trans-Atlantic network as Jetblue. When Aer Lingus launched Dublin to Dulles, United reacted by launching a Dublin-Chicago service of their own. Aer Lingus anticipates the arrival of two A330s in autumn 2015. Until then there is minimal change in seats to North America, because Shannon-Boston has been reduced capacity might even be BELOW 2015 capacity.

THE 31 NEW ROUTES FROM IRISH AIRPORTS IN 2016 Montego Bay (1 pw) June, Thomson Sothampton, March, ALRegional BELFAST INT. Montpelier (2 pw) April, Aer Lingus DERRY Galwick (4 daily), March, Ryanair Newark (7 pw) Sept, Aer Lingus Dublin, April, Citywings Pisa (3 pw) April 2, Aer Lingus CORK Isle of Man, April, Citywings Barcelona, May, Norwegian Boston, May, Norwegian Cardiff, June, Flybe Dusseldorf, May, Aer Lingus La Rochelle (2w), June, Cityjet Leeds Bradford, Mar, ALRegional Madrid, June, Iberia Express Menorca, June, Cityjet Nantes (1pw), June, Cityjet

DUBLIN

Athens (3 pw) April, Ryanair Athens (2 pw) April, Aegean Cancun (1 pw) June, Thomson Cluj (2 pw) June, Blueair Hartford (7 pw) Sept, Aer LingusLos Angeles (4 pw) May, Aer Lingus Murcia (4 pw) April , Aer Lingus

Vancouvver, Jun, Air Canada Rouge Vigo (2 pw) April, Ryanair

KNOCK

Birmingham, Mar, Flybe Edinburgh, Mar, Flybe Reus (1 pw) June, Thomson

SHANNON

Edinburgh (6 pw) March, Ryanair

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Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

AER ARANN Group recorded a loss of €2.6m in 2016, compared to a profit of €380,241 in 2013..

AIRBUS After missing the year-end

deadline, Airbus said the A320neo is to enter service in the coming weeks.

Superjet concern

Russian aircraft delviery to Cityjet not finalised

SSJ in Cityjet livery: The Swords based airline is an important customer for the Russian manufacturers CityJet owns just two of its Avros, The SSJ 100 seats 98 passengers here has been no formal sale five abreast, a generous 32” seat and intends releasing two RJ85s in or order for Cityjet's much pitch, a wider seat and a more over2016 and one a month throughout heralded Superjets as yet. 2017, CityJet are scheduled to take deliv- head bin space than competitors. Engines are by Snecma and avionPat Byrne said: “We may still see a ery of 15 Superjet SSJ100 aircraft In few carried through into 2018, but the ics by Thales in France, wheels by a deal described as a "preliminary agreement", and "much more" than a Goodrich, auxiliary power unit by RJ85 will be gone completely in the letter of intent, Cityjet took options Honeywell in the USA and interiors first quarter of 2018. We intend introducing the SSJ100 on charter activity by Pininfarina in Italy. on an additional ten aircraft. The aircraft achieved European in 2016 and will place it on our LonFour of these are due in 2016 (Feb or Mar, May or June, July and Au- Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) cer- don City route network in 2017. “We believe our customers will gust) and 11 in 2017 at the rate of one tification in February 2012. Falko will own the aircraft and love this jet.” a month. lease them to CityJet.

non-stop to Canada

means more stops with nature

non-stop flights from Dublin to Toronto - and also Vancouver For more information please contact us at +353-1-679-3958 or at aircanada@premair.ie

AIR BERLIN A German court ruled

against a codeshare agreement between Etihad Airways and Air Berlin, saying that the 29 codeshare routes were not covered by a traffic rights agreement between Germany and the UAE. Etihad is to appeal the decision.

RYANAIR launched High Court action against eDreams and Google, claiming the online travel agent and search engine used its trademark to mislead customers into buying inflated fares. Ryanair issued a statement welcoming changes made to a eDreams ad on Google’s search page, which now reads “Ryanair flight on eDreams” instead of “Ryanair: cheap flights”. Kenny Jacobs said, “While this is a step in the right direction, our campaign will continue until these deceptive practices are fully eradicated.” SEAT Design company Factorydesign created an aircraft seat called The Twister. It allows passengers to hold the seat in a position that they feel most comfortable. It moves with the shape of their spine and their weight.

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THE FLYING COLUMN

BOEING recorded 569 net orders up to December 2.

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

AWAS delivered the first of four planned A320s to VivaAerobus, and expanded its agreement with Vietjet with the lease of two A320s to be delivered in 2016.

ETHIOPIAN Airlines ordered two B787-9s for delivery in 2017.

BA banned hover boards from its flights, flagging the lithium-ion batter as a fire hazard. American Airlines, Delta and United no longer accept hover boards as checked or carry-on luggage.

RYANAIR November traffic was up 21pc YOY to 7.71m passengers. Load factor up five percentage points to 93pc. Rolling annual traffic to November up 17pc to 99.9m passengers.

DUBLIN Airport passenger numbers are

up 16pc so far this year to 23.5m, already beating the 2008 record of 23.46m.

AIRPORT Parking & Hotels created a

guide that compares disabilities facilities and services at 20 airports. Belfast City Airport and Belfast International Airport were included: Belfast City offers lifts, accessible toilets, adequate assistance points, changing facilities before security, and a fitted induction loop and texting service for those who require hearing impairment assistance. Belfast International provides a similar service, but does not have any changing facilities or texting service.

FLYBE called on Westminster to open up

RAF Northolt to boost regional routes and ease capacity issues at Heathrow.

BOEING announced that B787-10

Dreamliner production is ahead of schedule and on track for major assembly in 2016, with first flight in 2017 and first delivery in 2018. Greek charter flier Gainjet applied to the IAA for a licence to operate in Ireland.

FLIGHTRADAR24 tracking is available on EasyJet’s app.

ETIHAD Airways added a daily service between Dar es Salaam and Abu Dhabi. Etihad opened their first and business class lounge at JFK airport. CITYJET reported losses in 2014 at $24m, revenue down 20pc to $187.9m.

MALAYSIA Airlines and Emirates ex-

panded their codeshare agreement.

AWAS delivered an Airbus A320 to Aegean Airlines.

UNITED gave every customer service rep an Apple iPhone 6 Plus

EASYJET suspended flights to Sharm until next year.

AIRPORT SECURITY The UN

agency that oversees global aviation will focus on airport security at a meeting in March.

American: Moving from A330 (pictured) to B777 on Chicago route

AA goes 3-class

First class on Dublin-Chicago service for first time

merican Airlines DublinChicago route, which moves from an A330 to a new aircraft, teh Boueing 777 in August 2016, will be a triple class service. It is an indication that the airline performed well in the Irish market last year, even with additional widebody routes. David Thomas, regional director for Ireland, Britain, Middle East and Africa called American the largest airline in the world based on the number of aircraft (1,527) and its 7,000 daily departures, “five times the number of flights that London Heathrow operates a day”.

After summarising Oneworld’s split revenue model, he speculated that Aer Lingus will join the alliance by the end of 2016, but said “there are a lot of hurdles that Aer Lingus has to go through” before that happens. “They have to be sponsored — British Airways is sponsoring them — and they have to bring their standards up to what’s required by Oneworld, and then there’s even more that has to be done to bring them into our joint business.” He said Ireland would be as “a nice option” to the already full Heathrow slots. David said that close hubs like New York and Philadelphia will re-

main. “If you go to New York, a lot of that is local traffic… Philadelphia is a connecting hub. They complement each other, and New York is full, Philadelphia is not, so if we need to add services, add connections, Philadelphia is where we do it. Same with Phoenix and LA.” He called the B787-900 a game-changer, especially on the LA-Auckland route. He noted that you can see 787s popping up in Europe, with rumours of it coming to Manchester, but no plans yet to bring it to Ireland. More 787-900s are scheduled for delivery along with the -800 model, and the A350 in 2017.

RYANAIR: NO TURNING BACK ON AGB

here is, apparently, no going back for Ryanair. Michael O’Leary says that He said Ryanair's Always Getting Better programme will not end; it has become an ethos. He said the frequent flyer type is fading, replaced by younger demographic expecting value and transactional benefits. Kenny Jacobs said many businesses get bogged down in neverending change programmes with too much analysis and consultants' reports and along the way they lose their focus and more of their customers. In certain months American visitors are the third largest group visiting Ryanair’s website, Kenny Jacobs said as he explained why an Ameri-

Robin Kiely, Michael O’Leary and Kenny Jacobs of Ryanair can website had been opened by the airline. Jacobs told the World Low Cost Airline Congress that connectivity between Ryanair and long-haul operators is "a very interesting product that is waiting to happen." He said Ryanair's Always Getting

Better programme will not end; it has become an ethos. He said the frequent flyer type is fading, replaced by younger demographic expecting value and transactional benefits.

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Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

ETHIOPIAN Airlines signed a firm

purchase agreement with Bombardier for two more Q400s.

TSA

agents are to increase the number of random security checks of airport personnel that work in restricted areas.

SHANNON Closing the year that marked the 70th anniversary of the first commercial transatlantic flight into Ireland, Shannon Airport launched a photo exhibition in the transit lounge. Famous faces include JFK, Barack Obama, Nelson Mandel, Fidel Castro, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pope John Paull II, the Dali Lama, Gene Kelly, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Marlon Brandon, Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O’Toole, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, Muhammed Ali, and Clare’s own Andy Lee. TURKISH Airlines is one of UEFA Euro 2016’s partner airlines. BOEING debuted the B737 MAX 8.

Ryanair’s new uniforms

Ryanair hit 101.4m

Germany next target for Europe’s first 100m airline

yanair’s rolling annual traffic to Dec grew 17pc to 101.4m customers. Traffic in December grew 25pc to 7.5m customers. Ryanair’s average fare rose by just over a euro to a record €56 over the past six months. Although Ryanair are not the firstairline to carry 100m passengers in a year, they announced that they were the first to carry 100m international travellers, using a tactic first used by BA in the 1980s when they said they were the world’s favourite airline. They are the sixth: to join the 100m club, Delta, Southwest, China

Southern, American and in the old days, Aeroflot. Ryanair recently group announced profits were up 37pc and raised their annual passenger target from 104m to 105m. Guidance is now €1,175€1,225m. Ryanair October traffic grew 15pc to 9.68m customers, load factor was up 5 points to 94pc. Ryanair are to ground fewer aircraft this winter, around 40 out of their fleet of 300, largely driven by maintenance. The current winter programme has 119 new routes, with capacity increases of 50pc in Germany, 17pc in Spain and Poland, 13pc in Ireland, 12pc in England and 11pc

in Belgium and Italy. Germany is the target of much of the coming expansion. Ryanair wish to challenge the dominance of Lufthansa and British Airways in the London market – who between them control 77pc of weekly seats on their Heathrow services – as well as Aer Lingus and Lufthansa to Dublin. Ryanair has highest market share in five countries, Ireland 48pc, Poland 29pc, Italy 26pc, Belgium 26pc, and Spain 18pc. It is second in Portugal 21pc, England 17pc (after easyJet)), Morocco 12pc, and is third in France 7pc and in Germany 5pc.

