Travel extra april 2017

CRUISE A GUIDE TO THE MARKET NORWEGIAN WHO DARES WINS CELEBRITY MINI SEASON EX DUBLIN Travel Industry Trade Show

Irish airports’ record year

R U YO DE A R R T PE PA

AerCap scales heights

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION Free

APRIL 2017

VOLUME 22 NUMBER 4

Ships with everything What your client should know about cruising

MAURITIUS 24x33cm ING.indd 1

7.03.2017 18:32

APRIL 2017 PAGE 3

www.travelextra.ie

NEWS

Industry on show Third travel industry trade show moves to RDS

T

he third Irish Travel Industry Trade Show takes place on the RDS Main hall on March 22.

With 140 exhibitors, this is the largest trade show held in Ireland, open to travel agents and tour operators.

Following Travelsavers and Worldchoice management meetings in the morning, the Spanish tourist office and Paradores will hold a lunch for invited guests from 12.30.

The show will be officially opened

by ITAA president Cormac Meehan at 2pm.

There will be a reception in the Portuguese village from 6.15pm before the trade show closes at 7pm and will be followed by a barbecue for registered guests. Picture shows Pat dawson CEO of the ITAA and Maureen Ledwith of Business Exhiubitions launching the event. Register here.

The one day event is offering free registration for all Irish travel professionals. It offers travel agents and tour operators an opportunity to net-

Maureen Meehan, Maureen Ledwith, Martin Skelly and Cormac Meehan open the 2016 Travel Industry Trade Show work and discover the latest in travel innovation, product demonstrations and new customer experiences from local and international exhibitors.

Cormac Meehan said: we are very excited to be working with Business Exhibitions again to present the third

annual Irish travel Industry Show.

Following the success of last year’s show, we ae expecting a full turnout of the travel trade. This year’s show is bigger and better, with even more exhibitors and more opportunities for travel professionals to upskill.”

has trebled in recent years and it is easy to see why.

by Aer Lingus and Lufthansa, watch for onward connections.

DESTINATIONS TO WATCH

AMSTERDAM Once served by just one airline from Dublin, now Ryanair and KLM are competing with Aer Lingut.

DOHA The big marquee new

destination for 2017, there is a visa free stopover available.

HARTFORD Daily from

Aer Lingus since September a route that opens up New England.

ICELAND New flights from Cork and Belfast, Iceland tourism

KRABI Used to be two-stop, now one stop through Doha from July, previously most people had to get an internal flight from Bangkok.

MIAMI Aer Lingus’s marquee route form the autumn opening up Florida and cruise opportunities.

MUNICH Four airlines competing with the arrival of Ryanair and Transavia on a route dominated

NAPLES New Ryanair aservice commences 2w in winter.

PROVIDENCE Rohde Island is ready with Norwegian flights from four Irish airports.

SPLIT New Aer Lingus service

to Croatia.

WESTCHESTER the Stewart Intenrational hinterland.

PASSPORT Ireland has the fifth

most valuable passport in the world, according to the Nomad International index, behind Sweden (first), Belgium (second), Italy and Spain (joint third), and ahead of Finland and Germany (joint sixth), Denmark, Switzerland and Luxembourg (joint eighth). Ireland has visa free ravel to 172 countries, four fewer than leaders Sweden, and Nomad says: Irish citizens are some of the best received around the world, being ranked among the most well-liked citizens. An Irish passport allows for travel to some 172 countries as well as freedom of movement around the European Union, in which Ireland has vowed to remain. Nomad ranks 199 countries on visa-free travel (50pc of ranking) taxes a country levies on citizens who live abroad (30pc of ranking), perception (10pc of ranking), dual citizenship (10pc of ranking) and overall freedom (10pc of ranking). Libya, Pakistan, Eritrea, Iraq and Afghanistan have the world’s least valuable passport.

EGYPT’s plans to double the cost of entry visas for foreign visitors to $60 dollars per visa have been has been delayed until July 1 at the request of tourist industry leaders.

GPs in the north came under fire for charging £10 fee for signing passport forms.

EU-US VISA WAR The visa war between the EU and USA has not gone away, you know. The EU parliament voted to support the campaign to protest the fact that citizens from five EU countries, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania, are kept from entering America without a visa, requiring the European Commission to suspend visa exemption status for US citizens. The European Tour Operators Association says this is extremely unlikely to happen: the Council of the EU will object and the status quo will prevail.

TRUMP SLUMP Roger Dow’s

US Travel Association said that the Trump administration’s immigration policies are hurting tourism. NYC revised their tourism arrival forecasts under the Trump administration downwards by 300,000, part of a Trump slump that has cost the US travel industry $185m in lost revenue.

THAT MOMENT WHEN THEY DISCOVER THE THRILL OF THE WATERSLIDES At our SplashWorld resorts

*On selected dates. Offer is subject to availability, terms and conditions apply. Falcon is fully bonded and licensed by CAR (TO 021)

LIMITED F CHILD P REE L ACE S AVAIL A BL E *

APRIL 2017 PAGE 4

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: Mark Evans markevanspro@gmail.com Chief Features Writer: Anne Cadwallader MICE editor Clinger Corry Contributors : Marie Carberry marie@travelextra.ie Siobhan Coakley Carmel Higgins carmel@travelextra.ie Cauvery Madhavan Sean Mannion Conor McMahon conor@travelextra.ie Catherine Murphy cathmurph@yahoo.com Cathy Wilson

Travel Extra takes no responsibility for errors and omissions.

Origination: Typeform

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

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION

CONTENTS

3 News Where to go,h ow much to pay 6 Hotels: News

www.travelextra.ie 8 Postcards: News from the trade 12-19 Cruise: It’s a Med world 26 Afloat: Dublin port’s ambitions 28-32 Flying: Aer LIngus gets a321s

33 Jameson: The taster’s tour 34 Global Village Inside the travel industry 36 Window seat: Our columnists 37 Pictures: Out and about

Selling a cruise break

C

ruise lines pay highest commissions and some offer agent loyalty programmes. It is definitely the place to be for a travel agent and customers are afest with an agent.

Consumer campaigns are confusing and change by the week, and what is on offer may not be the best deal. So how do you translate that into sales?

BUDGET It is all about budget. This needs to be calculated at the very beginning of the conversation along with finding out their expectations of the trip. Spend time on expectations before you offer advice.

If in doubt, sell from the top down. Customers will soon tell you if that is not in their budget.

DETERMINE

the client’s requirements. if the destination the most important criteria a larger ship may not be able to navigate the likes of the fjords in Norway, missing the best parts of the itinerary and destination. Some ocean going vessels are small enough to navigate rivers like the Fred Olsen Braemar (which has a selection of river cruises in 2015, offering the best of both worlds).

EMPHASISE.

value and price. Show just how much prices of traditional cruises are dropping, the perday cost all inclusive works out at u50 on some Caribbean cruises.

Check the price of a land based all inclusive or full board week holiday and then price a cruise. Entertainment and activities offer great value versus

but if you are concerned choose a big ship and a cabin on a lower deck in the centre of the ship.

You can reassure them that safety onboard is of the highest standard, you are surrounded by like minded people, it is ideal for teenagers.

Northern lights viewed from Hurtigruten, with direct flights to Tromso

a land based product: Grease the musical, skydiving, surfing.

CHANGE their

perceptions that cruising is for older travellers, that you spend all your time on the ship, that sea-sickness is an issue, and most of all that cruising is expensive.

When people often say that cruising wouldn’t interest them as they don’t spend long in a port, a good selling tip is that it’s a great way to find out where you want to go back to,

LUXURY Sell

the dream. Point out all the luxury options for special occasions such as anniversaries. On all of the newer ships in the past 10-15 years, there is no such thing as steerage. All staterooms are well above water, and have all the mod cons of 4 and 5 star hotels. The proportion of rooms with balconies is rising.

DRINKS packages are all the rage. The top end ships include drinks in their all inclusive prices but most lines do pre-paid packages.

Fred Olsen offer drinks package at €12 per day which includes beers,

good house wines and spirits and 50pc discount on a la carte wines and premium brands.

MSC’s Allegrissimo is cheapest of the big ship brands at €26pp per day (5pc commissionable to the agent) allowing unlimited beer, wine, cocktails, spirits, ice cream, tea coffees etc.

REPEAT Keep customers up to date with new facilities, new ships, new routes, and direct pick ups from Ireland. Establish an ongoing relationship.

Encourage your customers to discuss their next cruise with the ‘future cruise consultant’ on board there are lots of extras and you can come back to your travel professional to discuss adding on flights /hotels and tours afterwards.

Loyalty cards entitle the client to 5pc off the next cruise booked with Travel Agent. With most lines, commission goes back to the agent if the next cruise is booked on board.

LINK consecutive

cruises: tag one cruise onto another to see more especially in Asia.

FOOD Culinary standards on board continue to exceed expectations. While cruises are know for their food, some clients can be very fussy eaters with unusual dietary requirements, cruising can remove all the hassle of finding somewhere to dine every day, while still offering great food.

Healthy food options are becoming more and more apart of the cruise lines fare. There are speciality restaurants on the bigger ships and some cruise lines are seeking Michelin stars for the chefs..

ONBOARD accommodation is all mod cons with lots of options up to the suites with hot tubs, pianos etc CHILDREN

Point out how child friendly many cruiselines are with kids clubs, facilities, babysitting, menus, dedicated pool areas, and Dreamworks characters. Some cruise lines offer allow 18 year olds cruise for free.

FEARS about sea

sickness can be assuaged by telling them modern ships are well stabilised

TIPPING most cruise companies now allow you to pre book gratuities or include them in prices. Be sure to tell clients about these so no surprises at end of week if they haven’t pre paid.

DUTY FREE

Point out the duty free shopping available onboard many ships.

SHORE Cruises try to allow passengers as much time ashore as possible, sailing at night and waking up in a new port. Many cruise lines are offering more overnights in destinations which is a great way to see many beautiful cities at night with the cruise ship acting as your hotel.

Warn that the cruise company’s own shore excursions can be expensive (although many cruise lines are offering these as commissionable extras) and that they can explore on their own.

SUGGEST un-

usual destinations. The big cruise lines are going to Asia, Africa and Australia. Try Hurtigruten for Antarctica and Star Cruises for Asia.

SWITCH SELL: Agents don’t get many clients walking through the door with a cruise brochure so they have to try to switch-sell.

15703 DUB Trade ad.indd 1

3/6/17 9:06 AM

APRIL 2017 PAGE 6

HOTELS

www.travelextra.ie

IHF Research showed Irish hotel occupancy rates are the highest in 11 years and hotel insurance now costs €730 a room. The Federation launched an initiative on food waste. They also researched reaction to Brexit/Breat-imeacht showing 95pc of hoteliers and guest house owners were concerned about the impact of Brexit on their business.

Louise Radisso of its th the refu Bar, wh Gleann 104 bed year.

The 14 and rest Hilton r 2016.

GERALD LAWLESS, the architect of the Jumeirah hotel group, gave a hilarious reminiscence on his life in hotels, and a plea for e-visas and more efficient borders rather than blanket bans, at IHF. DRENNAN McBRIDE of Argyle Business Centre is planning to revamp a former church into a 50-bedroom, four-star Titanic-themed hotel at Shankill Road, Belfast.

Work has commenced at a proposed boutique hotel at the old Harland & Wolff offices in the Titanic Quarter.

NAAS The four-star Osprey Hotel and Spa in the Co Kildare town has applied for planning permission for the construction of an additional 24 bedrooms over three storeys to the side of the hotel.

DERRY A planning application for a

£14m 144-bedroom hotel in Ebrington, Derry, is to be submitted in spring.

CROKE PARK The third biggest of England’s online travel agencies, Travel Republic, owned by Emirates and headed up by Ian Simmonds, awarded Alan Smullen’s Croke Park hotel the title of best Irish hotel.

STR Global reported occupancy in Eur-

ope is up 5.1pc in January to 57.1pc, ADR up 2.4pc to €99.25 and RevPAR up 7.6pc to €56.66. France bounced back from a weak January 2016 marred by security concerns with occupancy up 9.2pc to 55.8pc and RevPAR in Paris up 29.7pc, Charles de Gaulle Airport up 11.7pc, Lyon up 44.6pc and Toulouse up 12.1pc.

BALLINACURRA

House won the wedding venue of the year award at the Weddingsonline Irish weddings awards for 2017. Garryvoe in Ballycotton, Lough Eske in Donegal, Radisson Blu in Sligo and Rathsallagh in Co Wicklow won provincial awards.

Other winners included Barberstown as best Castle venue, Ballinacurra House for Exclusive venue, Red Door for restaurant venue and Landmark in Carrick on Shannon for waterside venue. Ballymagarvey Village, Four Seasons in Carlingford and Monaghan, the Brehon in Killarney, and Armada Hotel in Spanish Point were commended. Picture shows Jonathan Bryans of Weddingsonline.ie with the Rathsallagh group Catherine Kehoe, Abhi Tiwari, Sarah O’Flynn, Joe O’Flynn and Aoibhin Garrihy. Dunmore House Hotel in Clonakilty Bay was named Irish National Wedding Venue of the Year at the rival Creative Oceanic Irish wedding awards.

Bryan Dobson, John Bruton, Deirdre Clune, Niall Gibbons, Joe Dolan and Howard Hastings

The big Brexit talks

Oh me, oh my, Joe Dolan and co discuss challenges

P

lanning a debate about tourism and Brexit at a time there are many questions and NO answers might seem pointless.

Tim Fenn and Joe Dolan of the Irish Hotels Federation did a service at their annual conference at Lyrath in Kilkenny where they brought John Bruton, Deirdre Clune, Niall Gibbons, Joe Dolan himself and Howard Hastings to the platform for a lively 48-minute discussion.

Takeaways from the talk included Howard Hastings’s assertion that

those most dependent on the English market.

Howard Hastings, who operates in APD and 20pc VAT land, must have been bemused by aspects of the debate.

He compared the inflow of English tourists to a beer ad: they reach the parts that others do not.

In the hum of conversation in the corridors there was mention of Brexitunities and Trumpitunities. Despite the tribulations, creative minds are at work in Irish tourism.

5,000 BEDROOMS ON THEIR WAY

T

om Barrett of Savills Ireland predicted hotel capacity would grow by just 180 bedrooms in 2017.

2017 The 2017 list incudes 73 bedrooms to the North Star Hotel on Amiens Street in Dublin.

2018

This will be

followed by 1,500 new bedrooms in 2018, helped by two new Dalata hotels, a Clayton on Charlemont Street in Dublin 2 (178 bedrooms) and a Maldron on Kevin Street Upper in Dublin 8.

The 202-bedroom Aloft Hotel in Dublin’s Liberties and Oakmount’s 41 bed-

room hotel in Ranelagh wil also open.

2019 There wil be 2,000 new bedrooms during the year - most notably the 402-bedroom Terminal 2-linked hotel at Dublin Airport, extensions to a number of existing hotels at the airport and an

“interesting trend” of ten aparthotel developments ranging in size from 50 to 250 bedrooms.

Savill’s say Ireland’s ‘unique’ market sees hotel sales top €850m in 2015.

One third of Irish hotels have changed hands since 2011 for a combined sales value of €2.4bn.

DALATA EYES UP 4 IN ENGLAND

R

evenues soared by 28.8pc at Dalata three-star 350-bedroom Connacht Hotel in Galwho reported they way City saw pre-tax profits increase eight-fold were closing in on four to €1.458m. more hotels in England.

CONNACHT HOTEL The

the approach to tourism was not sufficiently all island prior to Brexit, Niall Gibbons pointed out that Irish ferries new €150m ferry ship would take six hours to turnover instead of two if each of 600 on board vehicles were delayed by just one minute at customs, John Bruton made the point that goods rather than people would bear the brunt of border delays, in a postBrexit Ireland Joe Dolan’s point was that the weakest regions of the country were

Dalata has 1,200 new rooms in the pipeline.

Four hotels are under construction in Dublin, Belfast and Newcastle and

a fifth is in the planning stage in Cork with extensions planned in four Irish hotels.

Pre-tax profits grew by

55pc to €44.1m. The hotels giant described the Dublin hotel market as performing “very strongly in 2016”.0

CELEBRATING CANADA’S TH 150 BIRTHDAY WITH AIR TRANSAT

With the birthday celebrations well underway, there’s never been a more exciting time to visit Canada. Across the country every province and town is enjoying festivals and events to celebrate just what makes it such a special place to live and visit. On July 1st, the country will come together for a truly iconic Canada Day. For a special occasion, you need a special way of getting there. There’s no better choice than Canada’s leading leisure airline, Air Transat. And it’s not just Canada with a big birthday this year. Air Transat is celebrating 30 years of flying. So it really is the time to embrace Canada!

Between April & October, Air Transat flies direct from Dublin to: Toronto (Tue/ Sat/Sun) Montreal (Thurs) With connecting services operating between May & October to: Vancouver Calgary Quebec City Montreal (in addition to the direct service)

airtransat.ie

On board There are three levels of service to choose from.

Economy, Economy with Option Plus and Club Class.

To fly in style, the exclusive Club Class cabin gets any holiday off to a relaxing, stylish start with a welcoming cocktail, a spacious cabin with only 12 leather seats and attentive service from dedicated crew. Of course, a seat in Club Class comes with extra perks such as priority check in, boarding & baggage service, luxury amenity kit and a baggage allowance of 64kg. Plus the gourmet meals and wine selection make the journey even sweeter!

For a special something between Economy and Club Class then the Option Plus service adds a little extra sparkle to the Economy experience. Your clients can start their holiday at the airport checking in at the priority desk, dropping off two bags of up to 46kg (23kg per bag) – extra space for those Canadian treats! It also includes priority boarding, seat selection and additional perks of a comfort kit and extra snacks. Not forgetting a glass of fizz after takeoff!

Economy Travelling in Economy is a great experience too with baggage and meals included with every fare.

