Travel extra july 2015 6megs

page 001 cover July 2015 10/06/2015 16:21 Page 1

ORLANDO EYE ON THE FUTURE RYANAIR THE LOAD-UP CONTINUES S AFRICA CAPE OF GOOD HOPE

The Canary Island Guide

Tunisia spas on show

Cork airport

R U O

Y

e d a r T ER P PA

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION Free

July/August 2015

VOLUME 19 NUMBER 7

What your clients should know about wintersun 2016

Madeira returns

page 002 07/05/2015 11:27 Page 1

O UR LOUNG E IN ISTA N B U L IS B IG GER T H A N S OM E A I R PO RT S. Two floors. 5900m2. 12 bars. A spiral staircase. It’s a pleasure to get lost in.

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Page 003 News 10/06/2015 16:31 Page 1

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Car hire hookery

Research identifies 12 tricks to get you to pay more

H

olidaymakers need to be most on their guard for sneaky tactics used by car hire suppliers, identified by research by holiday car hire specialists Economy Car Hire Car hire suppliers in most countries typically use one or two common tricks to get holidaymakers to part with extra cash, but in Spain there are no less than six sneaky tactics used.

Here are twelve tricks to watch out for in a few of the most popular holiday destinations.

ADMIN fees (Spain & USA):

Some suppliers offer what's known as a ‘full-full' policy, but slap on an admin charge. This means you when you collect the car it has a full tank and you must return it with a full tank. When you return the car, you get a refund for the tank, minus the admin charge which is typically €25-€40.

BREAKDOWN

cover (USA): Standard cover is usually included in your rental rates, but when you get to the rental desk, you're persuaded to take out more comprehensive cover, even though normal cover is usually sufficient and extended cover is already included.

PRE-existing damage (Britain):

You're made to fork out for damage that was already on the car when you collected it.

CONTRACT fees (S Africa): A contract fee is levied on every rental of 40 - 70 ZAR (€2.50€4.50) + tax. This is charged just for creating the rental contract.

JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 3

NEWS

FRENCH interior and foreign ministers

said police controls of “unauthorised taxi drivers” during the Cannes Film Festival last month would be extended. The ministers also announced fixed rates for official taxi rides between Paris and its main airports, Charles de Gaulle and Orly.

SPAIN reported that visitors for Ireland were up 30.9pc in March and 13.5pc in the first quarter.

CANADA is to introduce biometric

BRAVOFLY claims customers can screening for visitors.

book flights on mobile in 30 seconds using a passport and credit card scanner built into its app.

FROZEN Summer Fun opened at Dis-

MAGALUF will impose fines of up to

neyland Paris.

Your car hire hazards start at the rental desk

CREDIT

card charges (Spain): You're told to pay for extras such as a sat nav or child car seat in pounds at a very poor exchange rate.

DIESEL surcharge (Spain):

You're hit with a €10-€15 surcharge when you're given a diesel car even though you didn't ask for one.

EXTRA cleaning fees (France): Some suppliers in France include a cleaning fee as part of the deposit. This enables them to charge you €50 if the car is not brought back in what they regard as an acceptable condition.

FREE upgrade (USA): You're told you'll get a free upgrade but discover you've been charged for it after you've signed the agreement.

INSURANCE

hard sell (Spain & USA): You're pressurised to take out local cover, even though

OUT

you bought it before travelling. of hours' fees Italy): You often have to queue for 30 minutes to an hour just to collect the car and this can sometimes mean when you get to the front of the queue you're ‘out of hours'. This triggers ‘out of hours' fees, despite having arrived at the desk well before the closing time!

PARKING costs (Turkey):

When you collect the car using a meet and greet service, the parking ticket you're given doesn't have enough credit on it to get out of the car park, leaving you to pay extra just to leave.

SEALED agreements (Spain

& USA): You sign your rental agreement digitally and the printed copy is handed over in a sealed envelope, so you only spot any nasty surprises when it's too late.

€3,000 on rowdy tourists who urinate in public, get naked in the street or jump from hotel balconies ss part of its bid to clean up its image. .

TAIWAN

rolled out an interpretation hotline for taxi drivers to communicate with foreign travellers.

USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbour reopened to visitors followed repairs.

SELFIE A Singaporean tourist fell off a

cliff on Lembongan Island in Bali while trying to take a selfie, according to local police.

VISAS Designers of the new free Vis-

aPort app claim it enables visa applications to be made with the click of a button. The free app is available for iOS and Android and claims to reduce the time and stress of making visa applications.

EDINBURGH Airport set up a giant

27m sign and screen as a selfie centre piece for visitors

BUDAPEST A survey by the English Post Office found that Budapest is the cheapest European city for alcohol, Dublin was the most expensive.

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Departures from Dublin, Cork and Shannon Airports.

Page 004 Knowledge 10/06/2015 16:32 Page 1

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JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 4

THE KNOWLEDGE Travel Extra Advertising & Subscriptions 59 Rathfarnham Road Terenure Dublin 6W (+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 3 News Where to go, how much to pay 6 Hotels: News 10 Postcards: News from the trade

12 Canaries: What’s happening 2015-6 16 Tunisia: Blue dreams 18 Madeira: Back on the map 20 S Africa: Cape of Good Hope 22-23 Georgia: Savannah lovely time 24 IPW 2015: report from Orlando

26 Afloat: A quantum leap 28-31 Flying: Airline and airport news 32 Ireland: Home holiday news 34 Global Village Inside the travel industry 36 Window seat: Niall McDonnell 37 Pictures: Out and about

Tick-tock to wintersun sun shines reliably for a good nine or more hours a day, with day-time temperatures reaching about 28C. Sea breezes and low humidity mean it rarely feels too hot.

The sea remains at 2627C throughout the winter.

W

inertsun holidays all vome with one central problem, where can you get guaranteed susnshin without flying a sector length that defeats the pit of a seven day break?

3.5 HOURS

Madeira: Guide price €1,500 half board. It is mild and sub-tropical year round. Average temperature Jan-Feb about 17C. New, familyoriented and childfriendly hotels are helping Madeira change its image as a destination aimed solely at the more mature traveller.

3.5 HOURS,

Morocco: Guide price

€800 B&B. Constant

winter sun is not guaranteed, Jan and Feb temperatures are about 17C. Agadir is a popular choice, the main reasons for its popularity include its year-round sunshine with just the occasional unpredictable rainy day, its wide sandy bay and the backdrop of the snow-capped Atlas mountains.

3.5 HOURS,

Tunisia: Guide price €800 B&B. Flight time 3 hours. Constant winter sun is not guaranteed: Jan and Feb temperatures are about 17C in the north, higher in the south near Jerba and the desert. Hammamet stretches nearly 10 miles around the bay. Port el Kantaoui is a compact purpose-built resort developed round a neat modern marina. Radiating out from here are a succession of ever more grandiose hotels that

Xperience St George in Egypt have gradually mushroomed along the sandy coastline.

4.5 HOURS,

Canaries: Guide price

€1,000 half board. Im-

mensely popular because of the high standards through the resorts. Expect about half-a-dozen rainy days each month, seven hours of sun per day and temperatures reaching 22C-23C. Don't expect the sea to be more than 20C, however, and check that your accommodation has a heated pool. There are escapes to the north of Tenerife and some spectacular walks in Gran Canaria for those who tire of resort life.

4.5 HOURS,, Cyprus Guide price

€800 B&B. Cyprus has

the most reliable winter climate in the Mediterranean and stays warm much later in the year,

the average sea temperature is still 19C at this time of year. Rain is recorded on about 10 days a month), but temperatures normally top 17C and the earlier in the autumn or later in the spring you go, the warmer it is.

5 HOURS,, Egypt. Guide price €1,000. December days are reliably warm with virtually unbroken sunshine, average peaks in Sharm el Sheikh on the Red sea or Luxor on the Nile are around 25C, with 10 hours of sunshine a day, very low humidity and virtually no rain. Aswan, farther up the Nile, has a similar climate, although fewer sites and a much smaller choice of hotels. Spending more on a top-rank hotel will mean better food, and a better pool.

7 HOURS,, Dubai: Guide price €1,400 room only.

Dubai is fast becoming the new Caribbean,.

Beaches are superb, sun is almost guaranteed, super-sleek hotels are opening. Shopping is not as good value as it as but other ztivities include golf and desert safaris, 9 HOURS,,

Caribbean. Guide price (Barbados): €2,400 allinclusive. The Caribbean winter climate can vary according to the location of each island, but even on the wetter ones, such as St Lucia and Tobago, February is one of the driest months of the year.

And when it does rain, it is most likely to fall as a heavy shower towards the end of the afternoon, rather than ruin the entire day. The main attraction of the winter climate is its consistency. The

9 HOURS, Florida: Guide price €1,400 room only.

Theme parks, beaches and keen prices make Florida a favourite winter-sun standby for Irish visitors. Aer Lingus’s Orlando flight runs through the Christmas season this year. By March the American visitors have gone and the weather is still very comfortable. Average maximum temperatures are up to 27C, with nine hours of sun, and only seven rainy days in the month. Evenings can get cool, but the average sea temperature doesn't drop below 23C. The Gulf coast is more sheltered and warmer than the Atlantic side.

11 HOURS Thai-

land: Guide price €1.400 room only (Phuket) Flight time 11-13 hours (to Bangkok one stop via Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

The Thai maritime climate is not as consistent as Goa's, but it will be hot, 30C or more, and there will be a good nine hours of sunshine a day.

The biggest problem is the wind, the north-easterly monsoon wind blows through the winter. This affects east coast resorts such as Koh Samui. Phuket is more sheltered and drier. The sea is 27C-29C.

Page 005 09/06/2015 16:31 Page 1

Gateway to the South of Ireland Cork Airport is the country’s second busiest airport. We serve over 2.1 million passengers each year across 50 direct routes to the UK and Continental Europe with excellent connectivity through international hubs including London Heathrow, Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris CDG and Manchester.

The Wild Atlantic Way is the world’s longest defined coastal touring route and it all starts in Kinsale, county Cork, just a short drive from Cork Airport.

Cork Airport boasts a new, modern terminal and a loyal catchment area, and coupled with award winning customer service and leading passenger satisfaction levels, Cork Airport is definitely the smart choice.

Whether it’s business or leisure, we look forward to welcoming you to Cork, the Gateway to the South of Ireland.

Contact our Aviation Marketing team today on +353 21 432 8861

www.corkairport.com facebook.com/FlyCork

@CorkAirport

Page 006 Hotels 10/06/2015 16:33 Page 1

JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 6

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HOTELS

RESTAURANT AWARDS

Patrick Guilbaud's won best restaurant in Ireland at the Irish Restaurant Awards 2015. Chef was Mickael Viljanen of The Greenhouse, Dublin. Winners included: , Ananda, Dublin (world cuisine), Beaufield Mews, Dublin (children), Deanes EIPIC, Belfast (newcomer), Dublin Cookery School (cookery school), Fishy Fishy, Cork (seafood), Happy Pear, Wicklow (digital marketing), Idaho Café, Cork (café), Loam, Galway (emerging Irish cuisine) , Oakroom at Adare Manor Hotel (Hotel Restaurant),, Ocean at The Maritime Hotel, Cork (eco friendly), OX, Antrim (wine experience), Poacher’s Pocket, Down (gastro pub), Restaurant Forty One at Residence, Dublin (private dining club), Ristorante Rinuccini, Kilkenny (customer service), Ronan Byrne “The Friendly Farmer”, Galway (local food hero), Rua, Mayo (casual dining), Saul McConnell of Deanes at Queens, Belfast (restaurant manager), Vintage Cocktail Club, Dublin (cocktail experience).

FAILTE Ireland’s Tourism Barometer found that 77pc of businesses are expecting growth this year, particularly in the hotels sector with eight in ten expecting increased business in 2015. 60pc of all paid serviced accommodation providers reported that business is up this year to date. 67pc in the domestic market 69pc in the overseas markets expect growth. 68pc said they expect growth from the British market and 67pc expect more business from North America.

HASTINGS Hotels Group bought Windsor House in Bedford Street, Belfast for £6.5m.

KILLENARD The Heritage Killenard in Co Laois celebrates its 10th birthday by hosting Ban Ki-Moon on his visit to Ireland.

The 5* Shanghri-La Hotel Ulaanbaatar opened in Mongolia.

HILTON’s Curio brand celebrates its first anniversary. Hilton Worldwide announced that The Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, Anselmo Buenos Aires, the Hoodoo Moab, The Partridge Inn Augusta and Redmont Hotel Birmingham will be added to the Curio portfolio.

Dubai is predicted to see a whopping 28,000 new hotel rooms by 2018.

HILTON

Worldwide relaunched the Double Your HHonors promotion until August 31.

NH Spanish headquartered NH Hotel Group unveiled a new premium product for guests, VIP Level.

WIFI Hotel WiFi Test reported that hotel chains in Europe have much better WiFi than in the United States, having scored chains on the quality of the WiFi and whether in-room WiFi is free. Nordic Choice is the number one chain in the global rankings, with 85pc of its hotels offering adequate WiFi and 100pc of its hotels offering free WiFi. Only 17pc of all Marriott hotels in the United States provide free WiFi. Irish chain Doyle Collection offer free WiFi in all their hotels.

REZIDOR Hotel group will operate the

Park Inn by Radisson Istanbul Ataturk Airport.

The 36-hotel sale

Ulster Bank portfolio includes Monart and Trim Castle

U

lster Bank sold its hotel portfolio, including Radisson in Athlone, Monart, Ferrycarrig, Hotel Kilkenny, the Camden Deluxe in Dublin, Trim Castle and the Tullamore Court in Offaly. The market value of the properties is estimated at €187m and an overdraft of €14m is included.

Project Coney portfolio was sold to Sankaty Advisers, the US-based affiliate of investment group Bain Capital. The portfolio comprises loans relating to 36 hotels and other commercial assets.

Around 89pc of the remaining loan balance is in default and involves more than 200 borrowers. Dublin accounts for 40pc of the market value of the loans.

The portfolio includes loans concerning some high-profile assets, including the Monart hotel, Hotel Kilkenny, and the 102-room Ferrycarrig property. These form part of Griffin Hotels, a chain controlled by the former Wexford hurling manager Liam Griffin, on which more than €20m is owed.

Other loans in the sale are linked to the Radisson in Athlone, the Camden Deluxe in Dublin, Trim Castle, the

P

Monart Pool & outside in Tullamore Court in Offaly and highprofile public houses such as Toner’s on Baggot Street.

The sale is the latest step by Ulster Bank and its parent, Royal Bank of Scotland, to consolidate its balance sheet in Ireland.

RBS received about €1.1bn from the sale of Project Aran, which closed in the first quarter of this year and involved about 5,000 assets.

The sale was carried out by RBS Capital Resolution, a solution set up by the British bank to reduce higher

risk exposures and which has reduced its book of distressed Irish assets from €4.8bn to about €1.5bn in the past 18 months.

Ulster Bank is planning the sale of a €2.5bn portfolio of loans to SMEs, buy-to-let investors and commercial property. It is also selling Project Trinity, which involves 6.8 acres of development land in Ballsbridge that was acquired by Seán Dunne at the height of the property cycle for €380m.

AIRBNB PARIS CRACKDOWN

aris is to address housing shortages by cracking down on illegal Airbnb rentals with city officials conducted door to door neighbourhood inspections. . It’s estimated that in the last five years, about 20,000 apartments have disappeared from the traditional rental market.

A team of inspectors was deployed to knock on doors across some of the city's most touristy areas Montmartre, Saint Germain and the Marais. On the first day, homeowners from 30 of the 80 properties inspected fined.

Airbnb provides an online platform to allow individuals to rent out their homes, rooms or apartments to visitors. While this is not in itself illegal, in many cases the rentals advertised on the site fall foul of local housing laws and

regulations.

In New York owners or tenants cannot legally rent their apartments out for short periods (less than 30 days) unless they are also living in the property.

There is also a tax issue; in many cities those renting out holiday accommodation are expected to pay a hotel or tourist tax.

Last year Barcelona fined the company with a €30,000 fine for breaching local laws that require any tourist rentals to be registered with the Tourism Registry of Catalonia.

Likewise the company continues to battle it out in New York, where it’s working to change the law: Currently it's illegal to rent apartments in buildings with three or more units for under 30 days.

