Restaurant review: Manly Pavilion

The Manly culinary revolution is now in full swing. The latest opening is the finest yet and will have rivals across the harbour heads wondering “where is everyone?” Written by Justin Wastnage.

The following article originally appeared in Australian Traveller magazine.

Seven miles from Sydney, a thousand miles from care” was how Manly used to portray itself on steamship posters. For decades the Insular Peninsula has liked to pretend that it's somehow not part of metropolitan Sydney, a half-truth belied by the hordes of suited, boardroom-bound commuters thronging its ferries each day.

The transition from seaside resort town to outlying suburb has been an easy one for Manly.

A seemingly never-ending flow of Poms have set up home over the past 20 years, their hitherto powerful pound propelling house prices into the unimaginable levels of the Eastern Suburbs. But Manly has suffered from a perceived lack of sophistication compared to the sought-after South Head suburbs.

The freshly renovated Manly Pavilion is part of a new wave of north shore re-awakening that includes China Beach and Pilu at Freshwater. No longer content to play step-brother to Sydney’s urbane ways, a clutch of new openings has gone some way to restoring the dented pride felt when Will & Toby’s upped sticks two years ago.

Like its near-namesake Balmoral, Manly Pavilion was built in 1933 as a bather’s pavilion. After extensive remodelling by Squillace Nicholas Architects that includes the restoration of Italian marble terrazzo stairs, Manly Pavilion has more grandeur than its iconic rivals in Bondi.

The setting, too, rivals Bondi. Perched like a wedding cake on a promontory overlooking Manly Cove, Manly Pavilion has unrivalled views over the comings-and-goings of North Head, the ferries providing a perfect accompaniment to your meal.

Head chef Jonathan Barthelmess (who regularly tops up-and-coming chef lists) draws less on his own Greek-Australian heritage than the Italian lessons he learnt from former mentor Steve Manfredi at Coast, where he earned a prized chef’s hat in 2007.

Yet having spent little more than a holiday in Italy, the influences in Barthelmess’s food are distinctly second-generation. The flavour-driven simplicity of the Mediterranean produce shines through – despite lacking some of the technique normally acquired during a European apprenticeship.

Guided by the well-trained personnel, we start with grilled buffalo mozzarella delivered on a lemon leaf as an oyster sits on its shell. Covered simply with salt crystals and olive oil, the excellence of the single ingredient infused with lemon overtones is sublime.

Next up, a refreshing cuttlefish salad; with only the merest hint of aniseed coming from the fennel it’s mixed with and with eggplant to balance out its texture. The snapper sashimi similarly demonstrates the outstanding quality of the chef’s suppliers. However, two other courses on the degustation, the crostini and the scampi, would not have been out of place in a good café, save for perfect presentation.

A local feral hog supplier is no doubt rubbing his hands in glee at the news that a sublimely smooth wild boar ragù is one of the signature dishes here. The flavours are delicate, not robust, with the base ingredients of onion, carrot and celery still evident. The pasta was al dente, but a little too smooth for the rich sauce to cling to adequately.

The grilled short rib on the bone was the flashiest display of technique. Tender but with a beautiful crust – almost certainly cooked sous-vide then gently braised – the beef melted in the mouth. I would have preferred the option to soak up the melted marrow with bread, but my side plate had been cleared away long ago.

Rice pudding at the end of a big meal is a brave call, but the Manly Pavilion’s pastry chef has the ability to surprise and delight in equal measures with the budino, which is lifted immeasurably by the candied apple.
Like the waiting room, where a lurid turquoise chaise longue breaks the otherwise sleek elegance of the interiors, there are some aspects of the Manly Pavilion menu that do not quite work. The density of tables, for example: diners are crammed a little too tightly together, leaving servers to raise their voices to be heard.

Yet there are simple extra touches – like embroidered scarves to keep outside diners warm, or the 375mL carafes that open up the wine options beyond glass-or-bottle – that work very well indeed.
The menu, too, works extremely well, as the young chef has stuck to letting the superiority of his fresh ingredients shine through. An impressive cocktail list, with a whole page devoted to Campari-led mixes, shows Manly Pavilion’s desire to ape Eastern Suburbs trends.

There is some evidence it’s working too:
a table of young girls with super-sized sunglasses lent the dining room some glamour, and the presence of a former athlete added a frisson of celebrity excitement.

What’s the gossip?
Here’s what other reviewers have said:
“This is exhilarating food of great lightness and freshness from a sensitive chef . . .” Terry Durack, The Sydney Morning Herald.
“The food is fresh in both its thinking and execution, and resonates beautifully with the setting.” Pat Nourse, Gourmet Traveller.

The AT Verdict
Justin Wastnage, who paid his own way and visited anonymously, says:
“Manly’s desire to be taken seriously has taken a massive step forward with the Pavilion. The quality of the ingredients, seasonal use of produce and perfection of cooking make Manly Pavilion the north shore’s first destination restaurant.”

AT Menu
Stuzzichini: Mozzarella di bufala grilled on a lemon leaf with extra virgin oil $12
Crostini del giorno $12
Antipasti: Grilled scampi, celery ragù and bagna cauda $28
Cuttlefish, fennel, eggplant and lemon $26
Raw snapper dressed with white balsamic, capers and parsley $24
Pasta: Pappardelle with wild boar ragù, verjus and mascarpone $24
Carne: Grilled beef short rib with bone marrow, olive and a cress salad $38
Dolci: Rice budino, candied apple and toasted farro gelato $14

Drinks: Negroni cocktail
2008 Matthias & Emile Roblin “Terres Blanches” Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc
2006 Bannockburn “The Bruce” Cabernet Shiraz Merlot

Total cost: $280.50

Where // Esplanade, Cnr Commonwealth Parade, Manly.
Notes // Stuzzichini from $9; antipasti & pasta from $22; mains from $34.
Contact // (02) 9949 9011, www.manlypier.com

A fare sign of the times

Source: Travel Weekly
Australian cities saw the sharpest decline in average fares in the beginning of this year against other destinations, driven by strong low cost carriers, as Justin Wastnage writes

Viewers of Air Ways, the fly-on-the-wall documentary following the often-beleaguered passengers of Tiger Airways, must be forgiven for thinking
why the airline ever agreed to the project. Frazzled travellers scream abuse at its check-in staff, flight delays are dwelled upon and frayed tempers
are highlighted.
Yet Tiger, the Australian offshoot of Singapore’s largest low-cost carrier, know that the shots of its distinctly no-frills Melbourne barn-cum-terminal
reinforce the view in people’s minds that its fares are the cheapest. The show also reinforces the fact that you have to check in 40 minutes before the flight,
as Tiger saves on personnel by re using check-in clerks as gate staff.
The Tiger effect is marked when you look at average ticket prices last year in Sydney and Melbourne compared with other cities around the world. A
global study of over 400 travel management companies (TMCs) completed by Expedia’s corporate travel sister site Egencia, found a 27% drop in average ticket prices last year for tickets to Sydney and a 25% drop among those to the Victorian capital. The company’s
2010 Corporate Travel Global Benchmarking Study found airfares in other major cities around the world rose slightly towards the end of last year. Fares
between most North American cities were up by around 10% to 15%, while those between European cities were around 7% more expensive than the year
before.
Even looking wider in the region to other popular business destinations for Australians, many Asia-Pacific carriers have maintained or increased
capacity in contrast to their European and North American counterparts, resulting in downward pressure on prices. Thus other major Asia-Pacific
destinations showed a slight decrease in prices such as Shanghai (down 8%), Singapore (down 8%) and Tokyo (down 7%).
Egencia said the main driver for lower Australian fares was the
competition for domestic routes that heated up between Jetstar and Virgin Blue, as well as Tiger. There are currency fluctuations too, in that the global
report is collated in US dollars and the Aussie dollar’s strong performance has made domestic airfares appear cheaper than they really are to a foreign
audience.
Nonetheless, Ken Pfaffmann, country director for Egencia Australia said that June 2010 had a “different pricing picture” compared to the same time last
year. “Corporate travellers are returning to the air and road, but companies are still seeking to control spend. Given increased airline competition around
price in Australia, we believe continued focus on air policy compliance is the biggest cost savings opportunity for corporations versus 2009,” he said.
More specifically, some 54% of the travel buyers surveyed still saw cost control and reducing expenses as a top priority, compared with only 17% who
saw traveller satisfaction as paramount.
But there is definitely good news on the horizon, Pfaffman said. Firstly, there is proof of an upswing in another metric: average hotel room rates in
Sydney, which crept up 2% in the first half of this year for the first time in two years, according to the report.
But the detail of Egencia’s survey of more than 400 travel buyers points to better news. Over half expect their travel volumes to increase during the
remainder of 2010, with 17% planning to change their travel policies during the year. Additionally, 45% of travel buyers said they will negotiate more this
year than they did in 2009, he said.
It was changes in these policies that pushed many corporate travellers into the arms of the low-cost carriers such as Tiger last year. Many will have
found that, for the sake of a few frills, travelling cattle class can save a few shekels. Whether the trend will last is anyone’s guess.

