News

Tenerife meets Hollywood

The Canary Island of Tenerife is set to be one of the stars of a Hollywood remake of the film Papillon, starring Robert Downey Jnr.

The new version of the story, about a French man imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, is being masterminded by Branko Lustig, of Schindler’s List and Gladiator fame. Filming, in Madrid as well as Tenerife, will start in the New Year.

The film – the original 1973 version starred Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman – tells the story of Henri Papillon Charrière, who was locked up for life on an island off French Guiana, and how he tried to escape.

Film units are good news for tourism – with fans often arriving to look at scene locations long after a film’s release. Popular films can also boost property prices as often people decide they like the look of a location featured in a film and decide to live there.

Tenerife’s fellow Canary Island, Lanzarote, is expecting a tourist, and possibly a property, boom when the latest Pedro Almodóvar picture, Broken Embraces, starring Penelope Cruz, is released. The film features several scenes shot on the island, which is famed for its volcanic landscapes.

Ferry good feedback

Passengers using Dover’s ferry port have given it the thumbs up, saying they prefer it to the queues, delays and surcharges they often have to face at airports.

Ninety per cent of travellers who responded to a port survey say Dover’s luggage handling, security checks and check-in procedures are more passenger-friendly and less stressful than those for air travel.

Dover chief executive Bob Goldfield, said “it is encouraging to know that travellers value the ferry port experience so highly.”

But some travellers are wondering whether this feel good factor will continue when a government information gathering operation is introduced.

As concerns about traveller security remain, ferry passengers are to become subject to more checks at ports. From this autumn, ferries will have to gather more information about passengers and crew members, as part of the UK e-Borders project.

From next July, an operations centre will start up, enabling the UK Border Agency to build up travel histories for passengers. By December 2009, 60% of all international passengers and crew will have their information checked against lists of those of interest to the authorities. Within the following year, that figure will rise to 95%. The system is expected to be fully operational for all British ports by March, 2014.

• See Crossing continents for more information.

Sailors for whales

Sailors in the Volvo Ocean Race are championing the cause of whales and dolphins.

Team Russia began campaigning with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society for the creation of marine nature reserves as the race got under way at Alicante on the Costa Blanca.

The campaign wants the first reserve to be in the Alborán Sea between Andalucia and north Africa, an area where the animals are currently not directly threatened but where they would benefit from protection.

“It’s very much in line with the spirit of the Ocean Race – a race against time and of epic proportions” says Erich Hoyt of the WDCS campaign. “Compared with the protection afforded to land animals, we are really lagging behind when it comes to looking after vulnerable marine life.

“The survival of whales and the future of our oceans depend on better protective measures… We need to act now” said Andreas Hanakamp, skipper of Team Russia’s monohull, ‘Kosatka’, Russian for orca. Many older world-class sailors say they have seen decreasing numbers of whales, dolphins and other cetaceans over the years. www.whales.org.

Say it with trees

Spain is planting 45 million trees in the next three years in a ?90 million drive to help slow down global warming.

The trees should absorb about 3.5 million tons of CO2 and prevent soil erosion while providing shelter, food and habitats for wildlife – as well as looking good. They will be planted in the Canaries, Balearics and mainland Spain, but there are no details yet on where exactly.

Environment minister Elena Espinosa recently said the country needed to address global warming urgently, and also announced a new climate change centre would be set up on the site of the Expo exhibition, held during the summer in Zaragoza

Pretty flamingos

Spain’s La Mata-Torrevieja natural park, south of Alicante, has had a record year for flamingos, which have been absent for a few years, and a good year for other migratory waders such as black necked grebes, Kentish plovers and the rare audouin’s gull. Almost 200 flamingos have likewise added a picturesque touch to the salinas (salt lake) in Calpe.

Airline collapse – are you covered?

When you book your next villa or apartment holiday, make sure you choose your travel insurance carefully, tourism experts have advised, after the collapse of airline and charter company XL Leisure.

Hundreds of independent travellers who booked flights with XL discovered, too late, that their insurance policy did not cover airline failure. In some cases they had to dig deep to pay for expensive return tickets with other airlines at the end of their holidays.

If you book accommodation through Holiday Villas or our website www.villaseek.com, and then fix up your flight separately, we advise you to get cover for possible airline collapse.

Only a small number of companies offer this, although as we go to press, more are starting to do so. They include: the Post Office; Swiftcover; Karma Insurance, and International Passenger Protection Ltd (IPP). You may also be able to get an add-on policy through your existing insurer – it is worth asking. Or, for about £4 the internet insurer InsureFor offers a stand-alone policy for supplier failure to add on to any existing insurance you have with any other company.

IPP director, Paul Mclean, said the collapse of XL “highlights the need once more for independent travellers to protect themselves with scheduled airline failure insurance.”

If you pay for your flights by credit card you have some protection, though a refund will only kick in if your flight cost more than £100. Incidental costs will not be paid but the company should pick up the bill for getting you back to Britain.

• Useful websites are: protectmyholiday.com; postoffice.co.uk; swiftcover.com; insurefor.com

Bridge of derision

A new bridge across the Grand Canal in Venice is causing controversy in the historic Italian city.

Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava has said that Venetians are being unfair in their general dislike of his ‘minimalist’ modern bridge, set in a classically beautiful cityscape.

Locals are annoyed that the bridge cost more than €11 million, while most tourists say they would have preferred something more in keeping with its surroundings. The opening ceremony was cancelled after threats from the bridge’s opponents.

Nature rules... OK?

We look after nature relatively well in Britain with our national parks, AONBs, nature reserves and the National Trust.

So it’s not surprising many of us shudder when we go to countries where there is hardly any land protection, particularly along some coastlines where property developers seem all powerful.

But some countries in mainland Europe have stronger nature protection laws than others. In Croatia, for instance, vast tracts are protected – whole ranges of mountains, valleys, gorges and pristine stretches of coast.

Greece, too, has stringent rules although in recent years some arson-induced forest fires have led to formerly protected land being developed (after the fire there is nothing left to protect) despite much protest from nature lovers.

Much of France and Corsica are unspoilt, while in Italy, ten per cent of land is state protected with, to be precise, 23 national parks, 89 regional parks, 270 regional reserves, 142 state reserves, 47 marsh reserves and 7 marine reserves.

Siam – in Tenerife

A new water theme park in southern Tenerife has made a big splash. Siam Park – based on the ancient kingdom of Siam (the former name for Thailand) – is the result of a lot of research and hard work by the Kiessling family, who also own Loro Parque (Parrot Park) in north Tenerife.

They visited 50 different water parks around the world to get ideas and inspiration. Now they’re confident they have a winner, and visitors seem to agree. With a river, rapids, a beach and a combination of adrenalin-pumping water rides and more relaxing ones, the park appeals to all ages. There are also sea lions to see, a market and attractive gardens to walk through. You can celebrate a birthday there, hold a convention – and learn to surf.

Fresh water for the park comes from the sea. It’s desalinated and heated before being pumped around the site. Afterwards, it is used to water the gardens.

Pooling resources

For the third year running, villa owners in and around Benidorm in Spain are being invited to donate swimming pool water to their local council this winter. Under the plan, the local council collects water from pools being emptied for the winter for free, and reuses it for street cleaning and watering its park plants.