The LA suburb of Santa Monica, California has also earmarked $410,000 to en-

force new rules that go into effect next month, prohibiting short-term rentals unless hosts stay in the unit with their guests.

The company has found more success is in Amsterdam, thanks to the creation of a new category tailormade for Airbnb that makes peer-to-peer rentals legal for short periods of time.

Dublin is home to the European headquarters of Airbnb but Tourism Ireland is not promoting airbnb stays here.

“The shared economy creates a great dynamic and great opportunity for us,” Mark Henry of Tourism Ireland says, “ but it is quite new. While the IDA puts AirBnb puts up AirBnb up as a poster industry for Ireland the tourism industry is not clear about the role that they play. “

Like any country we have laws that regulate some sector of accommodation and not other. This is an unregulated sort. It has a very important role to play.

As a tourist board we need some clarity as to how it fits in. We need some level of guidance before we can engage with them shared economy.”

If it were not for Airbnb the digital web summit would not have been able to accommodate al the tens of thousands who attended that event. We think it creates a great experience for customers, it is a positive thing and the customer creates content.”

“Like an industry has to embrace this with some thought.,” tourism consultant Doug Lansky says. “if you rent someone; bicycles and the bicycle gets stolen, what are the insurance implications.”

Page 007 09/06/2015 16:55 Page 1

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USA AND BEYOND. Enjoy daily nonstop flights throughout the summer season from Dublin to New York JFK and Atlanta, and Shannon to New York JFK*, and connect to over 200 popular destinations including Los Angeles, Orlando and San Francisco.

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“Be Inspired” Travel Counsellors 10th Anniversary celebration conference Travel Counsellors Ireland celebrated its 10th anniversary in Ireland with 60 Travel Counsellors and over 50 business partners at Carton House Hotel over 2 days and nights. The company recognised the hard work of its agents over the past 12 months and highlights included the black tie Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony along with guest speakers Caroline Casey-Social Entrepreneur and Barbara Moynihan of On your Feet.

Lisa Brennan from Carlow with Sharon Tiernan-Murphy from Drogheda meet up at their first Travel Counsellors Conference

Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Travel Counsellors launch in Ireland are Jennifer O’Brien, Dublin, Niamh Quinlan, Cork, Malcolm Hingley Sales Director and Mandy Walsh, Meath

In the big chair – Jon Brien husband of Lorraine Costello from Co. Kildare with Nadine Farrelly from Westmeath with husband Michael Murtagh

Celebrating 10 years, Lorraine Lawless was the first person to join the company in the Republic of Ireland in 2005. Travel Counsellor Donna Olohan made the gorgeous cake!

Working hard at the supplier POW WOW with over 50 suppliers exhibiting are Hazel Fogarty from Dublin and Tryphavana Cross from Las Vegas & NYC & Co.

Welcome night party with Karen Maloney of Etihad, Kirsten Hughes Commercial Director, Sinead Daly-Co. Meath, Brenda Murray-Flynn-Co. Louth, Kate Moore-Cork and Dee Evans-Wicklow

Sponsors of 2 return flights to Istanbul from Turkish Airlines Anne Marie Dalton, Onur Gul and Sharon Kavanagh from Co. Roscommon having fun at the POW WOW

Lorraine Quinn from Celebrity Cruises presents Fidelma Brady from Louth with her winning prize

Graham Hennessy of DoSomethingDifferent with Jeanette Coughlan from Co. Kildare and the Minion!

To find out about how you could run your own business as a Travel Counsellor call 0818 332003 or email career@travelcounsellors.ie (in confidence) Travel Counsellors is licensed and bonded with the Commission for Aviation Regulation

Travel Counsellors Ireland 10th Anniversary Travel Counsellors agents, staff and a host of special guests recently joined together at the 5 star Carton House Hotel in Co. Kildare for a weekend of inspiration, motivation and exciting announcements at the company’s annual Irish Conference.

The event was underpinned by the theme ‘Be Inspired’ and celebrated Travel Counsellors landmark 10th anniversary since launching in Ireland in 2005, highlighting the company’s journey, growth and success over the past ten years, as well as looking towards the future and all the exciting developments in store.

The conference saw a record number of the company’s Travel Counsellors from across the country come together to celebrate the special occasion, as well as hearing from a number of key management about the latest news and initiatives to help support them in growing their businesses. Delegates also enjoyed a lavish black-tie awards ceremony and gala dinner, where Travel Counsellors were recognised and rewarded for their hard work and success over the past year.

Ireland General Manager, Cathy Burke comments:“It was fantastic to come together to celebrate our special milestone anniversary and reflect on everything we have achieved. When

we launched Travel Counsellors in Ireland in 2005 we welcomed 22 agents in the first year and reached a turnover of €5m. A decade later and we have trebled the amount of agents and celebrated €20m turnover last year. Together we have built a company based on trust and caring, on building relationships and always going one step further for our customers. Now we can look forward to the next 10 years, taking a renewed enthusiasm and focus away from this truly special conference.”

The event also saw a record number of over 50 of the company’s suppliers exhibiting at the special Pow Wow session, where agents were able to meet directly with representatives from a host of airlines, tourist boards, hotels, tour operators and other key business partners and learn more about their products and destinations.

Galway based Travel Counsellor Maeve Doherty who joined the company in November last year attended her first Travel Counsellors Conference. She comments; “It was a great couple of days spent with amazing people. I am very glad to be part of this very special company. The help and support is incredible and all the TC’s make you feel so welcome. It was so great to meet everyone and become a member of the Travel Counsellors family”

Travel Counsellors Ireland seek new head office staff in Cork Travel Counsellors Ireland are looking to strengthen their growing Head Office team based in Cork and are looking for experienced Travel Agents to help support their growing number of Travel Counsellors. If you are looking for a career move or change in the industry you love, then please contact Cathy or one of the team in complete confidence. The successful candidate will become part of one of the fastest growing and commercially successful travel companies in Ireland.

Details • Full time, permanent position • Based at the NSC in Mahon Cork with free car parking • 5 weeks paid holiday per year • Excellent salary and perks • Monday – Friday although flexibility is required particularly for trade events and trips abroad • Great team atmosphere • Opportunities to progress in your career in a company based in 7 countries around the globe

Key Attributes & Qualifications required • Travel industry experience either in retail, tour operator, cruise company or airline • Previous fares & ticketing experience would be an advantage • A confident and articulate communicator, a people-person • Proven and demonstrable sales and/or business development experience • Enthusiastic, smart and well-presented • Excellent interpersonal skills • Excellent Microsoft Office skills • Ability to prioritise and remain calm under pressure • A self-starter who enjoys the challenge of a demanding and varied work flow • Flexible in terms of working hours, prepared to travel to meetings, hold interviews and organise roadshows

To apply in confidence for this role please send your CV to Cathy Burke or Bernie Whelan cathy.burke@travelcounsellors.com or bernie.whelan@travelcounsellors.com or call 0818 33 20 03 for more details. All communication will be treated in strict confidence.

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JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 10

POSTCARDS FROM THE TRAVEL SCENE

he introduction of Delta’s lie-flat beds on their Dublin to JFk and Dublin to Atlangta routes has been one of the big unheralded stories of the summer.

A group of travel professionals who were invited by Delta Air Lines to see at first-hand their 767 400 aircraft at Dublin Airport, to check out their lie flat product,, new to the Irish markets.

T

The group toured Delta One, Delta Comfort and Main Cabin.

Pictures hows, back row: Vivienne Hackett of Club Travel, Claire Rochford of FCM, Teresa Murphy of Air France KLM Delta and Sylvia Mazon of Atlas Travel. Front row: Debbie O'Brien of CWT and Gintare Gedeikaite of BCD

elebrity Cruises hosted Travel Media at L’Ecrivain to announced the fitting of a speciality restaurant exclusively for their suite customers on nine of their ten ships, separate entrance, separate chef, separate kitchen and separate menu.

Luminae went live in April and the Celebrity team experienced it for the first time last week on Eclipse. Celebrity will be the first cruise ship out of Abu

C

Dhabi’s new port in 2016. The Celebrity Cruises team has been in place for a year now. Picture shows Andrew Bolton and Claire Stirrup of Celebrity Cruises, Sally Ann Clarke of L’Ecrivain, Jo Rzymowska and Lorraine Quinn of Celebrity Cruises and Emma Wayman of Siren Pr at L’Ecrivain restaurant. Jo Rzymowska revealed her Irish background: her mother from Charleville, Co Cork and she found a half sister.

owcostbeds and Associação Turismo do Algarve hosted a lunch for the travel trade and media in One Pico restaurant, Dublin.

The Algarve continues to be lowcostbeds’ top destination, accounting for 17pc of the Irish market, Clem Walshe said. Irish sales to the Algarve are up 20pc YOY for the first three months of 2015. Hugo Nascimento of Associação Turismo do Algarve said that Ireland is

L

the Algarve’s fifth biggest foreign market, up 21pc YOY in January and February.

Picture shows Clem Walshe of lowcostbeds, Celina Taveras of Associação Turismo do Algarve, Grainne Caffrey of lowcostbeds and Hugo Nascimento of Associação Turismo do Algarve at the event.

n a break out from IPW in Orlando Travel Extra experienced the famously offhand service at Dick’s Last Resort restaurant based in Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets.

Here waiters specialise in being rude to customers. The slogans of the restaurant, “we put the FU in fun,” “if the world didn't suck we'd all fall off” and highlights of the service by waiter Stephen Hollingsworth included “here’s

I

your drinks, sort it out,” and “how was your meal, I don’t really care but I am required to ask.” How many waiters always wanted to say that?

Pixture sbows Ruth Brindle of London Newsquest Newspapers, Uschi Braun of ARD, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Eoghan Corry of Travel Extra, Neil Hennessy-Vass of Famillies Magazine, and Caroline Donaldson of Simon Outlets who hosted the group.

T

John’s Point, Co Down, Valentia Island, Co Kerry and Wicklow Head, Co Wicklow.

A range of services from accommodation to visitor centres and guided tours are offered by the 12 lighthouses Picture shows Yvonne Shields Chief Executive Irish Lights, Paschal Donohoe TD Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, and Joanne Sherwood Chief Northern Ireland RSBP.

S

Flight time is 6 hours and 20 mins.

Prices start at €314 one way and ATTS is the airline’s GSA in Ireland. See what’s new in Nova Scotia.

Picture shows Michele McKenzie of The Halifax Partnership, Eric Vincent of Europe Airpost, Suzanne L Cormie chargé d'affaires Embassy of Canada and Joyce Carter of Halifax International Airport Authority at the event.

he EU funded tourism initiative Great Lighthouses of Ireland was launched at the Irish Lights Head Office in Dun Laoghaire.

The initiative showcases twelve lighthouses at Ballycotton, Co Cork, Black Head, Co Antrim, Clare Island, Co Mayo, Fanad Head, Co Donegal, Galley Head, Co Cork, Hook, Co Wexford, Loop Head, Co Clare, Rathlin West, Co Antrim, St John’s Point, Co Donegal, St

uzanne L Cormie and the Canadian Embassy hosted a reception for the travel trade and press in the Ambassador’s residence to celebrate Europe Airpost’s route from Dublin to Halifax in Nova Scotia.

The service, which starts in Paris CDG, will operate weekly from July 9 to September 11, departing Dublin on Thursdays.

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JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 11

POSTCARDS FROM THE TRAVEL SCENE

A

er Lingus Chief Revenue Officer Mike Rutter announced details of the wintee schedule.

There are 5pc more seats Dublin to JFK between January and March, Boston is up 19pc, Toronto and San Francisco will have additional flights at Christmas, mid term (Feb 14) and Easter (April 5).

The schedule featured an increase in Shannon to Heathrow capacity.

There are additional frequencies to Zurich, Geneva, Birmingham, Manchester and Amsterdam.

Aer Lingus serves seven transatlantic destinations compared with 13 for Icelandair and five each for SAS and Norwegian. Picture shows the Aer Lingus team at the launch, Mike Rutter, Dervila McGarry, Paula Donaghy, Orla Ni Cochrán and Eoin McGirl.

7 NIGHT BUDGET HOLIDAY

€

459

2 ADULTS +2 KIDS

R

ed Sea Holidays will be hosting 100 (yes, one hundred) Irish travel agents on press fams to its properties over the coming months.

According to Jason Hillton of Red Sea resorts hosting agents has proven the most effective marketing device for the group in the past.

The group is headed up in Ireland by Niall McDonnell who first dealt with the group’s properties through the Mytravel

group and was recruited to head up the Irish operation by Andy Grant.

Picture shows Niall McDonnell Ireland country manager of Red Sea Holidays, the Egyptian ambassador Soha Gendi and Jason Hilton Britain country manager of Red Sea Holidays at the launch. Niall McDonnell of Red Sea Resorts says that the All inclusive Grand Hotel Sharm is the top seller of his product, newly launched in the Irish market.

Amazing value family holidays!

Book a Pontins self-catering holiday to Britain with Stena Line and not only will you have a great fun-filled holiday to look forward to, but when you travel this July, you can get away from as little as €459 for a family of 4!†.

Low co st July holiday s!

What’s the deal?

• • • •

Return Superferry travel with your car from Dublin to Holyhead 7 nights in a basic Popular 1 bedroom accommodation at either Pontins Prestatyn or Southport or upgrade for a supplement A range of fun activities* Family entertainment and shows every evening.

Everyone deserves a break.

A

merican ambassador Kevin O’Malley hosted a recpetion for a delegation of Missouri. to celebrate the Visit of St Louis Mayor Francis G Slay and a business delegation.

St Loois was once a hug of tourism, as headqarters of TWA it even had a Tourism Ireland office but things have changed and connectivity is not what it was.

St Louis hosted IPW in 2003, and the signature arch and zoo were venues for two of the main events.

Picture shows Kitty Ratcliffe of St Louis Convention Visitors Bureau, Francis G. Slay the St Louis Mayor, Ciara Foley of Platinum Travel, chair fo the Visit USA committee, Dee Burdock of Ameircan Holidays and Finola Cunningham of the US embassy.

agent.stenaline.ie

01 907 5399 *Charge may apply to selected activities. Subject to availability. Holidays operated by Stena Line Travel Group AB and are fully licensed and bonded (TA0733). Terms and conditions apply - See website for further details. †Book by 31 May 2015.

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JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 12

WINTERSUN: THE CANARIES

T

wo generations of Irish holiday makers associate the Canary Islands with some of the most memorable and pleasant days of their lives, a European destination with duty free cigarettes, year round sunshine and some of the best tourist nightspots on the trail.

The islands have long been secured in their position as capital of Europe’s wintersun market.

The guaranteed sunshine options are limited, Malta, Cyprus, Tunisia, Morocco, Madeira and the four islands. Otherwise holiday makers are flying for eight hours, and often through more than one airport.

Th Irish like to go in summer as well. Last year 32.7pc of the Irish visitors to Spain ended up in the Canaries for at least one visit, some many times.

If any of the individual Canary Islands was a country they would be Playa Famara in Lanzarote and (below) an advertisement for holidays in the Canary Islands in 1967 among Ireland’s top ten most popular outbound (45,451) they are 2.3% of the number of holiday Marina Suites in Puerto Spaniards and eventual a £110 cruise.

Back in Collinstown total, Gran Canaria makers that Greece and Rico. He has the needs of extinction of the indigedestinations.

Irish visits to the Ca- (71,200) 2% as in Tener- her islands does. Lan- his Irish guests down to a nous people who had Aer Lingus were trying to ife (94,533), zarote and Gran Canaria, tee. The Irish spend more welcomed St Brendan, work out what to do with naries were up Playa del Inthe two most popular, money on holiday than the Guanches, after they one of their new Boeing 6.7pc last year to IRELAND’S glés was one of each attract more visitors any other nation, he says.. lost their unequal battle 711s ordered in a fit of 422,195 and the VISITORS against more technologi- expansionist exuberance the first towns to than Turkey. islands report an

by Jeremiah Dempsey a cal opponents in 1495. come into exis“The Irish have a spe2006 431,000 veryone knows increase of 13pc few years earlier and now Within decades the tence solely for cial welcome here,” To2007 422,000 there are more on top of those than four Canary new world had been dis- inherited by his successor figures in the first 2008 474,000 holidaymakers: bias Pujol on Gran months of 2015. 2009 424,279 it tells us every- Canaria says. “They like Islands without being covered and the Canary as Aer Lingus CEO, sure of the names of the Islands became the first Michael Dargan.

