OJM Travel Blog

Tourism is the fifth largest industry sector in Britain and the third largest export earner and creates more revenue than North Sea oil, and yet Governments have never taken the opportunity to create a Tourism Minister within the Cabinet. We know that Culture, Media and Sport are all important – but Tourism is seen as the job for a junior ministerial role. How big does it have to be in order to get the recognition it deserves?

Putting aside the huge employment opportunities provided by the outbound operators, the figures for our local tourism industry are massive – even on a global scale. Holidays in the UK contribute £86 billion to the economy including £19 billion of foreign income – and 1.4 million people are employed to service the industry.

We badly need a Minister whose role is to wave tourism’s flag ahead of the 2012 Olympics. We need a Government that increases our promotional spend ahead of the Olympics (rather than reducing it by 20% as has happened). More than that, we need a Minister who will sits alongside those representing other key sectors such as Energy and Agriculture. We need someone who will argue the case for our sector – seeing it as as an opportunity for economic growth rather than simply an opportunity to raise income from taxes. This is a huge opportunity for the next Government.”

We need your help! Please click on the link below and sign the Travel Weekly petition for a Tourism Minister.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/yesminister/

Nepal is one of the best destinations for the summer migratory birds coming from the southern parts of South East Asia as well as from Africa and Australia due to favourable breeding environment.

Unlike tropical countries, Nepal experiences seasonal variation with longer days in the summer and shorter in the winter. “With longer days, birds get more time to feed themselves that enhances their healthy breeding,” said senior ornithologist Hem Sagar Baral. “As the birds can enjoy better feeding places, they spend the entire summer in Nepal.”

A total of 34 migratory bird species visit the country every summer for breeding purposes unlike the winter migratory birds that come here in search of favourable temperature from Siberia and Eastern Europe.

Different varieties of Eurasian cuckoo are among the summer migratory birds, which breed during their stay in Nepal. The summer migratory birds are also recorded in northeasten parts of India and Pakistan that mostly migrate from South East Asia, Africa and Australia.

With the onset of summer, the first summer migratory birds have started coming to Chitwan National Park (CNP) with Chestnut-headed Bee-eater to be the first one recorded on Feb. 26. Nearly a dozen of this bird species were found in the CNP, said Baral.

Almost all the summer migratory birds breed in Nepal and some species, including cuckoos are brood parasites. Most cuckoos do not build their nests and parental duty is transferred to a host species that is known as brood parasitism. For example, Indian Cuckoo prefers to make drongos as its nanny, while the Asian Koel prefers crows to raise its young.  The longest journey among Nepal’s summer migrants is carried out by Pied Cuckoo covering over 5000 kilometers.

However, the wetland-dependent birds are facing threats due to disappearance of wetlands, habitat degradation and hunting. “Wetlands are among the most productive breeding environments for many bird species, including kingfishers and water ducks,” said Baral.  Of the total 864 bird species recorded in the country, over 200 species are wetland-dependent. Nepal constitutes over 10 percent of the world’s total bird population.

Pragati Shahi – kantipuronline.com

Nepal is using 2011 for a special focus on promoting tourism. Their slogan; Together for Tourism.

Some great photos of the launch event can be viewed here;

(http://www.enasha.com/article.php?id=3254)

 

REF: Mumbai to Heathrow 7th December 2008

Dear Mr Branson,

I love the Virgin brand, I really do which is why I continue to use it despite a series of unfortunate incidents over the last few years. This latest incident takes the biscuit.

Ironically, by the end of the flight I would have gladly paid over a thousand rupees for a single biscuit following the culinary journey of hell I was subjected to at thehands of your corporation.

Look at this Richard. Just look at it:

I imagine the same questions are racing through your brilliant mind as were racing through mine on that fateful day. What is this? Why have I been given it? What have I done to deserve this? And, which one is the starter, which one is the desert?

You don’t get to a position like yours Richard with anything less than a generous sprinkling of observational power so I KNOW you will have spotted the tomato next to the two yellow shafts of sponge on the left. Yes, it’s next to the sponge shaft without the green paste. That’s got to be the clue hasn’t it. No sane person would serve a desert with a tomato would they. Well answer me this Richard, what sort of animal would serve a desert with peas in:

I know it looks like a baaji but it’s in custard Richard, custard. It must be the pudding. Well you’ll be fascinated to hear that it wasn’t custard. It was a sour gel with a clear oil on top. It’s only redeeming feature was that it managed to be so alien to my palette that it took away the taste of the curry emanating from our miscellaneous central cuboid of beige matter. Perhaps the meal on the left might be the desert after all.

