Sterling strengthens to US Dollar

A few days away and on return, I see that the US Dollar has weakened by over 10% during the past week meaning a pound now buys just over USD1.53.

That's great news for anyone thinking of flying anywhere as aviation fuel is priced in dollars and will be that little bit cheaper, possibly reducing some long haul flight surcharges. Plus most long haul destinations price their hotels and ground arrangements in US dollars and we have already reduced the prices for our hotels available through online booking.


But best of all those popular gay destinations such as Ft Lauderdale, Palm Springs and San Francisco are starting to look affordable again. Besides the pound buying more US Dollars, there are some great bargains to be had as many restaurants and bars are making special offers for overseas visitors - plus we'll give you an 11% discount voucher when you go shopping at Macy's - great for Dockers, Levis and other designer goods.





So start searching online for a great holiday buy to the US and further afield

Spain's Costa del Sol

I've just returned from spending a few sunny days on the Costa del Sol checking out all our hotels as part of our due diligence process to see they continue to meet our high standards and current management and staff remain gay welcoming.

It is so easy to forget what a great gay destination this area makes. There's a wide choice of UK departure airports, just over 2 hours flying time and with 15 minute train transfers costing around €1.00, it's easily accessible. Our top-end August Saturday flights from Gatwick with 7 nights B&B in a 4 star Hotel start at £640 per person, this has to be great value.


The main gay town of Torremolinos enjoys its own gay beach opposite the Posiedon Beach Bar and there are four others within easy access. Night life in the La Nogalera shopping centre is pretty hectic in the summer months with bars, clubs and saunas. Our 4 star Hotel Cervantes is between the two – ten minutes to the beach and five minutes to the bars and clubs.


Malaga is just 25 minutes away by train and offers excellent shopping in the Calle Larios, the culture of Picasso birth place and museum, a sense of style and history as befits an ancient roman city plus some fun gay bars on the Plaza Merced and a good beach at the Malagueta. It's a handy place to stay - our 4 star Malaga Centro hotel has just been refurbished and is within 20 minutes walk of all that Malaga has to offer plus its roof top terrace and pool is a great place to cool off and top up the tan.

So if you feel you’ve done the Yumbo but are still looking for a reasonably priced holiday break, why not check out our Costa del Sol web pages and search for a holiday deal.

Gay Ski-ing:

I have just returned from a few days in the Alps looking at possible options for gay ski-ing in 2010. It’s been a really exciting few days visiting some spectacular ski resorts with plenty of après-ski and evening night life plus some amazing ski and snowboarding opportunities. Best of all everyone has been offering a very gay welcoming experience with hoteliers keen to host gay snow fun lovers with some pretty special prices.

So Amro Worldwide will be looking at some very attractive options over the next few months for gay ski-ing and snowboarding in 2010. If you’d like a sneak preview with some early booking discounts, why not register now for our Winter Sports newsletter at

http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=001Nw62mjI74CiacZdzn17yaA%3D%3D.

and you’ll be the first to know.

Travel Firm Failures Continue

"Drastic action can save struggling travel firms" was a headline in this week's Travel Industry press. The report was based on some research carried out by Plimsoll Publishing that out of the 1000 top travel firms, 213 are at high risk of failure. It continued with some actions those companies should be thinking of taking to avoid failure.

Travel firms continue to fail. Just last month, three firms failed in February 2009 leaving over 5000 travellers either without a holiday or stranded abroad.

The average traveller can be forgiven for letting the pain and anguish of a failure fade into distant memeory, but particulary for those who lost either their holidays or money - or in some cases both - the memory remains strong and somewhat painful.

Amro Worldwide holds ATOL5826 which fully protects any flight included holiday package which we sell. Unlike some companies, our ATOL is a real ATOL - it can be checked on the CAA website. It's not just a logo used to entice your booking and give confidence but provides real protection. So when buying your next holiday, do check that the ATOL protection information you are told about really does exist.

European Symposium on Gay & Lesbian Tourism

A bit of a mouthful for what was a very succesful day yesterday spent looking at gay tourism and how it is developing. I was delighted to be asked to make a presentation on how Amro Worldwide works with destinations and suppliers, as a summing up on much of the morning and early afternoon's discussions and presentations.