Oxley Boatshed, Hawkesbury River

The following article originally appeared in Australian Traveller magazine, May 2010

Cut off from land with nothing but the sound of lapping waves and encroaching wildlife to contend with, Justin Wastnage recently introduced his wife, his newborn son and his visiting British parents to the joys of riverside living. What could be more relaxing? Words and images by Justin Wastnage, who paid his own way and visited anonymously.

There’s nothing a visiting Pom loves more than a brush with our native fauna, especially if a nature documentary has told them it will kill them. So I was surprised at how muted the shriek that emanated from the bathroom was. My stepmother had been quietly minding her own business when a classic hand-sized huntsman revealed itself to her by emerging from its spidery hiding place and shimmying up the wall.

I was far from surprised at the hairy-legged arrival, being as we were in a hut (albeit a very well-appointed one) an hour north of Sydney on the edge of the Popran National Park. My stepmother, however, was less sanguine about the incident, which would have convinced her to pack up and leave had we not been marooned with only a tiny runabout skiff to take us back down the Hawkesbury River to Kangaroo Point and civilisation.

Her scream would have been louder, but for the fact that she and my father were over from the UK to visit their newest grandson, who was fast asleep and oblivious to the ruckus your average Australian arachnid can cause. He’d not been fed the constant diet we British get served up on our TV screens of the Crocodile Hunter, shark attacks and reality shows that pit unwitting C-list celebrities against the horrors of the Australian bush.

So while I calmly coaxed the huntsman down from the wall and into a cup, my stepmother retreated to the safety of the decking. We had another three days together, my wife, my son, my parents and the wildlife. Luckily the Oxley Boatshed has plenty of space.

A converted working boatshed, the building was beautifully restored into a private weekender before the owners begrudgingly turned it over to the holiday rental market. Approaching it by water taxi, its burgundy sliding doors are framed by black-stained timber. Inside we find massive floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows, incongruous in a boatshed, that separate us from the forest.

Continue reading the article on the Australian Traveller website

WEEKEND SUNRISE - Travel scams

Justin Wastnage interviewed on Weekend Sunrise by Samantha Armytage and Larry Emdur on avoiding travel scams.
Originally broadcast on Channel 7 on Saturday 27 March 2010 at 0750.

Fare go: long-haul costs rise

Justin Wastnage quoted in article by Jessica Mahar published in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on January 22, 2010

TRAVELLERS flying home to Australia from Britain in economy class have to pay air passenger duty of £55 ($98), and it will rise to £85 from November. For those in premium economy, business or first class the duty will be doubled.

The British Government raised the charges in November, the rate depending on the distance travelled. Australia is in the ''more than 6000 miles'' bracket and is charged at the highest rate.

Airlines and tourism industry representatives protested about the increased duties, and the president of Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Richard Branson, condemned them as ''unjust taxes''.

The duties were designed as a tax to account for the impact aviation has on the environment, which increases as people travel further. Virgin Atlantic encourages all its passengers to protest against the tax.

Nick Larkworthy of Virgin Atlantic said: ''A further increase in air passenger duty by the UK Government under the guise of an 'environmental' tax will adversely affect Australians travelling to the UK and vice versa.''

The news editor at Travel Weekly, Justin Wastnage, said the tax might appease people's guilt at travelling longer distances.

People might take flights from Britain to the Continent, and fly home from other cities on the Continent, he said. ''There will be dodges and weaves around it.''

A spokesman for Flight Centre, Haydn Long, said that while fares to Britain were cheap people were less likely to care about the taxes.

Read the article in its original form by clicking here.

Yemen's problems evident at the border

The following article originally appeared in the National Times on 7 January 2010 and on The Age and Sydney Morning Herald websites.

To read the article as it originally appeared, please click here.

Stepping inside Yemen even briefly cements the view that it is a failed state.

Admittedly one should never judge a book by its cover, but you can learn a lot about a country from its border. Mexicans, for example, would be horrified to think of Tijuana as a showcase for their country, but the infamous underage drinking town over the border from San Diego gives a glimpse into this vibrant, chaotic and exciting country, albeit with a heavy extra dose of seediness.

Crossing into Yemen gives a similarly superficial yet informative peek at the country's psyche. On a recent trip to neighbouring Oman, I goaded my guide to take me up to the border and then over it. Nervous, he suggested leaving our car and both my passport and camera at the Omani customs post and continuing on foot. Over the course of a kilometre or so of no-man's land, the contrast between the well-ordered, prosperous sultanate and the strife-torn state became more and more apparent. The road changed from a level, sealed highway to a pot-holed, rutted track held together, it seemed, by weeds.

At the Omani border post, smartly uniformed guards line vehicles up into neatly marked car parks before efficiently reviewing the documents of each person. Things are a little different down the road. Once at the border, marked with a faded "Welcome to Yemen" sign, the rusted gate is propped up to just over a car's height, to save border guards the inconvenience of having to raise it. Not that the border guards are evident. We found them playing cards in a decrepit building some time after we had strayed into their territory. Shirts open to the chest, heavily stubbled and cheeks full of the mild narcotic qat, the two guards excitedly stood up. They were excited at the prospect of fleecing a Westerner. A day's entry visa was offered for US$100, immediately reduced to $50 and then slashed to $30 by his colleague.

My guide Salim had had to be cajoled to cross the border, even briefly. He had been to Yemen twice, once wearing the white ankle-length, collarless gown worn by most Omanis. This attracted so much unwanted attention from hawkers, conmen and assorted vendors that the following time he shed the dishdasha and donned Western clothes. Omanis, especially those from the southern province of Dhofar, have strong cultural ties with those over the border in the north of Yemen, yet most Omanis felt a mix of fear, pity and shame for Yemeni. Salim said he would rather travel to the duller Gulf States or Saudi, rather than run the gauntlet of having car parts stolen at traffic lights or of the constant attempts to relieve him of money, or of the random gunshots that ricochet across Sana'a streets.

He also had a fear of the qat hours. Yemeni men of all social classes retreat into darkened rooms in the early afternoon with a small bush of the herb and quietly get themselves stupefied until after dark. Nothing can be achieved after about 3pm in Yemen, he said. This, Salim, ventured, was the root cause of Yemen's decline. Qat is chewed widely in Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea, but is illegal in everywhere in Arabian Peninsula countries except Yemen. Today some 80 per cent of Yemenis chew qat regularly, or almost 100 per cent of men and half of all the country's women. The use of the drug, forbidden by the Koran, has quadrupled in the two decades since North Yemen and South Yemen officially united, according to Yemeni researcher Ali Al-Zubaidi. The country has, many Omanis mutter, chewed itself into a stupor.

