FEAST OR FAMINE

  On 2 December 2022, the European Commisson approved the right for France to abolish flights between cities that are linked by train travel of less than 2.5 hours as part of the country’s 2021 Climate Law, announced Euronews. The ban, a first for European Union member states, will be valid for three years and then re-assessed. The use of private jets is being reviewed.    Initially, the ban will only affect air travel between Paris Orly airport and Nantes, Lyon, and Bordeaux. Connecting flights will also be affected.   When the idea was first mooted, the Union of French Airports (UAF) and the European branch of Airports Council International (ACI Erurope) contested the move which prompted an in-depth European Commission investigation on whether to approve the idea or not.    The Greenpeace France spokesperson said that the ban was a move in the right direction, but it was not ambitious and must go futher because only three routes were affected.  ...

People often run into trouble while travelling overseas. Australian consulates around the world keep account of the reasons for Australians getting into trouble abroad. In early November 2022,  Smartraveller  published the 2021-22 Australian  Consular State of Play  report.   Smartraveller  is the travel advice website provided by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.    The 2021-22 Australian  Consular State of Play  is a snapshot of consular services and crisis support provided to Australians, permanent residents, visa holders, and their families overseas during the past financial year from July 2021 to June 2022.    Half of Australia’s population (51%) has a passport. In 2021-2022, nearly 1.5 million passports were issued, which was an increase of 147% from 2020-21.   From July 2021 to June 2022, 2.37 million Australians travelled overseas. The top age group was the 35-44 year-olds, with about 340,000 ...

The Phnom Penh Post says Cambodia needs to improve its tourism sector services to capture more high-end (high-earner-income) visitors. High-end tourist numbers are currently low, according to the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents (CATA). There has been a steady growth of Chinese tourist arrivals in Cambodia, but the capacity to attract more international visitors is under-developed. In 2018, about 160 million Chinese travelled abroad. The Cambodia tourism sector would like to respond to the rapid growth of Chinese and other international tourists. However, CATA says there is a lack of human resources and tour guides with international language skills, such as Chinese, English, French, and German.  Most foreign tourists stay in Cambodia for 4-7 days and spend, on average, $200-$300 per day.  In the first three months of 2019, Cambodia received 1.8 million international tourists, which is up 9.7% compared with the first three months of 2018. Of the 1.8...

Tattoo – Journeys on my Mind (2013) is a collection of stories about the author’s travels – in her home country of America and abroad – presumably on her own, as companions are not mentioned.  Lamb, from New England, begins her stories with a canoe trip in South Carolina, with accommodation in a tree house. Other trips around America include Vermont for a winter retreat; dog-sledding in Minnesota; Wisconsin; Alaska; camping in Utah; Colorado; caving in New York State; and New Mexico.  Travelling abroad, Lamb writes about southern Africa (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Botswana); Egypt; northern India and Nepal; South America (Belize and Guatamala); Thailand; Japan; Vietnam; Kenya and Tanzania; southern India; France; China; Australia; and Eastern Europe (Austria, Russia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the Czech Republic). Of Australia, Lamb writes of her three weeks in the Outback, and her arrival during the annual migration of the ...

Le Parisien newspaper reports the tourist numbers in Paris for the first six months of this year. It reports that there were 700,000 more tourists for the first six months of 2018 than there were for the same period in 2017, which is an increase of 4.1%. So far, for the first 6 months of 2018, there has been 17.1 million tourists in total in Paris. On Monday, the Ile-de-France region (Paris) delivered its tourist numbers. The Château de Versailles (Versailles Palace – The Sun King Palace) had an "absolute record" for tourist numbers, said the Regional Committee of Tourism spokesperson Valérie Pécresse.  "After the tragedy of the Bataclan at the end of 2015, one million tourists were lost in 2016," said Valérie Pécresse. The strategy to recover tourist numbers has paid off, because the Tourism Committee confirms a sustainable recovery of tourism activity in Paris. Foreigners are indeed back.  The market share of international tourists increased ...

In July 2018, Business Insider conducted an interesting comparison of paid annual vacation levels for full-time workers in countries around the world. Paid vacation varies from 7-10 days for workers in Singapore to 30 days for workers in Brazil in accordance with their country’s labour laws.  The number of days listed below are the minimum allowed paid annual vacation levels – organizations can increase the amount (but not decrease the amount). Brazil (30)  After a year of employment, workers are entitled to 30 days of paid annual leave, according to Deloitte. Additionally, employees are granted a monetary vacation bonus equal to a third of their monthly salary. Spain (30)  An employee's holiday schedule is decided in a mutual agreement between the employee and employer and may never be less than 30 calendar days in a 12-month period. Additionally, a paid vacation day cannot be replaced with financial compensation, according to the  Europea...

Tripadvisor has announced its list of the 2018 top 10 airlines around the world. 1.             Singapore Airlines (Australasia) 2.             Air New Zealand (Australasia) 3.             Emirates (Middle East – Dubai-based) 4.             Japan Airlines (Asia) 5.             EVA Air (Asia – Taipei-based) 6.             Southwest Airlines (America – Dallas-based) 7.             Jet2.com (Europe – British-based) 8.             Qatar Airways (Middle East – Qatar-based) 9.          ...