Etihad announced a partnership with private jet charter company Victor to offer a service to Residence and First Class passengers. Ryanair says it will carry 5m passengers over the Christmas period.

CITYJET reduced its pretax losses to €30.5m in 2014.

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Ryanair’s new interior

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Page 058-063 Flying 08/01/2016 11:28 Page 5

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THE FLYING COLUMN

TURKISH Airlines cancelled 142

flights to and from Istanbul because of heavy snowfall.

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

EASYJET launched new routes to

Lanzarote on November 7 and Lyon on December 12 from Belfast International.

HEATHROW celebrates 70 years as a commercial airport this year. VIRGIN American announced a code-

share agreement with China Southern Airlines.

DUBLIN Airport reported 1m passengers were using it as a hub in 2015. Listen here to Travel Extra editor Eoghan Corry speaking on RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland about the need for new planning conditions for the parallel runway at Dublin airport.

DUBLIN Airport is to refurbish the

ground floor of Terminal One, and Shannon Airport is to refurbish gates one to five including the arrivals hall, transit lounges and departure gate areas. The departure road to terminal 1 at Dublin airport has reopened.

IAGconverted 15 A320neo options into firm

orders. The aircraft will be delivered in 2021 and 2022. The jets can be used by Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia and Vueling for fleet replacement.

SHANNON Group confirmed that

chief executive Neil Pakey will leave the company at the conclusion of his three-year contract next year.

IAA is considering remote technology in favour of building an 87-metre high control tower at Dublin Airport.

ARI Aer Rianta International won a 10-year

contract for the Abu Dhabi Airport’s Midfield terminal, where they will be responsible for the retail of perfume, cosmetics, skincare, sunglasses and jewellery.

RYANAIR added extra flights between

Dublin and Bordeaux for Ireland’s Euro 2016 clash against Belgium on 18 June.

AMAZON Online retailer Amazon is re-

portedly in talks to lease 20 B767s to launch an air delivery service.

RAYANI Air, a Sharia airline that complies with Islamic law, banning alcohol and serving halal food, launched this week.

DUBLIN Airport was briefly evacuated

because a smoke alarm went off, believed to be triggered by a passenger smoking in the toilet.

ETIHAD Airways announced an agreement to use Luggage Logistics’ baggage management system to deliver and track luggage. AER LINGUS received 2,800 applications for 12 places on its 2016 Cadet Pilot Training Programme.

FRANKFURT Airport welcomed its 60 millionth passenger.

BOMBARDIER executive chairman Pierre Beaudoin will step down in Q1 2016.

Waiting for flights at the T1 passenger area in Dublin airport

Winter warfares

Extra capacity should lead to lower average fares

n the back of CSO figures showing the first real growth in outbound travel from Ireland this summer, up 8pc, consumers will enjoy a head to head between the major Irish airlines on many winter routes over the coming months. Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels nd Madrid are likely to be the destinations that benefit from unexpected extra capacity over the winter, with Aer Lingus services to Liverpool also driving down prices to north-west

England. 'London, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome and Milan are on the Ryanair list, "says CEO Michael O'Leary. Barcelona will also see an 8pc capacity increase from Dublin with Aer Lingus next summer. The move on Amsterdam was a first tentative step into KLM’s hub by Ryanair. Ryanair CCO David O’Brien told Travel Extra: “Amsterdam is unashamedly designed to serve the KLM network. We have no fear of going against KLM on price but we

want to be sure that, if we are going in to one of the most expensive airports in Europe, we don’t go in with our eyes closed.” “ Schiphol is reportedly a reluctant suitor for Ryanair and O’Brien felt the airport might be tempted to “mess them around”. Amsterdam will be Ryanair’s second major European hub airport after Madrid and the airline does not expect ANY Ryanair customers to connect into the AF/KLM network

FURTHER T/A PLANS FOR LINGUS

AG CEO Willie Walsh says Aer Lingus will add one or two transAtlantic routes a year and concentrate on places which have a large Irish diaspora. He says Dublin Airport needs more capacity to cope with demand during

peak hours. "There is space at times during the day but the airport is full during peak hours, which leads to delays and congestion. We would be very much in favour of a parallel runway, we think it is inevitable. The operators are all in favour of the extra infra-

structure as long as it is cost-effective. We would also encourage the airport to look at utilising existing facilities as much as possible." Forbes magazine recently commented: For decades Aer Lingus has languished in the middle of the pack of the world’s

large air carriers, better known for low prices and getting people to Ireland than quality or destinations beyond the Emerald Isle. That is changing fast. Earlier this year, Aer Lingus starting rolling out a new and greatly upgraded business class cabin product.

ew York-based Wolfe Research suggests Delta Air Lines could potentially set up a non-US subsidiary (most likely in Amsterdam) for international operations and joint ventures to reduce its tax liability. Delta declined to comment on the report. Delta is scheduled to

hold its investor day on event December 17, when it will outline its plans for 2016. US airlines pay about 38pc in taxes, some of the highest in industry, and it has long been a fighting ground with Congress as airlines point out that they are treated, in government tax and fee terms, like the alcohol or tobacco indus-

tries even though airlines are a major driver of GDP. By comparison, Wolfe points out that other highquality industrial companies, like Caterpillar, only pay 27pc. Wolfe suggests Deltas could set up a non-US subsidiary to house its international equity interests and JVs, and maybe some other business such as its MRO

operation. Tax rates in Ireland are less than in the Netherlands but Delta’s operation in the Netherlands is vastly larger than in Ireland This would lead to the creation of “Delta Amsterdam, a foreign subsidiary based in the Netherlands where the corporate tax rate is 25pc,” Wolfe states.

DELTA CONSIDERS OFF-SHORE

Page 058-063 Flying 08/01/2016 11:28 Page 6

FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 63

THE FLYING COLUMN

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

LUGGAGE Qualtrics’ Passenger Pain Index found that one in five of the 520 American flyers surveyed say lost luggage is what bothers them the most about air travel, and 48pc said they would consider never flying with an airline again if it lost their luggage. IAA The Irish Aviation Authority said it

handled more than 1.02m flights in 2015, up 5.3pc YOY. Last month, commercial terminal flights at Dublin Airport were up 9.8pc with an average of 491 daily movements, Cork down 1.3pc with an average of 44 daily movements, and Shannon down 9.2pc with an average of 43 daily movements.

DAA

estimates that 925,000 passengers will travel through the Dublin Airport up to January 1, an increase of 18pc compared to last year.

SHANNON

More than 2,200 children and adults met Santa on board the annual Santa Flights programme at Shannon Airport.

US Customers and Border Protection at

Aengus Kelly announcing an order for 122 A350’s, AerCap are the largest owners of aircraft in the world

We aim to lease

Irelands aviation leasing industry under the spotlight

reland’s aviation leasing industry, and its recent audit as the safest regulators in Europe by EAE, are under the spotlight following the certification of EI-ETJ. It follows the establishment of an enquiry into what caused the loss of the hull of Airbus 321 EI-ETJ, leased from Aengus Kelly’s AerCap, and its 220 passengers. The crash (and the question whether it was a technical failure or an act of war) has implications for five countries and the work of 47 investigators, 29 from Egypt, seven from Russia, six from France, three from Ireland and two from Germany,

alongside eleven accident advisors, ten from Airbus. The Irish trio flew to Cairo from Baldonnel on an aircraft provided by the Irish Air Corps. AerCap is the global leader in aircraft leasing with approximately 1,300 owned or managed aircraft and 470 on order aircraft in its portfolio and its sees itself as the corporate successor to GPA. AerCap serves over 200 customers in 90 countries and Airbus’ largest customer (945 aircraft). Aengus Kelly says the transfer of its commercial centre from Los Angeles to Dublin over the past year created over 100 new highly skilled jobs

and that it intends to continue growing its operations in Dublin and Shannon. Through its people, suppliers and providers of technical support it contribute over $100 m to the Irish economy each year, contributing to 400 firms. Its headquarters are in Amsterdam with offices in Dublin, Los Angeles, Shannon, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Singapore, Shanghai, Abu Dhabi, Seattle and Toulouse. The CEO sees it as an Irish company with global ambition and global reach, EI-ETJ was inherited from ILFC which is now part of AerCap

CARGO CONCERNS RAISED IN DUBLIN

he IATA International Aviation Security Conference held in Dublin last month presaged events in Sinai. Several speakers claimed that the international aviations community really need to bring aviation security from the protocols of 9-11 in aviation security and bring it up to 2015 and beyond that to

2015, “We are watching people and frisking people above the cargo bay,” Oliver McGee from New York said. “We have been ignoring what happens in the cargo hold.” “We need a more military operation for commercial flights. Where is the screening of staff and to what stan-

dard? Who is in the cargo bay. What access do they have.” “An aircraft is a flying bomb, it is controlled. We are putting ignition devices inside the cargo bay beside the fuel source. The mindset of 9-11 has to go. Technology changed and militants are getting smarter.” Matthew Finn of Aug-

mentiq said that the issue of workers such as baggage handlers reaching airside without being screened or subjected to adequate security checks had to be addressed. “There needs to be an international response in terms of how everybody working in the aviation environment is vetted.”

Dublin Airport recorded its one millionth passenger this year: Philamena Linton from Malahide, who passed through pre-clearance this week before boarding a Delta flight to New York. Picture shows Philamena with port director Tish Lagerwey and Dublin Airport MD Vincent Harrison.

CITYJET announced a two-year com-

mercial partnership with ExCeL London convention and exhibition centre. CityJet placed an option to take delivery of six Sukhoi Superjet aircraft. The were rumours that the carrier is to be sold in an ongoing deal.

CITYJET intends to renew its five RJ85s on contract with Air France, which expires at the end of 2017, and the carrier is rumoured to increase services from Dublin and Cork to Italy and Scandinavia.