Many Omanis also point to another failure in their troublesome neighbour. Yemen is a republic. Furthermore it has some semblance of democracy. Salim, a well-educated, thoughtful man, pointed out that all of the democracies in the Arab world were the least stable and most problematic. He confidently proclaimed democracy to be incompatible with Arabia. Oman's own ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said, has used extensive largesse and wealth redistribution to win the support of his own people. Dhofar contrasts so dramatically with Mahra on the Yemeni side in part due to Sultan Qaboos' desire to enrich the region after quelling a communist insurgency in the 1970s. Today the rugged hills that span the border land are bisected by British-built highways and every dwelling has running water and free electricity. A few kilometres away in Yemen, most of the same Mehri, or mountain-dwelling people, eke out a living for less than $US1 a day.

I have crossed many borders in my life and each leaves a lasting impression of the country you are about to enter. Italian border guards once took exception to me unintentionally driving around the back of their customs post at 2am and responded by taking my rental car to parts. But it was done with good humour and underlined to me that they took their job seriously. Crossing from Zambia into Botswana you are not only struck by the marked difference in wealth between the two countries, but also by the lines of trucks queued up, willing to undertake a diversion and river crossing by barge to avoid entering Zimbabwe. Yet the Yemeni border sticks in my mind as the least inviting customs post I have come across. Chaos, corruption and cronyism are sadly all too apparent in Yemen, even at its front door.

Justin Wastnage is the news editor at Travel Weekly.

Weekend Sunrise - Luxury travel segment

The following video originally aired on Australia's Channel 7's Weekend Sunrise on January 3, 2010 at 0845


Sarah Cumming looks at the holiday habits of the rich and famous. Travel journalist Justin Wastnage and Bridget Daly from Hollyscoop talk about what money can and can't buy celebrity vacationers.

Click here to go to the Channel 7 Weekend Sunrise website.
Or click here to view the video clip on the Channel 7 website.

Burma travel boycott hypocritical and usless

The following article originally appeared on the National Times on December 22, 2009.

Rangoon could be Asia's Havana. Crumbling colonial architecture quietly decays in the tropical heat while patched-up automotive relics lumber around pot-holed streets. But the former Burmese capital is resolutely off most travellers' itineraries.

Instead, stray dogs growl menacingly at passers-by on the wide boulevards of the city's colonial quarter. The few foreigners taking tea at the impressively restored Strand Hotel are on government business. The other Westerners you see darting out of the 1970s Mazda B400 taxis are reluctant to stop and talk, presumably because they are involved in the less noble trade of sanctions-busting.

Even old South-East Asian hands shun Burma. The reason is the well-funded Burma Campaign, which counts among its supporters high-profile politicians such as former British prime minister Tony Blair and Hollywood A-listers including Jennifer Aniston, Woody Harrelson and Jim Carey. Tourism brings an unacceptable veneer of respectability to a vile regime, runs the campaign's logic.

The group also uses media-friendly guerilla tactics. Its activists recently hijacked the Qantas annual general meeting in Perth over Jetstar's decision to include Rangoon in its route network. Lonely Planet is another high-profile Australian company to feature on the campaign's "black list" of companies "propping up the regime".

Yet there has been a shift in recent years from other pro-Burmese pressure groups away from this hardline approach. The Free Burma Coalition, comprised mainly of exiled Burmese, now fully supports tourism and travel to Myanmar, believing the benefits of contact to outweigh the implied show of support travel brings. In August, Aung San Suu Kyi, the jailed beacon of Burmese democracy and postergirl for freedom activists around the world, appeared to reverse her previously vocal opposition to tourism in comments leaked to the international press.

It is likely that Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) will stop short of a full u-turn until such a policy shift can be used as a bargaining chip to guarantee next year's planned election. Unlike the Government's big foreign currency earners, petroleum exploration and logging, tourism's economic impact is tiny. But its political impact is huge and any NLD endorsement has the potential to unlock the pent-up demand for travel to this unspoilt, quintessentially Indochinese land.

To read more of this article, please go to the original article on the National Times site by clicking this link.

Qantas seeks airport harmony

This article originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia

Alan Joyce, Qantas chief executive, has plans to turn around the image of the national carrier. Reducing airport processing time is the first step, Justin Wastnage writes.

Despite being integral to virtually every trip, few people rave about their airport experiences. It is true that some architectural triumphs exist, such as Seoul's Incheon, Hong Kong's new terminal and just about any airport in Spain. But by and large airports are places most travellers would rather spend less, rather than more time.
Unusually for an airline not famed for responding to customer feedback, Qantas appears to have taken this onboard. After his first year as chief executive, Alan Joyce appears to be finally stepping out of the shadow of predecessor Geoff Dixon and is hoping to change the company around. Citing companies such as Tiffany & Co., Mercedes-Benz and Apple, Joyce told Travel Weekly at the National Aviation Press Club that he wants Qantas to become a customer service-led innovative company "owning the premium space".
First step towards this somewhat unlikely goal is to halve waiting time at airports through the use of nifty technology. Starting with Perth in mid-2010 then extending to Sydney, Melbourne and other capital cities, Qantas domestic terminals will use radio frequency identification tags similar to office swipe cards to check in frequent flyers.
Technology aside, what the project reveals about Joyce's ambitions for Qantas is somewhat of an admission of its past failures. Over 1,600 staff have been processed through the airline's charm school, the $10 million Centre of Excellence, after customers complained about surly staff. As proof of the success of the reprogramming, in August Qantas scored the highest customer satisfaction score in its history, Joyce said.
"Qantas will not be Jetstarised. Qantas is our iconic, premium airline brand; it has enduring value," Joyce said in reference to assumptions that the profitable low-cost division would slowly take over the airline group. Joyce instead aims to capture more slices of the market than it currently holds and premium is an important slice that will grow again after the current slump is over.

The world in 2029

The following article originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia

If you want to know where demand for travel is going over the next two decades, ask Airbus and Boeing. Both manufacturers' forecasts place Australia in a fast growing part of the world, as Justin Wastnage found out recently

