TENS of thousands of Chinese tourists are travelling to Germany to drive powerful cars at up to 150mph on the autobahns, despite fears by road safety groups that the trend will end in disaster.
Steering a BMW, Mercedes or Audi at high speeds on Germany’s motorways is the new highlight of specially tailored holidays for wealthy Chinese.
Tour operators insist that they teach their clients the finer points of western motoring etiquette before letting them loose on the estimated 5,000 out of 7,500 miles of autobahns that do not have speed limits.
The tourists are given booklets that explain the meaning of road signs, translate useful phrases such as “Stop! Police!” and advise drivers to remain calm when other disgruntled road users raise a finger at them.
Related Travel Information
Emirates Holidays, the tour operating arm of Emirates Airline and one of the largest wholesale tour operators in the Middle East, declared a revenue of Dhs 355 million (US$97 million) for the financial year ended 31st March 2004 - an increase of 23 per cent over the previous year.
Around 100,000 tourists travelled with Emirates Holidays over the past twelve months, with the top destinations proving to be the U.A.E, Malaysia, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Egypt, Mauritius, the Maldives, Singapore, Lebanon and India. The six destinations growing fastest in popularity were Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, Austria, Hong Kong and New Zealand.
The past
Pleasant Holidays and the Sheraton Maui are offering reduced room rates in Garden View and Ocean View accommodations at the Sheraton Maui for all new bookings traveling November 28 through May 31, 2003. Partial Ocean View accommodations at the special rate will also be available for booking through May starting January 1, 2003.
Additional benefits are a fifth night free and daily buffet breakfast for all.
Blackout dates during holidays periods are November 23 –28, December 24 – January 7, and April 8-18, 2003.
Five-night, land-only holidays start at $749 per person, double occupancy, reflecting a savings of $550 per room. Included in
Qatar Airways Holidays has opened an outlet in Kuwait. The office will sell package tours offered by the holiday division of Qatar Airways. It already has offices in Doha and Bahrain and plans to open more centres in other Gulf states.
Times and technology have changed since the days when our grandparents were dating. They called it "courting" back then. But what hasn't changed is people. We are still made out of blood, flesh and bone -- just as we've always been.
In this age of instant this, instant that, sound bites, split screens and time measured in nanoseconds, we are enamored with speed. We do everything quickly. We think fast and we move fast. We'd go even faster if we could.
When it comes to dating, moving quickly isn't a good idea. In dating, speed is a liability, not an asset. The
Tourists from Northern Ireland and the east of England are the most likely to have a holiday romance, a new survey claimed today.
The UK-wide survey by Teletext Holidays also revealed the Welsh were the most successful at turning a holiday romp into a romance.
Nearly half (49%) of all holiday flings lasted less than a week and almost a fifth lasted just one night.
A women`s top holiday fling was with a sports instructor, while men prefer local waitresses or air stewardesses.
Australia was the best place to find sexy locals and Portugal the worst, the poll of 1,529 UK adults found.
The survey