From the moment your client steps on board the newly refurbished aircraft, they’re welcomed by

00 800 87 26 72 83

the friendly crew before settling down to enjoy entertainment and a delicious meal. During the flight a selection of hot and cold bistro meals are served with a glass of wine or beer.

The hardest decision is deciding which wonderful destination in Canada to explore first. Don’t worry though, our competitive pricing means it doesn’t have to be a one off visit for your customers.

AVAILABLE TO BOOK VIA THE GDS

APRIL 2017 PAGE 8

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION

POSTCARDS FROM THE TRAVEL SCENE

I

nsight Vacations has released its Seasons 2017-18 Europe & The Eastern Mediterranean Collection of Premium Escorted Journeys bringing together the magic of Autumn, Winter and Spring travel across the region for departures from October through to March.

Sharon Jordan of The Travel Corporatoin said “a resurgence in earlier planning by our guests, travel agent

T

opflight Copper Face Jack’s ski trip took place on==on is March 5th to Arinsal, Andorra where guests will include Pa ddy Casey and DJ Mark McCabe.

All-inclusive prices start from only €959 per person sharing. highlights of the week included n Father Ted takes to the slopes n Live bands and mountain parties n Sledding

T

ravel Counsellors Irish headquarters team did not have far to go to host the group’s 2017 Irish conference. Fota resort hosted the group for the second time and it was a suitably lively affair.

The 60 Irish travel counsellors and a few recruits and potential recruits were joined by nine airliines, three DMC’s, six cruise lines, five tourist boards, four hotel reps, six tour operators, two bed-

feedback to release our itineraries sooner and a booming Europe travel market are all factors in launching our programme early this year,” Uniworld is offering up to €750 off select European cruises and up to €1,000 off select wonderful Asia itineraries Pictue shows Brian Hynes, Miriam O”Callaghan, Sharon Jordan, Paul Melinis and Pat Dawson at the Irish Travel Industry Awards

n The Ireland -v- Wales rugby match It follo3s the success of the Today FM ski ttip which draws nearly 600 holiday makers in Febraury to a ski resort, boosting Irish imterest im the resort as a consequence.

The Copper Faced Jack’s ski expedition is following the same pattern.

Picture shows the Copper Faced Jacks’ team on tour.

banks, and six other parties, Among the headquarters staff who joined them for the conference was the new sales manager, Jim Eastwood, from the famous Tyrone family, a former Tyrone under-21 GAA star who is looking forward to his new role.

Picture shows the Travel Counsellors Irish team, Rachel O’Connell, Ciara MacConnell, Cathy Burke, Bernie Whelan and Caitriona Kelleher.

T

he US is set to be one of the strong growth markets in 2017 for Irish holiday makers, organisers of the Holiday Show at the UL Sport Arena stated.

The second annual Holiday Show, sponsored by Shannon Airport, drew over 10,000 people yesterday and today in search of tips and holiday bargains in what was the biggest event of its kind held outside of Dublin.

W

hen Alan Sparling, GSA for SAS in Ireland, stepped down as local chair of Star Alliance, Dublin’s status as a separate Star Alliance entity came to an end.

London chair Bob Schumacher of United will assume the role from now on. Keynote sponsors of the event was Shannon Airport.

Star commenced with seven airlines in 1997 and now was 28 members. Bob

P

icture shows Grainne Kelleher of Airfield House feeding the estate’s new born calf with the trophy which they won at the Tourism Ireland awards last weekend.

Airfield Estate, winner of Best Food & Beverage Experience at the awards.

There were 14 awards in all, and no one got more emotional among the 550 people in the Clayton banquet room all night than Nora Heraty, as the Best Lei-

A sign of the interest were the queues that formed Sunday morning before the venue opened, with holiday hunters keen to snap up bargains on offer at the event.

Declan Power said The likes of Berlin and Warsaw are proving very popular for us as they are strong cultural destinations. We also have a new Stockholm service this year and there was a lot of interest in that.“

Schumacher told agents that reports of the demise of the airline alliances were premature. Alan Sparling said Star’s aviation partners have expanded capacity out of Ireland every year.Picture shows airline managers at the event Bob Schumacher of United, Bláithín O’Donnell of Air Canada, Helen Fyfe of Lufthansa, Pat Reede of United, Hasan Mutlu of Turkish Airlines and Alan Sparling of SAS

sure Tourism Innovation award went to Westport House. She worked in the house for 45 years, and with Eileen Fahy they have nearly 90 years experience between them.

Dublin Airport received the award for Best International Access Initiative.

Candidates were chosen from an extremely long shortlist by an active judging panel that included Lonely Planet’s Nóirín Hegarty.

APRIL 2017 PAGE 9

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION

POSTCARDS FROM THE TRAVEL SCENE

P

icture shows Stephen Sands at the launch of SS Emily Bronte, one of two river cruise ships launched

by Riviera last month.

Riviera Travel hosted Dominic Burke, Carolanne/ O’Neill, Sarah Appleton of Trailfinders and Mark Davidson of Oasis Travel.at the event.

Both the Thomas Hardy and the Emily Brontë can accommodate up to 169 passengers with 44 onboard staff.

Ben Hitchcock, marketing director at Riviera Travel, said: “This is the first time we have officially christened our river cruise ships and given them their all-important godmothers, who were both travel agents.

They wanted the launch to be done by someone who works in the travel industry, rather than a celebrity.” The Emily Bronte will begin sailing the Rhine and Moselle rivers thsi spring.

Joan O’Shaughnessy, Chairman of Tourism Ireland; Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross; Minister of State for the Diaspora and International Development, Joe McHugh; and Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, at the launch of Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative 2017.

Tourism Ireland’s biggest ever Global Greening for St Patrick’s Day

O

H

ilary Alexander of Greers Travel, Ballymena, won Topflight’s Valentine’s Giveaway.

Topflight’s next travel agent promotion offers places on a fam trip to Italy, destination unknown, on April 6th - 9th.

To enter, book an Italian holiday with Topflight. There is no need to send in booking references.

C

liffs of Moher was selected as best visitor attraction at the annual CIE tours awards, hosted for the first time by new CEO Elizabeth Crabill at Dublin Castle.

Picture shows Katherine Webster of Cliffs of Moher and Ger Dollard, Service Manager, Clare Co. Council, pictured with Vivienne Jupp, Chair of CIE Tours and Elizabeth Crabill.

Atlantic sheepdogs in Grange, Co

To kick off the promotion, Topflight are giving double entries into the draw for week one for any Lake Garda or Venetian Riviera booking from Dublin, Cork or Belfast.

Picture shows Hilary receiving her presentation from Jill Russell of Topflight after winning the Topflight Valentine’s Giveaway agent promotion.

Sligo won the best tour feature. Shelbourne Hotel, Radisson Blu Golden Lane and Benners Hotel, Dingle won the national hotel awards, Sliabh Liag Cliffs won the National Heritage Award. Ronan McNamara of Derry won the tour guide,. Accommmodation, service and dining awards went to Kilronan Castle, Granville Hotel, Killeen House Hotel, and The Merry Ploughboy in Rockbrook.

ne World Trade Center – the main building of the re-built World Trade Center complex in New York and the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere – joined Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative for the first time this year.

Tourism Ireland’s unique campaign is now in its eighth year. With numerous landmark buildings and iconic sites around the world lighting up green to mark our national day, the campaign kicks off Tourism Ireland’s first half promotional drive to grow overseas tourism in 2017.

O

ther new landmarks which took part in Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening for 2017 included Heron Tower in Lon-

don, the Font Mágica de Montjuïc in Barcelona, City Hall in Antwerp (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), Matsue Castle in Japan, Gwangandaegyo (Diamond Bridge) in South Korea and even a rhino statue in Nairobi National Park, as well as an Ethiopian Airlines airplane in Addis Ababa.

The new sites joined some ‘old favourites’ which have gone green in previous years – including the London Eye, Nelson’s Column in London, the Colosseum in Rome, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Burj al Arab in Dubai, the Roue de Paris, the ‘Welcome’ sign in Las Vegas, Niagara Falls and the Great Wall of China.

Matsue Castle in Japan joined Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening for the first time in 2017.

110960 ITITS - April 17.qxp_110960 ITITS - April 17 3/8/17 11:31 AM Page 1

Presented by

Venue

RDS Hall 3, Ballsbridge

Anglesea Road | Dublin D04 AK83

Date and time

Wednesday March 22 2.00pm – 7.00pm

nd

Visit

To pre-register for fast track entry and to find out more about the event log on to: www.irishtravelindustrytradeshow.com

Sponsors:

List of exhibitors waiting to welcome you include: A2B Transfers

Cirque du Soleil

Hotel Botanico & The Oriental Spa Garden

Seabourn

Aegean Airlines

CLIA UK & Ireland

Innstant Travel

Shannon Airport

Accident & General Aer Lingus

Affordable Car Hire

AIB Merchant Services

AIM Group International - Lisbon Office Air Canada/Air Canada Rouge

Air France / KLM / Delta Airlines Air Transat

Airline Business APG Ireland AirportGatway

Amadeus Marketing Ireland American Airlines

Andalucia Tourist Board Aqua Suites

ASL Airlines France/Nova Scotia Atlantis The Palm Dubai

ATTS Travel Representation Solutions Avalon Waterways Aveiro Emotions

Azamara Club Cruises

Barcelona Is Much More Bedsonline SLU Betabeds

Blue Insurance/Multitrip.com BOM Sucesso Resort BookaBed

Cambrils Tourism Board Canary Islands

Carnival Cruise Lines

Catalan Tourist Board Celebrity Cruises

Centro de Portugal

Class Travel - DMC Cork Airport

Costa Calida - Region De Murcia Costa Daurada Tourism Board Costa Sal Villas and Suites

CroisiEurope River Cruises Cruisescapes

Dawson Travel.ie DB / Railshop

DoSomethingDifferent.com Dublin Airport Easirent

Emirates

Etihad Airways Expedia TAAP

Fatima Hotels Group Ferrari Land Park Finnair

Flexible Autos

Four Views Hotels - Madeira Fred.Olsen Cruise Lines

Fuerteventura Tourism Board G Adventures Getabed.eu

Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau Hahn Air Lines GmbH Happy Tours

Hard Rock Hotel Tenerife Headon Representation Hertz Rent A Car Holiday Taxis

Holland America Cruise Line

Independent News & Media Insight Vacations

Ireland West Airport Knock Irish Ferries

Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) ISME.ie

Japan Airlines

Kerzner International Marketing UK Ltd Lanzarote Tourist Board

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Liberty International Worldwide DMC

SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment Siam Park

Silversea Cruises

Spanish Tourism Board Stena Line

Sunway Holidays SuperBreak

Tenerife Tourism Corporation

The Lake Spa Resort - Vilamoura The Literary Man / Rio Do Prado

Tourism Board of the Tarragona Provincial Council

Limelight Communications

Tourism South East

Madeira Promotion Bureau

Travel & General Insurance Services

Loro Parque Madrid

Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort Melia Hotels/Portugal MSC Cruises

MTS Globe Portugal Oceania Cruises One&Only

Palladium Hotel Group Paradores

PortAventura World

Porto and Northern Portugal Tourist Board Princess Cruises Qatar Airways

Riu Hotels & Resorts Riviera Travel

Royal Caribbean International Salou Tourism Board

TQ Travel Quality DMC Travel Focus Travelport

Turismo De Galicia Turkish Airlines

Turkish Culture and Tourism Office Unique Japan Tours

Universal Studios Hollywood

Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Viajes Euroamerica

Vila-seca-La Pineda Tourism Board Virgin Atlantic Airways Visit Portugal Visit USA

Wallace Travel Group Welltel

Wendy Wu Tours Windsor Travel

Yellowfish Transfers

110960 TE_PORTUGAL FP_April2017.qxp_110960 TE_PORTUGAL FP_April2017 2/28/17 3:26 PM Page 1

VisitPortugal invites you Travel Agents and Tour Operators to join the

16 Portuguese suppliers

at the Irish Travel Industry Trade Show in the RDS Dublin, Hall 3

Wednesday, 22nd March 2017 from 2pm - 7pm Antonio Soveral Padeira

Celina Tavares

Director UK & Ireland

Product Manager Ireland

Pre BBQ Drinks at our stand (rows C and D) from 6.15pm to 7pm EXHIBITOR

STAND

Madeira Promotion Bureau

C2

Centro de Portugal

Porto and Northern Portugal Tourism Board Melia Hotels | Portugal Windsor Travel Group

Four Views Hotels - Madeira

AIM Group International - Lisbon Office Fรกtima Hotels Group MTS Globe Portugal

Bom Sucesso Resort Aveiro Emotions

The Literary Man / Rio do Prado TQ - Travel Quality DMC Class Travel - DMC

The Lake Spa Resort - Vilamoura Yellowfish Transfers

WEBSITE

C1

www.visitcentro.com

C3

www.visitportoandnorth.travel

C5

www.windsormadeira.com

C7

www.aimgroupinternational.com

D1

www.mtsglobe.com

C4 C6 C8 D2 D3

www.visitmadeira.pt

www.hotihoteis.com

www.fourviewshotels.com www.fatima-hotels.com www.bomsucesso.net

www.aveiroemotions.com

D4

www.literaryman.pt โ ข www.riodoprado.pt

D6

www.classtravel.pt

D5 D7 D8

www.tqviagens.com

www.blueandgreen.com

www.yellowfishtransfers.com

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION

APRIL 2017 PAGE 12

CRUISE 2017-8

What your clients should know

Ship off the old block

T

en new vessels are poised to be delivered this year, according to BRL Consultants.

The orders include groundbreaking prototypes such as MSC’s eagerly awaited MSC Seaside and MSC Meraviglia, to Silversea Cruises’ new ultra-luxury flagship Silver Muse.

Star Cruises’ World Dream is the second ship being built under Genting Hong Kong’s premium cruise line brand, while AIDAmia is to join sister

2017

AIDAprima in being the first cruise ships to run on LNG dual-fuel.

Viking Sky and Viking Sun are Viking Ocean Cruises’ third and fourth ocean-going vessels. Majestic Princess will join sisters Regal Princess and Royal Princess..

All cruise ships come froIf you think you have seen most of them before, you have. m the same template, more or less decided by the previous generation of Americans for Americans, but now some afterthought is

n AIDAperla 3,250pax September n American Line 174pax n Lindbald National Geogr Quest 1000 pax June n MSC Meraviglia 4,500 pax May n MSC Seaside 5,300 pax November n Norwegian Joy 4,200 pax May n Majestic Princess 3,560 pax summer n Silverseas Silver Muse 596 pax April n Star Clippers Flying Clipper 300pax Nov n Star World Dream 4,200pax n TUI Mein Schiff six 2500 pax n Ventus Australis 210pax n Viking Sky 944pax n Viking Sun 944pax October

2018

being shown to the rest of the world.

The essentials are: n a big crimson-upholstered theatre at the front over two floors, n a big crimson-upholstered dining room at the back over two floors, n a long casino in between on one level (Disney is the only cruise ship not to have a casino) n a shopping precinct between them on another level, usually the deck above the casino.

The deck, where ship

meets fresh air after 11 storeys in midsized ships and 16 decks in some of the bigger beasts, will have: n a spa and an indoor pool at the front, n an open air pool and poolside bars in midship deck with an upper deck area for beach beds, n a big informal buffet restaurant at the back.

Once you have been on one, you will know your way around them all.

On top of that is an activity area (perhaps a rock climbing wall, a

pitch and putt, and a soccer court) on the roof/ deck.

The decks in between shopping/casino and the pools have corridors of cabins that go on for ever. Big ships offer fewer inside cabins and more balconies. The premium brands now offer balconies with 90pc of their cabins.

Cabins, no matter what the view, tend to be small and confined.

There is no escaping this fact although most lines now call them state-

rooms for image reasons.

They are standard design as well, but Norwegian Epic had a neat departure when they built their cabins/ staterooms with a curve, in the form of a wave.

Each ship has a well kept secret cabin or two, one on a turn that can be bought for the same price as the one next door but it offers a little extra space.

Knowing these secrets is the key to success as a travel agent. .

CRUISE LINE UPCOMING BUILDS n Lindbald National Geographic100pax 2020 n MSC Seaview 5,300 pax May

n Unamed AIDA 6,600 pax n Blue Star Titanic II, 2,345 pax n Carnival Horizon, 3,954 pax March n Celebrity Edge 2,900pax September n Crystal Endeavor yacht n Holland America Nieuw Statendam 2,660pax Mar n Hurtigruten Roald Amundsen 600 pax June

n Norwegian Bliss 4,260 pax summer n Ponant Le Lapérouse 180pax n Ponant Le Champlain 180pax n Unnamed Royal Caribbean Oasis class 5,400pax Apr n Seabourn Ovation 604 pax spring n TUI Mein Schiff 7 2500 pax n Viking Spirit 944pax

2019

n Unnamed Aida 6,600 pax n Unnamed Costa 4,200 pax n Unnamed Crystal Exclusive class ship 1,000 n Hurtigruten Fridtjof Nansen 600 pax June n MSC Bellasima 4,500 pax n Unnamed Norwegian, 4,260 pax summer n Ponant Le Bougainville 180pax n Ponant Le Kerguelen 180pax n Unnamed Princess Royal class vessel 3,560pax n Unnamed Royal Caribbean Quantum class 4,100pax spring n Unnamed Saga 540 pax n TUI Mein Schiff 8 2500 pax

n Celebrity Beyond 2,900pax March n Unnamed Carnival 6,600 pax n Unnamed Costa, 4,200 pax n Unnamed China Xiamen, 2,000 pax n Unnamed MSC 4,888 pax, September n Unnamed Princess Royal class vessel 3,560pax n Unnamed Royal Caribbean Quantum class 4,100 pax autumn n Unnamed Virgin Xiamen, 2,800 pax n Unnamed Viking 944pax

2021

n Unnamed Aida 6,600 pax n Unnamed Disney, 2,500 pax n Celebrity Project Edge 3 2,900pax Oct n Unnamed Royal Caribbean Oasis class 5,400pax, spring

2022

n Unnamed Carnival 6,600 pax n Celebrity Project Edge 4 2,900pax Oct

2023

n Unnamed Disney, 2,500 pax

THE NEW SOUND OF ADVENTURE Symphony of the Seas℠ the latest addition to the Royal Caribbean fleet has just been announced, and will begin sailing in 2018 in Europe and the Caribbean. Symphony of the Seas℠ will be a sister ship to the hugely popular Harmony, Allure and Oasis of the Seas®, and will boast extraordinary features that continue to push the boundaries of cruise holidays.

