TripAdvisor fined in Italy for publishing fake reviews

ITALY'S competition watchdog has fined travel website TripAdvisor €500,000 (£392,000) for publishing misleading information in its reviews, the Daily Telegraph reports. The fine follows an investigation by the regulator into whether the website takes appropriate measures to avoid publishing false opinions while presenting them as genuine.

The regulator said the company and its Italian arm should stop ‘publishing misleading information about the sources of its reviews’, adding that the practice started in 2011

TripAdvisor said it would appeal against the ruling. ‘Our systems and procedures are extremely efficient in protecting consumers from a small minority of people who try to con our system,’ it said. ‘We firmly believe that TripAdvisor is a force for good, both for consumers and the hospitality industry.

The authority gave TripAdvisor 90 days to respond, saying its move was aimed at ensuring consumers do not make decisions based on information that does not correspond to reality.

Italian hoteliers welcomed the decision, citing numerous examples of ‘defamatory’ reviews that have appeared on the site.

TripAdvisor was investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority in Britain in 2011 and 2012 following claims that many of its hotel reviews are fake. The website subsequently scrapped its ‘reviews you can trust’ slogan and stopped claiming that its reviews are from ‘real’ travellers.

Despite the elaborate systems it says are in place to detect fraudulent reviews, some have slipped through the net. Last year, a senior executive at one of the world’s biggest hotel groups admitted breaching rules by posting dozens of glowing reviews about the company’s properties – and negative ones of its rivals. The reviews were removed only the Daily Telegraph contacted TripAdvisor. 

The website's fraud detection systems also failed to prevent a non-existent business becoming one of the most highly-rated restaurants in the seaside town of Brixham in 2013.

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Show me Wales!

Show Me Wales Trails promotion

VISITORS to Wales are being encouraged to park their cars and explore the country by train, cycle, or on foot in a sustainable transport and tourism initiative.

The Show Me Wales Trails promotion aims to enhance the car-free visitor experience in Wales. 

It features three of the country’s most scenic railways – Conwy Valley, Cambrian Lines and Heart of Wales – the Wales Coast Path and national walking and cycling routes.

A bilingual, business card-sized guide has been produced with a map of the rail routes and connections, together with information about Glyndwr's Castles, Cardigan Bay beaches, cycling and mountain bike routes, Glyndwr's Way walking trail, market towns, and Britain's smallest town, Llanwrtyd Wells. 

www.showmewales.co.uk

New life for Cardigan Castle

ON course to open its doors in the spring, Cardigan Castle is being re-developed after years of neglect to house a centre for community and recreational use. There will also be luxury self-catering accommodation. 

Tours of the castle site will enable visitors to discover more about its 900-year history and to see its Grade II listed Regency gardens. 

The east wing of Castle Green House, a listed Georgian mansion, will be turned into five-star self-catering accommodation.

Events will include festivals, wedding fairs, concerts and theatre. www.cardigancastle.com

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Picture Credit - From Top: "Castell Harlech" by Alan Fryer via Wikimedia Commons; 'Castle Green House, Cardigan Castle' by Nicholas Mutton via Wikimedia Commons

Norwegian plans new flights to Spain

NORWEGIAN continues to expand its route network in the UK, offering non-stop service from Birmingham to Madrid, Barcelona, and Malaga next year. 

The airline is also adding Malaga as a new destination from Edinburgh.


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Picture Credit: 'Norwegian Air Shuttle Boeing 737-800 LN-NGR' by Valentin Hintikka from Finland via Wikimedia Commons

Dubrovnik upbeat on tourism

THE Dubrovnik Tourist Board has announced record-breaking 2014 arrival figures.

The city received 851,311 arrivals between January 1 and November 30, a 12 percent increase on the same period the year before.

UK visitors to Dubrovnik increased by 15 percent.

Says Romana Vlašic, director of the Dubrovnik Tourist Board: ‘It has been a very successful year for Dubrovnik. The city has shown that it is an appealing destination for guests from around the world, and there is plenty to look forward to in the next 12 months; Thomson has announced new flights from the UK to Dubrovnik, from airports including London Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, and Bristol.’

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Picture Credit: 'Casco viejo de Dubrovnik, Croacia - Old harbour, old city of Dubrovnik, Croatia' by Diego Delso via Wikimedia Commons

Want to go really, really green?

ETHICAL TRAVELLER, a non-profit California-based organization has published its list of the top ten ethical travel destinations for 2015 … countries which have made significant changes to protect the rights of their citizens and to safeguard the environment. 

