Travel extra feb 2015 8mb

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PRICES AND OPTIONS FOR 2015 AFRICA ETHIOPIAN REVOLUTION AMERICA 160 FLIGHTS A WEEK Australia’s Troppo Option

By Bus in the South West

K C I P ’M I P U ME

Ferrari Friends

e e r F

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION Free

FEBRUARY 2015

VOLUME 21 NUMBER 2

A world to explore

Where to go and how much to pay for this year’s holiday

Page 003 News 08/01/2015 18:11 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 3

NEWS

www.travelextra.ie

Kos we’re worth it Greece is the word as Falcon relaunches island

K

os is the new Falcon Holidays destination for summer 2015, reflecting what the company calls the spike in interest in Greece it saw last summer.

“Spain is still the most sought after destination,” outgoing head of TUI’ Irish operation Carol Anne O’Neill said this month. “ But Greece is now becoming the word as well.”

“Following the successful launch of Rhodes in 2014, we have launched Kos for 2015. There is a demand for Greece and we offer a great range of exclusive differentiated product for all ages on the island.”

For summer 2015 Falcon have added a new holiday village in Kos, three new Splashword resorts in Crete, Kos and Malaga and two new Sensatori resorts in Ibiza and Dalaman.

L

is hoping to further boost its international visitor numbers by one million in 2015 following the success of the 2014 FIFA World Cup drawing in 1.35m visitors

CURRENCY

A survey by travel money specialists No 1 Currency showed that Irish tourists have more than €110m in foreign currency stashed in their homes. Of those who travelled outside of the Eurozone, Britain is the most popular destination (44pc) followed very closely by the US at 42pc. Australia and Canada follow at 9pc and 8pc respectively, with a further 7pc visiting Asia.

CANARY

Islands launched its new winter campaign for the European markets, promoting themselves as an unbeatable “revitalisation” destination

RUSSIA A red armoured tank has been

launched as a public taxi in St Petersburg after a long licensing campaign.

SOLDEN Scenes for the new James

Bond film, Spectre, will be shot at Sölden ski resort in Austria.

ITALY

is looking to ban trolley cases in Venice due to the noise and damage caused to the cobbled streets.

Nerantzia Castle in Kos

LOW COST LAUNCH PHONE APP

owcost holidays launched a mobile holiday booking app in Ireland offering holiday makers full search and booking functionality.

Flights, hotel, baggage, transfers and insurance are all bookable under the new app. Clem Walshe who heads up Lowcost’s Irish operation says customers usually know where they want to fly from, when they want to travel, the type of holiday they want and

BRAZIL

have a budget.

Customers booking on the app before Mar 1 can also avail of a €40 discount.

“The new lowcostholidays app has an Inspire Me deal hunter offering the latest deals for holiday makers.”

“The app offers flight and hotel searches, hotel only searches, single and multi-room bookings and covers flights from all Irish airports.

“Hotel descriptions, maps and reviews are also available as well as Hotel Top tens and top places to stay by genre including the best family hotels, adultsonly accommodation or properties offering free WiFi. “The payment process allows confirmation documents sent via email and there is a Call To Book option for those who would rather speak to someone.

“We are really excited

about this development which offers customers the opportunity to make one booking, with flight and hotel together. With so many hotels and destinations offering all sorts of deals, the lowcostholidays app takes the stress out of booking a holiday by bringing the best deals right to the customer no matter where they are and giving them the option to book these directly from one app.”

IRISH customers booking their Walt Dis-

ney World Resort tickets through Attraction Tickets Direct in January will receive 14 day tickets for the price of seven and a free Boggy Creek Airboat ride for every customer.

NEW ZEALAND expects a surge of visitors following the release of the final part of The Hobbit film trilogy. From July 2013 to June 2014, 13pc of international visitors said the fantasy film which was shot in NZ influenced their decision to holiday there.

AA Travel Insurance reported a survey of

830 people resident in Ireland who have been skiing or snowboarding within the last 5 years, 47pc said they always wore a helmet on their last trip, 10pc said they sported an avalanche transceiver or bleeper on their last trip with many sharing that it was built into their ski jackets, while 75pc said they never hit the slopes without their mobile phone.

BOOK NOW YOUR SUMMER 2015 HOLIDAY

The Perfect Package!

ONLINE:

falconholidays.ie

CALL:

1850 45 35 45

NEW Destination Kos

+

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K Kids’ Clubs, HolidayVillages & Splash Resorts

VISIT:

Falcon Travel Shops or Travel Agent Terms and conditions apply. Falcon is fully bonded and licensed by CAR (TO 021).Departures from Dublin, Cork and Shannon Airports.

Page 004 Knowledge 09/01/2015 13:56 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 4

THE KNOWLEDGE Travel Extra Advertising & Subscriptions 6 Sandyford Office Park Dublin 18 (+3531) 2913707 Fax (+3531) 2957417 Editorial Office Clownings Straffan Co Kildare 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 Accounts and Advertising: Maria Sinnott maria@bizex.ie Picture Editor: Charlie Collins pix@travelextra.ie Sunday Supplement & Online: Conor McMahon conor@travelextra.ie Chief Features Writer: Anne Cadwallader anne@travelextra.ie Contributors : Eanna Brophy eanna@travelextra.ie Marie Carberry marie@travelextra.ie Carmel Higgins carmel@travelextra.ie Cauvery Madhavan cauvery@travelextra.ie Sean Mannion sean@grafacai.ie Ida Milne ida@travelextra.ie Catherine Murphy cathmurph@yahoo.com

Travel Extra takes no responsibility for errors and omissions.

Distribution Manager: Shane Hourican shane@bizex.ie Origination: Typeform

Printer: WG Baird Limited Caulside Drive Greystone Rd Antrim BT41 2RS Contact +35387-2551675 if you have difficulty getting Travel Extra.

CONTENTS

www.travelextra.ie

3 News Where to go,h ow much to pay 6 Hotels: News 8 Postcards: News from the trade

I

14 Destinations: Austria, Chicago, Ethiopia, Marrakech, Rimini, river cruising on the Rhine, Salamanca, the Serengeti, Sydney, Thailand, and Zanzibar.

24 Holiday World: Fun of the fair 48-52 Flying: Airline and airport news

54 Afloat: Cruise direct from Dublin 56 Ireland: Guiness top attraction 57 Ireland: Busing the south 58 Ireland: The Heaney trail 59 Global Village Inside the travel industry 60 Window seat: Our columnists 61 Pictures: Out and about

The air necessities the south side lounges in T2. Economy passengers to use the facility for a walk-in price of €20 for three hours. Etihad have the best lounge in the airport off the walkway form T2 to T1, Aer Lingus have a two storey lounge next door while the Anna Livia lounge in T2 is accessible to Priority Pass holders.

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

TERMINAL

Like the city itself Dublin airport has a north side and south side. The south terminal T2 has all the trendy destinations, Emirates and Etihad alternating on gate 407 the first on the right after you have descended Ireland’s longest escalator. Gates 401-6 downstairs are blocked off for much of the day

by US pre-clearance.

Heathrow and Gatwick flights are always on the next nearest gates. If you are flying to the Canary Islands prepare for a long walk to the last of the 400 gates. Even this is preferable to the bizarre walk from T2 back to the 300 gates at T1 for some Aer Lingus flights. Ryanair, Cityjet, and the charters are to be found at the 200 gates, and everyone else at the 100 gates. There are dedicated relaxation areas airside in T1 with window views of the apron and a working area with free wi fi and lots of power charge points.

MOBILE Ryanair and the charter operators are the only ones still using paper for boarding passes, something we are told will change before summer. As Ryanair are responsible for 40pc of the traffic form Dublin, this will save a lot of paper. Aer Lingus boarding pass links are still a bit tricky when you are

Self service passport control at T1

abroad – sometimes the text giving you the link only arrives when you land home.

APPS Dublin Air-

port is gone all apphappy, app includes gate numbers, check in numbers, baggage belt and an estimated time to clear security. Passbook allows passengers to store any number of mobile boarding passes directly into the app, meaning that they do not need to have actual printed copies of their tickets: Air China, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Lufthansa, Qantas and United are among those signed up.

FAST TRACK

DAA has a tiered membership system allowing parking in the short term car park and fast-track, book on the website.

SELF-TAG Aer

Lingus are planning to roll out a self-tagging trial in the coming months.

CHECK-IN Aer

Lingus have the most, 29 check-in/bag-drop desks at T2. The number of desks dedicated to

check-in versus bag-drop vary on a daily basis depending on passenger loads however we tend to have more bag-drop than check-in. In addition Aer Lingus have 22 self service check-in or bag drop kiosks in all.

SHOPPING

There is much work under day here as the Loop shopping area on the approach to the 300 gates has been scaled down and moved elsewhere (now that transAtlantic flights no longer leave from here). Extensive relocations elsewhere in T1 include Boots and Wrights while the short lived National Geographic shop has closed.

LOUNGE The Terminal 1 Anna Livia lounge has been extended to bring together the former Anna Livia lounge and the BMI executive lounge into one large unit. The extended lounge has seating for 110 customers, includes a business area with computers and wi-fi and a family room with children’s play facilities, bringing it into line with

US CBP All of

Aer Lingus’s US-bound flights now pre-clear in Ireland. There are 165 flights to the USA and Canada each week in summer 2015. The new Ethiopian service to Los Angeles will, hoever, not be using US CBP.

BUSES Another revolution is the number of bus services to all parts of Ireland leaving from outside Terminal 1 each day: getting there and back has never been easier: Aircoach, Airport Hopper, Ardcavan, Bus Eireann, Citylink, Gobe, Goldline, John McGinley, Kavanagh, Dublin Coach N7, and Wexford Bus. and the trusty Dublin bus routes. The bus stops have been moved around in the past year including the car park buses (Quickpark moved from a left-hand to a right-hand turn exiting the car park building early last year) but most of them still leave from outside Terminal 1.

There are notices in the terminal giving the locations by zone.

BAGGAGE

Carry on limits for holiday charter flights are still catching people out.

While Aer Lingus and Ryanair both allow 10kg

(55x40x24 with Aer Lingus with Ryanair 4cm narrower 55x40x20), they are among the most generous allowances in aviation so be prepared for a 5kg or even 4kg limit when you are boarding some other airlines. Aer Lingus Regional’s new ATRs also have a bigger cabin bag space but the allowance is still 6kg (48x33x20).

Aer Lingus have a three tier system with checked baggage and Ryanair a two-tier system before you hit the penal extra charges, five euro a kilo.

PASSPORTS

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

SECURITY All the security in terminal one is concentrated on the left hand side with self scan machines admitting passengers.

HEATHROW

Aer Lingus flights now arrive and depart from Terminal 2 in Heathrow while BA’s Dublin flights arrive from T5. It makes connections easier for both airlines and also an easier exit to the Tube and Heathrow Express.

page 005 08/01/2015 09:31 Page 1

Page 006 Hotels 08/01/2015 09:26 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 6

HOTELS

www.travelextra.ie

IHF Nine in ten Irish hotels and guesthouses have seen an increase in business in 2014, according to the Irish Hotels Federation’s latest survey. Two-thirds of hotels and guesthouses took on additional staff this year. However, almost two in five hoteliers say they are still concerned about the viability of their business.

DALATA

is seeking to acquire nine of the Moran Bewley’s hotels for €455m, comprising 2,506 rooms. The Red Cow Hotel will remain under the control of Limerick businessman Tom Moran and his family. The deal will be subject to clearance from competition authorities and shareholder approval at an EGM on Jan 5.

Reign of Spain

AMPLEFORTH, the group that op-

erates the Fitzwilliam hotel and the Bailey pub in Dublin filed a pre-tax profit of €1.9m for 2013, up 8.5pc.

INTERCONTINENTAL The

Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin has been renamed the InterContinental Dublin from January 1 after a franchise agreement was signed with the InterContinental Hotels Group.

TRIPADVISOR Italy's antitrust au-

thority has fined travel planning website TripAdvisor €500,000 following complaints of improper business practices lodged by a national hoteliers' association and a consumer protection agency that TripAdvisor had failed to adopt controls to prevent false reviews, while at the same time promoting the site's content as “authentic and genuine.”

Surprise moves in winter room price index

Zaragosa Basílica del pilar con Ebro

Z

aragoza has unexpectedly Europe’s cheapest hotel room rates, according to price com-

IRSH PRICES

HYATT Hotels is to roll out free Wi-Fi in

rooms and public spaces in all of its hotels.

Hilton Worldwide's digital check-in service for HHonors members is now live in over 4,100 hotels.

MANOR House Hotels and Irish Country Hotels saw 170 weddings at 25 properties during Christmas, a 10pc increase.

PUBS English pub chain JD Wetherspoon

said it will invest over €4m developing a pub and hotel at Camden Hall on Camden Street, and hopes to create 75 new jobs.

KILLARNEY-based holding company

Gleneagle Holdings, which is known for the Gleneagle Hotel and its sister properties, made a loss of €606,228 in 2013 compared to a profit of €45,093 in 2012. Turnover was down 2pc to €21.7m.

MARRIOT has asked the US Federal

Communications Commission to clarify when hotels can block personal Wi-Fi hotspots inside their buildings in order to protect their internal Wi-Fi services. In October the FCC fined Marriott $600,000 after customers complained about the practice and a decision is expected in the coming days to a petition asking the agency to “declare that the operator of a Wi-Fi network does not violate (US law) by using FCC-authorised equipment to monitor and mitigate threats to the security and reliability of its network,” even when taking action causes interference to mobile devices.

RIU Resorts announced that all their resorts will have free Wi-Fi in the New Year.

parison site Trivago.

The cathedral city located strategically between Barcelona and Madrid had its hotel bed stock boosted by hosting the 2008 Expo and has consistently sat among the best value desinatins in Europe on hotel price indices.

This spring it is beating the usual value winners Bucharest and Sofia.

Prices in a number of other destinations in Spain have also decreased significantly, with Barcelona (-28%), Bilbao (-24%) and Seville (-24%) making the top 10.

The biggest decreases in comparison to last year are found Florence (33%) and Rome (-32%) showing the sharpest price drops.

Hotel prices have decreased sharply across Europe with the average hotel price in many cities down by a quarter compared to last year.

Based on the 50 most popular European cities on trivago, hotel prices have dropped by an average of 14 per cent in comparison to last month. One night will cost an average of €109, compared to €126 last month.

John Pilkington of Tirvago said “travellers from Ireland planning a European getaway will get more for their Euro this month, with a number of locations showing a sharp decrease in prices. Holidaymakers to Venice, for example, could save up to €90 a night this month in comparison to last month.

In Ireland, prices have generally decreased in comparison to October 2014, with Kenmare (-14%), Galway (-12%) and Sligo (-10%) showing the largest drops.

Clifden was the only location in Ireland to show a significant increase – of 12pc.

€229

EUROPEAN HOTEL PRICE INDEX €141 €113 €100 €90 €84

€71

€220

€138

€68

Geneva

London

€166 Oslo

€159

Stockholm

€150 Donegal

€148

Amsterdam

Manchester Venice

€133 Milan

€127 Clifden

€124

Edinburgh

€120 Brussels

€143

€119

€142

€115

Copenhagen Munich

Glasgow Cologne

Brighton Florence Hamburg Lyon Vienna

€112 Dublin

Kenmare Turin

Derry Sligo

€98

€89

Istanbul Wicklow

€96

€111

Killarney Madrid

€110

Kilkenny

Belfast

Frankfurt

€109

Toulouse

€87

€95 €93

Dingle

Cannes Rome

€108

€92

€106

€91

Barcelona

€88

Leipzig Westport

Berlin Cork Tralee

Liverpool

Kinsale

Marseille Lisbon

€86 €85

Athlone Doolin Nice Valencia Wexford

Dresden

€83

Galway

€81 Prague

€80 Sevilla

€79 Athens

€77

Waterford

€76

Bilbao Limerick

€72

Malaga

Bucharest Granada Riga

€67

Rosslare

€66

Budapest

€63

Warsaw

€60 Sofia

€58

Zaragoza source: Trivago.ie

You’re thinking about the biggest decision in your life, the step from agency to running your own business. But who’ll help you over the first few hurdles? Isn’t it time to...

PHONE A Well, if you live in Ireland, it could be Ciara MacConnell, an operations executive with Travel Counsellors for the last seven years, who becomes your best friend.

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“You’ll still be doing what you enjoy most... selling travel, but for the first time you’ll be facing the transition, from a salaried job to running your own business.”

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There’s so much freedom and opportunity. I tell them there’s nothing they can’t achieve with the incredible support available in every area of their business. That’s what we’re here for and that’s why I’d like you to call me so I can explain more about the move that will change your life.”

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OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE

Have an informal, confidential chat on 0818 33 20 03 Find out more at www.travelhomeworking.ie or email the team at careers@travelcounsellors.ie

Page 008 Trends 2015 08/01/2015 09:28 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 8

2015: THE WORLD TO EXPLORE

It all Addis up nicely Ethiopian route the star of 24 new holiday options Tisisat Falls on the Blue Nile near Bahir Dar in Ethiopia

T

here is no doubting the headline act for 2015: a direct route from Dublin to Addis Adaba.

It is Ireland’s first scheduled Dreamliner route and the first to involve fifth freedom rights, because Ethiopian will pick up and drop off passengers in Dublin before flying on to Loa Angeles.

It may be the most exciting route in an exciting decade for Irish aviation.

Addis Adaba opens up East Africa to the Irish holiday maker. Until now South Africa has been our playground of choice when it comes to Africa.

South Africa is familiar: the 40,000 tourists we send there is equal to the combined total of all the other safari destinations together.

It is also inferior, the safari that honeymooners experience is usually on a private game park where the carnivores and herbivores are separated, Fota in the Veldt.

The real safari is in the countries that we have overflown on our way to the Cape of Jo’burg.

Kilimanjaro, Serengeti, Masai Mara, the gorilla treks of Uganda and

Rwanda and sun soaked Zanzibar are all easier to access.

The other side of the Ethiopian equation is a direct flight to Los Angeles again after a six-year hiatus. Initial prices on the route are offering savings of €2000 on indirect routes, normally you expect to pay more to fly direct from Dublin.

N

orth America is big news. Dublin Airport will have a record 162 transatlantic flights a week next summer, meaning it will overtake Rome to become Europe’s sixth busiest transatlantic hub, Chicago is up to four daily for the summer with the arrival of United on the route. Aer Lingus are to return to Washington DC for the summer and have put on an early morning flight to JFK meaning you can day trip to Manhattan if the mood takes you. The Canadian services from Air Cansda Rouge and Westjet were hugely successful in 2014 and remain in place with an extended season to St John’s.

Copenhagen is on the dpeartures board from Dubln for the first time

this summer with a scheduled service from WOW (there is a long history of charters on the route). It opens up one of the newest and most spectacular natural baths on the planet, the Blue Lagoon convenient to the airport.

Gothenburg, the partygoing cousin to the more staid Stockholm, is back on the departure board courtesy of SAS and there are new operators to Barcelona, Menorca and Sharm El Sheikh.

Ryanair’s nine new 2014 routes from Dublin and eight from Shannon have already provided extra options for Irish holiday makers: Marrakech and Comiso were the surprise success of last summer. Ryanair are also increasing capacity on established routes in 2015.

Aer Lingus is starting Nantes in competition with Ryanair and continuing Agadir through summer while capacity increases include DublinParis, Palma by 50pc, Stuttgart by 25pc, Bilbao by 20pc, Fuerteventura by 100pc, Bordeaux by 20pc, Lyon by 17pc, Venice by 12pc, Faro by 6pc, Izmir by 55pc and Bourgas by 25pc while Cork-Malaga will increase.

Jet2.com plans to add four new routes from Belfast International in summer 2015 to Rome (2w), Prague (2w), Las Palmas (1w) and Zakinthos (1w).

R

ecently introduced double daily flights through Abu Dhabi and Dubai from Etihad and

Emirates have opened up new connection options, both airline offer around 100 onward connections each and Turkish offer 200 through Istanbul, opening up the former Southern Soviet States.

That is good news for our prime eastern destinations, Australia and Thailand with increased onward frequencies and destiantions from both airlines.

Our traditonal hubs have not gone away: heathrow, with its endless walking, and Charles de Gaulle, with its endless booking improved byond recognition with new terimanl edvelopments last eyar.

Aer Lingus passenegrs are now better set up for connections through the new Heathrow T2, BA passengers through T5, and in Paris the number

of people missing connections has decreased from 6pc three years ago to 0.6pc at year end.

For those whose final desitnation is London T2 and T5 are both nearer rail links from Heathrow, but there is an even more exciting development on the other side (and nearer to) the city centre where THRE sperate airlines are serving Dublin to London City airport, offeirng 12 flights a day amongst them.

There wil be exhibotrs from 55 countries at the Holiday World show.

In the 26 years since the fair began the world has shrunk with shorter journey times, more efficient aircraft and cheaper prices.

THE 24 NEW ROUTES FROM IRISH AIRPORTS IN 2014 Agadir - Aer Lingus BELFAST CITY CORK Nantes - Aer Lingus Amsterdam – KLM

Prague – CSA

Rome – Jet 2 Prague – Jet 2 Las Palmas – Jet 2 Las Vegas – Virgin Orlando - Virgin Zakinthos – Jet 2

East Midlands - Aer Lingus Reg Helsinki, Finland - Finnair Los Angeles - Ethiopian Addis Ababa, - Ethiopian Airlines Barcelona- Vueling Gothenburg- SAS Washington DC - Aer Lingus

BELFAST INT.

DUBLIN

Reykjavik- Wow Air Bournemouth - Flybe Newquay, - Aer Lingus Regional Chicago - United Airlines Paris Orly, - Transavia

SHANNON

Kaunas - Ryanair Manchester – Ryanair

page 009 08/01/2015 09:46 Page 1

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Page 010 Marrakech 08/01/2015 09:48 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 10

DESTINATION MOROCCO

M

arrakech is one of the more intriguing new routes that started from Dublin during 2014.

It has opened to the Irish market one of the best of Club Med’s collection of 80 all-inclusive resorts from around the world.

Marrakech is an acquired taste, some people find it a little too much in their faces to enjoy a holiday there. The key to Club Med is that it is an escape within a comfort zone. We love our comfort zones, particularly when the journey takes us to places where we have been conditioned by external forces to regard as uncomfortable, for which read Islamic countries and Asia.

Club Med offers the little excursions out beyond the comfort zone for those who enjoy something more adventurous than the badminton or the tennis or the swimming pool.

M

arrakech is surprisingly adventurous for a town so full of five star hotels and cruise ship coach excursions.

The adobe walls are pockmarked. Sometimes the sun peeps through.

Motor bikes whittle by, tooting their horns, women in burqas perched precariously atop, the Moroccan flag draped from poles at the side. If

The Fez Factor

Eoghan Corry samples Club Med in Marrakech Wares on display in the market in Marrakech you time it right, the call to prayer fills the eardrums but every sense is being engaged. You smell spices you can never recognise, even when there doesn’t seem to be anyone selling them nearby.

You need somewhere comfortable to retreat to after taking on a day in the market place, with its peculiar secret codes of collective purchasing, the cries of “I give you global price, I give you democratic price ,” and the over-riding feeling that, no matter how hard you haggle, and getting them

down to 20pc of the original asking price is not unusual here, that you have been roundly ripped off.

One of the women in the party concluded: “I definitely paid too much, he gave me a packet of tissues as well.”

That's for you to cry all the way home,” she was told.

A

ll inclusive can change the mindset of the people who stay in a resort structured in that fashion.

They like to participate and they like to party.

If you are paying seven

euro for your glass of wine at the bar you do not ten to stay out as late.

Club Med understand this.

Activities are the selling point for many of the Club Med resorts. In Marrakesh we watched as the staff went through very complicated line dancing routines and prepared for the Michael Jackson show the following nights.

The staff are all full of

the sort of enthusiasm that people don't get in the mundane Monday to Friday lives that they lead but seek when they go on holidays.

W

hat are the high points?

You can’t go wrong with the night club. It is high enough, looking over the resort, as if to suggest that prominence should be given to

those who stay up late, drink dramatic cocktails, and successfully negotiate their way down the stairs.

Other resort-rats may slumber away at a somewhat different level, the downstairs people.

During the day you can view the town from here.

It seems distant, a red sand Oz, minarets peeping beyond the palm trees, with the mountains beyond.

