Outbound - International Travellers Magazine

As per the Nielsen India Outbound Travel Monitor 2008 conducted in affiliation with the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), more and more Indians are traveling abroad for leisure or business and Asian countries have emerged as the most sought-after destinations by the Indians. In the coming 12 months, Singapore would emerge as the most common travel destination for Indians (24%), followed by Dubai, Australia and Malaysia at second place with 17% each. Considering the budding outbound dynamics of the Indian market, Malaysia is ready to secure its position as India's preferred travel getaway with its strategic tourism initiatives. Tourism Malaysia is focused on the Indian market and is targeting 500,000 Indian arrivals to the country in 2009, of which around 30% is estimated to come in through the MICE (meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition) tourism route. Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi are one of the most favored destinations for Indian travelers.
India is among the top 10 tourism generating markets of Malaysia. Malaysia was visited by nearly half a million Indian tourists in 2008. An excited Malaysia Tourism Board is now aiming beyond Kuala Lumpur, offering short breaks to Langkawi, Penang, Pangkor, Tioman, Sabah and Sarawak to fetch more visitors from India. This new strategy will focus on active tourism indulgences, eco-tourism, driving holidays, soft adventure and island retreats as well. The rate of hotels and resorts is also one of the reasons why Malaysia attracts so many Indian travelers. Hotels in Langkawi, for example, are quite reasonable. A five star hotel in Langkawi like Sheraton Langkawi Beach Resort starts from US $, 151 which is way less than almost all the 5 star hotels in India. You can actually book a 4 star hotel like Holiday Villa Beach Resort & Spa Langkawi in Langkawi for just US $ 78 .

No positive 09 for aviation

The aviation industry hit severe turbulence in 2008 and is bracing for another bumpy ride in 2009 as the global financial crisis continues to dent demand for air travel.

Increased fuel prices and decreasing disposable incomes translated into dearer tickets prices and a softening demand for travel, especially international travel, in 2008. The year was a "perfect storm" for the highly competitive aviation industry as oil prices skyrocketed to a height of US $ 147 a barrel in July. Stockbroking analyst Brent Mitchell said that industry began the year amid positive market conditions, which turned 180 degrees by the middle of 2008. "We went from a period where we had almost perfect conditions for airlines, we had expanding capacity, load factors were going up and yields were going up," he said. "But that had to end because capacity increased beyond the demand of the client base, then the downturn in economic conditions and that was exacerbated by fuel price increases." Mr Mitchell said that airlines this year will be focused on survival, rather than growth.

According to the general reports, there are different factors at work in 2009 and oil prices are going to stay below those levels that they reached in 2008. Consolidation is going to happen and the focus for a lot of players is going to be on survival. Airlines are expected to collectively incur US $ 5 billion ($A7.3 billion) in losses in 2009 due to the economic crisis, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). "The outlook is bleak", IATA director Giovanni Bisignani said recently. "The chronic industry crisis will continue in 2009 and we are facing the worst revenue environment in 50 years."

The Laptop may cost you dear

Travelers connecting to the Internet also should access business files only with methods that encrypt data streams against snoops. Such methods include VPNs- virtual private networks for network traffic and SSL- secure sockets layer for e-mail. It's also key to deal with data on mobile devices. Alarmed by this, several companies have started thinking to give their employees a laptop whose hard drive has been wiped clean. While on their trips, the employees have things they need e-mailed to them.

Gambler's haven hopes for a bright year

With the beginning of 2009, casinos in American cities, fighting an economic slump last year, have started talking and dreaming big, with plans for new casino-hotels worth as much as $41 billion.
Over the first 11 months of 2008, Casino revenue was down 15.7 percent but the last month showed signs of recovery. Joe Corbo - president of the Casino Association of New Jersey said there are positives that American cities can build on even in a bad economic climate. One encouraging fact is that three casinos opened in new hotel towers in 2008 in Atlantic City alone and a developer opened a luxury boutique hotel. That added nearly 2,900 rooms to a city where it can be difficult to book a room at a competitive aviation industry as oil prices skyrocketed to a height of US $ 147 a barrel in July. Stockbroking analyst Brent Mitchell said that industry began the year amid positive market conditions, which turned 180 degrees by the middle of 2008. "We went from a period where we had almost perfect conditions for airlines, we had expanding capacity, load factors were going up and yields were going up," he said. "But that had to end because capacity increased beyond the demand of the client base, then the downturn in economic conditions and that was exacerbated by fuel price increases." Mr Mitchell said that airlines this year will be focused on survival, rather than growth.

According to the general reports, there are different factors at work in 2009 and oil prices are going to stay below those levels that they reached in 2008. Consolidation is going to happen and the focus for a lot of players is going to be on survival. Airlines are expected to collectively incur US $ 5 billion ($A7.3 billion) in losses in 2009 due to the economic crisis, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). "The outlook is bleak", IATA director Giovanni Bisignani said recently. "The chronic industry crisis will continue in 2009 and we are facing the worst revenue environment in 50 years."