The figures are 2010 353,506 thing we need to to party.”

Exactly 45 years ago, The love affair, as love others: most people get meg-hub of trans-Atlantic close to the levels 2011 395,871 know that Mulliof 2007 and 2009 2012 375,234 gan’s is the most affairs do, goes deeper La Gomera and stop at travel and commerce, at on May 30 1967, they the heart of the trade sent it to Madrid, with the but short of the 2013 407,666 prominent of the than that. Juana Rosa Ale- that. throughout the empire on combination of optimism social venues man says the Irish are the 2014 422,195 There are seven, Lanpeak of 2008. and the dethere. best clients to the island zarote, Gran Canaria, which the That 422,195 scending sun never Most of Gran Canaria.

“We reTenerife and FuertevenFAVOURITES compares with 372,000 feeling that set.

Irish people ceive a lot of visitura in order of visitor arIrish visits to Portugal in nobody was tors: the rivals from Ireland, La reland’s Lanzarote 209,645 2014; 288,000 to Italy would name to numbers Gomera – beautiful but a associa- Tenerife 94,533 going and 446,000 to all of Puerto Rico F r a n c o ’ s as the resort are astont i o n tad expensive to get to, Gran Canaria 71,200 North America. the ishing in the mountainous La with the Fuerteventura 45,451 capital on Irish people are more on comparison Palma and the diving C a n a r i e s La Palma 45 holidays. familiar with Puerto del southwest The adcoast of with the came about, idyll of El Hiero.

Carmen than with some vertisements Gran Capopulation of as these Canary Islands history of our own provincial the country.” was defined by their ge- things do, by accident. of the time are full of towns. It is the most pop- naria. 10 m i l e s Only Norway ography. Fuerteventura The Canaries was an im- promise and possibilities, ular among Irish holidaywest of compares with was the first island to be poverished backwater especially the possibility makers having overtaken Ireland in the "discovered" and con- when the first charters of Iberia connections to Santa Ponsa in recent Playa proportion of quered by the Spanish, started arriving from the south of Spain and the years. In Lanzarote d e l I n g l é s , people that come leading to an almost pre- Sweden in the 1960s. It Canaries (Iberia was then 209,645 Irish Trips repreto Gran Canaria. ordained squabble over was too distant for Irish the fastest growing airline sent 8.7% of total tourist than the Caribbean island.

Urs Rohrig hosts the islands between the minds, what few tourists in the world). to the island in 2014 One clever advertising They attract three times many of them at the Hotel Portuguese and the travelled there arrived on In Fuerteventura

Canarysong 422,195 Irish holiday makers can’t be wrong

E

I

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JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 14

WINTERSUN: THE CANARIES campaign visualised what was happening on a Spanish beach in December “just three hours from Dublin.”

Irish travel agents knew better. They started advertising Tenerife for 90 guineas. The price came down to 76 guineas in 1970, and by 1973 the travel industry had combined to offer the first direct flights, a joint effort to fill one of the new Aer Lingus 747s, for £66.

The love affair was born. .

LANZAROTE the

favourite, is the most volcanic of all, the Isla de los Volcanes, It measures just 40 miles from north to south and 13 miles east to west.

The landscape is stark and stony, peppered with 300 volcanic cones, a moonscape that leads to lush valleys full of vegetation.

Unesco declared the entire island a biosphere reserve in 1993. New development must be balanced against the need to preserve the island’s heritage and environment.

That means that the tourist resorts, noisy and boisterous as they are, are easy to escape. The best trip is to Timanfaya the so called Fire Mountains to have lunch cooked by the volcano. The lava slopes and craters can be ascended by camel.

Cueva de los Verdes (Jameos del Agua) is a memorable system of volcanic caves extending some 3 miles to the sea; they are the home of blind albino crabs, usually only found at 200 metres below. One cavern is used as a nightclub. Montañas del Fuego.

You can also take sea trips by schooner to Arrecife to Papagayo beaches. Mirador del Rio in the north is a famous viewing point from which the island of Graciosa (the graceful one) can be seen.

Yaiza village wins the "Best Kept in Spain" award year after year for its pristine white

painted houses. Each Sunday there is a market in the old inland town of Teguise from 8am.

Some operators offer a day trip to Marrakech, a short flight away.

Marina Lanzarote opens in Arrecife this year. Claiming to be the first Luxury Refit Centre in the Canaries, sailors can make use of its 820-tonne hoist and repair services, in addition to shore side leisure facilities.

Cruising expert Jimmy Cornell has set up the Atlantic Odyssey noncompetitive rally. The inaugural event will take place in the newlyopened Marina Lanzarote, Arrecife, November 9 to 15. Visitors can participate in ecological activities in conjunction with UNESCO. Highlights of the event include talks and seminars for visiting cruisers.

The Jameos del Agua will reopen for winter. Set on a volcano cave, the auditorium can hold 600 people for concert and dinner events.

The Tapas Fair takes place in Puerto del Carmen, September 26-27. Visitors can sample products and wines from local restaurants in one location. The event coincides with International Tapas Day Teguise village hosts the Tasting Lanzarote Food & Wine Festival on November 28 and 29.

Chefs from Spain and the rest of the Canary Islands will host cooking demos and prepare more “avantgarde” dishes using local ingredients. Visitors can experience the food market or attend exhibitions in the Taste Room.

Other attractions include a food-inspired film series.

The Royal Ocean Racing Club transatlantic race starts at Puerto Calero in November.

G CANARIA second most popular, has a circular coast road with a number of steep mountain roads striking inland to the central mountains, which reach an altitude of 6,400 feet.

In the north are green val-

Sinead Ryan of the Herald and Eoghan Corry of Travel Extra paraglide in Gran Canaria leys, pine trees and abundant Evenings can be chilly, but still sub-tropical crops and flowers. average 14 degrees.

The south is dry and desert-like.

The chances of rain peaks Its 538 square miles can be ex- during winter, coming in two or plored by tour bus, jeep safari three-day bursts. The island or hire-car. gets about two day of rain each Sioux City, just outside Playa month during summer, increasdel Inglés, is a spaghetti west- ing to six days between Octoern film set (the Hard Ride, ber and March. However, it’s 1975) now turned into a Wild worth bearing in mind that loWest theme park open 6 days a cals class a rainy day as any day week, with evening shows. The where there is a shower. capital Las Palmas, a sizeable The upside of the rain is that city and port, offers the best the winter showers bring out shopping opportunities, with the greenery, which makes for some good duty-free bargains. an attractive landscape for winLa Vegueta is the historic quar- ter walking. Visitors are enter where couraged to THE MARKET Columbus called rent a car and en route to the search for 50pc New World and With partner “waterfalls” in the eccentric Partner and children 14.1pc in the barran8.1pc 18-room Hotel Other family cos.

7.8pc Madrid the Friends Gran Ca5.5pc clocks are Travelling alone naria invites 1.6pc stopped at July Single w children LGBT visi0.3pc 17 1936, when Work colleagues tors to MasFranco was govpalomas for ernor and invited by English the Winter Pride festival, Nosupporters to go fight for fas- vember 9 to 15. cism in Spain.

Fiesta del Charco takes place The most famous beaches are mid-September, with fishing in the south, where the Mal- and other water competitions. palomas sand dunes do a good Fiesta de la Naval , a marimpression of Africa. Puerto itime festival commemorating Mogan has a wide range of the 1595 attacks by Francis water sports including jet ski Drake, takes place early Octotrips and paragliding. If you ber in the La Isleta district. propose somewhere above Atlantic Rally for Cruisers water-level, it is also the only takes place November 29. The place on the island you can get yacht rally departs Las Palmas married. de Gran Canaria.

If you want to escape the Fiesta de Santa Lucia takes crowds go west to Playa de place in December.

Guigui, a two hour hike TENERIFE is the old through a roadless landscape, or maiden, largest of the Canary the slightly more accessible Islands at 795 square miles Playa de Tasarte, with its single just slightly smaller than bar, which has an asphalt road Louth, so there is plenty to exto the last kilometre.

Gran Canaria’s winter tem- plore.

It has a great variety of subperatures average 19 degrees.

tropical and high altitude landscapes, flora and fauna which reflect its volcanic origins and proximity to Africa. It was the first big destination in the islands for Irish holiday makers but for a period was regarded as the preserve of newly-weds and retired.

Some theme parks, Sky Park Tenerife, and two expansive waterparks Aqualand Costa Adeje and Siam Park have gone some way to changing that and reimposing its family appeal.

There are also half a dozen animal parks.

There is no escaping the outstanding excursion here: Mount Teide (El Pico), the 12,402 foot volcanic mountain which dominates the island was once accepted as the tallest in the world. Visitors can also day-trip south to see Las Cañadas National Park with its lush verdant scenery in the Oratava valley and moody deserted volcanic landscapes.

There is a 3,000-year-old dragon tree at Icod. There are medieval shows at San Miguel (a "Knight" to remember) and a variety of water based experiences.

The Singha waterslide opens at Siam Park this winter. No launch date has been announced yet. The slide is 200 metres long with lots of bends to hurdle thrill seekers over small jumps at high speed.

Adrián Hoteles launched an online shop to allow guests to pre-book experiences at any of the group’s three hotels in Costa Adeje, including gastronomy experiences, spa treatments and private tennis lessons. The group launched the Babymoon Package for parents to be — a last holiday before

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JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 15

WINTERSUN: THE CANARIES the baby arrives. The package includes a romantic dinner, couple’s massage and spa treatments.

Fuegos del Risco takes place August 2. The event takes place every five years to commemorate the Treveljo volcano eruption of 1706. There will bonfires and fireworks on the Bay of Garachico, with the nearby mountains serving as a backdrop.

The Professional Windsurfers Association World Championships comes to El Médano beach, August 3 to 9. If you’re not into watersports, there will be concerts and family activities on the beach as well.

Tenerife celebrates the 125th anniversary of Agatha Christie’s birth at the Agatha Christie International Festival in Puerto de la Cruz, November 9 to 15. The full

Malpais en Tinguaton programme has yet to be announced, but there will be films and plays celebrating the crime novelist who visited Puerto de la Cruz in 1927 and wrote The Man from the Sea while she was there.

FUERTEVENTURA has almost

guaranteed sunshine, supposedly only 15 days of the year without, and is the quietest of the four biggies.

They claim 3,000 hours of sunshine throughout the year, with temperatures sustaining throughout the winter.

The lowest sea temperatures will drop is 19 degrees, offering good conditions for surfing, diving, fishing and other water sports.

There are 150 beaches, some considered among the best in Europe, with clear waters ideal for snorkelling and diving, miles of soft, light sands,

rising to wind-blown dunes in places, sloping down to clean, clear waters.

At Nuevo Horizonte they constructed Lagos de Antigua, a sea-water swimming lake with restaurants and shops nearby.

Acua Water Park is open until November 10, and Oasis Park will remain open during the winter season.

Rainbow Fuerteventura, the island’s winter

gay pride festival, takes place in Corralejo this December, final dates to be announced. There will be a host of events including volleyball tournaments, concerts and parties.

The International Kite Festival takes place November 6 to 8. Day one starts with a free-fly on the beach and is the day to collect your commemorative t-shirt. All day Saturday, kite flyers will demonstrate their skills

right until sundown. Sunday is the big day though: 150 kites are distributed to visiting children who are invited to colour the kites. Parachuting teddy bears will drop sweets from the sky and there will be raffles. The final event is a kite combat, where stunt kites battle it out in the sky. Last man flying wins.

Page 016 Tunisia 10/06/2015 16:37 Page 1

JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 16

DESTINATION TUNISIA

T

unisia is a country I hadn't visited for some years and always wanted to return to.

I had the opportunity to visit this year. The country hasn't changed. The Medinas (the old parts of the cities) with their teeming stalls sell spices, kaftans, rugs, ceramics, as well as household ware for the local residents.

The people are friendly and when they discover you’re Irish they make you welcome with as much English as they can speak.

This country offers so much of a different lifestyle. Bring the children. It is the great opportunity for them to see a different way of life.

Although a Muslim country (one can hear the call to prayer throughout the day in cities), tolerance for other religions is universal, with synagogues and Christian

Symphony in blue

Carmel Higgins heads for Tunisia with Justsunshine

churches on the streets.

The last time I was in Tunisia, I didn't see any mobile phones, now almost everyone seems to have one.

U

p the coast from Tunis is Carthage, a Unesco World Heritage site, the site of Tunisia’s most famous ancient city, destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC. The remains of ancient Roman Carthage are the Antoine Baths, among the largest in the whole empire and the third largest after those in Rome, they are on the sea with magnificent views

overlooking the Gulf of Tunis. One can walk through the ruins and feel history going through your bones.

The Bardo Museum has a collection of extraordinary mosaics (masterpieces unique in the world), then you can complete the day with a visit to a pretty town on the hillside called Sidi Bou Said.

All the houses are painted white with blue doors and windows, bluepainted wrought iron balconies, against the blue skies.

The village looks magnificent. There are lots of cafes and stalls selling ceramics and other colourful souvenirs and all at very affordable prices.

I

n the north of the country there are vines, vegetables, and olive trees in plenty.

When selling land it is sometimes sold by the number of olive trees growing on the land, not by the hectare.

Interesting to know Ramadan this year is in July, leaving more room for tourists as tourists from bordering countries who would normally visit in July will be staying at home and tend not to travel during this time.

Spicy fieriness in the marketplace

WHAT’S HOT

■ Tunisia has direct flights from Dublin, three and a half hours flying, and great value for money.

■ Tunisia offers sunshine, miles of fine golden sandy beaches, history, fabulous food, good wine, golf courses, spas and activity for children (check out the all-inclusive 3 star and star at the El Mouradi Hotel resorts).

■ Excursions to places of interest are very affordable--half days from €30 up to a two day Desert Safari (coach and jeep) for 210TDs about €105.

MEDINA ETIQUETTE

■ A rule of thumb is to pay approx 40pc of the asking price: don't insult them with a ridiculous offer, but neither should you feel you have to buy.

Just say thank you as you walk on.

■ The currency in Tunisia is the Dinar---in round figures it’s approximately two Dinars for one Euro, very easy to calculate.

■ One doesn't have to stop at a stall for the owners to ask you 'how much lady': it is better for them to say a price and then haggle.

Houses in Tunisia have precision crafted doors with interesting detail.

■ Just Sunshine are Ireland’s latest specialists in Tunisia. They have switched the flight to the Friday with Aer Lingus departing Dublin 15:30 and Monastir 19:05. Popular places to stay are Yasmine, Hammamet, Port el Kantaoui and Skanes. El Mouradi properties with the 5 star El Mouradi Palm Marina proving to be the best seller for couples whilst the 4 star El Mouradi Club Kantaoui a firm favourite for families, and groups of younger people. .

■ Packages are based on All Inclusive board basis so all meals, snacks, drinks, entertainment, water and land based sports and activities, transfers, baggage allowance and rep service. Prices include 10 July 2 adults and 2 children at the 4 star El Mouradi Club Kantaoui for 07 Nights €2060.00 or 14 nights €2487.00 05 September 2 Adults at the 5 star El Mouradi Palm Marina for 07 Nights €614.00 per person ■ John Grehan says “ss 2014 was the first year for Just Sunshine in Ireland it is heartening to see such a large amount of repeat business this year, this along with the advance bookings we are pleased to have 60% of the programme full for the season already, and as we are well into the late booking season the remainder should be full very soon.”

■ www.justsunshine.ie Justsunshine is part of the El Mouradi Group- the largest group of hotels in Tunisia.

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JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 17

Did you know?

The most competitive destination in the Mediterranean Tunisia has been anked as the second largest spa destination after France 3h.30 min, is the average journey time to Tunisia from Dublin with short transfers Beach, History & Culture, Golf, Spa and Sahara desert are the five major selling points of Tunisia.

