Travel
4 Aug 08
A round up of the latest business travel news
in Cape Town
TO VISIT
The Cape Town International Comedy Festival
7-21 September
Comedians from all over the globe will congregate in Cape Town for the city’s annual International Comedy Festival to spread a lot of humour. The usual stand-up shows prop up the schedule alongside street theatre, risqué performances and even child-friendly comedy. The organisers promise the festival will be bigger, better and bolder than in the past 12 years, with three shows running concurrently for the first time. www.comedyfestival.co.za
TO STAY
Ikhaya Lodge
Take a break from the familiarity of hotel chains for this boutique hotel with a distinctive African style in the centre of Cape Town. Take in views of Table Mountain from the lounge, restaurant or one of the hotel’s rooms. It’s located a few minutes’ walk from the parliament and a short drive from the V&A waterfront and several beaches. A standard city-view room will cost around
R750 (£50) in September. www.ikhayalodge.co.za
www.viphotels.com
Outside the box
In a bid to combat meeting boredom in its facilities, hotel chain Crowne Plaza has launched tools to keep the brain cells firing. The Think Box aims to stop minds wandering and to squeeze more creativity out of participants through exercises such as brainteasers to warm people up at the start of meetings. People can also fiddle with the “Ball of Whacks”, made up of magnetic pyramids, to “reinvigorate creativity”. Think Cards offer anecdotes to illustrate hints for reprogramming your mind to look at problems differently.
www.crowneplazathinktank.com
NEW ROUTES›
London to San Diego
Zoom Airlines has launched a non-stop route from London Gatwick to San Diego that will operate twice a week. Fares start from £449 return including all taxes and charges.
Birmingham to Poland and Italy
New bmibaby winter routes linking Birmingham with Krakow, Milan, Bergamo and Warsaw will operate from 26 October to 28 March.
Flights start from £18.99 one way, including taxes.
SITE VISIT>
www.discoveramerica.com
The Travel Industry Association of America recently launched this official tourism website. It provides information on individual territories in the country, as well as activities, entry requirements and maps. It also provides a community network, like those at MySpace and Facebook, to allow registered travellers to upload stories and images.
Quick border hop
Travel between the UK and US is set to get a lot speedier for “trusted” people under an agreement between the two governments.
In the future, certain travellers who move frequently between the two countries should be able to glide through border controls using fingerprint, iris or facial recognition technology. When this will be available is still to be decided.
The agreement will build on the UK Border Agency’s IRIS scheme for trusted travellers to allow registered individuals to enter the UK after an eye scan without queuing. More than one million crossings have taken place since its launch in 2006.
No hidden charges
Under new EU rules, airlines will have to be upfront about the full cost of flights in advertising and websites. They will have to show, at a glance, the final price of a journey, including all air fares, taxes, airport charges and other surcharges or fees, such as those relating to fuel or security, known at the time of publication. Optional supplements must also be communicated clearly and taking them must be on an “opt-in basis”.
The rules are expected to come into force early next year, at the latest.
Ryanair was recently hauled over the coals by the Office of Fair Trading for failing to make clear the cost of flights to consumers in advertisements. The airline says that it welcomes the changes and that its website already complies with the rules.
No-frills Dubai service
A low-cost airline for Dubai is to launch in mid-2009. The airline, flydubai, is being set up by the United Arab Emirates government.
The airline will initially focus on flights within the Persian Gulf area, before expanding to the whole Middle East, North and East Africa, South-east Europe and the Indian sub-continent. www.flydubai.com
GADGET WATCH>
Pico Projector
Picture the scene – you’ve made it to a presentation, but the projector the client has promised hasn’t. Well, that wouldn’t be a problem if you were toting a palm-sized projector, as small and as light as a mobile phone. It can even be used with personal media players to project video on to the wall of your hotel room for cinema with room service. The device is expected to be available in the UK in late 2008.
www.optoma.co.uk