Time to hit the road again

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Martin Moodie
Martin Moodie is the Founder & Chairman of The Moodie Report.

My 2019 carbon footprint (which I will seek to alleviate in various ways) starts today. After the rare luxury of staying at home for three whole weeks I’m back on the road tonight for the next two. Five, maybe six destinations, starting with Hong Kong sometime tomorrow. It’s going to be a full-on year in which I can promise you that we will live up to our tagline of ‘the website that never sleeps’.

I’m starting with a 12 hour economy flight to Hong Kong, a long old journey in the ‘back of the bus’ as we say, but at least my points-laden Gold Card has got me into the BA Lounge and with it the chance to sup on a nice glass or two prior to my voyage. As I tend to, I have chanced upon an absolute gem of a wine, a 2015 Clos des Lunes, Lune D’argent, a white Bordeaux of sheer class. I was so impressed that I looked it up online and discovered this: “Crafted by the team responsible for white Bordeaux Superstar Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, the Clos des Lunes delivers unbelievable value for money at under £10 a bottle in bond.”

Too right it does. Go out and buy a case now. Alternatively, take a BA flight out of Heathrow Terminal 5 sometime soon and drink it for free.

Lounge or no lounge, I still always try to find some time to shop at Heathrow. Realising that I had started 2019 the way I left off 2018 by forgetting my cufflinks again (as with travel adapters my forgetfulness rate runs at about 90 percent), I headed down to my favourite Heathrow T5 store, Paul Smith. There was a good sale going on, including cufflinks at half price. My eyes alighted, however, on a pair of brilliant Paul Smith globe cufflinks, full price alas. What more appropriate accessory could I possibly wear?

I’ve been 32 years in travel retail now, more than the age of most of the batch of bright young journalists coming through in this sector. The past 17 have been spent at The Moodie Davitt Report and I can honestly say that I’m bringing as much energy into this one as I did all those years ago in 2002 when we set off on our journey. I’m bursting with enthusiasm, ideas and a determination to raise my and our game to a whole new level. And we will.

What makes this business magical is the people you meet and the stories they enable you to tell. And at the end of the day, that’s what good journalism is about, story-telling. I can promise you several in coming days, from locations as diverse as Cebu, Manila, Shanghai and Hong Kong. And plenty more to follow. It’s time to hit the road again.

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