Very low cost of living against a very strong Euro Sunway and Just Sunshine are the only Irish Tour Operators selling Tunisia chartering an aircraft from the reputable �Aer Lingus�

Tunisia boasts long sunny and warm periods from March till end of November

Tunisia has captivating sceneries in the Sahara Desert including three Star Wars film Locations Perfect destination to have fun and entertain the families as well as relaxing long stays for seniors Fantastic beach front Hotels hand-picked by Tour Operators It is an open-air museum with 3000 years of history especially, the Roman era It is considered as an emerging golf destination An enticing dishes from a rich and varied Mediterranean Cuisine Very warm and friendly population For more information or for further details on transport, attractions and accomodation in Tunisia, visit our website www.cometotunisia.ie or email trade@cometotunisia.co.uk or call +4420 7224 5561

Page 018 Madeira 10/06/2015 16:40 Page 1

JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 18

DESTINATION MADEIRA

Flower Power Marie Carberry in Madeira

Breath-taking Madeira is almost exactly the size of County Louth. Below: Funchal Muncipal Market

W

e left Funchal bathed in glorious 23 degree sunshine, and climbed in an off road vehicle toward the summit on the north east side of the island of Madeira.

Cristiano, our guide from Mountain Expeditions (www.mountainexpedition.pt), expertly drove rough, cobble locked tracks that were barely wide enough for the jeep.

We rose to 1800 feet until we hit clouds. Dark, misty wet clouds that brought the temperature down to 8 degrees, accompanied by a gale that nearly blew the fleece off

the sheep that had suddenly appeared through the fog. For a moment, I thought I was in West Cork, such was the similarity of the terrain.

Cristiano took an executive decision and decided to wait out the weather and show us a local bar in Santo Antonio da Serra which serves a Madeira specialty – poncha.

The bar, so far off the beaten track that the locals couldn’t take their eyes off us, was classic 1950s with ad hoc bottles of spirits, a Formica counter and a couple of rickety chairs. The only token towards the 21st

PLACES TO SEE

■ A three hour catamaran trip from Funchal marina with www.maderiacatamaran.com offers a 95% chance of spotting dolphins.

■ Take a trip to the Sao Vincente volcanic caves and centre on the north coast and see where the formation of the island started.

■ Visit the local market in Santo Antonio da Serra to get a real feel for the island.

■ A guided levada (an irrigation system) mountain walk will give you an up close perspective of the sub-tropical vegetation that makes up so much of the island.

century was a futuristic till that wouldn’t have been out of place in Blade Runner.

The lady behind the bar mixed about a half pint of 50pc proof rum with lemon juice and thick, gloopy honey and told us to knock it back. That poncha cost all of €1.50.

I’m still standing – just.

The subtropical island of Madeira, a volcanic rock, lies 600km west of Morocco and was discovered by the Portuguese in 1419.

Despite us being enveloped in cloud, it is known for its year round warm, sunny climate and the friendliness of its peo-

PLACES TO EAT

■ Il Basilico at Hotel Porto Mare – up to date Italian fare with a Madeiran twist.

■ Riso in Funchal is renowned for its risotto’s. Try it with the local scabbard fish. Superb.

■ Hotel Quinta do Furao on the north coast produces its own wines and provides lovely views to go with its excellent cuisine.

■ In nearby Camara de Lobos is Vila do Peixe, a fish restaurant where your food is viewed, weighed, cooked and served. Recommended.

ple. Portuguese is the first language but English is taught from primary school and is widely spoken.

Besides poncha, the island is also famous for the production of Madeira wine and there is nowhere better to sample its delights than in Blandy’s Wine Lodge in Funchal.

A tour of the lodge explains the process from grape to bottle and they don’t stint on the wine tasting at the end.

island. But first, to really appreciate the town, take the cable car trip from the centre up to Monte. It takes about 20 minutes up a steep incline and gives fabulous views of the town and bay. At the top is the Monte Palace Trop-

ical Garden with its lush greenery and Japanese style gardens – a perfect place to escape the afternoon heat.

You can return by cable car but it’s more fun to throw yourself at the mercy of the carreiros.

T

he capital, Funchal, with its markets, old town, shopping and wonderful restaurants is a delight to walk around.

Fronted by a beautiful bay and sheltered behind by the mountains, it makes a perfect base from which to explore the ■ Marie Carberry travelled to Madeira courtesy of the Portuguese Tourist Office.

■ Accommodation provided by Hotel Melia Madeira Mare, Funchal and Hotel Vidamar, Funchal ■ Weekly (Thursdays) charter flights from Ireland to Madeira resumed in May and will run until September 9th. The flights are operated by: ■ Concorde Travel www.concordetravel.ie ph. 01 7759300 ■ Sunway www.sunway.ie ph. 01 2311800 ■ Travel Department www.traveldepartment.ie ph. 01 6371600 ■ Topflight www.topflight.ie ph. 01 2401784

Page 018 Madeira 10/06/2015 16:40 Page 2

JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 19

DESTINATION MADEIRA

Above: The rarity of Madeira’s species is referred to more than thirty times in the “Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin, and the north coast The carreiros are two men dressed in white who steer wicker type baskets balanced on skis, straight down a very steep hull that has not been closed off to cars.

If you think that’s hair raising then ponder on this. You will be actually sitting in that same wicker basket screaming your head off as they expertly take corners and go straight through stop signs. Believe me it is the best of fun!

Once we recovered our equilibrium it was time to visit the west of the island.

Roberto from

Windsor Agency was our guide for the day and our first stop was at the highest cliff top Europe, Cabo Giro. As if it wasn’t scary enough, a glass floored skywalk has been erected so that you can see what standing 580 meters above the sea actually looks like. I’d like to say it looks wonderful but my eyes were closed with fright.

I needed to sit down and the perfect place was the restaurant in the boutique Hotel AquaNatura in Porto Moniz in the northwest of the island.

The fish soup and

salted cod alongside a glass of white wine was enough to get my sea legs back.

L

ike the rest of Madeira, what Porto Moniz lacks in beaches it makes up for in giant volcanic lava pools and lidos (public bathing areas with lots of space for beds and brollies). The scenery is spectacular with its jagged coastline and the azure blue waters. Further along the coastline heading east are the towns of Santana (famous for its

traditional A framed houses), Porto da Cruz – a laid back sleepy village that boasts some lovely, if scary, coast drives. Ponta de Sao Lourenco is the furthest point east and is considered to be one of the last untouched places in Europe. The landscape, unlike the rest of Madeira, is barren and bare but the views to the

southern and northern parts of the island are wonderful.

Madeira is 57km by 22km and while some of the roads may be narrow the island is well served by a motorway network. It is easily navigable so hire a car or, if you want to take it easy, why not avail of the myriad of guided tours avail-

THINGS TO DO

■ If it’s yellow sand beaches with crystal clear water you crave, the island of Porto Santo is a ten minute flight or a two hour ferry ride away.

■ The Garajau partial nature reserve was set up in 1986 and is Portugal’s

Clockwise: Funchal, Seixal onf the north coast, Funchal Harbour and Pico Areeiro Path

able to make the most of your stay.

The beaches may be in short supply in Madeira but there is no shortage of hotel pools or public lidos. For a laid back family holiday, couples retreat, or those with a sense of adventure, Madeira certainly hits all the spots.

only exclusive marine reserve.

■ Visit Sao Lourenco Palace (palace of St. Laurence) in the centre of Funchal, an historical and political symbol of the autonomous region of Madeira.

Page 020 S Africa 10/06/2015 16:41 Page 1

JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 20

DESTINATION SOUTH AFRICA

T

he Cape and the Table Mountain is just the beginning of the tale. For many visitors it starts with the nostrils.

“I smell the rum from the devil” our tour guide Sarah Weaver declared, and she was right. The smell is ubiquitous, fruit of the heat and the foliage and the collision of oceans in the turquoise waters in the bay and beyond.

It was probably somewhere in the city, around the boisterous bars we frequented at the Victoria sea front, but here at the launchpad to Table Mountain is where we senses it at its greatest strength.

Who nose what was in store for us next?

T

hanks to the cable car it is possible to start your tour of Table Mountain at the top.

The beauty of Hoerikwaggo mountain to give it its original name, was attested to in the culture of the Khoikhoi, by the Portuguese whose António de Saldanha first named it Taboa do Cabo, astonished at how much water was tumbling off the mountain, and by the generations subsequent invaders armed with guns or with cameras.

Like a Ben Bulben of the bushlands, the hard wearing sandstone that constitute its mantle has a

Pinotage perfect Eoghan Corry samples vintage South Africa

Hoerikwaggo to the Khoikhoi, Table Mountain qualified as one of the seven natural wonders of the world in 2012 quartzite in it to make it shine like granite in the sunlight, Only in modern times have we had the added benefit of getting there with splendid views over the precipitous top, 225 rand for a round trip.

They built the cable car in 1929, and rebuilt in 1958, 1974 and 1997 as the crowds came to gape.

The capacity of the current version is 65, but queues at peak season can still extend to two or three hours long. If the wind gets too high they sound a hooter and you watch the tourist scramble for the cable car.

Table Mountain claims more life than Everest. It looks inviting, and

tourists are led astray by the descent of unexpected sudden clouds and the plunging temperatures.

If you want to walk it set aside a whole day and they recommend hiring a guide. Most people cable up and walk down, but it still takes time and care.

And all the way that rum from the devil will fill your nostrils.

I

t is not rum, however, but wine that excites us we depart for the winelands, Stellenbosch and Franschoek and all those names that sound like poetry as the corks unpop (or increasingly with new world wines, the screw caps unwind).

Sloshed in Stellenbosch has a nice ring to it.

Our destination was a stay Richard Branson’s Mont Rochelle hotel and vineyard, a stunning 22bedroom hotel and vineyard just under an hour’s drive from Cape Town that has been rebuilt from head to foot to turn it into one of the best lodges on the continent.

It is steeped in history, the first black-owned vineyard

The wine trail and garden trail are the staples of the Irish honeymoon particularly in the years since brides turned their veils away from Mauritius.

The rooms come with high tech air conditioning and window fittings, the pool is deep and refreshing and the barman stayed patiently as we worked our way through vineyard choices.

Franschhoek is the gourmet hotspot of the

Winelands so where to turn? At the delicious Cle des Montages, Peggy Klement and Laurence Gould hosted us for a gourmet meal. One of the group went to Foliage and came back with equally fulsome praise.

Rum from the devil indeed, and pinotage, and history, and the rest.

■ Eoghan Corry flew to Cape Town on Turkish Airlines’ One Stop service via Istanbul. The stopover in Ataturk airport is two hours and there is a stop in Johannesburg but passengers do not deplane.

■ Turkish currently have a promotion to Cape Town with prices starting from €592 return all taxes. They fly daily via Istanbul to Cape town and twice a day service from Dublin to Istanbul.

■ He stayed at Sun Internationals 5 star Table Bay Hotel at the V&A Waterfront and in Richard Branson’s Mont Rochelle resort in Franschoek

Clockwise: Derek Hughes of flycruise photographs the view from Table Mountain, views of Table Mountain and cable car, Eoghan Corry on Table Mountain

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page 022 s africa revised 10/06/2015 16:41 Page 1

JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 22

DESTINATION SOUTH AFRICA

A

h Cleopatra’s with the creamy food, no wonder you have to walk up a mountain this morning,” said our Zulu guide Thandeka Mlaba when we hiked for 2.3km up to see the SAM rock art at an ancient Drakensberg cave.

She was right, Cleopatra lodge serves huge and adventurous five and seven course dinners. They don’t just serve it. They perform the dinner like a theatrical show. Even the manager who reads out the menu, Philippa Knight, turns it into a Tony-contender.

Not that I was up for it.

My stomach has been unwell since the night before the shark cage dive, either the oysters of the vindaloo the night before are now the chief suspect as more than one of the party has come down. I was the heaviest to fall, and spent the night after that dinner depositing the takings in the toilet. Then second night I just skipped dinner altogether.

Occasionally abstention is best.

The peak of Giant’s castle 10,869 feet (3,313 metres) is located just above our resort, Cleopatra Mountain Farmhouse.

Note thee farmhouse, not a lodge (they stress), different from everyone else. They are the last farm left in this region of the uKhahlamba/Drakensberg Park.

Richard Poynton serves what might be the best food on the continent

here. He has 11 bedrooms, pretty typical size my mountain resort standards but it is his kitchen that makes the difference.

Despite the terrible gravel road, he hopes dinner guests will come in to dine and help the small resort pay its way, not easy in such a remote region.

He grows much of his own vegetables, in a garden that has had to be baboon-proofed. “We live with them, we just don’t like feeding them,” he says of his primate guests. How does he keep them away? “We use 36,000 volts, that usually does the trick. It is not harmful to them, it is DC.”

KZN cosy

R

ichard keep chickens and lets them out to play every day. Play with the predators? Naw. While the 36,000 volts keeps the predators away, there are a few problems with birds of prey (everyone loves the taste of chicken, it appears) but they tend to get only the younger chicks, and snakes who love the eggs.

Otherwise, it works.

Richard and his wife Mouse built a private house near their resort over a stream, on steel girders, with separate two storey units for their elder and younger daughters, something like we should have done for you girls.

They have a wine cellar on the waterside, the rocks still in position. It was a house straight out

Lining up the rhino shot at Karkloof

Eoghan Corry finds much to please the palate in Kwazulu Natal’s Drakensberg A helicopter trip to Champagne Castle of a magazine. They didn’t get an architect to do it, they did it themselves and it was loveable for that. There was a cat who rules the house and two dogs, one of whom

looked like a wine barrel with legs.

There are also two dogs at the Cleopatra Farmhouse. Uju (Zulu for Honey) and Treacle.

While I was writing my notes, sitting in bed, they burst through the door, investigated for food and came to my bedside to nose me with familial enthusiasm. I recognised the wish list from my dogs at home – a walk up the mountain. But they came back down mountain and back in to the room with me and led me to my

swimming togs. So it was back in the cold water at the dawn of day, a pond choc full of fish and two dogs trying to do synchronised dog-paddling with me.The drive to the rock art was 45 minutes on the bouncy roads that characterize this province, this country, just to get us into the mood. There was snow at the top of the Drakensberg mountains as we drove, the first snows of autumn.

What amazing views, and what amazing art

work.

There were two galleries on our art tour, reached by an uphill trek, 2.3km through a narrow path with breath taking mountains above and streams below, a supposedly poisonous snake with black and white markings passed on front of us at one stage, short (a youngster) and unconcerned before it slid into the undergrowth, and then, we arrive at the rock face. You don’t do THAT at MOMA, Tate Modern or Musee D’Orsay.

“The person who was legalised to do the painting was the shaman,” Thandeka Mlaba said.

“Hunters, they would put poison on the tip of the arrow. They would get poison from the snake, and leave the snake, the animal, alive. They would cut the piece of the meat which had the poison and bury it. In case a bat would get the poison.

They respect the nature.

If you kill the snake you would destroy the nature.”

These paintings won’t be here much longer.

Thandeka says that every year the paintings get fainter.

We spend our lives trekking around galleries trying to work out what the artist is saying once they throw out the traditional meat-and-two-veg techniques, perspective, foreshortening, modelling, chiaroscuro etc, and here we are in a cave looking at hunter-gatherer art which did the same thing millennia before Braque and Picasso.

There is irony that those who laughed at Picasso, were the same guys who came to Africa and sneered at or, worse, defaced the native rock art.

■ Eoghan Corry was a guest of SA Tourism.www.southafrica.net ■ Cleopatra Mountain Farmhouse PO Box 17, Balgowan, KwaZulu‑Natal, South Africa, 3275 www.cleomountain.com +27 33 2677243 ■ Karkloof (near the capital of Pietermaritzburg) www.karkloofsafarispa.com ■ Helicopter flip www.westline.co.za/charter-dragon-peaks.php

Page 023 09/06/2015 18:40 Page 1

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Page 024-025 iPW 2015 10/06/2015 16:58 Page 1

Eoghan Corry reports from Orlando

JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 24

IPW 2015

UNIVERSAL Orlando Resort is building a water park. Construction has begun on Volcano Bay at Universal Orlando Resort.

The new park is expected to open in 2017.

SEAWORLD is inviting tourists to come behind the scenes at SeaWorld Orlando to learn about its 50 year legacy of animal care, conservation, rescue and rehabilitation, which includes caring for 25,000 sick, injured, ill or in need animals. The move is to stem criticism of the theme parks on the back of the Blackfish documentary. SeaWorld CFO James Heaney will step down on June 19 and will be replaced

by Marc G Swanson. Heaney will be a joining a cruise line.

BUSCH Gardens Tampa announced details of its big 2015 opening Cobra’s Curse, a spin coaster featuring a vertical lift.

ROGER DOW, CEO of the US Travel Association said the big three US airlines are wrong to oppose Open Skies. He said the average air fare is 30pc lower if destination is covered by open skies agreement. “Backing away from Open skies would be especially damaging for the USA.”

