The only one who could ever reach me, Was the son of a preacher man, The only boy who could ever teach me, Was the son of a preacher man, Yes he was, he was, oh yes he was. I don’t often start my Blogs with Dusty Springfield songs but then the travel retail industry
Airports
Promoting partnership, not beauty contests
Today’s announcement by Zürich Airport that it has extended the contract terms of its key commercial partners is highly significant, not just in contractual terms but also because of the way it was articulated. The airport’s Chief Commercial Officer Peter Eriksson (below) has quietly emerged as one of the most influential figures within the international
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Airlines
Michelle and Michaela double act underlines the value of British Airways cabin crew
Today I flew with British Airways from London Heathrow to Malaga return. I was frankly uncertain what the experience would be like – or even if there would be an experience. That’s because the airline cabin crew concluded the first-stage of what looks like protracted strike action yesterday, and many flights were cancelled today due
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Events
Hand in Hand for Haiti – reflections on a journey
[Publisher’s introduction: I have been in Haiti over recent days in my role as a Founding Member of the Hand in Hand for Haiti Steering Committee*. There I joined up with my co-Founders, Ed Brennan, Chairman and CEO of DFS and Olivier Bottrie, President of The Estée Lauder Companies Travel Retail Worldwide. We were there
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Events
Hand in Hand for Haiti – discovering inspiration on the Central Plateau
And so our final road trip begins – a return excursion from Port-au-Prince to the town of Thomonde in Haiti’s vast and chronically poor Central Plateau. To get there we need to take the long, two-and-a-half hour drive north east from the capital through spectacular mountain scenery and scores of tiny villages. We’re going to
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Events
Hand in Hand for Haiti – a Green field hospital of hope
Our journey around Haiti is nearing its end. After our epic drive to and from Les Abricots, Saturday night is spent back at the Auberge Inn in Jérémie where our host Juliette Nicolas Tardieu produces a splendid meal. Again there’s rice, chicken, goat and plantain with plenty of the excellent Barbancourt rum (tonight we drink
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Miscellaneous
Hand in Hand for Haiti – the rich fruit of Les Abricots
You know a place is isolated when it doesn’t even rank a mention in Lonely Planet. And our journey to the tiny, rural outpost of Les Abricots is about to show us why. A municipality in the Jérémie Arrondissement, in Haiti’s Grand’Anse Department, Les Abricots is home to one of the world’s great educational initiatives –
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Events
Hand in Hand for Haiti – Jérémie, City of Poets
We’re all emotionally moved and humbled by our visit to shanty town Cité Soleil as we make our way back to the domestic terminal at Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport. If ever there was a case of people crying out for help, it is those we met this morning. The humility we saw and the
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Events
Hand in Hand for Haiti – inside Cité Soleil
It’s a 5.45 a.m. start today, to allow us to visit Port-au-Prince’s infamous shanty town Cité Soleil, before we fly to Jérémie in the south west of Haiti. You don’t just walk into Cité Soleil – it’s a dangerous place on many levels, home to some 250,000 residents who live in acute poverty and amid
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Miscellaneous
Hand in Hand for Haiti – from Les Cayes to Camp Perrin
Next step on our whirlwind trip around Haiti is Les Cayes, the country’s fourth-biggest city. While not impacted directly by the January earthquake, it has seen a surge of refugees from the worst-hit areas, especially Port-au-Prince. We’re right next to the Caribbean here, on the site of an old rum port. Sister Marthe from the
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Events
Hand in Hand for Haiti – a touch of divine intervention
God moves in mysterious ways… After we return to Jacmel Airport for our onward journey to Les Cayes, we encounter a group of nuns from the famous Missionaries of Charity, founded by the legendary Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa died in 1997 but the Roman Catholic group has stayed true to her remarkable mission to help
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Events
Hand in Hand for Haiti – Journey to Jacmel
It’s a dank, misty morning as we drive down through Port-au-Prince on our way to the domestic airport terminal to catch an early flight to the town of Jacmel. Our route takes us past countless crushed buildings; sombre, grey heaps of rubble, some with undiscovered bodies still buried deep beneath. A simple white sheet hanging
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Miscellaneous
Hand in Hand for Haiti – a city of ruins
Driving through the downtown area of Port-au-Prince is like arriving in a city after an apocalypse. Whatever you’ve seen on CNN, this is a hundred times worse. An estimated 80% of buildings in the heart of the capital’s downtown area were destroyed by the January 12 earthquake. Piles and piles of rubble line the streets