Our "So Gay" campaign on the London Underground during last summer's London Pride certainly hit the headlines then and it continues to rumble on especially when Adweek.com suggested it was the most talked about travel industry ad of 2008. The "legs" of the campaign certainly gave superb publicity to our partners of Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Washington DC and as of last week two posters were still displaying - that's seven months after the campaign officially closed.

So, some great opportunites and unique ideas for destinations and suppliers to work with Amro Worldwide to maximise opportunities.

Some 2009 Predictions...

It's been interesting reading the papers over the past week with all their predictions for 2009 so I thought I'd record here my thoughts on travel and gay travel in particular for 2009.

Firstly, I think the currencies have been over done and we will see the pound recover against the Euro and US Dollar. This has already started to happen with the Euro showing clear ground over parity. I predict we'll see the 1.20 Euro and the 1.50 USD by Easter - not quite what we have been used to but enough to tempt travellers back to these destinations. All our prices are based on these rates of exchange so why not go ahead and book your holiday now whilst there is good choice and prices are competitive?

I don't think we will see a repeat of airlines such as Silverjet, Zoom, Nationwide and XL failing this year as the price of oil has fallen substantially. But I do think a number of niche holiday companies, including possibly some gay specialists, might be in trouble as booking volumes fall as a result of the economic downturn. This means understanding the Financial Protection included with the holiday and checking that it really is as good as the sales team promote, is absolutley vital. For Amro Worldwide that's easy. We hold ATOL 5826 which ensures full protection for your holiday and re-patriation if the airline goes out of business.

As for destinations, the swing to European destinations will continue but I predict that our gay resort at Dalyan in Turkey will be very popular, offering superb value for being outside the Eurozone. For those venturing to Spain, Gran Canaria will remain a top destination but the greater variety and lower price of flights to Barcelona and Malaga will make Sitges and the Costa del Sol resorts of Torremolinos and Malaga more popular than in the past. I suspect that short weekend city breaks will be less popular and the ability to book other than 7 or 14 night holidays through Amro Worldwide will mean more 8 or 9 night holidays to maximise holiday leave and value.

Gay cruises will continue to grow in popularity but I doubt this is the year for the increasing range of gay adventure holidays that we are offering simply due to economic circumstances. One Off celebration holidays such as honeymoons will continue to grow with evermore exotic destinations starting to feature - we've already sold a China, Vietnam and Cambodia trip.

Now for prices. Whilst there will always be bargains to be found and we have plenty on our website, the overall trend in 2009 will be for prices to rise simply as a result of capacity reductions across the entire industry. All holiday companies are keen to get the bookings in now so they know where they stand, so now is the time to search the deals and get booking. Late deals will still be there but the days of last minute distress pricing sales is gone and they will almost certainly be more costly as the year passes by.

So, Happy Travelling to you all in 2009.

Up to 70% OFF!!

We’ve all read that Woolies are closing down and had a wonderful 50% Off sale which was much publicised. Woolies were great for CD’s and other small gifts so off I went into town to buy stocking fillers. Sadly very little was actually discounted by more than 15 -20% and there wasn’t even this off many of the CD’s. I left feeling disappointed and somewhat misled.

This week I fancied a new winter coat as it has been so cold and wandered into a High Street chain offering upto 70% off. Sure discounts on last summer's styles but on what I really needed it was full price. I left empty handed and feeling not only misled but a little cheated.

Sadly this habit is creeping into travel. As Amro Worldwide offers a price match guarantee, we regularly mystery shop amongst other holiday companies not only the gay specialists but all the big names. Whilst we all know to look for the little word “from” when we see an apparent holiday bargain, sadly, this week our mystery shoppers have been finding that headline prices are not just “from”, they are simply not available - not even on any date. Explanations have ranged from that must have sold out (even on the day the advert appeared!) to that must have been an error and it isn’t in our database.

To me, this isn’t just misleading or cheating, it’s plain dishonest trading!

So rest assured, the price you see on the www.amroworldwide.com is the price you pay. The only extra is if you pay be credit card rather than debit card. And if you book a flight, we know you want to take all your outfits with you so there is no extra to pay to take a suitcase with you – it’s all included in the price.

So shop around, you’ll find Amro Worldwide prices to be honest and fair plus you get the full ATOL Financial Protection for your holiday at no extra cost.