BRAND USA showcased activities in the past twelve months and Chris Thompson gave a preview of the America Wild giant screen film commissioned to commemorated the centenary of the US National parks service. “We deliver deeply emotional experiences that last a lifetime,” he said.

NEW ORLEANS held out the prospect of the next IPW 2016 (“free alligator rides”). Stephen Spender told Travel Extra why the city was so successful in attracting conventions like IPW: the city has 38,000 beds and 22,000 of them are within walking distances of the convention centre.

NYC& Co showcased its 47 second elevator

Event at Universal studios for delegates to IPW 2015

Themepark spirit Orlando shows off why it is entertainment capital

D

isney says that the visitor experience in Orlando wil be transformed by the redevelopment of its downtown area.

Kenneth Svendsen of Disney hosted a dinner in the boathouse on the organisation’s resort and said the development of Disney Springs, the former Disney Downtown would transform the visitor experience there,

bringing the number of dining restaurant seats up to 10,000 from 7,000 and ending the situations where families were waiting for up to two hours for a seat at peak times.

The big ticket opening of last year was at the other end of International Drive and Universal took the opportunity at the closing event to bring visitors to both ends of Hogsmeade

Express to sample the train ride and several of the Potter-themed rides as well as the sacharine sweet butter beer.

Disney opened 19 of their rides for Sunday’s overture event for the IPW delegates, highlighting Fantasyland and the largest expansion in the 42 year history of Magic Kingdom,

Poland’s Visa Waiver Chance Croatia and Israel, Poland is just outside the visa waiver requirement of 3pc refusals for visa requests. Roger Dow said the US government has the au-

thority to raise that figure to 10pc and he would be pressing them to do so. He said the name of the visa waiver programme should change because it creates

the wrong impression, “visa waiver means more security not less.”

ride at One World Observatory in the new World Trade Centre which recreates a visual history of Manhattan, if a tad expensively, admission is $32. Fred Dixon said New York has the most active hotel pipeline in the USA, 113,000 in 2015, 124,000 by 2018, and has built 40,000 new hotel rooms since 2007: “more than an entire city.”

P

Visit California reported airlift at LAX was up 11pc and congratulated Ethiopian Airlines on their new service form Addis to LAX via Dublin. The airport is planning a gate event on June 20th, the first for a new airport CEO.

reland is USA's 19th brought Irish visitor levels atives while in the USA, The average traveller most important over- back to figures not seen three quarters stayed at booked three and a half seas market with since the turn of the cen- least one night in a hotel months (106 days) in adand one in four used air vance of travel. The aver395,318 visitors in 2014, tury.

Shopping is still the most travel between US cities age stay was 16 nights and leaving it 40,000 ahead of important activity for Irish while visiting the country. the average age 42. non visa waiver Israel.

Figures for 2015 are al- visitors. One in every four One in eight used a bus for ready up on the 2014 total, Irish visited friends and rel- travel between cities.

ACTIVITIES For one in seven well short of Shopping 89% STATESBOUND it was their first the peak of Sightseeing 84% 2006 14 414,423 10% visit to the USA. 2008 but up Year Pos No Change Food 46% 2007 14 491,055 18% on the trough 1998 21 232,391 7% Nat Parks 39% 2008 14 531,198 8% of 2012 when 1999 22 246,394 6% TRIP PURPOSE Museums 27% 2000 21 285,697 16% 2009 16 411,203 -23% the affect of 63% Theme Parks 26% 2010 17 360,012 -4% Holiday the recession 2001 21 276,806 -3% 22% 2011 17 347,821 -4% Friends, relatives 23% Shows and capacity 2002 18 259,687 -6% Business 7% Clubbing 19% 2003 17 254,320 -2% 2012 17 332,423 -4% cuts by the 3% Gambling 14% 2013 19 367,124 +11% Conference a i r l i n e s 2004 12 345,119 36% 3% Golf 6% 2005 14 383,640 11% 2014 19 395,318 +8% Education

CALIFORNIA Caroline Beteta of CHICAGO Cathy Domanico, Vice

President of Tourism choose Chicago said the airport expected 55m visitors by 2020.

ORLANDO launched a new marketing campaign, The Never Ending Story.

■ Eoghan Corry travelled to Orlando with Aer Lingus who fly Dublin to Orlando daily EI121 at 14.00 with additional frequencies next winter over Christmas, mid-term and Easter, The aircraft is an A330-200 in 24-228 configuration.

Fares start from €259 each way including taxes and charges. See aerlingus.com.

oland could be added to the list of visa waiver countries in the next 12 months, if US Tourism lobby gets its way. Alongside Brazil,

IRELAND IS 19th BIGGEST MARKET

I

Page 024-025 iPW 2015 10/06/2015 16:58 Page 2

Eoghan Corry reports from Orlando

Biggest IPW yet

Orlando beats record set by Las Vegas in 2013

O

rlando’s IPW (formerly known as Pow Wow) was the busiest ever, with 6,543 delegates, 1,352 booths and 537 media from 74 countries.

The delegations from Britain and China were the biggest ever. China Buyers were up to 109 (22 MICE buyers) from 17 in 2010, England up to 170 from 123 in 2010, France up

IPWs TO COME

Four cities were added to the programme of upcoming IPW’s: 2016 New Orleans June 4-8; 2017 Washington DC June 3-7; 2018 Denver May 19-23; 2019 Anaheim June 1-5; 2020 Las Vegas May 30 –June 3; 2021 Chicago April 24-28; 2022 Orlando June 4-8; 2023 San Antonio, May 20-23; 2024 Los Angeles May 4-8.

JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 25

IPW 2015

NEW YORK now has a golf course, Trump golf links at ferry point designed by jack Nicklaus opened may 4 UNIVERSAL gave more details of

their plans to bring Harry Potter to their Hollywood Studios park.

GTA launched its 2015 Select Hotel Collection. The brochure features 240 hotels in North and South America.

DORA the Explorer will spearhead New

York City’s bilingual family tourism campaign, appealing to both English and Spanish-speaking families, it was announced at IPW .

BRAND USA was re authorised for 5 Roger Dow of the US Travel Association speaking at IPW 2015 to 34 (14 MICE buyers) from 18 In 2010. This was the seventh time that Orlando has hosted IPW, more than any other city, and they will host again in 2022.

The social scene at IPW is the pride of the circuit. The press brunch took place at the new Orlando Eye. Foreigner performed at the first luncheon and the cast of Seaworld’s event on Monday

For all you need to know about the USA 01 4429556 & info@visitusa.ie www.visitusa.ie

evening was washed out by a thunderstorm and the showcase Manta roller coaster had to be closed due to thunder storms after a short time and the blue ponchos provided to guests made the event look like a convention of Smurfs while people tried to recognise each other in the dark downpour (“you can’t miss me, I’m the one in the blue poncho” was a popular text on the night).

more years a year ahead of schedule, “the goal is to make it permanent,” Chris Thompson said.

UNIVERSAL Studios Hollywood will upgrade the Wizarding World of Harry Potter with a HD 3D ride when it opens in spring.

NEW YORK Chris Heywood of NYC&Co:said the city;s next big marketing campaign will be Free in NYC, “New York is as expensive or inexpensive as you want it to be.’

ORLANDO hosted a culinary tour for travel media. There are 5,000 eateries i the Orlando region and chefs from the region received five James Beard nominations last year.

Page 026 Afloat 10/06/2015 16:50 Page 1

JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 26

AFLOAT

ROSSLARE Iarnród Éireann is planning to outsource operations at Rosslare. The port recorded a profit of €2.1m in 2013 on a turnover of €9.6m. However, with ships becoming larger, the port will have to invest in new berths which could cost €60m.

CARNIVAL Vista, set to launch in May

2016, will have the first at-sea IMAX theater, the suspended open-air SkyRide and an onboard brewery. Children younger than 12 will eat without a cover charge in all for-fee restaurants onboard. The family offering include 96 Family Harbour staterooms fitted with TVs, board games and child-friendly amenities.

Child-friendly options found on other ships in the Carnival fleet will return, including the WaterWorks water park with a tube slide that's 450 feet long, Camp Ocean kids club, SportSquare and Dr Seuss Bookville.

VIKING Sky, one of the new vessels from Viking Ocean Cruises, has delayed delivery from June 2016 to February 2017. Construction of the vessel has been moved from Fincantieri's Marghera shipyard, near Venice to the Ancona shipyard, where Viking Sea, is under construction.

ROYAL's Allure of the Seas emerged from an 18-day dry dock with the main dining room sliced into four separate dining venues familiar from Quantum class: Chic, Silk, American Icon and The Grande, and two new restaurants, the Mexican themed Sabor Taqueria and Coastal Kitchen for suite passengers.

Allure has ten new suites and will be based in Barcelona this summer and returns to Fort Lauderdale in November 2015. Flexible “dynamic” dining was put on hold for the ship.

HURTIGRUTEN Prices on Hur-

tigruten’s Arctic Highlights trip on March 22 next will start from €1285pps including direct return flights from Dublin, transfers, two nights in a hotel and voyage from Tromsø to Kirkenes and back to Tromsø on half board basis. Trips to explore the Arctic are offered all year round using scheduled flights.

ROYAL Caribbean and Celebrity have

both increased the crew gratuity charge to $12.95 from $12 per person, per day and to $15.95 from $14.25 for premium cruise passengers schedule to sail on or after July 1.

Charges in Celebrity suites go up to $16.45 per person per day from $15.50. Charges are automatically added to passenger’s bills. Passengers with existing bookings can pre-pay their gratuities before June 1 to lock in the current rate. It follows a similar increase by Norwegian Cruise Line in February.

SILVERSEA will operate voyages

from Ushuaia to Antarctica in November 2015 and January, February and December 2016 to mark the centenary of Ernest Shackleton’s expedition on The Endurance.

AZAMARA Quest’s scheduled dry dock due in September has been moved to April 2016 to allow further upgrades. Azamara Journey's dry dock remains on schedule for January 2016.

A bear on Quantum, a giraffe on Anthem, what does Royal have in mind for Quantum parts 3 and 4?

Quantum part 4

R

Another tech-savvy ship on the way for Royal

“We have received a remarkable oyal Caribbean entered into an agreement with Meyer response from travel agent partners Werft in Germany to order a and travellers.”

Michael Bayley said “the fourth fourth Quantum-class ship for delivQuantum class vessel will ery in 2019.

ROYAL PLANS be a trailblazer in smart-ship Royal’s CEO Richard growth an investment Fain said. “the an- 2015 5.5pc $1.6bn design and vacation innovanouncement is a reflec- 2016 6.3pc $2.3bn tion,” Royal Caribbean Cruises tion of the success of the 2017 3.1pc $0.4bn first two Quantum-class 2018 3.9pc $2.4bn Ltd. owns Royal Caribbean Celebrity ships,” 2019 6.5pc $1.3bn International,

A STAR IS BORN AS VIKING MOVES TO SEA

T

his month saw that rarity In Bergen, 20,000 people attended the birth of a new cruise line, the first in over a decade.

Viking Ocean Cruises, a wing of Viking River, officially launched its 930-passenger Viking Star in Bergen, Norway and revealed plans to create at least nine other

T

nearly identical ships.

The ceremony was timed to coincide with Norway's National Constitution Day, a national holiday.

The launch featured performances by Norwegian soprano Sissel, actor Bjarte Hjelmeland, singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche, violinist Charlie Siem and com-

edy duo Ylvis. Godmother Trude Drevland, Bergen's mayor, offered a lovely blessing of good fortune, along with a successful smashing of a Jeroboam-sized bottle of Veuve Cliquot.

Viking Star sails its first passenger cruise on April 11 from Istanbul to Venice.

Cruises, Pullmantur, Azamara Club Cruises and CDF Croisières de France, as well as TUI Cruises through a 50pc joint venture.

Their six brands operate a combined total of 43 ships with an additional six under construction contracts, and three under conditional agreement. Itineraries around the world call on 480 destinations.

Viking Star at sail

CORK PORT PLANS EXPANSION

he Port of Cork has been granted planning permission for a €100m redevelopment of its harbour in Ringaskiddy.

The permission, which saw An Bord Pleanála go against the advice of its inspectors, paves the way for

the Ringaskiddy Port Redevelopment project to be operational in 2018, which will allow larger vessels to come to Cork.

The decision permits the Port of Cork to construct two berths at Ringaskiddy East; a new 314m container

berth that will be capable of accommodating vessels carrying a range of different cargoes, including containers, freight and general cargoes, and an additional 200m container berth.

The decision also permits the Port of Cork to add

a new 182m extension to the existing deep-water berth at Ringaskiddy West.

Cork has long been seeking a cruise terminal to facilitate large cruise ships.

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Page 028-032 Flying 10/06/2015 16:44 Page 1

JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 28

THE FLYING COLUMN

DUSSELDORF Airport had become notorious for professional baggage thieves and pickpockets, 10 times worse than downtown. A specialist force has successfully addressed the problem, but the perpetrators are reported to have moved

WIZZ Air reported 16.5m passengers for the year to Mar 31 2015, up 18pc. Load factor was 86.7pc. Average revenue per passenger was €74.5 up 2.5pc. This summer it will operate 55 aircraft with 17 based in Poland,15 in Romania, 7 in Hungary, 4 in Bulgaria, 3 in Lithuania, 1-2 each in Ukraine, Macedonia, Czech Republic, Serbia and Latvia and 2 for maintenance and other cover.

DONEGAL’s Councillors have deferred a decision on proposals to invest €30,000 a year into Ireland West Airport over the next ten years. A number of councillors expressed concern with the lack of detail on the proposals and suggesting money would be better invested in Donegal airport.

IAA Irish Aviation Industry Awards were

awarded to 19 recipients including the Outstanding Contribution to Irish Aviation Award to Willie Walsh, Aviation Company of the Year and Customer Service Award Ryanair, Aircraft Operator Award to Air Contractors, Safety Award to Captain Clive Martin, Stobart Air and the Upcoming Aviation Professional Award to Mark Dwyer.

FLIGHT Safety Foundation Board of

Governors has elected three new members: Capt Conor Nolan, corporate safety and risk manager at Aer Lingus, Capt Henry Donohoe, senior vice president – group safety at Emirates (and retired director of safety and crisis at Aer Lingus) and Craig Hoskins, vice president, safety, security and technical affairs, Airbus Americas, Inc.

STOBART , the company operating Aer Lingus Regional under a franchise agreement, says it expects to increase passenger numbers by 2m passengers when IAG gains control of Aer Lingus. Stobart reported an 8pc increase in seat factor on Aer Lingus Regional routes in April 2015 compared to April 2014 to 72pc. In the year to date is up 2.5 points.

Kerry-Dublin was up almost 38pc Jan-Apr and Donegal recorded growth for the third month in a row. Sean Brogan, the company's chief executive, said the franchise agreement will continue under IAG. It is a ten-year franchise agreement, now in its third year. The contract protected the company against a change of ownership at Aer Lingus.

GOODBODY

says that Ryanair will dictate the European competitive landscape over the next 3 years as it accounts for 30pc of narrow-body seat deliveries on the continent. It says capacity will be well deployed by Ryanair as it pursues a 20pc share of the German market by 2019, up from less than 5pc. Capacity changes for summer 2015 include Italy up 0.79m, Britain up 0.70m, Spain up 0.17m and Ireland up 0.42m. overall seat capacity is up 6.9pc with spectacular growth in Poland and Portugal.

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

Cork airport

New blow for Cork

CEO sees growth despite CSA pulling planned routes ork airport is suffering from main airlines to identify routes that the negative coverage that is will work and are viable for the airaccorded the airports’ activi- line. Secondly is driving the outbound ties, according to Kevin Toland CEO traffic from the hinterland, doing a lot more marketing communication reof DAA. He said Cork is working in a tough minding customers of the speed and Reminding customers of the economic environment services, value and the but claimed that the negspeed of service in Cork airative commentary about port in the past year. Thirdly Cork was counter prois driving inbound traffic, ductive. meaning we have a joined The CSA Czech Airup supply chain. lines decided not to proThe number of people ceed with its proposed coming into Cork is too new routes to Prague and low. There is no point trying Ibiza this summer. to bring people in from GerThe decision was many and `France unless taken following a review Kevin Toland this is in place. It needs to

by Czech Airlines of the advance bookings for the new serv- work, an end to end seamless experiices, which were due to commence ence.

