The final day of the three-day PATA Travel Mart 2010 (PTM 2010), September 14-17, saw international buyers, sellers and media delegates gather at the dinner reception hosted by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Rajen Habib Khwaja, Secretary of Tourism, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, welcomed delegates to PATA Travel Mart 2011, New Delhi, India.

Said Hiran Cooray, PATA Chairman: “The PATA Travel Mart 2011 in New Delhi, India is one of the most exciting events and activities planned to roll out next year. We have a very special relationship with India, which is a rapidly emerging market, and we are delighted they are hosts for the PTM2011.”

Said Arjun Sharma, managing director, Le Passage to India: "The travel fraternity in India is excited that PATA has chosen New Delhi as the venue for PTM2011. With the explosive outbound numbers emanating from our country it is not uncommon for increased and newer destinations to woo the Indian traveller. The Mart returning to India after a gap of only three years is appropriately positioned and bears testimony to the growth of Indian tourism. The capital city is presently gearing up to host the Commonwealth Games next month. With the increased capacities and greatly modernised tourism infrastructure, we wish to assure you that New Delhi will be a bigger, better and more satisfying venue for the best trade show of the year. We look forward to welcoming all delegates to ‘Incredible India.’”

Said Ashok Kapur, CEO, Khiri DMC: “India is a fantastic choice as it is a rapidly emerging destination and market. With its incredible diversity and population, India deserves much more business, both as an inbound and outbound entity. As a travel specialist focussing on Thailand and Indochina, Khiri Travel will continue to invest strongly in the Indian outbound market. We see huge potential there for sectors such as leisure, MICE, honeymoon and top-end incentive trips. India's rapidly increasing urban middle class as also more direct flights from the primary and secondary cities to Southeast Asia are both very encouraging trends.”

Said Nicoline Dolman, director of sales and marketing, Bali Dynasty Resort: “We will definitely participate in PTM in India. The Indian family market has a huge potential for the travel-and-tourism of Bali. Balinese cultures and religion are the main attractions for the Indian market.”

Said Ashwani Gupta, managing director, Dove Travels, India, and a first-time attendant at PTM: “I am very excited about my attendance. PATA Travel Mart is world famous for its travel trade networking opportunities and also for its high level of organisation. It is a truly international event, very well organised, with meetings with your existing business partners spread into perfect time slots, and meetings with new exhibitors made accessible so as to improve our way of working and business.”

Airline Presidents and Airport Directors who met yesterday in Barcelona at the Annual General Assembly of the European Regions Airline Association (ERA), expressed outrage at the failure of Europe’s politicians and regulators to act to provide financial compensation to the industry following the eruption of Mount Eyjafjallajoekull which caused widespread closure of airspace and cancellation of flights. Outraged at the lack of action by national governments across Europe to compensate airlines for the financial damages they incurred, for events totally beyond their control, ERA Airline and Airport Directors agreed to a course of action to recover financial damages through legal action.
Speaking at the General Assembly, Antonis Simigdalas, ERA President and Mike Ambrose ERA director general, said: “Europe’s politicians have sat on their hands for far too long on this issue, airlines have now lost patience and have been forced to seek alternative legal solutions to recover the additional costs they incurred.
“The events in April showed that air transport is an essential element of our society and it is now time for governments to recognise the value that air transport brings to the economy and the European communities it serves.”
In concluding a course of action, the Airline Presidents and Airport Directors instructed the ERA Directorate to explore any opportunity for instigating a class action to recover damages.