Your customers can be the first to book with:

30% OFF SELECTED SAILINGS

PLUS UP TO $400 TO SPEND ONBOARD

AMAZING OFFERS ALSO ON 2017 SAILINGS Don’t forget, your customers can also snap up this amazing deal on 2017 sailings when they BOOK BEFORE 1 MAY, so they don’t have to wait long to enjoy an extraordinary holiday!

BOOK BY 1 MAY 2017

VISIT CRUISINGPOWER.IE Full terms and conditions apply

APRIL 2017 PAGE 14

CRUISE 2017-8

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION

What your clients should know

Year of Eclipse

Celebrity will be the first major cruise line to home port in Dublin in 2018

W

Celebrity Eclipse will serve five rotations from Dublin

hen Celebrity Cruises became the first major cruise line to confirm Dublin as a home port during early summer 2018, we did not expect the reaction.

Dublin’s first homeported big ship will be Celebrity Eclipse, operating five rotations from April to June 2018 including a 10-night Ireland and Iceland sailing calling at Belfast, Reykjavik, Iceland; Akureyri, Iceland; Lerwick/ Shetland, Scotland; and Cork, as well as offering an eight-night Norwegian Fjords itinerary.

The 2,800+ guest Solstice-class Eclipse will offer itineraries throughout northern Europe from Dublin enabling 14,000 people to start their cruise holiday from Dublin on a Celebrity ship in 2018.

Eclipse, after eight years of home-porting in Southampton, will split its time between Dublin and Amsterdam.

Celebrity Silhouette will replace Eclipse out of Southampton from summer 2018. Celeb-

rity Cruises will have five ships in Europe for 2017-2018 – Reflection, Equinox, Constellation, Eclipse and Silhouette. It already features Dublin and other ports throughout Ireland in its European deployment, including an overnight in July 2017. This is the most significant increase in its investment into Ireland in the history of the global business.

Dublin Port hosted 180,000 cruise visitors from 100 ship calls in 2016, of which four were

cruise turnarounds where the ship begins its sailing and guests embark.

The port uses a €6m economic impact figure based on Southampton Cruise Tourism report 2004 which states that each passenger that joins a cruise ship via the Port of Southampton generates £380 to the local economy. A £380 spend per head of 2,800+ guests for five turnarounds equates to £5,320,000 or €5,852,000 based on exchange rate of £1 to €1.1 Celebrity Cruises has

a fleet of 12 ships with two new ships on order, scheduled to join the fleet in 2018 and 2020, and a further two ships on option. The cruise line is part of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, the second large cruise business in the world.

Celebrity Cruises’ Solstice-class of ships are the newest in its fleet, all introduced between 2008 and 2012. In addition to luxury guest accommodation, designer boutiques, extensive bars and restaurants, they also

feature a real grass lawn on the top deck. With extensive awards, particularly for its food and wine, Celebrity Cruises boasts the largest and rarest collection of wine at sea and a host of exclusive restaurants on-board all overseen by a Michelin-starred executive chef.

Jo Rzymowska, Celebrity’s Managing Director for Ireland and Britain, said: “Celebrity Cruises has enjoyed significant support from our travel agent partners and guests throughout Ireland for

Prices have plummeted for canny cruisers

T

he average price paid for a cruise is now over a fifth less than it was five years ago. Comparison engine MarketWatch says the cheapest prices available today are down 43pc from 2009.

It says the cheapest cruises on Carnival start at $35 a night, but Royal Caribbean is not far behind, at $39pp.

Bargain hunters can sail for as low 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 on 2008. It said cruise lines are compensating by generating more from onboard spend, such as spa treatments and speciality dining.

It also said customers are becoming more wary and the report suggests operators cannot get away with pushing up onboard costs any further.

The average respondent paid $1,900pp five years ago, while the average respondent planning to cruise now will pay 22pc less, $1,500.

In a survey, 38pc of respondents said that, despite the lower costs and potential onboard cuts, they had noticed improvements in services on cruises in the past five years.

Of these, 46pc said they are now a lot more wary of added costs onboard, as well as the perceived value of amenities, than they were five years ago.

many years. Now we are saying thank you by basing one of the flagships of our fleet in Dublin for a mini season during early summer 2018.

We know that our guests from around the world, and in Ireland, will love the warm welcome they receive when starting a holiday in Dublin.

Calling Dublin home in 2018 is a major development to our European deployment.

We couldn’t be more excited. Thank you to Dublin Port for their support.”

Pat Ward of Dublin Port said: “It has been a clear ambition of Dublin Port to attract a cruise line to offer our great city as a homeport. Today, that ambition is realised and Celebrity Cruises will be an important stepchange in our history.

The opportunities that this new investment will bring are extensive. We look forward to maximising this new platform for growth and welcoming yet more cruise ships and holidaymakers to Dublin for the first time.”

M

CRUISE 2017-8

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION

APRIL 2017 PAGE 15

What your clients should know

ore tech-savvy, bgger, better, more bells and whistles. Cruise companies have been investing in upgrades faster than their best-funded land-based colleagues.

It means that the ships people will sail in this winter are newer, have better dining options and more gadgets than their predecessors.

Irish people are more aware of cruising as a holiday option with friends, friends of friends, aunties, uncles, neighbours telling us which ship they were on in previous years.

The new itineraries include destinations (with Purely functional until now, the new genration of cruise ships feature heavy artworks on their deck space our traveller mindset) that would be difficult to and the technology gets The European sea- into October and Nov- a holiday at sea, or dis- is down to identifying explore on land, like Nor- better (Quantum, An- son has begun to extend ember, started departing missed the idea outright. needs. Tell them cruising wegian Fjords, Baltics, them), the last generation again after shortening earlier. But despite all How do agents tackle is as relaxing as you like South America, Asia and of ships are still on offer sharply during the reces- the investment and noise, this? They should suggest or as active as you want.

Black Sea cities. under a rebranded cruise sion. Cruise ships which there are still plenty of a cruise when a customer The scenery changes and And while the ships line like Pulmantours and once wintered long in the Irish travellers who have asks about a destination.

Tvl Extra Half Pg Cruise 2017 [149x215}.qxp_Layout 1 copy 2 07/03/2017 16:33 Page 1 you only unpack once. get bigger (Oasis, Allure) at better prices.

Mediterranean waters, either never considered Choosing the right cruise The practicals are im-

All aboard 2017-8

WHY book with Sunway Cruise: · Dedicated Specialised Cruise Team in Dublin · Fully Bonded ensuring total security · Exclusive Pricing · Guaranteed agents commission

100% IRISH OWNED • 100% IRISH OPERATED • 100% LICENSED & BONDED

No TO 101

Contact your local Travel Agent | www.sunway.ie | 01 2311868 Licensed and Bonded No: TO 101

APRIL 2017 PAGE 16

CRUISE 2017-8

portant: for example. towels are supplied by the cruise lines. There are fantastic gyms and classes onboard, many cultural and lifestyle lectures and seminars along with fun elements, dance classes — and a dose of karaoke to boot.

Cruises are ideal for single travellers. Some newer ships offer dedicated single cabins and lounge areas so single passengers can mingle.

Cruising never stops moving forward from a navigational, fuel efficiency and environmental perspective.

Choices of accommodation continue to evolve faster than demands of new customers. New builds are offering a lot more varied sized staterooms to cater for the different family and group mixes travelling together.

There is no such thing as steerage any more.

All staterooms are well appointed, well above water, with the mod cons of 4 and 5 star hotels.

Top-end suites, many with a mezzanine level, boast hot tubs and pianos. ruise lines are investing to bring the latest gadgets and gizmos onboard.

There are increasing numbers of speciality restaurants on bigger ships and some cruise lines are seeking Michelin stars for the chefs.

A key feedback, according to cruise companies, is the staff

C

onboard — friendly and professional. You just don’t get the same level of consistency from a land-based holiday.

Cruise agents are seeing an increase in three-generational families travelling for the big birthday, given the ease of travel and something for everyone both onboard and ashore.

Celebrity Cruises have moved away from the Steiner/Elemis product onboard in their Ssa and moved to Canyon Ranch which is more about well-being and lifestyle.

Unlike other spas on land and water, they don’t push products.

The Irish market continued to grow through the recession as the customers looked to all-inclusive combined with good dining options.

Repositioning cruises offer some of the best value as the bigger ships move from the Caribbean to Europe in spring, including, for the first time since her launch, Oasis of the Seas in October 2015 and the next-generation Quantum of the Seas.

This means lots of trans-Atlantic crossings which are also being polished up for agency sales teams. the ships have recently been revitalised under the cruise line’s $300m programme with enhancements such as the aerial-acrobatic entertainment production on

T

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION

What your clients should know

Accommodation on Allure of the Seas Drinks packages have Radiance and Vision been a big success for class ships.

They have received both trade and consumer.

Standard coffee, tea new or signature restaurants, up to 10 per ship, and water are included in including Chef’s Table, the price of your cruise, Chops Grille Steakhouse, The cheapest packages.

Izumi Asian Cruise, Gio- cover beer and the house vanni’s Table and Rita’s wine, and then can be Cantina for an additional topped up. The top end charge, and compliment- ships include drinks in ary restaurants, such as their all- inclusive prices. the Park Café gourmet MSC’s Allegrissimo deli and Boardwalk Dog package costs €26pp per day (5pc commissionHouse.

Shore options west- able to the agent), albound include the caldera lowing unlimited beer, lakes, on Sete Cidades wine, cocktails, spirits, Crater Lakes at Ponta ice cream, tea, coffees, Delgada, The Azores; or etc. Royal Caribbean’s explore Teide in Tener- Classic drinks package is ife, the Canary Islands, €36/USD$40pp per day volcanic ecosystems, with limited wine and Cabo Girao in Madeira. beer options, premium

drinks package (includes spirits) €41/$55pp per day, ultimate drinks package for $65 per day, and the wine and dine package is $99 per day.

Non-alcoholic drinks packages are also on sale. Royal have an Evian water package for $28.45 or juice package for $20.15. A gratuity of 15pc is included in all package prices.

A typical all-round package with Celebrity Cruises is from $39 per day (all soft drinks, smoothies, speciality coffees, wines, beers and of course cocktails – an apple martini is calling).

For most winter cruisers the Caribbean is

where the action is – and it can be cheaper to cruise there than in Europe. Welcome to the strange pricing structures and economies of scale employed by the cruise companies.

C

ruising is the easy way to see the Caribbean in one holiday, visiting 10 islands in two weeks for instance. That is good news for cruisers as it gives them better prices on the ships sailing out of Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Port Canaveral.

Thomson is starting sailings from Jamaica’s Montego Bay in late December. The five itiner-

THAT MOMENT YOU CELEBRATE DRINKS ON US. On our TUI Discovery ships, drinks, dining and tipping are on us.

TUI Discovery is available from Dublin, Cork & Shannon this summer.

Please see thomson.co.uk for full terms and conditions or please refer to the latest edition of the Thomson Cruises brochure. Thomson is a trading name of TUI UK Limited, a member of the TUI AG group of companies, registered in England and Wales under number 2830117 and whose registered office is at TUI Travel House, Crawley Business Quarter, Fleming Way, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 9Q.

CRUISE 2017-8

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION

What your clients should know

aries on Thomson Dream take in Central America as well as Caribbean ports, and one itinerary includes an overnight stop in Havana.

In recent winters Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharm El Sheikh have all been winter cruise options with direct flights from Ireland. But great prices have driven some of these winter cruisers back to the Caribbean.

T

he biggest ships of all, the 5,400-passenger Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, operate on alternating eastern and western Caribbean itineraries.

Oasis and Allure of the Seas, operating from Fort Lauderdale, and Freedom of the Seas, operating from Port Canaveral (an option which is about €300 cheaper, with the added benefit of good Orlando connections and options of staying to do the theme parks en route), are complex, floating resorts, equipped with superb facilities which make them a good choice for active types and families with schoolage children.

Typically they offer a choice of restaurants serving different types of cuisine, several pools, golf practice areas, stateof-the-art fitness centres and spas, video games and outdoor activities.

Evening entertainment is usually unstinting and varied and often includes a Broadway-style show.

The disadvantage is the complicated deck plans it can take a week to find your way around.

The service is inevitably less personal than smaller ships, where the crew quickly get to know each passenger.

Because of their size, the largest ships are unable to sail into river mouths or dock alongside in some ports - which means they have to anchor a short way from the shore. Passengers can then face long queues to get ashore by tender, the

APRIL 2017 PAGE 17

down than those who do want a bed made up are now being asked to pay more for them. Putting 4,000 people on the same ship brings immediate cost savings to the cruise company.

Convincing 4,000 people that they are missing out on something unless they pay for extras is more convincing and easlly accomplished when here are 4,000 on one ship. To see the result of all of this all you need to stand by the exit on disembarkation day. The passengers are almost invariably grumpy.

The close quarters in a small cabin has caused familial strife in many cases but the real stress is financial. A cruise is supposed to save you money because food is included.

But there is value to be had, if the customer keeps a rein on spending on what’s vital, or not.

Hurtigruten Northern Lights cruise from Tromso has direct flgihts from Dublin small boats still required jacent retail, dining and as they disembark. To €20. The shore excursion by some ports. recreation complex, as make up for a cheap sold by the cruise comAlternatives to the well as a shore tour and lead-in fares, lines need pany will cost you four Caribbean include Ex- taxi staging area. Nearby to charge you more – and times more and someplorer of the Seas operat- Puerto Plata and its en- neither the $100 hair cut times even above that. ing out of New York. virons feature historic nor the $200 spa treatOther cruise companRoyal Caribbean has sites (Fort San Felipe), ment is unusual. ies are leaving out things also announced that it’s beaches and waterfalls. hore excursions that used to be part of set to unveil the world’s Having already escan be classically your package. Some of newest and biggest ship, tablished an importoverpriced. At them ask you if you want Symphony of the Seas, ant base in Labadee in Civitaveccia you can get your bed made up. which will make its debut Haiti, Royal Caribbean the train into Rome and Some people don’t, the Med in April 2018. launched its own ready- pay admission the Vati- but what happens in less With 28 more staterooms made cruise village in can for a round total of than the price comes than Harmony of the Falmouth, Jamaica and Seas, it will feature robot an unaffiliated port has In association with bartenders and the Ul- opened at Banana Coast timate Abyss water slide. in Trujillo, Honduras, There has been a revolu- with duty-free jewellery tion on the other side of stores, themed bars, an the gangway as well. artisans market and 10 Private islands are now acres of beachfront. the norm. Each cruise A few years ago it is line has at least a couple quite common for Irish of Caribbean beach stops people to pick Palma or in which they have in- Malaga as their port of vested heavily and not embarkation. They are without controversy, as easier and less expencritics consider it an un- sive to get flights to. The desirable trend to keep problem is cruise comcruise passengers away panies don’t think like from the locals. that. They like all the pasNow the race is on for sengers to get on at one private Caribbean ports. point, and get off at the Custom-built ports have same point, seven or ten become a regular feature or 14 days later.

From of Caribbean cruising. In Being inflexible means €103 July, Carnival announced they can offer cheaper 9 pps a $70m cruise port pro- rates. Cheaper rates ject on Haiti’s northern means more pressure on Turtle Island. passengers to pay for exSince Carnival opened tras.

05 June 17 Fjordland Splendour 9 nights SOLD OUT the $60m pier-and-playThe extra could be the 14 June 17 Iceland’s Land of Ice & Fire 12 nights LAST FEW ground in Grand Turk ten mandatory gratuity or the years ago, the $62m Ma- $25 to eat a restaurant, 26 June 17 Spain, Portugal & France 11 nights LAST FEW hogany Bay in Roatan, or the soft drinks and 07 July 17 Summer Gardens & River Seine 7 nights LAST FEW Honduras, followed in glasses of wine by the 2009 and the $65m Mai- pool bar which are priced 14 July 17 Scottish Highlights & Faroes 7 nights mon Bay, just west of like Temple Bar pints of Puerto Plata on the Do- Guinness a at midnight.

Extensive 2018 Programme to be announced shortly minican Republic’s north it is a truth univerTravel Agents enquiries welcome coast last winter. sally held among the JMG Travel, Gortahork, Co. Donegal These big custom-built sea people that cruise Tel: 074 91 35201 • Email: jmgtravel@eircom.net www.jmgcruise.com ports come with an ad- customers are grumpy

S

NO FLY CRUISING

Holidays from Dublin

Licensed & Bonded

Tour Operators No. 214

APRIL 2017 PAGE 18

DESTINATION PORTUGAL

I

s Alentejo the new Tuscany, as the marketeers claim?

The Tuscany of 40 years ago was an invention. It made its way firstly into the literature of ex-pat restored houses and then into the movies. After that there is no turning back.

Alentejo does not need to be invented. The red tile roofs, like the Tuscany of Hollywood, have existed here forever. The narrow streeted villages, white houses and blue tiled churches are to be found everywhere.

In an industry where authenticity is rare and fake is celebrated, tourism could do worse than go back to the heart of one of the most authentic tourist products in the world.

Is Alentejo too big to be a region at all? It is a collection of personalities and landscapes and culinary products that cannot easily be lumped onto one table.

Each village has its own almond sweet cake.

Each monastery and convent seem to bake something heavenly.

Do they all belong in the same brand at all?

Only several visits can tell. Alentejo deserves to be visited early and often and savoured like a slow lunch washed down with stunning wine.

E

ven the scenery acts and behaves like a menu.

Like all large provinces there is no single defining landscape in Alentejo, but the drive from Evora to Beja certainly sets the toll for one.

