Havng a couple of complementary tickets, this afternoon I went to the The Times "Destinations Holiday & Travel Show" at Earls Court - its usual venue. The first time I went, several years ago, it was an enormous event, packed with crowds of people, all eager to find out about exotic holiday destinations - and some not so exotic, like the Lake District and the Isle of Wight and the Isle of Man. There was a whole section at that time on UK destinations, as well as African safaris, walking the Great Wall of China and exploring the Antarctic. And then, of course, there were all the lectures and non-stop entertainment on the stage.
Destinations today is a much smaller event; gone are all the fully equipped camper vans where you could live for weeks as you explored the African bush; gone are most of the elaborate displays and huge number of stands, all vying for your next holiday booking. Last year it was a fairly small events, compared to its heyday, and this year I think it was even smaller.
That is not to say there weren't some interesting things there, because there were - plenty of them. The Tibetan yurt was an interesting example of how some other people live, and the film show portrayed a fascinating country with great contrasts from one part to another and one season to another. The Serbian food, samples of which they pressed on to everyone who came to their stand, were absolutely delicious. I did ask if one could buy the cheeses in this country, but the answer was no - you have to go to Serbia. The Korean hand acupuncture was certainly different to anything I had experienced - you put your hands into a machine, and they turn it on, either low, medium or high and for five minutes air takes the place of acupuncture needles. I went for the medium setting, but had to ask the girl to turn it down to low, as the pressure on my hands was too great. Nearby was a chart, showing which parts of the body may have have something wrong with them, depending on where you feel any pain in your hands. When it is finished, your hands are covered with hundreds of tiny spots, which fade in about twenty minutes.
There were the usual series of lectures in two theatres - one for inspiration and the other for practical advice. It was a toss-up which one to go for - the one on Travel Writing Tips at 2.45 p.m., or the one on Serbia - Year of Culture 2013 at 2.30 p.m. I opted for the one on Serbia, which was extremely interesting, and featured the well-known Valerie Singleton as one of the speakers. The lectures are invariably worthwhile attending - the speakers seem to be chosen for their knowledge of the subject and also their ability to enthuse about the topic they are covering. Other inspiration lectures on the Sunday covered destinations are varied as Alaska, Spitzenbergen, Afghanistan and Jordan, while the practical advice series covered, amongst many other things, topics such as politically sensitive destinations, travel photography and choosing the ultimate honeymoon. Quite a variety, and something for everyone.
The World Entertainment this year seemed to focus mainly on dancing; I would have liked to have seen the Uzbek "Orzu Arts", but was too busy looking at other things when they were on.
I also went and looked at the shortlisted photographs in the Wanderlust Travel Photography competition. Some of them were outstanding, and very unusual - they very much depended on the photographer being in the right place at the right time and having his camera ready. I voted for the one I finally decided I liked best in the hope of winning a very impressive camera, with rather more gadgetry than my present one - or I assume it would have, since it was more than twice the price. Afterwards I went to the Wanderlust stand to ask how one entered the competition - apparently all the details are put online in the summer. I must make a note to look at their website nearer the time.
One great thing about Destinations this year was that you could actually get to the stands and talk to the people. When there are queues everywhere, it's not so easy, and it's trustrating to wait for ages just to get to the head of the queue. But with only a pleasant number of people there, getting round all the stands was easy.
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