A litre of light

Tuesday 31st January 2012

As members of AITO the Association of Independent Tour Operators we subscribe to their policy of Sustainable Tourism - or Responsible Tourism as it was once called, highlighting the importance to give something back to the communities you visit when on any holiday. We do this in many ways by using where possible local suppliers, hoteliers, guides and services - we like to think that we and our passengers do our bit. Even in the office we review regularly how we operate to see if we can reduce wastage.

By and large Brightwater Holidays' tend not to visit third world or developing countries so we are not so involved as some of our AITO colleagues who run tours to remote and needy regions of the world - some AITO companies are involved with amazing and quite humbling Sustainable Tourism projects - one such project that AITO are currently highlighting popped into my inbox the other day and I was knocked out by the simplicity of it.

Please have a look at this 'A litre of light.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-Fpsw_yYPg&feature=youtu.be&dm_i=WDX,OBYM,566VSD,1YQMJ,1

For information on what AITO does with Sustainable Tourism have a look here

http://www.aito.co.uk/corporate_Responsible-Tourism.asp

Ally Pally

Monday 30th January 2012

A busy Saturday with Ellen our Group Travel Manager at Alexandra Palace in North London at Excursions a specialist Travel Show aimed at Group Travel Organisers. http://www.excursions.org.uk/ Ellen had set up our stand on Friday and was already busy chatting to GTO's (Group Travel Organisers) by the time I strolled in after ten. It was the first time I had been to 'Ally Pally' home to the first BBC transmissions in 1936. It is high up on a hill with a stunning panoramic view over London giving excellent views of the Olympic Stadium, Canary Wharf, the Gherkin and the amazing Shard London Bridge. You can tell I am an 'out-of-towner' getting excited by a view of some tower blocks! We don't have many skyscrapers in Cupar!

The show was fairly busy with a steady flow of people asking about our Garden and Special Interest shows - interestingly we had quite a lot of interest in Northern Ireland and in particular in the new Titanic Exhibition that is due to open in the spring. http://www.brightwaterholidays.com/tour.aspx?TID=CDDE1F92-734E-41C0-8281-412462EA0250 http://titanicbelfast.com/Home.aspx

At the end of the afternoon I dashed across London, firstly in a proper red London Bus sitting next to two charming 'Norff London teenage gals' with a Pitbull Terrier each, held in check by a chunky thick chain around their necks (the dogs that is, not he girls!) then Tube to Paddington where I discovered that all trains via Reading were cancelled - leaves on the line, or signal failure - something like that - I wasn't particularly amused. It was freezing sitting under the departures board for two hours waiting for a Bristol train.

A chap sitting next to me thought that it sounded quite a glamorous job being in the Travel Business!

Preparation for Up Helly Aa

Wednesday 25th January 2012

Happy Burns day to all our readers!

Yesterday I had the good fortune to meet up with two of our top Scottish Guides, Pauline Corrigan and Malcolm Milne (Malcolm photographed here in action at the standing stones of Callanish). Pauline and Malcolm have been working with us for several years now mostly on our Scottish holidays and occasionally over to the Dutch Bulbfields - in fact Malcolm had the pleasure of being with a group in Holland when the dreaded volcanic ash grounded all planes - remember that? (I try not to remind myself).

Both were in the office to be briefed by Jenni for our forthcoming tours to Shetland this weekend for the Viking Festival 'Up Helly Aa' http://www.uphellyaa.org/ We have around 80 intrepid travelers heading for the Northern Isles on Sunday to witness the great spectacle of the torch-lit parade culminating in the burning of the Longboat.

Please pray for calm seas and clear skies, for if the skies are clear they may even have a good chance to see the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights that I hear have been putting on a grand show of late. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJBrMXSn-hU

If we have a choice - calm seas preferable - Aurora a bonus!

Good luck for the tour Pauline/Malcolm.

Hats off to Clive

Friday20th January 2012

Made it through another week! Another busy week, but not quite as frantic as last week.

Our Ecuador trip has arrived safely and we have had a couple of emails from Julia Corden our Tour Manager to say that all is well and already the group have seen some wonderful wild flowers on the slopes of a smoking volcano.

