Mar 29
2009

Dogs, cats, perhaps even pet snakes , bring companionship and joy the their owner’s lives. Unfortunately, there have always been some who love their pets more than human beings. There are others who literally kill their pets with kindness by overfeeding them. Pets are ultimately a prisoner or slave to their owner. They are not free to roam, hunt or mate as they would choose.

It came as a surprise to learn on Twitter, that there is now a Pets only airline. Like many others I thought it was April 1st come early. I did some further research and found even bigger excesses. Hotels where dogs sleep in pyjamas in four poster beds. Where they have their own swimming pool and gym and where the hotel chef prepares meals for them. If you don’t believe me just put “dog luxury hotel” into a search engine.

Travel can open the mind and lets us see the world and its inhabitants in a fresh light and allows us to see the beauty of the planet we inhabit. Personally, I don’t see how pets can benefit from travel in this way. Of course they will enjoy playing on the beach and in the sea and  they are unlikely to miss their owners if they are together. I have no problem with pet friendly hotels, even the budget chains in France allow pets. What I can’t come to terms with is pets wearing pyjamas and sleeping in four poster beds in rooms equipped with TV’s.

One commentary I read on the reason for the Credit Crunch was that spending had gone out of control. They quoted the array of Christmas gifts, costumes and even Christmas stockings for pets on sale as a sign that we had become addicted to spending for the sake of spending, even if it meant borrowing to fuel the addiction. It was reinforced by a visit before Christmas to a store in Cardiff where I saw the goods pictured below. All unnecessary and most likely not appreciated by the pets.

Pet holiday

There is a big difference between pet friendly hotels and pet only airlines monogrammed pyjama wearing pets sleeping in four poster beds. A line must be drawn between ‘pet friendly’ and wasteful extravagance. Where would you draw it?

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Feb 25
2009

ACCOR the world’s largest hotel chain, owner of Formule 1, Ibis, Novotel posted their results today and recorded a 35% fall in profits. Their report identifies the global economic downturn as the major reason.
Business travel is being curtailed and hotel chains are suffering. The good news is that there are some excellent deals now being offered by the hotels to travellers and surveys show that the price of hotel rooms is starting to fall.
BAA the operator of seven major airports in the United Kingdom today revealed that it had made a loss of nearly £2 billion. Half of this was as a result of tax changes but the other half was due to a decline in passenger numbers through its airports which include Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Glasgow.

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Nov 14
2008

‘Credit Crunch’ and ‘Energy Crunch’ are terms many of us will have come across at one time or another. To be able to travel we all need to be able to finance our trips and the current credit crunch will affect many travel plans. Of course the credit crunch will come to an end someday but that may not be the end of the challenges facing anyone wanting to travel the world. The energy crunch or at least Peak Oil is waiting in the wings as oil will not last forever and many experts believe that there is not enough oil left in the world to increase production beyond the levels reached in Summer 2008.

Treading lightly as we travel this beautiful world will ensure that our successors can enjoy it as much as we do. I do not endorse luxury travel as it consumes a lot more resources than budget travel. For example a business class traveller can take up the space of up to six passengers on a budget airline. This means that passenger will probably use at least four times as much aviation fuel per passenger mile and emit at least four times as much CO2 as a passenger on budget airline. Of course train and bus passengers will consume even less.

This blog has been started to discuss these issues and share experiences and tips for travellers who are want keep the cost of their travel to themselves and the environment to a minimum.

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Trackback  •  Posted in Sustainable travel