We’ve done all the hard work, so you don’t have to! Read on for the top ten travel stories you need to know today.
1. NTIA Awards – now is the time to nominate
Did you agree with last year’s NTIA Award winners? Think they deserve another award or do you think there’s someone else out there that deserves some recognition? Perhaps it’s you.
Nominations for this year’s AFTA National Travel Industry Awards have opened, giving you the chance to vote in for your favourites across the industry.
For any travel newbies, AFTA annual NTIA Awards recognise excellence in the Australian travel sector.
2. Great Britain Tourism Week hits Australia
Yesterday marked the launch of Australia’s first Great Britain Tourism Week – an entire seven days dedicated towards promoting one of our favourite destinations, the UK.
Latest figures from VisitBritain show Australians spent $1.89 billion in the UK from January – September 2014 and stayed for more than 12.48 million nights during the same period, smashing visitor records for the first nine months of the year.
The statistics also demonstrate that visitors from Australia are true regional explorers. In the first nine months of 2014 Australian visits to Wales increased by nine percent. During this same period, Australians delivered 14.5 percent growth on visits and record spending of $209 million in Scotland, which hosted the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup in August and September last year.
Hoping to build on the Aussie market, VisitBritain will host a range of industry events this week to showcase marketing and partnership plans for 2015/16 and beyond.
There will also be round table discussions on targeting the high yielding ‘Silver Styler’ and ‘Young Professional’ segments and strengthening product development for Britain.
“Key events such as the Rugby World Cup, Scotland’s Year of Food & Drink and even the broad range of British films like Paddington allow us to continually spark the traveller’s imagination and create reasons for Aussies to travel to the UK now.”
Joss Croft, VisitBritain marketing director
Keep your browsers clicked on KarryOn later this week for more information from the UK.
3. Japan tourism takes an Olympian leap
The Tokyo Olympics and other major events are giving Japan a major tourism boost, with inbound tourism spend expected to exceed four trillion yen in 2020.
That’s a leap from 2.03 trillion yen recorded in 2014.
According to latest statistics, last year spend per traveller grew 11 percent compared to the prior year.
Although Vietnamese visitor numbers weren’t high, they were the biggest spenders – dropping nearly 237,814 yen per travellers.
Chinese travellers were the second biggest spenders, forking out around 231,753 per traveller in 2014.
This week, KarryOn is exploring Japanese culture, fashion and more. Click here to check out part one of our Tokyo City Guide – Shopping.
4. Uh oh, hotel towels are trackable
We’ve all thought about it and there is definitely a large number of us out there that have actually done it – taken a hotel item home.
Whether it’s the towel, robes and in some cases the bed sheets there’s something about the items in a hotel room that brings out the inner kleptomaniac.
But next time you find yourself stuffing that fluffy towel inside your backpack, you might like to stop and pull it back out.
They’re tagged!
5. AIME hosts young professionals
ICC International Meetings Foundation Seminar (formerly Young Professionals) will be hosted by AIME again later this month for the fifteenth consecutive year.
The two-day seminar will run on 22-23 February – two days prior to AIME – to offer targeted education and valuable career development advice to young professionals, coupled with the opportunity to gain insights from more experienced industry members.
During the seminar, delivered by the ICCA and ICCA Australian Committee, attendees will be able to build their professional network by meeting other peers and industry leaders from around the world. There will also be the opportunity to acquire knowledge and career relevant advice through a customised educational platform.
To be eligible to register applicants must currently work full time in a position related to the business meetings and events industry, with less than five years’ experience.
This year, attendees will receive entry to forum education sessions; access to networking refreshments and lunches; a certificate of attendance for the ICCA seminar; and free entry to the AIME trade show (24-25 February).
6. Aus’ iconic walk turns 10
The Twelve Apostles Lodge Walk is celebrating 10 years in operation on 20 April, with special celebrations throughout the year and the entire walk season.
Twelve Apostles Lodge Walk, formerly known as The Twelve Apostles Walk by Bothfeet, is located at Johanna, 250 kilometres south west of Melbourne on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road. The walk covers the last 52 kilometres section at the west end of the trail known as The Great Ocean Walk.