In tough times, you like to be able to see a way out. There is now a wealth of economic data showing that Australia has dodged the global slump bullet, but a little less data when it comes specifically to travel. But Airbus and Boeing, manufacturers of the bulk of the world's aircraft, have teams of econometrics experts crunching the numbers on air transport trends. And because planes fly for at least 20 years, their forecasts are pretty far reaching.
They are also remarkably reliable. Boeing has been surveying since 1961 and Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes says the almost 50 years of data provide some very clear examples of how air travel always digs itself out of recession. The charts also provide some long-term growth trends that are hard to mistake. His Airbus counterpart, John Leahy, the airframer's chief operating officer for customers, concurs, saying that growth in air transport always tracks growth in the real economy, but grows twice as quickly. Average growth in air travel has been 5.2% per year in the past 30 years, despite the economy growing by only 3% on average over the same period. Passenger ticket sales have doubled every 15 years, Airbus data shows, says Leahy.
When the economy will pick up is the big question on everyone's lips. Leahy neatly sums up the analysis by saying that while "history never repeats itself, history does tend to rhyme." Airbus sees a recovery in air transport by the middle of next year, with 6% to 10% growth again by 2011. Boeing, meanwhile says that next year will see a global economic recovery, but that it will take another year for airlines to become profitable and thus start buying aircraft again.
This augers well for anyone who sells travel for the next 20 years, both manufacturers agree. Boeing suggests demand for airline tickets will increase by 4.1% every year until 2029. However, both forecasts show flights to and from Australia growing at a much quicker rate than other parts of the world. Tinseth points to figures showing that only New Zealanders, Singaporeans and Hong Kongers take more airline trips than Aussies every year.
Currently around a third of the aircraft sold in the world (and thus airline tickets) are from the US or Canada. Europe has a quarter of the world's air traffic, while Asia provides another quarter. This ratio will be flipped on its head over the next 20 years, says Leahy. Asia will be the big growth area, with China and India <[stk -1]>unsurprisingly supplying the most growth. This will be good for Australia, he says, because we enjoy cultural links with both countries. India has Commonwealth links and enjoys beating us at cricket, while China sends so many students here, that word has gotten back about what a great place Australia is, he reckons.
The flights they arrive on will have seats heading in the opposite direction; pushing total capacity out of Australia up, adds Laurent Rouard, Airbus senior vice president for market and product strategy.
Regarding the doubling of flights, Boeing pointed to the US since Delta Air Lines and V Australia started competing on the Los Angeles route as proof of the wisdom of its earlier forecasts. Looking forward, Rouard suggests the Middle East will be the single largest growth area over the next decade, since the location is perfect for efficient hubbing, a prediction borne out by carriers such as Qatar Airways starting services in December. The number of seats available to the Gulf region will grow 8.2% on average each year. Other growth areas agents should expect in the next 10 years are Latin America, set to grow 7%, China 7% and Africa 5.9% (see graphic, right).
<[stk -1]>But while they agree on the general figures, Airbus and Boeing differ when it comes to where they see this growth occurring. Airbus points to the growth of "megacities" as proof of the need for more of its double-decker A380 superjumbos. Leahy says that today 92% of all traffic originates or ends in one of 37 cities (of which Sydney is the sole Australian representative). Los Angeles, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Beijing are all members of this club, membership of which is defined by having 10,000 passengers or more departing daily. In twenty years 82 cities will fall into this camp, so thinking anything but a super large aircraft is going to be used is "absurd" as Leahy puts it. "Our competitor seems to think people will be flying in lots of little aircraft, but look at environmental concerns, look at congested airports and look at the sheer logistics of moving so many people," he says. Airbus predicts 1300 passenger versions of the A380 or Boeing's new jumbojet, the 747-8 Intercontinental will be needed over the next 20 years, while Boeing thinks the figure will be closer to 600.
Boeing, meanwhile, is pinning its hopes on people wanting to avoid switching planes wherever they can. So Queenslanders will opt for more direct flights from Brisbane and Cairns than having to fly through Sydney as more services come online. Tinseth says that over the years growth in air travel has always led to more routes opening up, not fewer. "As people get fed up with airports, they will want to avoid hubs," he says. Boeing estimates that airlines will buy 6700 aircraft with between 200 and 400 seats over the next 20 years, while Airbus puts the figure at 4100. Significantly, Boeing has the 777 and the delayed 787 Dreamliner in this category.
Drill down to our region and the picture becomes more complex. For Boeing, Australia is the twelfth biggest market in the world. There are currently 400 aircraft based here, which will more than double to 850 by 2029, of which 670 will be new aircraft, Tinseth says. Boeing expects our gross domestic product to rise by 2.9% on average over the next 20 years, but airline traffic to rise by 5.1%. Of this, traffic to Asia will be the fastest growing destination.
Airbus only has a 26% share here, but Leahy says he was meeting Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce while in Sydney to exploit the national carrier's annoyance at 787 delays. But Airbus signed a new order for its smaller A320 aircraft with Air New Zealand this month, skewing its favouritism towards our Trans Tasman cousins. Together with New Zealand and the Pacific Islands Airbus estimates carriers in Australia will need a further 630 aircraft over the next 20 years. Passenger growth will average 5% over the period, higher than the global average of 4.7%, Leahy says. The region's fleet will more than double from 338 today to 698 by 2029, with 271 replacement aircraft and 360 additional aircraft coming in.
Significantly, Airbus sees a need for 60 very large aircraft such as the A380 or 747, against Boeing's prediction of just five. Rouard is adamant that Australia's proximity to so many of the emerging megacities will make anything less than this figure too small.
So while the big boys bicker about just how we will fly in years to come, at least their message is consistent: there will be richer pickings for many years to come.

Seat review: Emirates A380

The following article originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia

Justin Wastnage travelled on the Emirates A380 from Sydney to Dubai in business class. Here's how he rated it.

LOUNGE: Attempting to leave Sydney during the Great Dust Storm of 09, my flight was always going to be delayed. Whiling away two hours in the Emirates lounge was a pretty painless way of doing so. The food is the stand-out, featuring a hot buffet with comfort food like shepherd's pie alongside Moroccan tajine and poached salmon. There is great Middle Eastern fare to try as well. The décor of gold trims on the wooden partitions may be a little gaudy to many, but all the usual lounge ingredients are there. 8/10

SEAT: The vast real estate available to airlines flying the A380 is used in different ways. Emirates has gone for a pod-like module that has a myriad of compartments and a minibar for each passenger. Couples have two conjoined seats, while singles have window pods. Considering the aircraft only entered into service earlier this year, some of the plastics and materials looks a little scuffed already and the seat was impossible to escape from. The interlocking table also makes it impossible to escape during the lengthy meal service. Once converted into a lie-flat bed and covered with a mattress, the bed is one of the most comfortable I have slept in. As with the lounge, the brass and pastel styling might be more suited to Middle Eastern tastes. 8/10

SERVICE: The multinational cabin crew all seemed to gel together and at times you felt like you were part of their gang as they laughed and joked. Service was very friendly and efficient without being fawning or obsequious. However, the drinks service for all meals was extremely slow; meaning a main meal with no wine and breakfast without coffee. 7/10

EXTRAS:The amenities kit features Bulgari toiletries plus the men's kit has none other than a Taylor's of Old Bond Street razor, raising the bar for others who give away plastic disposables. The biggest extra on the Emirates A380 is the huge bar. Pioneered by Virgin Atlantic, the in-flight bar is now perfected. Rather than standing around or perching on bar stools, the Emirates bar provides two long couches ideal for socialising. 9/10

FOOD:The great start made in the lounge is built upon in the air. Braised beef is a staple of airline cuisine, but the Emirates cut was excellent quality. The dessert was light and there was a good choice of healthier meals too. Once again, the Arabic cuisine such as the hummus and olives with flat bread was excellent. 8/10

ENTERTAINMENT: From the wide screen television to the noise cancelling headphones, Emirates shows its class from the moment you arrive. Add in a wireless remote control tablet and over 600 television channels and you've got one of the best systems going. For me the standout was the quality of the Bose headphones which amplified subtleties in albums I have already listened to hundreds of times. Sadly my wifi remote control malfunctioned and the USB stick did not support iPod format content, but I did manage to view my photos as a slideshow. 9/10

OVERALL RATING: 81%
The seat is big and impressive, the entertainment fantastic and the bar a stand-out. Small problems in service and technology hamper the offering, but the Emirates A380 is still one of the best business classes flying.