QATAR Airways’ private jet division,

Qatar Executive, took delivery of its first G650ER jet. Qatar will roll out on-board Wi-Fi across its fleet in a three-year deal with Ooredoo, free for the first 15 minutes, then $5 for one hour, $10 for three hours or $20 for the entire flight. Qatar became the latest airline to ban hover boards.

RYANAIR Michael O’Leary suggested that Ryanair plans to return to Belfast with a “large base”. DELTA introduced pyjamas for business

class passengers flying from LA to Sydney and Shanghai.

CUBA The air travel accord between the

USA and Cuba will allow for up to 110 daily round-trip flights.

VIRGIN America ordered ten A321 Neos. BA updated its iPhone app to include a re-

ward flight finder that allows passengers to find flights that can be book using Avios points.

ASL Aviation is raising €100m from two banks to fund expansion.

page 064-065 07/01/2016 12:52 Page 1

SUMMER...as here... wish it w

t h g i n 7

SUMMER

HOLIDAYS FROM

€799* PER FAMILY

HAVEN HOLIDAYS, YS DON’T JUST DREAM ABOUT IT, BOOK IT! You fancy lazing in the sun, whilst they’re fantasizing about a fun filled time doing sporty, splashy, snorkelling, climbing and giggly stuff? So get the best of both worlds and book your Haven self-catering holiday in Britain now! 2 adults and up to 2 kids can get a 7 night seaside summer holiday from only €799* including accommodation and return ferry with car when you book by 29 February with Stena Line. You can’t book the ferry and accommodation cheaper separately, guaranteed.

Come and visit us and pick up a brochure on Stand K12. But hurry, places are limited (as is their patience).

CE LOWEST PRI D* ARANTEE

* Valid on selected dates and parks for for a 7 night stay in a 2 bedroom standard caravan, subject to availability. Terms and conditions apply – see website. Holidays sold by Stena Line Travel Group AB, licensed and bonded (TA0733).

If booking more than 45 days before departure a deposit of €50 or 10% of the cost of your holiday, whichever is the greater, secures your booking. When you book a flexi or premium fare as part of your holiday.

†

page 064-065 07/01/2016 12:52 Page 2

LOW DEPOSIT FROM

€

†

Our wish list:

For the family of natural lovers

Easy access fun for all generations

HAFAN Y MOR, NORTH WALES

CALA GRAN, NEAR BLACKPOOL

On the stunning North Wales Coastline, tucked next to the mountains, woods and lakes of Snowdonia National Park lies a wondrous place the whole family can really muck about in. There’s the natural beauty of the beach that just begs to be run up and down on, or the lake where you can Captain a boat, or dive in the indoor pool that offers waves, flumes and slides. Kids clubs, rope works, adventure golf and breathtaking coastal walks will fill your days and exhaust your children.

A tram or taxi ride from the Golden Mile of Blackpool and the beach, this location has it all, the bright lights of the fun city plus the secluded activities of a family resort laid out for everyone on one, flat, level. The kids will spend days in their own dedicated outdoor ‘Splashzone’ pool or doing archery, playing pool, roller blading or chasing each other around the beach. Meanwhile you can say you’re going down the Spar shop, and lie in the Spa instead.

8 more park s to choose from online!

Everyone deserves a break

See the full list at stenaline.ie/haven Call us on 01 907 5399 or see your travel agent

Page 066-067 Afloat 08/01/2016 10:17 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 66

AFLOAT

PRINCESS Cruises has commissioned a fourth 3,560-passenger Royal-class ship from Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri. AZAMARA Club Cruises made its Australian debut after Azamara Quest sailed from Bali to Darwin and on to Sydney.

FRED OLSEN cruise ship Braemar

rescued the 14-metre Nicollet sailing yacht and her four passengers and crew after it was adrift for three days.

COSTA will build two new ships for its Chinese market, joining the fleet in 2019 and 2020.

ROYAL Caribbean has changed the name of its Devinly Decadence restaurant onboard Anthem of the Seas to Solarium Bistro, NORWEGIAN Cruise Line cruisers

logged 576,896 Facebook posts during the 20day period, c, 14,150 tweets and 11,367 Instagram posts for a total of 159m impressions during the inaugural voyages of Norwegian Escape.

CARNIVAL Corporation ships will

carry cage-free eggs by 2025. Royal Caribbean signed a 10-year contract with Virgin Islands Port Authority until 2026

ROYAL Caribbean announced details of

its WAVE promotion under its new brand slogan, Where Extraordinary Happens, in a bid to drive the ‘new to cruise’ market. Royal Caribbean will bring Empress of the Seas back to Miami in March 2016, offering short Caribbean itineraries.

CRYSTAL Cruises launched the 62-passenger yacht, Crystal Espirit, in the Seychelles.

DISNEY Cruise cancelled calls to Turkey, Greece, and Malta in August “due to unrest and uncertainty in the region”.

ROYAL Caribbean started charging for the use of its RipCord by iFly sky diving simulator and the North Star observation capsule on Quantum of the Seas. SCAM A number of countries have citi-

zens to exercise caution when applying for jobs on cruise ships via the internet. The International Transport Workers Union has also posted warnings of on-line scams offering fake jobs in the cruise industry.

CRYSTAL Cruises will base Crystal

Serenity in North American for more of 2017, with itineraries to Alaska, Canada/New England, the Caribbean and the USA’s coasts.

NORWEGIAN Cruise Line an-

nounced its summer 2017 deployment, including three Alaska itineraries, Bermuda, Bahamas and Florida cruises from New York City, Boston to Bermuda sailings, Canada and New England cruises, and three- and four-night all inclusive cruises from Miami to the Bahamas.

COSTA Cruises is to introduce its first humanoid robot in Q1 2016 on the Costa Diadema and AIDAprima. The robots are multi-

North Star on Quantum class ships, Royal Caribbean has the trendiest crusie ships on the ocean

Floating assets Another big year for ship builds

he spate of cruise ship builds shows no sign of abating. Mpst of the new ships are aricing on the market at high prices but average cruise prices have been coming down. The average price paid for a cruise is now over a fifth less than it was five years ago. Comparison engine MarketWatch says that the cheapest cruise prices available today are down 43pc from the cheapest price in 2009. MarketWatch says the cheapest cruises on Carnival start at just $35 a night, but Royal Caribbean is not far behind, at $39 per person. Bargain hunters can sail for as low

2016

costs - and the report suggests operators cannot get away with pushing up onboard costs any further. The price difference in cruises from 2011 — when the Bonvoyage site launched — compared to prices for cruises leaving this year or in 2015 show a 19pc decrease in cost. The average respondent paid $1,900 per person five years ago, while the average respondent planning to cruise this year or in 2015 will pay 22pc lower, at $1,500 per person. In a survey, 38pc of respondents said that, despite the lower costs and potential onboard cuts, they had noticed improvements in services onboard cruises in the past five years.

CRUISE LINE UPCOMING BUILDS

n Royal Caribbean Ovation of the Seas 4,100 pax May n Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas 5,400 pax May n Carnival Vista, 4,000 pax, March 12 n Regent Explorer, 738 pax n Holland America Koningsdam 2,660 pax March n AidaPrima 3,250 pax March n Viking Sky 944 pax Summer n Seabourn Encore 604 pax autumn n Unnamed Star Cruises, 3,360 pax n TUI Mein Schiff 5 2500 pax

2017

as $349 for seven nights during low demand periods. The slow season for cruises, the surge in inventory and a run of just plain bad news, including assaults, breakdowns and norovirus outbreaks, have all contributed. English online wholesaler Bonvoyage says prices there are down 22pc compared to 2008. The company says cruise lines are compensating for the drop in the headline price by generating more from onboard spend, such as spa treatments, speciality dining and higher drinks costs. It also said customers are becoming more wary of added onboard

n Viking Sky 944 pax Feb n Norwegian Bliss 4,200 pax Spring n Unnamed Princess Cruises, 3,560 pax summer n MSC Meraviglia 4,500 pax May 2017

n Unnamed MSC Seaside 5,300 pax November n TUI Mein Schiff 6 2500 pax n Silverseas Silver Muse 596 pax April

2018

n Seabourn Ovation 604 pax spring n Blue Star Titanic II, 2,345 pax n Unnamed Royal Caribbean Oasis class 5,400 pax summer n Unnamed Carnival, 3,954 pax summer n Unnamed Norwegian 4,260 pax summer , n Unnamed Crystal Exclusive class ship 1,000 n Celebrity Project Edge class ship 2,900 n TUI Mein Schiff 7 2500 pax n Unnamed Holland America 2,660 pax March n Unnamed MSC Seaside 5,300 pax May

2019

n Unnamed Royal Caribbean Oasis class 5,400 pax spring n Unnamed MSC Meraviglia sister ship 4,500 pax n Unnamed Norwegian, 4,260 pax summer n Unnamed Costa 6,600 pax n Unnamed Crystal Exclusive class ship 1,000 n TUI Mein Schiff 8 2500 pax n Unnamed Saga 540 pax n Carnival Corp nine cruise ships 2019-22

2020

n Unnamed Celebrity Cruises Project Edge class ship 2,900 pax n Unnamed Costa, 6,600 pax n Unnamed China Xiamen, 2,000 pax n Unnamed Virgin Xiamen, 2,800 pax

Page 066-067 Afloat 08/01/2016 10:17 Page 2

FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 67

AFLOAT

A great Escape

NCL’s giant heads for Miami after Europe launch

CL’s new 4,248 passenger Norwegian Escape, the fifth largest ship on the ocean, has arrived in Miami after launch events in Hamburg and Southampton. NCL hosted Irish travel trade alongside the paying passengers on a pre-launch cruise out of Southampton. Agents were accommodated

overnight and given tours of the ship’s facilities. Not everything worked, as happens on pre-launch cruises. The dining arrangements came close to breaking down altogether and cards stopped working in the early hours of the morning when many of the Irish guests were only getting into their stride.

lingual and claim to be capable of recognising human emotions.

MSC Cruises confirmed that it plans to develop a private marine reserve island in the Bahamas.

