Category: Holidays

  • Thomas Cook offers free insurance on travel money

    With summer well and really here, many thousands of holidaymakers are preparing themselves for his or her annual holiday abroad. However, with many leaving it until only a week before departure to switch their pounds for foreign currencies in step with Thomas Cook research, customers may be searching for a quick and simple way of not just getting great rates on their foreign currencies – but in addition keeping it safe.

    With that during mind, Thomas Cook is offering customers free insurance on travel money in recognition that existing policies won’t cover forex within the event of loss or theft. The only real high street forex provider to do that, Thomas Cook’s free insurance cover is exclusively available in stores, and is sweet for brand spanking new purchases of foreign currencies notes from £500 as much as a maximum value of £2,000. It’s going to apply from the date of purchase to the date of return to the united kingdom, or for 31 days – whichever is less**.

    For holidaymakers unsure how much foreign currencies they may need, Thomas Cook recently launched a vacation Budget Calculator hosted on thomascook.com. The Calculator aims to assist holidaymakers gauge how much forex they could need ahead through calculating the important cost of holiday essentials abroad. The service, that is powered by data collected and compiled overseas and in resort by the Thomas Cook Travel Money team, calculates totals by means of the typical cost of selected holiday essentials in loads of popular tourist destinations, along with a bottle of beer, glass of wine or a 3 course meal.

  • British government urged to develop music tourism strategy

    A cross party group of influential peers has called at the British government develop a brand new way to support music-based tourism and help grow the united kingdom economy.

    The call was made during a home of Lords debate at the impact of music on tourism.

    The debate’s sponsor, Liberal Democrat Lord Storey said music festivals were attracting unprecedented numbers of overseas visitors and feature been pouring money into local economies. 

    He argued that the world’s “evident love” of the UK’s musical heritage should now be harnessed and used to support music tourism.

    A 2011 report estimated music tourists spend £1.4 billion and sustain over 20,000 jobs. 

    “I have seen first-hand the positive impact music could make on local tourist economies.

    “But, we also needs to consider the impact music could have at the country as a complete,” Lord Storey said. 

    “Great Britain simply has an excessive amount of potential for musical tourism for the federal government to face idly by. 

    “I strongly urge the federal government to think about how best to implement a well defined music strategy.”

    Storey suggested that to draw more overseas music tourists, government should emphasise and have interaction with existing tourist bodies and authorities across Britain and help them market themselves as music tourist destinations.

    Storey’s stance was supported by Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke, who’s also a non-executive director of the national tourism agency VisitBritain. 

    “We aren’t doing in addition to shall we for music tourism,” she explained.

    “We should have more resource behind promoting our music tourism,” she argued, adding that it was important to cultivate the overseas music visitor because although they simply make up a minority of music tourists, they account for almost 20 per cent of music tourism spend.

    “We have the talent, the determination and the global focus.  Allow us to make this a key pillar of our tourism strategy into the longer term.”

  • Abu Dhabi boosts social media presence

    Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority has added two new social media initiatives to its VisitAbuDhabi.ae online destination resource.

    A new Instagram account invites the emirate’s visitors and residents to share their best Abu Dhabi photos, while a Facebook ‘Discover Abu Dhabi’ App gives users in-depth content at the destination’s happenings.

    The Visit Abu Dhabi Instagram account is the destination’s first official digital channel with 100 per cent user-generated content.

    Visitors and residents can capture the perfect of Abu Dhabi on their mobile devices and share them with the area using the hashtag #snapabudhabi.

    The ‘Discover Abu Dhabi’ App gives Facebook followers expanded, blog-style content, in English and Arabic, at the destination’s top events and initiatives, in addition to an extra digital platform to aggregate Twitter and multimedia content on specific topics. Launched with three components – SummerFest Abu Dhabi, Golf in Abu Dhabi and F1 in Abu Dhabi – the app should be expanded to mirror further compelling happenings – including Gourmet Abu Dhabi and National Day celebrations.

    The App categorises users in line with their specific preferences and posts they read, directing targeted messages that allows you to receive relevant information at the emirate’s future events and initiatives.

  • Germany scores – with excellent value for money

    Whether you’re a tender couple, a family or just a passionate traveller – price always matters. But if it involves accommodation visitors to Germany can’t only place confidence in excellent value for money, they are able to even be assured of excellent facilities and repair.

    Comparing accommodation within Europe, German hotel prices score well below the common, in response to the German Hotel Association (IHA). This will account for the truth that overnight stays in Germany have risen again in 2012 and 3 years in succession. Germany’s Federal Statistical Office reports 68.8 million overnight stays in 2012 – an extra increase of 8.1% in comparison to the former year.

    “Due to the widely prevailing economic troubles, price sensibility amongst travellers has increased in just about all European countries,” states Petra Hedorfer, Chief Executive Officer of the German National Tourist Board (GNTB). “Attractive competitive prices make a difference when choosing a travel destination – here’s where Germany will always score highly.”

    Room rates within Europe have risen in 2012 by 4.7% to 104 Euro, whereas in Germany they’ve only risen by 3.4% and a standard rate of 94 Euro. Especially in Germany’s popular cities hotel rates are far below other European destinations.

    Overall, visitor satisfaction is additionally high – within the result of GNTO/ERV’s quality monitor 2011/2012 Germany’s value for money ratio was given excellent scores by holiday makers and business travellers alike.

  • Thomas Cook offers free insurance on travel money

    With summer well and really here, many thousands of holidaymakers are preparing themselves for his or her annual holiday abroad. However, with many leaving it until only a week before departure to modify their pounds for foreign exchange consistent with Thomas Cook research, customers could be in search of a quick and simple way of not just getting great rates on their forex – but additionally keeping it safe.

    With that during mind, Thomas Cook is offering customers free insurance on travel money in recognition that existing policies might not cover currency trading within the event of loss or theft. The sole high street foreign currency echange provider to do that, Thomas Cook’s free insurance cover is exclusively available in stores, and is nice for brand new purchases of foreign exchange notes from £500 as much as a maximum value of £2,000. It is going to apply from the date of purchase to the date of return to the united kingdom, or for 31 days – whichever is less**.

    For holidaymakers unsure how much foreign currency echange they may need, Thomas Cook recently launched a vacation Budget Calculator hosted on thomascook.com. The Calculator aims to assist holidaymakers gauge how much foreign currency they could need upfront through calculating the $64000 cost of holiday essentials abroad. The service, that is powered by data collected and compiled overseas and in resort by the Thomas Cook Travel Money team, calculates totals via the common cost of selected holiday essentials in a number popular tourist destinations, together with a bottle of beer, glass of wine or a 3 course meal.