The Laptop may cost you dear

If you are traveling overseas, try to leave your computer at home. If you must have it, put only a few files on it and leave as many as possible behind. Encrypt the files you do bring. These are some of the steps that computer security analysts advise for international travelers anxious to avoid being the victim of data espionage. The experts quoted the example that Chinese officials secretly copied the contents of a government laptop computer during a visit to China by American Secretary of Commerce, Carlos M. Gutierrez.
Such incidents illustrate the care that business executives or government officials should take care when they travel to places where rivals might try to copy vital trade secrets or sensitive information. Dangers exist even if travelers keep their laptops closely held the whole time but connect to Internet networks abroad.
Travelers connecting to the Internet also should access business files only with methods that encrypt data streams against snoops. Such methods include VPNs- virtual private networks for network traffic and SSL- secure sockets layer for e-mail. It's also key to deal with data on mobile devices. Alarmed by this, several companies have started thinking to give their employees a laptop whose hard drive has been wiped clean. While on their trips, the employees have things they need e-mailed to them.

Gambler's haven hopes for a bright year

Air India links Amritsar with Toronto

Air India has started three flights per week from Amritsar to Toronto via London.
According to the details given to the media by Ram Kolipakam, the spokesperson of the airline, the flights will ply on the route every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. He also said that airline has introduced special introductory fares for traveling to London. The new schedule of flight from Amritsar to Toronto via London, is an addition to the existing daily flights operated by Air India to New York and the ones plying on Delhi-London route.

Silicons bridged by Kingfisher

India's leading private carrier Kingfisher Airlines has started its direct flight from Bangalore to San Francisco connecting India's IT hub with the Silicon Valley in US. According to the UB Group chief, as there is an open-sky policy in the US, Kingfisher will face no difficulty in getting operational clearances after its acquisition of new Airbus aircraft (A330-200) for the long-haul flights. At present Kingfisher has a fleet of five brand-new Airbus aircrafts to roll out its international operations from Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and other metros.
According to industry estimates, Bangalore-San Francisco is a lucrative route as about 12,000 passengers casino hotel on a weekend.
For the first 11 months of 2008, the casinos won $4.2 billion, down 6.7 percent from the same period a year ago. The decline prompted casino executives to ask Atlantic City to delay a total smoking ban that the City Council had approved in April, saying they couldn't afford to drive away any customers in such a bad economy. The council agreed and will revisit the issue in November. Until then, smoking will be allowed on up to 25 percent of the gambling floors.

Air India links Amritsar with Toronto

Silicons bridged by Kingfisher

India's leading private carrier Kingfisher Airlines has started its direct flight from Bangalore to San Francisco connecting India's IT hub with the Silicon Valley in US. According to the UB Group chief, as there is an open-sky policy in the US, Kingfisher will face no difficulty in getting operational clearances after its acquisition of new Airbus aircraft (A330-200) for the long-haul flights. At present Kingfisher has a fleet of five brand-new Airbus aircrafts to roll out its international operations from Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and other metros.
According to industry estimates, Bangalore-San Francisco is a lucrative route as about 12,000 passengers fly between these cities every month and there is a dearth of direct flights between the two 'Silicon Valleys'. The Airline's Chairman and Managing Director, Vijay Mallya is also planning to start direct flights to Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai and Maldives in the coming months.
With the recent amalgamation of Kingfisher and low-cost carrier Air Deccan, Mallya has the largest fleet of Airbus aircraft to operate on the profitable international routes and across metros in the domestic market.

Penguin parade has tourists flocking

The waddling little penguins still hold pride of place on Phillip Island, Australia. They are as regular as clockwork.

In fact, they are more accurate than the 'tick-tock'. They yap, preen and peer and when all are assembled, they again look like soldiers. Every night just after sunset, the fairy penguins appear from the cold waters of Bass Strait and waddle up the beach like drunken sailors from a nightspot. And every morning, at least an hour before the sun considers rising, they are back in the ocean.

It has been like that for many years on Phillip Island, a beautiful part of the world 135km southeast of Melbourne. They are the lifeblood of the island's economy. Other tourist attractions, restaurants, hotels and everything else, exist because of the public pulling power of the penguins. The penguins are the No. 1 wildlife attraction in Australia. Japanese visitors find them magnetic, and it's easy to see why.
See before they disappear

AN art deco theatre in Adelaide, Sydney's Luna Park and the underground homes of Coober Pedy have made it into a book of 500 'must-see' places. Frommer's '500 Places to See Before They Disappear', recently published in Australia, lists sites most at risk from developers and climate change.

Author Holly Hughes said she discovered more positive developments than she expected, while writing the book. "At the outset, I feared that this project would be infinitely depressing," she writes in the foreword. Many of the case studies in this book are reasons for hope, not despair, and the more support we can lend them, the better. She lists the Capri Theatre, with its Wurlitzer organ in the inner Adelaide suburb of Goodwood, among 10 classic movie palaces that have "escaped the wrecking ball". Of Luna Park, she said: "No child who has ever walked into Luna Park, through the grotesque gaping grin of the face, could fail to be wowed."