SEABOURN Encore will include a sushi restaurant, redesigned public spaces and Stressed staff, reacting badly to the 300 works of art when she launches in 2016. pressure, created a bad impression in PRINCESS Cruises’s Emerald some quarters. The mix of paying passengers and Princess is undergoing an extensive refit ahead trade guests meant that a credit was of its 2016 sailing, adding two dining venues loaded into the cards of the trade and cabin upgrades. guests, which quickly evaporated CUNARD detailed the refurbishment of when the impact of taxes and an 18pc Kings Court buffet area on the Queen Mary 2. service charge was added on to the It will feature redesigned menus, pre-set tables, beverage and food bills. waiter-served drinks, chefs based in the centre, and tasting menus served on select evenings by the executive chef. ROYAL Caribbean announced that

Grease the musical will debut on Harmony of the Seas.

CELEBRITYCruises launched the

Celebrity Commitment programme for travel agents, promising strong on-board experiences and marketing campaigns; attractive commercial terms and incentives including the Rewards loyalty programme; and training and better resources for agents to sell Celebrity Cruises.

RIVERCRUISE Research by CLIA found that many providers consider river cruising a “well-kept secret” amongst seasoned travellers. CLIA members deploy 170 river cruise ships with 18 new river cruise ships cruise ships on order for 2016, an increase of 10pc.

MSC Armonia will join MSC Opera in Ha-

vana for the winter 2016/17 season.

MAJESTIC Princess will debut on

water slides on board Norwegian Escape

A la carte shock

Norwegian Escape moves to expensive dining option

or the first time on a major cruise ship, pay restaurants will outnumber free ones on the new Norwegian Escape. There are still eight restaurants with complimentary dining, including Taste and O’Sheehan’s (the ex CEO’s name still adorns the Irish pub), but there are ten premium restaurants. Some of the premium restaurants will introduce a la carte pricing. When the controversial 18pc charge was raised at the press conference it was stridently defended by Chief Operating Officer for Norwe-

gian Brand Andy Stuart as being below the average service charge in NCL’s main market, the USA. He explained that the decision to raise the daily service charges twice in one season was part of the change in perspective brought by new management and said that the move to a la carte dining and premium restaurants was enabling NCL to bring more choice to customers. “The move to al a carte is a great one,” Stuart said, “it is what people it is used to. Not everyone will have an appetizer, main course and a dessert

and wants a cover charge.” “If people feel more comfortable with certainty and a cover charge we have “ “We have introduced a range of dining packages, you can buy a three night , four night, five night, six night, seven night dining package.” “We are offering more choices to our guests rather than less choice and we are offering a better experience across these venues. This ship represents a n ext step in the evolution of the product, bringing more choice, more freedom, more flexibility.”

April 4 2017. She will first sail a five-night voyage to the Adriatic Sea from Rome, then will sail a series of 7, 14, 21 and 28-night voyages departing Barcelona, Athens and Rome. 2017 Europe itineraries include Haugesund, Oban, Siarcusa, Ulrik and St Tropez.

P&O Cruises sailed their entire fleet into Sydney to mark the arrival of Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden. The event attracted a crowd of 9,000 people. Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas and Voyagers of the Seas were also in Sydney. CELEBRITY Cruises pulled Istanbul from 2016 sailings.

CLIA .

launched a River Cruise Club.

SCOTLAND is to expand Greenock

cruise ship terminal and build a visitor facility at the quayside.

UNIWORLD launched an app that lets passengers explore the flagship Maria Theresa on their smartphone.

STENA Line celebrated 20 years of its flagship Dublin-Holyhead route.

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FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 68

DESTINATION CAMPING

f you are to pick a mid point to follow Ireland;s endeavours at Euro 2016, the Loire Valley is the place to base yourself. It is most famous for the castles and vineyards, but the river is the best bit. Not that the Castles are losing any of their clebrated charm. Chambord is amongst the finest, built on a curve the Cosson which flows into the river Beuvron which flows into the Loire a kilometre later. The castle is a showpiece, even in the vanity competition of Loire chateaux. Francois 1 built it as a hunting lodge, adorning it with Salamanders and a signature double helix staircase and whatever could be gleaned from the creative fervour of the French master masons. They say Leonardo da Vinci was in the Loire valley to help it along the way in 1516. Despite all the loving work and the artistry, bits were left unfinished. As our guide said: “if we were to worry about completion we would never begin anything.”

or each of the stadium chateaux, filled with tourists listening to audio guides, like Chambord, there is somewhere smaller and equally intriguing nearby, like Talcy. We are the only tourists in Talcy’s Italianate Renaissance mansion. The

Eoghan Corry on why the ferry to France is still his favourite

Castles in the aire P

Famous for castle shuch as Chambord, the Loire valley is five hours from the ferry port at Cherbourg

Auberge du Chateau nearby has no English but one of the warmest welcomes in France. Our big trip was to Tours and its amazing cathedral. The small streets are full of amazing local shops, a bulwark against the homogenised shopping streets of Europe. I particularly like the gingerbread in the window of Hansel and Gretel patisserie. The ribbon of castles along its banks can be a distraction, but it is important not to miss the star of the show, perhaps the star of France itself. I swam the Loire at

dusk. The level is low in August and the river full of racey whirlpools and playful splashing. The logs and tree trunks of last winter have lodged along the shallow bits and there are sandbars that change shape and location according to the snowmelt of distant Alps. The Seine is a bigger celebrity, the Rhone wider, the Canal du Midi the package holiday icon, but the Loire remains central to understanding what France is about, its longest river (1,013 km, just made it to four figures) and still deliciously moody, despite the cen-

turies of attempting to tame its intemperance.

ieux what a scorcher. We baked, in the sunsoaked, not the patisserie, sense. This heat was so intense there was only one solution, long drives in the air conditioned car with the temperature turned down as low as it can go. The little town of Beaugency combines

everything that is great about the Loire region. One of Le Plus Beaux Detours de France, its church has light streaming in sideways, much as it would have when they annulled the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine here and sparked off the hundred years war. My daughter Constance found an antique shop where she bought Bulletin de Theraputique from 1883, three euro and

she is reading it from cover to cover. Each day starts with a odip in the Loire, surprisingly fast flowing for a river that is so big and already so far from its source. This region of France is very different from where I have been before, big farms with the harvest in full flow. The key is to go off the main roads and drive the small country by-ways, along country path where cars have to stop and yield to each other, in and out of village after village with its markets square and its block-sized church. The hanging baskets of flowers and shutter-protected windows go on for ever. There is a statue of Joan of Arc in every market square. You can see a pattern here. Beaugency has the best Joan of Arc statue, with her banner and lance, positioned so red-faced tourists are almost forced to take their pictures up her skirt. The picture postcard village has a small stream running down the middle of tits main street, culverted and then opening like a porpoise coming up for air. In Chateaudun we found a delicious town of which few have ever heard and sat in the open street where the coffee and ice cream were more

■ Eoghan Corry travelled to France with Irish ferries on their direct service from Rosslare to Cherbourg (www.irishferries.com) and Roscoff. ■ He stayed with Canvas holidays on their campsite at Chateau des Marais, where Canvas Holidays has 30 pitches www.canvasholidays.ie

Clockwise: Beauce Drive, Beaugency, sunflowers in Beauce, a Beaugency homestead, Canvas have 30 pitches at Château des Mairais

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FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 69

DESTINATION CAMPING

Canoeing on the Loire,

expensive. Passers by nodded knowledgeably, as if to think “those tourists, so easily fooled.” We explored another ancient castle with another storied tributary of the Loire rippling by. There were also some self-indulgent diversions along the trail of South Leinster saints Fiachra/Fiacre, Irish

ampsites are graded like hotels, four stars for the best facilities, more than one pool, slides, play areas and onsite dining. Note that sites in France are graded up to four stars: most bigger operators use three and four-star sites. If you prefer canvas, on-site tents normally have a kitchen, fridge and electric light.

LA GRANDE METAIRIE Set

among the amazing Celtic stones of Carnac with good local markets, a fine site for mixed age groups – ziplines for the adventurous, plenty of bar entertainment, frolicksome goats and calm ponies, and a decent restaurant. Charming.

DOMAINE DE LA FORET Very

saints who set up their stall along the Loire. Their fame spread across France and still lingers, as much as at home. Fiachra is the patron saint of STDs which is a complicated tale in itself. La Vendosmois near Le Mans was named for Saint Osmana. Cerota was her servant, of an Irish royal family.

ach campsite in France has its rhythm, and the rhythm varies from site to site, region to region. There is a general pattern to affairs, common to them all. The early morning swim with the Germans and Parisians (there is never an English speaker in the deepest pool before 10, and the

modern pools ARE deeper (ours in Chateau des Marais in the Loire Valley was 2.5m deep). Then shortly afterwards the queues of daddies in at the breakfast baguette shop (85 cent, so fresh the yeast is humming), the comings and goings of cars en route to local markets and sights, the enthusiastic queues of cyclists,

each a veritable Nicholas Roche or Dan Martin and the troops of kids off to the Whoopi Club. This is followed by the heat-exhaustion of mid afternoon and the splosh of laughing children and sunburned parents in processions down the water slides. I love waterslides, the long and the windy ones, but they are put together for agile children travelling at speed, not the middle-aged and potbellied 90-kiloer who bumps along unevenly, feeling the rim between each section on their sunburned skin. Then the evening, pizzas from the camp takeaway, Liverpudlians laughing in the bar, the muffled microphone

PLACES TO EAT

■ The picture postcard town in Beaugency featured restaurants such as Le Martroi and Chez Henry. ■ Blois restaurants included Hôtel Restaurant Côté Loire, L’Orangerie du château, Au rendez-vous des pêcheurs, ■ Orleans restaurants included Chez Eugène, Restaurant Les Toqués, Restaurant La Dariole, and La Parenthèse.

FRANCE: THE CAMPSITE CHRONICLES LE CHATELET

Good for small children and getaway adults, a little treasure on a clifftop with stunning views of the Breton coastline, as close to the ferry as one could wish, with a lovely cliff-bottom beach.

LA BOUQERIE.

Domaine de la Foret

French campsite, complete from this year with its own petanque pitch. Lovely relaxed atmosphere; an hour’s drive to the magnificent Puy du Fou theme park.

LES MENHIRS Breton favourite, close to the resort of Carnac Plage and a great site. One of the best pools in

the camping business.

BOIS DORMANT

Big child friendly site in the heart of the Vendee, among a cluster of fine four-star resorts. Great entertainment and pool facilities, sandy beaches nearby and lots to see. Good day trips to safari park Parc Sauvage, and a visit to St Gilles Croix

de Vie, a French take on Courtown, is a must.