Portugal’s middle bit

Eoghan Corry hits Portugal between Lisbon & Algarve

U

Public fountain dating from 1556, Évora UNESCO World Heritage City, Alentejo, Orderly lines of vines, in their winter state as we eyed them, follow the contours of the hills and roll with the landscape.

Beyond the views are ubiquitous cork trees, like mother hens, spreading their wings over the land below.

Occasionally you will see the famous black pigs rooting underneath for acorns.

Delicious pork, delicious wine, and the sound of the cork coming from the bottle.

F

THINGS TO DO

ood and wine is what Alentejo does best. Alentejo

n Almendres Cromlech) Guadalupe Évora UNESCO heritage city n Pão de Rala Bakery, Évora n Monsaraz walled town n São Pedro do Corval pottery village n Herdade do Esporão historic winery n Coastal walks at Cabo Sardão n Porto das Barcas fishing village n Porto Covo nTroia Design Hotel

does not really buy into the jargon of food, it just cooks and bakes and serves the good stuff up with lashings of olive oil and garlic.

The previous generation never thought of putting this on the tourism menu because it was so natural to them.

The kitchens here are so integrated into the culture they are almost nervous of drawing attention to themselves.

The province does not have a single Michelin Star restaurant (the Algarve has six), which says more about the star system than Alentejo.

There are no television

PLACES TO SEE

n Imany Country House - www.

Imany.pt/index.php?lang=en n M’AR De AR, Evora www.mardearhotels.com n Herdade da Malhadinha www.malhadinhanova.pt n Herdade do Touril www.touril.pt/ en/herdade-do-touril.html n Naturate https://naturarte.pt/

celebrity chefs wandering around putting their brands onto Showcase pop culture food outlets.

Instead there are thousands of places serving up fresh produce from their own gardens and not making a song and dance about it. In the iconic O Fialho Restaurant in Evora the menu is functional and plain (fried mushrooms in olive oil and garlic, or grilled black porc with rosemary and mashed apples), each serving a work of art, old school cooking, slow and intimate.

I asked in Evora if there was a McDonald’s.

They said yes but nobody was quite sure where it was, out of town on a distant roundabout, where it should be.

And they opened another bottle of their great wine.

nder the dictatorship Alentejo was to be the bread basket of Portugal.

Oddly enough the production of wine was not on the Salazar agenda.

It took the efforts of a few pioneers to get the industry going. The tasting room in Evora shows what happened next. with the150 native grape types and varieties like Alicante Bouschet that have become associated with the region. Portugal is a country of blends, one of the wines I tasted had 12 in a single label. The more ambitious of the winemakers now vie with the Duoro for the title of Portugal’s finest.

The 270 producers in the commission and another 30 outside produce 2,000 labels and nowadays 44.7pc of wine produced in Portugal is from Alentejo.

The reputation of a

wine is not something for a magazine article. It is to tested and tasted and Alentejo has worked out a sophisticated distribution network in Ireland.

The best wines are from the small producers and Evora wine commission tasting room recognises this.

Each week the commission picks three different wineries and offer tourists and guests a free tasting. To visit vineyards costs a little more, 15-20 for a flight of wine in the Californian tradition of charging for the taste.

The conversation is free, and when you meet authentic producers, not factory cellar door marketing people, talking about a product they love and make themselves, you have something that can not be imitated easily.

All this wine needs to be have something to seal

n Eoghan Corry travelled to Alentejo as a guest of Alentejo Tourism and VisitPortugal www.visitportugal.co n Aer Lingus fly daily to Lisbon year round, For best fares see aerlingus.com

APRIL 2017 PAGE 19

DESTINATION PORTUGAL

it into a bottle. One of the regions most interesting stops was the cork production facility outside of Evora.

The cork harvest from trees that pocker the landscape are gathered here and made into traditional cork which does what traditional cork has been doing since Roman times, and seals in the flavours of wine.

In the shop they sell u27 cork hats and dozens of other cork products.

In the era of exit through the gift shop this is one gift shop will actually qualifies as an attraction in itself.

A

lentejo was saved by poverty. During the 1960s there was no money to invest and rebuild in gaudy cement.

During the revolutionary 1970s after the estates were taken the confidence of the estate owners was so shaken that they, too, were slow to invest.

Hence it is a surprise when you come across any big hotels such as the Troia Design Hotel on the southern shore of Setubal estuary, or the rambling tied-vine of Herdade do Esporão, the biggest vineyard in the country.

The rest of the province is a haven for rural boutique hotels, the ones that other countries can only dream about hoping

Roman temple, Évora UNESCO World Heritage City, Alentejo,

to create.

My room numbers from a four day stay were all in the single digits or close: room seven at Imaly country house hotel, unnamed room in Herdade da Malhadinha, three in Herdade do Touril and ten in Naturarte.

When you go to stay in a province or region and come home with that single digit experience, that has to be very special indeed.

Alentejo has seen a revolution of another kind, 40 years after the dictatorship fell.

Great highways connect all of this sprawling and empty province’s towns.

Or, if they are not already connectors you have the stop-go traffic systems such as those around Beja to indicate that they soon will be.

When you turn off the great highways, the old dirt roads are still there, awful as ever, rattling your teeth and the springs of the rental car.

A visit to the Almendres Cromlech) Guadalupe, one of the wonders of ancient megalithic Europe, is a tooth

rattling experience. You can almost hear the ancients in your ears murmuring in agreement that this is as it should be.

When the apparatchiks of world tourism collectively decided as one that food is the new landscape for international tourists, that authenticity and personality are the new currency, Alentejo must smile as it watches countries with no culinary tradition try to steal its kitchen utensils.

C

oolest place to visit is the Capela dos Ossos (church of the bones) in Evora’s San Francisco monastery. built entirely from the bones of about 5,000 people.

There are seven of these churches in the Alentejo region. This is not the biggest but it is the one that most tourists arrive to see.

The point was to allow the faithful to contemplate death as they prayed and an old graveyard was used to supply the raw materials. The warning at the entrance reads: Nós

ossos que aqui estamos pelos vossos esperamos (“we bones that here are, for yours await”).

Some of the skulls are tiny, childlike, peering with empty eyes on those who have come to gape, because gaping the new prayer.

As a contemplation on mortality, it wins bones down.

It is more spiritual than weird or eerie, or maybe that is just what bones and skulls in an ecclesiastical setting have taught us to feel.

Clockwise: San Francisco monastery, Évora, Cork trees and winter vines, Libanio Murteira Reis in Évora, Ercília Zambujo with some offerings from Pão de Rala convent bakery, Eoghan Corry, at the cork production centre near Évora

APRIL 2017 PAGE 20

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION

DESTINATION NAMIBIA

T

wo spare tyres?

The car rental people in Windhoek airport tell me this is necessary in Namibia when I pick up my white four by four rental vehicle.

First impressions are good. The Germans still run much of Namibia, a country ten times the size of Ireland with just 2m people, 95 years after they were driven out.

Namibia is that oddity, an African country that works. The banks, roads and supply systems work.

The main roads are tarred and empty, the gravel roads wide and dusty but negotiable. The third category, salt roads, work too.

The only country that is emptier than Namibia is Mongolia. My road map has big Ps for petrol stations. Pass one of these at your peril, or you won’t make it to the next.

I have driven 500k and seen four cars, through the most amazing gaps in the desert hills, past the most intriguing little towns that appear as big cosmopolitan locations on the map. They include the aptly named Solitaire (population 16), a garage, a lodge and a long queue of cars and four by fours getting punctured tyres repaired. They weren’t joking about the two spare wheels.

There are occasional hitch hikers to shorten the journey. Nobody passes a hitch hiker in a land where traffic is so sparse. Isaacs, the farm worker I picked up en route to Solitaire says that he will get out of the car at an empty roadside and walk the three kilometres to his farm, I say no, I will drive him there, up ramshackle roads, past the watering home to the shed where he lives with two co workers, surrounded by hens and cattle and goats. We bid each other farewell with broad smiles.

The conversations are rich, and the passengers can see game my un-

The big empty

Eoghan Corry in Namibia Nambia from the air

trained eye would miss.

They are happy, get on with it, people, with bigger problems than anyone here could imagine.

AIDS is devastating their homeland, as it is all the countries around. Cornelia, the chef I detour to bring to Khorixas to her gorgeous waiting children, tells me her brother died at the age of 27 leaving a young family behind.

What is to be down?

“All we can do is look up to God,” she says.

N

amibia is more about landscape than wildlife, and 2009 Namibia is a different country from the one that visitors have been to anytime over the past 40 years.

The unusually heavy rains in February have turned the desert green.

This creates problems for those hoping to spot animals, as they have all scattered into the desert.

They don’t need to come back to the floodlit watering holes at the large safari camps.

Long grass makes them difficult to find, and

although Etosha National Park, the best known, has 240 lions and 100 cheetah here, their area is vast and the bush blooming.

Even if your only sightings are the ubiquitous kudu, oryx, springbok, zebra, buffalo and higharse ostrich, Etosha Pan, vast and extending as far as the eye can see, is an amazing sight, filling with sloppy water and the life forms that thrive in an ephemeral lake.

The sightings book in the reception area makes grim reading with sightings few and irregular.

Five lions spotted near Gemsbokviakte. A cheetah on the main road to the camp in Okaukejo (translation: “the woman who gave birth many times”), spotted around the same time I drove by.

No wonder they don’t encourage unscheduled toilet stops.

Everybody wants to see big cats but Namibia’s best animal is smaller and more easily sighted, the meerkat, frolicking in pairs at the roadside.

Doing a game drive by yourself means time to think and eyeball the

zebras, and see the small wonders of the African bush, the dik dik marking his territory, the ambling ostriches, the dangling giraffes, the gekos and the small black piece of roadside elephant dung that, when you examine it, raises its head, ready to strike, to tell you it is an adder.

T

he Africat reserve at Okonjima on the road back to Windhoek is last chance safari. Africat rescue injured animals and release those that can hunt back into the wild, the rest they show off to tourists. In the morning visitors are woken by the roar of the lions. Here the leopard are radio tagged and can be tracked, the cheetah are habituated orphans, waiting for visitors.

When the big tabbies lie across the path of the game drive vehicle in the morning sun I hear the most amazing sound, a cheetah purr.

This isn’t safari at all.

This is Fota-in-the-sun, but hey, if people want to see cats, at least they are in their natural environ-

ment and doing their hunting thing. It is an alternative to thousands of tourists trampling round a fragile environment, which goes on all over Africa and which, someday will be brought to a halt.

A

t Desert Homestead my accommodation is an African hut with whitewashed walls, only with a fan to keep it cool, an ensuite and those giant mosquito nets that fall down around your bed.

The lodge, one of the true treasures on the entire African circuit, has twenty of these rooms, with 29 staff, 25 horses and 14 chickens at the stables, “great for keeping the ticks away from the horses.”

An even more intimate world-class accommodation is Grootberg Lodge is on a plateau looking across the most amazing volcanic mountain range.

It is inaccessible. You have to be transported uphill from a car park on the road below.

The sundowner is a staple of the safari ex-

perience, where tourists are brought to a distant mountain to sip gin and tonics and watch the sun go down. We do the journey by horseback.

My mounts are a giddy 11-year-old grey called Sultan, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the wastrel I backed in the Supreme Novices in 2001 and in Grootberg, a gentle black gelding called Commando. The oryx and springboks are unconcerned by the animals.

They don’t notice humans on their backs.

The journey through the green desert is splendid for both man, gaping at the views, and beast, snatching up the delicious greens along the way. Hardened travel journalist or animal lover.

It was a time to chose. So I let Sultan graze often and then trot to catch up with the colleagues.

The ride back takes place beneath a canopy of stars that makes every visit to Africa special.

In Europe, saturated by light pollution, we see stars. In Africa we see constellations. The zodiac is back in its right-

APRIL 2017 PAGE 21

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION

DESTINATION NAMIBIA

ful place, back from the horoscope pages and in the heavens above.

D

unes are the word, the signature image from Namibia. In the low light of early morning, half the giant dunes are in shadow and half in light, making for the best photographs.

Better again the renowned dunes of Sossusvlei can be climbed before the sun gets too hot. There is a queue at the park entrance where a lady fills out forms, very slowly, by hand and hands out receipts to the tourists.

A warning in my pack tells me not to attempt to drive the final few kilometres to Sossusvlei despite the fact my vehicle is 4x4 so I comply, but shouldn’t have.

The sun is hot now, and my mouth goes dry as I hike into dead hick, a pan full of disheveled dead Camelthorn trees.

The Germans are all half way up Dune 45 by the time I arrive there.

The climb is steep and oxygen-draining, but worth it for the sense of awe when you reach the top.

At the picnic area a jackal shyly hands around for food. The sun is higher in the sky and it is time to drive back through the red dunes again.

Swakopomund is a seaside town like you

Namibian landscape

would find in the gold coasts of South Carolina or Queensland, video stores, ice cream stalls, plush hotels, car dealerships, everything you would find in a first world playground.

The hotel rooms are in a courtyard around the pool, the welcome fruit juice drink a bonus after the huge temperatures of the desert. The stars are opening above the courtyard as I take another plunge to wash the desert sand away.

The drive from Swakopmund to Walvis Bay is the nearest thing to a crowded road I have encountered in Namibia.

Walvis is a thriving port,

The sings mean what they say

with a sense of Teutonic efficiency about its business, which includes oil rigs coming in for overhaul.

Hendies Bay is the most amazing sea resort looking down on thundering Atlantic breakers.

Again there is a German resort feel to the place.

One could live here.

From Walvis, our small craft, the Karina (run by Mola Mola tours) barely goes outside the bay in quest of some dolphins, whales and miscellaneous wildlife carried north by the cold Benguela current which comes up around the Cape, making the coast much cooler than the in-

land deserts of Namibia, and the mornings foggy and otherworldly.

One seal, Casanova, bounces on to the deck in search of fish. He poses for a few pictures, turns tail and is gone. I have never been as close to a fur seal before, though he reminds me of more than one relative. The concentrated fur is bone dry, and he has a weeping affect in his eyes, a way of keeping them clear and pure.

Or else he mourns that all of Africa cannot be like Namibia.

O

ne night I do my own sundowner, a short and spec-

tacular trek to the top of one of the nearest outcrops of the Naukluft Mountains. In the stoney road a black snake pulls suddenly the side, is he a deadly black headed cobra?

We don’t engage in conversation. The desert is flat and indeed green from the hillside. As the sun drops in the sky, I feel totally alone in the big empty, except my hair is still damp from the plunge pool at the Lodge and a few thirsty insects have come by for happy hour, and a large and scarey black spider has sensed the insects and is making his way up my trousers leg.

No matter, the sky is bright red, the mountains are bright red, and the sounds of the birds and the other animals are thrilling the air in the crisp, hot, dry, desert wind. Even the insects sense nightfall, and are gone, leaving the spider confused, like a hulking brute denied admittance to the party and left with nowhere to go.

The sun goes down quickly and the bright orange hills turn into lazy ochre, as the sound of the frogs goes and the crickets take over. If there are more beautiful places on earth, I am going to enjoy finding them.

APRIL 2017 PAGE 22

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION

DESTINATION SPAIN

F

or over 20 years now, the Spanish Tourist Board has been trying to lure tourists away from the “Costas” and into the relatively unexplored inland. With varied success.

In the central plateau of Castille/Leon you’ll find some cities with so much to explore and hardly an English, French or German voice to be heard in the streets that are refreshingly devoid of tourist buses and hired-cars.

Take the northern motorway from Madrid over the mountains of Guararrama, snowypeaked even n late May sometimes, and the plain lies before you - green in winter and spring - baked to a taupe crisp in summer and autumn You will quickly come to the city of Segovia, arguably, the best-known of the cities of the high plain of Castille. With its massive Roman aqueduct, alcázar, winding streets and cathedral - it’s an ideal city to visit, even when the weather is unendurably hot in southern Spain.

T

he place to eat in Segovia is Méson Candido at the base of the aqueduct. The speciality of the house is suckling pig, slow braised in a clay oven and cut with - a plate (knife not needed because of its tenderness).

You might have to overlook the presence of

Over arching

Anne Cadwallader explores Madrid’s hinterland Segovia’s signature arch a stiff little tail poking out of the dead animal’s rear - but, hey, you’re in Spain and animals are bred to eat, not cluck over - and it’s sweetly delicious washed down with some of the local red wine.

From Méson Candido, it’s a gentle walk uphill for the 200 yards or so to the centre of the old town and the Barrio Judio (Jewish Quarter) - taking in a rest to view the city beneath you. On the way, there are plenty of shops selling traditional Spanish pottery (vases, plates, jugs) but best to wait until your return journey.

The Seville alcázar (many towns have one,

WHAT’S HOT

n When the coastline is baking in unbearable heat, the central plateau of Spain can be refreshingly cool, although you are practically guaranteed sunshine all year round. n Madrid is now barely two hours flying time from Dublin and is served by three airlines 34 times a week - so no problem about catching a flight - alternatives are available to Bilbao, Santiago, San Sebastian and Santander. n The Spanish city has not been invented yet that hasn’t got enough churches and palaces to wear out your eyes.

basically palaces, some fortified) is the oldest royal palace still in use in Europe and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. Its upper floors are still where Spanish monarchs stay while in the city.

It houses a splendid, if spine-chilling, collection of armoury and you can wander from room to room gazing on the wonderful decorations, half-Spanish/half-Moorish, denoting the city’s mongrel history down the centuries.

The central courtyard, “Patio de las Doncellas”, is named - in English “Courtyard of the Maidens”, after the legend that the Moors demanded 100

WHAT’S NOT

n Hotel beds in Spain can be a trifle hard, and pillows not as large and soft as we are used to at home. Check your hotel room will have extra blankets, soft mattresses and spare pillows. n Because you are staying in cities that are not as used to Irish visitors, don’t expect menus to be in English. n Bring a phrase book and experiment. n You will want to wander. Bring comfortable shoes - not stilettos.

