A Trip News

Abu Dhabi-based real estate developer, Aldar Properties, has said that it has completed infrastructure-related work on Yas Island, where the inaugural Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix is scheduled to be held on 1 November. Gulf News reported Aldar’s Director of Planning and Infrastructure, Talal Al Dhiyebi, as saying that the facilities are now in the final stages of testing. He added that seven hotels on Yas Island are in the process of being handed over to the operators.CNTA chiefs to visit PATA Travel (more…)

The Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA) is going to organize China Road Show in various Chinese cities with the aim of promoting Nepal Tourism Year 2011, The Kathmandu Post reported on Friday.
    According to the daily, the road show is scheduled to be held in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong on Aug. 29-Sept. 5.
    Nepali tourism entrepreneurs will be showing documentaries about Nepali tourism products and selling various packages to (more…)

A gas leak has forced the evacuation of hundreds of businesses, including the Gold Coast Marriott Courtyard Hotel, in the centre of Surfers Paradise.
Thousands of holiday-makers, residents and workers have been ordered to leave Cavill Avenue, as a two-kilometre exclusion zone has been established around the retail strip.
It is understood police detected the gas leak about 9.15am and blocked off the mall from Hanlan Street, Elkhorn Avenue and Surfers Paradise Boulevard.
The gas mains has (more…)

Five former Dutch street dwellers are soon to become official tour guides, showing visitors around their former haunts in the central city of Utrecht, organisers said on Wednesday.
Having completed formal training through the tourism bureau, the group will take up their duties from September 13, said Simone Lensink, a spokeswoman for the welfare organisation Altrecht, which is behind the project.
“The idea is for people to rediscover the town and in particular those areas where their guides (more…)

Overseas nightmare … George Dobson.
Father of four and grandfather of two George Dobson turned 65 in a hospital in New Delhi last Sunday and is still trying to  adjust mentally to his new life as a quadriplegic. He had no travel insurance and his family in Australia are desperately trying to raise the funds to bring him home.
Mr Dobson, who was in India with friends, was walking along a steep mountain road in a town called Mussoorie on August 16, when he tripped and fell about 15 metres (more…)

WHO: Kerri, 36, and Rick Walter, 51, of Derry, N.H.
WHERE: Japan
WHEN: One week in March
WHY: “I taught English in Japan from 1998-2002 and wanted to go back and visit some friends and have Rick see where I lived,’’ said Kerri Walter. “We picked March because we wanted to try and see cherry blossoms.’’
HONEYMOON VOYAGE: In what was also a belated honeymoon (they were (more…)

Southwest Airlines Co., the largest U.S. low-fare carrier, has obtained approval from authorities to continue to fly planes with unauthorized parts before replacements are made by Christmas eve, reports said Wednesday.
    The Texas-based airline said it reached an agreement with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday to extend the replacement schedule for certain exhaust gate assembly parts.
    Replacements have been made on 43 of (more…)