Among the many impressive industry stories of ingenuity in getting home while stranded during the volcano ash crisis, was there a more impressive one than that of ARI Group Retail Operations Director Nick Forbes? Nick had been in Moscow when Irish and UK airspace was first closed last Thursday. At first things looked bleak, very
Blog
Airlines
Blue skies, nothing but blue skies, do I see…
I was blue, just as blue as I could be Ev’ry day was a cloudy day for me Then good luck came a-knocking at my door Skies were gray but they’re not gray anymore Blue skies Smiling at me Nothing but blue skies Do I see – Irving Berlin “JFK please!” They were the words
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Miscellaneous
Escape from New York?
As we stumbled down the stairs to meet the day (as it now was) in the words of the Kristofferson song (Sunday morning coming down), the Candy man among us spotted a bar. Then followed the most terrifying three words in the English language if you’re accompanied by an Irishman. “Fancy a nightcap?”
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Events
‘Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds away’
“Veal meat again…” It sounded like I was about to burst into a Vera Lynn wartime song but I was simply ordering the best chop in New York. The Moodie Report’s Americas bureau has doubled in size with the arrival of Deputy Publisher Dermot Davitt after a 15-hour flight from Hong Kong, step one on
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Miscellaneous
Ash cloud starts to pall in the big smoke
‘Homeless – please help’ As I lean over to give the poor black woman on Madison Avenue a few Dollars, I can’t stop myself commenting: “So am I…” She smiles at me with a confused expression. Day five of my extended stay in New York and metropolitan fever is starting to set in. While it would be
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Airlines
New York blues
And the papers love to say It’s the meanest town in the USA But I think it’s okay It’s the town I’ve made my home – New York City Blues, Neil Sedaka Things you don’t want to read when you’re stranded abroad (1): “The last recorded eruption of Eyjafjallajokull lasted over a year (1821-1823) but
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Miscellaneous
You ain’t goin’ nowhere
Clouds so swift Rain won’t lift… You ain’t goin’ nowhere – Bob Dylan “You ain’t going nowhere Honey.” The American Airlines representative at JFK Airport looked at me with an expression that combined sympathy and insistence, shaking her head as she spoke. It was Thursday evening and having spent the afternoon at JFK Terminal 4 reporting
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Miscellaneous
Ash Thursday strands The Moodie Report
The Moodie Report’s Big Apple bureau at the Courtyard Marriott hotel near New York JFK Airport may turn out to be a little less temporary than planned… My supposedly whistle-stop visit to JFK – to report on a new collaboration between Diageo Global Travel & Middle East and DFS – is now threatened by ash.
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Airports
Setting new Standards
This Blog comes to you from the Courtyard Marriott hotel near New York JFK Airport. It’s the recurrent story of my life; to visit great cities and only stay in airport hotels. I’m in the ‘Big Apple’ on a whistle-stop, one-day visit to view what I hear is an exciting alliance between Diageo Global Travel &
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Miscellaneous
‘Pasalubong’ power in the Philippines
The scale and dynamism of Duty Free Philippines’ confectionery business really has to be seen to be believed. After yesterday’s tour of flagship outlet Fiesta Mall – as part of our visit to the Philippines this week – today we returned to get an insight into the retailer’s largest category (above), and the drivers behind
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Airports
Make my day
“Come over here Sir please.” Oh, oh, I was clearly in trouble again for taking photographs at London Heathrow Airport… The scene is Heathrow Airport Terminal 1 last Friday and I am making my way from the formal opening of Aelia’s impressive new Longchamp boutique to the Tin Goose bar at the other end of
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Miscellaneous
Singing salesmen make it Fiesta time in the Philippines
Twenty-one years after post-Arrivals shopping was introduced in the Philippines at Fiesta Mall in Manila, the concept shows no sign of losing its allure among Filipino travellers and especially returning workers from overseas. Today, even amid intensifying competition from the domestic market and an erosion of the duty free price advantage in some categories, Fiesta
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Airports
Getting the star treatment in-store
This just may rank as the look of the year. No I’m not talking about the male shop assistant; I’m talking about the expression emanating from the Rita Hayworth lookalike at Athens International Airport earlier this month. ‘Smouldering’ they used to call such looks in the golden age of Hollywood. And indeed the movie industry