Eoghan Corry travelled to Marrakech courtesy of Sunway, who run the Club Med programme out of Ireland, offering all-inclusive holidays in 80 Club Med resorts across the world. +3531 2311800 www.sunway.ie or your local travel agent.

Clockwise: The main square, minaret, view from Club Med across Marrakech city, side street and Club Med bedroom

page 011 08/01/2015 09:51 Page 1

We’relaid-back

We’reupbeat

We’re Egypt

See you by the Red Sea SHARMELSHEIKH- HURGHADA www.egypt.travel

Page 012 Rimini 08/01/2015 09:53 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 12

DESTINATION ITALY

I

came to Modena, like everyone else, because of Ferrari. I was assured by my female companions that it is a fast car thing, rather than a guy thing.

The Ferrari museum is a surprise. The building an unusual shape, in the countours a hand almost like it is grasping its predecessor. A soundtrack, perhaps the most peculiar to be found in any modern traction, plays national anthems of leading countries in a loop.

Some of them are not even the national anthems of car producing or driver breeding nations. But it works. And the reason is that it lends an air of grandeur to the business of bolting together wheels, nuts and combustion engines. That's what Ferrari did best.

This is a reminder of the greater purpose, the ambition, the willingness to follow their dreams, that inspired the men of another age and ours to chaste faster and safer and better built motor cars.

W

e crossed the Rubicon on the way, without noticing, a bridge on the A14 from Bologna to Rimini. Historians still squabble as to which was the real Rubicon. An undistinguished stream

Eoghan Corry drives a Ferrari and finds other thrills in Rimini

Vroom with a view Spot the mid life crisis bears the name nowadays.

Once you are across it, like Caesar, there is no going pack.

There is a reason for uncertainty, a reason to pause. You are now in tItalys; playground, the triple centre resorts of Rimini, Riccione, and Cattolica.

The journey there takes you through fields of sunflowers, the cherry orchards for which the province if Emiglia Ro-

magna is famous, barley and maize (being harvested as we sped by), famous for peach, apple and kiwi trees, past the villas where produce traditional balsamic vinegar is produced, past the set of the film Novecento by Bernardo Bertaluci, (near San Donnino), pas the vineyards of Marcello, one of the best red sparkling wines in the world and the omnipresent Lambrusco grapes, so important to be

accorded their own statue in Modena, like you would pay tribute to famous poet, or famous dynasty of poets Lambrusco is an extra dimension of reality rather than a grape type, with distinctive regional variants, l'ambrusco Di Sorbara, l'ambrusco Di Castelveltro and l'ambrusco Di Grasparossa.

The land here is precious and kept for tillage.

The animals are kept in byres and stables.

Y

ou look down from the top of Kamikaze with the sort of fear that all these water slides engender. – “will I get down but of course they wouldn’t get insurance if I didn’t (would they?)’” – a familiar fear that all these water slides are supposed to invoke in would be riders.

Then you start moving.

And then you don't see

Rimini is primarily a playgound for Italians rather than foreigners

anything, because the water splashes across your eyelids, and in the absence of windscreen wipers, there is nothing to see.

All you know is that you have hit a good wall of water. Your bum by now is well spanked, your togs beginning to creep up an orifice which was NOT meant for entry, and you have ground, or perhaps watered, to a stop.

The theme park owners had helpfully put up a big red sign telling you your speed, 85.9km.

I feel like I must have lost some points off my license, as well as several points off my anatomical conditioning.

F

or the signature ride in Aquafan water park, trek 250m, collect your water raft, mount steps until you reach Extreme River.

Extreme River descends a slide that is shaped like a

V.

Two people sit in each water raft and are launched down what looks and feels like a cliff face and then ascend a similar cliff face on the other side. It takes three, four, five swings before you are heading for the exit through a V and a short drop to a shallow pool where there are anxious teenagers waiting to collect your water raft and have a go for themselves. Being Italian, they all look hopelessly romantic and like they are in love.

From the front the view is terrific, like you're about to go down a particularly wet ski slope with no skis and precious little protection except the possibility of ascent on the other side of the V. The fun does not end with the rides. All of the toilets are squat toilets.

That might provide the most demanding challenge of the day.

Eoghan Corry travelled to Emilia-Romagna courtesy of Topflight, Ireland’s largest operator to Italy, who offer a charter service to Bologna. See +3531 2401784 www.topflight.ie or your local travel agent.

page 013 08/01/2015 10:36 Page 1

Page 014 Salamanca 08/01/2015 10:38 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 14

DESTINATION SPAIN

S

alamanca has a special place in Irish history. It 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 institution 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.

T

he student population of 30,000 sustains a boisterous night life and delectable varieties of craft beers; the local Malasombra pale ale, Bizarra, Bel-

Shangri La of Language Eoghan Corry joins a Spanish langiuage school in Salamanca Colegio de Los Irlandeses in Salamanca mantica, Blass.

Local wines from the 247 vineyards of the Ribera del Duero wine region come in at a fraction of the cost of the surprisingly similar but more famed Rjocas that everyone usually orders, There are dozens of character-laden local bars populated by characters: Erasmus is the magnet for the Dutch (and everyone else), the distinctive Casa Paca offers a cornucopia of hanging hams and a stunning tapas menu, Rio de la Plata, and the bouncing strobe lights of

Centenara to top off the night.

An escape from the city brings you to Castillo del Buen Amor, where costumed actors dramatise the passionate history of the castle. The Bishop of Salamanca kept his lover here. A chastity belt is kept on display high on the wall of the entrance hall. It looks like it was never used.

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

n Eoghan Corry travelled to Salamanca courtesy of the Spanish Tourist Board and Salamanca City Council to attend the fifh Spanish Language Tourism event ECELE (Encuentro Internacional de Centros de Ensenanza de Espanol) n He flew to Madrid with Aer Lingus, for lowest fares see aer.lingus.com.

A

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

THINGS TO DO PLACES TO SEE

n The building which houses the Casa Lis (Museum of Art Nouveau and Art Deco) is a work of art in itself with its stained glass windows and facade. Inside is a wonderful collection of Chryselephantine (small sculptures made of bronze and ivory) and porcelain dolls. n The Asador Don Mauro restaurant in Plaza Mayor is a typical Salamancan restaurant. Take a long lunch and watch as the waiters dextrously carve wafer thin slices of Iberico ham that melt in your mouth. n One of the cities loveliest buildings is the Casa de las Conchas (House of

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 foreign 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 Tú for them to prove my commitment.

Nobody was fooled.

the Shells) named after the scallop shells adorning its walls. It now houses a public library. n The Huerto de Calixto y Melibea or Secret Garden is located behind the cathedral and is the site of Spain’s version of a Romeo and Juliet (La Celestina) type love story. It is filled with olive trees and affords lovely views over the city. n It is said that all visitors to Salamanca must look for the lucky frog.

He is positioned high up on the carvings on the outside of the Universidad Civil. Good luck finding him.

Rooftops of Salamanca

Page 015 Chicago 08/01/2015 18:15 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 15

DESTINATION USA

C

hicago is among the most walkable of city centres.

But using the public transport system to reach what is beyond is another story.

Whoever designed the urban transport could not be accused of joined up thinking. The Metra lines do not meet.

The bus system is effective but only if you travel to essential points.

Getting from suburb to suburb, even from attraction to attraction, requires meticulous planning and, more often than not, departing public transport to get a taxi.

To understand Chicago, take to the water. The river whose course was reversed is one of the first great engineering marvels of a city which still celebrates its engineers and architects.

The architecture tour, appropriately, things place on a boat because this is the best position from which to view the towering structures of shining glass and collision between mid century modernism art deco and millennial flamboyance that erupts around you as you travel from block to block, bridge to bridge, through the watery artery of the city.

Chicago no longer builds the great skyscrapers of the world in their own city.

The Willis Tower, formerly the Sears Tower, and the Hancock building, one of the most iconic built structures in the world, will not be supra seed by anything higher in the immediate future.

But that does not stop

Windy City Whirl

Eoghan Corry finds some tall tales in skyscraper city

give a flavour of what it was like to live in the city when this was the most happening place in the world, its population bulging and doubling every 10 years with immigrants, wave after wave of them changing the character and pace of the city every few years.

The Irish were amongst them, infatuated with how much money could be made and how lives could be transformed emotionally and psychologically as much as by the freezing winter temperatures. The brother of an uncle of mine, Donal Campbell, once told me when he went to Chicago from Clare as a young man he could pit and hear the clunk of the ice as it hit the ground.

W Cloud Gate or The Bean by Anish Kapoor in Chicago’s Millennium Park Chicago. The towering buildings of Taiwan, Dubai, and potentially, Saudi Arabia, are designed and connived here in the heart of American architectural culture.

Look up, it is Chicago.

T

o experience the soul of the city seek exactly that, the music.

The blues clubs of the city centre places like Blue Chicago are as genuine and authentic as Vegas is fake.

On our night visit to Blue Chicago one of the audience members was invited to take the microphone with sophisticated and suave set that would take the breath away of

the most cynical tourist.

Chicago is still a hard drinking city, perhaps a relic of some of those extreme waves from beer swilling north Europe. it is a good place to party and tan easy place to find convivial conversation over a few beers.

I

t was in Chicago, where else, that I learned of Al Capone’s contribution to world health.

Al had grown up in the poor neighbourhoods of Brooklyn, the wrong side of the tracks, before moving to Chicago, the town that invented the phrase.

It was said a relative became ill and died after drinking spoilt milk.

THINGS TO DO: PLACES TO SEE

n Hancock Tower: One of the world’s most important buildings with views to the lake. Visit at dusk n Art Institute of Chicago, one of the world’s greatest art collections and home to American Gothic. n Museum of Science and Industry: Signature attraction is the intact german u-boat installed inn the basement.

n Shedd Aquarium: The world’s first salt water inland aquarium, frat with penguins and swim with belugas. n Cloud Gate: Anish Kapoor's beanshaped sculpture and centrepiece of Millennium Par is selfie heaven. n Willis Tower: No longer highest in the world but by some distance the world’s best tall’ visitor experience.

Capone opened soup kitchens during the depression, acquired his own dairy and lobbied his client politicians, Mayo William Hale Thompson, to pass a law requiring an expiration date on milk.

When the milkman’s union objected, he had the chief kidnapped and used the $50,000 ransom paid to open his own dairy.

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here are four people from Chicago that are well known internationally: Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Barack Obama and Al Capone. Chicago is reluctant, to put it mildly, to celebrate its gangster history. The warehouse where the Valentine's Day massacre occurred is now a green swathe of parkland with no commemorative features. Al Capone’s house can be visited but is not promoted as a tourist at-

traction.

But one landmark of the history of the gangster era is definitely worth a look: the Biograph cinema outside which John Dillinger was shot. Most of the bars around here started out life as speakeasies.

Today they are landmarks on the streets of Armitage known for their Bohemian flavour and birthplace of icons of Chicago hospitality such as Charlie Trotter’s restaurant.

Away from the neckache city centre sunblock skyscrapers, this is as good place as any to explore and get under the skin of Chicago.

Access is easy from the city centre loop line. If the best place to see Chicago it's from its water courses, the loop line comes a close second.

Some of the stations have been restored in all their period splendour to

hen the wooden city burned down, as wooden cities usually do, in 1871, the Irish were blamed, or to be more exact, Daisy, Catherine O’Leary’s cow of 137 De Koven Street (the block is now the site of the Chicago Fire Academy.).

The cow was pardoned by the city council in 1997, injustice victim of an over-zealous journalist who first spread the story that the cow started the fire by kicking over a kerosene lantern.

Chicago being Chicago, the journalist, Michael Ahern, was also from Cork.

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he lake is clear blue, like it was created by a painter. Not by design, zebra mussel ate all the marine life which left the environmentalists unhappy but makes for better pictures.

That’s Chicago. A series of accidents, some unhappier than others.

Ask Daisy the cow.

n Aer Lingus fly twice daily between Dublin and Chicago O’Hare at 11.30 and EI125 at 15:45 Fares start €309 each way incl charges. www.aerlingus.com

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Page 018 Sydney bridge climb 08/01/2015 10:57 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 18

DESTINATION AUSTRALIA

Where life is a bridge Eoghan Corry tries a famous bridge climb of a famous bridge

Views of two familiar icons from a new angle.

S

omething that marks out both of Sydney's most iconic attractions is how close they sit to the horizon to each other.

As you view from Circular Quay into the morning sun the bridge seems to sit like a steel hat upon the ferry boats, and the fans of the opera house sit like fins on the low horizon beyond. Two of Australia’s four tourist icons (the others are the rock and the reef) are effectively in the same oblong square, inviting an instagram moment.

The Irish flag is the one that you notice coming up the street. One of the most famous Irish pubs in the world, Mercantile is right at the top of George Street, the hostelry closest to the Sydney Harbour bridge.

It is on the corner of an extension of George Street that led through Robert Campbell’s property to the boat operated

by Commodore Blue Billy Blue who ran the first ferry service across the harbour from Dawes point to Blue’s point.

Beyond that is the Harbour View Hotel. Here, the prevailing sound changes and is dominated by the rattle of traffic travelling overhead on the steel girders.

Some motorbikes are parked in a large park beside a refurbished industrial chimney. “Warning: unauthorised climbing on bridge is an offence, maximum penalty of $2200,” reads the sign. No need to worry. The legal climb costs a tenth of that and seems more fun.

T

here is a pylon lookout a little bit further up the street but when you come to number 3 Cumberland Street you can do something perfectly legal and one of the great experiences for the modern tourist in Sydney, the bridge climb.

The pre-climb cinema presentation comes without a commentary and, when we watched it, had an atmospheric “replace lamp” note in the bottom corner.

There you learn the little details about the bridge, the pet raven that had three young last year, two of whom survived, the thieving magpies that prey on visitors, and Ireland’s contribution to the opening ceremony in 1932: a disgruntled

Anglo-Irish activist Francis de Groot photobombed the ceremony. A member of Australia’s version of the Blueshirts, he arriving on horseback to cut the ribbon with his sword and upstaging the left-wing Premier Jack Lang.

T

he rhythm of Sydney’s best experience is determined by chains and clinks, like first fleet convict.

You lock and unlock, check for tightness and move along the steel girders of the bridge.

It helps you are in a shapeless jump suit, the kind used in American prison movies. They have breathalysed you, to make sure the excesses of the night before don’t cause you to stumble.

You are given a hankie which is used for communication, presumably for crying help more than anything more sophisticated.

And we are off, clunking and climbing and attaching our safety cords to successions of steel bars, the view getting better the higher we go.

Wendy Chung, the bridge climb guide recites

the stats you don’t want to hear. How high. How deep the fall, the guy who fell off the bridge into the water and survived, the 16 who died.

The steelwork was a sequence of red hot rivets being conveyed and hammered into place.

I

t is easy to see why it is so popular. Forever afterwards you feel a sense of ownership of one of the world’s greatest tourist icons.

You can imagine what the fellow who fell off felt like.

Eoghan Corry flew to Australia with Emirates Airlines, who a double daily service from Dublin to Dubai and onwards to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. He was hosted by Tourism Australian, www.australia.com. See www.bridgeclimb.com for details of the Sydney Bridge Climb. A one and a half hour sampler costs Aus$148 €100), a day climb Aus$248 (€165), a twilight climb Aus$308 (€205) and a night climb Aus$218 (€145).

page 019 08/01/2015 10:48 Page 1

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Page 020 Austria ski 09/01/2015 09:24 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 20

DESTINATION AUSTRIA

Kitz Gloves

W

hen the snow came, it made up for lost time. The warmest early winter in the memory of Europe’s ski resorts came to an abrupt end just before new year.

Most resorts across the Alps now have all lifts open. In Kirchberg thy say that when it is about to snow the sheep move up the mountain because they know something.

And the deer move down because they know something too, When I visited the sheep were still in the valley. Like sheep fleece or layers of cotton wool the fog, too, sat in the valley in the morning, luxuriant deep-carpetted mountain beauty that was as surprising as the underperformance of the snow conditions. Two worlds, one below and one above.

Austria’s advantage is that skiers stay in real villages before they take to the mountain, not 1960s concrete tourism constructions.

It explains why Austrians still win two out of every three world cup races. Grow up in one of these villages and the snow becomes your schoolmate. Gastein has 11,000 full time residents and 30,000 beds for those who come to play.

Then the sun erupted, glorious and bright. The jetstream of an aircraft has put a spray foam on the sky, like the pilot was attempting to spell out the name of someone they

Eoghan Corry finds early season snow in Kirchberg Like a carpet of cotton wool, the cloud sits in the valley below the Kirchberg-Kitzbühel ski area loved high over the ski lift.

Snow conditions turned bright again, and then, as we skied downhill we encountered a line across the piste like a micro-climate, than back into ice again, with the grating grizzling sound that conjured up out nothing so much as a broken leg. The ski instructor is Hans Steinkasserer but goes by the name Sem: “of 180 ski instructors on the first day, 13 had the name Hans, so I was Sem from Hoefgarten.”

K

itzbühel is the plush cousin, often compared with Cortina. It got its artsy reputation early, from the opening of the fin de siècle Grand Hotel just before World War 1 and as the homestead of

legendary ski champion Tony Sailer (the “Blitz from Kitz”) and painter Alfons Walde, the first artist to successfully bring skiing as a subject into painting. His windblown art deco Stakhanov snow heroes feature on posters throughout the town.

As you rise the Hahnenkammbahn lift, the names of the downhill champions name of the famous race are affixed to each gondola car.

The shops, bars and accommodation are more chic and expensive than Kirchberg and a small casino brings a James Bond air to the place. We stayed late and ate mouth-melting tenderloin with Claudia Waldbrunner of the tourist board.

Kitzbühel has 6,000 beds (Kirchberg has 7,000), a population of

8,200 and a further 3,000 beds in the valley: offering a mix of local and invader at peak season.

That sense of being in somebody’s home prevails in many of the hotels. At Aegidius "Gidi"

Koiel’s family run Hotel Bräuwirt, the dining room with an austere grand father and officious looking grand mother peer on the diners from a brown wood frame, still very much part of the family.

At a nearby schnapps distiller Tonni De Man popped open the bottles of Obst schnapps, made from two flavours, straightening out the digestive tracts like a snowmaking cannon.

Back in Kirchberg we sleigh-rode through the snowy streets in the hands of a pleasant charioteer Maria hochkogler and horses are called Cissi and Cora.

Someone called for a Ballyfermot gallop.

n Eoghan Corry travelled to Austria courtesy of Topflight, who offer charter flights to Salzburg. See +3531 240 1700 www.topflight.ie or your local travel agent. n He stayed in Kirchberg, a resort with access to both the Kitzbüheler Alps and Pass Thurn ( 170kms of piste) as well as access to the Ski Welt, Austria’s largest interconnected Ski Area. n Topflight have direct charter flights from Dublin, Cork and Belfast to Salzburg every Saturday for the Winter Season. n Kirchberg and Kitzbühel, its snazzier ski neighbouring resort have an array of après ski activity from sports centres to sleigh rides, to toboganning, to shopping, to whet your appetite, as well as Kitzbuehel’s famed Casino where €27.50 gets you €30 worth of chips. n If you are a good intermediate skier, we recommend purchasing the Kitzbüheler Alpin All Star Card which gives access to both these ski areas. If you are a beginner – you can use the Kitzbühel Kirchberg Lift Pass at €241 (the other lift pass is only €249 you must decide which card before you purchase) n You can also try snowshoeing, winter hiking, cross-country skiing, and ski touring – it could be the year to try a new snowsport. n Prices including Topflight charter flights direct from Dublin, Cork and Belfast and full luggage allowances, transfers to resort and accommodation: n Kirchberg: Stay at the 4 star Zentral Hotel in the centre of town for €979 half board on March 7th. n Kitzbühel Stay at the excellent 3 Star Kolpinhaus Apartments from €451 on March 14th.

Clockwise: Tonni de Mann at Erber schnapps distillery, Maria Hochkogler, street scene in Kitzbühel, Aegidius "Gidi" Koiel’s outside Hotel Bräuwirt,

Page 021 malta advertorial 8.0 08/01/2015 11:06 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2015 PAgE 21

www.visitmalta.com

MALTA: THINGS TO DO

Magical Malta T

his summer why not embark on a Mediterranean adventure by taking a trip to Magical Malta. The Maltese islands have so much to offer in the summer months, which is why we have put together a list of the top 10 things to do during your visit. From learning about Malta’s history to experiencing the excitement of deep sea diving, Malta has something for all age groups.

1) History With a history expanding some 7,000 years, Malta is the perfect destination for those who wish to learn about the rich history of the Mediterranean.

The National War Museum, the National Museum of Archaeology, the Inquisitor’s Palace and the 16th century masterpiece Grandmaster’s Palace, are just some of the places that may appeal to those wishing to learn more about Malta’s rich history.

Other landmarks include megalithic monuments, Punic tombs and the remains of Roman Villas. The Auberge de Castille, situated at the highest point of Valletta, was the official seat of the knights of the Langue of Castille, León and Portugal – one of the most powerful of the Order of St. John.

2) Food After experiencing some of Malta’s culture and historical landmarks there are few things more appealing than tasting

some of the island’s traditional food which is based on the seasons.

The Mediterranean region is renowned for its healthy and mouth-watering cuisine. The Maltese islands have served as one of the most important trading posts of the region since ancient times and have seen their fair share of exotic delicacies cross its port, from fragrant oriental spices to cured meats, cheeses and fine wines but their personal take on food was much more humble and focused on local produce.

3) Malta Arts Festival The Malta Arts Festival takes place from the 1st – 15th July and is the highlight in Malta’s cultural calendar. The festival brings about collaboration between Maltese and foreign artists.

The festival is a bonanza of performance, music and dance, and offers something from almost all artistic forms.

The programme's diversity enabled the Arts Festival to be popular and accessible to all. The summer slot enables most events to be held open air.

Falling as it does during the peak tourist season, the festival attracts a significant overseas audience as well.

4) Relax and be pampered After experiencing some of the islands many pleasures some rest and relaxation may be required. Malta’s 40 health and spa outlets, which have state-of-the-art equipment and highly qualified staff, aim to focus on every client’s overall wellbeing. Many of Malta’s five star hotels also offer packages, which include specialist treatments and

unlimited use of facilities including gyms and swimming pools.

5) Beaches & Bays Of course a trip to Malta in the summer wouldn’t be complete without sunning yourself on one of Malta’s amazing beaches. Malta's most popular beaches are Mellieħa Bay, Għajn Tuffieħa and Golden Bay. The main coastal resorts and larger sandy beaches are in the northern part of Malta. For smaller, quieter beaches, try those at the tip of Malta, overlooking Gozo such as Paradise

Bay and Armier. Malta has beaches for everyone, from windsurfers to sunbathers and you can choose from golden sand, red sand, rocks, blue lagoons and even inland seas. Ideal for all the family!

6) Water Sports Many beaches offer water sports such as windsurfing, kayaking or jet skiing. Sailing

schools also offer courses for active vacationers while harbour cruises are ideal for those who want to relax on board.

With its rocky shores and clear waters Malta is also considered ideal for diving. All three islands offer excellent, unique diving experiences with reefs, caves and wrecks that make the diving area one of the most interesting of the Mediterranean Sea. There are several dive sites, which offer archaeological artifacts from the 2nd World War and even

from the Roman period.

7) Nightlife The Malta nightlife offers many fantastic entertainment opportunities.

You can try your luck in the casinos, go to the movies or dine al fresco in a romantic palace or in one of the bustling harbour restaurants. The Maltese Islands are also a hub for the club scene and have some fantastic outdoor clubs inc l u d i n g Numero Uno, La Grotta and Gianpula. The latter has serves as Malta's foremost open air n i g h t club during the s u m m e r months and is surrounded by a garden with rich vegetation and a swimming pool together with seven bars and a state of the art sound and lighting system.

8) Shopping Of course, you may also want some time out of the Maltese sun and browse in some of the islands fantastic shops. Retail stores and shopping centres are located in all major towns and villages.

Modern shopping centres are relatively new to the commercial Maltese countryside, but are very popular with the locals and

tourists. Alternatively the markets, which are the centre of the Maltese village life, should not be missed. Almost every town and village has its own market. The locals go there to cultivate social contacts, to meet neighbours and to find out the latest news. You will always find some ideal gifts to bring home!

