GRAVY TRAINS It would be good to think that when our nation votes on the EU next month there might be some who are not just selfishly thinking about themselves and …

IMPACT OF TERROR Travel by UK business travellers to high-risk destinations is on the increase, according to new research carried out by the Collinson Group and published …

CURRY KILLS A 38 year-old man with a severe peanut allergy died after he ate a take-away curry from the Indian Garden restaurant, Easingwold, North Yorkshire in January …

SCAM EXPOSED BY MARRIOTT, AGAIN Fraudsters are getting consumers to listen to a sales pitch by telling them that if they do they will be given a free stay at a Marriott …

FINE FOR STAFF ABUSE AT THE HILTON Ashley Walters, 33, actor and rapper with the So Solid Crew has been ordered to pay £1,000 after he aimed a foul-mouthed tirade …

CHECK YOUR PASSPORT Those travelling to the USA who would rather not have problems with those nice, caring and polite types at USA passport control might want …

LUXURY IN BRUSSELS To Le Plaza luxury hotel in Brussels, which is independent, four-star, family-run and holds a Belgian Royal Warrant from 2004. Offered are 190 …

HOTEL NEWS
o Ten UK hotels that produced total revenue of £48 million in 2015 have been put up for …
o The Grade 11-listed, historic Martins Bank building in Liverpool is to be converted into …
o Easy access to Birmingham from most parts of the UK could be making it an …

MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA The 2015 Radio Times Guide To Films, described by film critic Barry Norman as “This is really the only film guide you’ll need” lists 23,000 films …

THEY MUST NOT WIN The three nail bombs triggered by ISIL’s suicide bombers at Brussels airport and a Metro station on March 22 killed 32 innocent people and …

SWITCH-SELLING AT PARK GRAND? One hotel user we know has told us of a bad experience received at the four-star Park Grand in Hogarth Road, Earls Court …

SOMETHING DIFFERENT IN LANCS There can’t be too many hotel venues in the UK that have their own garden centre and marina just up the road, but the Barton Grange …

WELCOME Those looking for a small, three-star, independent boutique hotel in Brussels centre should check out the charmingly quirky Brussels Welcome Hotel, which really …

ONE IN WIGAN To The Brocket Arms, a traditionally-styled Wetherspoons pub/hotel around three-quarters of a mile from Wigan town centre. This offers 28 en suite …

HOTEL NEWS
o Concerns that the 212-room Britannia Airport Hotel at Northenden is changing its use …
o Planning permission for the US Embassy in London’s Grosvenor Square to be …
o Dutch firm Flexotels, which offers temporary cabins for accommodation to festival …

THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR Those who like taut, cat and mouse political thrillers will love this prescient 1975 film of a rogue cancer in the CIA that desperately wants …

ALTON TOWERS PROSECUTION Operators of Alton Towers theme park, Merlin Attractions Operation Ltd are to be prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive …

SAFER AIR SHOWS? Following the Shoreham Air Show disaster last year which saw 11 people on the ground die the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has introduced tougher new …

HI-TECH VENUE IN SHOREDITCH The Brew opened last year at 163, City Road. Shoreditch, London, opposite Moorfields Eye Hospital and close to Old Street …

OMMEGANG 2016 Those who enjoy the pomp and pageantry of a historical procession will want to know about the annual Imaging event, staged in Brussels this year July 5-7 …

A LOOK AT FRYSLAN Wrongly called “Friesland” by us Brits this province in the North of the Netherlands has the black and white Holstein-Friesian cows, famous for their …

SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED IN AMSTERDAM Organisers looking to run small and medium-sized events in Amsterdam, and who worry that they could rattle around in the …

GRACE & FAVOUR Fans of the 70s and 80s British BBC TV sitcom “Are You Being Served?” will know that five of the troupe went on to play, in 1992/3, in a 12-part spin-off …

ATTEMPTED MASS MURDER It must now be time to consider banning all laser devices available to the general public since the increasing criminal use of them to dazzle and …

AIRPORT NEWS
o Parking companies operating at London Gatwick Airport are coming under scrutiny…
o Chancellor George Osbourne has promised to stop airport shops such as Boots and …

SPEAKER FEE ROW. A row over the non-payment of fees to authors and speakers at the Oxford Literary Festival has forced the charity running it to re-consider its …

