Barcelona has held off competition from US cities Chicago and New Orleans to be named the Best Summer Destination in the Travellers’ Favourite Awards.
The Catalan city was voted the most popular travel hotspot by 2.5 million Gogobot users. Barcelona boasts stunning architecture and arguably the best football side of recent times, starring the likes of Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas and Andres Iniesta.
Nice in France, Honolulu in Hawaii and Wellington in New Zealand were among the other cities to make up the top 25, which did not contain any UK cities.
Gogobot co-founder Travis Katz was impressed to see a wide variety of destinations in the list, from Bali in Indonesia to Vancouver in Canada.
“Vacationers are seeking out adventure and authentic local experiences when they carve out the time to get away,” he said.
Barcelona is the place to head this summer, though, according to Gogobot’s user community. Luckily for Britons, Spain is just on the UK’s doorstep and easily accessible from airports such as Stansted, Gatwick and Luton.
Tourists can take a tour of the famous Camp Nou stadium, take in the Sagrada Familia designed by Gaudi and enjoy a leisurely walk around the medieval Gothic Quarter.
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Music fans are being forced overseas as the cost of tickets for festivals in the UK continues to rise, a poll by Watchmywallet.co.uk shows.
The money-saving website found almost two in three festival-goers would contemplate going to an event in Europe rather than one on home soil.
Over half of Britons heading abroad for a festival are attracted by the relatively cheap cost, while one in four are influenced by the weather. More than a third of people surveyed revealed they get to fewer festivals now than they did when they were younger.
People keen to sample a different kind of atmosphere at an affordable cost could have picked up an early-bird ticket for a weekend at Poland’s Open’er Festival for only £77, with the standard price £112.
Super-early bird tickets for Soundwave in Croatia would set a music fan back just £65.
Many festival locations are easily accessible from UK airports such as Stansted, Gatwick and Luton.
“Many of the music fans we polled admitted that they now look at European festivals as a real alternative to UK events,” said Sean O’Meara, of Watch My Wallet.
“With cheap airfares and lower prices for accommodation and food in many European countries, it’s possible to enjoy a festival experience abroad with a little sightseeing thrown in, all for less than the cost of going to Reading Festival.”
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Top musicians from around the world will be performing at the Fes Sacred Music Festival organised by the royal city of Fez, Morocco.
The festival, which takes place from June 7-15, offers both free performances as well as those that require paid tickets. Concert venues around the ancient capital city include the Batha Museum, Bab Boujloud and the Bab Al Makina. The latter site, which was the Royal Palace parade grounds, provides a dramatic backdrop to the concerts, particularly evening events.
In addition to concerts by some of the world’s top musicians who perform sacred music, there will be dance performances and other culturally diverse acts.
This year’s festival marks the 19th Edition of World Sacred Music Festival of Fes. In addition to the programmed festival events, there will be Sufi gatherings and an emphasis on Fez’s local spiritual music, as well as the sacred music of Morocco.
The festival features two innovations in 2013. The newly refurbished Jnan Sbil Gardens will be open to the public during the festival and will prove a fitting stage for Egyptian song and performances by acrobats from Tangier. Also, there will be an afternoon dedicated to workshops with masters of choreography and music at Dar Mokri.
There are easy connections to Fez by train and bus to many Moroccan cities. The city’s Saiss Airport is located only a few miles outside the city. There are good taxi and bus connections from the airport to the city centre. As far as connections to airports in the UK that offer flights to Morocco, there are buses to London Stansted.
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Families planning holidays to Spain and Portugal may find their money goes up to 20% further this year, according to latest figures from some of Europe’s most popular resorts.
This year’s Post Office Holiday Costs Barometer shows that prices have fallen sharply in many resorts, with prices down by up to 20% in Spain and almost 15% in the Algarve.
Portugal was the cheapest destination in Europe, thanks to cheap food and drink prices, while neighbouring Spain was in second place.
The research involved adding up the total for 10 holiday items across all destinations. In the Algarve they cost £46.34 – just 16p less than in Torremolinos on the Costa del Sol and only 80p cheaper than in Javea, on the Costa Blanca.
Prices in the Costas have fallen year on year – down 19% in the Costa del Sol and down 20% in the Costa Blanca.
