12 Tips to Pack Your Bags for Your Next Vacation

The key to packing is doing your vacation travel planning ahead of time.. With just a little preparation and the following tips, you'll never have to think, 'did I forget my toothbrush' again.

1. Reading is a favourite vacation pastime, but books can be bulky. Consider buying used paperbacks and leaving them behind when you are done. You'll have more room in your bags for souvenirs and someone else can share in a good read.

2. If you travel with glasses or contacts, always bring a backup pair in case you lose or break your primary pair. If you don't have an extra pair, bring along a current copy of your prescription so you can go to a one-hour eye centre to get a replacement. Nothing is worse than not being able to see all the great new sites.

3. It is also important to not travel with your child's one and only special blanket or stuffed animal. What happens if it gets lost in Des Moines? Consider cutting a small piece or two of the blanket off and reserving that for travel. Find another stuffed animal that most closely resembles the one you have or pick a new one, have your child name it and call it your child's travel buddy.

4. Call ahead to see if there is a hairdryer in the hotel or motel room. If your hotel room has one, which all Best Westerns do, you won't have to worry about converters or the extra space a hairdryer consumes.

5. Shoes can get your garments dirty. Consider using plastic shower caps or old socks to cover the soles and protect the rest of your items.

6. Pack empty duffle bags in your luggage. They come in handy for all of the great souvenirs you pick up during your travels and help you avoid shipping items home.

7. Never put your home address on your luggage. Not only is it much safer, what good does it do when you are leaving for vacation? Use your cell phone number so you can be contacted immediately. Leave the address blank or use your business address.

8. Every hotel room should have a plastic bag in the closet for dry cleaning. This is a great bag to use for dirty laundry, damp clothes or miscellaneous items. In fact, it's not a bad idea to stick a few plastic grocery bags down in the corner of your luggage.

9. There's no need to take full size toiletries that take up a lot of room. You can either buy the little travel size items at the drugstore, purchase the plastic containers and fill them yourself or use film roll canisters as an inexpensive alternative. You must however take into consideration the airline policies regarding taking liquids on board aircraft.

10. If you're traveling with small children, consider packing a complete outfit in a resealable freezer bag. This way you can easily get the kids dressed in the hotel room without going through the entire suitcase. They will also be amused that they have their very own special bag of clothes to get dressed with by themselves.

11. A good rule of thumb when traveling with infants is to pack all colour coordinated separates. This way if something gets spilled you only have to change out part of the outfit instead of the entire thing.

12. Pick a colour scheme for your wardrobe and stick to it. This is helpful, because it limits the number of colour-coordinated shoes that need to be packed. If you can get away with only packing a few shoes your bags will be lighter and easier to carry.

Aussies Look for Bargains Above All Else

Two-thirds of Australian travellers enjoy their vacations more when they know they have scored a great deal, a recent survey has revealed.

The study, conducted by a major Internet travel company, also found that 56 per cent of Aussie travellers book their holidays based purely on the best available deals, and not on locations.

“It came as little surprise that our research also revealed holiday package deals are king, with 71 per cent of respondents saying they always look for package deals and want to see more of them,” company representative and Singapore managing director Brad Gurrie said.

“Holiday packages are a time- and cost-effective option, giving you the most bang for your buck and often enabling you to travel further afield.”

According to Mr Gurrie, a holiday for Australians is all about having a “life experience”, be it discovering other cultures or simply “what’s in your own backyard”.

The survey, which polled 1,786 subscribers to the travel website, further revealed that 55 per cent of travellers would book a holiday simply because an offer was “too good to pass up”.

Virgin Blue Uniforms a Pain in the Neck

If it’s not hard enough already being a flight attendant, now Virgin Blue staff have to attend stylish but troublesome new uniforms.
The new uniforms seem to be a big hit with everyone – except, apparently, those poor staff members who have to wear them.

Last weekend Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph got hold of an internal email that revealed staff at the airline have been suffering from “very painful” rashes after wearing the uniforms. They have been advised to wash their uniforms with fabric softener before putting them on.

Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has received at least four complaints from Virgin Blue staff since the uniforms were unveiled three weeks ago, the newspaper revealed.

Launched in a fanfare of publicity by Elle Macpherson, the uniforms were designed by Project Runway’s Juli Grbac. But they use a lot of polyester, including a 100% polyester lining.

The paper quoted a male staff member, who spoke anonymously, saying how the polyester-blend fabric of the new shirts gave him repeated rashes on his neck. He claimed the uniforms “suffocate” the wearer.

Others expressed doubts about their suitability in an emergency, with a female flight attendant saying the uniform wouldn’t let her lift her arms above her shoulder – and wondering how polyester would perform in a fire.

Flight Attendant Fired After Placing Baby in Overhead Bin

Okay, we love flight attendants and despite what people think, they have a pretty tough job but we just had to go “Doh!!” when we heard the following story.

A Virgin Blue flight attendant has been sacked after he placed a 17 month old boy in the overhead bin during a game of peek-a-boo.

During the flight from Fiji to Sydney the flight attendant and Natalie Williamson (17 month old, Riley’s mother) were playing the child’s game with the young boy when the crew member suddenly picked up the child, placed him the in overhead bin and left him in total darkness for up to 10 second, The Huffington Post reported.

Ms Williamson told media that she was crying and her husband also travelling on the flight was in shock, while other passengers laughed at the flight attendant’s action.
Virgin Blue admitted to the source that an incident had occurred, the crew member had lost his position with the airline and the Williamsons had been offered three free flights which are yet to be claimed by the family.