We received the above wonderful photograph from Alan Ruff who was on our Ecuador holiday last year and is one of the several entries we have already received for our 2012 photography competition - so if you've got some nice photos taken on a Brightwater Holiday do let us see them - and if anyone has a good photo of Clive Warsop our intrepid archaeologist tour manager do get in touch. I have been on at him for ages for a good photo and all he sends me is a mug shot that might have been taken in a Police station late on a Saturday night or a particularly sweaty photograph of him on our last Albanian holiday. Now I know how much our girls enjoy it when Clive comes into the office - I'm told he is really quite dishy - described by our girls as our Indiana Jones (without the whip) - so surely someone must have a good shot of him in action beside a dramatic standing stone or an ancient ruin (that's no way to describe our passengers Graeme!)

Clive is off within the next few weeks with a group from the Friends of York National Trust; this time to Istanbul and Northern Cyprus, a most interesting two centre holiday. Clive's new tour for this year's brochure is to Wessex and Britanny with departures in both June and September. Still places on both tours available but both already at an operational level. http://www.brightwaterholidays.com/tour.aspx?TID=B5F1E3C3-90FA-4397-A45D-B69FF8B25437

We love Clive.

Cream Cakes all round!

Monday 16th January 2012

Just had to tell you......we had our best booking week in 6 years last week, only missing out on our best ever in 20 years by a very small margin - not getting too excited - definitely still a recession on out there, but hey, let's enjoy the moment!

Cream cakes for all the staff this afternoon.

South Africa Tour almost full

Thursday 12th January 2012

Blimey, we're off to a flier this year. The phone has been red-hot and bookings coming in thick and fast. Floriade is proving very popular http://www.floriade.com/ - which is not surprising as this Dutch flower festival only comes round every 10 years - a bit like Oberamergau, but with more flowers. I was once given some advice from my first boss in the Travel Industry to only operate tours to destinations I could both pronounce and spell! Funnily enough we've never been to Oberamerau!?

Our tour to South Africa is just about full already and Alison and the Ops team have just added a second departure. This is a really good introduction to the flowers of South Africa visiting both botanical and private gardens along with having the opportunity to see wild flowers aplenty. Also one of the real highlights is the stay in the game reserve. Just 3 or 4 places left on the 23rd September departure - new date will be departing on 27th September and following the same itinerary. Go on treat yourself! Have a look at http://www.sanbi.org/gardens/kirstenbosch and http://hluhluwegamereserve.com/

Last night I was speaking to the good people at Blakeney Garden Club in the Forest of Dean, what a lovely crowd they were and most appreciative of my talk. I will need to go back in the daylight some time in the Spring as I believe it is a beautiful area and I would love to see the wild boar that are in the nearby forest. http://www.visitforestofdean.co.uk/outdoors/wildboreforestofdean.aspx

There was only one boar last night - come on I wasn't that bad - (Boom,boom!)

First Booking is to Tresco

Monday 9th January 2012

I always find it takes a few days to get going again after the New Year, and after last week's start/stop/start it is all systems go today. The phones have been very busy and our new brochure is going down very well - there was much excitement on Friday when our new member of staff (Lynn) took her first booking - a twin based in Tresco http://www.tresco.co.uk/?gclid=CNKP0dO-w60CFaEhtAodADXrBA - very nice too - a real Brightwater holiday. Well done Lynn!

Good feedback from our Christmas tour to the Scottish Borders staying at the Cardrona Hotel in Peebles http://www.macdonaldhotels.co.uk/our-hotels/macdonald-cardrona-hotel-golf-spa/?gclid=CO-I-qm8w60CFYILtAod_g36-g "Very enjoyable Christmas break in most comfortable surroundings" - Glad you had a nice time Mrs Wilson/Cairns and Rorke. Jenni is busy booking the hotel for next Christmas - wish our life away, or what? Talking of which Alison was chasing me to confirm prices for Lord of the Glens cruises for 2013 as 2012 is selling out fast!

http://www.brightwaterholidays.com/tour.aspx?TID=82AAECDF-E314-4765-BDF4-F821250C9B2A