Bales Worldwide Travel Forum

A new security regime has been brought in at Heathrow airport in which travellers are being taken for full-body scanning if they are thought to be suspicious. Britain's biggest airport operator said the system is aimed to stop terrorist acts as well as attackers. The scanners will be lauched in each of Heathrow's 5 terminals, and are to be used randomly, in addition to being used on suspicious travellers.   Last month the firm launched a three-month trial in "behavioural assessment" during which staff were trained to spot passengers acting suspiciously and refer them to the police or security guards. The question should be asked, if not everyone is being scanned, then how do we know all terrorists and attackers are being caught? BAA confirmed that ... Read More

I am so intrigued about the skills and intuition of sales people.  Steve and I are probably the easiest and quickest people to sell to – but often it seems people are not trained or do not have the foresight to spot the difference between browsers and buyers. We will walk away as quickly as we would have made a purchase and that is the fine line that sales people need to understand I could give you several examples over the last month but I will give you a better example that happened this weekend - Steve was looking to buy a new car and part exchange his current car. We didn’t book appointments, we were open to suggestions and we didn’t take ... Read More

My sister and I had been on may safaris in Africa – I love animals and she is crazy about elephants. Our last safari was to Tanzania, having watched a programme on TV about the Ngorongoro Crater.  In Mid October 2001, having been warned we would need to carry extra cushions for my sister’s back trouble, we arrived in Arusha where the final part of the journey to the Mountain Village coffee plantation lodge was very bumpy, but upon drawing the curtains back in the morning, the flowering bushes, gardens and distant view were a wonderful surprise.  In 2007-8 I had major knee surgery. The lady who looked after me for 2 weeks after hospital expressed a desire to go on safari but none ... Read More

On November 11th 2009, Bales Worldwide held our annual World Travel Market dinner, to say thank you to all of the travel specialists who help us to provide our customers with the very best travel experiences.  This year the dinner was held at Formans Fish Island, the oldest salmon smokery in the UK, and the closest venue to the new 2012 Olympic stadium. Formans Fish Island may seem like an unusual choice of venue (fish is not something that springs to mind when you think of an elegant dinner) however the evening was fun, and unique which is a true representation of Bales.  Over 130 guests gathered at the venue, and were treated to a cooking demonstration by a world record breaking chef. The ... Read More

Happy New Year to all of you… well, I actually mean happy to include lots of fun and laughter and also wish you a healthy New Year. Our industry loves statistics and reasons for everything- we will predict more bookings if there is snow and if it’s not as busy as anticipated, it’s because the public could not get out and get the brochure or visit their travel agent. Will this year be as busy because it is election year? It is also the World Cup for football and so it goes on and on. Whilst I say this, it is historically true that for many of us one of our busiest booking months is January – well it is early days so I will let ... Read More