Spanish streets can be cobbled.

virgins every year as tribute from Christian kingdoms in Iberia - but we’ll pass quickly over that.

We stayed in Segovia in Hotel San Antonio El Real ( http://www. sanantonioelreal.es/en/) - outside looking like a bunker but inside pure Spain (dark ceilings, tiled floors, white walls, a delightful courtyard).

From Segovia, a 2.5 hour journey along excellent roads with wonderful views of the open landscape, pine forests and small “pueblos” brings you to the ancient city of Burgos, or as I like to call it “El Cid City”.

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (1043 – 1099) popularly known as El Cid was a prodigious warrior who changed sides between Spanish kings and the Moors with dizzying speed but later set up a pluralist principality near Valencia. Buried in the cathedral in Burgos, he remains a Spanish popular folk-hero and national icon. Naturally enough, we stayed in the Méson

del Cid in Burgos, immediately overlooking the cathedral and directly on the Camino, so we could watch hapless Americans set off in flipflops to walk the 538 kilometres to Santiago.

Some chance.

The food we ate in Burgos was wonderful.

Nine courses one night in the La Favorita (http:// www.lafavoritaburgos. com/ - featuring in the 2016 Michelin guide with tapas from €6-€10) was belly-busting. The food in Méson del Cid itself was similarly excellent nice surprise for a hotel restaurant.

Burgos, like so many Spanish towns, is a joy to wander through. While we were there they were erecting stages everywhere for the local fiesta and people gently danced in the plazas as the bands warmed up for the evening festivities.

Outside the city, we visited the Cartuja de Miraflores, the home of an enclosed order of Carthusian monks, with

a characteristic golden, highly-decorated altarpiece, cloisters and yet another cool courtyard.

A

nother two hours took us to the city of Léon, named not after a lion but a Roman legion which encamped there for a while in 74AD. Although the cathedral in Burgos is bigger, the one in Léon is lovelier with rose windows to rival Chartres.

A day could hardly be spent happier than wandering through its ancient squares and courtyards, taking in lunch at the Racimo de Oro (“Bunch of Golden Grapes”). All possible styles of architecture are around every corner - from Romanesque, to Gothic, to Renaissance and modern.

Dinner in the Léon Parador is just what you would expect. Silver service, white linen, excellent wines, great view over the gardens - and the food (as everywhere we went) simple, wellcooked and presented, delicious.

On our way back to Madrid airport, we stopped off at the El Yllera winery in the village of Rueda. It’s just off the main motorway and well worth a visit.

The owner, Marcos Yllera, has diversified and, while wine remains the main family business, he has transformed the cavernous cellars beneath his land.

How often can you descend into the depths of the earth, leaving temperatures of 35C above ground, to walk through a chilly interpretation of the myth of Theseus, the Minotaur and Ariadne’s thread? I’m guessing, never.

Spain. It never ceases to amaze.

n Anne Cadwallader travelled to Spain courtesy of the Spanish Tourist Board.

Ryanair fly18 times a week to Madrid, Aer Lingus 11 times and Iberia Express 5 times. Iberia Express also have a service form Cork

APRIL 2017 PAGE 23

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION

Student city

A

DESTINATION SPAIN

Salamanca rediscovered

30,000 students populate the ancient ecclesiastical and academic city of Salamanca

s befits the scholastic capital of Spain, Salamanca looks the part.

When you look across the city it seems like a tapestry of churches and cloisters, a roman bridge, its old and new cathedrals The famed university

is among the oldest in Europe, acknowledged in 1254 as one of the four great universities of the world alongside Oxford, Paris and Bologna.

You can still visit the ancient classrooms, with the softer seats reserved for the aristocracy.

And while other institutions have taken over Salamanca’s reputation, that heritage means it will always be the scholastic capital.

1n 1929 University of Salamanca was the first Spanish college to offer language courses to for-

eign students Nowadays foreign students still flood the city to learn Spanish. It is a particular favourite for us. You cannot escape an Irish accent as you wander the streets.

I came to attend a language tourism conference and start learning

Spanish at the Tia Tula school. I had forgotten how quickly we revert to junior infants when we are in a classroom without a clue how we are going to survive the first hour, never mind a week of this.

I was one of four, a Dutch woman and two Chinese who were dealing with a strange alphabet as well as a strange language. Bless the Eurovision Song Contest. I sang Eres Tu for them to prove my commitment.

Nobody was fooled.

I

t is easy to contemplate how far away from home and far out of their depth were the generations of Irish who passed through here.

I stopped to pay tribute to them at the Colegio de Los Irlandeses.

This was the most important third level institu-

Free th nking ble independent A Fresh Approach As an independent airport we have a fresh approach to doing business with our customers. With more flights, more destinations and more choice it’s time you gave Shannon some fresh thought.

Isabel Harrison isabel.harrison@shannonairport.ie +353 (0)61 712 629

S01_Shannon Travel Extra 1/2 pg advert.indd 1

tion of all for Irish people over more than two centuries, when Catholic students were prevented from studying in Ireland by colonial penal laws from 1592 until 1812.

During the 1700s Salamanca was the degree to have for those outside colonial circles.

Originally built in 1525 by Diego de Siloe and Gil de Hontanon, the Irish college remained open until 1952 and was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1988.

There are enough cloisters to wander on every evening of even the longest stay. In the Santa Clara convent the most ancient paintings have recently been revealed by renovation. Some of the saints pictured have so fallen out of fashion they cannot be identified from their 14th century motifs.

Isabel Harrison Shannon Airport

You’ll love doing bu siness with u s

Declan Power declan.power@shannonairport.ie +353 (0)61 712 403

shannonairport.ie 29/05/2015 17:34

APRIL 2017 PAGE 24

DESTINATION USA

T

he most interesting bits of Philadelphia are probably the least known.

The city is supposed to span out from the City Hall, equidistant from the river and the sea. But it is at the edges that you find the heart of the city, not the heart.

The makes sense in Philadelphia.

The Mutter Museum, with its vast collection of medical and anatomical oddities, may be the most interesting in all of North America. It is an eerie place, skulls piled on each other with notes of their diseases..

As Philadelphia grew from shipping the Naval Museum and its floating exhibits the USS Olympia and the Becuna, are worth the journey alone

O

ne of the disadvantages of what Walt Disney created in 1950s is that increasingly, tourist America is becoming a theme park.

The idea of queueing systems and the way people behave in them is completely dependent on the experience of three generations now have had of Disney. The queue to the historic attractions might as well have been for Space Mountain, and the attention span of the eight graders might have been equally long for both.

The tourist centre is a blend of architectural

Bells on it Eoghan Corry in Philadelphia

Checking out the crack in Philly: The Liberty Bell contradictions, the ugly stomping wherever it can on the quaint. The president’s house is brick, with plans you can view through a glass wall as you queue to enter the buildings. The signage acknowledged, belatedly, African Americans and their role in the country’s history.

The glass is faded a bit like the South County Dublin had galloped its way over it. The little rolling hill between the Liberty Bell centre, all glass and red-bricked corners, to the national convention centre.

Red brick, white windows, 12 panels on each window, wrought iron and heritage in brick, with horrible stuff behind in broad glass 1960s windows and Wells Fargo plastered.

Even worse, someone planted a square block of a building right opposite the Liberty Bell Centre which looks like a car park.

It is all a far cry from the splendid Second Empire architecture that you find around City Hall although there is a couple of buildings which lend themselves that way. On the whole, WC Fields allegedly said when he was dying, I would rather be in Philadelphia.

Everyone knows that the momentous changes of history are almost always sprung from the platform of the high stools of pubs and taverns. Rebellions and coups and even wars are planned here, over a frothy beer or a glass of red.

Philadelphia’s

pub-catalyst may be most famous of all. The City tavern is where the declaration of Independence was composed, and it sits in neat wooden floored dining rooms, closed at 10pm and sent to bed, starch-collared the portraits of the nation’s founders, when really you feel that it should be full of inspired youths having had a pint and a half beyond their limit and about to come up with the next big idea.

P

hiladelphia tells us it is the home of love, with the LO above the VE like a mathematical equation, but the sign might as well say WA/LK, because the real Philadelphia is

for walkers. Walk here, and you will never take a wrong turn.

Walk a little south and you come to, ahem, South Street, famous in its time for hippies that have now become as starchc0llared as the City tavern itself.

A trio with a black labrador walk by, past the wire fences around green spaces that are never really green in Philadelphia, they are faded brown like this was some sort of postcolonial African capital rather than the first empire smashers of the world. After Portugal that is, sorry Portugal.

The Book Trade on South Street is no longer in business. It closed ten years ago. In its time it was one of the three great iconic American bookshops, alongside Waverley Books in Washington where you can share two great pastimes, drinking and book-buying, and Powell’s in Portland, Oregon, which was one of the first to put secondhand books and new books on the same shelf in the same category.

Alas, Book Trader is no more. Philadelphia is the poorer for it.

F

urther south again Bainbridge Street is probably what South Street looked like before it got posh. Guys sitting on street chairs reading, sadly, not paper

any more, but metal devices which maybe what happened the Book Trader in the first place.

On park benches people are eating packed lunches, sandwiches and fried.

There is a background music in Philadelphia in summer, it is the whirr of the air conditioner.

Some of them rattle and shake, and clatter.

One wonders do people define their street experience now on whether the air conditioners they pass are rancorous or not.

At the Border Rooms bar, they are serving a sandwich called the three little pigs, melted cheese meets pork, grilled cheese stuffed with pork roll, ham and bacon between roasted sourdough slices.

T

hings to do in Philadelphia.

Check out the crack at the Liberty Bell, run up the Rocky steps at the Art Museum and turn around and brandish your masculinity to the world, and check out the skulls at the Mutter museum. Peer through the portholes of the floating exhibits. If your time is short, head to the Mutter and the maritime and you will not go wrong.

But make the time, Philly is sure to fill it.

Philadelphia is represented in the Irish market by Greg Evans http://gregevansconsultancy.com

Clockwise: scene on South Street, South Street arch, View from the USS Olympia, the City Tavern, Becuna submarine

LEGOLAND WINDSOR SHORT BREAKS ®

Book your clients a great value theme park hotel short break to LEGOLAND® Windsor Resort with Stena Line from only €639 for a family of four.

FAMILY OF 4

With over 55 rides, fantastic live shows and attractions set over 150 acres of parkland, the LEGOLAND® Windsor Resort is a family destination that is not to be missed! Plus there are many family adventures to enjoy together with Pirate Falls:Treasure Quest, Viking River Splash, Laser Raiders and the Exclusive 4D Movies at the LEGO 4D Movie Theatre!

FROM ONLY

Book your ferry, hotel and LEGOLAND® park tickets all together with Stena Line today for the best price guaranteed!

Price includes: • Return Stena Line ferry travel from Dublin to Holyhead, Rosslare to Fishguard or Belfast to Liverpool with your car.

• 2 nights 4 star hotel accommodation within easy driving distance of the park for 2 adults & up to 2 children under 16 sharing the same room.

• One day LEGOLAND® Windsor Resort entry ticket for 2 adults & 2 children under 16 (upgrade to a 2 day ticket from just €11pp extra!)

Book online at agent.stenaline.ie or call reservations on 01 907 5399

Prices valid on selected days, dates and sailings, subject to availability. Deduct €53 if only one child travelling. Terms and conditions apply. Holidays sold by Stena Line Travel Group AB. Fully licensed and bonded (TA0733). LEGO, the LEGO logo, the Brick and Knob configurations, the Minifigure, DUPLO and LEGOLAND are trademarks of the LEGO Group. ©2017 The LEGO Group.

639

€

018 an

avel g on

ew was ard

vel-

hed ies Mar-

w uda um-

es-

m

pert e deion

ner of

APRIL 2017 PAGE 26

AFLOAT NORWEGIAN Pearl emerged from dry dock to its Miami homeport with the ship’s 1,197 staterooms refurbished in blue, turquoise and silver, new furniture, carpet, headboards and TVs. USB charging outlets, makeover to The pool area and hot tubs, Moderno Churrascaria Brazilian steakhouse; Cagney’s steakhouse and O’Sheehan’s sports bar.

ROYAL CARIBBEAN For

all groups sailing on or after January 1, 2018, Royal Caribbean will calculate travel agents’ tour conductor credits using the average cruise fare of the total stateroom categories booked within a group,

OCEANIA’s 684-passenger Insignia

will visit 90 destinations in 36 countries with 14 overnights in port during its half-year cruise around the world in 2019.

HURTIGRUTEN cut steel on the

530-passenger Roald Amundsen. Due for delivery in 2019, it is the first of Hurtigruten’s Explorer Class Ships, purpose-built to sail in polar waters.

SILVERSEA’s new 596-passenger Silver Muse, to launch Monaco April 19, has successfully completed sea trials.

VIKING SKY The 930-passenger

Viking Sky, the third ship in the Viking Ocean Cruises fleet, commenced sailing Saturday from Rome on a seven-night voyage that ends in Barcelona, with stops in Tunisia, Italy and Spain. Viking is the first cruise line catering to N American passengers to return to Tunisia,

AMERICAN Cruise Lines is building a series of five 200-passenger cruise ships for America’s rivers, with the first to launch in summer 2018.

BOYZONE veterans Brian McFadden and Keith Duffy are set to perform a five-night residency on P&O Cruises’ Britannia.

IRISH FERRIES announced a family-friendly deal to mark the reopening of Britain’s top theme park for the 2017 season on March 25th In partnership with Staffordshire’s Alton Towers Resort.

Full sail ahead

Will Irish Ferries new u 144 ferry replace Epsilon?

T

he ICG annual report allowed Capital expenditure of €57m up from €35.0m in 2015, which increased primarily due to the company entering into an agreement for the construction of a new ferry with Cinemas, pet facilities and private passenger balconies, and also includes the purchase of the fastcraft “Westpac Express”.

On May 31 2016, ICG announced that it had entered into an agreement with Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesselschaft & Co.KG) to build a cruise ferry for ICG at a contract price of €144 m.

This is scheduled for delivery during 2018 and will be financed through a combination of cash resources and loan facilities.

Irish Ferries says the cruise ferry will be designed “to best meet the seasonality of our business.”

T h e FLEETFILE purchase of the 1973 St Patrick W e s t 1977 St Killian pac Ex1982 St Patrick II press was 1993 St Killian II agreed 1999 Jonathan Swift 1997 Isle of Inishmore in April 2016 for 1998 Normandy $13.25 2001 Ulysses million.

2008 Oscar Wilde The ves2013 Epsilon sel was 2011 Epsillon

cruise ship, the 999-passenger Project Olympic will debut in summer 2019 and will have 540 all-balcony cabins and suites, including 81 designed specifically for solo passengers.

RIVIERA Travel was awarded Best River Cruise Operator by Which magazine.

INSTAGRAM Tour guide Ciara

Flynn from Dublin, won Royal Caribbean’s instagram ‘intern-ship’ competition.

delivered to the company in June 2016 and immediately chartered out to a third party. It has remained on charter since delivery.

The ferry is designed to replace Epsilon on Dublin-Cherbourg & Dublin-Holyhead with capacity for 165 freight vehicles & 300 cars on dedicated car deck, 1,885 passengers and 435 cabins to be built by FSG in Flensburg.

It will have a top speed of 22.5 knots, slightly slower than Epsilon, and meet Europe-wide emissions standards.

The 50,000-tonne cruise ferry maximum capacity will be 1,216 cars or 165 trucks with 3,500 lanemetres, with 2,800 lane metres dedicated to freight (165 freight vehicles) and a

separate car deck with capacity for 300 passenger cars. Maximum speed with be 22.5 knots compared with 24 knots for the Epsilon.

This compares with 500 passengers and 2,860 lanemetres for the Epsilon, 2,000 passengers and 4,101 lanemetres on the Ulysses and 1,440 passengers and 1,220 lanemetres for the Oscar Wilde.

As per the agreement, ICG has paid 20pc of the contract price of the vessel to FSG during 2016. The remaining 80pc is payable upon delivery of the vessel.

The charter-in of the MV Epsilon has been extended for a further period of two years and will now expire in November 2018.

IRISH FERRIES ‘EVERYBODY FREE’

H

ave the cross-channel ferries come DISNEY Adventures by Disney anup with a new pricing nounced 2018 river cruise sailings on the model?

Rhine and Danube.

Irish Ferries upped the game on Irish sea crossLough Greenore CARLINGFORD to Greencastle ferry service will begin summer. ing with an Everybody Free motorist fare that charges only for the car DISNEY Cruise Line’s Summer 2018 sailings will include a first-time call to Cork, involved, with all acDisney were the big winners in the Cruise companying passengers, Critic cruisers choice awards.

SAGA Cruises says its first new-build

Visualisation of the new Irish ferries vessel

including driver, travelling absolutely free-ofcharge, up to a limit of six persons.

The change in fare structure is said by Irish ferries Head of Passenger Sales, Dermot Merrigan to be ‘one of the most compelling offers Irish Ferries has ever made’.

The arrangement kicks-in with immediate effect and will be applicable on all bookings made until 21st February, for travel until 26th May inclusive, on cruise and fast ferry sailings from Dublin to Holyheadand also Rosslare to Pembroke.

Dermot Merrigan

ROYAL’S NEW 2018 CATEGORIES

R

oyal Caribbean is changing category names and category codes for cabins from March 8, removing anomalies such as the description “family” and replacing them “spacious” or

“ultra spacious.”

The rollout for the recategorisation begins with Mariner of the Seas on March 28, 2018 and will be completed by mid-May with Explorer of the Seas All accommodations

physically remain the same. See here FAQ on the recategorisation, and the new grid. The new groupings are: n Sea Class: Junior Suite n Sky Class: Sky Loft Suite, Crown Loft Suite,

Owner’s Suite and Grand Suite. n Star Class: Royal Loft Suite, Villa Suite, Owner’s Loft Suite, Owner’s Panoramic, Grand Panoramic, AquaTheater Suite and Star Loft Suite.

APRIL 2017 PAGE 27

Ferry worrying

Will Brexit affect the turnaround for Irish Sea vessels?

