EU to simplify pet travel regulations among member states

EUROPE New legislation on the "non-commercial transport" of pets, already informally agreed with EU ministers, was approved by Parliament last month and press-released last week. Taking pets abroad will be easier, but pet health requirements will be stricter. Online information for pet owners will also be made clearer, though we have been unable to find exactly where as yet. Before taking their pets across borders, owners should check that their anti-rabies vaccinations are still valid. Young animals between 12 and 16 weeks that have been vaccinated against rabies - but have yet to achieve immunity - should still be allowed to travel. "There are 64 million cats and 66 million dogs in the EU. One household in four has a pet. In future, travelling across borders with pets will involve far less administrative hassle. We have eased the rules, and this should have a direct impact on citizens" said rapporteur Horst Schnellhardt (EPP, DE) after his resolution was adopted by 592 votes to 7 with 4 abstentions. The legislation will be applicable 18 months after it is published in the EU Official Journal.>>>

EasyJet changes baggage rules

EasyJet has changed the goal posts about hand luggage. The new maximum size bag allowed in the passenger cabin is 50 x 40 x 20 centimetres - smaller even than Ryanair's hand luggage allowance of 55 x 40 x 20. This rule comes into effect on July 2, according to the EasyJet website. Until then, the maximum size allowed at present is 56 x 45 x 25 - though we have had reports of people being forced to put bags this size in the hold on busy flights. Sources at the airline tell us that the new requirements are the result of passengers opting for taking hand luggage only, instead of paying for bags in the hold. In addition, luggage manufacturers are said to be making bags of this new size as fast as possible. (It might be an idea to keep an eye on the Which? website for information on them.)

Jimena kids in Rome for Pope's proclamation

JIMENA Students of 1º Bachillerato at Instituto Hozgarganta senior school were on a trip to Italy. And in Rome for the biggest of the news yesterday, Pope Francis's election and proclamation. They were picked up by the Europa Press agency's correspondent Laura Ramírez as they were leaving the square. The photo is from former Jimena Mayor Pascual Collado's son, who is among the 47 students in Rome. 

Petrol and diesel up again

A litre of petrol rockets to record highs

SPAIN The price of a litre of petrol went up by 2% this week, an accumulative increase of 9% since the first week in July. For the first time ever, a litre of normal petrol costs an average €1.47. Diesel went up too, of course, by 2.5% this, at an average pump price of €1.395. Diesel is used by close to 80% of vehicles in Spain. And, naturally, the price goes up as holidaymakers are heading home from the seaside, which the Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT) calculates at>>>PLEASE BE AWARE THAT YOU WILL SOON BE UNABLE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ITEM UNLESS YOU HAVE SUBSCRIBED. Subscription information will be available soon>>>

Brits urged to take out travel insurance as hospitalisation cases soar

New report reveals Spain has highest number of hospitalised Brits worldwide

SPAIN (Press release) More than 1,100 cases of Brits ending up in hospital were reported to consular staff in Spain last year, according to a new report from the Foreign Office. The number is equivalent to 20 hospitalisations in Spain every week, and represents nearly a third of the total number of cases around the world.  The figures come from the annual British Behaviour Abroad report for the period 1 April 2011 - 31 March 2012. In the Balearics, the number of reported cases has soared. Over the last two years (since 2009/10), Mallorca has seen a 132% increase in hospitalisations, and Ibiza a 40% rise. Many of these cases involve teenage holidaymakers. Common causes are road accidents, balcony incidents and heart attacks. Meanwhile Malaga has seen a 45% increase over the last year alone. Jeremy Browne, Minister for Consular Services, said:>>>

Madrid's public squares

Plaza Mayor, one of many in Madrid

MADRID (BBC Travel) There are few grander public squares in Europe than Madrid’s Plaza Mayor, watched over on three sides by uniformly ochre-hued apartments with wrought-iron balconies, slate spires that dominated the city skyline in the 17th Century, and frescoes that turn golden at night on the square’s northern façade. First laid out in 1619, the plaza’s inauguration was auspicious. Its first public ceremony was the beatification of San Isidro, the patron saint of the city. But then in the 17th Century, supposed heretics were tried and executed here during the Spanish Inquisition -- burnings at the stake and deaths by garrotte took place on the north side of the square, hangings to the south. Later, the plaza hosted bullfights with 50,000 attendees, and royalty watched from their privileged balconies. Those same balconies became a negative focal point in 1673, when King Carlos II decreed that shopkeepers could raise tarpaulins above their stalls to fend off the raw sewage that the residents habitually tossed from the windows above. (Read the whole story, and more, on Madrid's Public Squares.