Research and analysis released on 20th September 2010 by the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) shows that the vast numbers of foreign visitors anticipated to arrive at previous Olympics did not materialise. No host city has predicted demand for an Olympics correctly. They have invariably over-estimated the number of foreign visitors and the duration of their stay. Sydney anticipated 132,000 visitors; it received 97,000 for the Games period. Athens hoped for 105,000 per night; it received fewer than 14,000. Beijing anticipated over 400,000 foreign guests; it received 235,000 for the whole month of August. The more detailed the predictions of Olympic visitors are, the more wrong they become.
ETOA’s study reveals that the nightly usage of hotels during the Olympics varied between 13,000 beds in Athens and 28,000 in Beijing. The number of foreign visitors (including press, sponsors and officials) per night averaged 26,000, 13,000 and 28,000, in Sydney, Athens and Beijing respectively.
For London many in the industry are anticipating a boom, with up to 350,000 foreign visitors predicted per day during the Olympics. This expectation of bounty creates its own problems. In London, hoteliers expect to be full with premium business, and some anticipate a displacement of demand that fills up the surrounding months.
Availability is restricted and prices rise: a hostile environment for normal tourism.
If huge numbers of Olympic visitors attend, normal guests are displaced. Sports fans’ interests are focussed on whatever sport has attracted them. They have come to attend the Games. They are not interested in “tourism”, they are interested in sport. This impacts the wider service economy of restaurants, shops, attractions and theatres: all of whom depend on tourists. Theme park owners in Los Angeles saw a decline in revenue during 1984. In Barcelona the Costa Brava resorts had a drop in demand and at the Sydney games the normal attractions experienced a downturn in business.
The problem is not restricted to the host city. London is the gateway to the UK and its biggest draw. If you remove London from a visit to the British Isles, everywhere else becomes far more difficult to sell. Athens has nothing like the central importance that London occupies, yet when its visitor arrivals dropped by 6% in the Olympic year, regional Greece fell by 11%.
These drops in overall visitor numbers indicate a more general problem: the perception that a host city is crowded tarnishes the host country. Visitors tend to stay away for the Olympic year. Already ETOA members are dealing with assertions and assumptions that London (and so the UK) will be so full that it is best avoided.
The Olympics should not be a problem. In Beijing 2008, 28,000 rooms were taken by foreigners, and there were plenty of rooms to spare. London can (and does) absorb this number every day of every month. In August 2009 it attracted nearly 2 million foreign visitors in August. They used the 120,000 rooms available every day. This is the scale of the industry which is at risk if inflated forecasts persist.
Tom Jenkins, ETOA’s Executive Director, says “Precisely because London is one of the top international destinations, it has more to lose. At the moment a false expectation of bookings is in danger of destroying an export industry. For August 2012, ETOA members – who alone regularly deliver over 15,000 hotel rooms per day – cannot reserve space.
Without any reservations to sell, nothing can be sold.
But London is the first city to recognise the problem. It is the first city to be bigger than the Olympics. Even during the peak moments the numbers attending the Games themselves are unlikely to exceed those who attend games across the city during the football season. And these numbers are dwarfed by the millions of commuters that regularly use its infrastructure.
If this applies to the 17 days of an Olympics, then the message for the remaining 50 weeks is that London will be open, like no other city, for normal business. It is with this message that London must welcome the world.”

Location and sizeSituated in the heart of th­­­­­­e Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic at 62°00’N, the Fa­r­oe Islands lie n­­­­orthwest of Scotland and halfway be­tween Iceland and Nor­­way. The archipelago is compos­ed of 18 islands cover­ing 1399 km2 (545.3 sq.­miles) and is 113 km (70 mi­­les) long and 75 km (47 miles) wide, roughly in the shape of an arrow­head. There are 1100 km (687 mi­les) of coastline and at no time is one more than 5 km (3 miles) away from the ocean. The highest moun­tain is 882 m (2883 ft) ab­ove sea level and the a­v­­e­­­­rage height above sea level for the country is 300 m (982 ft).

Climate
The weather is maritime and quite changeable, from mo­ments of brilliant sun­shine to misty hill fog, to showers. The Gulf Stream encircling the islands tem­pers the climate. The har­bours never freeze and the temperature in winter time is very mod­erate consi­der­ing the high latitude. Snow­fall occurs, but is shortliv­ed. The aver­ag­e tempera­ture ranges from 3°C in win­ter to 11°C in the sum­mer. In sheltered areas, the tem­perature can be much high­er, but the air is always fresh and clean no matter what the season.

Population
The population is 48,778 (1st January 2009). About 19,652 people li­v­­­­­­e­ in the metro­politan area which com­­­prises Tórs­­havn, Kirkjubøur, Velba­staður, Nólsoy, Hestur, Kolt­ur, Hoyvík, Argir, Kald­bak, Kaldbaksbotnur, Norð­radalur, Syðradalur,  Hvít­a­nes, Sund, Kolla­fjørð­ur, Signabøur and Oyra­reingir, while about 4,700 people live in Klaks­vík, the s­e­c­­o­­nd lar­gest town in the Faroe Islands.

Form of Government
Since 1948, the Faroe Island­s have been a self gover­ning region of the King­dom of Denmark. It has its own parlia­­ment and its own flag. It is not, however, a member of the European Union and all trade is go­ver­ned by special treaties.

Languages Spoken
Faroese is the national lan­guage and is rooted in Old Norse. Nordic langu­ages are readily understood by most Faroese, and Eng­lish is also widely spoken, especially among the youn­ger people.

Religion
Religion plays an important part in Faroese culture and over 80% of the population belong to the established church, the Evan­gelical-Lu­theran. 10% of the popu­lation belong to the Chris­t­ian Breth­ren (Plymouth Breth­ren).

Industry
The fishing industry is the most important source of income for the Faroes. Fish products account for over 97% of the export volume. Tourism is the second lar­gest industry, followed by woollen and other manu­factured pro­ducts.