9) Sea Excursions & Boat Charters There is no better way to appreciate the beauty of the Maltese coastline than from the vantage point of a boat. Valletta and the Three Cities, with their formidable fortifications, the rugged cliffs and secluded bays around Malta, Gozo and Comino all look very different from the deck. Summer is the ideal time to experience a harbour Cruise or take a longer Island Cruise. You can also charter a yacht or a boat and spend some time out at sea on the blue Mediterranean.

10) Hiking Due to its average temperature in the summer months (30 ° C / 86 ° F), the Maltese Islands are ideal for outdoor activities.

One of the best places to hike in Malta is along the leads the Dingli Cliffs. The cliffs are impressive 220 meters high and are the highest point of Malta.

For further information visit www.visitmalta.com For information visit www.visitmalta.com

Page 024 Holiday World 09/01/2015 09:09 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 24

HOLIDAY WORLD SHOW

JAN 23-25 2015

WELCOME FROM TRAVEL AGENTS ASSOCIATION

W

The Low Down

When:

Friday 23 January 1.00pm – 7.00pm Saturday 24 January 11.00am – 5.30pm Sunday 25 January 11.00am – 5.30pm Trade Only: Friday 23 January 10.00am – 1.00pm How Much: Adults €5 OAPs €3 Students €2 Children Free Family Price: €10 2 Adults & ALL their children DART: Don't forget that the DART has great family rates on Saturday and Sunday.

How Many: 50,000 visitors Who's there: 2,000 travel experts from 55 countries, tour operators, travel agents, hotels, national and global tourist organisations, airports, airlines, theme parks, bus, coach, car, rail, camping, travel services, adventure holidays, ferry and cruise companies, caravans and motorhomes, Where From: n Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland n Europe and the Mediterranean n The Caribbean n The Americas n Africa and the Middle East n Asia and the Pacific n Caravans and motorhomes n Wedding and honeymoon destinations n Adventure Holidays n Tour operators Official Opening: Friday 23 January at 2pm Official opening Website: www.holidayworldshow.com Over 55s Show: Explore the ENDLESS OPTIONS for Over 55s Hotel-based holidays in Ireland Sun holidays at special senior rates Cruise bargains, including over 55s only cruises Trekking & walking activity holidays City Breaks Next Year: Belfast 15-17 January 2016 Dublin 22-24 January 2016

elcome to Holiday World, the perfect start for your 2015 holiday. This is where Ireland meets the rest of the world.

This is your invitation to meet the people who can help turn holiday dreams into reality.

The Holiday World Show comes at a great time of the year. It comes when everyone's thoughts start to turn towards holidays and planning for the year ahead. This show provides the perfect backdrop, allowing people to search for the best offers, find new ideas and make plans for the holiday of a lifetime or a simple get away from everyday life.

The motto Travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer has never been more true. The Holiday World Show allows us to open a window on a world that is waiting to be discovered and provide life long memories and enriching experiences for all.

New to Dublin is a vibrant mix of destinations to open our minds and broaden our horizons. Destinations such as Brazil, Slovakia, Jamaica, Cuba, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

As well as our traditional popular destinations for the Irish holiday maker in North America, the Algarve and a whole host of Spanish options. Of course Spain continues to be the most popular destination for the Irish holiday maker with 1.3 million of us holidaying there in 2014.

The tens of thousands of people who will pass through Holiday World this year will be

T

treated to an unprecedented choice in terms of quality, affordability and advice. Over 1,000 travel industry experts from all over the globe have travelled here in order to share their intimate knowledge and love for their destination with you. Take full advantage of their presence and glean as much inside information as you can. And don’t forget all of the destinations and holidays showcased this weekend are available to book with your ITAA Travel Agents all of whom are fully licensed and bonded for your protection.

ITAA Agents represent a wealth of knowledge and experience which combined with their extensive online resources offer you the very best of both worlds; in-depth knowledge combined with real, honest to goodness personal service. Travel Agents offer you the opportunity to book your holiday secure in the knowledge that you are getting sound professional advice, your money is safe and should you need assistance before, during or after your holiday your agent is ready, willing and able to help you.

The spirit of exploration has always been strong in Irish people. In the modern world we see that through the desire to travel and see new places, experience new things and broaden our horizons. This is a positive attribute, and with surveys showing that one in two Irish people intend holidaying abroad, it can only help us to engage positively with the

world we share.

We also need to remind ourselves that we are all ambassadors for Ireland. Whether it's when we travel abroad, or simply talking to friends and family from overseas, we should remember to encourage people to visit our shores too. We have a unique and vibrant capital here in Dublin, we need to remind people that our sprit has not changed, the 'craic' is better than ever, and the hospitality and rich history are a treasure trove waiting to be discovered by holidaymakers.

The travel industry has shown an ability to adapt and grow. It has met challenges with a steely determination and an innovative approach to trading that has allowed it overcome obstacles and offer better choice. The Irish appetite for travel remains strong and is set to grow as we emerge into more positive economic times.

Wherever your travels may take you to this year, be assured you have begun in exactly the right place. Enjoy your time at Holiday World and your 2015 holiday, wherever it takes you. If one of our ITAA Travel Professionals can assist you along the way we will be delighted, after all that’s what we’re here for.

Best wishes for a happy and enjoyable Holiday World.

Martin Skelly President ITAA

WIN Africa

o celebrate the inaugural air route from Dublin to Addis Adaba, Ethiopian Airlines are offering fights to a destination served

by Ethiopian Airlines in Zambia, Zimbabwe or Malawi at the Holiday World, including a 3 night hotel accommodation in your chosen country:

1st

Two return economy class flight tickets to a destination served by Ethiopian Airlines.

2nd

One return economy class flight ticket to in one of the two remaining countries.

3rd

One return economy class flight ticket to a destina-

tion served by Ethiopian Airlines in the remaining country (that is not selected by the first and second prize winners).

All prizes include an option for a complimentary stopover in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and are subject to terms & Conditions. (Normal Airport taxes are not included in this offer)

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FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 26

HOLIDAY WORLD SHOW

JAN 23-25 2015

Travel Trends

T

he new fixation with the instant and virtual means that every aspect of the travel experience has changed. Even as it was announced that selfie was the buzz word for 2013, it was announced that braggie had become the travel equivalent: a photo you post of yourself or where you are to make your friends jealous.

Citybreaks are all the

rage and are no longer a spring or autumn experience. We will have 24 new routes off the island in 2015, about one third of those to sun routes and the rest opening up new citybreak opportunities.

Travel is becoming more social. People increasingly rely on friends to make good travel decisions and are using technology and social networks to do so. Mobile

is changing both the travel planning period and the in-trip experience. Particularly during the in-trip experience travellers are using mobile devices to find the right restaurants and attractions tailored to their interests and time, and seek out special locationbased features that can only be delivered via mobile. Roaming fees for international trips are the

biggest deterrent to progress in this area.

All inclusive. Given a boost by the recession, the march of the all inclusive experience seems unstoppable. The experience was once a Caribbean speciality, some of the top all inclusive resorts can now be found in Egypt and Turkey and a growing number are available in Europe. They are becom-

Chris Lee of the Tourism Authority of Thailand speaking during Holiday World 2014

ing more luxurious, brining to an end the old image of all-inclusive as bed and buffet. The demand for holidays where families and couples by the beach are fed easy meals three times a day has changed the product.

You can now do all inclusive everything, all inclusive weddings are a trend for 2015.

Zero kilometres. The local food/ locavore movement which emerged eight years ago has gone as far, or as near as it is possible. Eating and drinking on the farm where the food is produced is new ultimate foodie experience. It means trips to rural Italy, France and Spain and hundreds of options in agricultural areas not normally associated with tourism.

Adventure activities are in, as young active people scale back the number of holidays to see more of the world. Saving for the one big activity trip has become a trend, Everest Base camp, diving with sharks and rock climbing are the new beach holidays.

Limited service hotels are the most profitable in

the industry at present and a growing number are trying to emulate Ryanair, imposing extra charges and resort fees (especially in the USA), extending charges beyond internet facilities to pool use and even a $4 charge for consuming the coffee supplied in the room. In some American hotels there is an incentive of $8 not to service rooms, indicating room cleaning will soon incur an extra charge.

PANKs are the new target tourist in the USA: 'Professional Aunt, No Kids' - who collectively spend billions on travelling with nieces and nephews. As of 2010, just over 42pc of women in the US aged 15 to 44 were childless, as women have children later in life or choose not to have children at all.

Comfort in the clouds: It is not just Ryanair. Airlines are working hard to move away from air travel being a commoditised, price and scheduleonly decision. It is to be seen if other transportation modes, as well as hotels and travel retail players, will follow this model in future.

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FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 27

HOLIDAY WORLD SHOW Peer-to-Peer Travel is growing. Peer reviews changed travel advice, now Europeans are seeking cheaper travel options with brands such as Airbnb, HouseTrip and HomeAway. TripAdvisor has embraced the concept by acquiring Flipkey, as well as listing HouseTrip and Airbnb as trusted partners for rentals.

Tours, guiding and unique travel experiences are offered by sites such as Touristlink and Vayable. Car sharing services are also growing in Europe, where Avis bought car-sharing company Zipcar for US$500 million in 2013, while Blablacar.com had more than three million members in 10 European countries. The future of peer-to-peer holiday rentals depends on legislation, but is proving successful and is expected to

JAN 23-25 2015

Beatrice Cosgrove of Etihad and Murat Balandi of Turkish Airlinesduring Holiday World 2014 grow.

Child-friendly safaris in Africa are becoming more popular, as more grandparents and children join in with family holidays. Hollywood hits such as Madagascar and the Lion King mean that kids around the world now want to see the 'big

five' for real. Previously, safaris have been considered unsuitable for youngsters but safaris in Africa now avoid long game drives - which suits kids' shorter attention spans. Multi-generational holidays in Africa could expand beyond safaris to volunteerism and more

SUMMER 2015 ON SALE NOW

sustainable holidays, as well as cruises.

Mobile devices are booming as a sales and customer service channel and have developed mobile concierge services.

Travellers now expect real-time answers and greater customisation, wherever they are and at

any time, before, during and after the trip. Online travel sales are growing by 8.4pc globally.

Green travel is still growing. Travellers want to know more about the green practices and environmental reputation of the hotels, and travellers seek to understand

whether the hotel is part of the problem or the solution in promoting better environment practices.

And a growing set of travellers want to see how their tourism euro are benefiting the local community in certain destinations.

TripAdvisor still rules the web with 45m visitors a month reading 50m reviews and opinions but there are alternatives: review sites like LonelyPlanet, Gogobot.com, IgoUgo.com, TripWolf, Yelp!, HolidayTruths.

Hotel chains are displaying reviews on their supplier-direct sites, and even Google has begun to collect reviews. But be skeptical, TripAdvisor, Expedia and Hotels.com are in fact all part of the same company, Expedia, Inc

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Page 028-029 Holiday World 08/01/2015 11:48 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 28

HOLIDAY WORLD SHOW

JAN 23-25 2015

H

oliday World 2015 once again highlights the fact that we are a nation with one of the highest propensities to travel in Europe.

Every Irish person travels six times a year, three and a half times higher than the European average..

That travel broadens the mind is as true today as in Mark Twain’s time, people who travel extensively cannot be prejudiced Tourism spreads economic largesse unevenly and in contrast to the industrial sector, to the rural and coastal areas most likely to be affected by peripherality and depopulation and where agricultural conditions are often poorest.

Tourism impacts disproportionately on less developed countries.

Outside Europe, tourism is the most sustainable form of aid you can give a developing country, bringing propensity to everyone from the porter to the taxi driver to the hotel manager to the government.

Africa, the world’s poorest continent gets just 2pc of world tourism.

Bringing that up half a percentage point would mean more than a year’s aid allocations. Within Europe some of the biggest tourist numbers are attracted to the poorest countries and the ones most affected by economic downturn, such as the Mediterranean sunbelt.

A

ir traffic works both ways, as the home holiday industry has found. Outbound air routes are crucial for inbound tourism, aircraft are filled in both directions (tourism ministers sometimes forget this, their focus is often on inbound tourism).

Ireland can offer one of the most educated audiences on the planet when

year, has become the biggest single event in travel and tourism in Ireland, providing an anticipated 50,000 visitors with the unique opportunity of meeting with over 1,500 industry professionals for personal advice and information.

S

Caroline Green of Rynaair speaking at Holiday World 2015

26 years a growing it comes to international travel.

We have one of the most developed markets for travel services, appropriately for a nation that is the headquarters of the world aviation business. half of the world’s fleet of leased aircraft is managed from Ireland, the very concept was invented here by Tony Ryan and his colleagues. Ireland’s international success in airport management has been celebrated by a plethora of recent awards.

Most of the traffic on the world’s busiest intercontinental routes pass through Irish air traffic control and they have a track record of rising to various challenges down the years.

A

s the holiday business changes rapidly, so does Ireland’s premier travel and holiday fair. This year people are looking at the various new options and value for money propositions being presented to the Irish holiday

maker, and there are 1,500 experts all assembled under one roof to tell them how to get it.

The visitors to the Dublin Holiday World at the RDS this month are more savvy and better prepared customers than previous years. The hunger for information about the 70-odd destinations where Irish people now travel for their holidays has grown with each of the show’s 20 years.

“They have access to a great deal of information not just from guide books and the internet but from word of mouth of their friends and family who have also travelled. They come to the show looking for first hand knowledge,” says Maureen Ledwith, sales director of Holiday World.

Three times as many people take a longhaul holiday compared to ten years ago and the cruise sector has grown even faster.

Adventure and experience are the themes of this year’s Holiday World

Show with a new dedicated adventure travel section.

The show is also offering impressive good value. The average holiday is cheaper now than they were twenty years ago, even before you consider inflation.

In recent years over 50,000 visitors have attended the exhibition annually; market research indicates that most people go to the Holiday World Show to look for ideas and expert advice from assembled travel professionals.

H

oliday World Show is divided into zones to help information gathering and to help you find experts who answer questions face to face.

Exhibitors include tourist boards, tour operators, travel agents, airlines, hotels and their marketing groups, ferries and the fast growing cruise sector. All 32 counties are among home holiday exhibitors.

The show is organised on behalf of the Irish Travel Agents Association by Business Exhibitions Ltd.

H

oliday World provides a unique opportunity for the consumer to meet, network, negotiate, conduct business and stay abreast with the latest developments in the travel industry.

If you have a passion for adventure, culture, cruises, city breaks, ecofriendly, beach or safari holidays, or are considering a career break Holiday World 2015 is the ultimate show to get information from some 1,500 travel and tourism professionals who will be ready to give one-to-one advice and information.

Over 500 exhibitors representing 55 countries will be available at the show to provide you with face-to-face information on how best to access your dream holiday.

The Holiday World Show, now in its 24th

taged annually in Dublin under one roof, Holiday World is a must attend travel exhibition for both business and consumer.

The show brings together hundreds of exhibitors from all around the world with tour operators, travel agents, hotels, airports, national and international tourism organisations, as well as theme parks, adventure travel, airlines, bus, coach, ferry and cruise companies and more besides.

Those seeking the independence of a camping or caravan holiday are also particularly well catered for, with this burgeoning sector very well represented at this year’s event.

“Hundreds of special low price deals are available for show visitors for holidays and short breaks.

In addition there are also hundreds of free to enter holiday prize draws throughout the show.”

Maureen Ledwith says: “After the economic stresses and strains of the past few years, it’s time everyone turned their attention to planning a well-earned break for 2015.

“The Holidayworld Show packs expert advice, special offers, notto-be-missed promotions, entertainment and exclusive competitions all under the one roof for a great value-for-money, family day out.”

E

dmund Hourican, managing director, Business Exhibitions Ltd., organisers of Holiday World Show said “Our professional market research taken at Holiday

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FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 29

HOLIDAY WORLD SHOW World Show indicates that most people go along to the show looking for expert personal advice, and for ideas. They also attend for the opportunity to win one of the many fantastic trips, while at the same time having a good family day out”.

“The number and diversity of exhibitors means that visitors are able to gain first hand information to enable them to better plan holidays. In short, visitors to the show will get advice that is not available from any other source,” he concluded.

“It is the only place in Ireland that you can meet, and take advice from over 1,500 travel and tourism industry professionals to assist you in planning the perfect holiday for you and your family.

“As fast as the industry changes, the more the benefit of the show,” Edmund Hourican says.

JAN 23-25 2015 citement of new places to visit, and others to dream about. Visitors will receive a free catalogue, children have free admission, and there are hundred of chances to win free holidays and short breaks in free to enter prize draws on exhibitors’ stands.

All you have to do is visit, and you could win the holiday of your dreams.

Eagle eyed punters at Holiday World 2015 “Many more visitors are now using the internet for research before they visit the show. That means they can make better use of their time when they are here.”

P

at Dawson, CEO of the Irish Travel Agents Association said, “The Holiday World

Show is a fantastic event for travel agents and consumers alike.

The economic downturn has made it difficult for many to afford holidays the last couple of years but our members are planning on showcasing unbeatable holiday offers at the Holiday World Show Dublin.

Irish travel agents at the show will be focusing on quality and affordability as well as dispensing invaluable destination advice. Recent market research has indicated that one in two Irish adults will take a foreign holiday in 2015.”

Holiday World Show 2015 will provide the ex-

O

ur travel agents and tour operators have set the highest standards with regard to customer care, the consumer legislation is only catching up with these standards and attempting to impose them on the aviation industry.

The travel business is one of the most regulated consumer retail sectors.

But even in advance of regulation the travel in-

dustry had set up a standards regime of its own to make sure customers got compensated in the event of a business failure.

The business of selling holidays was among the first to embrace technology and be transformed by it. Many of the developments being embraced by other service and retail sectors are old hat in the travel business.

They are good at supplying all the information that the customer needs in an easily accessible format. Airlines, hotels and holiday companies are all vying to be at the cutting edge of information technology.

This attention to detail has meant that the traditional holiday package and the charter flights that carry the package holiday makers are very much alive and well.

Come along and see for yourself.

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FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 30

DESTINATION ETHIOPIA

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thiopia should be one of the great African tourist destinations. It has the best airline in North Africa.

Ethiopian Airlines is profitable, forward-thinking and has a network that makes Addis Adaba a major hub, And now it has a direct route from Dublin starts on June 19th, putting Ireland at the front of the queue to open up one of the tourism gems of the world.

Ethiopian have 18 domestic connections through the old terminal in Addis.

The tourism jewels are to the north now have good roads, asphalt all the way from Addis Ababa to the Simien Mountains, and Addis Ababa to Axum the other way, a circuit of Bahir Dar with its lake monasteries, Gondar with its medieval castle, Lalibela with stone churches straight from the earliest stages of Christianity (think an ancient Irish monastery, complete with sacred crosses, illuminated books and bearded priests) and Axum, where the Ark of the Covenant is still stashed, a single priest acting as custodian to its amazing powers (don’t tell Indiana Jones, but he got it wrong).

B

ahir Dar. beside the large Lake Tana on the Nile. has enough tourist beds and enough attractions to see: 37 islands with 19 churches and monasteries on the islands.

Lake Tana looked blue when we arrived, like a Leitrim lake would in winter, except this was the end of a hot Ethiopian summer.

You can keep your eye out for birds as you ferry out along the lake, tern,

Praisers of the Lost Ark

Eoghan Corry in Ethiopia, our new direct destination for 2015 The Ark of the Covenant is nnot lost, it is kept in a church in Axum fish eagle, African jacana, white pelican, Egyptian goose and cormorant.

Pana Kilkus, where Mary reportedly stayed for three months and 10 days during the flight to Egypt is the jewel of the crown but most people stop by more accessible monasteries to visit the circular church Narga Selassie on Dek Island.

The footpath was wet as we walked up the rise in the peninsula. The stalls were spaced out regularly, three metres apart, then four or five metres apart. One man with a blue scarf over his head has souvenirs, and al variety of crosses for sale.

A woman with a grey scarf looked the other direction, distracted.

We passed the traditional church school where the chatter of the children could be heard.

A woman was selling wild coffee right beside where the plant was growing, the beans still green rather than red.

The gate to the monastery is like an ancient Irish monastery, for all the world what Glendalough used to be like, compete with its almshouse entrance.

The guide shows me a long stone hung with wire on to a frame that served as a bell in pre-metallic times.

I counted 22 stalls on the way back down from the church. Roasted coffee, leather, papyrus, crosses and jewellery.

Eoghan Corry flew to Ethiopia with Ethiopian Airlines, who commence a 3w service from Dublin to Addis Adaba on June 19 2015 and onwards to 18 domestic and 70 international destinations, 40 of them in Africa.

B

y night time the streets of Bahar Dar were de-

serted.

There was, as always, the ubiquitous flash of light on the horizon, indicating another faraway thunderstorm, as there is every night across the tropics and across Africa.

You can tell the approaching bajags by the single light on front.

There was a row of them parked very near where we had eaten, a nightspot with another show with traditional music in full swing. We eventually flagged one down after a short wait, four minutes at most, and passed through the streets, eerily empty of the horse carts, oxen and donkeys and the people in traditional dress that spilled on to the street in daylight.

In fact the only person we saw was from Sudan.

My guide said that Sudanese like to come here for the ladies, and indeed the Ethiopian ladies are the most beautiful in the world.

There was a surprise police check outside the buildings that were used by the Organisation of African Unity. The policeman asked the driver for his papers and frisked both the driver and my guide, but when he looked at me with my camera hanging over my shoulder, my Giordano teeshirt, trousers and dusty shoes he exonerated me wrong risk.

That seemed odd.

Mine was not to reason why.

We passed the Nile bridge in the silence, the water now black and invisible beneath.

Many soldiers had drowned crossing this river in the battle against the Derg because the Derg had blown it up in 1991 in a feint and three card trick period when the rebels had taken the town and then evacuated it again. The only light on the right-hand side of the road from the spire that serves as a monument for those who fought against the Derg.

The politics of those who fought for and against are still live in many parts of Ethiopia.

Dogs ran at the bajag, as if a game, hoping to catch an ankle in their teeth and no doubt, sometimes they might succeed.

The crickets and ciadas provide the music in the deep and dark night. And I had another 7 AM start in the morning.

T

he journey to Tisisat Falls is short but arduous on an unpaved road.

The Blue Nile is not very blue. It is full of mud, rich mucky red mud, like the earth that is on the path. Despite the fact that crocodiles sleep in the morning here. People will put their clothes on their head and wade through the water home in the evening when the boat is not running. Volcanic rocks are strewn like pebbles all over the valley Small children come and ask passers by for pens, boys play their flutes trying to sell their wares.

A family group passes, collecting pentode beans.

A club footed boy lies in the grass.

The green is pockmarked with scrub bushes on the hills ahead. Three heifers pass with a calf and white goat with white eyebrows looking for all the world like it wandered out of a trendy night club in Addis. And when to the right hand side, smoke like mist is rising from the falls, the precipitous green slopes behind it.

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FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 31

DESTINATION ETHIOPIA It billows a little and blows along the canyon as if unsure what to do next. Last time I saw them there is barely enough water to make it over the cliff but now the path is muddy and the falls are full with copper coloured earth, dirty and foamy.

Before the hydroelectric station the falls flooded all the way across this flat green basin, 400 metres wide. It must have been a sight.

T

ony Hickey from Dun Laoghaire has been bringing Irish tourists to Ethiopia for three decades.

“The Irish have been coming to Ethiopia for years, particularly in the last five or six years large groups have been coming for the Great Ethiopian Run, and many stay on for pre or post trips to Lalibela.

“Ethiopia is still great for security, you can wander around in safety, dropping into traditional music houses and other places.

“Whenever you make things easier for people, as with direct flights, visas on arrival, you can expect numbers to pick up. We run birding trips down through the Rift Valley, Bale Mountains, Harenna Forest down and around to Yabello and back up the Rift Valley.

We used to have to de-

Wondwosen Getaneh of Ethiopian Airtlines in contemplaton at Tisisat Falls ploy four by fours, but now can do the whole trip in a Coaster Bus. “Even the East bank of the Omo Valley can be done by Coaster bus, except for one trip, to the Karo people.

H

otels have been slower to improve but there is the beginning of a tourist movement.

Tadiwos Getachew started operating spas in the USA where he opened Boston Day Spa. Now his Kuriftu Resort and Spa group has five resorts within Ethiopia.

His 50-acre estate at Debre Zeit 45kms southeast of Addis Ababa comprises 105 suites, a swimming pool with sunbathing terrace, an organic spa with Swedish style steam rooms and a gourmet restaurant, and looks out onto a lake with a two-mile across Moun-

tain View.