Capucine and her 'tara-tari' on their way to Miami

(Photo: europasur.es)

LA LÍNEA (Europa Sur) Tara-tari is a Bangladeshi fishing boat, nine meters long and two wide. Capucine Trochet is the French rower who pitched up in it at Alcaidesa over Easter, on her solo way from Marseilles to Miami. So far, the trip has taken five months - even though tara-tari means 'speedy' in the language of the Bangladeshi workshop where the boat was built. But hers is not just an adventure: through her 'sponsors', Watever, she wants to prove that the jute produced in Bangladesh can readily be considered a viable technical fibre with many industrial uses. "We want to go as far as possible," she told Europa Sur, "to study how the fibre reacts [to different conditions] and [how well it] ages. Also, there is a special philosophy about travelling like this, without electronics or instruments: it is possible to make your dreams come true quite cheaply. What I'm doing is not easy, but it is my dream. And it's also an adventure."

One in five travel agencies have closed down

SPAIN (Agencies) According to data obtained by a telephone information company, 11811, one in five travel agencies in Spain have closed since summer last year. This, says the survey, is the result of the crisis, travel being one of the first things to suffer in any kind of recession. Aside from that, online travel arrangements are fast overtaking the shop front options, particularly in terms of cost; until recently, the Internet was little used as a tool for purchasing, a foible that is changing rapidly. In Andalucía, about 15% of the agencies that were active in 2010, are now out of business.

88% of Brits want to move abroad

UK According to a survey by Skyscanner, the online travel outfit, 88% of Britons 'have in mind' moving to another country. The reasons: high cost of living in the UK, cheaper housing abroad, and better job opportunities. The first destination choice is Australia (15%), followed closely by Spain (14%), the preferred holiday destination. Behind that come the USA (13%), Canada (8%), New Zealand (7%), France (6%), Italy (5.5%), Cyprus (3%), Portugal (2.5%) and Thailand (2%). (Prospero note: What's the matter, don't they read the papers, these people?)

Thomas Cook to sell its hotels in Spain

SPAIN (Agencies) Thomas Cook, the British (now German-owned) travel agency founded in 1841, announced yesterday that it was seeking to sell its hotels in Spain as a way of raising some €80 million. Thomas Cook owns five hotels on the Balearic Islands and in Andalucía, run by Iberostar, as well as a golf resort in Cádiz.  The company is in what the Spanish media call 'a delicate situation' financially, its shares rose by 22% after the announcement, against a drop of 70% the day before.

Bland Group closes down Cadogan Holidays

Click on pic for more info

GIBRALTAR (GibChronicle) The Bland Group is closing down its luxury brand Cadogan Holidays after over 60 years in the market.  The decision was taken as part of a strategic move by the group to re-focus on destination management services in locations including Gibraltar and Morocco. Cadogan stopped accepting new bookings at 5pm on Monday but managing director Neil Chapman said the brand was not going into administration. All forward bookings would continue as planned and customers currently in destination will also complete their holiday.  “We are saying thank you and goodbye,” Mr Chapman told the UK trade magazine Travel Weekly.  “In the last 64 years the market has become a very different place. We are taking a structured approach and closing the brand. We are not going into administration - it is purely a shutdown of the brand. We will be working with our partners and suppliers to ensure all existing bookings continue exactly as planned.”

NH Hotels sells 20% to Chinese company

NH Almenara Golf Hotel & Spa

SPAIN (Agencies) Twenty percent of NH Hotels, the owners of the luxury Sotogrande resort and hotels in the area as well as all over Spain and other places in Europe, has been bought by the Chinese HNA corporation in a deal that was valued at €329.850 million, 23.5% less than the €431.6 originally anticipated. This valued each NH share at €5.35, less than the 24% talked about in May when the deal was first mooted, but 64% more than the share price at closing on Friday. The deal is expected to ease the Spanish company's entry into the Chinese market, for which there are plans to capitalize on the experience in the leisure resort industry acquired with the purchase of Sotogrande several years ago.

New regulations make it easier to take pets to UK, starting on January 1, 2012

UK Britain's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) announced recently that the rules for taking cats, dogs or ferrets into the UK change as from January 1 next year. You can see the new rules by clicking on the image, and get the whole picture at the appropriate DEFRA page. One of the first rules is to get your pet microchipped, which is obligatory (and much too expensive) in Spain for all three species. But the main change is the time the animal can travel after it has had its rabies vaccination - from six months at present, to 21 days on January 1st. (IF YOU FIND THIS ARTICLE INTERESTING, USEFUL OR ENTERTAINING, PLEASE CONSIDER THE WORK, EFFORT AND COST IT TAKES TO BRING IT TO YOU. WE WOULD APPRECIATE A DONATION TO CONTINUE A FREE SERVICE.)