I would be very confident about this month for the summer season and which we are advised had not met Cork airport in the medium to long term but it is a game with a number their sales expectations.

People hear the bad stories and of parts, a lot more team work, a lot commentary and book their tickets more collaboration.

It is far more efficient than any somewhere else so it is pushing back on everything that everybody in the other airport other than Dublin and it is by a distance far the best airport exregion is trying to do.

While there is a lot of emphasis of perience you will find in Ireland or the 5pc decline Eastern Europe ac- Britain. It is a terrific terminal, great counted for more than 95pc of the 5pc staff, great retail, great food, and peoand that was about competitive forces ple just walk straight out.

There is no light bulb solution to rather than underlying economic isthe issues in Cork. One issue is the sues.

It has 2.1m passengers compared economic environment. The second with Shannon’s 1.7m. There is a far issue is the roads, a factor that was not deeper route network on a life for like there seven or eight years ago. The basis on short haul where there is third is competitive landscape. I think twice as many routes and twice as that has settled now. It is what it is, many passengers as the next largest 102,000 people have migrated up.

We are 70pc cheaper in Cork than airport and 75pc than the next airport in Dublin and 8pc cheaper than any after that.

What we have a world class airport other peer airports in Europe. There and there is a strong hinterland. What is a supply of airports in Ireland and we really need to do is pull people to- they come in various sizes and varigether and understand the real issues. ous infrastructure and passenger experiences. Cork offers a medium Deal with them.

We are working closely with all the sized world class airport which will

C

be there for the next 30 of 40 years. It is the quickest, most friendly airport to get through.

The thing we need most support on is the coming together. This is where other parts of the country and other countries do a much better job than Cork, in the joined up marketing where everyone does their bit and invests accordingly and the second and the fundamentally important one is that people get behind the region and get behind the airport, the broader economic work is facilitated and enabled. It is a game of a number of parts which means a lot of collaboration and teamwork.

Other parts of the country do much better than Cork, is the supply change. The broader economic work that You hear a lot of commentary about debt, it is a great facility and €200m has been invested in that and that is the ticket price for an airport of that size.

We say don’t worry about the debt or otherwise we would do silly things in the short term. We have a good management team and the debt is absolutely irrelevant.

We have not increased our charges in ten years. Shannon has been put in a position where it can reduce their charges. Airport charges is not where the focus in. What we need to do is to have a lot more travellers come into Cork. Shannon is currently cheaper than Cork. Landing charges is not what is going to generate the traffic.

That is what has happened on Eastern European routes but the rest of the routes are a lot stickier. What we need to focus on is generating that interest in people coming to Cork.

He said the Cork to Dublin air route would require a €1.5m annual subsidy to make it feasible.

Page 028-032 Flying 10/06/2015 16:44 Page 2

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 29

THE FLYING COLUMN

Ryanair loads-up R

yanair says it will remain vigorously “load factor active/price passive” in the year ahead.

Forward booked loads are 4pc ahead of last year, and it expects this will lead to a 2pc points rise in load factors from 88pc to 90pc. The airlie said that earlier loading of schedules led to materially stronger forward bookings.

Ryanair is now the largest carrier in 2014 in Spain, Italy, Belgium, Ireland and Poland, second in Britain to easyJet,, Portugal and Morocco and third in Germany and France.

The airline’s annual results preRyanair punctuality peaked at 92pc in March. dicted half of Ryanair’s growth in While traffic growth this year will 2015 to occur at primary airports such lowered by a Eurobond programme, as Brussels, Lisbon, Rome, Athens, under which Ryanair has raised increase 10pc to 100m, Ryanair says Copenhagen, Berlin, Cologne, Dublin €1.7bn unsecured at blended rates of it would be foolish not to expect some 1.50pc, boosting profitability and irrational pricing response from comand London.

“Unit costs fell by 5pc. Excluding continue to strengthen its balance petitors who cannot compete with its fuel our unit costs were flat, which sheet. Currency is well hedged for lowest costs and fares, especially next was an impressive performance in a summer 2015. Oil is 90pc hedged for winter.

It plans to be operating 340 aircraft year where we made a substantial FY16 at $92 a barrel and 36pc hedged move to more expensive primary air- for FY17 at $69 a barrel. They fared at end March 2016, 32 more than last year. ports without compromising our 25 better at hedging currency than oil.

The airline is capitalised at Ryanair average revenue per pasminute turnarounds. Many competitors saw their unit costs rise means senger in the Jan-Mar quarter was €4,035.1m, about €2.93 per share.

Operating profit was up 58pc to that our cost leadership over RYANAIR GROWTH €1.042 bn (only exceeded in Eucompetitors has widened during rope

by IAG). Despite dividends the last year. This bodes well for Customers 81.7m 90.6m +11% our growth, especially as we Revenue €5,037m €5,654m +12% of €520m and share buy-backs of move into airports and routes Profit after Tax €523m €867m +66% €110m, Ryanair still finished the where our competitors are charg- Basic EPS(€ cent) 36.96 62.59 +69% year with €364m in net cash and a balance sheet rated BBB+ by ing markedly higher fares. This price advantage has helped Ryanair €53, 8pc down on last year. It was both S&P and Fitch Ratings, the highwin substantial market share from counterweighted by 30pc passenger est rating of any airline worldwide. competitor airlines in Dublin and growth to 18.5m and the increase in Operating margin increased by 5pc to seat factor to 87pc. Overall revenue 18pc.

London The operating margin of 18.4pc is was up 20pc to €984m with an operRyanair’s highest since 2007/08 and ating profit of €38m (3.9pc margin) against a loss of €35m in the previthe highest of any airline in Europe.

It expects financing costs will be ous year.

DUBLIN will be the 15th busiest longhaul airport in Europe in peak 2015 and the fastest growing amongst the 30 busiest with a 24pc increase, according to anna.aero. Munich (-0.4pc), Lisbon (-5.0pc), Helsinki (-6.6pc) and Moscow Domodedovo (-22.2pc) have all registered a drop in long-haul seat capacity.

CSA Czech Airlines last night blamed poor

advance bookings for its decision to review the planned launches within weeks of its Cork to Prague and Cork to Ibiza routes. The airline said that it will announce whether it plans to proceed with the routes in coming weeks.

KERRY 295,521 passengers travelled

through Kerry Airport in 2014. The numbers represented an annual drop of 4pc. This was largely due to airline consolidation, according to the airport.

CITYJET signed a deal with KLM UK

Engineering for heavy maintenance checks on its 17 Avro RJ85 aircraft. The work will be carried out by the Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance subsidiary from its site at Norwich

GALWAY City Council is still awaiting

a consultant’s report on the future usage of the Galway Airport site at Carnmore Since last summer, the airport has been leased by a company called Carnmore Aviation Ltd, a subsidiary of the Weston private airport near Dublin – accommodating private flights, the local flying club and the Coast Guard.

LUFTHANSA

CEO Carsten Spohr said that Lufthansa’s Eurowings is to operate on an Austrian AOC, due to the low costs of Austrian Airlines crews. It is to have more than 100 aircraft and quickly grow to become the third largest low-cost airline in Europe. He said that while in the US, five major airlines have 93pc of the market, in Europe, only 40pc.

There will be five players: two large hub Airlines, two low-cost carriers - and Lufthansa with both roles.

RYANAIR is collaborating with a mystery Irish designer on a new uniform for flight LIBYAN airline Afriqiyah has set up a company base in Malta.

For more information please contact us at +353-1-679-3958 or at aircanada@premair.ie

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THE FLYING COLUMN

AIR CANADA ROUGE is converting business class seating on its A319 aircraft from a 3-3 to a 2-2 configuration. The airline offers the only wide-bodied service to Canada this summer and is extending from 7w to 10w and continuing the service year-round.

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

MALAYSIA A rebranded Malaysia Airlines will start operating by September 2015 after a $1.66bn restructuring by administrator Mohammed Faiz Azmi. Malaysia Airlines will cut 6,000 jobs and review aircraft purchases. Malaysia Airlines will remain as an international full-fledged service carrier and not a regional carrier.

NEW ORLEANS Stephen Perry

told IPW 2015 that New Orleans is very close to signing up its first European non stop flight a 7w to operate early 2016.

SWISS Airlines start their 4w service

ETIHAD are adjusting the number of

from Dublin to Geneva from June 26 for €45.

miles being award on the Etihad Guest programme. Five fare classes will offer more miles and two guest classes will offer fewer miles.

KERRY Basil Sheerin, CFO of Kerry

Airport, said that the recent dip in the airport’s passenger numbers (down 3.3pc in 2014) was not because of a shortage in demand, but because of airline consolidation. Traffic is up 10pc YOY, January-April, and the airport projects 300,000 pax in 2015.

TSA the head of the USA’s Transportation

Security Administration was replaced after the success of 67 of 70 attempts by undercover agents to sneak fake explosives and other banned items and weapons past TSA screeners.

SOUTHWEST’s website crashed for two days during a fare sale.

GOSHAWK Aviation appointed Ruth Kelly as CEO, Peter Watson as COO, Andy Carlisle as COO and Adnand Ramachandran as head of corporate finance.

HEATHROW airport’s air traffic control system, Time-Based Separation, claims to decrease the occurrence of delays by 88,000 minutes.

VIRGIN announced that it is ending its codeshare with South African Airways on September 27.

ALITALIA launched its redesigned

brand, livery and IFE products at an event in Fiumicino Airport.

DELTA is trying out a system where hand luggage is preloaded above passengers’ allocated seats before boarding begins.

ETIHAD Airways launched a Twitter account for users of frequent flyer programme Etihad Guest.

DUBLIN AEROSPACE exAIR LITUANICA ceased operapects revenues to rise to $46.1m, up 10pc..

tions on May 22.

Heathrow’s trans-Atlantic passenger numbers are too large for US pre-clearance to function

Clearance queue I

Ten airports in nine countries await CBP facilities

AG CEO Wilie Walsh has said Heathrow is not practical for US pre-clearance but Madrid may be.

His remark came in the wake of the news that to enter into negotiations to expand air preclearance operations to ten new foreign airports, Brussels, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Tokyo Narita, Amsterdam, Oslo, Madrid, Stockholm, Istanbul, London Heathrow and Manchester.

Dublin wil continue to have an advantage in having streamlined its pre-

clearance facilities in recent months, with the deployment of extra staff.

Pre-clearance is adding €35 to the cost of a ticket so it may be defraying one of Lingus’s other advantages, a cost base 20-30pc below its competitors.

Airports in Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland are expected to join the pre-clearance queue in coming years if the first roll-out is a success.

Other difficulties are expected to arise before pre-clearance can be intro-

A NEW IRISH AIRLINE IS BORN AS ASL REBRANDS

A

ir Contractors is to become ASL Airlines Ireland under a rebrand announced by Hugh Flynn’s ASL Aviation Group.

This is part of its strategy for continued growth in passenger and

cargo operations. Colin Grant, CEO of Air Contractors, will become CEO of the European division and will be based in Dublin. Dave Andrew, CEO of Safair, will become CEO of the Rest of the World Division based between Johan-

nesburg and Dublin.

ASL’s 4 European airlines are to be renamed under the new ASL Airlines brand and there will be four airline operations ‘centres of excellence’ in Ireland, France, Switzerland and Hungary.

duced. Qatar Airways’ CEO Akbar Al Baker has ruled out plans to introduce US pre-clearance for flights from Doha.

Pre-clearance has been introduced at Abu Dhabi International airport and according Al Baker, the new service has led to delays to flights to the US. The delays, however, are dwarfed by those at the other side of the Atlantic.

One immigration queue at JFK on Thursday of last week, May 28, took six hours to process.

KERRY HOSTS CONNECT EVENT

K

erry Airport became the first Irish airport to host the Connect International Aviation Forum.

The event took place in Killarney’s INEC Convention Centre and was attended by 450 delegates from 50 airlines and 150

airports. Speaking to Travel Extra’s Conor McMahon, Basil Sheerin, the airport’s CFO (pictured), said the conference gave Kerry the chance to show that “we have a product, we’re not just an airport”.

We wanted to showcase the region, the facilities and

Hugh Flynn

how we know our business down here. It helps to have the “right people here” — route developers. Another German route is on Basil’s wish list, as well as a route to the Midlands in England, particularly Birmingham. There are hopes for a French route further down

the line.

Kerry Airport and Cork Airport co-hosted The Killarney Discovery Night with support from Fáilte Ireland and the Wild Atlantic Way.

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Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

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THE FLYING COLUMN

RYANAIR May traffic up 16pc to 9.5m passengers. Load factor up 7 percentage points to 92pc. Rolling annual traffic grew 13pc to 93.1m passengers.

SHANNON Airport will host an air display, the first in 25 years, on July 18 to mark the 70th anniversary of the first commercial transatlantic flight at the airport. The event is expected to attract 40,000 people.

Wow Air arrive in Dublin airport. Picture by Mike Kelly

Launch line-up

New Dublin-Chicago among the summer highlights

U

nited’s new Dublin-Chicago service and Wow Air’s new Keflavik service were the signature route launches of last month at Dublin airport.

United’s Bob Schumacher arrived from London for the launch of the seasonal daily 09.50 flight UA153 that will run until August 18 using a 169 seat Boeing 757-200 in 16-45108 configuration.

Flight times will be eight hours 25 minutes westbound and seven hours 30 minutes eastbound.

United also reintroduced its seasonal second daily Boeing 757-200 nonstop service between Dublin and New York/Newark at 12:55pm.

WOW air fly 3w to Keflavik at 12.10 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays using Airbus A320 and A319 aircraft. Passengers will be able to connect via Keflavik to Wow's highly publicised Boston and Washington DC services from October.

Aer Lingus Regional, operated by Stobart Air, launched Dublin to Doncaster Sheffield.

Other launches included Transavia’s service to Paris Orly and Flybe’s service from Dublin to Cardiff a day after their service from Dublin to London City ended. took from Cork Airport.

Flybe’s new service to Cardiff and Topflight's first Verona flight of the season took off from Cork Airport.

Dublin services to Addis Adaba and Los Angeles will be the highlights of the second round of launches in late June.

RYANAIR SERVICE AWARD SURPRISE

R

yanair won a customer services award at the second Aviation Industry Awards 2015 in the Doubletree by Hilton on Burlington Road for its always getting better programme.

Willie Walsh won the Outstanding Contribution to Irish Aviation Award and Ryanair also won the Aviation Company of the Year award. Other winners: AerCap (Aviation Leasing Achievement), Aero Inspection In-

ternational (Aviation Support Services), Air Contractors (Aircraft Operator), DHL Express Ireland’s Certified International Specialist Programme (People Development), Dublin Airport (Airport Achievement), Eirtech Aviation (MRO Achievement), Foynes Air Show (General and Sport Aviation), GE Capital (Aviation Innovation) , Institute of Technology Carlow (Aviation Academic Education), Kieran

O’Connor of National Flight Centre (Special Recognition), Mark Dwyer of NMAI & FlyingInIreland Upcoming Aviation Professional Award, Parc Aviation (Aviation Export), Shannon Airport (Aviation Sustainability & Environment), Simtech (Aviation Training), Stobart Air (Safety), Trinity College Dublin Fluids, Vibrations & Acoustics Research Group (Aviation R&D).

ALDERGROVE ‘A COSTLY BASE’

A

er Lingus lost up to

€44m from having

a base at Belfast International Airport, CEO Stephen Kavanagh told the Belfast High Court.

Costs which directly applied to the operation of the

base it was €21m. The difference between the two figures was partly based on corporate overheads, he explained.

“Without hesitation the operation was loss-making,” he stressed. “The ob-

jective was not just to avoid losses, the objective was to generate a positive return on invested capital.

So, not only were we far short of breaking even, but we were very much failing in our investment proposi-

tion.”

Justice Weatherup was told the situation was in “stark contrast” to other Aer Lingus bases effectively subsidising losses in Belfast.