In a decade 5,000 walkers of all ages have taken the tour – the youngest was six years old and the older 85.
According to the Lodge’s director, Dana Ronan, the walk is popular amongst people celebrating major life milestones, particularly birthdays and anniversaries.
To celebrate the 10th birthday the Lodge has come up with some great ways to make 2015 a memorable year for all walkers including exciting promotions, competitions, offers, and even some special guest walkers.
They’ve also scheduled in more walks than ever before to offer 900 people the opportunity to explore that part of Australia this year.
7. Scoot, Etihad join the Dream team
Scoot’s first 787 arrived in Singapore this morning.
787s are taking over the skies as two more airlines receive their first Dreamliners this week.
Yesterday, Etihad’s first 787-9 aircraft departed on its first commercial flight, flying from Abu Dhabi to Germany.
The aircraft is the first of 71 on order to join the fleet over the coming years.
Scoot team pose with the plane prior to its departure from Seattle.
Low cost airline Scoot also joined the Dreamliner team this week, receiving its first 787 today.
Named ‘Dream Start’, the plane arrived at Changi Airport at 9.33am local time from Everett, Washington.
Dream Start is the first of 20 787s to join Scoot’s fleet. The aircraft will be used to add new destinations and increase frequencies to and from the airline’s hub in Singapore.
The aircraft will be used on commercial services to Australia. The first Sydney service is scheduled to takeoff in three days.
8. Woman dries underwear at the airport
‘Ain’t nobody want to see that’.
It’s a place for travel, getting a bite to eat and completing last minute work assignments, but apparently now airports are a great spot for doing the laundry.
A photo of a Chinese tourist’s underwear (bottom and top) draped over a chair at Chiang Mai airport is making the rounds on the Internet.
According to an airport spokesperson the incident happened around two weeks ago while she was waiting for her evening flight, Bangkok Post reported.
The woman was approached by airport workers and was advised to pack away her clothing. She didn’t receive a fine because her behaviour wasn’t illegal nor dangerous.
However, the photo has sparked debate among industry professionals as to whether tour agencies should be required to curb this type of behaviour by advising their Chinese clients that it hurts the image of Chinese tourists.
Do you think some tourists need to be told they have an etiquette problem? Let us know below.
9. How does a pilot get locked out of the cockpit?
Passengers onboard a recent Delta Air Lines flight remained surprisingly calm after finding out their pilot was locked out of the cockpit.
The man in uniform surprised guests when he started making an announcement while travelling from Minneapolis to Las Vegas.
He said he had stepped out of his domain for a toilet break, only to return minutes later to a malfunctioned door.
Check out passengers reaction to the announcement in the video above.
While he wasn’t able to get in, the co-pilot was trapped inside and was forced to make an emergency landing at McCarran International Airport.
Thankfully, the co-pilot landed the plane safely and all 160 passengers onboard were unharmed.
“This was an unusual landing. He [the co-pilot] called the airport so that we would have ground response available.”
Delta Air Lines spokesperson
10. Tourists kicked out of Cambodia for temple nudity
3 French Tourists Arrested for TAKING NUDE PICS: http://t.co/C0Sac0teC5 #AngkorWat #SiemReap #Cambodia pic.twitter.com/UsvTLDbKQU
— Daniel Mackevili (@Mackevili) January 30, 2015
Now this is a story for the grandkids.
Three French tourists were deported from Cambodia this week after pleading guilty to taking nude pictures at the country’s ancient Angkor temple.
Angkor Archaeological Park is a popular spot for tourists to Southeast Asia because its ruins date back to the 9th and 15th Centuries.
The male tourists (all in their early twenties) were arrested after they were caught snapping nude pics inside the Banteay Kdei temple.
Prosecutor told AFP that they plead guilty to and asked forgiveness from the Cambodia people.
The court then issued them a six-month suspended prison sentence and they’ve been banned from re-enterting Cambodia for four years.
They’ve also been ordered to pay a fine of nearly $1,000.
Do you think that was punishment enough or did they deserve something harsher?