Biker cove

The following article originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia

Hong Kong is much more than a big bustling metropolis; it also has some of Asia's finest hiking trails and soft adventure hotspots. Justin Wastnage recently donned a bike helmet and took to the cycle path to find out

Cantopop, the saccharine monotonal pop music that Hong Kong has made its own, is an acquired taste. Yet few of my fellow riders along the stretch of the Shing Mun River that leads out into Tide Cove seem to share my view. For unlike the French, who stereotypically place a freshly baked baguette in their bicycle baskets, Hong Kongers like to use the wire frame to hold a music player. Mobile phones, MP3 players with speakers dangling and even an old-fashioned ghetto blaster were all pressed into action in the cacophony of competing cantopop classics.
I had picked up a bike at Sha Tin, the high-rise development that is firmly ensconced within most visitors' perceptions of Hong Kong. However, Sha Tin is also the start of some 18km of cycle paths that lead almost up to the border with mainland China. As the Shing Mun petered out into the cove, known locally as Sha Tin Hoi, the notions of Hong Kong being a city of hustle and bustle started to peter out too.
<[stk 1]>My guide, Fred, had clearly not been on a bicycle ride for 20 years. I darted off at every twist and turn, only to look around to see him struggling with the gears, brakes and general balance. Once I weaved my way back to his side, he told me of the 200 islands that make up Hong Kong. Only one, Hong Kong Island, was formally conquered by the British. The rest were all the New Territories leased to Britain before famously being handed back in 1997 when the lease expired.
Most of the New Territories are still relatively natural. There are even some uninhabited islands where cars and people are banned, Fred tells me between wheezes. Few people think of Hong Kong as a countryside destination, he says, but deep inside the New Territories there are hiking trails, waterfalls, wooded ravines and sandy bays that are all relatively deserted.
The Sha Tin cycle path is not one of these undiscovered natural gems. Being a Sunday in August, the two-way track is packed full of leisurely families pedalling their way around. In search of tranquillity, I press Fred onwards past the crowds and up to the mouth of the Pacific Ocean. Here was where the fortunes of the opium trade were once made and lost in epic gunship battles, he says.
Nature is also close at hand on the island itself. Thousands take the Peak Tram every week and the Peninsula Hotel group (which incidentally owns the tram) would prefer if everyone took advantage of its newly built viewing platform and adjoining amusement arcade. A far more rewarding, if slightly more strenuous option is to take the Peak Circle Walk around the top of the mountain. Starting off along Lugard Road, the track narrows as it gets further away from the funicular terminus and nature starts encroaching.
Hong Kong is a tropical city, although you'd never know from the air conditioned malls, but up here you can see the vines and lush forest trying to reclaim the real estate. Signs posted around the 3.5km walk tell you about the local flora and fauna, but modernity is still the real drawcard: views of the city skyline from 400 metres above are worth stopping for, especially around dusk. As I stroll around, some power walkers and joggers zoom past on morning constitutionals. Thankfully, each of their iPods is playing their choice of music for their ears only.

Glo-bustin the gloom

This article originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia

Big interview: Stewart Williams, Globus Family
The Globus Family has some of the biggest names in escorted touring in its portfolio. Yet this was not enough to save it from the massive bookings collapse that affected the industry this year. However, as Justin Wastnage writes, the group has bounced back and is geared up for a strong 2010

If you jump first, you have to be pretty sure of a soft landing. When the Globus Family of brands launched its nine-day fortnight plan in the height of the travel bookings slump, some rivals assumed it was heading for a fall. Instead, after only a few weeks of depressed sales, the full five-day week was re-introduced, much to the chagrin of many Globus staff who had planned days off only to have to cancel.
When I meet Stewart Williams, Globus Family's managing director for Australasia, he is in an ebullient mood. The company not only survived the crisis, but has come through the other end with a bullet, seeing its earlybird offers over-subscribed and business up 240% on last year's numbers.
Not that 2009 was a bed of roses. The nine-day fortnight was a necessary reaction to a dramatic drop in bookings, he says. "When the global financial crisis hit we were down 40% but now we're back to being 22% down, which is not bad all things considered," he says. He adds that comparing 2009 against 2008 was always going to be tricky as 2008 was a record year, as was 2007.
After a disastrous start to the year, with Australians fearing the worst and holding off from booking, the cost saving measures were introduced in April. "We cut non-essential activity but were resolute we would have no redundancies," Williams says. However, after battening down the hatches and budgeting for a 40% drop in turnover, "lo and behold we started to climb back out in July and August," he says. By September bookings were actually up on last year, Williams adds. "We'll end the year 21% down, but if you'd asked me in April, I would have been chuffed with 30% down."
Globus is a Swiss company and when Williams compares his region with the rest of the world, he also feels he got off lightly. The US and Canada "got hammered" and the main operations in Europe were depressed. This has a knock-on effect, since Globus owns and operates the coaches that form the backbone of its core brands.
But as a general sales agent Williams just concentrated on defending his home market. Five years ago Globus was trailing competitors Trafalgar Tours and Insight Vacations in market share, he admits. He claims it has edged into second place ahead of Insight since then, albeit still a long way behind Trafalgar. Cosmos is also number one in market share in the budget sector of escorted touring.
Additionally, Globus and its river cruisingsister company Avalon Waterways won best tour and cruise operator in this year's Australian Federation of Travel Agents awards. Williams credits this to a renewed focus on customer service. Hesitant to draw any direct comparisons between Globus and its competitors, he says obliquely that, "we decided to improve our service levels. At the same time others were having problems with their reservations systems, telephone staff and response times, which we could capitalise on."
He says efforts made during that period have stood the reservations team in good stead for the downturn. "Everyone understood what was needed and why the cutbacks were necessary, but we had a target of sales to reach and the very next day after that was reached, everyone went back to normal work rosters," he says.
However, it was not the downturn per se that worried employees, but the uncertainty, he says. For this reason Globus has invested its own money in making the earlybird deals attractive this year. Airlines were already working at pared-back yields and were unable to move as far as Globus wanted, so the company had to dig into its own profits to ensure that the idea of booking early to net a bargain re-rooted itself in the public's mind. "It's not good for agents and it's not good for us if people start thinking the best deals are to be had booking at the last minute," he says.
Next year should be back to normal, Williams claims. Globus is investing in staff again. Customers will still be looking for something extra, he predicts, so value-adds will be a key part of any 2010 itinerary. A relieved Williams knows that whatever 2010 throws at him, it cannot be as bad as 2009.

Antidote to baby blues

Luxe living ... de Russie Suites lobby. Photo: Justin Wastnage

The article below by Alexandra Smith originally appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald's Traveller.
You can read the article in it original form here.


Hotel review: De Russie suites, Orange, NSW

Alexandra Smith finds pregnancy is no impediment to enjoying a wine region.

Initially I suspect my husband might have scored the better deal when he insisted we spend my last child-free birthday in one of the best wine regions in central-western NSW.

To make the most of Orange's famed cellar doors, he needs a designated driver and what better person for that job than his heavily pregnant wife? After all, I have grown accustomed to my new role as taxi driver.

I must admit, my reluctance is shortlived when we are blessed with an unseasonably warm weekend as we arrive in Orange and simultaneously discover the birthplace of Banjo Paterson is not just about wine and fruit. Or homely B&Bs or ageing motor inns, for that matter.

On a tree-lined street a block back from the main drag, the de Russie Suites is a chic apartment hotel clearly designed to impress the urbanites and appears to be succeeding, judging by the flash European cars in the car park.

The polished concrete exterior resembles architecture from the Stalin era but, once we're inside, the piped lounge music and upholstered chairs arranged by a fire create a soft landing. In the true country way, our welcome is warm.

We have booked the Blue Room, the hotel's version of the penthouse: spacious, opulent and impressive by most standards. We are greeted by a huge bunch of flowers on a pedestal in the lounge room. Once we peer around the imposing arrangement, we find the Blue Room, or 303 as it is also known, is stylishly decorated with a Tuscan influence.

On the four-seater dining table is a bottle of sparkling wine, two Belgian chocolates and a card wishing me a happy birthday. My husband has obviously given the heads-up to management and it's a sweet touch, even if I can't enjoy the bubbles.

The self-contained room, which gets its name from its striking cobalt-blue feature wall, has a separate bedroom with an austere four-poster bed covered in decorative pillows bearing portraits of queens.

The faces do not belong to the British monarchy; my husband convinces me they are probably the wife and daughter of William I of Orange, the Dutch renegade prince who led the war against Spain and reunited the Netherlands.

To read more, please click here to go to the SMH site.