LE RUISSEAU. Another teenage hit, one of the liveliest sites in south-west France. Ideal for exploring the Biarritz region and hopping across the Spanish border. Be sure to catch a game of Basque pelota.

sounds of a quiz or karaoke session, teenagers with bicycles flirting and admiring each other in whispered phrases that need no translation despite their multi-lingual nature, barbecues outside the caravans and tents, the voices raised a notch with every bottle of great value local wine that is emptied. Until the night when everything goes quiet, darkness descends and the last Liverpudlian is coaxed out of the bar: “I’ll put it in a plastic cup for you.” The crickets sing their love songs, the Loire goes pouring by and all in the world seems right.

Cool hillside location in the Dordogne, near Sarlat and the gourmet capital of Europe. Check out truffles, the foie gras, and a canoeing must-do down the river.

CHLOROPHYLLE Lively and convenient Loire location ideal for wine and catching one of those "son et lumiere" (sound and light shows) at one of the magnificent Loire châteaux. It has one of the best water slides in the business.

DOMAINE DES ORMES

Big resort on the Border between Brittany and Normandy, 4,500 holiday makers on site at peak, which means lots of activities, archery for the kids, zip wires, and a option to spend a night in a treehouse, the next big thing in the French camping experience. Close to Mont St Michel so you can see that amazing tide-coming-in thing; police patrol the sands on horseback to warn the unexpecting to turn back before the crucial moment.

COURTILLES DES LIDO Near

Fontainebleu, and prized not so much for its excellent facilities as for its proximity to Paris and Disneyland.

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€

FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 70

DESTINATION IRELAND

IRELAND 2016 The three-month

Ireland 2016: Global and Diaspora Programme features celebrations in Argentina, an exhibition and seminar on Roger Casement in Brazil, a digitisation project in Melbourne, a production of the musical Wherever Green Is Worn in Sydney, a conference in Tokyo, a production of Sean O’Casey’s Shadow of a Gunman in Abu Dhabi, a three-week arts and culture festive in Washington DC’s JFK Centre for the Performing Arts, a commemorative event in NYC’s Pier A, and a conference on Ireland in 1916 and Finland in 1917 in Helsinki.Lonely Planet named the centenary of the Easter Rising as one of its top special anniversaries in 2016.

TOURISM Ireland

annual review showed 7.9m visitors come to Ireland, an 11pc YOY increase. They reported growth in all markets and highlighted a 10pc growth in the British market. The first phase of Tourism Ireland’s marketing campaign for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was rolled out in 14 markets: Britain, USA, Canada, German, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Nordic region, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa and the GCC. Activity includes: a separate page on ireland.com; social media campaigns; and a major PR push. Fáilte Ireland’s domestic ad for the Wild Atlantic Way will be shown before Star Wars screenings in Ireland .

CSO tourism figures show that visits to

Ireland are up 14pc for the first 11 months of 2015 with 8m visitors, above Tourism Ireland’s estimate of 7.9m. Visits from Europe were up 15.9pc, North America up 14.1pc, Britain up 12.5pc and the rest up 13.3pc..

IRELAND Ambassador to France Geral-

dine Byrne Nason, Tourism Ireland and French luxury brand Hermès hosted an event at the Irish Embassy in Paris to celebrate the final weeks of ID2015.

ADVANCE

season tickets for the 2016 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open are available from €70 and day tickets from €30 per day.

TOURISM

Ireland won the prize for digital communication at the GIST awards in Milan, an award at the Middle East PR awards in Dubai for their One Break, Two Cities campaign and an award for its Game of Thrones campaign at the International Content Marketing Awards in London

BELMOND Grand Hibernian

luxury sleeper train will commence service in August 2016 with 2, 4 and 6-night itineraries available.

TOURISM Ireland will roll out its Ire-

land’s Ancient East online ad campaign in January, targeting all 23 markets. A TV ad was filmed a few months ago at Castletown House, Glendalough, Newgrange, Kilkenny Castle, Waterford city and the Rock of Cashel.

ARAN ISLAND Ferries, which operates the sole ferry service connecting Ireland’s mainland to Inis Mór, confirmed that it will cease the service from January 16 2016. DUBLIN Bikes saw the number of journeys increase 77pc in 2014.

Cliffs of Moher fsces capacity issues

Moher gets more

Cliffs are now Ireland’s second biggest attraction

Celebrating the record breaking ome of Ireland’s top visitor at- up 80pc to sixth place, and possibly tractions now face capacity is- fifth ahead of Giant’s Causeway, visitor numbers, Paul Carty, Managsues after another highly whose figures are not as yet available. ing Director of Guinness Storehouse Other big climbers are the National commented, successful year of growth. “2015 was an incredibly successful Gallery and Connemara National Guinness Storehouse came close to 1.5m visitors in 2016, making it the Park (both up 24pc), the National year for us at the Guinness Storethird largest branded attraction in the Museum Collins Barracks (up 21pc), house. We celebrated 15 years of welworld, behind Hershey in Philadel- the Little Museum of Dublin (up coming visitors to the Home of 18pc), the Book of Kells and Chester Guinness just last month and in Sepphia and Volkswagen in Germany. tember were named ‘Europe’s LeadThe Clare County Council owned Beatty Library (both up 17pc). ing Tourist Attraction’ at the World Guinness Storehouse celebrated a Cliffs of Moher are up 18.8pc, streaking ahead of Dublin Zoo in second record 1,498,124 guests, breaking the Travel Awards, winning more votes place, breaking up what used to be an previously held record of 1,267,807, than the likes of the Eiffel Tower and the Colosseum.” Las Vegas Strip beat annual battle for top stop between the up 18pc on the 2014 record,. the Storehouse to World’s Leading Visitors from England and the US leading city attractions. The weight of visitor numbers at peak means the made up half of all visitors, followed Tourist Attraction at the World Travel attraction is looking at incentivising by visitors from mainland Europe and Award finals in Morocco. The Guinness Storehouse also people to visit before 11am with Ireland. Nearly 1 in 3 visitors (27pc) lower charges. The average stay at the to the Guinness Storehouse in 2015 holds the top spot in Ireland on the were from the UK, (a 98pc growth in digital map, as a record number of cliffs in 45 minutes. With 46.5pc of visitors arriving by the past year); followed by United people checked in on their Facebook coach (up 16.1pc) it means the Cliffs States of America (22pc), Ireland profiles in 2015. The Guinness Storehouse unfolds are accommodating up to 147 (7pc), France (6pc) and Germany its tale across seven floors shaped (6pc). China (up 38pc year on year) coaches per day and hit 43 concurrent and the Netherlands (up 34pc year on around a giant pint, which, if filled coaches at one stage last summer. Fully Independent Travellers , year) represented the other biggest would contain 14.3m pints of Guinness. growth markets compared to 2014. mainly travelling by car, made up 49pc of the total representing VISITOR ATTRACTIONS: THE 350,000 CLUB a 14.6pc increase compared to 1 Guinness Storehouse 1,498,124 11 Nat Museum Kildare St 469,494 2014 Others including walkers, 2 Cliffs of Moher 1,251,574 12 St Patrick’s Cathedral 466,423 cyclists and those travelling by 3 Dublin Zoo 1,130,720 13 Ulster Museum 456,680 public transport made up 5.4pc 4 National Aquatic Centre 996,249 14 Fota Wildlife Park Cork 433,620 and increased by 16.5pc com- 5 Giant’s Causeway Centre 827,400 15 Science Gallery 411,052 pared to 2014. 6 Tayto Park Ashbourne 765,000 16 Rock of Cashel Tipperary 409,753 The biggest visitor number 7 Book of Kells 761,057 17 Farmleigh 402773 rise among Ireland’s biggest 8 National Gallery 735,547 18 Blarney Castle 390,000 tourist attractions in 2015 was 9 Titanic 684,720 19 Number 29 370,000 Tayto Park, with visitor numbers 10 Botanic Gs Glasnevin 552,785 20 Chester Beatty Lib Dublin 343,926.

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DESTINATION IRELAND

Hotel handbrake

Capacity issues stalling tourism growth in Dublin

he Clyde Court hotel closed its 160 beds at the end of 2015, reducing further Dublin’s already critically underserved hotel stock. Hotel capacity problems in Dublin are now “a handbrake on growth” in tourism, something which will get worse when the D4 (formerly Jury’s) closes its 400 beds in 2018, Tourism Confederation chair Paul Gallagher told a press briefing on Thursday. To deliver the estimated 5,000 beds the city requires, he said Dublin needs a fast track planning process similar to the 16-week turnaround that approved the Hastings Group’s plans for the Grand Central hotel in Belfast. On the issue of inadequate hotel capacity in Dublin, Gallagher said

Dublin needs 5,000 beds, at a time when the premium property sites were being chased by other types of construction. Capacity constraints are also stalling growth at key attractions. CEO Eoghan O'Mara Walsh also cited Dublin Hotel capacity as a restraint on growth. Where are the new hotels likely to come from? There are between 40 and 60 properties that have been in dialogue with Fáilte Ireland in Dublin but only a handful. There is a retrofit on a property on O’Connell St as a Holiday Inn Express. The Fitzwilliam is putting in an extra floor. The Merrion Hotel is adding 20 rooms on Baggot Street over some existing retail (the former JWT house,

O’Callaghan Hotels have also converted space. There are no shovel in the ground, however. At the Eastlink there are proposals for a 500 room hotel. Dublin Airport is looking at a 500bed hotel adjacent to the T2 car park. Guinness has a site next door to the quayside gates. Red Carnation has looked at two sites near St Stephen’s Green. Denis O'Brien has his eye on a site for a hotel in the Liberties. But nothing is going to happen quickly. “Convention customers need hotels of 500-bedroom size to source beds. There is a need for more mixed use, retail and commercial with some hospitality and more higher rise to alleviate the problem,” Paul Gallagher says.

BURREN Food Trail represented Ireland at a showcase exhibition of the EDEN 2015 winners in Brussels. Picture shows representatives from Burren Food Trail with Tina O’Dwyer and Donal Minihane.Minister for Tourism Paschal Donohoe and Minister of State for Tourism Michael Ring announced €1m in additional phase funding for capital projects in Ireland’s Ancient East, made available through Fáilte Ireland’s New Ideas in Ancient Spaces grants scheme. The funding has been awarded to Laois Heritage Trails; Ros Tapestry, New Ross; The Clockgate Tower, Youghal; The Norma Way, Co Wexford; The Butler Trail, Co Tipperary; The Lifetime Lab, Cork City; Celtic Tree Experience, Co Carlow; Castle Saunderson, Co Cavan; Louth Adventures; Ireland’s Ancient Eats, Co Meath; Glaslough Heritage Trail, Co Monaghan; and 3D Viking Experience, Waterford City. holiday episodes.