It became a favourite of African leaders attending OAU summits in Addis Adaba. He also has resorts in Bahir Dar, central Addis Adaba (Guesthouse), Burayu to the northwest of Addis, Adama and a wine resort in Ziway in central Ethiopia south of Addis.

He says tourism in Ethiopia can be bigger than Kenya and Tanzania,” with so many attractions and so many direct air routes and the 4m members of the Ethiopian diaspora.

Addis the capital of Africa. They have all the connections. Two milion, four milion, nine milion tourists a year. Nothing will stop it once it starts to happen.”

“We need to wake up and smell the coffee. We are like a doctor that lost all our equipment, we have to get it back.”

T

he country is big and diverse, with 84 languages, the distances long, and most of the roads painfully slow. The tourist route to the south through Bishoftu, Adama and the wine region of Ziway to the rift valley is technically asphalted, but is a 20 kilometres and hour ordeal until a new highway is completed.

You get the feeling that you're one of the last of a generation to experience the drive from Addis south.

The new road is under construction. You pass it from time to time sitting on the horizon gleaming on a ridge a little bit above the world that it is sweeping past at pace.

On the old road the trucks bound for Djibouti weave in and out to avoid the potholes. Cows with flat horns in each direction and Brahmin lumps

on their back wander out unexpectedly sometimes but not always accompanied by and anxious looking youth trying to catch its attention.

Small cars and bajags jump out from the side.

The driver is unperturbed by this and doesn't even beep the horn for most of them.

Asses with sacks on their back, apparently untended, wander tight to the side as if the donkey policeman has assured them that this is the way to travel. Ancient carts with wobbly looking wheels carry impossibly large loads.

And the commerce of the modern commercial world overtakes all of this, trucks with oii, spare tyres, and unidentified produce. A very very slow tanker with an equally slow trailer behind it blocks the road for a time and one by one, vehicles lumber into the

rough edges to pass it You have to have your wits about you to spot the next pothole along the way or the next trench across the world dug by a building contractor and half filled in.

Everything comes to a halt periodically as lanes merge or someone stops in the middle of the road, The driver slowly twists and manoeuvres and gets on to the other side, forcing oncoming traffic to pull into the rough sidewalks. At one point there is even a diversion onto a road that is rougher than the main road. A donkey lies in the middle of the road and kicks his legs in the air It would be maddening for a commuter. For a tourist it was delicious, as delicious as a bucolic rural postcard scene. And it is all coming to an end.

We don't exactly know when, but it is election year next year.

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FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 32

DESTINATION THAILAND

S

hoes off tourism, is the phrase. Temples, spirituality, contemplation and above all relaxation are the currency of Thailand’s northern inland tourism.

With each new temple, the shoes have to come off.

With lace up shoes, and a bad back it can be trying. But it is worth persevering.

Reincarnation river

I

f there is one sound that defines that you are in the tropics, it is the cicada. The chirping is not exactly exotic, but it is, like a call to prayer from a mosque, a definition that your journey has brought you into another world.

The cicada is ubiquitous all across the planet including two disconnected cousins in Australia and Tasmania. They chirrup in the morning, the evening and through the night.

Once the backing track has been established it is time to listen for the extra layers of sound. Our night in Chatnat Eco resort was noisy, a bit like you had booked a hotel on the seafront of a noisy Balearic or Canaries resort.

The animals provided the beat to this club, raucous and noisy and amorous as any teenagers on a post-leaving cert holiday, and sometimes just as cacophonic or lacking in musical integrity. But hey, here in the highlands

Eoghan Corry visits Loei in north east Thailand The Thailand bank of the majestic Mekong looking towards Laos: Loei is a favourite un-touristed region for Thaiphiles of north eastern Thailand it was truly beautiful., Our ducks quacked, and when the morning sun had begun its climb through the forest and the bamboo and the palms, a cock crew in the disgruntled way cocks crow everywhere on the planet.

The rest of the chorus was very local. And, more menacingly, there was also the ubiquitous hum of the insects and the mosquitoes working their way through the clouds of spray that we had put in their path to deter them.

A

firefly dropped from the ceiling and continued to

glow in my palm.

It was the first time I seen anything like this up so close and it seemed like a prayer to heaven, a state of outreach that seems to prevail through all of Thai society, its Buddhist temples as central to modern life as mobile phones or the tablet.

There were gekos everywhere, one scrambled through the same leaves and roof top as the insects. If you want to keep the mosquitoes away, it is not spray that you need more of, it is gekos.

Lana Bugonovich from Australia, one of the travel journalists on the trip, hates gekos. She had

one in her room, just for her. “Chant toukey toukey back at the geckos,” was the advice she got from a well travelled colleague.

She tried. It did not work.

When she tried to chase it out of the room it ran under her bed and stayed there, contemplating reincarnation.

T

his is the new Chiang of northern Thai tourism, many tropical miles from Chiang Mai and Chaing Rai, Chiang Khan.

There is more than distance involved. The official Thailand tourist site

declares: There are no bars nor any nightlife to speak of and Chiang Khan is so sleepy that it virtually grounds to a halt at night.

We tested it out, walking the streets parallel to the river bank in the dark. there was a market of sorts, but this could not be mistaken for a real tourist town.

Mysterious and dark, even quieter and mystical, we saw Laos on the other side of the dusty Mekong.

We were back at sunrise the following morning to give sticky rice to

the monks and receive their blessing.

The blessing is chanted solemnly, and carries an air of solemnity that affects the whole town. A huge beetle was doing the breast stroke in a puddle, wondering if it would be reincarnated as a monk or an alms giver.

Being a monk is something of a fashion accessory here. Many men have spent a period of their life in a monastery, and others were despatched by disapproving mothers to learn spiritualism as young men.

The first monk, like an

Eoghan Corry travelled to the province of Loei as a guest ot the Tourism Authority of Thailand. He travelled with Etihad to Bangkok via Abu Dhabi.

Clockwise: saying goodbye to bad luck as the Pasat Loy Kroh floats away, a shrine on the Mekong, ghost dance at Phunacome Resort, the mayor of Dansai with a water wheel used for irrigation, and Chiang Khan River Mountain Hotel

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DESTINATION THAILAND advance party, had come through and issued his blessing.

The tourists all hunched, waiting and then nine of them came together.

A woman running back to her mat having taken her photograph now wanted to give the rice.

Berobed, barefooted and with short hair.

They came in a crocodile, oldest at the front, the youngest at the back.

While the monks have 226 rules to follow, our guides assured us there only five rules for Buddhist lay people.

But they kept forgetting the fifth precept of Buddhism: do not lie, so we cannot even be sure of that.

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nd, it being the tropics, somebody has organised a bicycle tour.

Even at 6 AM you can feel the heat. The sky is turning a deeper shade of blue. We collected our bikes at the hospital which seemed appropriate with helmets and bottles of water (to complete the theme we finished at the mortuary and a van with a blue flashing light came to bring us back home).

The sense of anticipation was heavy in the air ;ike the humidity, 31 degrees in the tropics on a bicycle with a bell on each side. We had precious little knowledge of what lay ahead of us.

This was going to be experiential, in the way the guys give the PowerPoint presentations about experiential tourism never dreamed of. We set off, the low sun behind us, a long shadow pointing into the corner, into a drain into which the excess water runs during the rainy season.

There are patches of water buffalo dung along the cycle path in the distance the mountains have a green top for the forest and a brown section coming down in streaks like chocolate in a bowl.

Shoes off tourism at Wat Ponechai in Loei Vans, tuk tuks and pickup trucks go whizzing by but what strikes you most is how the colours respond to the low early morning sun.

Later in the day the light will be blinding, so bright that looking and appreciating this countryside becomes more of a task. Now Thailand is delighting and rejoicing in the subtle colours of the morning time.

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o greater contrast from the white sand resorts to the south could be found than on these narrow roads.

Exploding greenery encroaching on both sides, creeping over the white line that is supposed to demarcate the markings of what is driveable and what is never truly walkable.

The pools of water, ponds and mini lakes dusty as tomato soup. The sound in your ears is the chirping of the calming magnificent melancholy birdsong and the menacing malevolent insects that are plotting a course through the vapour of your insecticides. the roads are classic country roads, potholes peering through as if the layer of tarmacadam that was cast upon the last eight years is not going to subjugate the millennia of comings and goings along these well trekked paths, and above all heat, the unbearable unrelenting heat, from a sun rises without fail from a the sky that clears without fail, and clouds again without fail, and occasionally reminds us of other tricks it can perform with thundering

booming thunderstorms that come each night to answer the rising humidity and start the process all over again.

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n the pagoda outside the ghost temple, the gaily decorated icons look for all the world like something from the other side of the Pacific ocean.

The colours are different and distinct, less glaring than you find elsewhere, a deeper shade of purple a lighter shade of yellow, sky blue as if the ghost decided to support the Dublin football team in a flash of other worldly inspiration.

The heat is so intense it burns the soles of your feet through light shows, and you watch for darker patches of pavement where the sun has not warmed it to hellish intensity.

Every temple becomes a refuge if only because of the heat and the act and art of meditation comes naturally to those who step inside to allow their body escape from the climbing mercury outside.

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n a large dusty courtyard we visited another temple. A funeral was taking place nearby. Long orations and chanting in something like sean-nos. Tourists were being taught to dance and bang a room and dress for a parade, while some bored youths helped them along.

Everybody went home.

Nobody got hurt. Maybe the art of music or the aesthetic of tourism in Thailand but that was all.

Parts of this tourist at-

traction looked like a working construction site.

Parts of it looked like a manicured garden with over hanging greenery.

The mix was just right.

Parts of it looked like a sandy car park with weeds growing here and there.

Two long serpents stretched out on either side of the temple door, gaily painted in those bright colours that made them look far less threatening than anything you would find in a medieval church in Europe.

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hey had other activities in mind.

We built Pasat Loy Krohon prayer rafts and lit candles on them and released them into the Mekong.

The purpose was to “send away bad luck, bad health and other bad things” from our lives via the Mekong River to the

H

sea.

Some were picket to put on their masks and wear them for the Phi Takhon ghost dance, as supervised by Master Phramaha Bunpeng. The master divined the personalities of those who had prepared their masks, and calculated their fortunes ahead. He was kind in his assessment of our art.

For some (me) this was embarrassment tourism.

I

f north eastern Thailand came with a flavour it would be is that slightly sweet dried coconut, it looks like layers of pasta or soft liquorice when you bite into it, rolled up like petals of flowers, you nibble away.

It does not do justice to the range of amazing local cuisine from the kitchen of the lost world: marinated ant eggs, garlic

pork, oyster sauce with dried mushroom, fried bean curd, fried snakehead (a fish) and chicken com yang.

You have not lived until you have tasted rice in a pineapple on the banks of the majestic Mekong, chugging along as if the ancient Lan Chang Kingdom was still extant.

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here was an ant in my camera. I thought it was a bird against the blue skies in the first few photographs Maybe he was contemplating reincarnation as well.

Perhaps I should have given the monks more sticky rice.

If I had listened more carefully I think the cicadas were warning me.

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he African massage. That is how our guide, Ibrahim, described the bouncing of the Land Rover as we trundled across the plain. We were well massaged by afternoon in the Serengeti, a place with a magical name, and rightly so.

Game drives are the same the continent over.

They come in three phases, an early morning drive commenced before daybreak, an afternoon when the heat begins to abate, and a drive at dusk.

Seeking animals to shoot them with camera lens is exhausting.

The afternoon game drive featured fly killing, lots of it. They descended like wildebeest in February during the migration and decided our safari vehicle was their final destination.

I learned that tsetse flies can bite through trousers, As we spattered them against the windows the blood from a previous conquest spewed out of many of them. Red blood, always red, but the tsetse is blue blooded in agricultural history. I can see why.

Eoghan Corry takes to the plains

Serengeti dreaming Another fine Masai

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here is a lot of watching, a lot of waiting.

There might be something edible out there in the long grass that even the tourists have missed. The rock is grey, reflecting the sun and gathering heat as the morning progresses.

One of the lions we have come to watch has its head down on the rock, Another has the chin on its paws and the

The colourful gama lizard is male, the females are grey

third has lifted his head to look. It lifted it as a vehicle drove by but did not look in that direction. A small hill is under the third lion’s stomach as if helping it to digest. What are they looking for? Is there something edible out there in the long grass?

A short distance away another three lionesses sat under a tree licking their paws.

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spotted hyena yawns. We do the same.

When he moves he trusts his whole shoulder forwards. The two back legs toddle along behind like a pigs the tail hangs long and low like a woman’s hair. Then, two more hyenas moving about thirty metres apart, ears back, looking awkward, as if they were panting for breath, finding each step troublesome.

A group of dead upturned trees and then under the umbrella canopy of the acacia a cheetah lying down, the stripes visible in the grass, turning to look every now and then, flicking its ear as if a fly had landed, scanning the vehicles around and wondering is it s good or bad day for tourism. If the

lion is the king of the prairie, the cheetah is the sporting hero with Olympic medals around its chest, prone to injury and when they get hurt, the consequences can be fatal The noise must be maddening for the animals. Rumbles, roars, dirty gritty diesel engines.

Some of them take three or four times to turn over, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, as they attempt to start.

Then the camera click, and the shouts of people to each other.

Can you imagine trying to sleep under your acacia tree and keep an ear cocked for enemies or enemies or potential lovers and have a Land Rover idling thirty metres away?

You can never grow tired of the melody of the birds, said Asheri Kilsay of Acacia Lodge. Asheri’s lodge is one of the plushest of the new sleeping spots under this amazing African sky

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he Ngorongoro crater is bigger, rounder and longer than you might ex-

pect. The land was brown, just barely edging towards a bluey green early morning colour when we arrive. Little shafts of sunlight were peeking through the clouds which were greyer than Africa should be.

But above all it was the wind, a howling wind like you might get out of a movie about Antarctica and early mist with storyboard on each side of the red tinged road suggesting there was something to see if the fog cleared. It could have been in Kerry.

Short, short grass slow growing and rushes peeking up from the red and yellow rock.

If Africa is all about red earth, the Serengeti is all about yellow rocks.

A real herdsman stands erect with a real goat, stick by his hand, walking over the hill, his blue blanket blowing in the wind.

A tiny krall, barley bigger than some of the lodge villas in the luxury resort, sits in the valley.

People walk in different directions away from this.

The colours stand out against the landscape.

The colours of the peo-

ple stand out against the landscape. The animals and birds know that a human being comes in two colours, red or blue.

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he sun came out and brought a transformational effect on the landscape.

The sky was noticeably blue where it had not been before. The brown grass had only been brown because of the cloud. It was now green.

The brown rocks had only been brown because of the cloud. They were now red.

The bushes and scrub looked for all the world like single stemmed hawthorn, all getting taller as you descend in to the crate as if plucking up the courage to draw attention to themselves.

When we reach the top, the paved road comes to an end and we are back on a beaten red pathway and it is time to close the roof.

Camera shutters can sleep easily. The animals can now do private things away from the prying eyes of Olympus, Canon and Nikon.

Eoghan Corry flew to Tanzania with Ethiopian Airlines, who commence a 3w service from Dublin to Addis Adaba on June 19 2015 and onwards to 21 domestic and 70 international destinations, 40 of them in Africa. He flew to Arusha with Precision Air and was hosted by the Tanzania n Tourist Board in Serengeti.

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ruising the rivers of Europe seems like a perfect antidote to the big-ship world of ocean cruising.

You won’t get sea sick, the ship is never far from shore and the berths and towns are all on a smaller scale than their big sea cousins.

The same advantages apply: unpack once and stay in a moving bedroom. There is more to see as you move on a river cruise. The view is s a two way process. Make sure to have the curtains closed as you exit the shower to avoid startling the cattle.

They can cost considerably more than ocean cruises but people are flocking to them in dykebursting numbers. There are now 308 passenger cruise ships plying the rivers of the world, up from 125 in 2000, with 46,200 berths in total.

So what is all the fuss about? The arteries of river cruise are just a two hour flight away from Ireland.

So we headed for Basel to follow the course of the Rhine through the storied cities of France and Germany: each one of them a headline of history: Basle, Strasbourg, Heidelberg (not technically on the Rhine but a shore excursion), Cologne, Amsterdam. “I know the route” the captain told us at the welcome meeting.

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e set off from foggy Basel on board the AMACerto, modern flagship of the AMA Waterways group which was founded and sold on by Dubliner Jimmy Murphy.

The Rhine is as much a motorway as a scenic byway. While the scenery action, the stuff of the screensavers and postcards, is to be found between Bingen and Bonn, the real role of the river in history is much more evident from the concrete plants and massive chemical plants along the rest of the river.

There are long

stretches of agricultural land, trees and hedgerows carrying on like they did in napoleon’s time.

Amacerto came with a small deck pool and a giant chessboard where we whiled away our time and the evening entertainment was lively, given the size of the audience (150) and average age: many of the guests have had their bus passes for quite some time.

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cean cruise companies like to boast about the ship as destination. River cruise companies have less to work on but rightly stress their fine dining op-

tions, some of the best perch and tenderloin I tasted in a long time, and superior shore excursions.

In many cities you are walking distance from the town so you can explore on your own. Even when you are not, bussing to and from a city is less a herding experience than for ocean goers.

After that it is up to the local guides to perform, which they did. The complicated politics of Stras-

bourg were brought to life

by Gianni Cariani. He talked about the river as you would describe your first lover, forgiving its faults and proud of its role in world affairs.

The favourite story from Strasbourg concerns the dancing plague of 1518, when a group of citizens became so energised they danced until they dropped dead.

P

eak season is the July-September period when Ameri-

cans travel, especially the west coast Americans who have fallen in love with river cruise, But the key is to travel off peak, and some of the companies have kept their ships running past season’s end to take in the Christmas markets.

That is where the best prices will flash up on your window or your travel agent’s. Don’t keep the curtains closed for that.

n Eoghan Corry travelled to Basel courtesy of Sunway, who run the AMA Waterways programme out of Ireland, offering rivercruises on the Rhine, Danube, Douro and Mosel. +3531 2311800 www.sunway.ie or your local travel agent.

DISCOVER CANADA FROM COAST TO COAST www.viarail.ca

For more information about VIA Rail visit www.viarail.ca

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DESTINATION AUSTRALIA

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oing Troppo is the phrase they use in Queensland for those who head north beyond the grassy palms of Brisbane past the Whitsundays, past Townsville, past and all the way to Cairns. Cairns and Port Douglas used to be sleepy sugar towns.

The population sat around 30,000, something like Castlebar.

And then tourism arrived like a cyclone that changed the town forever.

It was the Japanese who came first, they loved the beaches and the mangroves and they took boats out to the reef to dive. To this day nothing has changed. The airport got bigger, its runway longer. Today holidaymakers pour in on domestic flights from Sydney and Melbourne. There are plans for international flights which could change the game even further.

If Northern Queensland was a country its presence on the tourist map would be even greater than it is today. Its climate is as far removed from Sydney and Melbourne as it is from Dublin or Dubai.

The boats that bring the tourists to the reef, 15 different operators heading out each day, unwrap an unbelievable underwater world for every single one of the passengers. To dive in the Great Barrier Reef, even in an age when experiential tourism has become an overused word, is one of the great must dos.

In an era when everybody talks about a bucket list this is both the top, the brim, and the bottom of everybody's bucket.

To walk through Cairns town you can see how tourism has changed its sleepy streets. The signs tell you of diving, sailing, of didgeridoos and coffee shops and fast food.

Reef & islands A taset fo the tropics form Queensland

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Photographing Molle island in the Whtisundays, Queenlsand, Australia Should the Crown of Thorns starfish succeed in its ambition of wiping out the coral that frames, inspires, and defines all of the tourist activity that happens on this coast, Cairns would be a much poorer place turning back to sugar to sustain itself.

There are some things much sweeter than sugar, seeing the reef is one of them.

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he beach bars of the world are ubiquitous and increasingly homogenous.

They look the same, no matter what part of the world you travel to.

They line up along carefully paved roads with cycle paths and lots of sand.

They are framed in the landscape of the senses: with the sound of the waves in the background and lots of palm trees, some standing straight but more importantly two or three to lean over precipitously as if they just had one cocktail too many in the neon lit bar beyond.

Neon is important. It's

important that there is at least one red lobster and every single pun known to the English language is used by the bar names.

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his is a place for pedestrians. The beachfront is not for drivers although there are always a few inappropriately sized cars along the way and one or two open top sports cars to show that the midlife crisis is a worldwide phenomenon.

If beach bars are ubiquitous, beach bar prices are ubiquitous as well expect to pay $12 for the cocktail cost you $3.50 three blocks away. But hey, you cannot hear the sound of the sea when the drink gets cheaper.

In the evening the soundwaves fill with lively music by singers who all think they have to sound like Tweety Bird.

You will sometimes find some fairy lights.

Fairy lights is the territory of the ski resort and the mad weeks in the lead-in to Christmas. Beach resorts like them too, if they flash you know the beer is

Eoghan Corry flew to Australia with Emirates Airlines, who a double daily service from Dublin to Dubai and onwards to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. He was hosted by Tourism Australian, www.australia.com.

throws a tree across the path line.

As you tramp along the path with the fading leaves of a previous autumn, your eye is always on the ground for the animals that you may not wish to encounter, the death adder, the stuff of headlines.

As in many tourist attractions, the headlines tell not even a piece of the story. They don't tell the story at all.

going to be a little bit cheaper in the establishment behind it.

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ustralia has become a big city tourist destination for those who seek out the hot spots of Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

Most tourists come, however, for the outback, the wildlife, and the stunning scenery.

Cairns, redolent of the rainforest and mangrove swamp, where the beaches come with added spice, the excitement and note of peril of stingrays and crocodiles, offered more of what Australian tourism has come to mean to the rest of the world

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he Whitsundays are about three quarters way up Australia’s east coast, a long way from places: 1,000km to Birisbane, 600km to Cairns, 1,800km to Sydney.

Here you can see weather patterns approaching on the horizon long in advance. It looks like haze, like fog. It looks like the clouds dip

down precariously.

Sometimes the cloud comes down in a black cone on the horizon, indicating something wet is coming..Very wet. Swimming pool dropped on your head wet.

These are the Whitsundays at their best. The sea and the sky don't just play out this drama. The shadows amid the trees and on the grasses and on the plants reflect everything that is going on in the meteorological complexity beyond.

Wherever the sea and its attendant breezes dominate, everything changes quickly, at breakneck speed. The wind has no time to wait. The landscape has no time to stay and smile for the photographer, keeping the colours ready for the next shot.

Look away and look back, and everything has changed beyond recognition. This is as true in the west of Ireland as it is in the tropics.

The silence is broken by the cacophony of birdsong.

The path is well marked and the obstacles reduced to a series of steps. Occasionally nature shouts back, and

hy are the Whitsundays such a playground? The beaches. Beyond Whitehaven, justifiably famed for its 98pc silicon sheen, are quite ordinary.

These sort of islands can be found all over the world, in the Caribbean, off South America off Africa, off Thailand.

Tropical sends out good messages to the tourist. It means green and lush hot sunshine nourished with rain and the debris of the previous season rotting on the forest floor.

But these 74 islands are ideally situated, isolated yet not too isolated, the furthest is 40 nautical miles of the Australian mainland so they are an easy reach for sailing boats.

Most tourists come in by air and there is good landing facilities, adequate beds on land in the resorts created by 1980s entrepreneurs on seven of the islands, and another 2000 beds available in the flotilla of hospitality craft that sail off these islands.

You can find features like this in the Mediterranean, but they would be crowded. Here, a small sail bring you to somewhere isolated where you can retreat into a world of the imagination, not far removed from that encountered by the first explorers all those hundreds of years ago.

And then retreat back for a cocktail to the bar.

Page 037-039 Greg Evans advertorial 08/01/2015 13:44 Page 1

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Three East Coast USA options with a World of Visitor Appeal

A modern renaissance city where history meets innovation

Make A Discovery Discover Philadelphia (PHL) - a modern renaissance city where history meets innovation and culture.

Here for the making of your next great American adventure, PHL is conveniently located between New York City and Washington, D.C. along the North-East corridor of the U.S. Easy to get to and get around, once you arrive in PHL you will find a multitude of cosmopolitan experiences to choose from. Become captivated by this 21st century city where an inspiring, creative culture merges with ideas, technology and education Take-in Philadelphia culture as you walk through the vibrant streetscape and immerse in America’s old world and new world. Safe and friendly streets are lined with parks, rivers, shops, public art, restaurants and museums. All within walking distance from downtown.