A 3.4% rise in resort prices at fourth-placed Sunny Beach, Bulgaria, saw the 10 items cost £47.32, still less than a pound cheaper than then cheapest resort – Albufeira in the Algarve.
Such was the fierce competition to attract UK holidaymakers to the top four cheapest resorts, the fifth placed destination, Majorca, was almost £9 more expensive (£55.46).
Here prices have fallen 8.8% in a year, while they have gone down about 6% in Corfu, Greece (£64.45). This is equal to about a 1.7% fall in price once the Sterling to Euro exchange rate has been factored in.
Many of the resorts are easily accessible from UK airports such as Stanstead, Gatwick and Luton.
Copyright Press Association 2013
Passengers on budget carriers now comprise the majority of travellers flying out of the UK, the latest statistics show.
Data from travel technology firm Amadeus reveals that 52% of the 93 million passengers who began their trip at a UK airport in 2012 flew with low-cost airlines.
The 2012 figure represents a 4% increase over the 48% of UK-exiting travellers in 2011 who chose to fly with low-fare companies. Luton and Standsted are two major hubs for low-cost carriers.
The total number of passengers leaving from UK airlines was also up 2% on the 2011 figure.
The latest Amadeus figures also reveal that low-cost carriers handled 38% of all European flights in 2012, an increase from the 36.5% recorded in 2011.
The penetration of budget airlines in the European market is the largest market share for this sector in any region in the world.
In comparison, low-fare airlines accounted for 30.2% of the airline market share in North America, and 18.6% of the airline traffic in Asia.
When taking into account the origin of air trips, Amadeus data reveals that Asia had the largest number of air passengers, totalling 787 million in 2012. Asia was also the region to record the biggest growth, as passenger numbers were up 9% over the 2011 figure.
European passenger growth was the second fastest in 2012, up 4% to a total of 680 million. North America was third, increasing 2% to 597 million.
Latin America also saw healthy growth in air passenger numbers, rising 6% over the 2011 figure to reach 189 million in 2012.
Globally, a total of 2.48 billion people travelled on a plane in 2012, which was 5% more than the number who travelled by air in 2011.
Copyright Press Association 2013
A new web guide has been launched to entice more people to enjoy a late skiing holiday in Slovenia.
The site, which was put together by a group of keen travellers, highlights a number of snow-based activities, such as skiing and snowboarding, while also drawing attention to climbing, mountain biking, canyoning and watersports opportunities.
The country, which lies where the Alps meet the Mediterranean, is able to cover a wide range of holiday options to entice more people to fly out to Slovenia from major UK airports such as Heathrow or Stansted.
These alternatives are covered in the guide, which also gives advice over accommodation and attractions to visit, as well as details for dining out and recommendations for Slovenian cuisine.
The capital city of Ljubljana is also likely to be a popular location for those planning visits to the country.
It boasts the contrasting attractions of the picturesque Old Town and the relaxed Tivoli City Park, which provides patches of grass for people to chill out and enjoy summer sunshine.
The country has a population of two million, with most people who live there being ethnic Slovenes, while people from other Yugoslav republics cover around 10% of the total population.
Despite their small size, the Italian and Hungarian ethnic communities have been given protected status in the country.
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British travellers spent £3.86 billion during trips overseas between January and February, research has shown.
The amount spent by UK tourists during the first two months of the year was 2% higher than at the same time last year.
Despite this increased spending, the amount of visits being made by UK residents remained flat at 6.62 million.
With this in mind, now might be a good time to for people looking to get last minute deals before sales start to sky-rocket as the summer gets closer.
Opportunist travellers like this might benefit especially from looking into breaks to North America, with the amount of trips by Britons there falling by 9% during the first two months of 2013.
Meanwhile, figures for Stansted showed that there was a 4% increase in the amount of tourists flying out of the airport last month, compared to March 2012.
The Essex airport, which is now owned by Manchester Airports Group, saw a 1.34 million rise in passengers during the month.
During this period planes were leaving Stansted 79% full, compared to 77% in March last year.
During 12 months to the end of March, Stansted had handled more than 17.5 million passengers, which is a 1.8% drop on the figures for the previous 12 months.
A Stansted spokesman explained that passenger figures show the airport has enjoyed a strong monthly performance and solid winter results overall.