NORTH OF HOLLAND – GRONINGEN Getting to Groningen in the North of Holland is quick and easy if you start from the compact Southend Airport, as an up to eight times …

BIG SEASIDE VENUE IN HOLLAND One big hotel choice for organisers on the Dutch coast is the long-established five-star and family-owned and managed Grand Hotel …

RESIDENTIAL EVENTS NEAR LEAMINGTON SPA Those, like us, who prefer a map to satnav and looking to visit the Woodland Grange residential events centre near …

OUR FIRST WETHERSPOON HOTEL Those expecting a two or three-star hotel room at the new Southend on Sea Wetherspoon Hotel at the massive Last Post pub in Weston…

ART CENTRE IN NORWICH Organisers looking for an art-related venue in the Norwich area can consider the Modern Life Cafe of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts…

THE CRUEL STORY OF YOUTH The main characters in this stunningly-shot 1960s Art House morality tale of Japanese delinquents are, like Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow…

CULTURE SHOCK European cities are likely to become permanent no-go areas for women if the mass sex attacks in Cologne, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Helsinki on New Year’s Eve are ever repeated.

REMEMBER THIS Researchers at Herriott-Watt University have discovered that a period of rest immediately after being presented with a lot of new material helps to consolidate …

TRACK RECORDS British commuters on our privatised railways are paying up to six times more for their travel than many of their counterparts in Europe, who are using …

UNFAIR TRADING Hotel booking platform Booking.com have been censured by the German regulator, the Federal Cartel Office (FCO) for a clause in their contracts with …

FIRE CLOSES DUBAI HOTEL The five-star, 63-storey Address Downtown Dubai hotel is currently closed after a major fire broke out there in the closing hours of 2015 …

ART AND EVENTS Organisers looking for a London venue with strong artistic connections can enjoy the sumptuous surroundings of the Leighton House Museum …

CHEERS Caterers Searcys are offering £1500 worth of drinks, including VAT, free for new event bookings at The Gherkin for January – March. The offer applies to evening …

THE QUIET MAN With the name Marion Michael Morrison the man was probably not going to make it in some of the best action movies made but with the stage name of  …

BRINGING THIS UP AGAIN A report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on preventable food-borne diseases indicates that food-poisoning affects as many as one …

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT? Nearly 200 jobs are being axed at Merlin Entertainment’s Alton Towers theme park due to lower takings following the June accident on the £18 …

LIVE EVENTS SURGE Spending on live music concerts and festivals reached £2.1 billion this year, 45% up on 2010. According to research company Mintel, who say …

MORE EATING OUT The number of new openings of London restaurants is at its highest level for 25 years. This has been revealed in the 2016 edition of Hardens London …

FREE F&B IN NEWCASTLE Organisers are being offered free food and drink to the value of their space booking at Newcastle United’s St James’ Park Stadium …

AN AFFECTING VENUE One of London’s most thought-provoking venues offered for events is the Foundling Museum in Brunswick Square, which explores the work and …

ON THE SEAFRONT Those looking for a classy seaside venue in the North-West with an impressive space for corporate events will want to look at the independent Dalmeny …

BRUM FOR BIZ Birmingham is the most popular destination outside London for corporate events, for the seventh consecutive tear. This is the finding of the 2015/2016 seventh …

SHANE A survey of the top ten Westerns by the American Film Institute (AFI) revealed that George Stevens’s Shane, completed in 1952 and released in 1953 was the third …

AN UGLY FACE OF TOURISM Tourists being killed does seem to bring out the worst in people in our tourism industry. Egypt’s tourism minister Hisham Zaazou is a case in …

AND OTHERS Criticism of the way Thomas Cokk handled the deaths of two of its young customers by carbon monoxide poisoning at one of its chosen hotels in Corfu continues …

SUN, SEA, SAND AND SEAWEED Meanwhile some other tourist economies are seriously under threat down on some of the lovely beaches of the Caribbean, where …

YOUR PRIVATE JET AWAITS One recent development that could make flying less of a depressing experience, and travel more of an incentive for VIP groups, is a private jet …

HAIR TODAY… Clumps of hair, type unspecified, in the plughole was the complaint about hotels mentioned by 86% of respondents in a survey of 600 members of the public by …

EXCURSIONS Excursions 2016, the exhibition of options for those organising group travel takes place at Alexander Palace, London, on Saturday January 23 2016…