Make History Philadelphia is where the American Dream was founded and the model for modern day democracy was forged. Home to iconic places such as the Independence Hall (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), the Liberty Bell and the National Constitution Center, here you will get a glimpse at the birth of a nation. Innovation and education are at the heart of both the Philadelphia and American stories. Ben Franklin, the iconic Philadelphian, led early American innovation, creating the first university, hospital and zoo – all located in PHL and open to visitors.

Make it Creative Philadelphia’s art, music, film, design, fashion, performance and culinary energy are thriving.

World-class cuisine prepared by celebrity (and award winning) chefs can be found throughout PHL. Options abound with more than 2,500 restaurants, 250 outdoor cafes and 200+ BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle) style restaurants.

Known as a culture capital, PHL boasts the most artistic mile in the country stretching from Philadelphia City Hall to the Philadelphia Museum of Art including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, The Barnes Foundation and The Rodin Museum.

Make it Vibrant Neighborhoods are the fabric of Philadelphia. Check out cobblestone streets, American history and unique boutiques in Old City then stroll over to Northern Liberties where an

open air piazza holds free concerts and festivals.

Nearby is the neighborhood of Midtown, also known as the Gayborhood. Here you will find LGBTfriendly bars, discos, restaurants and shops. Neighboring Midtown is PHL’s Rittenhouse Square. This chic neighborhood boasts a large green park, outdoor cafes and high-end shops. Don’t forget, Philadelphia is a shopper’s dream with tax-free shopping on all clothes and shoes.

Across Philadelphia’s neighborhoods you will find more than 3,500 outdoor works of art courtesy of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Known as the mural arts capital of the world, visitors can explore these grand scale art pieces with a private or self-

guided walking tour.

Make It Green With the largest municipal urban park system in the world, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia is one of the greenest cities in America. Endless adventure trails, riverfronts, bicycling trails and running paths are woven through the city unlike anywhere in the U.S. Named “one of the world’s 10 best cities for parks” by Frommer’s, PHL offers a wide range of outdoor activities and urban adventures.

For visitors that would rather watch the pros in action, PHL offers nine professional sports teams (including the Philadelphia Phillies [baseball] and the 76ers [basketball]) and numerous annual sporting events that include the Philadelphia Marathon and regattas.

Make It Accessible Philadelphia International Airport (www.phl.org) connects Philadelphia with more than 124 cities, including over 30 international destinations making Philadelphia easily accessible from anywhere in the world.

Once visitors arrive, exploring other U.S. destinations is easy with rail services via Amtrak (www.amtrak.com).

Philadelphia is located less than a two-hour train ride from both New York and Washington, D.C., while Boston is approximately six hours away.

Getting around PHL is easy too. Philadelphia is ranked “one of the top 10 walkable cities in the U.S.” by walkscore.com.

Page 037-039 Greg Evans advertorial 08/01/2015 13:44 Page 2

FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 38

Three East Coast USA options with a World of Visitor Appeal

Brandywine & Valley Forge in The Countryside of Philadelphia W ithin the countryside of Philadelphia, lies The Brandywine Valley and Valley Forge.

The Brandywine Valley has a rich tradition of horticulture from the benevolence of the famed du Pont family to arboretums paying homage to Pennsylvania – Penn’s Woods. This heritage resonates throughout the greater Philadelphia region, earning the moniker – America’s Garden Capital. The horticultural influence of the famed du Pont family is particularly strong in Southeastern Pennsylvania and Northern Delaware.

The Brandywine Valley is home to Longwood Gardens, the world’s premier horticultural display garden, founded by Pierre S. du Pont. Situated on 1,050 acres, Longwood features 20 indoor gardens as well as 20 outdoor gardens and a breathtaking conservatory. Built in 1919, the conservatory is one of the world’s great greenhouse structures; home to 20 different gardens featuring 5500 types of plants. Outdoor gardens overflow with gorgeous flowers and spectacular fountains. The newly expanded Meadow Garden encompasses 86 acres and is a model of ecological gardening and

design. Summer 2015 explore the gardens by day – and night. Nightscape: A Light and Sound Experience opens July 1 and the natural canvas of plants, flowers, trees and lakes will come alive with moving imagery, light and music.

Valley Forge and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania are known for their history, but their appeal is modern-day. It is a shopper’s paradise, a culture-lover’s haven, a place whose theaters and concert venues come alive at night. Explore the County’s dining, family fun, fine accommodations, open spaces and adventurous places.

The King of Prussia Mall, is the largest shopping complex on the East Coast of the United States, and offers the most discriminating shopper an endless selection of luxury department stores, with more than 400 dining and shopping venues. For outlet lovers, Philadelphia Premium Outlets, located in the northwestern suburb of Limerick, offers 150 brand name outlet stores, from designer fashions and sportswear to home furnishings and specialty gifts, all at 25-65 percent off everyday prices.

Don’t forget it’s tax-free shopping on clothes and shoes.

Page 037-039 Greg Evans advertorial 08/01/2015 13:44 Page 3

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Three East Coast USA options with a World of Visitor Appeal

A

Do Atlantic City

tlantic City, the East Coasts original place to play!

Championship golf courses, world renowned entertainment, vibrant nightlife, the latest casino games and a shoppers paradise with over 100 outlets, Atlantic City is the best choice for a vacation get-away.

Atlantic City is always on the move with new visitor attractions like Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville entertainment complex at Resorts Casino featuring the Margaritaville Restaurant, LandShark Bar & Grill, 5 O’Clock Somewhere Casino Bar, Margaritaville Coffee Shop and two retail shops.

Who doesn’t love Jimmy Buffett and a cheeseburger in paradise! These changes resulted in Resorts Casino Hotel transforming into a destination appealing to visitors yearning for an island adventure. The Bass Pro Shop, a full city block of entertainment for the whole family, is slated to open spring of 2015, complete with an aquarium and fish-themed bowling alley. Of course our favorite pastime is shopping and it’s TAX-FREE! So don’t forget about the hottest shopping around. Tanger Outlets The Walk has over 100 retail establishments include Pandora, , Coach, Michael Kors, Guess, Old Navy, Yankee Candle and more.

For visitors who like to be entertained, the nightlife in Atlantic City is endless. From Country and Rock to Rodeos,

Boxing and midget car racing, all performed under the bright lights at Atlantic City’s casino properties and at Historic Boardwalk Hall. When the sun goes down, the action is just heating up as numerous night clubs, such as Mixx at Borgata, Dusk at Caesars, Boogie Nights at Tropicana, Haven at the Golden Nugget and The Pool at Harrah’s, allow patrons the opportunity to dance and party the night away until the wee hours of the morning.

When you come to Atlantic City, come hungry because our culinary menu is a delightfully tasty mix of gourmet restaurants with an amazing array of internationally-acclaimed chefs. Atlantic City offers many choices that are sure to please any picky palette and price conscience visitors.

Dishes from all ethnic backgrounds, such as Mexican, American, Italian, Vietnamese, Asian, Indian, Southern, Cuban, Mediterranean and more, can be found at dozens of restaurants throughout the city and along the Boardwalk.

We offer complete Atlantic City information and knowledgeable staff to assist you, Meet AC is committed to making every visit a memorable experience. After all, it’s always about the stories and Atlantic City has many to share with visitors of all ages.

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DESTINATION TANZANIA

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he real advantage of selling Zanzibar is that the brand is already far more exotic than anything else associated with the African continent.

In fact the other African brands that have that exotic touch are also closely associated with Tanzania , Serengeti, Kilimanjaro, Ngorogoro and they are all usually packaged together as part of the experience.

Zanzibar is historic and cultural in the sense that Ali Baba and the forty thieves are. It was once capital of Oman. It is Indian Ocean, more Mauritius and Seychelles than Africa.

That is as good a marketing trick as anyone could pull off at a time that Africa has problems shaking off the negativity of its old image, the baggage of colonial oppression, the newly acquired reputation-shredding combination of ebola, Al Shabaab and Boko Haram, At first sight the island of Zanzibar is not as exotic as the name would suggest. It is crowded with 1.3m people and has that broken-road, red earth, traffic jam chaos that honeymooners would like to avoid.

The thing is, avoid it they do, and now they hide in the plush, wonderful hotels that have sprung up over the past 40 years.

In the 1980s there was one hotel. Now there are 300 hotels.

Raising the Z-bar Eoghan Corry on the scents and senisibilites of Zanzibar

A beach in Stonetown

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he flight stopped first in Kilimanjaro, where most of the tourists disembarked. It then went to Zanzibar, and continued on to Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. A sort of the a milk run, which made Shannon stopover look manageable by comparison.

There is a new airport under construction when we landed (our luggage

didn’t) in the stark daylight. When you exit the aircraft you are hit like a bantamweight's upper-cut by the heat, and that smell.

At the baggage hall they bring the truck of bags to a counter and the collection of tourists come to the baggage buffet to claim their belongings. Mine was not there.

It was tagged as far as Addis and despite a notification at the airport it

THINGS TO DO n At Kizimbani spice tour visitors discover how pods, bark, buds and berries are harvested and dried, sampling intoxicating aromas of fresh cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg which “will delight the senses and stimulate appetites,” and sample “the sweet tropical fruits and zesty curries Zanzibar is famous for.” This is the cheapest place to buy locally made

perfumes, oils and spice rings. n Stone Town is a day excursion, with the slave auction site now occupied by a church, the house of wonder (so called because it was the first house with electricity), the old market where visitors shop for various fruits. This is the best place for shopping. Be prepared ot haggle and watch for aggressive sales people who follow tourists through the town.

never arrived.

In a small office I filled out a form the helpful youth who assured me the bag would be delivered on the same aircraft tomorrow. It wasn’t.

Photographs, TV programmes do not ever convey what is really going on in Africa because all of the senses are engaged and the sense of smell maybe the most important or effective of all.

I wondered do Africans miss this when they travel. It is derived from everything, vegetation and the dust and heat.

Urban and rural, it is always there.

They bussed us past a

fleet of small private aircraft all resting in between their Safari runs.

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he island, or rather cluster of islands, is 50km off the coast of mainland Tanzania, and are best known for spices, coral reefs and their fringes of white sand beaches.

This is where the hotels are to be found in necklace clusters hugging the sand. Location is important here, the east coast is extremely tidal, the north is not. Which is the most beautiful beach? Opinions vary.

The seat fashioned from a canoe, heavy thatched roofs over the

big restaurant palm trees tamarines and the gentle incline down to the ocean. All of these hotels have big space in which to spread the rooms.

At Beaches resort, our home for the first three nights, the characteristic sound is the rustle, the low rumble of the Indian Ocean beyond the beautiful palm trees. Indian Ocean Islands follow similar set of seashore characteristics. It applies to the Seychelles, Maldives and Mauritius.

About a mile offshore there is a reef. The west coast of Zanzibar is particularly tidal. At low tide you can walk to the ref.

The helpful hotelier will rent you shoes to protect your feet from the sea urchins and the jagged coral.

The nearby Palms hotel has 130 acres to that means lots of landscaping. It would keep the honeymoon couples who come flocking from Italy fit to walk the rows of steps.

The reef nurses a natural playground between it and landfall. But it does something more holistic, it comes with its own sound track, a song of coral that never stops so when you wake in the morning, throughout the day, until you sleep, and through your dreams, the dark and mysterious Indian Ocean is providing the background music.

In Zanzibar it is particularly soothing, because this is distinctively Africa. If you stop and fill your head with the background music, the weight of slavery, colonialism, and the muscle flexing of counter colonialism in its political, economic, and social dimensions, all there to be heard in that sound.

In the evening the sound is merry hum of

n Eoghan Corry flew to Zanzibar with Ethiopian Airlines, who commence a 3w service from Dublin to Addis Adaba on June 19 2015 and onwards to 21 domestic and 70 international destinations, 40 of them in Africa. n PremAir Marketing Services are GSA for Ethiopian Airlines, 7 Herbert Street, Dublin 2, Ireland, Phone: +353 1 663 39 38 Fax: +353 1 661 07 52

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FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 41

DESTINATION TANZANIA the mosquitoes emerging to feast on fresh guests, the colour is the blue, blue sky becomes grey.

But it seems a more passionate, deeper grey. The light green palm trees seem greener. The red burning roof seems redder. The sand seems sandier and yellower. It is as if everything has a statement to make, like loud bird song.

F

rancesca Micheli of Gold Zanzibar originally from Italy, explains: “Zanzibar is somewhere magical, the first time I did not think to come back. The second time the plane opened the door, I felt this warmth and this smell, not the perfume of spices, but he smell of burnt wood and something that scratched the throat, and I felt I was at home. And I

ecosystem of bugs on its own.

They always save the best stuff for last, he said.

Chain in a slave dungeon was very surprised.”

For spices, the place to go is Kizimbani, where you get a two-hour tour and an acrobatic performance by a tree trapeze artist.

We had seen two of the 17 spices when the tour operator from San Francisco first felt the first drops of drizzle come down. It became a dribble, a pouring tap and eventually a cascade. It was short rain (OctoberNovember) so it passed quickly, long rain season (May and June) is when the prices are best.

Someone was sent away to get us umbrellas

and returned with a collection. Each time we passed another plant they reached out, plucked, and peeled, lemongrass, ginger, nutmeg, jasmine. We rubbed our hands together to crush the latest sample and smelled and gave approving sounds in the different languages of the group and moved on to the next spice.

The Australian worried that like a wine tasting we would reach the stage where we could smell no more or distinguish the difference between the smell from the jasmine house or the smell from the toilets, which had an

A

mid the labyrinth of coral stone alleys of Stone Town is where you find the world famous doors, treasured Arabian artwork. The Portuguese established a trading post as early as 1503 and Omani Arabs completed the town's fort in 1701, but the fabric of the town

dates from the height of Zanzibar's commercial power as a trading centre in the 19th century.

The island of sun and sand was then a haven for spice and slaves. One of the darkest places you will visit on the planet is the slave chambers where the captives were held, without food or water, for up to two weeks, having been transported from Eastern Congo.

Jailansaid Shafi brought our small group into a suffocating chamber where 75 women and

children were held, flushed by tidal waters: “Most of the slaves died from cholera, typhoid and oxygen deprivation. It was very bad business.”

Once there were 15 slave chambers, now only two remain.

Clara Somas monument to the slaves is equally chilling. The slaves are in a pit, so the tourists look down on the figures. The chain is real, from slave trading days.

Spice and slaves to sea and sand. Zanzibar keeps its glow.

PLACES TO STAY n Breezes Beach Club and its sister the Palms, on the tidal East coast has a dive centre and magnificent private dining room, the first spa on the island and a 40-year tradition of high end service. n Diamonds La Gemma dell' Est a spacious and comfortable favourite with honeymooners, it has a magnificent pier and overwater dining area

n Gold Zanzibar, Italian style in the sun n Hideaway, Huge pool and spacious lodges n Royal Zanzibar beach volleyball at sunset. the only closed buffet in the region which is handy for fly season n Ras Nungwi spectacular sea front high stool bar.

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DESTINATION SKI

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ometimes a new lift can change the entire rhythm of a ski resort. Last year the Télécabine de Tovière opened in Espace Kill, replacing a slower lift which allowed six persons to stand. Now the Telecabin can accommodate 10 people seated. It is a small change but has changed the dynamic of that section of the terrain.

A new lift is a multi faceted thing. People plan their day differently. That means a lot in Espace Killy, where 80 lifts bring 100,000 skiers on to the mountain each day, (it should be Kelly, the terrain was named for the ski champion descendant of a Tipperary-born Napoleonic soldier).

My plan, as always is to travel far from the accommodation on the first lift, as far as I can. It takes just seven minutes main lift link to Val d’Isere, then onwards to the top

Tignes age kicks Snowy mountains, frozen lakes and a sporty host town, what could be better?

Preparing the piste left hand corner of the piste map was my target in Espace Killy.

Alex Stojanovski, who had skied in the Olympics for Macedonia took me out to show me the slopes

and planned a series of journeys for me.

I would make my way back slowly. By the end of the week my route had become a routine: Tufs, Edelweiss or Creux/Mont

W

ithout any fear of contradiction, Sierra Nevada can claim to be the sunniest ski resort in Europe.

It is, the southernmost, within a short hop step and jump of one of Europe’s most intriguing cities, Granada..

You cannot miss this bright shining fact, even after it has set. The brochures, websites and posters have told you about it long before you reach the mountain and repeat it at every turn, the morning sun throwing dramatic shafts of light and shapes onto the snowscape.

The Sierra's gentle slopes and wide runs make it good for beginners and intermediate skiers, not to mention noisy snowboarders in those irritating clown hats. When they are all open, the total length of the 39 ski runs stretches to 61km. The longest run is the 3.5km Rio. The resort is controlled

Resort at night

by Cetursa, a public-private partnership. They run the public transport in the resort through its layer cake of Sol y Nieve, from to the high spot of Pradollano as much as the ski lifts. Recent investment includes a new chairlift with increased capacity and what they claim is the largest snow making system in Europe which guarantees the resort will be open, careful that no American style chemicals are added.

It is a big operation.

Many of the slopes are south facing. It means sometimes that the wind stops by instead of the sun.

B

ecause of the altitude, most skiing is above 2,600m, the season is long, running from the start of December to the May bank holiday weekend, turning the resort into an each afternoon beauty contest of bikinis and T-shirts. The lifts run long hours too, from 9am until a staggered closing between 4.45pm and 5.30pm.

We stopped by on a windy day the see the operation as run by a control room built in 1995 drawing information from 250 automatic and 100 manual stations around the piste. “The air is really dry air here,” says Andreas Bielser,

Blanc, Marmottes, Fountaine Froide, Santons, Solarise Express, Loulette, Glacier, Leissieres, Col De L'isrran, Pyramides down to Le Former, a short bus journey and the “normally it is less than 10pc humidity. It leads to a different type of snow.”

“When the snow is blue it isn't snow.”

By the time you finish your ski run, the sun itself has called upon all its forces to remind you. It is baking hot and crowds of people are soaking up the rays in the strip of bars at the bottom of the pistes.

These bars, Cuna, Tia Maria and Parallel look and feel the same. Unlike the more intimate smaller ones they don't serve tapas with the drinks, but they serve a different purpose.

Their terraces face the afternoon sun and straight towards the mountains, away from the resort.

On Saturdays you can relax in a deck chair for a few hours in the afternoon, then head back up for more skiing.

From 7pm to 9pm at weekends the gondola reopens and the long, sweeping El Rio piste is floodlit for night skiing.

Olympique home.

The conversations, after the breathless skies, were short as a lift run and in a shared language of snow lovers.

Skiers of all levels

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his is a big deal, because Sierra Nevada is well set up for a short ski break. It is 32km from Granada, and two hours from Malaga and the playground of many Irish owned holiday homes.

It is a longer flight time but a short stay in the sunshine and the free tapas in many of the bars makes you wonder why more Irish do not come.

The clever thing is to hire a car and drive. By public transport there are three buses a day to Granada and one to Malaga, Granada is a 45 minute journey and costs €9 return.

If the snow doesn't fall, and even if it does, Granada is only half an hour away. In winter, there are few lovelier sights than the Alhambra's delicate red brown walls, a striking ancient foreground against a towering backdrop of hard white.

It is at night that you realise that you are in

quickly find their favourite staging pistes, lamp pistes, piste boxes and falling pistes.

The much-skied Prarirond has become known as paranoid to the large Anglophone audience who come every year. Two slopes have the distinction that people get tattoos with their names: Combe and Anemone (accessed by Palfour lift).

The routine brought me into Val d’Isere every day, trying to avoid a tumble on the scarey black that everyone who visits the iconic resort spends at least part of the day watching.

If you are going to fall, fall down in public.

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ignes has long been acknowledged as more sporty and sprightly and less stuffy than its neighbour, pretentious and pricey Val d'Isère.

The two resorts shares the same ski terrain al-

southern Spain and why the Nevada is somewhere special.

Now the bars turn into centres for the performance arts, real tourism attractions, instead of the Apres Ski that we are used to.

Young people take out the guitars and start the flamenco session. There isn't room to swing a mouse, never mind a cat, but improvised dances are taking place along the narrow bar aisle.

All along the bar the trappings of Andalusian culture, hung hams, difference grape-based drinks and fire waters that would knock the ice off an avalanche.

It is splendid, and it is inexpensively splendid.

Sometimes when we ski we end up in a barn with overpriced drink, piped music and rude service.

On the Sierra Nevada you find the polar mountainous, snow-covered avalanchous opposite of those things.

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DESTINATION SKI though Tignes has ended up with some of the better bits (try to find a better red than the Double M run in the morning sunlight) as well as a livelier night scene .

The Folie Douce, part of a chain of bars that can be found in three resorts, has acquired the reputation as the danger spot on the resort: it featured on English TV show Sun Sex and Suspicious Parents.

The afternoon can be whiled away there without taking a tumble. The task later on becomes more difficult. The icy bit of après ski is avoiding the large barn like bars that proliferate around here, with overpriced drink and undersupplied atmosphere.

Help was at hand. I was part of a Crystal ski package holiday, looked after by a small team of

Early morning lift queue in Tignes reps led by the efficient Olivia Knight and Nathan Edge, mostly students and new-grads who are wintering out.

They were a committed an industrious bunch, on call for every problem form a broken leg to a malfunctioning ski pass.

The first text message came before check-in: If you need us now or during your holiday in TIGNES, please call or

HOW CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE UNEXPLAINABLE?

text.

One of the delegated tasks is the pub crawl through the bars of the resorts, using the free bus service. There are 40 bars to chose form.

Loop is their favourite bar, DJ Chris Wharton had them dancing on the very first stop, then the night progresses through the Underground Saloon, Couloir, Drop Zone, Blue Girl - Melting Pot and

Puerto

Cowuire, a saloon bar with live music.

Le Cofe Deck is a terrace chllled out bar for those that don’t like the pace.

Too many English?

Embuscade café his where the French take refuge while Palette de Boulee uses local products.

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al d’Isere has an air of history and stability about it, important for those who value such things when the French Alps were invaded by custom-built 1960s steel and concrete resorts.

Ski resorts should all

be about the terrain. They should be about the snow and the slopes and the view from the mountain.

And Tignes stands as an antidote to fusty old Val d’isere. “Our target is to bring younger people to practice sports,” Margot Sella from Tignes Development says, “85pc of our visitors come to ski every day. We are very different other resorts. We have places from small studios to five star so everyone can come here.”

There are also lots of young families, childcare costs €40 in the morning, €40 afternoon, or €10 an hour and €15 in the evening.

“Don’t come here to do shopping, come here to have fun.”

Eoghan Corry travelled to Tignes courtesy of Crystal Ski, who offer charter flights to Chambery. See +3531 4331010 www.crystalski.ie or your travel agent.

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DESTINATION USA

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he winter was long so the leaves were late. Sprinklings of lavender could be seen along the roadside.

The smell, though, was of burning, for since the days of the native Americans they burn the prairie each year to keep the cedar trees from seizing this ground.

The burning lasts for weeks, and sometimes locals grow tired of the smell. But they know there will be a reward.

Lush green grass they come to fill the vacuum and the black will turn to green.

The surviving prairies of the Flint Hills define the image that Kansas conveys to the world.

Dorothy and the tornado won’t be dislodged from popular culture very easily but now there is an alternative icon of Kansas for everyone to talk about.

The quick explanation goes like this: the hills were too stony to yield to the plough, so the USA was left with something approaching a preserved belt of prairie land. It took ages for anyone to pay attention to this legacy, and, now they have they wonder why it took so long.

People of the prairie and proud of their landscape and love to show it off to whoever passes through.

This is one of the world’s great drives. The grain silos are the skyscrapers of the rural countryside, like cathedrals in the skyline.

Range Rover Eoghan Corry in Kansas and Okklahoma Part of Route 66 in Oklahoma: as authentic as it gets

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he glamorous Route 66 of the 1950s, its neon lit motels and diners where girls with tossed hair and flouncy dresses hung out, was largely a myth. But we knew that..

The gritty Route 66, where the car would be stuck behind a slow-moving, smoke-belching truck, unable to pass for mile after mile, was something a lot less glamorous, something that tourists even if they could experience it, would find less enjoyable than the romantic version that they have imagined and reimagined and these reimaginings have been reinforced by marketing

campaigns crewed by people who were not even born when Route 66 was at its heyday.