Back to Trafalgar Square one

This article originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia

Trafalgar Tours is the best known escorted touring company among the public and agents alike. But this has not translated into being recommended above others, so the company is changing tack, as Justin Wastnage reports

Money can't buy you love, as fans of the Beatles know all too well. It is a message that Trafalgar Tours, the largest escorted touring company in Australia, is apparently taking to heart now, too. <[etk]>
The company commissioned research across some 2500 travel agents in ten countries, of which around 1000 were Australian. It found that three out of every five inquiries from customers for a coach tour end without a specific recommendation from consultants.
Of those inquiries where a recommendation is given, Trafalgar seldom is pushed more than others. Other escorted touring brands (including others from Trafalgar's <[stk -5]>Travel Corporation family of brands)<[etk]> have niches, but among <[stk -4]>generalists, Cosmos is recommended<[etk]> to budget-conscious travellers while Albatross Tours has some caché among those looking for tailor-made tours, the research shows.
This is a problem for Trafalgar, which transports more Australians around Europe than any other operator by far. In fact, its tagline used to boast <[stk -4]>of being the world's favourite coach<[etk]> touring company. Indeed, 95% of agents, when asked to name escorting touring brands, <[stk -4]>named Trafalgar, making it the most<[etk]> recognisable brand. The trend is repeated among the general public, with Trafalgar being the most requested brand by customers.
<[stk -8]>But this is true of repeat customers.<[etk]> First timers tend to be given two or three brochures to mull over. Paul McGrath, the practical managing director at Trafalgar Tours has identified as a problem this lack of brand cut-through, as the jargon has it. He senses that Trafalgar is seen as safe and reliable, but a little boring. There is little to distinguish the brand from others in agents' <[stk -5]>minds, he says. APT, Globus, Insight<[etk]> Vacations and Scenic Tours all get muddied in the middle ground, he says. "We are all pretty much in the same space," he admits.
The company is now back on the offensive, launching a new mini-movie and introducing a new tagline, both of which revolve around the joy of the destination, rather than the journey. The most recent slogan, "Dream, pack and leave… the rest to us" was a step in the right direction, McGrath says, but its replacement is more direct. "Rediscover the romance of travelling" complete with a new heart-shaped logo, will be used across all brochures, advertising and internet marketing next year.
For a while Trafalgar Tours has been uncomfortable with the promotion of its actual modes of transport (which now includes trains and sea ferries in addition to the former Uniworld river cruisers). Just as the more innovative airlines such as Air France and Emirates no longer feature aircraft in their adverts, Trafalgar has realised that luxurious as its coaches are, customers want to reconnect with the places they visit. Travel, as the new mantra goes, is about experiences, not how you got there. McGrath points to the company's Be My Guest options to dine with locals, which have become "wildly popular". This year it has been expanded from Trafalgar's Italian and Spanish itineraries into Ireland, France and even the US. "People want to experience something. We have to position our brand so agents know an experience is part of our offering," he says.
Trafalgar now wants to become the first tour company agents recommend. The company has invested heavily in reaching the agents, through sales staff, promotions and commission drives, but this has not yet reaped dividends. "We need to find a positioning that lifts ourselves into a different space," McGrath says. Trafalgar may now find that money may bring it love, if it is better targeted than before.

All eyes on the price

The ACCC has named and shamed three travel agents whose advertisements misled the
public. It is a sign the commission is keeping tabs on our industry, as Justin Wastnage writes

Despite being the “least liked”
airline in the world, Ryanair
has also grown to become
Europe’s second largest. Its
customers are irked, a recent poll
by Tripadvisor found, either by
landing at airports far from the
cities they purport to serve or by a
miscellany of hidden charges.
After many court battles with
Europe’s competition watchdogs,
all European airlines now have to
include in advertised fares any non-
optional fee, such as government
taxes, airport charges, wheelchair
levies, insurance surcharges or
airport security charges.

Here, the Australian Competition
and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
has kept a watchful eye on travel
advertising for some time. In May it
published guidelines specifically
targeting the travel trade, after
changes to the Trade Practices Act
meant the total cost of a holiday,
rather than its components, must
be used wherever possible.
Agents know this question is like
asking the length of a piece of string,
as holidays are made to customers’
requirements. So it came as a shock
when the commission singled out
three agents for legally-enforceable
action over their advertising.

Backpacker agents Wicked
Travel, Peter Pan’s Adventure
Travel and Adventure Travel
Bugs each advertised Whitsundays
and Fraser Island tours for $299,
when that price did not include
mandatory charges such as
insurance, national park fees and
Great Barrier Reef environmental
charges that typically took the
minimum cost up to about $450,
the ACCC says.
The watchdog was spurred into
action by mass-market, price-led
packages. In its guidelines it cites a
10-day Get Hot in Hawaii package
offered by a retailer at the end of

last year for $799. On top of this,
the customer would have to pay an
airfare with taxes and charges,
taking a realistic total to $3099. The
package advert would “raise
concerns” under the new regime,
the ACCC says.
Despite airfares varying widely
to Honolulu, travel agents will be
expected to advertise a total
price, albeit with a ‘subject to
change’ caveat allowed. In reality,
few cases will be as clear cut as
the budget tropical Queensland
tours, but by firing a few warning
shots, the ACCC is letting us
know it is watching. n

This is child's play

This article originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia

Imitation, they say, is the <[lb]>
sincerest form of flattery. So
when a competitor enters the
niche that you had carved out as
your own, it can be taken as<[stk -4]> proof
that an idea has worked. <[etk]>

Thus the news this month that
the travel agent affinity group
Travel With Kidz (TWK) is to be
joined by BYOKids (BYO) goes
some way to proving both the
concept of affinity groups and the
sheer market potential of family
holidays. Both TWK and BYO offer
agencies the chance to specialise in
this niche by way of co-opted
marketing that runs alongside the
store’s existing branding.

Look at the data and you can see
why. The Australian Bureau of
Statistics underlines what most
people would guess: the majority of

<[stk 3]>Australians still live in families of
two parents with children and
the proportion is rising again
after dipping down to 52% in
2001. Additionally, some 12% of
the population live in single-
parent households. By contrast,
only around one-fifth of
Australian households are the
dual-income couples so often
courted by advertisers. <[etk]>

But despite being a massive
market, little has been done
traditionally for the family segment
of fully-independent travellers (FIT).
Family holiday packages for too
long revolved around resorts on
the Gold Coast, in Fiji or Bali with
more adventurous families
relegated to doing their own
research, explains Wendy Buckley,
TWK managing director.

<[stk -4]>She says there are also new travel<[etk]>
trends, such as multi-generational
travel with grandparents tagging
along, or blended families where
two divorced parents bring their
combined offspring together for
one vacation. These kind of larger
groups present unique challenges,
but also are much more likely to be
booked through agents than via a
website, she says. <[stk 0]>“Those people
who want Gold Coast resorts are
price-driven and will just shop
around until they find the best
deal, but there’s a whole group of
parents out there who want to
take their kids on meaningful
holidays,” she says. <[etk]>

The lack of interesting family
holidays was the one that David
Tonkin, former founder of the first
Sydney Flight Centre, Just Flights

and travel.com.au, came up against
when booking his family holidays.
In 1996 he founded TWK as a niche
division of Travel Specialists
Mosman, a Travelscene American
Express (TSAx) agency. The
clientele in the affluent Sydney
North Shore suburb were
experienced travellers who were
not going to be limited by having
had children, Buckley says.

But three years ago TWK took
the step of franchising its brand out
to other agencies. Affinity groups
had long existed among specialised
wholesalers and products (such as
Club Med’s dry resort weeks aimed
at Alcoholics Anonymous
members, wheelchair-friendly tours
of the Holy Land or the
NaviGaytion cruises aimed at
homosexual men). But branding
travel agencies as specialists was a
new concept. The US-led Virtuoso
had emerged in Australia as a
badge of honour for high-end
travel consultants, while CruiseCo
was an extra shingle agents who
specialised in cruising could hang
above their desk. As part of this
wave, TWK decided to license out
its brand to those agencies
specialising in family holidays.