B

ritain’s EU exit could seriously disrupt ferry services across then Irish Sea. Nick Mottram of Irish Ferries says that if there is a hard border and there are delays it could disrupt the whole schedule and affect the viability of the ferry services.

“We typically turn the ferries round in two and a half hours. At the moment, on any night, there are about 400 trucks coming off the ferries into Holyhead.

“If there is a thirty second delay at customs, that would be about three hours twenty minutes. With seven kilometres of trucks, they would be backed up to the ferry. The ferry would not be able to discharge so there would be a bottle neck.

Turkey has an example where trucks can be delayed by eight or ten hours.

“At the moment the likes of M&S has sandwiches every morning, The

AFLOAT ROYAL CARIBBEAN Be-

ginning this month, Royal Caribbean International will have lifeguards ready to watch over children at every pool on every ship in its fleet. The cruise line says its new water safety programme is designed to “raise awareness amongst our guests about the importance of vigilance while enjoying water features.’

FRED OLSEN Cruise Lines

2018/2019 programme sees its fleet of four ships scheduled to travel to 228 destinations in 73 countries, with nine maiden ports of calls, a shift in focus to fly cruises include Arabia and India, more river and fjord itineraries to destinations such as Norway, and more mini-cruises of five nights and under to the Norwegian Fjords and the Seine.

UNIWORLD Jane McDonald’s TV

show generated 1,000 river cruise enquiries for Uniworld.

The Holyhead dilemma sandwiches are on the shelves under the just in time principle, the trucks come back at lunch time. If you start to have a three or four hour delay at the border, that kind of distribution does not work.

“What we would be looking for is a seamless border, with the good electronically cleared beforehand so there is a need for investment in IT

and computers.

“The people moving the goods would provide a manifest to us and to the tax and customs people and they could have spot checks “Back in the nineties when there was customs, it was much, much smaller volumes, maybe a quarter of the volume of trucks traveling that do today.

SEVEN SEAS EXPLORER The most luxurious cruise ship on the sea, Seven Seas Explorer makes its very first port of call in Ireland on Saturday June 10.

CELEBRITY Silhouette will be visiting Belfast, Dublin, Waterford and Cork during 2017 and Celebrity Cruises is planning to host three seminars in Ireland.

Follow the sun to France this summer with Irish Ferries, with your own car and all the luggage you need for the perfect family holiday. You can start looking forward to it today with a deposit of just €100. But only if you book now at irishferries.com. Travel. Together.

L690

Book with a a100 deposit minimum 43 days before travel, final balance payable 42 days before departure. New bookings only.

Subject to availability. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. See irishferries.com for details.

WHEELCHAIR FRIENDLY WHEELCHAIR FRIENDLY

APRIL 2017 PAGE 28

THE FLYING COLUMN RYANAIR initial connecting time will be three hours for Ryanair’s connections with Norwegian at Gatwick and Aer Lingus with Dublin. Kenny Jacobs, Ryanair marketing director confirmed that passengers will be able to through check-in luggage, the onus being on the first carrier TAP Portugal extended its Stopover Pro-

gramme to allow passengers to book flights with a stay up to 72 hours in Lisbon and Porto en route to Azores, Madeira or the Algarve.

American Airlines has updated its boarding process from March 1 and divided boarding groups from Group 1 to Group 9 to reflect new fares, groups 2, 3, and 4 become group 6, 7 and 8 with the basic economy passengers in group 9.

RYANAIR-BRITAIN Kenny Jacobs said 25m Europeans visited Britain in 2016, more than 10m of them came on Ryanair, that’s 40pc of all EU tourists and they spent £10bn. If Ryanair England was a separate airline it would be bigger than British Airways (even including their long haul) with 44.5m customers in 2017.

STOBART Group is acquiring remaining interests in Propius Holdings Limited and Stobart Air.

AUSTIN An airport baggage handler was accused of stealing firearms from passenger’s bags in Austin and trading them for marijuana.

MISSOURI Lawmakers in Missouri have approved a bill that would allow the state’s airports to sell takeaway alcohol.

Derry the Westminster government for

Public Service Obligation route City of DerryStansted over the financial years 2017/18 and 2018/19. Starting 26 Mar, it will operate 2 daily except Sat (1 round trip) with a 49-seater Embraer 135/145 aircraft. It is bmi Regional’s only planned operation at Stansted. The flight has been subvented by Derry council by £260,000 a year for two years and by £3.8 from the Westminster Government, an estimated £28 per departing seat.

MALAYSIAN Meath born CEO Peter

Bellew said Malaysia Airlines is targeting more used widebody aircraft. Peter Bellew recalled: “I felt as if i had been dumped.”

NORDIC Aviation Capital sold ten Bombardier Dash 8-Q400s to Flybe.

IATA CEO Alexandre de Juniac told the

US Chamber of Commerce aviation summit that aviation is ‘the business of freedom.’.

CAR The Commission of Aviation Regulation Strategic Plan 2017-2019 consultation document went online.

Deferral doubters

Gus Kelly says aircraft deferrals are part of the business

A

engus Kelly of Aercap says deferrals are nothing new in aviation leasing and they are to be expected.

Some Airbus deliveries to Aercap are being accelerated from 2018 to 2017, despite a delay in deliveries of P&W-engined A320neos.

“There has been discussion in the media regarding recent deferral activity by several airlines and what if any impact this has unless or is like AerCap. :The reason is that the manufacturAengus Kelly ers know several things. Firstly, they know air traffic will grow and every “ It is to be expected that from time 15 years it will approximately double. to time, certain regions or carriers beSecondly, they know they have a come oversupplied and require defernon-investment grade customer base rals. From our transaction activity, in in the airline. And three, they know 2016, there continues to be solid dethey have a huge fixed cost phase in mand for aircraft on a global basis and cash. we don’t see that changing. Like the “They know the day the airlines OEM, but unlike the airline, AerCap signs the order, there is a high like- is able to sell its product wherever in lihood that they’ll have to come back the world there is demand. We are not and look for help. And when they do constrained by geography. that, the price goes up significantly.

“So looking ahead to 2017, we exIt is part of the OEM business model pect to see stable levels of growth in and their profit to expect deferrals.” the market and this will be supported “The only way to hedge these risks by the 8th year in a row of aggregate and meet future demand is to over airline profitability.: AerCap reported: commit on orders. That is why we see n 458 aircraft transactions executed, that orders are extremely cyclical and including 126 widebody transactions. always have been, but deliveries are n 99.5pc fleet utilization rate for the very stable and have been also. Deliv- full year 2016. eries closely track growth in air travel. n 7.4 years average age of owned

fleet and 6.4 years average remaining lease term. n 98pc of new aircraft deliveries through 2018 and 78pc through 2019 have been leased. n Over $3 bn of sales closed in 2016. n $9.5 bn of available liquidity. n Adjusted debt/equity ratio of 2.7 to 1. n Upgraded to investment grade rating by Moody’s. n $49.33 book value per share.

[Traded 24Feb17 at $45.35]. n Repurchased 5.7m shares in the 2016 Q4 for $241m and 25m shares in 2016 for $966m.

Net income of $1,046.6m for 2016 compared with $1,178.7m for in 2015.

Net income and diluted earnings per share decreased due to sales of older aircraft during 2015 and 2016.

S

STOBART SELLS LEASING ARM

O

PRE-CLEARANCE ‘ESSENTIAL’

tobart Group announced the completion of the acquisition of the remaining 33pc interest in aircraft lessor Propius Holdings, from Aer Lingus.

The consideration for the transaction was $14.7m in cash funded from the sale from treasury in Nov16 of shares in the Stobart Group. As part of

fficials of the Department of Translion in tax last year, up 50pc from 2015 and the port, Tourism and industry paid out €52m in corporation tax.

Sport met with US counterparts to discuss operational RYANAIR friendly web partners.” matters regarding US PreATLANTIC Performance coach Caro- clearance at Irish Airports. line Currid is to work with Atlantic Aviation The US outlined the Group staff President’s Executive Or-

LEASING Irish lessors paid Eu128 mil-

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

the transaction, Aer Lingus has released security over certain cash balances of Propius and other group companies in exchange for a guarantee from other Stobart Group companies for an initial €18m which is expected to reduce to €8m in due course.

Propius recorded profit before tax of $2.8m for the year ended 31 December

ders and on operational issues relating to its implementation prior to the stay.

The Irish side expressed its disagreement with the policies underpinning the recent Orders and that these views communicated to the US through diplo-

2016 and had gross assets at that date of $153.3m.

The Stobart Group also completed the acquisition of the remaining 19pc interest in Everdeal Holdings, the holding company of Stobart Air, taking its interest in Everdeal to 100pc.

Warwick Brady, Deputy CEO of Stobart commented “The Aviation

matic channels.

The Department outlined that it had communicated that Preclearance was a valuable service for Ireland, delivering benefits for passengers, airlines, airports as well as the Irish economy, that there

Division is a key growth focus for the Group over the next few years. The completion of the acquisitions of Propius and Stobart Air give us more control over our ability to continue to grow and develop our operations and to deliver our target of 2.5m passengers at London Southend Airport annually by 2018.

has been no breach of the Treaty of the Functioning of the EU and that the operation of the Ireland-US Preclearance Agreement does not give rise to any breach of obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.

APRIL 2017 PAGE 29

THE FLYING COLUMN

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

The T/A cake

EU Five non-European airlines have been

Norwegian adds 7pc capacity to trans-Atlantic reach

T

he entry of Norwegian into the Ireland-US market pair will add 3,591 weekly seats and 7pc more seats to the US this summer.

According to Anna Aero the additions would be less disruptive to Ireland than the situation in Scotland.

Norwegian CEO Bjorn Kos told last month’s press conference that, thanks to a lengthy struggle to get the trans Atlantic flights from Cork, everyone in the US has now heard of Norwegian.

EMIRATES is to fly daily to Phnom Phen in Cambodia via Dubai.

BREXITMichael O’Leary told an

accountancy body ACCA event that Ireland would make Brexit (Breat-imeacht) even worse if it reintroduced an air travel tax.

NORWEGIAN Ahead of its service from Cork and Shannon to Stewart International and Providence, Norwegian posted revenues of €3bn.

DCU will host the European Aviation Conference on November13-14. Aircraft Economic Life Summit 2017 will take place on November 28 at the Gibson Hotel.

FOYNES Air Show on Saturday July 22

24 FLIGHTS 8 ROUTES

Dublin daily to Stewart Dublin 5w to Providence.

Belfast 3w to Stewart Belfast 2w to Providence, Shannon 2w to Providence Shannon 2w to Stewart Cork 3w to Providence.

Dublin 2w to Stockholm

threatened with legal action for not compensating passengers for delayed flights to or from the EU. American Airlines, Etihad, Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Turkish Airlines.

will join forces with the long established Bray Air Display in Wicklow

SWISS is planning Geneva-Dublin from

Cork’s long awaited trans-Atlantic services to Boston

Norwegian will be receiving six MAX 8s this year. If that is the case, all of them will be designated to the above transatlantic services.

The B:225 mmnumber of Irish US cities with an Irish route, this will rise from 12 to 14

T:215 mm

April 12 using the Bombardier CS100.

IAA says operational trials on remote tower technology have been successful.

S:203 mm

Cruising from Vancouver is like nothing else.

Fly your clients with Air Canada Rouge from Dublin to the stunning city of Vancouver.

Vancouver is an ideal port to join a cruise. They can go north and sail to Alaska, to exciting whale and wildlife sighting, ancient Native villages and floating icebergs.

Or look south and cruise the breathtaking U.S. West Coast.

1152885

Studio #: JWT #: 1151849 Client: Air Canada rouge

FILE: AC-17-14_April_Travel_Extra Sauce Designer: Patrick Mech Size: 215 mm x 149 mm

copy.indd

PP: Kim Fijan SD: Patrick AD: None

Created: 2-16-2017 12:05 PM Saved: 2-21-2017 4:07 PM Printed: 2-21-2017 4:07 PM

COLOURS: Cyan Magenta

B:159 mm

Photographers name: None Usage info: None

T:149 mm

S:137 mm

Learn more at aircanada.com, trade support 1800 30036212, salessupport.ie@aircanada.com

APRIL 2017 PAGE 30

THE FLYING COLUMN CONDOR Airlines, part of Thomas Cook Group Airlines, and the third largest airline in Germany, announced its largest US expansion in its 60-year history. The airline will expand its route network this summer with new, non-stop service from San Diego, Pittsburgh and New Orleans to Frankfurt and beyond. It will also add new, non-stop service to Munich from existing gateways in Seattle and Las Vegas. The carrier currently serves the US from: Anchorage, Austin, Baltimore, Fairbanks, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Portland, and Seattle. Thomas Cook Group Airlines has seen a surge in flights to and from North America. Passenger numbers from North America to Europe have more than doubled in the last three years, with nine newly introduced routes within this period. More than 1m passengers used the airlines’ services via the North Atlantic in 2016.

QANTAS and EL AL are set to benefit

from a new codeshare agreement, subject to government and regulatory approvals.

AERCAP fleet portfolio reached 1566 aircraft at end of 2016, with 99.5pc utilisation.

Aercap posted a $1.04bn profit in 2016. Gus Kelly questioned the durability of aircraft manufacturers’ output plans. Aercap reported financial results for 2016 and authorised new share repurchase programme of $350m.

TERMINAL 3 Shane Ross told the

national civil aviation development forum that he thought he knew what the answer was on the question of whether the third terminal in Dublin airport should be privately owned.

Toronto Pearson and Brussels Zaventem are the two airports in which Kevin Toland said policy was reversed after they had attempted to operate private terminals and failed. Dublin airport have been stressing that there is no immediate need for a third terminal and the 32m figure is merely a stirupluation in their existing planning permission, particularly with the planning terms of the parrallel runway still being debated (watch Kevin Toland here).

Kenny Jacobs said Dublin airport needs more focus on the customers they have today and less on another runway. He said delays at passport control are worse than JFK.

BRITISH Airways announced a weekly seasonal service from Dublin to Ibiza.

NAPLES is to get a 2w Ryanair service from Dublin from Octoebr.

BMI is to operate the Derry-Stansted public

service obligation service when it is vacated

by Ryanair next month, operating double daily flights instead of the previous daily service after a pledge of Government funding.

CORK airport is to move the bulk of its food offerings airside in keeping with internatioinal trends.

FLYBE brought nine training Medical Alert Dogs on board as part of the dogs’ socialisation programme.

RYANAIR now asks 26pc of passengers to check in bags at the gate free of charge.

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

Stephen Kavanagh and Willie Walsh

Aer Lingus record

A

Profit up 86.9pc in first year of IAG operation

er Lingus has reported an operating profit before extraordinary items of €233m, up 86.9pc, a record result for Aer Lingus by a wide margin.

Stephen Kavanagh told investors that Aer Lingus is “kicking the tyres” re a Las Vegas operation in the winter.

He said Norwegian’s Irish transatlantic plans are not a major source of concern but it has a few ideas that Aer Lingus sees as worth exploring such as a basic fare which does not include bags or in-flight entertainment.

Stephen Kavanagh said Aer Lingus will deploy the A321LR differently to Norwegian’s B737 MAX. He confirmed they have seven A321LR’s finally confirmed with three arriving in 2019 and four in 2020. The aircraft have 186 seats, 12 in business class and 174 in economy.

For 2017, IAG Group capacity is planned to grow by 2.5pc (Q1 3.6pc, Q2 3.5pc, Q3 0.6pc, Q4 2.7pc) with growth in Aer Lingus of 11.8pc, BA 1.5pc, Iberia 2.5pc and Vueling 1.7pc. Vueling capacity is to be cut by about 10pc in Q3 as a recovery plan from the problems experienced in 2016 Q3.

The IAG conference call outlined that aircraft orders (and options) include 106 (+28) A320/A321 family, 5 (+5) A330, 43 (+57) A350), 0 (+7) A350, 18 (+18 B787), 0 (+15) Embraer 190. There has been some shuffling of A350 and B787 variants (B787-9 swapped into B787-8) and delivery dates during the year by agreement with the manufacturers.

The enhanced range of the 242 tonne (MTOW) version of the A330 made it more attractive than used aircraft.

Willie Walsh said there was no basis for the “wild and inaccurate” rumour of an imminent order for the Bombardier CSeries.

For 2016, Aer Lingus capacity increased 9.6pc, Q1 8.9pc, Q2 7.7pc, Q3 8.7pc, Q4 15.9pc, with the Q4 growth driven by the return to Newark NJ and the new route to Hartford.

Passenger traffic was up 9.5pc, so passenger load factor was unchanged at 81.6pc. Passenger revenue was up 4.9pc to €1,707m, so revenue per RPK was down 4.2pc.

Cargo revenue was down 15.8pc to €45m, despite IAG Cargo integrating Aer Lingus “to add breadth to its network and allow access to new products such as its industry leading constant climate product.”

Other revenue was down 62.5pc to €14m. Total revenue was therefore €1,766m, up 2.8pc.

Fuel and emission costs were €319m, down 17.8pc, mainly due to lower fuel price. Employee costs were €327m, down 1.2pc, and supplier costs €721m up 0.8pc. Ownership costs (including aircraft lease charges) were €166m, up 3.8pc.

The adjusted operating margin improved by 5.9 points to 14.9pc, the highest margin and by far the biggest improvement in the IAG Group.

(IRP gives a wet lease-adjusted margin of 14.3pc, 5.9 points, again the best in the IAG Group and the biggest improvement.

The revenue yield decline was less

than for Iberia or Vueling, despite an increase in Aer Lingus trip length, and less than BA when than translated to euro.

IAG notes “Aer Lingus reported a strong employee unit cost performance versus last year driven by productivity improvements. Its ASKs increased 9.6pc with broadly the same number of man hours as last year.

“Some of the efficiencies were achieved at Dublin station and through the use of seasonal crew”.