It is in the small towns that you find Route 66 at its most original and glamorous, red brick, red tiled roofs the signage from all ages and vintages, large trucks ferrying produce, it gives you a sense that the Route 66 golden age was not long ago and they even be just beginning.

Susan Pordos welcomed me to the Route 66 Interpretive Centre at Chandler to try to get my head around it. She showed me the paraphernalia of a culture that had just found motorized

transport a little ahead of the rest of the world.

Route 66 has become a tourism cliché, of course.

But the cliché mongers are happy to confine this to the roadside cafes and merchandising opportunists all of whom have attached imagery declaring their allegiance to Route 66 (the legend) rather than do with anything that would interfere with the relentless march of modernisation and covering up the past that is such a delicious feature of the America we know

and love to visit.

There is enough real stuff flying by as you drive to convince you the journey is worthwhile: AJ's gun and pawn shop, Sonic, Star Tyres, Donut palace, stop and shop markets, Golden Arches, spirit bank and American flags inside the houses with porches. The ubiquitous churches, lots of Baptist but not just Baptist, Methodists occasional Presbyterian or Catholic and the Episcopalians who still own America.

n Circle S Ranch and Country 3325 Circle S Lane Lawrence, KS 66044 P: 785 843 4124 mary@circlesranch.com www.circlesranch.com n Woolaroc Ranch www.woolaroc.org n Standing Bear Pkw Ponca City, OK 74602 P: (580) 762-151 n National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum n Chickasaw Cultural Center Sulphur, www.chickasawculturalcenter.com

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o really see this country, ditch the car and saddle up.

My companion Mary Cronemeyer of Circle S Ranch and Country Inn near Lawrence could not have been a more experi-

Eoghan Corry flew to Chicago with Aer Lingus, for lowest fares see aer.lingus.com, and onwards to Kansas City returning through Chicago from Dallas/Fort Worth. Aer Lingus fly twice daily to Chicago from Dublin.

THINGS TO DO PLACES TO SEE n Flint Hills Discovery Centre Manhattan, www.flinthillsdiscovery.org/ n Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve http://www.nps.gov/tapr/index.htm n Schlitterbahn waterpark Kansas city. n Flint Hills Discovery Centre: nice interpretatin of the signiicance of the Prairie in Manhattan: “the little apple” n Wichita Museum of World Treasures http://www.worldtreasures.org/

The question is how much of Route 66 has ANY historic value. The road has been repaved so often the bundaries between myth and realtiy, then and now, no longer exist.

The world’s most famous road

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DESTINATION USA

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Mary Cronemeyer of Circle S Ranch and Country Inn enced horsewoman. For Mary fell off a horse before she was one year old.

Her mother, apparently, brought her riding at the front of the saddle as she tackled the chores at the farm on horseback.

One day the little baby fell off the front of the saddle where she had been perched. She did not land on her head, or so it would appear, so all ended well.

And Mary still loves to ride. When I came to her ranch on a sunny day in April, it was still cold and the last residue of winter wind was gusting across the prairie.

The wind has such a presence here, it is like an extra character in every story.

I assured her I was made of strong stuff, and we took to our horses.

With great scenery, great conversation, and lots to talk about, it may have been one of the best afternoons I have ever spent in my rambles across seven continents.

Mary grew up on rural farm in Kansas but the canvas was enormous.

Her hobby was bringing home stricken animals, a coyote cub, a nest of baby skunks. Her parents patiently tolerated Mary’s multi-species menagerie.

Nowadays the menagerie is still around. You can hear the coyote’s relatives howl at night under the big wide open, starry sky.

Was it lonely? She laughs it off and tosses her hair to tell me that in summer

time the farm boys would come to mend fences and help with the hay.

And everyone who comes from a rural background who has been a teenager knows exactly what hay is best for.

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here’s the beef? Everywhere you look in every direction,.

There is much conversation at every stop of the percentage of prime beef they serve up in the local restaurants. “Enjoy what the soil round you has produced, Kansas fed grass beef,” Jeff Schauf who runs a food truck in Wichita says. The top 2pc of premium beef, they say, they keep for themselves, a local carnivore secret that is revealed only to visitors.

Americans like huge portions. In Oklahoma I found the biggest portions I have ever sat beside. It is beside the Arbuckle mountains (Chickasaw Country Marketing Association says “for Oklahoma these are mountains for other states they are speed bumps”) in Smokin’ Joe’s Rib Ranch. They serve up - 3,000 lbs of meat of meat each night, and much of it was on my plate.

Nearby Nancy Fulton makes the best fried pies on the far side of the Atlantic.

Abeline Kansas is where slider burger was invented, The founder of White Castle burger

joints was from Wichita, and apparently stole the burger idea.

Lots of places claim the best barbecue. Kansas City is a contender and this is a serious claim for the barbecue is a six hour cook, and has to be manned because it is charcoal while a slab of Sunday is cleanup time.

A previous visit to Cattleman’s in Oklahoma served up one of the best steaks I had in the world, but there were several others to dispute the claim.

There is more to please the taste buds. Bill Copeland has put Tulsa on the chocolate map with his confectionary in the revitalised Bricktown downtown area.

Then something unexpected: an Oklahoma winery using Oklahoma grapes.

“You have to listen to the grapes,” Tulsa wine maker Chris Girouard says. “Oklahoma gets 40 inches of rain a year compared with 30 in most wine regions, it is too humid for the classic grape varieties.”

Chris’s father bred some wild local vines varieties with the more familiar grape vines, with interesting results. “They grow in open clusters which enables them to dry out more quickly and means they are not susceptible to black rot.”

His winery is a work in progress. I will be returning to taste.

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Page 046-047 Afloat 08/01/2015 12:16 Page 1

FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 46

AFLOAT STENA

Line will be adding extra tonnage to the Dublin-Holyhead route in early 2015. It will be replacing the Stena Nordica with a larger ropax vessel, Stena Superfast X. Stena Superfast X is a sister ship of the award winning Stena Superfast VII and VIII ships which the company currently operates on the Irish Sea. It has capacity for up to 1,200 passengers and provides almost 2 km of lane space to accommodate a mix of car and freight traffic. Superfast X is currently being modified and fully refitted before taking up her position on the Dublin-Holyhead service in early 2015.

The vessel will have a range of facilities including dedicated passenger and freight driver lounges, Barista Coffee House, Met Bar and Grill, a retail shopping outlet and other areas for passengers to relax and enjoy their crossing including Stena Line’s award winning signature premium lounge, Stena Plus.

Cabin on board Fred Olsen Boadicca

ROYALCaribbean Cruises announced

Direct from Dublin

CARNIVAL

F

SEADREAM Yacht Club has ap-

pointed Alan Lynch’s Cruisescapes as its preferred partner in Ireland. SeaDream offers inclusive cruises for 56 couples on each of its two mega-yachts, each with a crew of 95. plans to retrofit 13 Royal Caribbean and six Celebrity Cruises ships with scrubber technology, which is hoped to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions by 97pc.

Corporation has ordered two new cruise ships for its cruise lines Holland America Line and Carnival Cruise Line. A new 3,954-passenger Vista-class ship will launch in March 2018, and will be a sister ship to Carnival Vista, scheduled for launch in spring 2016. Holland America's new 2,650passenger Pinnacle-class ship is scheduled for delivery in November 2018 and will be a sister ship to Konigsdam, to launch in February 2016. The two as-yet-unnamed ships will be built at Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy.

COSTA

Cruises renamed its Costa Classica ship Costa neoClassica after a $28m refurbishment. Changes include updates to the pool deck, a refurbished wellness facility with a new TRX area, new interiors and soft furnishings, new balcony furniture in the ship's suites, personal Illy brand coffee pod espresso machines and Elemis beauty products in all 654 cabins. The, 1,680-passenger ship went into dry dock in Genoa on Nov 8 and will reemerge Dec 18. Costa was previously responsible for Travel Extra’s favourite shipnomenclature mishap: the Costa Fortuna.

SILVERSEA

released two new brochures showcasing 300 luxury cruises sailing in 2015 and the first quarter of 2016. It also launched the redesigned com website.

SEABOURN confirmed a second new-build ship to join the fleet in spring 2018.

VIRGIN

Richard Branson confirmed plans to launch two Virgin Cruises ships. No date was set.

NORWEGIAN signed a partnership with Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville.

Caribbean cruise among new no-fly options in 2015

red Olsen Cruise line is offering direct crusies from Dublin this year.

It includes a 34-day Caribbean cruise for the first time. from Irleand, departing from Dublina dn also returning to the city.

Black Watch departs for the Canaries on Nov 9 on a 34-night round trip with prices from €4,959pps.

Black Watch cruises from Belfast to the Bay of Biscay (from €999pp) on Oct 16 and the Canaries (from €1,729pp) on Oct 24.

The cruises are being marketed out of Dun Laoghaire by Cruisescapes and its MD Alan Lynch, the GSA of Fred Olsen in Ireland since last spring The development follows a decline in direct crusie options from ireland, largely caused by the intervention of the Cmmission of Aviation regulation to prevent CMV selling cruises direct from Ireland three years ago., To bring the message home, Fred Olsen’s Boudicca was back in Dublin and Belfast before Christmas for a series of mini-cruises that elevated the

profile of the Norwegian-founded, English-based cruise line back to levels not seen since the heyday of the late lamented Ken Lendrum.

For anyone who remembers the phone kiosk cabins in the Black Watch or the Tartan malfunction that was the interior décor of the old Balmoral, the stylish Boudicca was a revelation. Kate Wooldridge of Fred Olsen countered the suggestion that Fred Olsen’s ships are small and old: “Yes, but they have had more face lifts than any woman of their age.”

NEW FRENCH ROUTE INCENTIVES

F

erry operators have opened bookings for the 2015 French season with early booking incentives.

Irish Ferries offer a free cruise ferry trip to Britain for a car plus two passengers for motorists making a return sailing on either ‘Oscar Wilde’ from Rosslare or ‘Epsilon’ from Dublin to France during

F

June, July and August.

Pre-discount prices start at €129 for a car and two adults. Other promotions on their French services include a 10pc early booking discount on motorist reservations made by 5th January.

Booking deposit is €100 with the balance of the fare need not payable until six weeks before departure.

An onboard family meal for two adults and two children will cost of €29.95, a saving of up to €25 on the normal cost a family lunch or dinner.

Children’s menus are also available in food outlets, whilst entertainment such as treasure hunts, magic shows, kiddies’ discos and entertainers feature regularly during summer

sailings.

The services now include a once-weekly return sailing from Dublin to Cherbourg from Irish Ferries while Stena have taken over the former Celtic Link route from Rosslare to Cherbourg. LD Lines are not continuing their ferry service to St Nazaire this summer.

BRITAIN HOLIDAYS €50 DEPOSIT

amilies can secure their holiday with a deposit of €50 when they book with Stena, for holidays booked by Monday March 2.

The cruise line says it can mean savings of up to

€340 for a family, and costs of €610 (€88 per day) for seven nights and including return ferry travel with car, accommodation and family activities and entertainment with nightly shows. at a range of

ten Haven holiday parks across Britain including Presthaven Beach Resort in Prestatyn or Hafan Y Mor in Pwllheli, both in North Wales; Kiln Park in Tenby, South Wales or Devon Cliffs in Exmouth, Devon.

Haven holiday parks boast four free kids clubs.

Holidaymakers also have the option of taking the coach from Dublin to Presthaven Beach Resort from late June to early August.

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AFLOAT NORWEGIAN

Escape is to feature a sprawling ropes course and aqua park. Located on the top deck, the three-story ropes course with a zip track that allows participants to glide through the air, an aqua park with the popular free fall water slide familiar from breakawayclass ships, and an all-new water feature called the Aqua Racer slide, in which competitors can race side by side on tubes. Outdoor activities include a nine-hole, mini-golf course with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme, and a bocce ball court. Norwegian Escape will offer childcare services for children ages six months to three years as part of the Guppies programme.

CMV

Cstomers queue to bard the North Star pod on board Quantum of the Seas

Year of Anthem

Technology will be the buzz word for cruising in 2015

R

oyal Caribbean will lead the cruise headlines of 2015 when Anthem of the Seas maiden voyage takes place on April 22.

The successor to the high tech Quantum of the seas, Anthem wil be based in Southa;ton and offers the same high-tech “ship as a destination” product such as a virtual sky dive, a pod that brings guests high voer the ocean, onboard bumper cars and the virtual surfing and wall climbing facilities present on previous ships.

The only different between Quantum and Anthem is the entertianment: We Will Rock You instead of Mamma

2015

Mias.

The other big story in cruise-ship building is the development of Viking Star, the first ocean-going ship for river cruise giant Viking. Also notable is the biggest ship ever for Norwegian Cruise Line, the Breakaway Polus class.

The slowdown in new ship orders created by the Lehmann recession but recent months have seen several new orders by the major cruise lines, including a third and fourth Oasis class ship from Royal Caribbean and two 5,300 mega ships from MSC. At roughly 225,000 tons, the first two vessels in the series — Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas — are

CRUISE LINE UPCOMING BUILDS 2017

n Aida Prima- 3,250 pax, March n Norwegian Escape- 4,200 pax, Oc 29 n P&O Brittannia- 3,611 pax,March n Ponant Le Lyrial, 264 pax, April n Royal Caribb Anthem of the Seas - 4,100 pax, April n Viking Star- 944 pax, April

2016

the world's biggest cruise ships. They made their debuts in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

Norwegian Cruise Line ordered two new ships for delivery in 2018 and 2019, bringing its total on order to four. MSC Cruises also recently ordered two new ships for 2017 and 2018, also bringing its total on order to four. Royal Caribbean has five ships on order.

Among the most complex traveling machines built by man, the new cathedrals fo the modern age, oceangoing cruise ships take years to construct, so any new orders placed in the coming months likely won't be filled until 2018 at the earliest.

n AIDA Cruises Unnamed - 3,250 pax n Blue Star Titanic II, 1,680 pax n Carnival Vista, 4,000 pax n Holland America Koningsdam 2,660 pax Feb n Regent Explorer, 738 pax, May n Royal Caribbean Ovation of the Seas 4,100 pax n Royal Caribbean Oasis III 5,400 pax n Seabourn Unnamed , 450 passengegr n Seven Seas Explorer , 750 passengegrss n Star Cruises, Unnamed 3,360 pax n Viking Sea - 944 pax, Apr 3 n Viking Sky - 944 pax, June 24

n MSC Unnamed -4,500 pax, May n MSC Project Seaside I - 5,300 pax, Nov n Norwegian Bliss 4,200 pax, Spring n Princess Cruises Unnamed, 3,560 pax, summer n Viking Unnamed - 944 pax

2018

n Carnival Unnamed, 4,000 pax, Spring n Celebrity Project Edge I, 2,900 pax, n Holland America Unnamed 2,650 pax n MSC Project Seaside II - 5,300 pax, May n Norwegian Unnamed, 4,260 pax summer n Royal Caribbean Oasis IV 5,400 pax n Seabourn Unnamed 604 pa

2019

n MSC Unnamed - 4,500 pax, n Norwegian Unnamed, 4,260 pax, summer

2020

n Celebrity Project Edge II, 2,900 pax,

Cruise & Maritime Voyages parent company, Global Maritime Group, has acquired Astor and signed a long-term charter of the vessel to CMV.

CELEBRITY Cruises ordered the first

two in a new class of ships from French shipbuilder STX France. The first ship is up for delivery in autumn 2018, with the second delivered in the early part of 2020.Two 2,900guest, 984 feet long, 123 feet wide and 190 feet high, 117,000-gross-registered-ton ships, developed under the project name EDGE will build upon the brand's Millennium and Solstice class ships. Based upon current ship orders, projected capital expenditures for full year 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 are $1.4bn, $1.5bn, $2.3bn,$0.4bn and $2.2bn, respectively. Capacity increases for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 are expected to be 2.4pc, 5.5pc, 6.7pc, 3.8pc and 4.3pc

CARNIVAL officially shut down its

Spanish cruise line Iberocruceros. Costa has absorbed the Iberocruceros' market.

COSTA

Cruises released details of their joint Costa Cruise Tours programme, which combines three-night land tours with sevennight Costa cruises.

BRITTANY

Ferries was named the largest tour operator when it comes to organising packages for French people to Ireland.

French visitors to Ireland increased by 7.3pc in 2013 to 433,700 with a large proportion coming by ferry..

DERRY The Cruising Club of America awarded the 2014 Rod Stephens Trophy for Outstanding Seamanship to Sean McCarter, skipper of the Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Yacht Race Irish entry Derry -Doire in recognition of the way he directed his crew during a dramatic man overboard rescue in the harsh northern Pacific Ocean last March.

CRIME An American Coast Guard bill

signed into law on Dec 18 requires cruise lines to provide information on all crimes committed on cruise ships, including those that are alleged or under investigation.

BAHAMAS New cruise line Bahamas Paradise Cruise has purchased the Carnival Celebration and will use it for two-night Bahamas sailings out of Palm Beach, Florida starting February under the name Grand Celebration.

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THE FLYING COLUMN

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

1 IN 29M CHANCE The chances

of dying in an air crash in the US and Europe are 1 in 29 million according to the latest survey for Allianz – the insurance group points out that there is more chance of being struck by lightning (1 in 10.5m). The aviation sector will see 3.3bn passengers fly this year compared with 106m in 1960. Air travel insurance is to rise because of increasing fleet values and passenger growth, pushing risk exposure through $1tn barrier in near-future.

EASYJET launched the first direct

service between Belfast and Reykjavik. The flight operates twice per week on Mondays and Fridays on a 156 seater Airbus A319 with 30,000 passengers expected to use the new service during the first 12 months. Fares start from £31.99pp one way.

SINGLE EUROPEAN SKY

The European Commission has tasked the SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) Deployment Alliance, a cross industry partnership made up of four airline groups, operators of 25 airports and 11 air traffic control providers, to plan and coordinate a wholesale modernisation of European airspace to coordinate and synchronise €3bn worth of upgrades to the continent’s air traffic management infrastructure. The Single European Sky has provoked strike action in several European countries over the past two years.

ETIHAD will sponsor the inaugural

World GAA Games in Abu Dhabi, which takes place March 5 to 7. .

LUXAIR is to increase its Dublin-Luxembourg service by 50pc from summer 2015.

AMERICAN Airlines are to upgrade the craft on the Dublin-JFK route to a B763.

CORK Airport head of communications

said that the airport is to build a second air bridge and give it use for free to airlines that will use it.

FLYBE are terminating services to Water-

ford from Manchester and Birmingham after March 27. Flybe put on sale its 2015 summer schedule, which features 144 routes, leaving Waterford without any air services.

AIR FRANCE-KLM issued its third

profit warning in six months, cutting its 2014 earnings goal by €200m.

RYANAIR announced a new 6w Man-

chester to Stuttgart service, operating from April 2. Ryanair also added three routes to its Athens summer schedule to Budapest, Bratislava and Santorini.

ETIHAD unveiled its first A380 and B787 to over 200 journalists in Abu Dhabi.

EMIRATES anticipated over 80,000 passengers on Dec 19, the busiest day during the Christmas season.

ETIHAD announced a codeshare agreement with Hong Kong Airlines.

IBERIA and Brazilian airline TAM announced a codeshare agreement.

2014 was the fourth busiest year in the history of Dublin airport

The great take off

Irish airport numbers increase but still short of 2008

F

is set to reach record lev- from May 14. ive of the Irish PAX PACK 2014 els by year end with over Shannon reported 1.66m with terairports are Belfast City 2,541,721 650,000 passengers to minal traffic up 19pc, including a looking at in- Belfast Int 4,082,816 date opting to connect at 10pc increase in transatlantic passencreased passenger Cork 2,169,600 Dublin onwards to gers and a 67pc in European traffic, numbers in 2014: Derry 354,175 transatlantic, European thanks to the 10 new summer services Dublin will hit Donegal 50,000 and UK destinations. and five new winter ones put on by 21,614,000 passen- Dublin 21,614,000 He said the outlook for Ryanair. Shannon frequencies have gers (up 7pc), Indreabhán 20,354 2015 was “very positive” not been finalised for 2015 but it is DAA said in a Kerry 306,042 with 14 new services likely that some trans-Atlantic carristatement that the in- Knock 703,324 have been announced for ers will offer further increased frecrease in passenger Shannon 1,666,038 next year to destinations quencies. numbers was a result Waterford 50,000 such as Los Angeles, England, Shannon’s biggest marof Dublin Airport’s Addis Ababa, Gothen- ket, is also up by 5pc a very signifi“strong and growing route network, as well as the launch burg, Reykjavik, Washington DC and cant number due to the larger Paris Orly. numbers involved. of 24 new services this year.”

Numbers at Aldergrove were up Knock figures were up 5.5pc and The Authority say that significant 1.5pc to Belfast International 4.08m the airport received its 700,000 pascapacity increases and frequencies on senger on New Year’s a number of routes during the year while Belfast City eve, making the have also contributed to passenger numbers were flat.

DUBLIN’S 25 YEARS 700,000 barrier for the Cork Airport was growth. Frequency growth has been 2002 15.1m first time. Knock’s a bigger factor in driving growth than down 4pc on 2013 1989 5.1m due in the main to 1990 5.5m 2003 15.8m prospects for 2015 are new routes in recent years.

2004 17.0m not as strong as some Dublin Airport Managing Director, the direct transfer of 1991 5.2m Ryanair Eastern Eu1992 5.9m 2005 18.4m key routes such as their Vincent Harrison said this has been 2006 21.4m Germanwings service Dublin is growing much faster than rope from Cork to 1993 5.9m Shannon. The air- 1994 6.9m 2007 23.2m to Cologne may not rethe European average. port got some good 1995 8.0m 2008 23.4m turn.

“Dublin is becoming a significant The smaller airports 2009 20.5m hub for transatlantic connections and news in that CSA 1996 9.1m 2010 18.4m are also losing busithe additional flow of transfer pas- Czech Airlines will 1997 10.3m 2011 18.7m ness, notably Watersengers will help the further expan- return to Cork next 1998 11.6m summer operating a 1999 12.8m 2012 19.1m ford which may join sion of services to North America and 2013 20.2m Galway in not having a also to Britain and continental Eu- new twice weekly 2000 13.8m 2014 21.6m scheduled service. rope.” Transfer traffic is up 38pc and service to Prague 2001 14.3m

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THE FLYING COLUMN

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

Michael’s 97m

New image for Ryanair is wooing new customers

M

ichael O’Leary’s New Year’s resolution is that 97m passengers will fly Ryanair in 2015.

“We still have two years to go to improve customer experience,” he said.

A whole set of changes wil come in the coming weeks relating to the website, including a Skyscanner style price comparison facility.

“We are keen on comparison pricing as customers switch to Skyscanner and Edreams. We will compare competitors by day,by price against Ryanair flight.”

A new hotel partner will also be coming online shortly.

“Keep an eye on our website for all services for rating and recommendations.”

The airline would also be utilising big data from MyRyanair to customise experience and bring offers from third party suppliers to frequent fliers.

Ryanair Holidays medium term product will come online over the next two or three years He said the move to primary Airports initially delivered low yields but grew steadily in the summer. “There is enormous opportunity at primary airports across Europe as other carriers will not meet previously agreed targets.” Primary airports also improved the airline’s visibility and access to business customers.

He said Q3 yields were pretty good

Dublin and Atlanta will begin five times a week from March 29, increasing to a daily service from June 1 using a Boeing 767-300 aircraft with 225 seats. From Atlanta, customers can connect onto more than 100 destinations, of which the most popular include Los Angeles, Orlando and San Francisco. Flights depart Dublin at 11:40am and Atlanta at 9pm, arriving in Atlanta at 3:40pm and Dublin at 9:55am (next day).

ETIHAD What it calls the most exclusive ticket in aviation history, the inaugural flight in The Residence by Etihad, has been booked by Miami-based businessman and aviation enthusiast, Gino Bertuccio .

RYANAIR reported a “substantial in-

crease” on families booking two holidays or more in 2015 and availing of its Family Extra ‘Fly & Save’ bonus, where families save 20pc on every third booking made.

JUNCKER COMMISSION

New president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker Is proposing a new Aviation Package and the withdrawal of the Ground Handling Regulation and Aviation Security Charges Directive, for which the Commission says no agreements are in sight. The aviation bodies have welcomed the move. The Juncker Commission promised to be “big on big things and small on small things”.