Ryanair sizzles passengers in Seville

SEVILLA (Agencies) An 18 month old baby needed treatment for dehydration and several adults fainted after Ryanair left the passengers on one of its flights on the tarmac at Sevilla airport for over two hours without air-conditioning last week. El Mundo reports that temperatures rose to nearly 50 degrees as the delayed flight from Sevilla to Pisa sat on the tarmac between 12.40 and 14.50 during the heat of the day. What’s more there were not enough bottles of water to go round, and so these were given only to the children. The captain told the passengers, only in English and Italian, that the compressor had failed, and that he was unable to start either the plane’s engines or the air conditioning. He said that if the steps were lowered they would lose their flight slot.>>>

Thai guide leaves trail of fraud

Pedro Martí and wife

TARRAGOSA/Tortosa (Agencies) The last anybody heard from Pedro Martí Alcántara was on May 20 when he sent an email to some of the 1,000 people who thought they had booked a trip to Thailand through his website. "I am putting back the issuing of the reservation by four days due to a Buddhist festival in Thailand," he wrote. "The telephone doesn't stop ringing, I'm going as fast as I can. I can't cope with the pressure. I only ask for a bit of patience and you will all have your documentation. I'm sorry." After that the man from Tortosa (Tarragona province) hung a "closed" sign on his webpage, Siente Tailandia (or, Feel Thailand), and simply disappeared.

The Catalan police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, has issued an international arrest warrant for Martí. It is too early to talk about figures, as more affected people are coming forward every day, but the fraud could exceed 700,000 euros. The most fortunate have lost 300 euros, but others have paid 1,200 euros a head for flights and hotels.>

Spain faces another tourism related strike

SPAIN (Agencies/Image: RTVE.es) The Spanish tourism business is facing another strike by employees of AENA, the airports authority. The unions representing these employees have come together to announce a strike that totals 22 days, most of them coinciding with holidays of varying importance (See image of proposed dates, click to enlarge). The first strike protesting>

Top speed goes down to 110 'to save energy'

SPAIN (Agencies/Photo montage by EuropaSur) The Government announced this morning that it had decided to lower the top speed on autovías and autopistas (highways) from 120 Kph to 110, starting on March 7. According to Vice-President Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, this is a "temporary measure" and part of more plans aimed at saving energy, and is "closely related" to the rise in oil and petrol prices resulting from the situation in North Africa. Aside from this speed reduction, another two measures are being put in place:>

Holiday rental scams on the rise

SPAIN - Many people are at this very moment going through a collection of  this year's travel brochures; they are looking forward to their summer holidays as they are in the middle of winter. A lot of them are intent on renting a villa or apartment in Spain. Many of them will be the victims of fraud and holiday scams, subject not only to the loss of money but a great deal of heartbreak as well. The BBC's Fast:Track programme broadcast a travel item last Friday titled as above, Holiday rental scams on the rise, which featured disappointment not only in Spain but also in other places including Turkey, the USA, Thailand, and so on. Google holiday rentals scams spain and you will find about 6.6 million results. An  interesting article also comes from the home owner's viewpoint that focuses on how the owners of rental homes can get scammed, too (here's one: www.spain-holiday.com). As in so many others, that article includes words to the effect 'if it's too good to be true, it probably is'.

'Airlines are not allowed to charge for printing boarding passes'

SPAIN/Andalucía (Agencies/Image: illustration only, from www.terminalu.com) The Junta de Andalucía's Health Council (Consejería de Salud, also in charge of consumer affairs, in case you wondered) has issued a warning to remind passengers that, by law, airlines must issue a ticket free of charge. They can therefore not charge for printing up a boarding pass when a passage has been bought online. Some airlines have been charging up to €40, says the Council. The only document that is legally valid for passenger access to an aircraft is a boarding pass. The matter arises because there has been a considerable increase in the number of cases reported about airlines that emit a boarding pass or ticket online and then "convert what should be an option for passengers, into an obligation," says the press release. The note also reminds consumers that "not only can the airline not charge for a boarding pass, but nor can they deny acces to the aircraft if they refuse to issue the pass without charge;" this is a serious matter that could bring fines on the company ranging from €5.001 to €30.000.>

17 Guardia at Málaga airport charged with taking bribes

MÁLAGA (Agencies) Seventeen members of the Guardia Civil fiscal unit stationed at Málaga Airport will be facing a court in the next few days. The are all charged with allegedly taking bribes from non-EU passengers and allowing them to bring in illegal foodstuffs and/or items subject to tax. The extorsion racket dates back to the first investigations that began in 2005. It was common knowledge in China, for instance, that it was advisable to disembark at the airport with a €50 bill in hand so as to avoid problems on arrival.>