DUBLIN had the fourth highest growth of group 2 airports according to European airport trade body, ACI Europe: ■ GROUP 1: Madrid (+8.9pc ), Rome FCO (+7.9pc ), Frankfurt (+7.5pc), Istanbul IST (+6.2pc) and Munich (+6.1pc) ■ GROUP 2: Athens (+21.2pc ), Istanbul SAW (+14.6pc ), London STN (+10.7pc), Dublin (+10.5pc) and Lisbon (+10.3pc) ■ GROUP 3: Milan BGY (+18.2pc), Glasgow (+15.3pc), Porto (+15.0pc), Bucharest OTP (+13.4pc) and Budapest (+10.8pc) ■ GROUP 4: Santorini/Thira JTR (+62.9pc), Chisinau (+34.8pc ), Cluj (+33.5pc), Sibiu (+29.7pc) and Porto Delgada (+28.2pc) Avolon delivered a B737-800 to Malindo Air and an A320-200 to Pegasus Airlines.

AER LINGUS added new products to its Boutique in-flight shopping range. New products include Egyptian Magic skin cream, Sheer Glo from Irish brand BUFF make-up, Dermalogica Skin Set and Talika Eyebrow Lipocils.

RYANAIR abandoned its plans to acquire a Cypriot AOC.

RYANAIR It was like old times when the aviation story of the week was about a student changed his name by deed poll because it was cheaper than paying a Ryanair fee to correct a booking error.

AER LINGUS commissioned a report by Nyras in February which identified

€60m in potential savings. FF claimed that the

report suggested ground-handling could be cut by 20pc, catering by 40pc, maintenance by 15pc and heavy maintenance by 25pc.

RYANAIR ‘s Kenny Jacobs said that Ryanair will launch new-look cabin crew uniforms later this year. Ryanair will axe one of its Shannon-Fuerteventura services this winter because of a lack of aircraft capacity. Ryanair will lease in six aircraft in the peak summer period.

AER LINGUS REGIONAL

reported April 2015 load factor up 8pc to 72pc.

Q1 traffic up 2.5pc to 338,000 passengers.

IRISH AIRPORTS Figures from the CSO show that the number of passengers using Irish airports was up 6.9pc last year.

26.5m passengers passed through Irish airports and 217,000 flights were handled. Dublin airport accounted for 82pc of passengers, up 7.7pc to 21.7m. Shannon numbers increased 18.9pc to 1.55m. Knock airport up 5.7pc to 703,670. Waterford up 17.8pc to 33,189. Donegal up 4.9pc to 35,415. Cork airport down 5pc to 2.1m.

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THE FLYING COLUMN

BA British Airways relaunched its On Business SME loyalty scheme, offering companies the chance to earn triple points on their first six flights with BA or on select routes with participating partner airlines..

VIRGIN Pilots at Virgin America voted to

AER LINGUS summer (June 1-Sept 30) baggage fees for a 15kg bag increased to €35 from 2 €0 between Dublin/Cork/Shannon & Agadir, Athens, Bourgas, Bucharest, Catania, Corfu, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Izmir, Lanzarote and Tenerife. For a 20kg bag fees increased to €45 from €35 and for a 25kg bag from €45 to €55. For other European destinations fares increased from €15 to €25 for 15kg, €35 from €20 for 20kg, and €40 from €30 for 25kg.

unionise.

SAS is trying out an on-board three-drink

cap in order to curb flight disturbances caused by alcohol consumption.

Airbus won orders for 247 aircraft in the first five months of 2015 and delivered 243 jets.

BOEING reported six orders including four B737s, one B747 and one B737 VIP. B737 net orders were reduced by four.

IATA announced that airlines will begin testing a tracking system that pings flights every 15 minutes.

ETIHAD launched a daily B787 Dream-

JET2 issued a lifetime ban to a passenger after his behaviour causes a Leeds-Alicante flight to divert to Toulouse. liner service from Brisbane to Abu Dhabi.

FLYBE’s new service to Cardiff took off

17 Air India flight attendants were suspended

Delta comfort

Irish manufactured lie flat seats enhance experience

I

rish made Thompson Solutions Vantage lie flat-bed sleeper seats are now available on all of Delta’s Irish services.

The business class facility was introduced on some flights last year, the first lie flat on the trans-Atlantic market from Ireland, but this si the first summer that business customers can now be guaranteed lie flat on all flights.

Delta has 40 seats in business (7781 inch seat pitch), 28 in economy comfort (36 inch) and 178 in economy (32 inch). There are some unusual divergences for the norm: for example there are no bathrooms at the front to business class on the B767 400ER. The seats recline 180 degrees, and Delta offers Westin Heavenly inflight bedding and noise cancelling headsets are industry leaders, the TUMI amenity kit features Malin+Goetz products.

Travel Extra’s first experience of Delta’s 180-degree lie-fat business class was as pleasant an experience as could be imagined but the journey was not without its challenges. While weather delayed the inbound craft and Delta Flight 177, scheduled to de-

from Cork Airport yesterday, June 6.

ETIHAD launched its A380 services to for allegedly delaying flights.

UNITED Airlines and Air China exSydney.

panded their codeshare agreement to include 22 new routes.

HELSINKI A Victoria’s Secret lingerie

store will open at Helsinki airport later this summer.

FRONTIER Low cost carrier Frontier Airlines is expanding its fleet with 12 Airbus single aisle jets.

AUSTRALIA’s competition commission reauthorised Virgin Australia’s transpacific alliance with Delta.

MONARCH imposed a lifetime ban on six passengers after a disturbance on board caused a flight from Birmingham to Dalaman to divert to Sophia.

HONOLULU International Airport was granted $16.5m for upgrades.

MEXICAN regional carrier TAR Air-

lines now accepts Bitcoin payments for flight bookings.

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

U

Debbie O'Brien of CWT trying out Delta’s Irish manufactured flat bed part for Atlanta at 11.10 took off at from Italy, (the other choice was a 14.37 and the entertainment had to be Riesling from Germany). The meal of rebooted twice, the captain and the choice was a melt in the mouth grilled staff calmed and reassured the pas- beef tenderloin with chimichurri sengers on a packed aircraft. sauce, wild mushroom sauté, macaBest of the wines from their up- roni and cheese. Sometimes the simdated selection chosen by Sommelier plest of all wins: the cream of Andrea Robinson is a full bodied On- mushroom soup was among the best tanon Bodegas Reserva 2004 from we have sample in several decades of Spain. We also sampled a medium six mile high dining. In economy, the bodied Frescobaldi Castiglioni Chi- steak with blue cheese (“black and anti from Italy and one of the whites blue”) is a good choice. a Santinori Bianco Toscana IGT 2013

OPEN SKIES DEBATE HOTS UP

S airlines wil have a tougher time in their campaign against Middle East carriers than they anticipate, according to Jim Callaghan, Etihad general counsel formerly of Ryanair.

In order for the US to begin consultations provided for under the open skies treaties, merely proving subsidies is not enough.

Instead, airlines have to prove damage from those subsidies.

While the American allege that the Gulf Carriers are in receipt of subsidies, International consultancy The Risk Advisory Group said government and courtsanctioned benefits and concessions received by the three biggest US carriers, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines Group, and other air-

Sharing a podium for the first time at the Press Club in Washington: Jeff Smisek of United, Doug Parker of American and Richard Anderson of Delta.

The three big airlines lines with which they have ditional pension fund merged received benefits bailouts totalling $29.4 bn seem to be toning down valued at US$71.48 bn, from the US Government’s their rhetoric, subtly changmore than US$70 bn of Pension Benefit Guaranty ing the message from one of direct opposition to one which has been since 2000, Corporation.

After a tour by the Ceos that seeks compromise. enabling the nation’s three Delta Air Lines CEO largest carriers to transition of the three main US airfrom the verge of bank- lines to further their cam- Richard Anderson caused ruptcy to today’s industry paign against Emirates, most controversy when he leaders, each achieving Etihad and Qatar, a subtle linked rival Persian Gulfmulti-billion dollar profits. change has come in the ap- region airlines Emirates, Benefits came from re- proach by the US carriers Qatar Airways and Etihad structuring under Chapter and allied groups who are Airways to the Sept 11, 11 of the US Federal Bank- alleging that Gulf airlines 2001, terrorist attacks durruptcy Code, yielding them are subsidised and are op- ing an interview with CNN journalist Richard Quest. at least $35.46 bn, and ad- posed to their expansion.

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JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 33

Discover Tyrone & Sperrins

Steeped in history and legend, with majestic highlands, lush rivers and rugged valleys, County Tyrone and the Sperrin Mountains is one of Northern Ireland’s most unspoilt and wild areas.

The county is well known for its spectacular countryside, stunning mountain ranges, traffic free wide open spaces and beautiful, largely undiscovered landscapes making Tyrone and the Sperrins ideal for a break in the outdoors.

Accommodation options include the Georgian elegance of the Beech Hill Country House Hotel, Derry~Londonderry, the relaxing Corick House Hotel & Spa, Tyrone and Glenavon Hotel, Cookstown. There is also a range of four and five star self-catering cottages and apartments, as well as B&B retreats in stunning surroundings.

The region is ideal for those who like to get outside in the fresh air, whether that’s to enjoy a gentle stroll around the Sperrin foothills or a more exhilarating mountain walk. After an invigorating walk there are lots of cosy pubs and restaurants where visitors can enjoy a drink and rest their feet beside a roaring fire.

From walking and cycling to more adventurous pursuits, there's something to suit all interests and abilities.

Omagh and Strabane District Councils, Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council and Derry City Council are working together to promote the Tyrone and Sperrins tourism offering.

For more information on Tyrone and the Sperrins visit: www.nitb.com/Destinations/TyroneSperrins

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GLOBAL VILLAGE

ITAA CEO Pat Dawson was appointed to

the board of ECTAA, which represents the national associations of travel agents and tour operators of 27 EU Member States, two EU accession countries as well as Switzerland and Norway.

INNSTANT TRAVEL appointed Sarah Clarke and Rebekah Taylor to the customer support team.

TRAVEL COUNSELLOR

Mandy Walsh won a Mrs2Be Brides' choice wedding award.

TRAVEL COUNSELLORS

TOUR AMERICA won the Best Use of Social Media award, SME category, for the third year in a row. Aer Lingus won the medium business Facebook award, while Dublin Zoo won the use of Facebook by a nonprofit award, best integrated SM campaign and the Grand Prix award.

Ireland are seeking a sales executive.

ROADSHOW Amadeus, BLUE,

Lowcostbeds and MSC Cruises invite agents to their upcoming partner roadshow, presentations start at 6pm followed by dinner: Wednesday July 8, Glasshouse Hotel, Sligo. Tuesday July 14, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Dundalk. Thursday July 16, Dooley’s Hotel, Waterford. Starts at 5.30pm, meal and training free of charge. Contact grainne.caffrey@lowcostbeds.ie or omckinney@ie.amadeus.com for more details.

WORLDCHOICE David O’Ha-

gan’s Donabate Travel signed with Worldchoice Ireland bringing its membership base to 54 following some consolidation with branch movement and the retirement of Peter McGinnity in Cavan. A new Worldchoice Bedbank has gone live next week. Don Shearer CEO of Worldchoice says he is currently distributing members overrides which have increased by an average of 40pc with some members recording rebate increases of 200pc year on year. A new Worldchoice Gathering for members and trade partners will take place later in the year.

NEENAN Travel launched a dedicated cycling holidays website.

BELLEAIR Holidays revealed its new TOPFLIGHT held an Italy training

look website to agents.

day for 30 agents at Belfast City Airport, celebrating a charter route to Verona on June 20.

The workshop was hosted by Topflight European sales manager Maurice Shiels with Tricia Mitchell of Topflight NI.

OASIS Sandra Corkin of Oasis Travel won business person of the year and World Travel Centre won the business growth award at the Belfast Business Awards.

TIGS The winners of the Travel Industry

Golf Society and STAGS combined outing to Fota were Michael Doorley of Shandon Travel and Ann Marie Dalton of Turkish. The event was sponsored by The Travel Corporation.

CLIA launched a training scheme for agents.

The travel trade delegation with the minister: Martin Skelly President of the Irish Travel Agents Association, Minister Paschal Donohoe, Philip Airey past president of Irish Tour Operators Federation, Pat Dawson CEO of the ITAA and John Galligan of the ITAA.

Shaken not stirred Collective bond discussed in meeting with minister

M

inisterial meetings tend to offer more hope of change than ever gets delivered, but representatives of the Irish Travel Agents Association and Irish Tour Operators Federation who met Minister Paschal Donohoe on Monday emerged satisfied with the level of engagement and at how well briefed the minister was.

Much of the discussion related to the absence of a collective bond in the event of agency or tour operator failure.

Asked what they wanted the travel reps replied a level playing field, where airlines are subject to a small surcharge as well as travel agents. At present only about 15pc of holidaymakers have any protection in the event of a company failure.

A separate meeting with credit card companies on the double bonding of credit card bookings, with a lean on payments imposed on the trade, also saw some progress but no outcome to this problem is in sight: credit card companies are seeking letters of com-

ITAA HITS AT SUPPLIER PROMOTIONS FOR STAFF

T

he ITAA has criticised supplier promotions directed at counter staff.

Agency owners say that a supplier relationships are being disrupted by supplier promotions directed at the staff.

Cruise companies are making lodgments into a staff credit card scheme

directed at staff. Pat Dawson said that incentives were provided by the owner/manager but that by-passing these was unethical.

Dawson has expressed concern about high summer fares and say that charters now better value.

Moe than 70pc of

fort which may only be facilitated by resolving the collective bond problem.

A third issue: will the licensing issue be changed at European level?

And is the future of the Commission of Aviation regulation up for examination, in the face of growing criticism from the industry.

Recently the regulator achieved the unlikely scenario of Dublin Airport, Aer Lingus, and Ryanair reaching agreement on one issue: regulation is not working.

agency business is coming from dynamic packaging.

He said members are confident of a good year with more of their business coming through dynamic packaging than through traditional tour operators.

BIG CHANGE FOR ONLINE AGENTS

I

n what could be a seismic change for online travel industry, the EU Package Holiday Directive will be extended to cover self-chosen combination on a website of a flight plus hotel or car rental.

The rules will apply if the consumer, after having booked one travel service on one website, is invited to book another service through a targeted link or similar, the new rules offer some protection provided

Pat Dawson

that the second booking is made within 24 hours.

The rules were agreed by the EU Commission and will be voted by the European Parliament in June and got to the EU Council and is expected to be pub-

lished in October, after which member states will have two years to implement the new rules and traders a further period of six months to adapt to the new rules.

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JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 35

GLOBAL VILLAGE

Visit USA 25 up

Dublin committee celebrates 25 years with 80 members

V

isit USA Ireland is 25 years old this year and now has 85 members, up from the low of 27 three years ago, with a few more confirmations pending following IPW 2015 in Orlando.

The Committee which co-ordinates marketing activities for the various

“support your local ITAA agent” in marketing to get the best return. In return the ITAA will give them free ads on their platforms.

Ciara Foley, Ambassador Kevin O’Malley and Pat Reeds in the White CAROLINE O’Toole from Fahy House for St Patrick’s Day 2015 Travel, Worldchoice was shortlisted for a special CLIA New to Cruise award in the Agent American interests in the Irish become the first female grand marAchievement Awards in London, sponsored by tourism market was founded on Sep- shall of the Dublin St Patrick’s Day Travel Weekly. tember 22 1990 by Rhianna Quinn parade in 1991. “She looked more with the support of Ambassador Celtic than the Celts with her red hair TRAVEL Corporation is offering agents and emerald eyes,” wrote Babara the chance to win a pair of Christian Louboutins.

Richard Moore.

“The educated consumer is the best Mckeon of the Irish Press.

Book an Insight Vacations, Contiki, Uniworld consumer,” said Rhianna who was to or Red Carnation Hotel by June 30.

BEST4TRAVEL EXPAND HOME WORKER PLANS

and manage their destinations well. If you are building a website we want people who want to sell it and have a passion for that place. If you don’t have a passion for a place don’t take it.”

“They can bring their own customers and we will provide them with customers as well.”

Home workers who have been recruited include Wendy Aiken, Esther Corcoran, Audrey Grennan, Paula Scanlon, Jill Sheeran, Mike Shinnors, Margaret Trainor and Denise Walsh.

Holiday Experts give 60pc commission for own client bookings, and 30pc for the driven business.

“It has worked well in England.

We have worked it for a year in Ireland and checked what the pitfalls are.”

Best4travel has also expanded in shopping centre retail locations.