Dalat Travel ( Dalat Tours ), spelled Đà Lạt in Vietnamese pronunciation  is the capital of Lam Dong Province in Vietnam. The town is located 1500 m (4,920 ft) above sea level on the Langbiang Plateau in the southern parts of the Central Highlands (in Vietnamese – Tây Nguyên). According to a myth from the French colonial era, the name derives from the acronym of the Latin phrase ‘Dat Aliis Laetitiam Aliis Temperiem’ (“Giving Pleasure to Some, Freshness to Others”), which the French colonial government used in their official emblem of Đà Lạt. In reality, the name derives from the language of the local ethnic group Lạt and its original meaning is “Stream of the Lạt,” and the acronym above is in fact a backcronym. In Vietnam, Đa Lat is a popular tourist destination – highly appreciated for its temperate climate, beautiful sights such as waterfalls and lakes and its abundance of flowers and vegetables. It is the location of the Novotel Dalat (formerly Dalat Hotel) and Sofitel Dalat Palace (formerly Dalat Palace built in 1922).

For the last three days, we were crazily shopping at the nearby Leesburg Corner Premium Outlets (or factory outlets, er… not like Singapore Factory Outlet hor =P). The famous brands were cheap and nice! We bought from Polo Ralph Lauren, Nike, DKNY, Coach, Esprit, Levi’s, Timberland…couldn’t recall more.

We also went to Tyson’s Corner Center, the largest mall in the D.C. area. I exchanged my Coach bag for a different model after I realised that I was not used to hand-carry bag. No question asked and their customer service was so good. We bought many chocolates from Godiva and they were a lot cheaper than those in Singapore too!
And we love the big and yummy cheese cakes at The Cheesecake Factory!

I bought a few tops from Mango and they were really cheap. I saw the same top in Singapore after I returned and it was selling at 2 times more expensive.
We bought a talking toy for Devin on the last night of our stay and coincidentally, the family was celebrating Devin’s 9-month-old birthday; so the talking toy became the birthday present for Devin. The birthday cake was a big ice-cream cake filled with chocolate, strawberry and vanilla flavours. Connor hates chocolate and he spat out the chocolate when he tasted it in his cake. This was the first time we saw a kid who hates chocolate so much!

The art-deco Chrysler Building, Manhattan, considered by many to be the city’s finest skyscraper; it was completed in 1930 and is currently the third tallest building in New York.
There is no shortage of striking sights in New York City from the bridges across the Hudson to the older skyscrapers and official buildings, though the newer structures tend towards style-free, glass and concrete lumps.

The Manhattan Bridge, crossing the East River to connect Lower Manhattan with Brooklyn; completed in 1912. The Empire State Building gleams in the background.

The US Post Office, Manhattan
The New York Post Office, sports perhaps the world’s grandest slogan above the columns: ‘Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.’

Grand Central Terminal, more often known as Grand Central Station.
This massive rail station, rebuilt in 1913, has 44 platforms that run over 600 trains a day on the Metro-North Railroad as well as NYC subways and buses. The Grand Central Terminal information desk – at the centre of the photo above – is a popular meeting place, while the restaurants serve excellent, reasonably priced food. The Oyster Bar is particularly famous.

Chicago is “The City that Works” and “The City of Big Shoulders.” It boasts the United States’ tallest building and one of the world’s largest office buildings. With the ubiquitous elevated trains creating a continuous clatter, the city looks, feels, and in fact is, big. At first glance, Chicago can be overwhelming. But, like any city, it is the sum of its parts, and its parts are diverse. Also known as “The City of Neighborhoods,” Chicago comprises more than 75 official neighborhoods. Each features its own distinct quality and character. So, when trying to digest …

This 92-metre hillock on the northern approach to Phetchaburi provincial capital (some 36 kilometres north of Cha-am), supports the Phra Nakhon Khiri palace constructed in 1860 by King Rama IV (King Mongkut). Phetchaburi residents refer to it as Khao Wang, literally Palace Hill.
The style is mainly European with some Thai and Chinese influences. Sitting on three peaks the temple of Wat Phra Khew is to the east; the main stupa of Phra That Chom Phet in the middle and the residential Grand Palace to the west.
Both Kings Rama IV & V used the palace at their leisure and to entertain their visitors. After the death of King Rama V it was used less and less and sadly slipped into a state of decay. In 1935 it was registered as a national monument by the Fine Arts Department and was restored to be a National Museum and National Park. Open daily 9am-4pm it can be conveniently reached by funicular railway round-trip 40 Baht. Once at the top entrance to the Museum is 30 Baht for foreigners and 10 Baht for Thais. It is an excellent half-day excursion and takes a couple of hours to walk the path linking the three peaks. The views are spectacular.