Welcome to the hot or not travel news of the week, detailing the highs and lows of this weeks headlines.
What was Hot?
1.Mr Sandman checks in to British Airways
British airways has sought the advice of Vincent Walsh, a Professor of human brain research at the University College London, to explain the science behind getting a good night’s sleep onboard.
The incentive comes in the wake of the airline going to great lengths to creatively enhance the in-flight experience of travellers.
Walsh’s advice is extensive but there are a few tips we can all embrace such as removing your shoes, nixing the consumption of fizzy drinks and alcohol and using a sleep mask.
“You need to ensure your brain has as few distractions as possible so that you can ease it into a different time zone,” he says.
2.Jetpac creates a tour guide for your pocket
The company famous for social travel apps has released ‘City Guides’ a free iPhone image-recognition app, that enables you to get a visual guide to over 6,000 cities all over the world.
Using Instagram photos, the app determines where you should be at any given time.
It also features a few quirkier functions, from pointing out where all the women are in your local area, to where the hipsters are gathering.
City Guides also features a ‘Snappyness Rating’ that allows users to vote places up by sharing photos on Instagram.
3.Dami Im debuts…
….as the honorary Tourism Ambassador for Korea in Sydney. Im, the winner of The X-Factor 2013, was designated the position last Thursday at a launch event, organised by the Korean Tourism Organisation, held at Event Cinemas in Sydney.
“It is such an honour to become the honorary Ambassador for Korea in Australia because I consider myself very lucky to be Korean and Australian,” said Im on her appointment.
What was not?
1.Your flight anxiety could make you a suspect
A device, currently under development in China, aims to spot ‘radicalised’ human beings by measuring their anxiety levels at airport check-ins. The development comes in wake of, and was prompted by, an attack in Kunming, Yunnan in March, where eight knife-wielding attackers left 29 dead and over 140 injured.
The reckoning behind the stress bar is that perpetrators of crime experience heightened levels of stress before an attack – the same heightened levels that were assumed to be experienced by the knife attackers in Kunming.
Though, there have been no suggestions as to how the stress bar will differentiate between stress levels experienced by perpetrators to those suffering from chronic flight anxiety.
2.Anaphylactic shock, indeed!
A family from Dublin, travelling to New Jersey, was refused accommodation by United Airlines for their return flight.
The reckoning behind the snub move was that the family’s four year-old daughter suffered an allergic reaction to nuts on their flight to New Jersey.
The company has stated that they are not a ‘nut-free airline’ and cannot risk the daughter going into anaphylactic shock.
The daughter is well (thanks for asking, United). She was administered an adrenaline shot on the plane by a fellow passenger and the flight had to return to Dublin so that she may be rushed to hospital.
3.Tourists snub Aussie Icons
Once must-sees during travellers check-ins, now shunned to gather the proverbial dust.
Recent statistics, supplied by Tourism Research Australia, show that the outback and regional areas of Australia are being neglected by our international visitors.
While the popularity of state capitals and coast lines are on the rise, Upper Yarra, Bundaberg and Kakadu are in fast decline.