“There are great Trafalgar Tours
trips to Italy where kids can dress
up as gladiators when they visit the
colosseum, or you might want to
take your teenagers to Angkor
Wat,” Buckley says. Having an
expert to turn to about the product
available for families was what
appealed to the 48 agencies who
have become TWK-licensed
affiliates, she adds.

TWK also collates product
information and vets it for child-
friendliness, suitability and child
safety, giving it a star rating. TWK’s
entry criteria are straightforward.
The agency must dedicate two staff
to selling family holidays, one of
whom must be a parent. TWK
charges a $400 monthly marketing
fee which covers TWK stationery,
website buy-in and signage, plus
around the same again in
membership. Members are given
access to training in specific family
holiday matters such as vaccination
requirements for toddlers to

general sales tips like listening
skills. In this way TWK augments
the role of the franchise group,
Buckley says.

<[stk 0]>In mid-September the Sunshine
Coast-based Travellers Choice
agency Tewantin Travel threw its
hat into the ring, announcing a
plan to license its BYOKids
concept to other agencies. Its
founder Leah Squire has an
ambitious plan to sign up 100
agents within 12 months. <[etk]>

Essentially BYO is a similar
proposition to TWK, albeit “not
<[stk -4]>aimed at the high-end,” says Squire.<[etk]>
“We sell anything, anywhere, from
cheap-and-cheerful to luxury,” she
adds. Around 70% of TWK
members are drawn from TSAx,
although there is no formal link to
the Stella Travel Group. Squire says
that while BYO “will be open to all
agency owners” TSAx is likely to
form a smaller proportion.

BYO has a $400 monthly fee,
which gives access to the 1300
number, similar to TWK. Where
Squire thinks her proposition has
the edge is in web marketing. <[stk -1]>The
author of an internet marketing
book, Squire says the idea behind
expanding BYO came from
attending a national travel
conference where franchisees
were complaining that their chains
did not have an effective enough
internet strategy. “They were
saying, ‘we don’t have Twitter, we
don’t have Facebook and we don’t
even have a good website’ so I
knew there was a niche.” <[etk]>

Family travellers often do more
research online, but many then go
to a bricks-and-mortar agency to
book, Squire says. It will be up to
the independent agencies that join
to convert the leads provided from
the website, she says. BYO has less
strict joining criteria, although
Squire says they will prefer agents
who are also parents themselves.
“They should have first hand
experience of travelling with kids,”
she says. BYO also mailshots 20,000
customers who have registered on
its site as being interested in
travelling with children and in time,
each inquiry at head office will be
routed to the relevant suburb.





“Access to the list justifies the
monthly fee in itself,” Squire adds.

<[stk 0]>The online lead generation is
also a theme taken up by Holidays
With Kids magazine, whose
electronic distribution list has
been used to promote wholesalers
and properties directly via a click-
through advertisement. <[etk]>

TWK goes closer into the
franchise model with parallel
preferred arrangements with 13
wholesalers, including Tempo
Holidays, Sunlover and Island
Escape, complete with overrides
unique for all bookings including at
least one child. It also holds an
annual meeting for all its agents to
get together and swap notes.
<[stk -2]>Destinations are courting the
group such is the level of business.
Each preferred wholesaler has to
add some new child-friendly
product into its offering each year
to retain the TWK deal, Buckley
says. “They have to complete a
checklist with us on things such as
<[etk]>kids’ clubs, food availability,
bedding configurations,<[stk -2]> emergency

contacts and all th<[etk]>e other things
that parents will ask us,” she says.

The company also worked with
child protection agency Child Wise
on a questionnaire aimed at vetting
child carers overseas. The
questionnaire checks whether the
<[stk -4]>staff employed to look after children<[etk]>
are qualified carers or “off duty
massage therapists,” Buckley says.
All online airlines (except Qantas)
have completed a questionnaire on
child seats, child-friendly in-flight
entertainment, boarding
procedures and transit times. It is
this level of service for families that
Buckley believes will keep them
coming back to TWK agencies.

Squire agrees. “This is not about
providing an agency with one
customer via an online lead
generator; it’s about providing
agencies with a customer for life.
They will refer friends and come
back for a holiday every year,” she
says. In these days of niche finding
for agencies, there is no greater
proof of a trend than when more
companies jump on.

What's the big ID?

This article originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia

Last year identity theft cost Australians $1 billion. Travel agents have been singled out as a high risk profession, due to the personal data they hold, as Justin Wastnage writes

Travel agents like to be considered alongside other <[etk]><[stk -5]>consulting professionals such as<[etk]><[stk -3]> solicitors and <[etk]><[stk -5]>doctors. But they <[etk]><[stk -8]>mightn’t<[etk]><[stk -6]> be happy to find themselves<[etk]><[stk -3]> on a new watch list for businesses most at risk of identity theft. <[etk]>

Crime Stoppers Australia, a national body liaising between state and territory police forces, held the first National Identity Fraud Awareness Week from October 5 to 9, highlighting the risk of identity theft. Small businesses are placing their customers and staff at risk through the sloppy handling of sensitive personal information, the body’s chairman Peter Price has warned. Travel agencies are listed as high risk small businesses.

And the risks are indeed great. In 2001 a man used up to 50 false identities in a $7 million property fraud spanning Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. The offender and an accomplice used the false identities to obtain a series of home loans from banks and financial institutions. The police traced most of the stolen identity back to old-fashioned “dumpster dives” rather than electronic fraud. Of the half-million Australian identity theft victims last year, one quarter were the result of their details being obtained in physical form.

Vanessa Coussias, product manager at shredder manufacturer Fellowes Business Machines says that in Australia paper-based fraud is still more pervasive than electronic fraud, but receives less attention than high-profile phishing scams. The reason why travel agencies can be a target for identity thieves is because of their combination of identity documents and financial data. “A passport, for example, is worth 70 points in a bank ID check, so you only need one credit card number to reach 100,” she says. Biographical data held by agents can bolster identity thieves’ stories when challenged by financial institutions.

In the US, the civil liberties group New York Public Interest Research Group has already questioned the amount of personal data collected by the travel trade. Its survey of 275 airlines, travel agencies, hotels and car-rental firms found that many of them ask for an “excessive amount” of personal information in the process of making a sale. “You <[lb]>have to share a lot of personal information to book a flight or a hotel,” Jeff Starr of the research group said. “If that information isn't treated correctly you could be at risk of ID theft.”

Peter Campbell, national marketing manager of Fellowes Australia, says that businesses are inadvertently fuelling the boom in identity fraud, Australia’s fastest growing crime. “Detailed biographical information on customers and employees taken from invoices, statements, pay slips and old personnel documents commonly found in business rubbish can be worth their weight in gold to identity thieves,” he says.

Armed with passenger travel dates, thieves can commit the fraud <[stk -4]>while clients are on holiday. This has<[etk]> a double attraction because credit card preferences are relaxed by card holders and the fraud has more chance of going undetected, Crime Stoppers Australia says.

Coussias recommends all travel agencies invest in a high-tech shredder to deter thieves from fossicking in their garbage. Handing documents to clients in person wherever possible can help too, she adds. Only 30% of households in Australia have shredders, compared with 60% in the US, where identity theft is more prevalent. Shredders now can dice an A4 sheet into 700 spots of confetti, she says.