Michael’s new image has won back customers with traffic to grow by 12pc and in Q4 traffic would grow by 20pc at slightly lower yields Fuel is hedged at $93 per barrel will cut unit costs by 2pc and advantage of 10pc unhedged at lower costs The forward booking profile on average five points ahead with a 15pc increase in capacity. Ryanair leased in seven aircraft this summer and 15 aircraft are to be delivered this winter.

They will need to lease in another 6 or 7 next summer. Twenty new 737s to be delivered by next summer and no leases wil be required for summer 2016 "I'm going to try to make Ryanair a little bit bigger, lower the fares and be a little bit nicer to our customers than we were last year because it seems to be working so well," he said.

AER LINGUS LAUNCH FAMILY FIRST

A

er Lingus announced details of its Family First offer:

It gives access to half price on checked baggage and advance seat selection for children aged 2-11 travelling on short haul flights.

Families will continue to enjoy priority boarding, generous cabin baggage allowance and equipment for infants on board.

Aer Lingus Chief Revenue Officer Mike Rutter said, “Aer Lingus is the preferred option by 8 out of 10 customers in the Irish Market and we hope this announcement will cement that preference.

We are Ireland's most searched for Transport brand, and our customers know they can find out more about Family online at aerlingus.com.

DELTA confirmed that flights between

AER LINGUS advised the stock ex-

change that the SSIA pension fund proposals brining a resolution to the long standing pension issue had cleared the final hurdle, approval by the Pensions Authority.

ETIHAD is to offer a second daily non-

stop Abu Dhabi Melbourne- flight from Aug 1 2015. The additional flight will be operated by a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft in 8-40-280 configuration.

AIRFINANCE 300 airline executives from 120 carriers are expected to attended the Airfinance Journal Dublin conference on January 20-22.

ETIHAD Norman Jean Roy’s fashion-

shoot images on Facebook of the Etihad cabin uniform launch received 45,000 ‘likes’ and 2,100 shares.

AMERICAN

Airlines have changed their flight time on Dublin-Chicago to 09.40 from 10.35 since United announced they were joining the route.

AIRBUS

CEO Fabrice Bregier said the A350 programme should be profitable by 2019

TURKISH Airlines is to place orders for twelve Airbus A321-200 NEO aircraft

AER LINGUS REGIONAL growth is up 12pc in Cork.

RYANAIR’s Kerry-Faro route is to Irish families have chosen to entrust their precious holidays to Aer Lingus for nearly 80 years. They can

continue to trust their holiday plans to us with value prices to the Sun and our new family discount.

restart later than previously in June, July and August next year.

ETIHAD launched its first A380 service to London Heathrow on Saturday Dec 27.

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THE FLYING COLUMN

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

RYANAIR launched its new United

States website, ryanair.com/us. The site urges visitors to “Trade Route 66 for the Wild Atlantic Way”.

AVOLON Dublin based aircraft lessor,

Avolon, firmed up its contract for 14 A330new.

ETIHAD announced a second daily Abu

Dhabi-Melbourne service from August 1.

Boeing and Malaysia Airlines celebrated the carriers 100th 737 delivery -- a next generation 737-800.

ETIHAD’s social media campaign to

launch its first A380 and B787 along with the new cabin crew uniform gained lots of traction, with more than 70m impressions on the airline’s social media profiles.

WAYPOINT Ireland based Waypoint Leasing signed its first deal with Brazilian company Lider Taxi.

AIRBUS Group NV is suing Skymark

Airlines in England over a cancelled $2bn contract for six A380 jets.

IAA FEES The consultation period for the draft IAA fees order runs until Jan 25.

ALITALIA and Etihad Airways com-

pleted the transfer of air operations from Alitalia CAI to the new Alitalia SAI.

RYANAIR increased flights to/from Belfast City and London City to 4 daily.

FLYBE will increase its Belfast City to

London City service to four flights a day and Edinburgh to London City to six flights a day.

From Feb 22, the airline will suspend its Inverness to London City service and will reduce its Exeter to London City service from three daily flights to two from Feb 23.

FLYBE added two new routes to

Deauville in France, operating 3w from Birmingham and 2w from Exeter, effective for travel from June 22 to September 26.

ETIHAD

signed a codeshare agreement with Aerolíneas Argentinas, effective Feb 1.

THOMAS COOK Airlines said

mobile and tablet searches surpassed laptop searches on St Stephen’s Day: 53pc of searches were on tablets and mobile while 47pc were on PCs or laptops.

TURKISH

Airlines will add six new services to Africa: two unnamed destinations in Egypt, Abuja in Nigeria, Bamako in Mali, Conakry in Guinea and Juba in South Sudan.

PETS In a poll of 400 fliers, Chicago

based airport shuttle service Go Airport Express found that 52pc say they would “be okay” with pets travelling in the cabin, while 63pc said animals should be kept in a designated area to avoid setting off passengers’ allergies.

STOBART Air will not fly Dublin to

Southend in summer 2015 with Flybe operating the route daily. Stobart Air operation at Southend under Flybe branding is to be reduced to just one aircraft.

Jet fuel joy for the airlines but not for the customers

No fuel bonanza

Airlines reluctant to pass on savings to customers

T

he collapse in oil prices has not been passed on to aviation customers.

The International Air Transport Association says air fares will drop by 5pc next year thanks to a 40pc drop in oil prices and a stronger economy.

Global airline profits will reach $19.9bn this year, up from the $18bn projected in June, and are on course to hit $25bn in 2015. Tony Tyler IATA's Director General and CEO, said the fall in oil prices should strengthen the upturn next year but a 3.2pc net profit margin does not leave much room for deterioration in the external environment before profits are hit.

Airline executives at the round of aviation conferences have been predicting a “blood bath” as a result of increased competition.

But airlines are notoriously slow at passing on the savings they are mak-

ing on plummeting oil prices. The IATA prediction of 5pc excludes surcharges and taxes. IATA which represents 240 airlines, or 84pc of total air traffic, says airlines are still stuck with contracts for fuel that pre-date the price slumps.

IATA's chief economist, Brian Pearce said “it's going to be six months or so before airlines are seeing lower fuel costs, and at that point consumers are likely to see a fall in travel costs.”

European airlines are saying they are too heavily hedged to reduce fares and American airlines say they have no intention of passing on savings to customers, Most European airlines are heavily hedged into 2015, HSBC reported recently that Ryanair is 90pc hedged to both Mar 2015 and Mar 2016 while Aer Lingus is 50pc hedged to 2015.

Other airlines figures are: Air FranceKLM 55pc, EasyJet 80pc (and 58pc

to Sept 2016), Finnair 61pc, Flybe 95pc to Mar 2015 (and 74pc to Mar 2016). IAG 52pc, Lufthansa 65pc and SAS 29pc.

American airlines say they’re using their fuel savings to recoup losses they’ve had because of unanticipated oil price rises last year.

In the 12 months ended in September, U.S. airlines saved $1.6bn on jet fuel. That helped them achieve a 5.7 pc profit margin in the first three quarters of this year.

Amazingly, some airlines still have fuel surcharges in place. Some governments, such as England’s, want to require airlines to list the charges separately from taxes on tickets.

Michael Cawley recently told Travel Extra that he expects air fares to be passed on to the consumer eventually. he said fuel would likely rise form its current level of $60 towards $80 a barrel but will still be considerably lower than the highs of 2010.

LONDON CITY GETS 3 CARRIERS

F

lybe and British Airways have launched services from Dublin to London City Airport, joining Cityjet on a suddenly crowded route.

Both Flybe and BA have launched four daily serv-

ices to London City. CityJet responded by announcing that they will expand their Avro RJ85 Dublin to London City service by 25pc and will put on up to nine flights every weekday as of 26 October 2014.

Cityjet operate the earliest flight out of London City Airport with a 06:45 departure. Travel Extra joined Flybe’s inaugural on board a BombardierBBD/B Q400 Dash 8, which brought the Dublin guests

to a ceremony to celebrate the arrival of six Flybe inaugurals in sequence to London City airport.

Flybe now serve London City four times daily from Dublin at 06:30, 10.25, 15.20 and 19:20.

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AMERICAN Airlines will invest $2bn

in upgrading customer experience: including fully lie-flat seats, Wi-Fi, more inflight entertainment, a new look for Admirals Club lounges and more options for complimentary foods and drinks.

DELTA opened its Arrivals Lounge at T3,

London Heathrow. BusinessElite passengers, SkyMiles Diamond and Platinum Medallion members arriving from the US will have free access to the facility, which is open 6am-2pm.

ETIHAD and South African Airways ex-

panded their partnership with a daily service between Johannesburg and Abu Dhabi from March 29.

NUTS Vice president of Korean Air,

Heather Cho, apologised for delaying a flight after she ordered the aircraft to return to the gate so she could remove a crew member who had incorrectly answered a question about the airline’s nut policy.

UNITED Airlines will increase its serv-

ices to China during the 2015 summer season with double-daily flights to Shanghai and a daily service to Chengdu.

ETIHAD cargo is on track for its best ever performance in 2014.

Waterford in happier times

Waterford woes

EMIRATES say the airline has in-

vested €4m in wine: 160 different wines offered to customers during the year, 1.2m bottles aging in the airline’s own wine cellars in France.

DELTA expanded its partner chef menus on European routes.

ERA European airline associations called

on the EU to reject air traffic control price hike proposal.

DUBLIN Airport is now listed on Google

Indoor Maps in Ireland. Cork was listed earlier last year,

SINGAPORE Airlines agreed to honour business class bookings that were mistakenly sold at economy prices.

ARI Ireland launched a free personal shop-

ping service at The Loop, Dublin Airport. personalshopper@theloop.ie to pre-book.

AIR FRANCE and Air Austral have

resumed a codeshare partnership, which sees Air Austral’s UU code appears on 39 Intra-European routes from 22 Dec, including Paris CDG-Dublin. Lufthansa unit Swiss will not be the launch operator for Bombardier's new CSeries jet,

QANTAS claims its new menu is the “best in-flight economy dining experience offered by any international carrier. Main courses will be double the current portion size and twice the number of options will be available, including destination-specific meals (eg. smoky barbecue option for flights to the USA).

QATAR Airways announced Frankfurt as

the first route for the A350 Xtra Wide Body.

South east airport loses its last scheduled service

W

aterford airport has been left with no scheduled services in 2015 with the ending of Flybe’s routes to Birmingham and Manchester from the airport.

On the same day as the Flybe announcement, Waterford County council have granted a 350m phase runway extension, to be constructed this year.

At different stages in its history Waterford had flights to Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Faro, Jersey, Malaga, Paris, Prague and Rome as well as routes to Birmingham, Gatwick Luton, Manchester and Stansted.

Flights to Manchester terminated on October 24 last.

Waterford Airport currently has four check-in desks, an information

I

desk, two boarding gates, two baggage carousels. two snack bars airside and landside. Free WiFi is available within the airport terminal.

It has two hundred car-parking spaces, car rental services and a taxi service rank.

The airport opened in 1981 with a 1,200m runway for single and twinengine light aircraft and a portable cabin as terminal building. It was the take off point for Ryanair’s inaugural flight in 1985.

In 1992 the current terminal building was opened and the runway expanded to 1,433m. n Aer Arann, later Aer Lingus Regional was the airport’s largest customer, until it ended all service in January 2013. Between 1987 and

1988 Aer Lingus operated services to Dublin. n In 1993 Orient Air operated services to Gloucestershire, London Luton and Jersey. n From 1993 to 2000 Manx Airlines flew to London Stansted and Manchester. n Between 1994 and 1999, Suckling Airways operated to London Luton, . n During 1996 Emerald Airways operated services to Liverpool. n Between 2001 and 2003 Euroceltic Airways flew to London Luton, Liverpool and Dublin. n Flybe launched its daily service to Birmingham on March 25 2012 and a route to Manchester on May 22 2013

IATA AIRS BANKRUPTCY PLAN

ATA has announced a new arrangement to help passengers impacted by airline bankruptcy.

A voluntary agreement on behalf of its members flying to, from and within Europe will cover the repa-

triation of passengers unable to return home due to an airline ceasing operations as a result of financial failure.

The European Commission estimates that between 2011 and 2020, only 0.07pc of all passengers

could be affected by airline bankruptcy, and of them, only 12pc would require assistance in getting home.

The airline industry has opposed establishing a permanent statutory fund, "as financially prudent airlines would be subsidising

riskier airlines".

Estimates of the bureaucracy needed to run the fund suggest that up to 85pc of the money would be eaten up in administration, as has happened withMalev funds which have still not been paid.

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DESTINATION CAMPING

D

on’t mind what they say about the castles, the river is the best bit.The castles, not the silent river, are what bring the tourists. So it is there we must start.

Chambord is amongst the finest, built on a curve the Cosson which flows into the river Beuvron which flows into the Loire a kilometre later.

The castle is a showpiece, even in the vanity competition of Loire chateaux. Francois 1 built it as a hunting lodge, adorning it with Salamanders and a signature double helix staircase and whatever could be gleaned form the creative fervour of the French master masons. They say Leonardo da Vinci was in the Loire valley to help it along the way in 1516.

Despite all the loving work and the artistry, bits were left unfinished. As our guide said: “if we were to worry about completion we would never begin anything.”

F

or each of the stadium chateaux, filled with tourists listening to audio guides, like Chambord, there is somewhere smaller and equally intriguing nearby, like Talcy.

We are the only tourists in Talcy’s Italianate Renaissance mansion. The Auberge du Chateau nearby has no English but

The family option Eoghan Corry on why the ferry to France is still his favourite A country road in Beauce, the Loire valley is five hours from Cherbourg one of the warmest welcomes in France.

Our big trip was to Tours and its amazing cathedral. The small streets are full of amazing local shops, a bulwark against the homogenised shopping streets of Europe. I particularly like the gingerbread in the window of Hansel and Gretel patisserie.

The ribbon of castles along its banks can be a distraction, but it is important not to miss the star of the show, perhaps the star of France itself.

I swam the Loire at dusk. The level is low in August and the river full

of racey whirlpools and playful splashing. The logs and tree trunks of last winter have lodged along the shallow bits and there are sandbars that change shape and location according to the snowmelt of distant Alps.

The Seine is a bigger celebrity, the Rhone wider, the Canal du Midi the package holiday icon, but the Loire remains central to understanding what France is about, its longest river (1,013 km, just made it to four figures) and still deliciously moody, despite the centuries of attempting to tame its intemperance.

P

ieux what a scorcher.

We baked, in the sunsoaked, not the patisserie, sense. This heat was so intense there was only one solution, long drives in the air conditioned car with the temperature turned down as low as it can go.

The little town of Beaugency combines everything that is great about the Loire region.

One of Le Plus Beaux

Detours de France, its church has light streaming in sideways, much as it would have when they annulled the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine here and sparked off the hundred years war. My daughter Constance found an antique shop where she bought Bulletin de Theraputique from 1883, three euro and she is reading it from cover to cover.

Each day starts with a

odip in the Loire, surprisingly fast flowing for a river that is so big and already so far from its source. This region of France is very different from where I have been before, big farms with the harvest in full flow. The key is to go off the main roads and drive the small country by-ways, along country path where cars have to stop and yield to each other, in and out of village after village with its markets square and its block-sized church. The hanging baskets of flowers and shutter-protected windows go on for ever.

There is a statue of Joan of Arc in every market square. You can see a pattern here. Beaugency has the best Joan of Arc statue, with her banner and lance, positioned so red-faced tourists are almost forced to take their pictures up her skirt. The picture postcard village has a small stream running down the middle of tits main street, culverted and then opening like a porpoise coming up for air.

In Chateaudun we found a delicious town of which few have ever heard and sat in the open street where the coffee and ice cream were more expensive. Passers by nodded knowledgeably,

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

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

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DESTINATION CAMPING

Canoeing on the Loire, as if to think “those tourists, so easily fooled.”

We explored another ancient castle with another storied tributary of the Loire rippling by.

There were also some self-indulgent diversions along the trail of South Leinster saints Fiachra/Fiacre, Irish saints who set up their stall along the Loire.

C

ampsites are graded like hotels, four stars for the best facilities, more than one pool, slides, play areas and onsite dining.

Note that sites in France are graded up to four stars: most bigger operators use three and four-star sites. If you prefer canvas, on-site tents normally have a kitchen, fridge and electric light.

LA GRANDE METAIRIE Set

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

DOMAINE DE LA FORET Very

Their fame spread across France and still lingers, as much as at home. Fiachra is the patron saint of STDs which is a complicated tale in itself.

La Vendosmois near Le Mans was named for Saint Osmana. Cerota was her servant, of an Irish royal family.

E

ach campsite in France has its rhythm, and the rhythm varies from site to site, region to region.

There is a general pattern to affairs, common to them all. The early morning swim with the Germans and Parisians (there is never an English speaker in the deepest pool before 10, and the

modern pools ARE deeper (ours in Chateau des Marais in the Loire Valley was 2.5m deep).

Then shortly afterwards the queues of daddies in at the breakfast baguette shop (85 cent, so fresh the yeast is humming), the comings and goings of cars en route to local markets and sights, the enthusiastic queues of cyclists,

each a veritable Nicholas Roche or Dan Martin and the troops of kids off to the Whoopi Club.

This is followed by the heat-exhaustion of mid afternoon and the splosh of laughing children and sunburned parents in processions down the water slides. I love waterslides, the long and the windy ones, but they are put together for agile children travelling at speed, not the middle-aged and potbellied 90-kiloer who bumps along unevenly, feeling the rim between each section on their sunburned skin.

Then the evening, pizzas from the camp takeaway, Liverpudlians laughing in the bar, the muffled microphone

PLACES TO EAT

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

FRANCE: THE CAMPSITE CHRONICLES LE CHATELET

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

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

Domaine de la Foret French campsite, complete from this year with its own petanque pitch.

Lovely relaxed atmosphere; an hour’s drive to the magnificent Puy du Fou theme park.

LES MENHIRS

Breton favourite, close to the resort of Carnac Plage and a great site.

One of the best pools in

the camping business.

BOISDORMANT

Big child friendly site in the heart of the Vendee, among a cluster of fine four-star resorts. Great entertainment and pool facilities, sandy beaches nearby and lots to see.

Good day trips to safari park Parc Sauvage, and a visit to St Gilles Croix

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

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

sounds of a quiz or karaoke session, teenagers with bicycles flirting and admiring each other in whispered phrases that need no translation despite their multi-lingual nature, barbecues outside the caravans and tents, the voices raised a notch with every bottle of great value local wine that is emptied.

Until the night when everything goes quiet, darkness descends and the last Liverpudlian is coaxed out of the bar: “I’ll put it in a plastic cup for you.” The crickets sing their love songs, the Loire goes pouring by and all in the world seems right.

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

DOMAINE DES ORMES

Big resort on the Border between Brittany and Normandy, 4,500 holiday makers on site at peak, which means lots of activities, archery for the kids, zip wires, and a option to spend a night in a treehouse, the next big thing in the French camping experience.

Close to Mont St Michel so you can see that amazing tide-coming-in thing; police patrol the sands on horseback to warn the unexpecting to turn back before the crucial moment.

COURTILLES DES LIDO Near

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

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Gravity Bar in Guinness Storehouse and a star attraction at Dublin Zoo: both attractions exceeded a million visitors for the fourth successive year

Guinness heads the list VISTOR ATTRACTIONS: THE 100,000 CLUB

1. Guinness Storehouse 1268056 2. Dublin Zoo 1057409 3. Cliffs of Moher 1046546 4. Nat Aquatic Centre 935472 5. Giant’s Causeway Centre 738850 6. Titanic 657128 7. Book of Kells 647595 8. Nat Gallery 635156 9. Botanic Gardens Glasnevin 627000 10.Tayto Park Ashbourne 482850 11.Nat Museum Kildare St 440611 12.Farmleigh 435476 13.Fota Wildlife Park Cork 434821 14.Belfast Botanic Gardens 425000 15.Ulster Museum 440990 16.Derry Walls 410870 17.St Patrick’s Cathedral 410000 18.Science Gallery 390154 19.Blarney Castle 365000 20.Newbridge Silverware 329600 21.Kilmainham Gaol Dublin 326207 22.Chester Beatty Lib Dublin 310817 23.Nat Library 306979 24.IMMA Kilmainham 306662 25.Natural History Museum 301382 26.W5 Odyssey, Belfast 296937 27.Bunratty Castle 285013 28.Castletown House 283504 29.Pickie Fun Park 274513 30.Jameson Distillery Dublin 273193 31.Rock of Cashel Tipperary 268105 32.Carrick-a-rede, Antrim 263000 33.Sheep & wool ctre Galway 250000 34.Brú Na Bóinne Meath 243800 35.Kilkenny Castle 241302 36.Belfast Zoo 235986

37.Nat Museum Collins Bks 231128 38.Dungannon Park 224000 39.Oxford I Reserve Antrim 210397 40.Powerscourt Wicklow 208916 41.Carnfunnock Country Park 202000 42.Kylemore Abbey Galway 248600 43.Belleek Potttery Centre 187025 44.Waterford Crystal Centre 187200 45.Ulster Folk Musm, Cultra 167447 46.Christ Church Cath Dublin 165000 47.Dublinia Dublin 162582 48.Galway city museum 157603 49.Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin 152301 50.Holy Cross Abbey Tipp 150000 51.Clonmacnois Offaly 139413 52.Phoenix Pk Vis Centre 137755 53.Castle Ward 136065 54.Crumlin Road Gaol 136000 55.Nat Wax Museum 135000 56.Ulster American Folk Park 134924 57.Newgrange Meath 133616 58.Aquadome Tralee 129384 59.Glenveagh Nat park 146219 60.Muckross House, Kerry 118789 61.Nat Stud Kildare 117794 62.Nicholas Mosse, Kilkenny 115000 63.Ailwee Cave Clare 110000 64.Dún Aonghasa Inis Mor 105539 65.Malin Head 106000 66.Skerries Mill 105101 67.Malahide Castle 104414 68.GAA Croke Park Museum 103000 69.Dublin Castle 103287 70.Nat Museum Castlebar 101345 71.Belfast Castle 100000 72.Nat Sealife Ctre Wicklow 100000

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he Guinness Storehouse is Ireland’s leading attraction for the eleventh time in succession.

It was has been a record year for dozens of Ireland’s leading visitor attractions. In the annual battle between the big two the Guinness Storehouse is up 9.6pc on last year and reached 1,267, 807 while Dublin Zoo is also enjoying its best ever year, up 3pc to 105,000.

The Cliffs of Moher passed the 1m mark for the first time in November while the National Aquatic Centre, up 9pc, has passed 900,000 for the first time. Combined visitor numbers at the three National Museums passed the million mark in November, three weeks earlier than the previous three years in which they reached 1m.

Tayto Park in Ashbourne passed the half million barrier and is in the top ten for the first time.

Glasnevin Botanic Gardens, up 14pc to 670,000, Fota up 19pc to 434,000, Trinity Science Gallery, up 15pc to 390,000, the National Library exhibition centre, up 18pc to 327,000, the Chester Beatty Library, which passed 300,000 visitors of the first time on Monday, Castletown House in Celbridge, up 16pc to 283,000, Glenveagh National Park, up 25pc to 146,000 and the Little Museum of Dublin, up 80pc to 93,000 were also big movers, another spectacular year for the Little Museum of Dublin.

The main gallery of IMMA in Kilmainham was closed for much of 213, which meant visitor numbers slid back

to 121,221 as just the garden galleries and an offsite gallery in Earlsfort Terrace was open. The building reopened in October 2013 and was back to 306,662 visitors in 2014.

While Botanic Gardens Belfast is a walk through park meaning it is hard to determine exact usage, 220,000 attended special events there in 2014.

Not officially a visitor attraction, but the biggest excursion destination in the country, Kildare Village, reported figures are up 5pc to 2.51m visitors. It is not included in tourism statistics, and Lagan towpath (which the NITB lists as an attraction), tius also likely to top a million visitors.

Dublin Zoo narrowly beat the Book of Kells to top spot back in 1993, when 60,000 visitors would have guaranteed a top ten place.