Anyway, this is all irrelevant at the moment. I was raised strictly but neatly by my parents and if they knew I had started desert before the main course, a sponge shaft would be the least of my worries. So lets peel back the tin-foil on the main dish and see what’s on offer.

I’ll try and explain how this felt. Imagine being a twelve year old boy Richard. Now imagine it’s Christmas morning and you’re sat their with your final present to open. It’s a big one, and you know what it is. It’s that Goodmans stereo you picked out the catalogue and wrote to Santa about.

Only you open the present and it’s not in there. It’s your hamster Richard. It’s your hamster in the box and it’s not breathing. That’s how I felt when I peeled back the foil and saw this:

Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking it’s more of that Baaji custard. I admit I thought the same too, but no. It’s mustard Richard. MUSTARD. More mustard than any man could consume in a month. On the left we have a piece of broccoli and some peppers in a brown glue-like oil and on the right the chef had prepared some mashed potato. The potato masher had obviously broken and so it was decided the next best thing would be to pass the potatoes through the digestive tract of a bird.

Once it was regurgitated it was clearly then blended and mixed with a bit of mustard. Everybody likes a bit of mustard Richard.

By now I was actually starting to feel a little hypoglycaemic. I needed a sugar hit. Luckily there was a small cookie provided. It had caught my eye earlier due to it’s baffling presentation:

It appears to be in an evidence bag from the scene of a crime. A CRIME AGAINST BLOODY COOKING. Either that or some sort of back-street underground cookie, purchased off a gun-toting maniac high on his own supply of yeast. You certainly wouldn’t want to be caught carrying one of these through customs. Imagine biting into a piece of brass Richard. That would be softer on the teeth than the specimen above.

I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was relax but obviously I had to sit with that mess in front of me for half an hour. I swear the sponge shafts moved at one point.

Once cleared, I decided to relax with a bit of your world-famous onboard entertainment. I switched it on:

I apologise for the quality of the photo, it’s just it was incredibly hard to capture Boris Johnson’s face through the flickering white lines running up and down the screen. Perhaps it would be better on another channel:

Is that Ray Liotta? A question I found myself asking over and over again throughout the gruelling half-hour I attempted to watch the film like this. After that I switched off. I’d had enough. I was the hungriest I’d been in my adult life and I had a splitting headache from squinting at a crackling screen.

My only option was to simply stare at the seat in front and wait for either food, or sleep. Neither came for an incredibly long time. But when it did it surpassed my wildest expectations:

Yes! It’s another crime-scene cookie. Only this time you dunk it in the white stuff.

Richard…. What is that white stuff? It looked like it was going to be yoghurt. It finally dawned on me what it was after staring at it. It was a mixture between the Baaji custard and the Mustard sauce. It reminded me of my first week at university. I had overheard that you could make a drink by mixing vodka and refreshers. I lied to my new friends and told them I’d done it loads of times. When I attempted to make the drink in a big bowl it formed a cheese Richard, a cheese. That cheese looked a lot like your baaji-mustard.

So that was that Richard. I didn’t eat a bloody thing. My only question is: How can you live like this? I can’t imagine what dinner round your house is like, it must be like something out of a nature documentary.

As I said at the start I love your brand, I really do. It’s just a shame such a simple thing could bring it crashing to it’s knees and begging for sustenance.

Yours Sincererly,

Anon.

Paul Charles, Virgin’s Director of Corporate Communications, confirmed that Sir Richard Branson had telephoned the author of the letter and had thanked him for his “constructive if tongue-in-cheek” email. Mr Charles said that Virgin was sorry the passenger had not liked the in-flight meals which he said was “award-winning food which is very popular on our Indian routes.”

Dog flies business class for $32,000
An Israeli woman identified as Rivkah paid $32,000 to allow her dog to travel in business class with her from Paris to Tel Aviv.

Rivkah, 60, paid for an entire compartment to carry her, her boxer “Orchuk” and a vet on the four-hour flight. Airline El Al had to remove several seats to make room for Or’s cage.

“I didn’t think for a minute to leave Or, my little Orchuk, with the cargo,” said Rivkah. “I’ve been raising him for eight years and four months in France. I also didn’t mind having other passengers sit next to us.

All that mattered to me was to have my baby with me during the flight so that I can take care of him.”

Rivkah preferred not to discuss her payment to El Al, because she believed any price would have been worth it. “He is my child, not a dog. And he deserves the best,” she said.

El Al told the Haaretz newspaper in Israel it had never had such a request before. “But after the lady explained her special relationship with her dog and expressed her willingness to pay extra in order to fly with him, we agreed.”

By Sasjkia Otto, www.telegraph.co.uk