STAR WARS There is no estimate for how many visitors screen tourism actually delivers, but Niall Gibbons claimed that “up to 35pc of people are impacted in destination choice by what they see on screen”, and stressed that the Star Wars campaign, which will be launched in January, is part of a “continuous story” and not just a one-off promotion. There is already a discussion about how to market the next instalment in the franchise, part of which was also shot on Skellig Michael, when it is released in 2017.

DUBLINE WALKING TRAIL Twelve Interpretive Panels were officially launched along the Dubline walking trail by An tArdmhéara, Críona Ní Dhálaigh, and the Minister for Tourism, Paschal Donohoe. holiday episodes.

STAGS English tour operator Last Night

of Freedom named Dublin as its fifth most popular stag and hen destination for 2015. The top ten: 1 Prague, 2 Newcastle, 3 Riga, 4 Budapest, 5 Dublin, 6 Amsterdam, 7 Nottingham, 8 Krakow, 9 Barcelona, 10 Bournemouth.

Epic Ireland team at the Dublin Docklands Awards, Brian Donovan genealogy advisor, Mervyn Greene MD of the CHQ building, Karen Keogh head of operations, Dervla O'Neill sales and marketing director, Michael Maguire head of retail, Michael Counshan project director, Audrey Kavanagh accounts and Fiona Ross museum director

Epic opens in May

Irish heritage attraction hopes to get 400,000 visitors

pic Ireland in CHQ House on Dublin’s Docklands, which hopes to be Ireland’s next 400,000-plus visitor attraction, will launch next May. The attraction is funded by the

Downpatrick born former Coca Cola CEO Neville Isdell beside Rowan Gillespie’s Famine Memorial sculptures on Custom House Quay. The centre has a goal of 400,000 visitors and a top ten position among

Ireland’s visitor attractions within three years. Work on the 22 galleries is advanced in the basement area under the CHQ building installing high tech inter-active display features.

IRELAND was named best European destination at the Travel Weekly Readers’ Choice Awards.

TOURISM IRELAND aims to bring 8.2m visitors to Ireland in 2016 to generate €4.4bn spend, a growth of 4pc. Latest estimates show that by year-end, 7.9m will have visited Ireland in 2015, up 11pc. Ireland is still looking at 10m visitors for 2025. “We have to move into a space of sustainable growth as opposed to very big peaks and troughs, CANNES Ten Irish tourism businesses attended the International Luxury Travel Market in Cannes. BELFAST was named trendiest city for business travel in Europe by MICE Business Travel Magazine.

FAILTE

Ireland launched a pilot Chef’s Apprenticeship culinary programme for commis chefs. Two hundred will participate in the full-time programme.

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GLOBAL VILLAGE

award winner: Brendan Harding won the Czech tourism travel writer award at WTM early in the month. Brendan is the second Irish winner in four years.

Inside the Travel Business

CASSIDY

Travel, which completed 30 years in business repored a 10pc increase in turnover. Further expansion is planned for early 2016. Still owned and managed by founders John Cassidy and John Spollen, has grown over the years with eight retail shops all located in Dublin, a staff of 85, three brands – Cassidy Travel, Cassidy Golf and Classic Resorts - and a growing online presence on cassidytravel.ie.

FLORIDA SeaWorld, Aquatica Orlando, Discovery Cove and Busch Gardens Tampa hosted 30 agents from Virgin Holidays, Attraction World, Attraction Tickets Direct, Ocean Holidays, American Holidays, Tour America, Gold Medal and Travel Republic, before going to St. Pete/Clearwater for the beach.

CABFORCE Janne Aarniovuor and Tiina Kaitosailmi of Cabforce hosted the travel trade in Dublin’s Morrison Hotel in conjunction with Volker Lorenz, Olwen McKinney and Stephen Brennan of Amadeus. Cabforce on the GDS enables agents to book transfers for their clients often at a lower cost than the local taxi charge. Watch here Travel Extra’s interview with Janne Aarniovuor of Cabforce. See more pictures here or connect with the album on Facebook. AMADEUS reported an 85pc increase

in ancillary revenue through online travel agencies during the first three quarters of 2015.

WARSAW

Former ITAA president Clare Dunne of The Travel Broker was guest speaker in Warsaw on the topic of dynam packaging based on the example of Ireland and Ryanair with stress on the impact on travel agents at the opening of TT Warsaw, the largest Polish tourism fair.

CRUISES

For You, Pamela Brownlee’s new brand, was launched on social media just before Christmas. A brand launch will follow in February. .

TRAVELPORTsaid agencies in Ireland can earn commission on Heathrow Express tickets booked through Smartpoint. BLUE INSURANCES Ciaran

Mulligan's Blue Insurance moved to new offices in Dublin designed to accmmodate 100 additional staff members. Since the Jobs Announcement last July, Blue Insurance has already hired 20 new staff members, bringing its current workforce to 60 employees. The company plans to employ an additional 80 staff members over the next 12 to 18 months

INNSTANT Travel appointed Ultan

Bannon as Country Manager for HotelConnect division.

ITAA ’s quarterly survey found that Spain, Portugal and the USA remain the big sellers for winter. Florida, New York and Las Vegas are the US hotspots and there are trends in Iceland, Mexico, Dubai and Cuba.

Dominic Burke in 1980s dress speaking at the Trave Centres 2015 conference in Lyrath

Eye in a storm

Lyrath hosts Travel Centres agent consortium

ravelling to the the Travel Centres conference at Lyrath during storm desmond during Storm Desmond put the travel community to the pinnacle of their organisational skills. Ben Bouldin of Royal caribbean took three attempts to get there before he successuflly landed in Dublin and made his way to Kilkenny. John Keogh of Aer Lingus came to the rescue of the band, who appeared ot have beet stranded in Luton before he moved to save the evening for the

76-member consortium. Attendance was not adversely affected. There were 70 at the Friday lunch 92 at the conference and 170 at awards. Newcomers among the 45 suppliers included: n Abu Dhabi Tourist Board n ASL Airlines France n Dublin Airport Travel Services n Ethiopian Airlines n Expedia TAAP n Group & Pay n Toulouse/Midi-Pyrenees Tourism

n Virgin Atlantic n Westjet Dominic Burke of Travel Centres said “we took stock of where our industry is at present; the challenges that face us as we move forward and whether or not we, as travel agents, are doing enough to move with the times and engage with our customers.” The gala dinner on the Saturday night celebraed the music of the 1980’s, and the film ‘Back to the Future’

NCL TARGETS IRISH AGENTS

euro in CL plans GBP and to grow that affects in Ireour system, land to build on a we can’t trategy of selling take the their cruises at a pricing in net rate to tour GBP. We operators. don’t necSpeaking to Francie Riley essarily Travel Extra at the prewant to create a separate launch cruise of Norwegian Escape, Francis Riley, VP pricing programme.” “We have a pricing pro& General Manager Intergramme in Europe but that national said that “We have plans for Ireland and it is does not connect into GBP one of our target markets “ pricing. It is a complex and “We are trying to figure we know we have a probout how we do that. At the lem.” “The solution is to take moment we have pricing in

flexipricing off the GBP prices and have a commonality of price for the Irish and British markets. Otherwise we end up discriminating against Ireland or against Britain and we have all of our travel partners up in arms against us because some of them are selling in both euro and GBP. “ “In the meantime we have been building our business with tour operators.” “We give them a net rate and they bundle that with air with land arrangements and creating a fly cruise

package.” “We know we are paying catch up to our competitors but we have a man based in Ireland now. We have a fantastic product. We just need to tell more people. We do not go out and try customers to book direct.” “We are agnostic to price channel. In Britain 90pc of our business is through the trade. It is even higher in Ireland. When customers rebook on board it goes back to the last agent on the record. Our sales people follow up with a call to the agent.”

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Inside the Travel Business

FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 73

GLOBAL VILLAGE

IRELAND’s travel agents reported a reasonably busy Christmas with bookings up and dynamic packing now constituting up to 90pc of sales.

ROYAL Caribbean launched its Go All In promo, with selected drinks included in the price of the holiday, a 50pc discount off the cruise fare for a second guest and a 35pc discount for third and fourth stateroom guests on cruises booked by February 29 216. See Deal Watch for more.

€

€ €

€

FALCON and Thomson predict an in-

crease in all inclusive bookings in 2016, especially for young families, an increase in the number of 10 and 14 night holidays and a bigger demand for Wi-Fi.

CREATION Peter Dolan's Limerick

based Creation Travel has been purchased by Jeff Collins and added to his fast growing Best4travel empire.

EMIRATES Enda Corneille of Emi-

Tanya Airey receives a lifetiie achievement award at the 2014 Irish Travel Industry Awards

Sunway turns 50

Family firm is now leading tour operator

unway a third generation family business, is celebrating 50 years in business in 2016. The tour operator offers the Irish holidaymaker a choice of over 70 destinations worldwide including: Summer and Winter Sun, Worldwide, USA & Canada, Cruise, River Cruise, Sunsail, Neilson, Mark Warner Beach Clubs, Club Med, Escorted Tours, Adventure Tours, Weddings & Honeymoons and Santa visits in Lapland. Sunway was founded in 1966 by

Roy Beatty. The company then passed to Roy’s daughter, Madeline Kilbride in 1974 and to his granddaughter, Tanya Airey in 1998. Tanya’s father Jim Furlong, has remained Chairman of Sunway since 1974. Tanya’s husband Philip Airey is a Director of the company and her cousin Brian McGovern is Financial Director. Sunway originally opened in Blackrock as a corporate and leisure travel agency, and in 1991 started tour

operations with Morocco being its first destination. .Sunway won the European sun (second time), specialist and long haul (fourth time) tour operator awards at the 2015 Irish Travel Industry awards. Tanya Airey’s awards include: Image Business Woman of the Year, a Travel Trade Industry Achievement Award and Irish Travel Industry Award for her contribution to the Irish travel industry.

