tourism-news.eu » London

London to get billions for investment in time for 2012

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:14:51 +0000

With less than 1,000 days until the start of the 2012 Olympics in London, excitement is already growing over what will be a huge boost for the local visitor economy. To mark the occasion, Visit London has released a report outlining how visitors to the capital will benefit from £11 billion in investment over the coming years. The improvements are already starting to take shape, including the East London Line railway extension, new cycle tracks and walkways, the renovation of the Savoy Hotel and a new urban park being built in East London. In Spring 2011 the Cutty Sark will be reopened after being damaged by fire in 2007 and a new wing of the Tate Modern will be opened in time for the start of the Olympics. These are new and exciting times for such an historic and fascinating city such as London and I’m keen to see how these new developments will improve an already amazing city!

Travel guides now on iPhone

admin — Fri, 29 May 2009 07:44:33 +0000

DK Eyewitness Travel yesterday announced that their top 10 bestselling travel guides will now be available on the iPhone and iPod touch. You can download the travel guides from the Apple App Store and be able to use them within minutes. The areas covered are New York, London, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Paris, Rome, Dubai, Barcelona, Cancun and Bangkok. Each travel guide application covers sights to see, places to eat and includes a currency converter, amongst other things. There are also a number of other tools which can be downloaded from the Apple App Store such as a live flight tracker and a translator. This is very handy news if you are a proud owner of an iPhone or iPod touch. If not, then it’s not so handy!

Virgin biofuel flight

admin — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:09:41 +0000

Yesterday Virgin Atlantic became the first airline to fly a commercial plane on a blend including biofuel. A Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 flew from London Heathrow to Amsterdam Schiphol fuelled with a 20% biofuel/80% kerosene mixture in one of its four engines. The biofuel used a combination of coconut oil and babassu nut oil which came from sustainably cultivated crops. However, according to the BBC “Environmentalists have branded the flight a publicity stunt and claim biofuel cultivation is not sustainable”. Greenpeace has said that “last year, a leaked World Bank report said the steep food price rises of around 75 per cent seen over the year were mainly driven by biofuel production in US and Europe”. Now as much I like the idea of air travel being more environmentally friendly it brings about the question, who is right about biofuel? Are airlines just testing biofuels for more publicity or are they really trying to save the planet? Unfortunately we will not know the answers to these for a few years yet…..