(Source: eTravelBlackboard 7th March 2011)

London 2012

The royal wedding comes just one year before the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics, for which the country has been gearing up for years.

More than 8 million tickets will be available to the Olympics and 2 million to the Paralympics. VisitBritain estimates that the Games will generate between 500,000 and 900,000 visitors to London.

After the International Olympic Committee awarded the Games to London in 2005, VisitBritain commissioned an Oxford Economics study, which found that the events could generate $3 billion in tourism gains for the country, 54% of which will be realized after the Games are over.

"Part of VisitBritain's strategy is to close the sale after the Games," Clarkson said. "That's why it's tied into a four-year marketing campaign."

But the Olympics have long been a controversial topic within the travel industry, and not everyone shares VisitBritain's optimism about the opportunities the Games represent.

The European Tour Operators Association, for example, has long cited the adverse effects that hosting the Olympic Games can have on a leisure travel destination.

When the ETOA surveyed 200 tour operators at its annual Global European Marketplace event in November, 68% said they expected business to fall off in London in 2012, and among those respondents, the average anticipated drop was 30%.

"No Olympic Games have been able to estimate demand with any accuracy," Tom Jenkins, executive director of ETOA, said in a statement. "Every city has believed that more foreign visitors will come than actually materialize. Thus, the principal danger of the Games is the imbalance between perception and reality."

The Olympics typically present several challenges for the leisure travel industry, the key challenge being a displacement of leisure travelers as throngs of sports fans take over a destination. Many leisure tour operators, in fact, go dark for the destination during the Games.

Another complicating issue is the fact that much of the business surrounding the Games is controlled by the local organizing committee. Indeed, 65% of London's hotel inventory for the event will be surrendered to the London Organizing Committee for the 2012 Games, Rodrigues said.

Yet, VisitBritain remains optimistic about hosting the Olympics, arguing that whatever leisure tourists are lost during the Games will be won back after the closing ceremonies.

Britain: You're invited - Book Accommodation with Metrostar.com

As the U.K. recovers from several years of disappointing visitor numbers, one might almost suspect that Prince William had his kingdom's tourism prospects in mind last November when he proposed to longtime girlfriend and future British princess Kate Middleton.

The royal wedding, which will take place on April 29, provides just the kind of promotional opportunities, media frenzy and public curiosity that destination marketing organizations dream of.

Moreover, it rounds out a perfect tourism trifecta, coming just as the country prepares to host the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games and planning gets under way to celebrate the queen's 60th anniversary Diamond Jubilee in June 2012.

Close to 1 billion TV viewers watched the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer in 1981, according to VisitBritain, the country's tourism marketing arm. This year, VisitBritain is citing predictions that up to 4 billion people, three-quarters of the potential global TV audience, could watch the wedding of Will and Kate.

Given those kinds of expectations, it's little wonder that VisitBritain wasted no time capitalizing on the hype surrounding the royal vows, which it hopes will combine with the Jubilee and the Olympics to create a momentum that will continue to draw visitors well after the final event is history.

Karen Clarkson, VisitBritain's vice president for North America, said that just after William and Kate say their "I do's" in April, "VisitBritain's plan is to launch a four-year marketing campaign that will capitalize on events taking place, including the royal wedding."

The campaign, she said, will be built around the slogan "Britain: You're Invited," a message that's intended to let visitors know "you're invited to join us during an extended period of celebration."

VisitBritain is keeping details of the campaign under wraps until its May launch, but Clarkson said consumers and the travel trade should expect to see it trumpeted across every available medium, from TV to print to social media.

The campaign is expected to pump an additional $3 billion in visitor spending into the British economy and create 50,000 jobs by drawing an additional 4 million visitors to the country over the next four years.

(Source: TravelWeekly.com)

Malaysia Aiming for More Australian Tourists

Tourism Malaysia hopes to attract 660,000 Australian visitors to the country in 2011, an increase of 80,000 on last year.

Speaking at a reception for guests of the Malaysian Homestay Programme famil, as well as to industry representatives, Tourism Malaysia Marketing Deputy Director Dato’ A. Amirrudin said that Australia had long been one of the “top ten” sources of visitors to the country.

“More than 580,000 Australians visited Malaysia last year, an increase of over 9 per cent on the year before … and with the favourable Australian dollar, we look forward to welcoming more Australians to our shores this year,” Mr Amirrudin said.

The lunch, held at Kuala Lumpur’s Seri Pacific Hotel, gave Mr Amirrudin the opportunity to speak candidly on behalf of Malaysia’s Homestay Programme.

“You have to experience the Homestay Programme to appreciate it,” Mr Amirrudin said, adding that everyone involved in its organisation was “passionate” about the programme.

“The success of the Homestay Programme depends on the entire community: the farmers, the police, the manufacturers of traditional crafts.”

According to Mr Amirrudin, the programme welcomed 50,000 participants in 2010, 2003 of which were Australians.

“The Homestay Programme is basically like a farmstay in Australia, but you stay in a village situation,” Mr Amirrudin said.

With a location halfway between Europe and Australia, Mr Amirrudin also emphasised the importance of short-term visitors to Malaysia.

“Around 50 per cent of visitors to the country are from stopovers,” Mr Amirrudin told e-Travel Blackboard.

Following the lunch, the Homestay Programme famil winners were officially presented with their prizes.

Are you an Aussie and looking for a great holiday experience? Even if you are not an Aussie why not check out Malaysia.

(Source: eTravelBlackboard 4^th March 2011)

Check out the great hotels deals in Malaysia http://www.metrostar.com/kualalumpur/