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Reinventing the wheel, hotel-style

Statistics show that the Canary Islands — and Lanzarote in particular — are the favourite destination for Irish holidaymakers. Despite a flight time of four hours and 15 minutes, many people prefer it over the much shorter flights that can take them to the Balearic Islands or any of the Costas in mainland Spain and it comes down to one single USP, the guarantee of good weather. (more…)

A long overdue reunion with an old acquaintance

Back in 1988, I undertook the first of two trips to Jamaica to scout out properties for a large incentive group that had confirmed a booking with me when I was managing a tour operating company in Dublin. The company in question was Chieftain Tours and at the time, it was the only operator of charters to Toronto in Canada where it partnered with a large Canadian tour operator called Sunquest Vacations. I had pitched

HOW TO BOOK YOUR FIRST CRUISE!

In case you haven’t heard, cruising is, and has been, the fastest growing trend in travel in recent years and yet despite all the hype and the promotion, less than 2% of Irish travellers have experienced one to date, according to CLIA, the professional trade body that represents all the main cruise lines. There are many reasons for this which broadly fall into the following three categories, so this week’s blog hopes to bring some

Self-catering or all-inclusive — which represents better value for money?

I'm sure that this is a question that gets asked often in many households as moms and dads discuss the annual question of whether or not they can afford a family holiday in the sun. Unfortunately, like so many other things in life, there is no definitive right or wrong answer. It simply depends! Self-catering certainly comes out tops in terms of it usually representing the cheapest headline price but of course you need to

2016 is not the year to hold off booking your holiday arrangements!

It is part of the human condition to want to try and beat the system and the travel industry is no different in that respect. Every year, intending travellers tend to look into their respective crystal balls to find out when they should book their holiday arrangements. They reason (not unreasonably) that since commodities such as airline seats and hotel rooms are essentially perishable products, it makes more sense to leave making such arrangements until

There’s ‘free’ … and then there’s ‘FREE’!

The word 'free' is one of the most powerful trigger words in the English language. It grabs our attention and forces us to read on further. It is a marketing guru's tool that many of them use to good effect. We, as consumers, are suckers though and when a lot of the claims of free this and that fail to live up to the hyperbole, we're left feeling foolish for having been duped — yet

Perception is reality

The news — e.g. the commentary that you see on the TV or read in newspapers and magazines is a commodity and just like any other kind of commodity it is perishable and thus must be sold by its sell-by date. By 'sold' I mean distributed or broadcast. Describing the 'news' as a commodity that is bought and sold may sound counter-intuitive but it's true and because of its perishability, there is a constant pressure

The thrill that is History!

I'm Irish and very proud to be so. I think that for such a small country, we've made a disproportionate impact on the global stage. Both our history and our mythology are extremely rich — as is our almost unique culture — some of which we share with our Celtic cousins. There are times though when I travel, that I'm reminded of how all such things are relative and that by comparison with some other

Blogtastic — The rise and rise of the travel blog!

With each year that passes and as more and more people enjoy the delights of international travel, it is inevitable that more and more travel blogs get written. Some blogs — like this one for instance — are an incidental activity to something else that is being done — in my case, running a travel consortium and trying to maximise the level of commerce being generated on behalf of key supplier partners. In many other

All aboard for all-inclusive!

People develop misconceptions about things for all sorts of reasons — both rational and irrational — and yours truly is no exception. For most of my travelling life, I have always opted for self-catering apartments whenever I was going on family holidays, reasoning that (1) I had the facility to make myself a cup of tea at any time of the day or night that I chose and believe me, I'm a BIG tea drinker,
safeness

Where should I go on my next holiday?

There are all sorts of reasons why people choose the destinations that they do. For some it’s simply price, for other’s weather is their primary concern. Some choose destinations based on their proximity whilst other travellers choose places based on their ‘safeness’. It is therefore interesting to note the results of the latest biannual report from the World Economic Forum which rates countries around the world based on a wide ranging set of metrics that

Why familiarity sometimes breeds contempt!

If you look up any dictionary meaning of cliché, it reads something along the lines of '... a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought ...' I think that that is a rather harsh interpretation myself. Clichés become clichés simply because they're true and represent the most succinct and accurate way of describing a particular concept. The above title is a particular case in point. I recently had a

The art of getting a quote that is both competitive in price and relevant to your needs starts with gathering all the right information about what you want to do (or think you want to do!).

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