BATTLE FOR NO 1

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Guinness 485,939 640,720 738,000 764,118 780,851 858,504 948,577 1,038,910 1,019,166 930,000 1,025,677 1,087,209 1,156,985 1,268,056

Dublin Zoo 601,000 607,000 772,322 731,705 746,291 754,208 900,005 932,000 898,469 963,053 1,001,083 1,030,000 1,026,611 1,057,409

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DESTINATION IRELAND

W

hen the tide goes out the sprat get stranded on the rocks in bountiful Ballycotton Bay. The bounty of this region is more than fish.

Thanks to the engine of energy in Ballymaloe East Coast has become something akin to the food capital Ireland's – the culinary centre.

You can see it, written down for you, on the menu of Seamus Breslin’s Bayview Hotel.

There is some fanciful description of the local foods but the key core products is written on a little slip attached is like a postage stamp to the top right-hand corner and it says hake. Others how they served my food, and I had plaice for breakfast, and mackerel pate for starter, and I had felt long before the bus came back to Ballycotton the following day, that I had journeyed like Oisín to Tír an n Óg, except I have done so with my seafood mouth wide-open and I had done so with a full stomach.

I

t is the sunrise that captures you by surprise. The sun rises over the ocean.

Ballycotton does not belong to the familiar pattern of the seascapes of Ireland. You get red-sky scenery in both direction, looking out on a busy harbour where fishing boats come and go.

It may end up as an extension of the Wild Atlantic Way, if the promotional trail is extended beyond Kinsale (the WWAW, Wannabe Wild Atlantic Way?).

This coast should not be about the scenery at all. It is about the taste buds. The food coast.

F

ood and whiskey.

In Midleton the smell throughout the town was of malting barley. It is not exactly from the distillation

Coach class Eoghan Corry checks out some Bus Éireann tour options Ballycotton Bay: if the sun rises over the ocean, is it still the Wild Atlantic Way? process although comes from the distillery.

It is from the beer that preceeds 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 photographs allowed).

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.

I

t is when the bus moves from the main roads to the by roads that you see the treasure trove.

What is special about bussing rather than driving is that you are required to move in accordance with somebody else's schedule, not the coach driver or a tour guide or tour operator, but something that has evolved over the generations.

Country folk understood things like the relationship between the land and fields, the small towns, and the great cities beyond, who understand the seasons, who understand the language of farming and fishing which sustain them and the timetable has to fit that.

The bus timetable doesn't bring you to Ballycotton. It brings you from Ballycotton. It is there for local people, people who want to travel

to Carrigtwohill, Midleton and Cork city, people who understand Stevenson when he said that to travel hopefully is better than for to arrive.

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he little road bumped through those villagers, famed Cloyne, of cloister and Christy, and on to a lap of the bay past the Garryvoe hotel to its little sister the Ballycotton Bay view.

The sun was low in the sky when I landed. We drove past the fresh mown fields, stalling and slowing for tractors, dogs, cyclists, schoolchildren and old ladies, through narrow roads and under overhanging tree. The landscape of East Cork was at its best. When we reached Ballycotton it was standing room on the pier. When the tide comes in, one fisherman told me, you can put your hand into the water and pull out the mackerel.

The woman beside him is bringing two together on

her line.

Ballycotton’s harbour forms an incomplete ring like the nose of a bull, and all around there were fishermen and women bringing in their harvest.

A

spell the bus network can help us all rediscover the old hotels that still in the centre of money of many provincial towns.

These places went out of fashion. They usually had 12 or 20 bedrooms for passing salesman, what used to be known as commercial travellers.

This sufficed since the 1880s, and for most, their main income came from a decent bar trade, rather than any bedroom offering.

The prevailing wisdom of the naughties was that 100 beds was the optimum size far a successful hotel. Some found their car parks were more valuable than their properties.

Some extended and knocked through the walls to enter the sur-

rounding premises like burrowing meerkats.

Many are still there and entering them is a delight.

Their rooms can be small and pokey, built for the liquor salesman and knicker salesman of the 1940s rather than the Savvy Traveller of the teens. And when the darkness falls you can tumble down the steps of the front door as wander through the delightful streets of Ireland's provincial towns.

My host in Dungarvan, Mick Burke at Lawlor’s hotel, found that his hotel became more valuable than the licensed premises as Ireland’s holiday makers, domestic and foreign, rediscovered their town stopover.

Bus Éireann is that they are trying very hard to promote that. Their fleet of buses has now been fitted with Wi-Fi and that is an amazing transformation of the passenger experience. Thirty new coaches are on the way. Tourists should be thankful.

n Eoghan Corry travelled to Ballycotton on a Bus Éireann Open Road three day ticket which allows unlimited travel on all Bus Éireann scheduled services including Expressway, local, city and town services, prices start at €57 for three days up to €249 for 15 days travel out of 30.

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I

t is unusual for a poet to know a thing or two about marketing.

Seamus Heaney knew it.

His poems were accessible and direct and occasionally emotional.

The same could be said about the Heaney tourism product which is wining its way into the itineraries of the world’s literary footstep tourists, fans, and Heaney-boppers who used to turn up in such large numbers for his performances and to buy his books.

Heaney’s most powerful performances would have included the Poet and The Piper with Liam Óg Ó Floinn as seen at Derry fleadh in 2012 or at Willie Clancy week in Miltown Malbay.

There are few things as refreshing as finding there is another dimension behind the poetry of one so recognised and analysed, and that is what happens on every step of the journey through Heaney’s childhood terrain in a small group of adjoining parishes in South Derry.

Heaney grew up on a boarder, several borders.

Tour guide Eugene Kielt

Chasing Seamus

A

Eoghan Corry goes digging on the Seamus Heaney trail of South Derry Versed in local lore: Seamus Devlin outside the forge that featured in Heaney’s work will bring you an important one beside the homestead of his early childhood.

It is a drain, culverted under a road on the diocesan border between Derry and Armagh, the border between his enforced choice of school, St Columb’s or St Pat’s, To see the fast rushing Moyola, you can walk through an estate in Cas-

tledawson, its identity crisis manifested in lamp posts festooned in Union Jacks and Unionist and Scottish paramilitary regalia.

Here Eugene read Heaney’s own requiem to the borders of his childhood, the border between the territories of the conqueror and conquered.

His ancestry came from both sides of that river

and the tour is at its most interesting and edgy when it moves from the marsh and the bog and the homesteads of Bellaghy into Castledawson and Magherafelt.

B

was once a planter’s castle here, but now the whitewashed walls are garrison the memory of the hinterland’s most famous resident. The Heaney Collection in an upstairs room is small, The satchel he carried to school and a collection of his books, some photographs of a more youthful smilier laureate than we are used to, a picture of him in the bar and an engraved copy of Digging, his most famous poem, familiar to Irish school children of three genera-

n Eoghan Corry visited Derry and toured the Seamus Heaney trail as a guest of Northern Ireland Tourist Board. www.discovernorthernireland.com n He was hosted by Eugene Kielt at Laurel Villa townhouse in Magherafelt, Eugene hosts readings and runs tours +4428 79301459 laurel-villa.com

ellaghy has the look of a tidy village, a well finished place a bit like a completed free verse poem with the final dot applied to it. The Bawn is a white house that sits on top of a hill surveying the length of Castle Street.

The name indicates there

I

interest in his world.

But fewer than a day’s daily visitation at the nearby Titanic centre a few dozen have taken up the trail so far.

f you want to how CS Lewis was inspired by his native city, just take a look at the door knocker at the rectory beside St Mar’s Church in Dundela in East Belfast.

Straightaway you can see the face of a lion on the door knocker.

This is where the young Jack Lewis, CS Lewis of the 2m book sales a year to you and I, encountered his lion on a daily basis exactly positioned at little boy eyeline when he came to rap on the door.

The growing number of Lewis aficionados who come to footstep the writer’s Belfast childhood can find a lot more to inspire them.

The lamp in the entrance hall to Campbell College became a major landmark in north east Narnia. The names of many places around were transposed into his books.

But turning CS Lewis into tourism

T The door knob that inspired Aslan cash is a little more complicated than at first sight With unbounded enthusiasm East Belfast tourism partnership printed 10,000 leaflets promoting the CS Lewis trail.

The enthusiasm should be well founded. Lewis’s books still sell 2m copies a year. The 1990s films ignited

he church where his grandfather was rector has a beautiful Michael Healy window dedicated by Lewis to his parents in the 1930s, but it is not open most of the time.

His first childhood home is demolished, now Dundela flats festooned in paramilitary flags. The road outside is busier than when his childhood dog Jack was knocked over, one of the first dogs in Ireland to die on the road. Clive wanted to be known as Jack afterwards in hi dog’s memory and his parents agreed.

His second childhood home Little Lea is where he and his siblings went to play in the attic and where the name Narnia

tions now, was in his very first collection. The prize won so young.

There is no headstone on his grave, a year later, but that is no deterrent to the increasing number of people seeking his last resting place.

There are two signs directing you past the large parish, its square tower comfortable of its and its community’s positions in a countryside divided between conqueror and conquered for 300 years. with all the baggage that entails. simple wooden cross sits on his carpeted grave by the cemetery wall.

No horseman passing by, the epitaph has not yet been decided. Time passes on like the Moyola in summer or the great man’s unhurried words.

There is a quiet unpretentious air to these villages.

South Derry, like much of rural Ireland, has kept the fabric and integrity of its terrain and community so apparent in those early poems beneath the surface of gentrification and aggrandisement.

That is what great landscapes do. Landscapes do not come greater or more familiar than those of the Heaney trail.

was inspired by one of their board games. It is still a private house, inaccessible to tourists, even though there is a certain allure in the fact that you must peep through the gate to see where the great man got his inspiration.

At least it has been saved the fate of nearby Red Hall, the home of his literary cousin Austin Greeves, where the adult CS Lewis stayed and wrote Pilgrim's Regress. It was demolished in 2003 despite protestations from conservationists, and now the site lies derelict, a vacant lot.

There are two CS Lewis graffiti wall murals, one bearing a better likeness than the other, they are asked lost among the Street Art of the troubles. In the little streets around the shipyard the murals depict passed away paramilitaries and the cause of Ulster identity. Tourists find them way more interesting www.discovernorthernireland.com.

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Inside the Travel Business

GLOBAL VILLAGE ITAA’s quarterly members survey revealed that 72pc of agents have reported an increase in bookings compared to this time last year.

20pc said bookings remain the same, while 8pc reported a decrease.

OASIS Sandra Corkin of Oasis Travel celebrated 30 years in business. Oasis Travel has grown from one travel agency in Lisburn to five.

SUNWAY has added Mark Warner to its brand portfolio including Corsica, Kos, Rhodes and Lemnos, and Turkish resorts. Ski destinations include Zell am See and St Anton in Austria, Courchevel, La Plagne, Les Deux Alpes, Meribel, Tignes and Val d’Isere in France and Courmayeur in Italy. Sunway recently acquired the Wings Abroad programme to Turkey.

DISNEY The Walt Disney Company, trading as disneyholidays.ie, has been issued with a new travel agency licence by the Commission of Aviation Regulation.

CELEBRITY Andrew Bolton has been

Falcon team launching their 2015 programme in Peploe's restaurant Dublin: Charlotte Brenner marketing manager, Chris Logan head of TUI's Irish operation, Carol Anne O'Neill the departing head of the Irish operation, Antoinette Young distribution manager and Carol O'Connor from the marketing department.

Change at Falcon

Chris Logan takes over as head of TUI Irish operation

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he trend for 2015 is the early booker is definitely back,” departing Falcon Ireland head Carol Anne O’Neill has said. “Summer 2015 has got off to a phenomenal start.”

“Over the last three years we have since continuous growth in sales in the pre-Christmas period. It is not just the families who are booking early.

Adults are booking early too. We are entering the traditional busy booking time in an extremely strong position.

The signs are already strong that this January will be good for selling holidays.| Carol Anne O’Neill is departing Falcon to join Ryanair as the new head of sales and marketing and will be succeeded by Chris Logan who introduced himself to the Irish trade this month as the new of TUI’s Irish Operation, of which the most prominent brands are Falcon Holidays and Thomson.

Chris is born in Scotland and previously headed up TUI’s English property portfolio.

Logan is currently Head of Property and Portfolio Change and part of the customer operations management team for TUI Ireland & Britain. He was previously a management consultant with Accenture before head-

Chris Logan speaking to media ing up Groups and Weddings for TUI/Thomson.

“I look forward to working with the Irish management team and the rest of the business to ensure its continued success into the future,” he said.

Carol Anne said that TUI Thomson had reported strong profits in December. Although the Irish figures are not stripped out she said Falcon and Thomson had “an absolutely fantastic year” in 2014 Highlights included an increase in capacity and an increase in pre and post turn of year sales. “The Irish weather was not as good as the previous year – it went back to its normal self. The Irish customer wanted to travel and prices remains strong in the latest market.”

“We increased our sales for all allinclusive product, for our holiday village and Splash world resorts and we

increased sales for Thomson as a brand, we successfully launched two brand new routes to Ibiza and Rhodes, already to date for winter our sales are very strong and Sharm is back open for business for the Irish holiday maker.”

“We also continue to proactively promote the travel industry in Ireland.”

“We continue to offer great value for money with early booking offers like 1,000 free child places and money off savings. One thing that is key to the Irish consumer is we continue to offer a low deposit.

Carol Anne brings with her 28 years of experience in the travel industry, having previously worked for XL Airways and Wings Abroad, and will oversee Ryanair’s sales & marketing team and activities across 30 countries in Europe and North Africa.

She said she was “very sad” to be leaving this business. “In 2015 Falcon will have been in business for 27 years. I have worked with great people. I have worked with great leaders.

I love the industry which is why I am not moving very far. You haven’t seen the end of yet.

appointed Ireland manager for Celebrity Cruises to replace Tryphavana Cross. Andrew will report to Claire Stirrup in her new role as head of sales. Lorraine Quinn will continue to work with Celebrity Cruises as business development manager for Ireland and Nicki Tempest-Mitchell will oversee the Ireland team as director of sales.

HOTELZON Adrian Fitzgerald is to

head up the new Irish operation of hotel distribution technology provider for the B2B travel industry, Hotelzon. The Hotelzon network has recently extended into Denmark, France and Poland and forms part of Travelport’s ongoing expansion plans for the business. Travelport acquired Hotelzon six months ago, forming part of Travelport’s ongoing strategy to redefine travel commerce, with a particular focus on growing in both the hotel and corporate travel space.

FITZPATRICK’S Paul Grehan has been appointed HR Manager at Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel.

CARNIVAL Corporation has appointed Christine Duffy, formerly CEO of CLIA, as president of Carnival Cruise Lines, effective February 1, 2015. Christine Duffy started her career as a travel agent.

AZAMARA

Club Cruises is offering its agents the chance to win one of nine trips, including AzAmazing Evenings designed to showcase local culture through dance, music, theatre and cuisine in exclusive settings.

Agents making a booking for the Azamara WAVE campaign running from Dec 26 to Feb 28 will be eligible for the prize draw.

ROYAL Caribbean Cruises Ltd named

Michael Bayley president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International and replaced him as president and CEO at Celebrity Cruises with Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, formerly executive vice president, operations at RCI.

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WINDOW SEAT

Phuket kitchen conundrum: Could a westerner be able to eat what is the hottest curry Thailand has to offer?

Busman’s holiday: Enda Corneille Every month we ask a leading travel professional to write about their personal holiday experience. This month: Enda Corneille, Ireland manager of Emirates

L

ike so many kids growing up in the seventies in Dublin, my summer holidays usually consisted of being shipped off to my very patient aunt and uncle in Kilkenny every July for a holiday and some exposure to farm life.

After having spent my first five years of life in New York, this was quite an exotic adventure. Whether it was pouring warm lumpy milk direct from the churn onto your cornflakes in the morning, venturing into the henhouse to search for eggs (which were still warm to the touch) or gorging on mountains of freshly baked bread smothered in butter and homemade raspberry jam, it is an experience that I now look back on with great affection, although at the time it certainly felt like I had been sent to a work camp of sorts!

Since then, holidays have been thank-

T

fully more within my control, but I haven’t lost my taste for new experiences!

I remember a particular holiday to Phuket which actually began at a party in Amsterdam of all places. I was based there at the time and one of my colleagues happened to be both Thai and a fantastic cook. That night he cooked Jungle Curry which I had never tasted before and it had a combination of flavours I found irresistible. The next morning I turned to my wife and suggested that we take off on a break to

Thailand and find the authentic local Jungle Curry. (I must point out that we had no kids at the time!)

Four days later we arrived in the magical paradise island of Phuket, and on one of our first evenings I tried in vain to find Jungle Curry on the menu of a number of restaurants (instead, I could have had my choice of sirloin steak, Wiener schnitzel or knuckle of pork which probably said something about the clientele!).

Eventually we found a lovely restaurant that served authentic Thai food and we proceeded to sit at a table under the stars. I had asked my colleague to write out the name of the curry in Thai and I gave this to the waiter who came back three times to ask me if I was sure I wanted to order this dish. About 20 minutes later a delegation from the kitchen arrived at our table, led by what looked like the chef, lovingly carrying a tureen of what I instantly recognized as the elusive curry. The chef placed the dish in front of us with the air of a ring-

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

he good news is that oil prices are down. The bad news is air fares won’t go anywhere but up.

The price of crude oil has fallen by 40pc. IATA predicts that air fares wil fall by 5pc in 2015. The two figures do not add up.

European airlines are saying they are too heavily hedged to reduce fares and American airlines say they have no intention of passing on savings to customers,

American airlines say they’re using their fuel savings to recoup losses they’ve had because of unanticipated oil price rises last year.

In the 12 months ended in September, U.S. airlines saved $1.6bn on jet fuel. That helped them make a 5.7pc profit margin in the first three quarters of last year.

Some European airlines are not far behind. Even those that are heavily hedged are enjoying a revenue boost.

Ryanair is amongst the most heavily7 hedged of all. Aer Lingus is also hedged. Both airlines are responsible for 80pc of the flghts off our island.

The continued drop in crude prices will mean even fatter margins when year-end profits are tallied.

Will airlines bring back the flights they cancelled when oil days prices were high to cut costs? Don’t count on it.

master at a circus, and the entire staff of the restaurant stood in a semi-circle to one side of the table. This would have been fine but for the fact that they all waited until we had not only tasted it but finished most of the serving on our plate.

Apparently there were some doubts that us ’westerners’ would be able to eat what is the hottest curry Thailand has to offer. When it was clear to them that such doubts were unfounded, they departed leaving us to savour a wonderful meal and a memorable holiday.

Some years later in France I had a similarly exotic experience with a traditional dish called Andouillette, however this time the chef was unfortunately forced to return back to the kitchen with the dish as I was simply unable to eat more than a forkful…

So whilst holidays at home will always hold a place in my heart, I’ve had incredible experiences in recent years traveling to exciting and often exotic places and working in the airline industry and in particular with Emirates, presents me with opportunities to experience, not necessarily the weird, but certainly the wonderful.

IN YOUR NEXT TRAVEL EXTRA: Available to Travel Agents or online February 9 2015

AWARDS ISSUE Celebrating the Oscars of the industry SHOULDER SEASON DESTINATIONS

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FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 61

MEETING PLACE

Out and about with the Travel Trade

FiCarmel Aylward of King Travel and Zita Forde of Murat Balandi an e Travel Corporation, d Patrick McKinney of Carole Carmody of Th vel, Travel Broker on board Fred Olsen cruise ship Tra Turkish an og Gr of Airlines pictured at the llo ste Co sti Kir d an rke Star Alliance Christma Bu delma hford As at s Boudicca in Dublin nt eve eve de nt tra for rt’s the travel trade Tuam, at Knock Airpo Castle

Joe Tully of Tully's Tra vel and Enda Corneille of Emirates at the Emira tes event for the travel trade

of Sky, Joanne Burgess Frank Kelly of Tropical at es ntr Ce vel Tra of rke Bu Premair and Dominic mas event the Star Alliance Christ

Ann Davis of Abbey Tra vel, and David O’Grad y of E-Travel at the Emira tes Christmas event for the trade

Susan Kiernan of Ask Susan, John Cassidy of Cassidy Travel, David O'Grady of E-travel and Mary McKenna of Tour America pictured at the Star Alliance Christmas event

teus, Jim Vaughan of Jus Volker Lorenz of Amad at ys lida Ho n lco Fa of eill split and Carol Anne O’N de tra event for the travel the Travel Corporation

Fionnuala Carter of Skillnet, Carole Carmody of The Travel Corporation, and Pauline Grenham of Grenham Travel at Knock’s trade event

Helen Fyfe of Lufthan sa and Yolanda Fitzpa trick of World Travel Centre pictured at the Star Alliance Christmas event

Valerie Metcalfe. Alan Lynch and Murat Balandi pictured at the Star Alliance Christmas event for the travel trade in the Shelbourne Hotel,

ia, and Mark Clifford of Soni Kodakkat of Euras s the Emirates Christma O’Hanrahan Travel at event for the trade

Rosanna Leary of Travel Corporation, John GreA, Eileen DoITA the of t en han of Justsunshine, Neil Collins of Topflight/Disid Pre Martin Skelly vel and Patrick McK- rectski, and Clare Dunne of the Travel Broker at Tra on nn Ha r ea Eim herty of s at the Star event the Travel Corporation event for the travel trade inney of Turkish Airline

John Grehan of Justsu nshine and Karen Wh yte of American Holidays at the TTC Christmas event for the trade

Eleanor Morton and Celine Kenny of Cruisescapes on board Fred Olsen cruise ship Boudicca in Dublin,

Celine Kenny of Cruise scapes, Clare Dunne of Travel Broker and Ma urice Sheil of Topflight on board Fred Olsen cruise ship Boudicca in Dublin

lit, Joe Balfe and Paul Jim Vaughan of Justsp pictured at the Star AlHackett of Clickandgo for the travel trade. nt liance Christmas eve

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FEBRUARY 2015 PAGE 62

MEETING PLACE

ay and Philip Airey of Sunw Alan Sparling of SAS for nt eve iance Christmas pictured at the Star All the travel trade

Sheila Carey of FCM an d Lorraine Kenny of As k Susan at the Emirates Christmas event for the trade

of G, and Yvonne Lennox Sheila McCarthy of HR s ma rist Ch tes ira Em the World Travel Centre at event for the trade

Vinod Pillai of Oscar Tra vel, and Michael Caslin of 747 travel at the Em irates Christmas event

Out and about with the Travel Trade

Brendan Breen of E-trav John Spollen of John Cassidy Travel and Anita el, Declan Power and IsThomas of Emirates at the Emirates event for the abel Harrison of Shanno n Airport and Don Shearer of Worldchoice travel trade at the Star event

John Devereux of American Holidays/SHGI, Clare Dunne of Travel Broker and John galligan of John Galligan Travel pictured at the Star Alliance Christmas even

Tanya Airey and Philip Airey of Sunway at the Kathryn MacDonnell of Spanish TB, Brendan Travel Corporation eve nt for the travel trade at Barry of Discover Travel, Valerie Norberg of J the Residence Barter, and Hilary Mahon of Sunway in Lanzarote

Colman Burke of Club Travel, Alan Neenan of Neenan Travel and Noeleen Lynch of Atlas Travel pctured at the Star Alliance event

t of the ITAA and Kate Martin Skelly Presiden d Gonzalo Ceballos Director of the Spanish Tourist l Sales Manager of Fre Wooldridge Internationa Board in Dublin and Richard Cullen of Killiney blin Du ard Boudicca in Olsen cruise line on bo Travel at the TTC Christmas event

Joe Tully of Tully's Tra vel and Michael Doorl ey of Shandon Travel pictur ed at the Star Alliance Christmas event

sipes, Martin Skelly Pre Alan Lynch of Cruisesca d Fre of ge rid old Wo te dent of the ITAA and Ka , ard Boudicca in Dublin Olsen cruise line on bo

Philip Airey of Sunway, Rosanna Leary of The Travel Corporation and Liam O’Leary of O’Leary Travel in Enniscorthy at the TTC event

e Carmody of the Travel Paul Melinis and Carol d the travel trade at the Corporation who hoste Residence,

Dearbhla O’Brien of US IT, Cathy Burke of Tra vel Counsellors and Derek Pheasey of Strand Tra vel at the Emirates Christ mas event for the trade

ey Travel, Sligo, Barry John Mullaney of Mullan rs, Maura Fahy of Fahy Walsh of Joe Walsh Tou port’s trade event Air Travel, Galway at Kock

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Tourism Malaysia Dublin Level 3A Shelbourne House, Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Republic of Ireland.

Tel: + 353 1 237 62 43

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