Sunway team members Jeanette Taylor, Sami Tounsi of Tunisia Tourist Board, Deirdre Sweeny, Tanya Airey, Mary Denton Hilary Mahon, Anita Kelly, Fiona Bolger and Philip Airey

rates hosted the trade in Cork and in Dublin at separate events where he hailed the success of their double daily operation which is selling 22,000 seats a month, is carrying 50 tonnes of cargo a day and has carried 1m passengers since its launch four years ago and hilariously described the airline’s role in bringing thoroughbred horses out to Dubai.

SKAL requested members to contribute to a member’s benefit booklet when they renew their membership for 2016.

TRAVELPORT extended its full content agreement with Kenya Airways. Sabre launched an online innovation hub for customers to share ideas and give feedback. Travelport became the majority shareholder in Australian corporate travel tech company Locomote, with Sandra McLeod named CEO. Travelport announced a reshuffle of its commercial organisation: Scott Hyden was appointed GVP, Enterprise Customer Group; Bret Kidd was appointed GVP and Managing Director for Travelport Americas; and Dan Westbrook was appointed VP and GM for Travelport’s Air Commerce Technologies business. ITAA Cormac Meehan from Bundoran

agreed to go forward for the National Presidency of the ITAA at the AGM in April 2016. In a letter to colleagues he said: “I would be delighted if I could have your support. It seems that there may well be a contest but that would be good for our Association. Whatever the challenge, I will meet it head on with a first class team around me. I feel that we have an excellent Board and a first class Executive Team that can conspire to achieve quite a lot over my proposed term of office. In December 2016 I will have spent 30 years at the helm of my own firm, in that time I served on National Council and the APJC, under presidents like Horgan, Magee and Neenan (yes, that far back!) and I have enjoyed the challenge of it making very good friends right across the agency and trade over that period.”

CZECH Another Irish travel writer

caption

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POSTCARDS FROM THE TRAVEL SCENE

isit USA hosted the travel trade in Belfast, bringing key agents together to thank them for their support for the direct Belfast-Newark service, Dublin services and connecting flights over Britain. The group dined in Shu Restaurant on the Lisburn Road and attendees included the USA Honorary Consul in Belfast, Jenny Cordell. Ciara’s two year term as chair of Visit

sabel Oliveira of Tourism Malaysia hosted the trade at the Gibson Hotel for a presentation and workshop. While Malaysia gets more visitors than Thailand internationally, they lag considerably behind Thailand in the Irish market with 11,476 visitors in 2014, down 18.5pc on the previous year. Thailand gets more than four times as many visitors. The average spend by Irish holiday

t was a big month for Turkish Airlines with the European Cup in rugby added to their extensive sponsorship portfolio. Ilker Ayci, Chairman of Turkish Airlines attended an event at the Stoop in Twickenham during WTM where the three year agreement was announced. It until the end of the 2017/18 season. Turkish sponsor the Turkish Open at Belek and hosted members of the Irish

USA is up and the AGM and agents appreciation night takes place on November 26. Visit USA Ireland is 25 years old this year and now has 80 members, up from the low of 27 three years ago Holly Best of Virgin Atlantic cohosted the event and Doreen McKenzie on ABTA in the north spoke on behalf of the travel trade. Picture shows Ciara Foley speaking to agents at the event.

makers is among the highest of any international visitors, average stay by Irish holiday makers is eight nights and 40pc of Irish visitors go to Kula Lumpur, followed by penang, with Sabah and Sarawak bringing up the read. Picture shows Ambassador Dato Syed Sultan Idris, Isabel Oliveira of Malaysian Tourism and Ishak Ismail Senior Deputy Director of European Division of Malaysia Tourism.

trade at the event. Picture shows: Esra and Murat Balandi, ITAA President Martin Skelly and Miriam Skelly, Ann Marie Dalton and Patrick McKinney at the Turkish Open at MaxxRoyal Belek. Turkish operates double daily from Dublin to Istanbul and operates scheduled services to 280 destinations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, making it the fourth-largest carrier in the world by number of destinations.

our America celebrates 20 years in business this year. Mary McKenna circulated a message. As I look back at 20 years of business, 2015 has been our best year in terms of turnover, we have over 50pc repeat business, we have the best staff in the industry, and a fantastic culture in our organisation. Twenty years of business has made me think what is most important, and

elen Caron, formerly Director for TUI/Thomson/Falcon Holidays in Ireland, returned in her new role as MD of Thomson Cruise to announce details of the groups reinvented cruise programme. Describing her spending spree on three cruise ships as “the biggest credit card binge she had ever engaged in,” she said that Thomson will have ships home ported at some of the favourite Irish de-

oop Head Peninsula Heritage Trail won the best cultural heritage attraction at the World Responsible Travel Awards at WTM. The citation read: For years few people knew about one of its most stunning peninsulas: Loop Head in County Clare. However, that all changed after local community-led Loop Head Tourism Network created the Loop Head Heritage Trail in 2014. Making

what I have learnt is that staff come first, then customers and relationships and partnerships. You can buy in the rest. Keep growing and learning, and fail fast. There is no place for ego or complacency. Respect everyone, be kind and fair and what is vital is that you love what you do, the day you wake up and don't want to go work, find another job, life is too short.

parture points. Two ships Discovery (formerly Royal’s Splendour of the Seas) and Majesty in Palma, and Spirit wil be based in Malaga. Thomson also cruise from Corfu and Dubrovnik. Picture shows Falcon/Thomson team Chris Hackney, Carol O'Connor, Helen Caron, Antoinette Young, Chris Logan and Charlotte Brenner who hosted the travel trade in Dean Hotel Dublin.

this a fine example of local people taking ownership of their heritage and, in so doing, setting a new, shiny emerald onto Ireland's tourism map. Dearbhail Standún and Charlie Troy’s Cnoc Suain also made the shortlist of three. Connemara Wild Escapes from Letterfrack was short listed in the people and culture category. Picture shows Cillian Murphy, Fiona Monaghan, and Brian Coakley, with the award.

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POSTCARDS FROM THE TRAVEL SCENE

ick Newman of China Southern Airlines came to Dublin to announce a sales and marketing office within their Ireland head office. He is pictured with Paul Weir. He promised fares to Australia via Heathrow or Paris and Guangzhou of under €800 to Sydney return, less than the market price by €100: “For us the key way into markets is through price point. We are coming with

merican Airlines, Philadelphia and Atlantic City hosted seven key Travel Agency partners. The agents flew business class on the Airbus A330 direct to Philadelphia where they were met by Greg Evans and Sonia Sehgal from American Airlines. The group attended a Concert performance by Madonna. Picture shows Greg Evans of Philadelphia and Atlantic City, Terese

lan Lynch of Cruisescapes hosted travel agents on board the Fred Olsen cruise ship Boudicca in Cork. Kate Wooldridge of Fred Olsen said “the ships have had more face lifts than any woman of their age.” Fred Olsen is one of the few cruise lines that offers direct pick ups in Ireland, including cruises to Canada on board Boudicca in May and September

low prices and we have the new Dreamliner from London, A380 from Amsterdam, hopefully with the lowest prices and best airplanes we should be able to entice customers to fly China Southern.” China Southern has increased from 400 to 600 aircraft in the past two years and is now the fourth largest airline in the world. Paul Weir, Head of APG in Ireland, has taken on a team of Chinese nationals, adding to the international expertise of this growing business.

Balzereit of Big Bus Company, Martin Hannigan of American Holidays Dublin, Sonia Sehgal of American Airlines, Kathy Cashe of Sunway, Angela Taylor of Oasis Travel, Peter Tully of Trailfinders, Roisin Carbery of Topflight, Sharon Morgan of Travel Counsellors and Jenny McIlroy of American Holidays Belfast Sightseeing in Philly on the Big Bus.

2016 (embark Killybegs, disembark Belfast). Norwegian fjords and German Waterways on board Boudicca on July 23rd (embark and disembark Belfast), an Old and New England crusie (embark Southampton with flight included in price and disembark Ringaskiddy), and an Emerald Isle Cruise commencing on May 31st (embark Belfast and disembark Dublin).

he Northern Ireland Travel Awards have a legendary status as a social event that does not look like it is running out of steam at 6am, but it is much more than that. This year’s event produced what may be the sweetest acceptance speech ever, a short “love is all that matters” from Brian Surgenor who was awarded the Roll of Honour award, while probably the happiest winner was Drew Stewart

f you think you have heard it before, you have. Dublin’s Breath of Fresh Air campaign, launched last month, is a reprise of a campaign that was first, ahem, aired, in the aftermath of the smoking ban in 2004. This time round it is designed for visitors. Orla Carroll who is fronting up the “breath of fresh air” brand, asked guests at the launch in Croke Park to visualise the impact of the slogan on people

unway will operate a weekly charter to Fuerteventura in summer 2016. Sunway’s team of Tanya Airey, Mary Denton, Deirdre Sweeny and Anita Kelly joined Arminda De Leon of Fuerteventura Tourism to publicise the programme alongside Gonzalo Ceballos and Kathryn McDonnell of the Spanish Tourist Board in hosting the Irish Travel Trade at John Wyer‘s Forest Avenue

of Classic Collection from Sussex. Clubworld Travel Lurgan won the agency of the year for the third time in 24 years. Scott Parker of Feherty Travel in Bangor won the agent award. Both were decided by mystery shoppers, after an original shortlist drawn up after votes from the travelling public. Picture shows Jonathan Adair of NITN welcoming guests to the event.

emerging from London Underground. The new campaign is designed to counter Dublin’s image among visitors as a grey dismal place with not enough to do. It has taken a while to reinvent Dublin, and the process is not complete. The strategy is coordinated by the Grow Dublin Tourism Alliance which published its Collective Strategy for Growth to 2020 last year.

restaurant in Dublin. A holiday in the Atlantis five star resort was drawn at the event. Arminda De Leon reminded the trade that Fuerteventura has 150 kilometres of beach and described it was the beach of the Canaries, Picture shows Arminda De Leon, Gonzalo Ceballos and Tanya Airey. Aer Lingus have dropped their weekly flight next summer, but Ryanair will fly 3w to Fuerteventura.

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WINDOW SEAT

Last month in numbers

i€7.3bn Value of tourism to Irish economy according to Irish Tourism Industry Confederation

€16bn Value of domestic tourism as caluclated by Irish Tourism Industry Confederation.

101.4m Number of passengers carried by

Ryanair over the calendar year January to December 2015.

24.9m Number of passengers who used Dublin

airport, a new record.

1,498,124 Number of visitors to the Guinness Storehouse, Ireland;s most visited attraction.

