Holiday & Travel

With some 75 percent of Travel Counsellors’ customers feeling highly or fairly confident to book and travel, now that UK travel restrictions have been lifted, it is no surprise that the leading independent travel company is experiencing yet again, record-breaking sales, exceeding 2019 performance for yet another consecutive month!

VisitEngland has revealed the 100 winners of this year's ROSE Award. The ROSE Awards recognise the accommodation providers across England who provides visitors with the warmest of welcomes.

They celebrate the establishments, irrespective of their star rating, style or type of accommodation, where the owners, management and employees provide outstanding experiences for their customers.

After last month’s christening, VIVA ONE, VIVA Cruises’ first new build ship, has started running a variety of exciting itineraries on the Rhine and Moselle rivers. To celebrate the launch of the new ship, the river cruise specialist is offering a free cabin upgrade and a reduced single cabin surcharge for all May and June 2022 departures – available on all VIVA Cruises ships.

Europa Air & Sea, part of the pioneering logistics firm Europa Worldwide Group, continues to forge ahead with its plans to deliver the very best customer service to its diverse client base with the creation of a new role at its Birmingham site.

Europa Air & Sea has always prided itself on going the extra mile for its customers.

Celebrate the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday by joining a tour fit for royalty with Rabbie’s (www.rabbies.com), visiting some of The Queen’s favourite places in the United Kingdom. These tours are guided by locals in small groups taking royal enthusiasts off-the-beaten track.

easyJet has launched the first flights on its new route from Birmingham Airport to Malaga Airport, providing customers in the Midlands with a direct connection to one of Europe’s most popular beach destinations and more choices to explore Europe this summer.

Flights to Malaga took off for the first time on Sunday 1 May and are now operating up to four times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays throughout the summer.

Tenerife is ready to host the fifth edition of Vuelta al Teide, taking place on Saturday 7th May 2022. This non-competitive event aims to simply bring together cyclists from all around the world and to showcase the island's credentials as firmed favourite for road cycling.

The iconic Gran Fondo cycling event is set to start its route at 7am from the northern town of Puerto de la Cruz, where it will also finish.

After approximately two decades of service, veteran communications specialist Johnson JohnRose has departed the inter-governmental Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) to pursue a new challenge. 

On his departure, he said: “It's been nothing short of a distinct honor to have been allowed an opportunity to make a contribution – small as it was in the scheme of things – to Caribbean development through the important tourism industry.

Tenerife is ready to host the fifth edition of Vuelta al Teide, taking place on Saturday 7th May 2022. This non-competitive event aims to simply bring together cyclists from all around the world and to showcase the island’s credentials as firmed favourite for road cycling.

The iconic Gran Fondo cycling event is set to start its route at 7am from the northern town of Puerto de la Cruz, where it will also finish.

easyJet, Europe’s leading airline, has today announced a new route from Birmingham to Nantes in France, which will take off this summer. The new route comes following new summer services to Faro, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca which are also set to take off for this first time this summer.

Ultra-luxury Discovery Yachts, Scenic Eclipse (www.sceniceclipse.com), have today unveiled six brand-new voyages with the largest ever release of their 2023/24 Arctic & Fjords collection. Scenic Eclipse and Scenic Eclipse II, which is set to launch in 2023, will introduce almost 40 new landings throughout the Arctic region, visiting Scotland and the Canadian Arctic – giving guests the chance to discover new horizons and venture further than ever before in ultra-luxury style.

Passengers travelling between London Euston and Scotland over the early May Bank Holiday are being urged to travel either side of the long weekend. At Easter Network Rail invested £22m to improve future journeys for passengers and freight on the West Coast main line and key routes in the Midlands and North West.

Now a further £19.1m is being spent to complete or continue many of those major upgrades to improve passenger and freight journeys for the future.

A federal judge in Florida struck down the national mask mandate covering airlines and other public transportation, and the Biden administration said the rule would not be enforced while federal agencies decide how to respond to the judge’s order.

The ruling appeared to free operators to make their own decisions about mask requirements, with several airlines announcing they would drop mandates but New York City’s public transit system planning to keep one in place.

Sandals Resorts International is planning to pour significant dollars into its St. Lucia portfolio, with both its Sandals Regency La Toc and Sandals Halcyon Beach all-inclusive resorts set to undergo expansion.

At the Sandals Regency La Toc, which opened in 1993 as Sandals' first St. Lucia resort, the company will be adding a new resort-within-a-resort "village" concept.

Transport for Wales (TfW) customers are being encouraged to check their journey details as an increase in train services comes into effect in May.

From Sunday 15 May, a new rail timetable will be in place across the Wales and Borders rail network.

Qatar Airways, the multiple award-winning airline, and IndiGo, India's largest airline, announce the reactivation of their strategic cooperation following the lifting of the suspension on international scheduled flights by the Indian government. Qatar Airways is currently operating 190 flights per week to and from 12 destinations in India, namely Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi, Kozhikode, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Goa, Kolkata, and Thiruvananthapuram.