“It’s encouraging to see monthly passenger numbers in growth,” he added.
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London Stansted is aiming to transform its passenger experience with the unveiling of a new free Wi-Fi service throughout the airport’s terminal buildings.
The free for 60 minutes service is now available under the ‘_stanstedairport’ Wi-Fi network to smartphone, tablet and laptop users after a simple registration process has been completed. Also, to improve the experience for returning passengers, previously registered devices will not have to re-register each time the user is at the airport.
Stansted Airport’s terminal manager, Neil Banks expressed his delight with the new free service, and acknowledged that we live in a modern world where accessing the internet via smartphones, tablets and laptops is now a daily routine.
He added that: “As part of our drive to improve services for passengers we’re delighted to offer one hour free Wi-Fi throughout the terminal, enabling customers to get those last minute emails, conference calls and social media updates done before taking flight.”
The service has been introduced by the airport’s new owners Manchester Airports Group (MAG) as one of a number of measures to improve the customer experience within the airport.
Mr Banks concluded that the new service will be particularly convenient for UK residents without 3G or 4G capability on their phones, or within their contracts. It will also benefit overseas visitors who would otherwise incur significant roaming charges.
Copyright Press Association 2013
There are huge cost variations when paying for extras in rooms at four-star hotels around the world, a new survey reveals.
A packet of peanuts at a hotel in Cape Town, South Africa cost £1.20, while at a hotel in Moscow, Russia the price tag was £7.96, according to the TripAdvisor poll.
The cost of a club sandwich in a Cape Town hotel was £4.11, compared with a whopping £13.95 in Moscow and £18.67 in Zurich, Switzerland.
Such sky-high figures might provide plenty of food for thought for holidaymakers travelling to major UK airports such as Luton Airport, as they will need to ensure they have plenty of holiday money with them to cover all costs while away.
But by the same token, other travellers taking an airport transfer to Luton or London Stansted might take heart from the TripAdvisor survey – depending on where they are going – as it shows that items can be four times cheaper in one destination compared with another.
It seems plenty of loose change will be needed for travellers heading to Moscow, Paris or Stockholm, as they came out on top as the most expensive cities for hotel room extras.
But anyone on the lookout for good value holidays might be encouraged by the survey’s findings on the likes of Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt, Mumbai in India and Istanbul in Turkey, as they were among the cheapest destinations for hotel room extras.
The survey also showed a comparison of the combined cost of a bottle of water, a can of Coke, a mini bottle of vodka and dry cleaning at hotel rooms in different travel destinations.
Although fairly expensive, London nevertheless didn’t make it into the top 10 priciest, finishing in 11th position.
The combined cost of the items in Moscow was a hefty £53.05, compared with £44.17 in Paris and £43.97 in Stockholm.
Cheaper prices could be found in Cape Town (£12.61), Sharm el Sheikh (£15.27) and Mumbai (£16.27).
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Brazil’s preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup have taken a step forward as details of the hosting cities have been released at a press conference in London.
The global road-show, organised by the Brazilian Tourist Board (Embratur), also unveiled what British tourists visiting the country can expect during next year’s tournament when football lovers will flock to the airports.
Other successful ‘Goal to Brazil’ road-show events have been held around the world including Milan, Berlin and Paris. The road-show focuses on Curitiba, the soon-to-be-completed home stadium of the FIFA 2014 World Cup, located in Brazil’s southern state of Parana. With over 26 parks the city is known as the world leader in sustainable city planning.
Due for completion in July 2013, the FIFA 2014 World Cup stadium will have capacity for 41,000 spectators after an investment of over £78 million.
The president of the Institute for Research and Urban Planning of Curitiba, Sergio Povoa Pires, said: “Curitiba is a leader in sustainable planning and our focus has been on group transport such as bicycle systems and pedestrian routes. This will enable tourists to navigate the city smoothly, efficiently and without impacting on the local environment.
Marco Lomanto, director of products and destinations at Embratur, added: “The 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil is a unique moment in time for Brazil to reveal itself as a diverse and modern country.”
Heading to the World Cup in 2014? Get to your airport easily by using a bus service – there are a host of services running to and from hubs including Stansted London and Luton Airport.
Copyright Press Association 2013