Aer Lingus fuel cost per ASK improved more than the other Group companies and the fuel cost/ASK was also the lowest despite relatively short sectors Aer Lingus also benefited “from supplier and ownership initiatives leveraged through IAG. This included areas such as catering, cleaning, maintenance, ground handling and aircraft lease extension negotiations.”

After paying a dividend to IAG, Aer Lingus had cash and cash equivalents of €855m at end 2016 up from €772m in 2015. The Aer Lingus audit account has moved from PwC to Ernst & Young, IAG Group’s auditors.

Aer Lingus reported an operating margin of 6.0pc in Q4, up 7.8 points, from a loss to a profit, a lower margin than the other IAG airlines but a much bigger improvement.

For 2017, Aer Lingus capacity is planned to grow by 11.8pc with most growth in Q1 (15.8pc) and especially Q2 and Q3 as the new routes from 2016 carry through.

u

APRIL 2017 PAGE 31

THE FLYING COLUMN

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

NAI’s 6 aircraft

Two each at Stewart, Providence and Edinburgh

T

wo of the six B737 MAX aircraft required for Norwegian NAI B737 MAX new trans-Atlantic schedule are due for delivery in May and four in June.

Two each will be based at Providence RI, Stewart NY and Edinburgh.

All rotations have short ground times in the US and long layovers in Europe which could potentially allow additional rotation of up to about two and a half hours block time, Ireland-Barcelona or Gatwick.

Departure times from Europe are around 1600, in line with the second wave of Aer Lingus departures, with US arrivals around 1830-1900.

The arrival and departures times at each US airport are close, so unless Bjorn Kos, CEO of Norwegian there is pre-departure pre-clearance, congestion at the US end is possible. roughly halved frequencies and with All the operations are planned to one aircraft at each base. continue into the following winter at The 1layover at 09:47:37 Edinburgh is to be TravelExtra_half_page_Apr_issue_Feb17_print.pdf 23/02/2017

AIR FRANCE low cost subsidiary Boost was cleared for takeoff by Air France pilots.

BELFAST Work began on a €2.9m retail development at Belfast International Airport.

STOBART air closed in on an SAS contract.

AMERICAN Airlines began selling

basic economy in ten markets, with travel beginning March 1.

BRITISH Airways announced Dublin to Ibiza .

GOOGLE A Google bid to strike out an amended Ryanair claim was rejected.

RYANAIR launched a record winter 2017 Scotland schedule.

QANTAS revealed its next generation Premium Economy seat to debut on the airline’s fleet of Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners from October.

ALITALIA announced the successful

implementation of Travelport Rapid Reprice.

used next winter to operate Edinburgh-Oslo (4 pw) which is currently operated by the parent airline.

CARTRAWLER was appointed as exclusive car hire and ground transportation partner to Jetstar.

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

Fly KLM to China

K

Beijing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Shanghai & Xiamen via Amsterdam

u u

APRIL 2017 PAGE 32

THE FLYING COLUMN

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

RYANAIR launched its biggest-ever London winter schedule (2017/18), with 124 routes from Stansted, 1,100 weekly flights, 20.5m passengers (+4pc), five routes from Gatwick, 110 weekly flights, 1.7 m passengers and 15 routes from Luton, 72 weekly flights, 1.6m passengers. From Milan Ryanair will offer 67 routes in total, 541 weekly flights, 10.2m annual passengers (+ 9pc). Lisbon 2017 offers 3 new routes, in all 26 routes, 3.2 annual passengers. Porto 2017 winter schedule offers 42 routes, more than 4m annual passengers.

SAS Scandinavian Airlines has begun the process of hiring 40 senior managers and administrators for its new Dublin-based company which has applied to the IAA for an AOC. Up to 8 new A320neo will be allocated to planned bases in London and in Spain. Cabin crew will be recruited locally. It is hoped to have the first base operational by end 2017 and the second in early 2018.

FRANKFURT Michael O’Leary announced that Ryanair were launching 20 extra winter flights from Frankfurt. Summer flights will be profitable from day one at Frankfurt, in winter there will be start-up losses. O’Leary: “We want no new building at Frankfurt, because new buildings are expensive. Ryanair will have up to 8-10m passengers, but no domestic flights. They may have some spare gates that are less convenient for customers.”

He is in “serious talks with Alitalia” to help them restructure.

HAMBURG Kenny Jacobs told Hamburg Aviation Conference that low cost carriers will have 50pc market share in Europe, but only 15pc in Germany. He predicted Ryanair will be the second largest carrier in Germany, it is just a matter of when. Other takeaways from the Hamburg Aviation Conference was that every extra 10 minutes in airport security decreases passengers spend by 30pc.

EMIRATES offered a preview of their new A380 lounge which will be showcased at ITB Berlin.

AER LINGUS Passenger traffic at

Aer Lingus rose 13.9pc in February ahead of sister companies Vueling (11.4pc), British Airways (2.5pc) and Iberia (2.1pc).

RYANAIR tacked on 1m to their expected annual passenger traffic, up to 120m as a result of carrying 8.2m to smash their February record, up 10pc on 2016, load factor was up two to 95pc.

CITYJET are effectively closing their

base at London City airport. While the airline will increase its Dublin to London City service this summer, it is closing two routes from the end of March, London City to Paris Orly and Nantes, and is reducing Amsterdam to London City to four services per day.

AVID Air Capital Commercial Aircraft Leasing Company appointed Raquel Brinkman as Chief Financial Officer.

FLYBE Christine Ourmieres-Widener said she wanted to “achieve greater control over our fleet size.”

Dublin Airport T2 during the morning peak

Dublin’s traffic jam

Stephen Kavanagh says airport is turning away business

A

er Lingus CEO Stephen Kavanagh warned that Dublin Airport is turning away business because its existing infrastructure can’t handle extra traffic.

He said the state’s largest airport will turn away traffic in 2017 because of poor infrastructure, which is already “constraining growth” in 2018.

Directly addressing DAA chief Kevin Toland, he asked that the existing runway be “fully exploited” as construction starts on a new runway and that “taxiways and exit points are upgraded in the interim to enable ourselves and other carriers to grow”.

Kevin Toland said “Dublin is clearly a lot busier than it has been” and that the airport was working to “get more out of our existing infrastructure to be in a position to squeeze more movements out of the runway”.

“We’re still punching well above our weight,” he said, referring to

punctuality and turnaround times. He said that developing infrastructure “doesn’t just end at an airport taxiway, it’s about the roads, it’s about the way of actually accessing the airport”.

Responding to a question about the possibility of a second airport for the greater Dublin area, which Toland dubbed “mad”, Kavanagh said there was currently no need for one.

But he said if Dublin can’t be accessed “because the roads are clogged” or if the area surrounding the current airport “becomes so congested as to be a restraint, then for every reason that one shouldn’t have one, another airport may be a requirement”.

Michael O’Leary said the issue he’s “most attached to” is the formal abolition of the air travel tax.

O’Leary also called for further “deregulation and liberalisation within the aviation market for Europe” as

well as a “reduction in ownership restrictions on airlines. These are not big policy issues,” he said. “We have many players in this industry who fight like cats and dogs on a daily basis, but we’ve come together to agree on these (issues).”

O’Leary said it was now up to the government to implement recommendations from major players in aviation. “Governments are great for holding conferences,” he said.

“We’re going to sit here and talk until lunchtime. That’s not an excuse or replacement for action. We now need to see some action coming back from Minister Shane Ross, from the Department of Transport and from the Department of Finance.”

Matthew Thomas, chief executive of Shannon [Airport] Group, said fallout from England’s decision to leave the European Union was “a new dimension to enterprise risk management” at the company.

51 NEW TRANS-ATLANTIC ROUTES IN 2017

R

esearch by Anna. aero identified 51 new services Europe-US that will be on offer to passengers in summer 17. But airlines have also withdrawn 23 services between Europe and the US since last summer, leaving a net gain of 28 services.

The largest carriers in summer 2017 (by seats) are Delta, United, American, BA, Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic, Air France, Norwegian, Aer Lingus, Turkish, KLM, airberlin, Swiss, SAS and Icelandair.

Since 2016, Aer Lingus has been overtaken by Norwegian and has over-

taken Turkish Airlines.

While overall seat capacity across all carriers is up 6pc, none of the five leading carriers has changed its capacity (up or down) by more than three percentage points. Two of the three ‘non-flag’ European carriers (airberlin and Norwegian), are the

fastest-growing among the top 15. The USB3 are growing capacity this summer by less than 1pc while European carriers are generating a 9.4pc increase in available seats. i.e. 95pc of the growth in seat capacity is coming from European carriers compared with just 5pc from the USBig3.

APRIL 2017 PAGE 33

DESTINATION IRELAND

O

ne of the surprise successes of Irish tourism is the new whiskey academy at Midleton.

The Jameson Centre added training programmes to their visitor experience in response to demand from training groups and 1,600 people have come through since the centre opened in February, according to Kelly O’Mahony (pictured) from the centre.

Courses range from a €59 two hour lesson to one and two day courses from €295. A three day bartenders course includes a trip to Ballymaloe.

W

ith the increase in interest in Irish whiskey, Kelly O’Mahony says, there was a demand for education. “People wanted to know more. Why is it

Eoghan Corry checks out the whiskey academy in Midleton

Midleton VERY rare Tour guide Éanna Ní Néill leads a visitor tour of the Jameson Centre in Midleton Distillery past the largest pot still in the world, built in 1825 it has a capacity of 143,872 litres (31,648 gallons). After fermentation, wash was fed into the still where the distillation process began. The wash was heated by fires lit underneath. This still consumed four tonnes of coal every 24 hours. so smooth? Why is it different from Scotch and Bourbon. We used to do

little academy classes in a boardroom four times a year with PowerPoint.

What we learned from that is what worked and what did not work. We took over a derelict building. It was the bare walls.

Inside there were no floors, it was overgrown with ivy.

The building was a shrine to the beloved liquid subject. Even the gate depicts the story of whiskey, the rolling hills, barley, distillation and drops into a bottle of whiskey. The classroom is surrounded with quotations, maps, illustrations, detailing every step of the process.

The academy can host up to twenty people (“we did not want it too large,” Kelly says) and offers a full education on the production of Irish whiskey.

When Travel Extra visited the Swedish whiskey society had just been through. The academy has been booked up every day since it opened last February. The first tours were booked through Irish Distillers and the Diageo network. A website was launched during the summer and public

bookings are now coming through.

One of the discoveries during reconstruction is a huge pot that dates to the days when the building was an infirmary. It is on display amid the other paraphernalia of the distillery.

I

n Midleton the smell throughout the town was of malting barley. It is not exactly from the distillation process although comes from the distillery.

It is from the beer that proceeds the whiskey making, and it delivers an air of anticipation as it hangs over the town permeating every nostril and changing every personal perspective on world.

When I last took the original distillery tour in Midleton it was a classic 1990s showcase performance, in a few rooms dedicated to visits in a in purpose-built centre with a small tasting area.

Like a good whiskey the tour has matured. It has grown into much more. Now you see the real whiskey in storage (no photograph).

The most amazing sight of all is a stack of sample casks with one end open so you can watch the colour change of the stored whiskey.

Those small percentages, the 1pc and 2pc, they tell you about in every distillery tour around the world become significant as the colour of wood seeps into the alcohol.

A used barrel gives less colour, and with the light glowing behind you get more of a sense here than anywhere else on either the Dublin or Bushmills tours of what slow dedicated time, harvest after harvest, means to this ancient process.

https://www.irishwhiskeyacademy.com Courses include The Academy Experience course for €120, the Discoverer package which includes cask sampling €350, and the two day enthusiast package €1,199

clockwise: bottle chandelier, tasting group, outside pot, tour guide, and classroom scene

APRIL 2017 PAGE 34

GLOBAL VILLAGE THAILAND Emma Arnott of the Tourism Authority of Thailand hosted 50 agents in Belfast, 58 agents in Dublin and 46 in Cork at their roadshows. Thailand reported 67,273 visits from Ireland in 2016, up 3.9pc and have overtaken Australia for the first time as Ireland’s most popular long haul destination.

SHANNON holiday show was attended by 10,000 enthusiasts, a lively show for bookings and US destinations attracted a high level of interest.

Inside the Travel Business

BRENDAN & BOB’S OROKO MOMENT

T

ravel Department pioneer Brendan Breen and colleague Bob Haugh are planning a high end tour operating programme out of Ireland to launch in May.

The new company is a high end product selling individually tailored long haul holidays, mainly to Asia and Africa. Oroko will sell direct to the consumer and will not be deal-

ing with the trade.

It is currently directly contracting accommodation and DMCs in select destinations.

The name was deliberately innocuous, and al-

though it is the name of a Cameroonian dialect, has no destination-specific implications. Nicola Cox, who joined the company form Tralifinders, accompanied Brendan to ITB.

ROYAL CARIBBEAN

appointed Amanda Darrington formerly Head of Trade Sales at Kuoni Travel in London and of Funway Holidays as sales director for Ireland and Britain in succession to Ben Bouldin who was appointed director of Royal Caribbean London office director.

ISRAEL Sharon Bershadsky has been

appointed London-based Director of the Israel Government Tourist Office for Ireland and Britain in succession to Naama Oryan-Kaplan.

TRAVEL CORPORATION

Sharon Jordan hosted Kathryn Beadle, London based two country MD for Uniworld in Dublin this week. Uniworld is expecting a large boost from TV Show “Cruising with Jane McDonald” which airs in England on Friday.

SKAL Dublin President Daragh O’Neill hosted World President David Fisher who was in Ireland for the Joe Malone memorial service on Monday. This year’s AGM to be held at 12.30pm on Tuesday March 14th followed by lunch hosted by Ewan Plenderleith at the Herbert Park Hotel, €30 for members and €35 for guests.

TOTALSTAY

signed a hotel distribution agreement with Amadeus..

CLIA Claire Brighton from Advantage

Travel Partnership is the new Chair of the CLIA Travel Agent Advisory Council. CLIA’s Executive Partner Conference brought together 200 delegates including 46 cruise executives from 21 countries.

TURKISH Airlines, now official airline partner of the 3 Arena, is offering 2 VIP Tickets to Ed Sheeran at the 3 Arena on April 12th and 13th. Agents who ticket Dublin departure to any 292 destinations between the dates of February 13th and March 30 2017 can send the ticket number, name, mail address and the name of the agency to ie-marketing@ thy.com to enter the competition before March 25th at 17:00pm. The draw will be held on April 3.

FAHY TRAVEL Maura Fahy’s

Fahy Travel in Galway won the honeymoon planner award at the Creative Oceanic Irish wedding awards last weekend. The weddingsonline Irish wedding awards will be held on Monday at Clontarf Castle.

THOMAS COOK are to close 39 more shops in England.

CLIA introduced new selling tools for agents.

Brendan Breen and Nicola Cox of Oroko at ITB 2017 in Berlin

R

Rovers’ return Ryanair Holidays returns after false start

yanair Holidays returned online a month to the day on from its suspension, with German package travel specialist HLX Touristik, a division of HapagLloyd Express acting as new provider HLX Touristik, which also powers the package trip platforms for Lufthansa and AirBerlin, was enlisted the help of existing partner World2Meet to run the service on its behalf through a white label.

According to the airline, Ryanair Holidays is licensed and bonded in Germany, “which covers us for all of Europe, and will shortly be licensed by the CAR also.”

The new platform uses the booking engine of Peakwork and has access to

20,000 hotels from the World2Meet bedbank.

Ryanair Holidays was taken offline at the end of January this year, due to what it claimed was “illegal screenscraping and mis-selling” of flights by the company powering it, LogiTravel.

Some 200 destinations on the Ryanair network are available in the packages.

Ryanair Holidays is part of a wider programme at the airline to become, in its words, “the Amazon of air travel”.

The new Rooms brand restarted again in October last year through Expedia Inc-owned Hotels.com and Hotelopia, the consumer-facing wing

of Hotelbeds.

Similar to the first version of Ryanair Holidays, a limited rollout is expected for the relaunched Ryanair Holidays, currently live in Germany, Ireland and England, with Italy and Spain coming on stream in the coming weeks.

A Ryanair official said: “we temporarily suspended our Holidays service last month, and terminated our agreement with the software provider who was found to be unlawfully scraping Ryanair’s low fares.

We will not allow any third party software provider to ‘screenscrape’ and unlawfully re-sell Ryanair’s low fares.”

AGENTS CAN WIN FAR EAST FAM

T

urkish Airlines and Silversea have unveiled two trade promotions with prizes of business class tickets and an upcoming fam trip to the far east.

Anyone who books a Turkish Airlines and Silversea cruise together

within the next four weeks has a chance to win two business class tickets anywhere in the world.

To qualify send details to amandam@silversea. com or onurgul@thy.com.

The partners are planning a fam trip for Irish

agents to Singapore in October to which top performing agents will be invited.

The promotions were announced at an event in the Morrison hotel on Wednesday evening March 8, where Amanda Middler of Silversea and Hasan

Mutlu of Turkish told key travel agents of their plans to work together in the coming months.

Hasan Mutlu outlined Turkish Airlines growth and said the airline now flies to all the major cruise departure points.

u

APRIL 2017 PAGE 35

Inside the Travel Business

GLOBAL VILLAGE TOPFLIGHT Hilary Alexander of Greers Travel, Ballymena, won Topflight’s Valentine’s Giveaway. Topflight’s next travel agent promotion offers places on a fam trip to Italy, destination unknown, on April 6th - 9th. To enter, book an Italian holiday with Topflight. There is no need to send in booking references. To kick off the promotion, Topflight are giving double entries into the draw for week 1 for any Lake Garda or Venetian Riviera booking from Dublin, Cork or Belfast.

Hilary received her presentation from Jill Russell of Topflight after winning the Topflight Valentine’s Giveaway agent promotion.

TRAVEL CORPORATION

Dominic Burke speaking at 2016 Travel Centres conference in Mullingar

Back to Mullingar

Travel Centres returns to venue for 2017 conference

T

ravel Centres annual conference returns to the Mullingar Park Hotel on November 1011, which played host to the consortium last year.

It is the consortium’s 13th conference and has grown both in size and stature since the agency grouping held its first conference at the Keadeen hotel in 2005.