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD An example of a film that was higher-rated by the public than the critics was the 1967 John Schlesinger adaption of Thomas Hardy’s rural …

LETHAL COOL A cocktail containing liquid nitrogen cost an 18 year-old her stomach in 2012, and the wine bar in Lancaster that served it a fine of £100,000 last week…

BAN FOR SCOTTISH CHAUFFEUR FIRM A director of Edinburgh chauffeur firm Chauffeurline(UK) Ltd has been banned from operating passenger vehicles or acting as …

FREE KNOWLEDGE A free business seminar and networking session for event organisers is offered by academic venue consortium Venuemasters…

MEET THE FOODIE Also in Birmingham for event organisers is the open day at venuebirmingham, held on Friday October 9 in the Great Hall at the University of …

BEACH PARTY A range of eleven Christmas Party nights in November and December have been announced by The Dalmeny Resort Hotel, situated overlooking a beach …

WAPPING VENUE Tobacco Dock, in Wapping has a total capacity for up to 10,000 standing, making it a suitable hire for large parties, and the party nights put on by the …

PEACE OF NORWICH The 900 year-old Cathedral in Norwich now offers two modern spaces for event organisers in peaceful surroundings…

PARTY IN THE PINK One interesting and unusual East-London venue just 100 yards from the 2012 Olympic Stadium, and with views over to it from a rooftop terrace, is …

AIRPORT STAY IN LISBON Those wanting an overnight stay very close to Lisbon Airport, or to hold an event there, can check out the impressive new Tryp Lisboa …

MORE IN SARASOTA A recent trip to Sarasota, Florida earlier this year turned up a number of impressive attractions for organisers seeking interesting non-residential …

THE BLUE ANGEL A film song entitled “From My Head to My Toes I’m All About Love” sung by a Maria Magdalena von Losch sitting on a barrel in a lowlife German nightclub …

HINDSIGHT The deaths of eleven members of the public at the Shoreham Air Show has finally persuaded our Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that it is probably not a good idea to …

HOTEL NEWS

GOLF IN CASCAIS Organisers looking for a five-star golf venue in Portugal, perhaps away from the Algarve, will want to check out the Hotel Quinta da Marinha Resort. This …

ACTIVE IN BRUSSELS Organisers wanting to get their delegates doing something physical, or cerebral, for purposes of serious team-building or just serious fun have …

DITCH THE TIP? Claims that some restaurants and groups keep service charges that diners believe are shared among the waiting staff have sparked calls for changes in …

LONG LOOK AT LEEDS Event organisers are invited to join a complimentary three-day, two night familiarisation trip to Leeds, the Leeds Big Sleepover 2015. This takes place …

MEDIUM COOL Those interested in the broadcast media, whether to praise them for broadcasting without fear or favour or to condemn them for manufacturing news and …

MORE AIRPORT RIP-OFFS So now we know. All of us who have ever assumed that staff at shops in our airports asking to see and record details of our boarding cards …

FRAUD AT SMG EUROPE? Police have been investigating allegations of fraud since last October at venue operator SMG Europe. The company operates, from its head …

HOTEL NEWS  A new five-star 225-bedroom Central London hotel with meetings spaces, the Great Scotland Yard, is due to open in early 2017. Operated by Steigenberger Hotel …

CHEZ ROTHSCHILD Waddesdon Manor, the opulent French chateaux style Buckinghamshire home of the famous Rothschild banking and wine-producing family …

GRAND, PAMPERED AND COSY IN ESTORIL According to Conde Nast Traveller magazine “Finding Molton Brown in your hotel bathroom is the mark of a fine property …

MORE IN ESTORIL And close by the Hotel Palacio are two large non-residential venues we found in Estoril for events…

FRIENDS OF THE ENVIRONMENT Organisers of events in Brussels who are keen to support environmentally-friendly and sustainable venues will want to look at the Bel …

OPEN DAY AT THE BARBICAN An open day showcasing the event spaces for up to 2,000 at the Barbican, and the food of caterers Searcys, is being held at the venue on …

INTOLERANCE One landmark film for students of the silent film era, along with white supremacists or Nazis, was The Birth of a Nation. This was director D.W Griffith’s …

FELLINI:SATYRICON This is a science-fiction film that looks backward into the past, according to its director Federico Fellini, and it takes an outrageous and surreal look …