Holiday Experts

Home working with a difference BUSINESS DELIVERED TO YOU at home dedicated websites Earn Up to 60% commiSsion from home

no monthly or start-up fees + 1 YEAR FREE FACILITY CHARGES

enhanced supplier agreements

free marketing and support FOR N DED TIO BON OTEC AND RS PR ED E ENC OM LIC CUST R YOU

eff Collins of trade their own. They can bring bed bank Globe Ho- in their own customers tels plans to expand and we will supply them his home working group with customers as well. I Holiday Experts will be will be training the applicants and the expanding in people who the coming want to join us, months. building up The contheir expertise cept of the on those destibusiness is nations so they holiday exbecome speperts who are cialists on experts who those destinacan deliver tions.” that expertise Jeff Collins The technolto an individual customer, Jeff Collins ogy was designed in partnership with Peter Healy says.

The home workers will ‘s Vertical Systems. Peter become experts on cer- is a director of holiday tain destinations and par- experts.

“More websites can be ticular properties. They sign into the system when created for individual they want and work their properties by demand, the own hours.” “Focussed more home workers that selling drives the busi- we bring on and what ness into certain places their demands at, what and certain resorts with they are good at and their high end commissions, expertise.”

“We are looking at 30 rather than trying to be destination websites but everything to everyone.”

“The difference with us we need a core amount of is that they are not on people to sustain, deliver

J

LUFTHANSA Group will introduce a charge of €16 for every ticket issued by travel agents via GDSs from Sept 1. Jens Bischof of Lufthansa said “revenue generated from the sale of flight tickets by airlines has decreased while other service and system partners in the value chain are recording increasing margins and returns, even though we are the actual providers of flight services.” The move provoked major objections from ECTAA who are looking at the legality of the issue in markets in which Lufthansa has a dominant position.

ITAA are asking all suppliers to include a

CHAIRS OF VISIT USA

1990 Rhianna Quinn, Delta 1992 Enda Morris, Aer Lingus 1994 Patricia Purdue, Massport 1996 Patricia Purdue, Massport Mick Clifford, Aer Lingus 1997 Patricia Purdue, Massport 1999 Jackie Dunphy, United 2001 Maura McCabe, Hyatt Lorraine Quinn, RCCL 2003 Brian Hughes, Continental 2005 Ciaran Carraher, S Monica 2011 Beverleigh Fly, Innstant Tl 2013 Ciara Foley, Platinum Tl

BUSINESS SHOW The Irish Travel Industry Business Show will take place in conjunction with the ITAA AGM at Citywest on April 7 2016.

Sounds like the package you’ve been searching for?

email us: recruitment@holidayexperts.ie

Page 036 window seat 10/06/2015 16:47 Page 1

JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 36

WINDOW SEAT

Last month in numbers

€4,035.1m Ryanair market capitalisation at

90.6m Ryanair passenger numbers to the year ending March 31 2015

announement of full year results 2015

24.7m Projected passengers through

Dublin airport, if 14pc increase is sustained for H2 of 2015

2.2m Number of passengers through Dublin airport, the busiest May in its 75 year history.

930 Number of passengers on new Viking Star, 36 Number of hotels sold as part of the Ulster

€16 New charge to be imposed by Lufthansa for every GDS booking. bank portfolio

T

THE GREAT BURREN NOVEL

he problem with the eild Atlantic way is that it is not wild when most tourists come to see it.

Anne Enright sets out the Burren and the Clare coast in a more passive way than those thundeirng cinema ads in german could ever do.”T here is no better place to come home to than the west coast of Ireland,” says the Rathmines girl, raised in a place as far removed from the Altantic widlness as one would be in Montmartre or Kensington, but like many of her genration one egenration away from the wildness of the west (the old joke used to go: what is the

BOOKS: The Green Road

by Anne Enright ( Jonathan Cape)

definition of a culchie, a Dubliner’s father).

The Green Road, is not a travelogue but a nove, that charts the journeys of the Madigan children into the “wide world” as well as their return to Ardeevin, Co Clare.

Anne Enright’s relationship with the landscape is the seventh lead charatcer in the book. “I am a writer. It is my job to be alone. To witness the “great granite rocks the foam flying up in the light”. Or to

forget about all that and sit still a while, waiting for the story that is out there, just beyond reach.”

“I spent long summers looking out over the Atlantic as a child, so I knew where I was. I knew this changing sky, these small fields and stone walls, as I took my midlife madness out as you might take out a dog on a lead and wondered why nothing had turned out the way I had expected.”

Busman’s holiday: Niall McDonnell Rosslare Strand: fond memories for Niall McDonnell

Every month we ask a leading travel professional to write about their personal holiday experience. This month: Niall McDonnell, Ireland country director of Red Sea Holidays

I

’ve been going to Rosslare Strand since I was a kid. First with my parents, then, as time went on, with my own children.

Now, out of my four kids, only one of

them, Ali, still accompanies me down.

The other three still go with friends, just not with their parents. That makes three generations of my family who agree that there’s something special about that part of Wexford.

It’s a great place to unwind. The Rosslare Golf Club is just a three minute walk from my house down in the Strand, and you’d be hard pressed to find a more picturesque location for a game followed by a beer or two outside in front of the

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

C

onsolidation is NEVER good news for the consumer.

Airlines ALWAYS seek to reduce service and raise fares to increase their profit margins.

There isn’t any pretence or debate about this. It is what they do.

Consolidation in America has seen fares rise there despite the emrgence of a strong low cost aviation sector.

So while IAG say they can help

bring lower costs to Aer Lingus, it is always competition that keeps fares down, not cost base. That is why consumer must be wary of the proposed IAG takeover of Aer Lingus.

Competition is not a problem on short haul to Europe where Aer Lingus faces direct competition from Ryanair to 40 cities, making sure that neither will get away with shaking down consumers.

The only route that BA and Aer

Lingus go head to head on is London Heathrow and BA returned to that route for a variety of reasons three years ago.

Trans-Atlantic is another story.

IAG won’t just own Aer Lingus, it is closely allied with American so most of the trans-Atlantic options for the Irish consumer will be tied up by one major player We will get more direct air links to Nortrh America in the coming years. keep an eye on those prices.

clubhouse. When I’m not playing, I love a walk along the beach that runs along the side of the course. You can even find a golf ball or two in the sand, not mine obviously.

I’ve been known to socialise in Kelly’s Hotel but during the summer months you can’t beat Tides. Formerly Brady’s, it was re-opened by Irish international footballer Stephen Hunt as a gastropub last year. There’s a great buzz in the place, particularly when there’s a

IN YOUR NEXT TRAVEL EXTRA: Available to Travel Agents or online August 17 2015

BEDBANKS ISSUE Technology GDS Apps Social Media HELP YOUR BUSINESS

Page 037 pics 10/06/2015 16:48 Page 1

Out and about with the Travel Trade

JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 37

MEETING PLACE

di, r Gencer, Murat Balan Patrick McKinney, Onde Air h rkis rie Dalton of Tu Aisling Gavin, John Devereux and Dee Burdock Onur Gul and Ann Ma ry Business Show ust Ind vel Tra of American holidays at IPW in Orlando, lines at the

Christine Duffy and Ala n Lynch of Cruisescape s at the Travel Industry Business Show at Citywest,

nt Manager Air France Teresa Murphy, Accou r n of China Direct sinne KLM, presenting ian Tia tive en Inc ng oki Bo ia As of the Air France KLM

Christina Hannon of Cu nard, Martin Skelly Pre sident of the ITAA and Da wn Conway of Sunway in Dun Laoghaire for the visit of Queen Mary 2

Marek Maslowiec, Siobhan Flood and Fiona Dobbyn of Cassidy Travel at the Air France/Delta/KLM party

McAuliffe and Volker Jonathan Miller, Noel lf ustry Business Show go Lorenz at the Travel Ind , tournament at Citywest

Martin Court of Beaches of Fort Myers and Sani- Vanessa Co rradini and Trish Luff of CWT at the bel, Philip Britton of Kennedy Space Centre and Air France /Delta/KLM Holy Best of Virgin Atlantic at Visit Florida

n JorMichelle McCabe, Stacey Brien, Rebecca Curley, Tom Lonergan, Michael Doorley and Sharo lf go ow Sh ess sin ry Bu Elaine McManus, Margaret Dolan, Sabrina Vondan at the Travel Indust , sowski and Louise Brennan of Club Travel/Budtournament at Citywest get Travel at the Air France/Delta/KLM event

B Jim McGonigle of Clondalkin Travel and Joe bed, Adam Knight of A2 Lee Osborne of Booka us- Tiuly of Tully Travel at the Travel Industry BusiInd vel Tra the at Montes transfers and Manolo ness Show golf tournament at Citywest est lf tournament at Cityw try Business Show go

Will Walsh and Paul Ha ckett of Clickandgo in Dun Laoghaire for the visit of the Cunard Qu een Mary 2

Steph Appleby and Jus tine Broderick of FCM at the Air France/Delta/KL M event in the Harbo ur Master in Dublin

Austin Carroll of Platinum Travel, Dee Burdock of American Holidays and Pat Reede of United at the Visit Florida event in Chapter On

Colin Brodie of Visit Flo rida and Michael Doorl ey of Shandon Travel at the Visit USA Irish and British event at Four Se asons Resort Orlando

can ve Hennessy of Ameri Chris Hawkins and Da at nt eve tish h and Bri Sky at the Visit USA Iris lando during IPW Or t sor Re ns aso Four Se

Page 037 pics 10/06/2015 16:48 Page 2

JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 38

MEETING PLACE

of ia Worrel at the launch Nik Robinson and Lyd in ue utiq Bo initiative, the Aer LIngus shopping blin Du in tel Ho n rrio the Me

Amanda Midler of Silver sea and Miriam Skelly of Navan travel at the Tra vel Industry Business Show golf tournament at Citywest,

Deegan and Aisling O'Aisling O'Shea, Penny at the Air Donovan of Club Travel in the Harbourmaster, rty pa France/Delta/KLM

Theo Ocks of Aer Lingu s, Paddy Dignam, Dee Burdock of American Ho lidays and John keogh of Aer Lingus at the Vis it Florida event in Chap ter

h Carthy and Ann Pye wit Irish Ferries’ Marie Mc ’s nd gla En at rds wa Ed on Stuart Render and Jas Award National Coach Tourism

Lauren Sycamore of Flo rida Keys, Pegi Amarteifio of Visit Olran do and Kevin Brett of Daytona Area Beach CV B at Visit Florida

Out and about with the Travel Trade

Sandra Corkin from Oa Veronica Flood and LIz Wright of Tour America sis Travel is pictured as with Clodagh Oxley and Ciara Foley of Visit USA winner of the Business Person of the Year, Dublin at Visit USA Irish and British event at IPW alongside Paul McMahon, President, BCTC, at

n of nway and Geoff Dobso Siobhan Scanlon, Vicky Pascual and Deirdre Barry Hammond of Su vin Ga ling Ais Sheridan of Air France/Delta/KLM and Enzo Mic- American Sky wit Dee Burdock and do lan Or in at IPW cardi of Alitalia at Air France/Delta/KLM of American Holidays

Catherine Faugeron, Audrey Bermingham and Renee Kennedy of Fcm Travel Solutions at the Travel Industry Business Show at Citywest

CShauna McGuiill of Mc Guill'sTravel and Ciara Mooney of Freedom Tra vel in Dun Laoghaire for the visit of the Cunard Queen Mary 2

Kitty Ratcliffe and Francis G Slay mayor of St Louis, Ciara Foley of Visit USA, Dee Burdock and Finola Cunningham

Skinner of American Paddy Dunne and Kristin lta/KLM party in the /De nce Holiday at the Air Fra Harbourmaster,

Shannon O'Dowd and Karen Maloney fo Etihad with Frances Grogan of Grogan’s Travel Tuam and Maire Fahy of Fahy Travel Galway at the

Austin Carroll of Platinu m Travel, and Don Shearer of Worldchoice at the Visit Florida eve nt in Chapter One, Dublin

Derek Dunne and Richard Harbourne of Travel Counsellors at the Air France/Delta/KLM party in the Harbourmaster,

nlon of Travelport and Martin Skelly, David Co of Wallace travel at the y Michael O'Shaughness Show golf tournament Travel Industry Business

Page 037 pics 10/06/2015 16:48 Page 3

Out and about with the Travel Trade

JULY/AUGUST 2015 PAGE 39

MEETING PLACE

m r Amrica and Ivan Beaco Brenda O'Keeffe of CWT and Theresa Murphy of John Keogh of Aer LIngus, Paul Mann Veronica Flood of Tou ing of ter ap Ch in nt eve a rid Flo it Air France at the Air France/Delta/KLM party in Hertz and Barry Hammond of Sunway Vis of Aer Lingus at the at the Visit Flo rid a event in Chapter One, the Harbourmaster, One, Dublin,

Roisin O'Neill, Jean Ma xwell, Lorraine Dunne and Fionnuala Carter of the ITAA at the Travel Industry Business Show at Citywest,

Audrey Joyce, Paddy Dunne, Orla Hogan, Mary Oman, Kristin Skinner, Linda Collins and Angel Chua of American Holidays at the Air France/Delta/KLM party

ret e Brennan and Marga Rebecca Kearney, Louis Air dget Travel at the Dolan of Club Travel/Bu in the Harbourmaster, rty pa M France/Delta/KL

Marcan Holidays and Sue John Grehan of Justsunshine and Maureen Led- Steph Appleby of FCM and Jeanette Dee Burdock of Ameri McKee of d an h Iris A US it the Vis with of Business Exhibitions at the Travel Indus- CWT at the Air France/Delta/KLM pa shall of Visit Florida at rty in the Harbourmaster, asons Orlando try Business Show golf tournament at Citywest British event at Four Se

Siobhan Scanlon of Air France/Delta/KLM and Enzo Miccardi of Alitali a who hosted the trade at the Air France/Delta/KL M

n clan Power of Shanno Isabel Harrison and De ry ust Ind vel Tra the at Airport with Martin Skelly ment rna tou lf go ow Sh ess Busin

Shane Byrne, Neven Ma guire, Gearoid Lynch and Adrian Martin launch ing the Taste of Cavan festival

Beverleigh Fly of Bookabed and Sirin Huffan of Visit St Petersburg Clearwater at the Visit Florida event in Chapter One,

ót, and Svanhvít Fridriksd Engilbert Hafsteinsson e rat eb cel A DA of Woolf tir of Wow Air and Jon ’s service to Keflavik air w Wo of nch lau the

David Fingland, Mukesh Sharma, Angela McKay, Anita Thomas of Emirates and Dale Twomey at Ryan Hoy (of category sponsor Exterion Media) the Travel Ind ustry Business Show at Citywest in and Keith Graham of WTC accept the Business Dublin Growth Award at the Belfast Business Awards

Volker Lorenz, Stephen Brennan and Siobhan Bosket-McGuigan of Amadeus, Lisa Buckley of Ryanair, Maura Fahy of Fahy’s Travel at Citywest

Air and Nicola Cox at the John Appleby of FCM er, ast urm rbo Ha the in France/Delta/KLM party 15 20 22 y Ma , blin Du

100627 50+ VILLAGE 2016 full page.qxp_100627 50+ VILLAGE 2016 full page 02/06/2015 16:24 Page 1

Lifestyle & Living for the over 50’s

e g a l l i V

TITANIC EXHIBITION CENTRE TITANIC QUARTER - BELFAST BT3 9EP

15th/17th January 2016

The Belfast Telegraph 50+Village will be staged

alongside the highly successful Holiday World Show, entering its 24th year and firmly established as one of the BIGGEST and BEST attended public exhibitions in Northern Ireland

• • • • • •

Featuring:

Fashion & Beauty Food & Drink Genealogy Government Information Services Health & Wellbeing Holidays & Travel

• • • •

Home & Garden Hotels & Spas Personal Finance & Law Retirement Villages & Resorts • Technology

WHY YOU SHOULD EXHIBIT AT THE BELFAST TELEGRAPH 50+VILLAGE • Estimated 80% of the country’s wealth is held by people aged 50+ (The Henley Centre)

• 31.7% (or 574,000) of the Northern Ireland population are 50+ (Northern Ireland population census) • 62% of Belfast Telegraph readers are 50+

• As a group they are more likely to have substantial assets, cash and the time to enjoy life.

Whilst they are less likely to have any mortgages, school fees and 9 to 5 jobs.

To exhibit please contact

Maureen Ledwith Sales Director +353 (0)1 291 3700 e: maureen@bizex.ie

Paulette Moran Sales Manager +353 (0)1 291 3702 e: paulette@bizex.ie