There is good news for agents, however. Mike O’Mally, Chicago travel agent and spokesman of the American Society of Travel Agents, says consumers are now more wary of buying from online agents offering cheap fares for fear of identity theft. Rogue sites exist that solicit extra personal information <[stk -4]>such as passport numbers and birth<[etk]> <[stk -4]>dates. If an online company asks for<[etk]> that information it “should send up <[stk -6]>a red flag for the consumer,” O’Mally<[etk]> says. Bricks-and-mortar agencies who employ good data disposal methods can exploit this fear. <[lb]>But as well as a commercial imperative for better identity document protection, there is also a legal requirement, Campbell says. The National Privacy Act specifically regulates how the private sector handles the collection, use, storage and ultimately disposal of personal information. “Too often we hear in the media of yet another business that has carelessly discarded highly sensitive customer and employee information, he says.

In some cases, sensitive materials are disposed of in recycling bins <[stk -5]>meaning thieves don’t even get their<[etk]> <[stk -4]>hands dirty to steal people’s <[etk]><[stk -5]>identity.<[etk]><[stk -4]> “It is crucial that businesses<[etk]> educate their staff about the safe disposal of sensitive information,” he adds.

The law states that a company must take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information if it is no longer needed. “Shredding is not only the easiest and most cost-effective way for business to comply with the law, it’s the only way to ensure that someone’s identity doesn’t fall into the wrong hands,” Campbell adds.

Other steps to protect your agency from being the source of ID theft are to check the identity of both consumer and business customers via credit reference <[stk -4]>agencies; limiting access to sensitive<[etk]> documents only to agency owners and managers; and to inform staff about the risks of corporate identity fraud. Businesses should also ensure that their firewall and anti-virus software is kept up-to-date.

So when it comes to sensitive information handling, travel agents may not want to join the illustrious company of lawyers and doctors.

Hong Kong Made to Measure

This article originally appeared in Luxury Travel & Style Magazine Spring 2009 issue

OUR IMPERFECTIONS, IT SEEMS, ARE MERELY DETAILS IN THE HONG KONG BESPOKE PRODUCER'S GOAL OF MADE-TO-MEASURE PERFECTION, WRITES JUSTIN WASTNAGE.

It is not customary to point out physical defects of customers, least of all if you are trying to sell them clothing. But Manu Melwani is a little different.
I am standing before him and he tells me my right arm is five millimetres longer than my left. A common enough problem, he reassures me. Melwani, whose father Sam opened his eponymous tailor shop in the bustling back streets of Kowloon fifty years ago, is not one to stand on ceremony. His rich and famous clientele, most of whom are displayed in photographs on his pokey shop's walls, do not have time to stand around for the endless alterations and fine tuning your Savile Row tailor might wish to make. John Howard and Mark Latham both attest to having had garments made to measure at Sam's, as do Bill Clinton, David Bowie and, inexplicably, Kate Moss.
Instead Melwani has to size you up from the start. “You prefer not to wear a tie, you generally don't button up the jacket,” he asks rhetorically as a seamstress
is measuring my inside step.
There is nothing quite like a made-to-measure suit to flatter unusual body shapes and hide life's excesses. Normally, though, it is price that drags us
back to prêt-à-porter. But Melwani's team of tailors will generally whip up a suit, with an extra pair of pants, and a few hand-tailored shirts for $500.
Hong Kong used to be the capital of copying. The then-British outpost was doing a roaring trade in knock-off bags, watches and t-shirts. But for the more discerning customer, these days Hong Kong's industrious artisans are put to much better use than clumsy counterfeits. Highly skilled jewellers, milliners and shoemakers can make almost anything to measure.
An auspicious event looming in my life, I had investigated the opportunity of having a diamond eternity ring hand made for my wife. Rushing back to Hong Kong Island by metro (far quicker than any other method, but lacking the romance of the Star Ferry), I sidestepped the lunchtime crowds to reach Central. Emailed correspondence ensured that by the time I entered the premises of David Kingsboro, a discreet jeweller upstairs in a nondescript shopping mall, Cynthia Chan had already picked out twelve quarter-carat diamonds and dispatched preliminary sketches to her silversmiths. I was invited to inspect each one for flaws and told to return in two days to pick up the ring and settle up.
Just around the corner, via the Hong Kong franchise of Harvey Nichols, is Admiralty, where inspiration torn from a magazine page can be recreated into a pair of hand-stitched, leather-soled killer heels that fit your feet like a glove at Lii Lii Shoes. A friend tells me to ignore the Russian hooker footwear piled up around the untidy premises and to focus on the sublime experience of having every millimetre of your foot mapped.
A crooked toe, just like a shorter left arm, is no longer the domain of schoolyard freak shows. Our own imperfections, it seems, are merely details in the bespoke producer's goal of made-to-measure perfection.

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LUXE LIST
Lii Lii Shoes, set over a few stores in the Admiralty Centre, will
make custom ladies’ footwear from HK$1800 (A$280) per pair. Allow one week.
Shop 75, 1st Floor, tower 2, Admiralty Centre, 18 Harcourt Rd, Central

Sam’s Tailor, a formal wear institution, sits just off Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Beware of numerous touts en route pushing imitators. Suits from HK$2000 (A$310), allow three days.
Ground Floor, Burlington Arcade, 94 Nathan Road, Kowloon www.samstailor.biz

David Kingsboro has a very secure shop right in the heart of the luxury part of Queen’s Road. Jewellery custom made either to order or after consultation. Allow
two weeks from scratch, or one week if pre-arranged via email (davidkingsborojewellery@yahoo.com.hk)
Shops C & D, 2nd Floor, Entertainment Building, 30 Queen’s Road, Central

Hotel Check - Horizon Deluxe Apartments, Stanley, Tasmania

The north west of Tasmania has Australia’s cleanest air and least
crowded roads. It is also stunningly beautiful and as Justin Wastnage
writes, one new serviced apartment gem in the historic town of Stanley
makes the most of the natural assets

HORIZON DELUXE APARTMENTS

First impressions: 7/10
Horizon has an enviable position set in
lush farmland overlooking the town of
Stanley on Tasmania’s north west coast.
However, this area is also out of mobile
phone range for most networks,
rendering the manager’s voicemail with
entry codes irrelevant.

Accommodation 8/10
The two apartments (named Tatlow
and Godfrey) are mirror images of
each other in layout, but strikingly
different in décor, but both have a
wow factor. Tatlow is a modern white
interior with beige and brown details,
while Godfrey is a relaxed design of
blues and greens and frosted glass.
There is music playing in each,
reflecting the respective mood.

Service 7/10
Horizon is aimed at self-drivers who
let themselves in and leave the key
when they depart. The reception is
down at the sister property the
Seaview Inn, where the owner was
very honest about the relative
charms of his own, admittedly
excellent, Nut View Restaurant
compared to the local pub on a
quiet Tuesday night.

Facilities 9/10
A self catering apartment too often
lacks a good nearby shop. Horizon
provides a very complete breakfast kit
to save the early morning scavenge.
Similarly, a barbeque pack of assorted
meats is found in the freezer. Both
apartments have good, if complex,
home cinema equipment including a
small library of DVDs and satellite
television. The amazing rain shower in
the bathroom rivals the jacuzzi as the
best way to get clean in comfort.

Ambience 9/10
The centrepiece of each apartment is
the jacuzzi set in the middle of the
room, alongside the bed. The layout, of
both the apartment complex and the
bath, optimises the view. Stanley’s
main attraction is The Nut, a large
headland jutting out into Bass Strait.
The views at Horizon are unmatched.

Overall 80%
This property was built from scratch on
arguably the best plot of land in Stanley.
The views of the wild north west coast
are to die for and the attention to detail
in furnishings is commendable. Book
your funkier clients into Tatlow, the
more traditional into Godfrey. ■

Horizon Deluxe Apartments has a twonight
Tarkine & The Edge Of The
World package including a Tasmanian
produce picnic hamper, Stanley Nut
Chairlift passes, two nights à la carte
dinner at The Nut View Restaurant
and two nights’ accommodation for
$899 for two people.