They are, in alphabetical order: 

1. Cape Verde … Cape Verde scored highly when it came to assessing citizens' civil and political rights and ranked highly on the Heritage Foundation's Economic Freedom Index, as it offers a wide array of social welfare based programmes.

2. Chile … Chile's government was the first in South America to sign a pledge to introduce carbon taxes by 2018. Out of the ten countries included in the list, Chile scored the most points when it came to protecting the environment.

3. Dominica … Dominica opposes commercial whaling and received high marks for its commitment to animal welfare and innovative plans to invest in clean, renewable, energy sources.

4. Lithuania … Lithuania ranked the highest on the United Nation's Human Development Index. 

An impressive 22% of Lithuania's energy is renewable, so the country is well on their way to achieve its goal of having 23% of their energy coming from renewable sources by 2020. 

5. Mauritius … Mauritius offers a variety of social services and is currently the only African nation to provide income security programmes for citizens over the age of 60. The also plans to plant 200,000 trees by the end of 2014.

6. Palau … The Small Islands Developing States Network, awarded Palau – in the Western Pacific – with an environmental star for its work to preserve both marine and land-based eco-systems.

7. Samoa … The Samoan government has invested $1 million in a project which aims to increase bio-diversity and combat the effects of climate change.

8. Tonga …. The Tongan government has pledged to reduce diesel consumption by 50% by 2020, and has plans to introduce organic farming in 2015. 

9. Uruguay … Tourists who visit the Colonia del Sacramento – one of the oldest towns in Uruguay and a World Heritage Site – can tour the town by electric car. The government also has plans to introduce electric taxis and buses in 2015.

10. Vanuatu … Vanuatu, which comprises more than 80 islands, has passed multiple land reform acts designed to protect the rights and welfare of its indigenous citizens.

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Picture Credit - From Top: "Mindelo portogrande - Cape Verde" via Wikimedia Commons; "EP rinkimai 2014 - Vilnius, Lithuania" by ViršuLF - Own work via Wikimedia Commons; "Lefaga, Return to Paradise beach, south coast Upolu Island, Samoa, 2009" by Stephen Glauser uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by Teinesavaii via Wikimedia Commons

Tourisms delights...

World tourist numbers pass 1 billion mark 

INTERNATIONAL tourism is set to hit a new record by the end of 2014 with more than 1.1 billion international holidaymakers travelling the world in one single year.

During the first ten months of 2014, the number of international tourists grew by five percent according to the latest United Nations World Tourism Barometer.

By region, the strongest growth was registered in the Americas (up eight percent), followed by Asia and the Pacific (up five percent) and Europe (four percent growth). By sub-region, North America (up nine percent) and South Asia (up eight percent) were the star performers.

• Good year for German tourism 

THE number of overnight stays by foreign tourists in Germany increased to 58.8 million for the period from January to September 2014 according to latest government figures.

Some 2.9 million extra nights, in accommodation establishments with ten or more beds, were registered compared to the same period last year, an overall increase of 5.1 per cent.

Poland for the first time among Germany’s top ten tourist markets. Unchanged, the Netherlands tops the list of top ten source markets by a wide margin. In second place, Switzerland generated above-average growth of 6.8 per cent, followed by the United States, up 4.8 per cent. The UK registered a 4.2 per cent growth.

• 2014 boost for Tuscany tourism 

TOURISM in Tuscany is back to the record levels of 2011. More than 43 million tourists visited the Italian region this year, the second highest total ever.

‘Compared with 2013, this year there have been 209,000 more arrivals and 441,000 more overnight visitors,’ says Alberto Perruzzini, director of tourism at Toscana Promozione. ‘These numbers confirm that Tuscany is still very appealing.’

• Britain’s top 10

THESE are Britain’s top ten cities for holidays, as determined by a poll of Daily Telegraph readers:

1. Edinburgh
2. London
3. York
4. Bath
5. Cambridge
6. Chester
7. Durham
8. Oxford
9. Liverpool
10. Norwich

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Picture Credit: "Americana Streets of New York (163638283)" by Steve Evans from Citizen of the World via Wikimedia Commons

Wizz Air takes off from Bristol

A NEW airline will be flying from Bristol Airport next year following Wizz Air’s announcement that it will operate a twice-weekly service to Katowice, Poland, from June. Flights will operate every Monday and Friday.

Katowice is the main city of the Upper Silesian region of Poland and is a centre for science and industry, as well as having an eclectic mix of architectural styles with Gothic and Art Nouveau buildings alongside Communist-era Modernist structures.

Tickets are now on sale from £25.99 one way (including taxes, non-optional charges and one small cabin bag) and can be booked at wizzair.com.

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