According to her, Capri Theatre and Kangaroo Island in South Australia, Daintree Rainforest, Gold Coast, Great Barrier Reef and Fraser Isand in Queensland, Ku- ring -gai Chase National Park and Wollemi National Park in New South Wales, Shark Bay and Dampier Rock Art Complex in Western Australia are among other most endangered places of Australia.
Discover the best in Prague

Fans of music and dancing will have the chance to check out performances from the world's best in Prague city of Czech Republic in 2009.
Culture vultures on a city break in Prague will be able to satisfy their thirst for opera and ballet with one of its most popular forms of entertainment– the Prague State Opera.

The opera in the Czech capital is housed in a building that was first opened to the public on January 5th 1888 with a production of Wagner's opera, The Master singers of Nurnberg. Fans of Giacomo Puccini on holiday, a composer widely considered to be the greatest in the operatic world, may be delighted to hear that a number of his works will be performed at the State Opera as part of the venue's calendar of events.

Madame Butterfly, which tells the story of Cio-Cio-San's unhappy love, can be seen between February 12th and 20th while other works from Puccini such as Tosca, La Boheme and Manon Lescaut also feature. Ballet fans will also be pleased to hear that the Prague Ballet Gala 2009 is taking place during the year. Leading dancers from the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Paris Opera Ballet, Bejart Ballet Lausanne and the Royal Ballet of Flanders will be performing as part of the event.

Alps offering best snow in a generation

Skiers and snowboarders setting off on ski train journeys to the Alps this winter will enjoy snow conditions that have been described as the best in a generation.

Around 400,000 people are set to visit La Plagne, Chamonix, Tignes and the many other resorts in the Alps over the next two weeks, reports the Telegraph. One of the most popular European destinations for a winter sports holiday, Val d'Isere, was at the centre of snowstorms so strong last week that parts of the town were temporarily closed to pedestrians. Both Val d'Isere and its neighbouring resort of Tignes have recorded higher levels of snow this month than in any other December since 1981.

While French resorts have seen the heaviest snow, skiing areas in other European countries, such as Zermatt in Switzerland and Courmayeur in the Aosta valley, are also offering excellent conditions. Snow train services enable holidaymakers to travel from London and south-east England to resorts in the Trois Vallees, Paradiski, Mont Blanc and Espace Killy areas via connections in Paris.

Explore'Star Wars' in Madrid

Star Wars fans will be embarking on Madrid, the capital city of Spain, over the coming months to see a traveling exhibition dedicated to the sci-fi phenomenon.

The event opened at Madrid's Arte Canal venue in November and will be available for visitors to explore until March 15th 2009. Star Wars the Exhibition has been travelling around Europe since the end of 2006, visiting Portugal, England, Belgium and Sweden before arriving in Spain. As soon as they enter the show, visitors are immersed in the Star Wars universe, with giant landscape images projected to recreate different worlds and exhibition zones exploring the planets of Tattoine, Naboo, Mustafar, Kamino and other. People with an interest in visual effects, can head to a projection room playing a documentary exploring how far this art has come in 30 years and explaining various technologies in relation to the Star Wars films.

Individual exhibits that Madrid city visitors will be able to see at the show include Darth Vader's suit, a life-size Yoda and models of the droits C-3PO and R2-D2.

Eurostar success among highlights of 2008
The success of the high-speed Eurostar line linking London to the continent has been one of the top ten travel and tourism events of the year, according to a recent survey. Eurostar relocated its operations to St. Pancras International station in London in November 2007 and has since carried millions of travelers on city breaks and other trips to European destinations.

The survey points out that the growth in traveler numbers since the move has "far outstripped expectations". There has been a year-on-year increase of 150 per cent in the number of passengers from the north of London connecting to Eurostar services. Thanks to improved regional links throughout the UK.
Another of the top ten tourism developments of 2008 is the fact that people are still traveling despite economic problems, with more than 90 per cent of respondents to a recent poll saying the credit crunch will not affect their choice of holiday destination. The survey also listed the "fall and rise of Terminal 5", London and the first-ever use of mobile phones on flights among its noteworthy events of the year.

Another Gallery of Indian Art in Berlin

The huge factory-sized premises near the German capital Berlin's former Cold War Checkpoint Charlie crossing has been renovated and transformed into a home for a cluster of major art galleries in the city.
On the building's top floor, in high-ceilinged, voluminous rooms, is the recently opened Nature Morte gallery, where fans of contemporary Indian art indulge their tastes. New Delhi born artist Dayanita Singh is currently showing a series of photographs depicting marginalised Indian communities. Nature Morte Berlin is the second gallery in the capital dedicated to contemporary Indian art. The Bodhi gallery, located behind one of Berlin's major art museums, the Hamburger Bahnhof, was the first, opening in May. Since then, it has been busy mounting exhibitions aimed at winning new audiences for the new wave of Indian art that has been sweeping the global art market.