The first day of the two-day event targets travel agency owners, man-

agers and preferred suppliers with presentations and discussions.

Themes for previous year’s conferences include opera (2006, 2007), stadium bands as entertainment (2013, 2014), fancy dress (2015) and Irish themes (2016).

There will be a new theme for 2017 with workshop spot prizes and gala dinner raffle.

Previous conferences were: 2005: Keadeen, Newbridge, 2006: Mount

Wolseley, Tullow 2007: Castletroy, Limerick 2008: Killeshin, Portlaoise 2009: Sheraton Athlone 2010 & 2011: Clarion IFSC, Dublin (now called the Spencer hotel) 2012-4: Killashee, Naas 2015: Lyrath, Kilkenny The consortium, is Ireland’s largest by membership with 56 separate companies.

Among the members they operate 76 outlets.

KATHRICE JOINS BLUE WIN-A-CAR FINALISTS

K

athrice Gunning of Cassidy travel is the January finalist in the competition to win a Polo Magnifico run by Blue Insurances.

She joins Angela Taylor from Oasis Travel, Helena Kilduff from Skytours, Rose Kane from Kane’s Travel in Longford, Claire Mul-

I

ligan from Clubworld Travel, Mandy Walsh of Travel Counsellors, Rita Gaughan from Limerick Travel, Kate McGillycuddy from Abbey Travel in Killarney, Nicola Quigley from O’Hanrahan Travel and Ross Waters from Tour America in the competition for a new car.

Blue Insurances re-

minds agents to have their own unique login to make bookings count for their monthly draw.

Agents can win a bonus place at the final by posting humourous pictures or videos featuring themselves with a car to Facebook or Twitter with the hashtag #DontRenewUnlessItsBlue

bers had been refused as they were under-insured or operating without any insurance at all.

In the course of his first speech as president to the ITAA AGM Cormac outlined insurance shortcomings as one of the biggest

MSC Claire Smith joined the MSC cruises sales team for the north of Ireland after a best ever booking day for the cruise line in Ireland.

CELEBRITY Agents can win €200 towards a night out in a new Celebrity Cruises campaign. Customers receive a free drinks packages, $300 on-board spending money, free Wi-Fi and the chance for free gratuities when booking an Oceanview category or above before May 3.

VISIT ORLANDO Roadshow will visit Dublin on Thursday March 30th.

SKAL Dublin will host the Irish national AGM & Gala Dinner at The Talbot Stillorgan Hotel on Saturday March 25th.

TURKISH AIRLINES Following Turkish Airlines recent bowling contest against Dublin airport, Turkish will bowl against Belfast on Monday evening April 3 18:30 pm at The Odyssey Pavillion Belfast Hasan Mutlu, General Manager for Ireland for Turkish Airlines and Mike Adamson, CEO, Live Nation Ireland announced a new three year partnership between Turkish Airlines, 3Arena and the 1878, the Private Members Club at 3Arena which will see Turkish Airlines bring rewards and incentives to customers of 3Arena and members of the 1878.

ITAA CEO Pat Dawson addressed students

at St John’s College to encourage our students to do direct into the industry and train their way up once they receive their QQI level 5 and level 6 tourism and e travel certification as well as Galileo training;

Kathrice Gunning

ITAA WARNING ON INSURANCE

TAA president Cormac Meehan has called on travel agents to get their insurance in order.

He said that being properly insured was a prerequisite for membership of the Association and that some potential mem-

Fiona Flaherty from Fahy Travel won the Travel Corporation ‘€1,000 for agent and €1,000 for client’ competition.

issues facing the trade.

Cormac Meehan says: “during the course of my efforts to recruit new members of the ITAA it became evident to me that some potential members were not prepared to satisfy the membership prerequisite

that various liability insurances.”

“They did not appear to appreciate the need for Public Liability cover. As an Association we cannot put compliant members and our bonding at unnecessary risk.”

TRAVELPORT became the first

GDS to receive level one and level two accreditation from IATA on their NDC schema.

AMADEUS launched a rail merchant model providing travel agencies with a single link to sell multiple railways, including DB (German), RENFE (Spanish), SNCF (French, available in CESE* only), Trenitalia (Italian) and select eastern European rail operators, with more expected to join soon. Finnair, Skyscanner and Amadeus joined forces to boost conversion with assisted bookings.

CARTRAWLER partnered with American travel agent Justfly.com.

u u

APRIL 2017 PAGE 36

MEETING PLACE

Airport and Laura Ciaran Carton of Cork Irish Tourism the at t yje Cit of Finnegan blin Du in Industry Awards

Rebecca Kelly of MSC Cruises and Frank McCaffrey of AF/Delta/ KLM at the Irish Travel Industry Awards in the Mansion House

Out and about with the Travel Trade

Daragh Hanritty of Cork Airport and Helen Fyfe of Lufthansa at the Irish Tourism Industry Awards in Dublin

2016 CIE Tours International Awards 3 star hotel winner Breda Mallon of Benners Hotel, Dingle, Vivienne Jupp and Elizabeth Crabill, CEO Tours

Pat Reede of United Air lines and Vincent Harrison, MD of Dublin Air Tourism Industry Award port, at the Irish s in Dublin

ational Awards Hotel 2016 CIE Tours Intern lan of Dromoland No rk Ma r ne Dinner win p, and Elizabeth Crabill Jup e Castle withVivienn

th CIE Tours Awards 4 Sta of Failte ireland, and Ru Ebbs and Madeline Ril r Hotel winner Michelle Michael Cawley, chair urism Industry Awards in Sharon Jordan of The Travel Corporation with ey of Radisson Blu Ro To Catherine Reilly of Brendan Vacations at the Irish Ho yal Buchanan at the Irish tel, withVivienne Jupp Tourism Industry Awards in Dublin and Elizabeth Crabill Dublin

Pat Reede of United Air lines and Vincent Harrison MD of Dublin Air po Industry Awards in Du rt at the Irish Tourism blin,

vel and David

Lee Tra Rosemary O’Connell of vel Tra in Slattery of Ste

Alan Moody, GM of the Ashling Hotel, and Michael Vaughan at the Irish Tourism Industry Awards in Dublin

John Barry of Hertz, Cora Miguel of Portaventura, ra Sugrue of Aer LIngus and Cia Katerina Bomstein of Gran Canaria Tourism and Declan Kearney the Irish Tourism Industry of Failte Ireland at Natalia Bel of Salou Tourism Awards in Dublin

Paul Carty and Colette Coughlan of Guinness Storehouse at the Irish Tourism Industry Awards in Dublin

Matthew Ryan of The Grand Malahide, Joe Dolan and Tim Fenn of the IHF at the Irish Tourism Industry Awards in Dublin

Rachel Volante, Olivia Byrne and Emer Thom of American Holidays as at Awards in the Mansion the Irish Travel Industry House

ey

ing Travel and Philip Air

Des Manning of Mann of Sunway

APRIL 2017 PAGE 37

Out and about with the Travel Trade

h Niall Gibbons at the Iris Hasan Mutlu of Turkish Airlines and Jon Woolf Howard Hastings and ence in Lyrath, Kilkenny fer of Dublin Airport at the Irish Tourism Industry Hotels Federation con Awards in Dublin

Paul Carty and Gerald La Federation conference wless at the Irish Hotels in Lyrath, Kilkenny

rk Airport and Celina Mathias Richter of Co l at the Irish Tourism ga rtu Po it Vis Tavares of blin Industry Awards in Du

Mary McCormack and Jam at the Irish Travel Indust es Fleming of Sunway ry Awards in the Mansi House on

2016 CIE Tours International Awards Visit Award Winner Katherine Webster of Cliffs of Moher and Ger Dollard Vivienne Jupp, and Elizabeth Crabill

2016 CIE Tours Entertainment winner Donal Cawley of The Merry Ploughboy with Vivienne Jupp and Elizabeth Crabill

Aine Kavanagh of Guinness Storehouse and Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, CEO of ITIC, at the ITIC Brexit report launch in Dublin

vel na Kelly of Freedom Tra A Sheila Flanagan and Dervla O’Neill of Epic Ciara Mooney and Fio ITI the at Ireland with Sibeal Ni Chasaide and her father da na Ca Air ll of with Blaithin O’Donne Odhran awards

Ed Finn and Isabel Co nw Industry Awards in the ay at the Irish Travel Mansion House

Denise Harman of CWT and Valerie Metcalfe of FCM at the ITIA awardds

MEETING PLACE

Simon Daly of Topfligh t Visit Cork at the Irish Toand Ursula Morrish of urism Industry Awards Dublin in

O’Sullivan, (Killarney Elizabeth Crabill, Paul nis l (Killarney Plaza), De Towers), Igor Van Rie enue) McCarthy, (Killarney Av

Lorraine Quinn of Celeb Ward of Dublin Port at rity Cruises and Pat the Irish Tourism Indust Awards in Dublin ry

Culloden in Hollywood, Eoin O’Sullivan of the Phelan. The Heritage Co Down, and Andrew Federation conference tels Ho h Killenard at Iris

Roland Monsegu of Ca mino Ways, Daragh Hanritty of Cork Airpo rt and Martin Toomey of Camino Ways

bell lata and Denise Camp Stephen McNally of Da Ballsbridge at the Irish tel GM of the Clayton Ho s in Dublin Tourism Industry Award

APRIL 2017 PAGE 38

MEETING PLACE

Out and about with the Travel Trade

mer CIE Tours International Merit Visit Award winner Yvonne Muldoon of Aer Lingus an d Ed rienne Ledwidge Custo Maeve Slamon and Ad best Managed Business Billy Keane of John B. Keane’s Pub, Kerry from mond of Dublin Airport at the Irish To el Redthe urism Indusat s nce try ura Aw Ins ard e s in Dublin of Blu Elizabeth Crabill, , at CIE Tours awards 3 2017 awards in Dublin, March

Mariana Silveiro of Lo gitr and Monica MacLaver avel, Joanne Murphy ty of Tourism Ireland; and Carlos Garcia Pastor of Logitravel

ice Dublin Airport and Beatr ry Cormac O’Connell of ust Ind sm uri To h Iris the Cosgrove of Etihad at Awards in Dublin

Jenny Rafter of Aer Lin gus and Steve Williams MS of C Co Tony llins of Topflight

e Linda McNamara of Ac lit tsp Jus Roche of

Travel and Lorraine

Maura Maloney of Du blin O’Hanlon of Travelfind Airport and Peter ers

Padraig Cribben of the Vintners Federation and Paul gallagher of ITIC Irish Hotels Federation conference in Lyrath, Kilkenny

r Hotel winner Aidan CIE Tours Awards 5 Sta nley of The ShelHa Dempsey and Stephen p, and Elizabeth Crabill, Jup bourne, withVivienne

John Hurley, Barry Ba Garret Marrinan of the Gibson Hotel, Des Mcrker of Du Cann of Clayton Hotel Dublin Airport and Michael Iriish Tourism Industry Award blin Airport at the s in Dublin Lennon of Westport Woods Hotel

Suzanne Monks of Dublin Pass, Gavin Woods of St Patrick’s Cathedral and Emma Gorman Tourism Ireland digital campaign manager

g Dublin and Silva Doran ry Sean Clancy of Where ust Ind sm uri To h Iris the of the Aviva Stadium at Awards in Dublin

Shane Clarke of Tourism Ireland, Malcolm Byrne Mela Clarke, Mark Henry of the Higher Education Authority and Siobhan of Tourism Ireland at the and Olivia Mulhern Irish Tourism Industry McNamany of Tourism Ireland Awards in Dublin

Deirdre Sweeny of Sunway, Andrea Holmes of Sunway, Elaine Masey of Killiney Travel, Brian Hynes of The Travel Corporation

of vel, Roland Monsegu Liam Keller of Keller Tra h Hanritty of Cork Airrag Da d Camino Ways an port

APRIL 2017 PAGE 39

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION

Last month in numbers

u320.6m Irish Ferries revenue in 2016 8.2m Number of passengers on Ryanair in

February smashing their record for the month

80,000 Number of passengers on Brittany ferries Cork to Roscoff service in 2016.

172 Number of countries Irish citizens can enter without a visa according to Nomad International 140 Number of exhibitors at the Travel Industry

Trade Show in the RDS, March 22

95pc Ryanair load factor, can it be any higher?

7 Number of A321neo on their way to Aer Lingus to replace existing 757

80 Number of US airports within reach of the Aer Lingus A321neo operation

WINDOW SEAT

THOUSAND ISLAND DRESSING

D

ifficult task. There are over a thousand islands in the Caribbean, 28 countries and numerous languages including French, English, Spanish, Dutch, Hindi, Mandarin and Creole/Patois. In attempting to straddle this wealth of cultures and histories, Jelly-Schapiro can offer no more than sketches.

An old man told the author: “Do not speak untruth, no matter how pleasing. Do not speak truth that is displeasing. Only speak the truth that is pleasing.” So he does, reminding us that corrupted human transactions and brutal history just beneath the surface of the sanitised,

Island People: The Caribbean and the World by Joshua Jelly-Schapiro is published by Canongate.

all-inclusive-holiday branded, sun‑kissed islands.

Some of the best bits are approached at speed: in Grenada, he does well to capture the atmosphere, of a 1970s revolution (“Utopian dreams on a lush small Antille with weed and waterfalls from Eden”), followed by tragedy and culminating in the execution of the charismatic leader Maurice Bishop.

His last chapter concentrates on Trinidad, an island that bears dis-

turbing similarities to Jamaica with its corrupt politicians, gangsters and pervading sense of wildness: “this still-young nation retains the ambience of the OK Corral”. .

There are OK Corrals everywhere. The story does not slow down for reflection further on these. When held up at gunpoint in Trinidad he dispatches the incident in a few lines as if it were no more troubling than an airport delay.

Busman’s holiday: Con Horgan

Every month we ask a leading travel professional to write about their personal holiday experience.

This month: Con Horgan former ITAA president and formerly of Abbey Travel

My favourite holiday is not a difficult choice for me, though it may not conform to the Editor’s expectations. The type of holiday is even easier to define which, without doubt, was our family holidays together. With the advantage of over 50 years in travel, family holidays to Spain and Italy in the earlier days and later longhaul destinations such as South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, South America, The Emirates and USA, were all memorable and exciting. Barbados particularly so, even though it was, sadly, our last holiday together as a family. But my favourite place for the family holiday – surprise, surprise – is Killarney, Co. Kerry - no

T

commercial plug intended.

For many Irish people Killarney is associated with ‘Yanks’, tour buses and jaunting cars, all indispensable to the local economy.

But for me, there is another side to Killarney which makes it unique. Killarney was put on the tourist map by the visit of Queen Victoria in 1861. One of the highlights of her visit was a staged stag hunt which was to have to ended badly for the stag.

Fortunately for him he managed to escape unharmed. (Environmental issues, including control of the deer herd and halting the spread of rhododendrons are now being championed by none other than Michael Healy Rea TD).

For my family and I it was the closeness to nature with walks, biking and trekking in the National Park and the majestic scenery of the lakes with

BeKillarney lakes from Ladies view a backdrop of the towering Magillicuddys. Golf there is world class but, as the only golfer, play had to be limited to preserve family harmony.

Killarney is a walker’s paradise. Our favourite route was a 6 km walk skirting the Upper Lake to Lord Brandon’s Cottage for a well-deserved coffee stop.

From there it’s a 10 km walk through the Gap of Dunloe to Kate Kearney’s Cottage for a reviving beverage.

The trip to Lord Brandon’s Cottage can also be done by boat and from there to Kate Kearney’s Cottage by jaunting car or horseback. Another active day out was Torc Mountain (535 m) – a

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

he year of uncertainty continues with the USA upping the ante with a renewed travel ban.

Other countries are now introducing copycat travel bans, giving vent to suppressed xenophobia that has been vlidated in the new world oder.

Everyone is affected by a travel ban. Airlines have to change crew rosters, travel agents and check in staff have to make neopolitical and

sectarian decisions as they do their daily job. The travel community has been inundated with calls form muslims asking if they are allowed to travel to the USA at all.

Travel bans that single people out by race or religion or are more than blunt instruments. The US, as a nation, is in the process of doing something arbitrary, something that makes racial profiling at airports look mild, banning all the citizens of a group.

Racial profiling in airports has been a contentious issue over the past two decades with the countries that relentlessly profile by race.

The message form the international travel community should be clear. You do not, cannot make borders safer by keeping people out. You do not make borders safer by ramping up the paranoia and xenophobia to extraordinary levels.

You make borders and the world safer by welcoming people in.

challenging climb but well worth it for the panoramic view from the summit.

The town of Killarney is humming with activity day and night. It is also the hub from which all the many attractions of The Kingdom including the Wild Atlantic Way are within easy driving distance.

Our temporary residence in Killarney was a six bedroom house adjoining the National Park where we could accommodate the wider family and friends from time to time. Now the next generation are continuing the tradition and are making Killarney the base for their annual family holiday.

IN YOUR NEXT TRAVEL EXTRA: Available to Travel Agents or online May 15 2017

AUSTRALIA ISSUE Reef islands Fraser Lady Elliott Victoria THEME PARKS

u

★★★★

★

Disc�ver a w��ld �ull of w�nders...

2018

★★★★★

BELFAST TITANIC EXHIBITION CENTRE JANUARY 19/21

DUBLIN RDS SIMMONSCOURT JANUARY 26/28

Featuring:

For more info log on to:

Wedding & Honeymoon Destinations at Home and Abroad

holidayworldshow.com

NEW DATES!

UL Arena

FEBRUARY 3/4

FOR MORE INFO LOG ON TO:

holidayshow.ie

EXHIBIT! 110960 HOLIDAY WORLD SHOW FP AD_April17_V3.indd 1

Maureen Ledwith - Sales Director

Paulette Moran - Sales Manager

t: +353 (0)1 291 3700

t: +353 (0)1 291 3702

e: maureen@bizex.ie

e: paulette@bizex.ie

3/2/17 2:24 PM