31 New routes at Irish airports annoucned for 2016 5pc Projected growth of inbound tourist numbers

for 2016 accoridng to ITIC and Tourism Ireland.

MARY AND THE TREASURE SHIP

eminist philosopher who was ahead of her time and honorary Coworking, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote one of the great historical works of travel writing. It was immensely popular until it was impacted upon by an overdrawn memoir by her husband. The book was ahead of its time,a description of her travels through the Norwegian coast in search of a treasure ship that was lost through series of Lemony Snicket unfortunate events. On the journey she could be as enthusiastic and philanthropic as Jonathan Raban and as miserable

In Search of Mary: The Mother of all Journeys by Bee Rowland, published by Alma Books.

and misanthropic as Paul Theroux in quick succession (sometimes at the same time). It still makes for a fascinating read over 200 years later. Good news then that a writer as excellent as Bee Rowland could not resist the temptation to footstep her, with a small child just as Mary W had in the 1790s. Bee puts it was “a treasure-hunting single mum philosopher on the high seas.

It was about the journey she made, with her baby, trying to track down her boyfriend’s ship full of silver, which had disappeared. As well as writing the influential A Vindication of the Rights of Men and, later, of Woman, she wrote a very successful travel book, called Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark (1796). May W’s work has grown with age, so has the allure of the countries she visited.

Busman’s holiday: Bryan Arnica

Blowing hot and cold: Bryan Arnica childhood home of Bundaberg and his favourite trip: Antarctica

Every month we ask a leading travel professional to write about their personal holiday experience. This month: Bryan Arnica, Ireland sales manager for QANTAS

had a privileged upbringing growing up in Bundaberg, Australia helping my parents on the family farm, although at times I possibly did not appreciate the tiring hours spent in the fields and packing shed. Hard work and perseverance pays off my father told me, but more impor-

tantly enjoy whatever you do. A valuable lesson and one I still hold true today. I recall being inspired at an early age by stories I read on the back of cereal boxes. Sir Douglas Mawson, a famous Australian explorer and expedition leader in the heroic age of polar exploration drew my imagination to faraway places. Our family holidays consisted of travelling much closer to home. Being farm-

ers, Christmas was the only time when the family could escape for a week. We always travelled with family friends to nearby beach destinations like Hervey Bay and Tantrum Sands. When I left school, I also ventured out on my first overseas holiday. A three night getaway to Hong Kong. It was another world for me back then and certainly whet my appetite to see and explore more. Over the past 20 years I have made travel my life. Always looking for new places to visit… new experiences to have. I am fortunate to have be in a position to explore the world and in 2007 I

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

he demise of Shenghen, gleefully reported in some London media, is not yet upon us and the travel community has reason to rejoice at that But something more deeply troubling is emerging, the return of border checks to borders that have not seen a permanent presence by uniformed officers in several decades. Crossing the borders between Denmark and Sweden used to ne a seamless experience.

Next to Benelux, Scandinavia was among the first group of countries to take the barriers down. If Scandinavia gets panicky about its own borders, the more paranoid countries across Europe will be much worse. Travel Extra has continued to cross broders fervently (on behalf of our readers, someone has to do it) in the weeks since Paris. While we have not noticed any delays at all, never mind long ones,

we did get stuck in a security queue of an hour and 40 minutes in Lyon airport in December. Border controls wil not be going back to the old days anytime soon, nor is it likely we wil have the sort of barrier we had across the continent before the Berlin wall came down. But longer security queues and extra checks at the gate are almost certainly consequence of the current unrest. We will all be the poorer for it.

achieved a lifelong dream and travelled to Antarctica… also ticking off my 7th continent. I still call Australia home even though I now live in England. It is an amazing country full of such diversity. From the stunning coastline to the rugged outback. The adorable and unique wildlife and the world class food and wine experiences. From the oldest continuous living culture on the planet, the Australian Aboriginal to the newest icons, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Where to next? There is plenty of inspiration… but I hear Fiji calling! BULBA.

IN YOUR NEXT TRAVEL EXTRA: Available to Travel Agents or online February 15 2016

AWARDS ISSUE Winners of the 2016 Irish Travel Trade Awards Irish Hotels Conference Special

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MEETING PLACE

ntte Taylor and Mary De Deirdre Sweeny, Jeane in ce en Centres confer ton of Sunway at Travel ny, Lyrath, Kilken

Maura Fahy of Maure Fahy Travel and Liam O’Leary of O’Leary Tra vel in Enniscorthy at the Travel Corporation eve nt

lly d Sea Resorts and Ho Niall McDonnell of Re th 30 vel Tra dy ssi Ca at the Best of Virgin Atlantic birthday event

Darrach Culligan of Da rrach Culligan Travel an d Philip Airey of Sunway at the Travel Corporat ion event for the travel tra de

Out and about with the Travel Trade

Volker Lorenz, Niall McDonnell and Olwen McK- Ros Walsh of Travelfox and Mary McKe nna of Touramerica at the MS inney at Travel Centres conference in Lyrath, C cruises advisory board me etin g in Dublin Kilkenny,

Pamela Brownlee of Flyaway Travel, Andrew Lynch of Travel Advisors and Ciara Mooney of Freedom Travel at Travel Centres conference

l and Rebecca Kelly of David O’Grady of etrave cruises advisory board C MSC Cruises at the MS meeting in Dublin

Ann Marie Dalton of Tu rkish Airlines and Volke Rebecca Kelly and Alysha Bartlett of MSC at the Lorenz of Am r adeus at the Cassidy Travel 30th Travel Centres conference in Lyrath, birthday event

Paul Weir of apg and Barry Walsh of Concorde Travel/JWT at the Cassidy Travel 30th birthday event

use with Ruairi Gibbons Bernie Quinn of Ice Ho Shannon Princess at the and Olivia Power of the e Book 2015 launch of Ireland’s Blu

Janet Parton head of of David O’Hagan of Donabate Travel and Donna sales for MSC Cruises mair, Siobhan Scanlan and Gil es Hawkes who hoste jEamon Flangan of Pre Kenny of TTC at the Travel Corporation event for sCa the d agents at the MSC at elly nn Do my Jim d an cru nce ise Fra s advisory board meetin Delta/Air the travel trade g ay event sidy Travel 30th birthd

Ian Manto of Harvey Tra vel and Brendan Mallon of WTC at Travel Centr es conference in Lyrath , Kilkenny,

Alan Lynch of Cruisescapes, Des Abbott of Des Abbott Travel and Jeff Collins of Best4travel at the MSC cruises advisory board meeting

i Boyle of Farmhill Geoff Boyle and Jacqu of Ireland’s Blue Book Restaurant at the launch 2015

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FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 78

MEETING PLACE

Out and about with the Travel Trade

Tony Collins of Topflig ine Scully,Tina Quigley, Dawn Conway of Sunway, Niki Stanford of ht, Martin Skelly of Na Grainne Bergin, Christ van BritTom d Tra an vel, President of the ITA y rph Mu rah Clickandgo and Celina Kenny of Cruisescapes at Sa , ffe ee O’K A and John Spollen of e rin the Ca es ntr Ca ssidy Travel at Cassidy at Travel Ce the MSC cruises advisory board meeting Travel 30th birthday ton of Marble City Travel

Olwen McKinney of Am adeus and Thomas Mc Nally of Bedsonline at Travel Centres confer ence in Lyrath, Kilkenny,

Carmel Aylward of King Travel and Katrina McMullan of Navan Travel at the MSC cruises advisory board meeting

tauClarke of L’Ecrivain res Bernie Burke of Travel Centres, Ciaran Mulligan Derry and Sally Anne in 15 20 ok Bo e Blu d’s lan of Blue Insurances, Mary McKenna of Tour Ire of nch rant at the lau America and David O’Hagan of Etravel tel Ho rne ou the Shelb

Romie Birdthistle, Deird re Murphy and Denise Bowman of Hilary Murph y Travel at the Travel Centres Conference in Lyrath, Kilkenny,

Paul Bodart of AM Resorts and David Turner legal advisor to Cassidy travel at the Cassidy Travel 30th birthday event

rity Cruises, Gonzalo Ce Lorraine Quinn of Celeb of n da Jor n aro Sh d an ballos of the Sanish TB vel 30th birthday event Tra dy ssi Ca the at C TT

Deirdre Sweeny of Su nway, Polly Bond of Touramerica and Martin Skelly President of the ITAA, at the MSC cruise s advisory board

ey Ireland, Patrick Kearn Christina Walsh of Fáilte of n ela Wh e rin and Cathe of Rathmullen House Ireland’s Blue Book of nch lau the Iat Failte

Janet Parton of MSC cruises and John Spollen of John Cassidy Travel at the MSC cruises advisory board meeting

Dulce Almeida of Cassi dy Travel Portugal, Frances Clune of AIB and Neal Morrison Mc Inemey at the Cassidy Tra vel 30th birthday event

Pat Dawson CEO of the ITAA, Mary McKenna of Peter O’Hanlon of Travelfinders, Mary Denton of Tour America and Zarya b Malik at the Travel Co r- Sunway and Des Abbott at the Travel Corporaporation event tion Christmas Event

e and Susan Kellett of Hazel Allen of Ballymalo of Ireland’s Blue Book Enniscoe at the launch Hotel 2015 in the Shelbourne

Travel Extra and ITAA Eoghan Corry, editor of on Turkish Airlines en president Martin Skelly rism Forum route to the World Tou

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NEW VENUE

EXHIBITOR PROFILE

UL Arena University of Limerick Limerick Ireland t: +353 (0)61 213 582 www.universityarena.com

• Adventure Travel • Airlines • Airports • Caravans & Motorhomes • International Camping Sites • Car Rental Companies • Coach Tours • Cruise Companies • Ferries • Golf • Escorted Tours • Health Tourism • Home Holidays • Hotels • National and Regional Tourist Organisations • Overseas Property • Weddings & Honeymoons • Over 55’s Holidays • Rail Holidays • Theme & Leisure Parks • Travel Agents/Tour Operators • Travel Related Services • Tourist Attractions • Travel Accessories

DATE AND TIMES Saturday February 20 12.00pm - 5.30pm Sunday February 21 12.00pm - 5.30pm

CONTACTS Maureen Ledwith - Sales Director t: +353 (0)1 291 3700 f: +353 (0)1 295 7417 e: maureen@bizex.ie Paulette Moran - Sales Manager t: +353 (0)1 291 3702 f: +353 (0)1 295 7417 e: paulette@bizex.ie

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