Holidaymakers are supporting the Travel Foundation, a new charity that is trying to help manage the travel industry more sustainably.

Since the charity’s launch in November 2003, more than three-quarters of holidaymakers who booked a winter or summer holiday with UK operator First Choice have agreed to pay a voluntary donation to the charity.

The Travel Foundation is aiming to raise £1 million a year by 2006, which it says it will spend on projects that help tourism make a positive contribution to holiday destinations.

First Choice is asking its customers to donate 10 pence per adult, and 5 pence per child per holiday booking. Other UK operators, including The Adventure Company (formerly Travelbag Adventures) and Hidden Greece, will soon be providing similar fundraising schemes. Sunvil Holidays is already asking its customers to match its own donation of 50 pence per booking.

The Travel Foundation has already supported sustainable tourism projects in The Gambia and in Cyprus, where all the main tour operators are now offering excursions to the less well-known rural areas to help contribute to the livelihoods of local people. It plans to support similar tourism-related projects in other popular holiday destinations, including Mexico and Tobago, to help tourism make a greater contribution to the local people, environment and economy.

Further information, see thetravelfoundation.org.uk or telephone 0117 9273049.

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29 year old Nigel Ashcroft, a musician from Wales is setting off on a trip trying to busk his way around the world in 80 days. He plans to tour 18 countries without carrying any money at all. He’s in confident mood and said: “I’m going to have to sing, perform, charm and maybe blag my way around the world – but I think I can pull it off.” He is a full-time busker and one of the first to be licensed under a new scheme by London Underground. They are also making a documentary of their trip to raise money for a charity for the homeless.

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National carrier Air New Zealand announced it would cut average airfares on routes to the Pacific Islands by up to 50 percent as it unveiled the final stage of its revamp of short-haul services.

Air NZ has already introduced a no-frills model on trans-Tasman and domestic flights, stimulating demand as it fends off competition from Virgin Blue and Qantas. The new Pacific Express service would see fares across both business and economy classes between New Zealand and Australia and the islands of Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands reduced by up to 50 percent, the company said in a statement. The cheapest one-day flight between Auckland and Fiji, excluding taxes and levies, would cost NZD$229 and NZD$289 to the Cook Islands.

An airline pilot, reported by passengers for flying his Boeing 737 erratically, was fined 1,500 euros (USD$1,845) after a breath test showed he had been drinking, German police said. The pilot worked for a north African airline and was flying from Morocco to Düsseldorf in western Germany. Police declined to name his airline. Police launched an investigation against the pilot for “endangering air traffic” and the civil aviation authority had confiscated the plane’s flight recorder. “Several of the 108 passengers complained about the pilot’s ‘erratic’ flying style,” Düsseldorf police said in a statement.

New European low-cost airline WIZZ Air secured its third base in Gdansk, Poland. The airline plans to start operations from May to coincide with European Union enlargement. Low-budget airlines are emerging across Central Europe, where treaties protecting national carriers must be scrapped after several countries in the region join the EU.

WIZZ Air said it planned to become central Europe’s third-biggest airline this year after Poland’s LOT and Czech CSA

JetBlue has announced its intention to begin nonstop service from its hub in New York to Santiago and Santo Domingo, both in the Dominican Republic.

Privately owned Spirit Airlines, which currently flies to Mexico, recently won federal approval to fly to 11 countries: Aruba, the Bahamas, Canada, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Panama.

America West announced nonstop service from Los Angeles to four new international destinations in Canada and Mexico.

British Airways plans to introduce a new Russian regional route and increase the number of flights on its existing routes to Russia. BA franchisee British Mediterranean Airways will operate three flights a week from London to the Urals city of Yekaterinburg from May 10.

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Need to convert currency?

Take a look at The Globetrotters Currency Converter — get the exchange rates for 164 currencies The Globetrotters Currency Cheat Sheet — create and print a currency converter table for your next trip.

Need help? Want a travelling buddy or advice about a place or country – want to share something with us – why not visit our Mutual Aid section of the Website: Mutual Aid

If you have a travellers tale that your aching to tell. Then why not visit the “Travel Sized Bites” section of the Website and share it with the world. Travel Sized Bites

The winner of last month’s guidebook on the Azores is: Joan Haladay, congratulations!

This month, win a Trailblazer guidebook on Tibet Overland. See www.trailblazerguides.com for info on Trailblazer Guidebooks.

Some people have said the quiz is difficult, we say do some research: try google.com or Ask Jeeves, if you need help with the answers.

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Did you know, you can change the format of this e-newsletter? This e-newsletter is available in 4 formats:

1. This format with 2 columns.

2. A single column print friendly version available online, see the link in every e-newsletter (or click here).

3. The text only version, if you’d like your e-newsletter in plain text format, just send a blank email to The Globetrotters Webmaster with “Text+Enews” as the subject

4. Have a link emailed to you pointing to the online version, just send a blank email to The Globetrotters Webmaster with “Link+Enews” as the subject

Azores Express has announced expanded Spring and Summer service from Boston Logan Airport to Portugal beginning in June 2004. Azores Express will offer direct flights to São Miguel, the main island in the Azores archipelago, on Wednesdays (starts June 23rd), Tuesdays, and Fridays. A Saturday flight is offered from Providence, Rhode Island starting June 12, 2004.

The Azores Islands, an autonomous region of Portugal, are the closest point in Europe to the United States, just four hours east by plane from Boston.

Situated 2,000 nautical miles from New England, the archipelago of the Azores was discovered during the first half of the 15th-century by Portuguese navigators. Today, gothic churches and majestic baroque manor homes mingle with sapphire blue and emerald green lakes, rolling prairies, volcanic cones and craters, and colourful hydrangeas and azaleas to enchant visitors. This inviting land enjoys year-round mild temperatures (between 57°F and 71°F).

A direct service from Boston to the historic island of Terceira will be offered on Sundays starting June 13th with a return flight every Tuesday. Non-stop flights to Portugal’s capital of Lisbon will be available every Thursday (starts June 24) and Sunday (starts June 6). Connecting flights to Madeira, Lisbon and Porto are also available from São Miguel. Inter-island flights are offered to each of the nine islands in the Azores. Roundtrip airfares start at just $579. Upgrades to business-class are just $150 each way to the Azores, and $200 each way to Lisbon. For more information and reservations, contact your travel agent, or Azores Express at 800-762-9995, www.Azores-Express.com.

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This is what the Foreign and Commonwealth office of the UK says about visits to Thailand.

There is a general threat to British and other Western targets from terrorism in South East Asia including Thailand. You should be particularly vigilant in public places, including tourist resorts. Following a resurgence of violence in the far southern provinces the Government has implemented new security measures in Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani.

There was an explosion on 27 March 2004, outside a bar in the Thai-Malaysian border town of Sungai Kolok in Narathiwat Province in which 30 people were injured, some seriously.

Watch out for crimes of opportunity. Theft of passports and credit cards is a problem. Possession of even small quantities of drugs can lead to imprisonment or in serious cases the death penalty. The vast majority of visits are trouble-free.

The Beetle spent a few happy days in Bangkok in January of this year, and she thought it was a wonderful place, but as always, all travellers and tourists should be careful wherever they are.

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