Innehållsförteckning för June 2022 från Business Traveller

IAG: ‘strong business travel recovery’ in first quarter INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES GROUP (IAG) has announced its results for the first quarter of 2022, showing an operating loss of €731 million (£625 million). However this compares favourably to the loss of €1.08 billion (£924 million) recorded in the same period of 2021, and the group said that “strong customer demand is expected to drive profitability from quarter two onwards”. Capacity for the quarter ending March 31 was up 58 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. IAG said that there had been “no noticeable impact from the war in Ukraine”. The group also noted a “strong business travel recovery” during the first quarter, although premium leisure continued to be the strongest performing segment. Looking ahead IAG expects to return to…

Like many US destinations, Boston has welcomed more domestic tourists than its usual droves of international and group travel. But with the reopening of nonstop transatlantic flights, which›had paused during the pandemic, this much-visited north-eastern city is back on track to show European tourists what a warm New England welcome looks like. Hotel occupancy fell to 25›per cent in 2020, down from 82.5 per cent in 2019, but›it rebounded to 45 per cent last year and is projected to jump›up to 66›per cent for this year. DISTRICT DEVELOPMENTS THE EVER-CHANGING SEAPORT DISTRICT The past two decades have seen a complete transformation for the Seaport District, a section of South Boston’s waterfront, home to the infamous Boston Tea Party protest of 1773. As the heyday of maritime commerce dwindled and manufacturing…

‘Every watch brand is engaged in constant dialogue with its past while fighting to stay relevant’ The world of luxury watches can be bemusing to follow from afar, with its never-ending talk of hyped-up fashion collaborations, tourbillons and titanium at one end, and intense technical jargon at the other. It helps, I find, to consider everything on a spectrum from tradition to modernity: every watch brand is engaged in a constant dialogue with its past while fighting to stay relevant in a rapidly changing world. SLICK OVERHAUL A good example is one of the biggest stories in the watch world this year, the 50th anniversary of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. As both the single most influential design of the last half-century and one of the most in-demand watches right…

1 ST STEPHEN’S GREEN Georgian townhouses surround this pristinely kept park in the city centre. The nine-hectare rectangular green was opened to the public in 1880, and features 750 trees, seasonally changing flower beds, a large lake and a sensory garden with signs in Braille for the visually impaired. If you time it right during the summer months, you might also get to experience a lunchtime concert at the bandstand. Aside from picturesque scenery, the park provides a path down memory lane, with 15 commemorative statues of historic figures dotted across the green. These include a recently restored Henry Moore bronze sculpture Knife-Edge in the Yeats Memorial Garden – the structure (also known as the ‘standing figure’) pays tribute to Irish poet William B Yeats. Other notable statues include…

Last month we looked at the ways in which frequent flyers can transfer unused air miles to charity. Here we explore some of the main hotel loyalty schemes which allow travellers to donate hotel points to charity organisations. ACCOR The Accor Live Limitless (ALL) programme lets you convert your points into a donation to the Accor Solidarity, an endowment fund that helps local NGOs in the fight against economic and social exclusion, or the Community Conservation Fund Africa (CCFA) to support projects that help preserve Africa’s endangered wildlife and wilderness areas. The latter requires a minimum donation of 2,000 points (€40). all.accor.com BEST WESTERN The Best Western Rewards scheme allows guests to donate points to charities including the›International Committee of the Red Cross, Kiva and Project Cure. The hotel group…

DOMESTIC: UNDERBELLY FESTIVAL, LONDON, UNTIL JULY Summer starts early at this theatrical festival popping up at Cavendish Square (until July 31) and Earl’s Court (until July 17). The former will feature cabaret show La Clique while the latter will offer various shows – from comedy to circus and cabaret – and its well-known upside-down purple cow tent. Plus street food and cocktails for soaking up the rays. SHORT-HAUL: NASJONALMUSEET, OSLO, FROM JUNE 11 The largest art museum in the Nordic countries opens this month in Oslo’s city hall square, with design by Klaus Schuwerk. The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design features 6,500 works – twice as many as the past – including Chinese imperial porcelain, 18th century Norwegian glass cups and contemporary pieces. The first exhibition ‘I Call…

Robert Henke looks more like an academic than a musician. As he turned to accept the applause of the assembled audience he seemed faintly bemused to find himself on stage. His performance – the electronic utterances of a battalion of 1980s computers, orchestrated by Henke from a keyboard while sitting in his office chair – was a long way from being a traditional concert. But then, the glass-walled auditorium in the brand new Japanese-designed House of Music in Budapest is certainly a long way from being a conventional concert venue. For a start, its roof is organically shaped and looks like a giant mushroom with holes poked in it to let the light in and trees grow through. Under that roof, besides the auditorium with its planned 500-plus live musical…

You only need to look up to appreciate the various microclimates of Tenerife. On the beach of Playa de las Americas you are surrounded by fast food shops, all-day bars, gift shops and happy tourists and, a dependably warm temperature averaging 22°C year round. Look inland, though, and the uninhabited cloud-covered slopes of Mount Teide, Tenerife’s most famous dormant volcano, are a reminder of the island’s variety. ‘Banana plantations nudge up to the edge of sheer cliffs dropping down to the sea’ Some 200 miles off the coast of West Africa, Tenerife has two climatic zones dividing the island into a dryer and warmer south and a wetter and cooler north. Triangular-shaped, its landscape of black (and imported yellow) sand beaches, rocky headlands and fertile mountain slopes is unique, even…

BACKGROUND Avanti West Coast replaced Virgin Trains on the West Coast Mainline (WCML) in 2019. Avanti offers a three-class configuration: first class, standard premier and standard. I travelled in first class from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly on the 0940 Pendolino service, with a journey time of two hours and six minutes. Stops included Crewe, Wilmslow and Stockport. Avanti’s 56 Pendolinos are being refurbished and are set to be completed by 2024. I travelled on an older train. FIRST IMPRESSIONS Avanti’s first class lounges offer complimentary snacks and drinks and high-speed wifi. The London Euston lounge is well signposted, located upstairs on the first floor of the station. It is open from 0645 until 2300 on weekdays, until 2130 on Saturday and 0800-2300 on Sundays. During my visit in late…

VALENTINA VALENTINI Valentina is an American freelance journalist and writer based in London. She has written for publications including the Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Travel and Leisure and Variety among others. On page 26 she explores new developments in the city of Boston – from luxury hotel openings to lively sports and BBQ venues. ANDREW EAMES Andrew Eames is a veteran freelance journalist who contributes to newspapers including The Times, The Sunday Times and the Financial Times, and runs a website about Germany. For this issue he returned to Budapest to discover that the Hungarian capital was reassuringly unruffled by the ongoing conflict in its neighbour Ukraine; see page 32. CHRIS HALL Chris has been writing about watches for more than a decade, appearing in The Telegraph, Esquire, Wired, Men’s…

• Thailand-based luxury hotel group Anantara has just taken over the fabulous New York Palace hotel in downtown Pest, with its gloriously Belle Epoque café, all pastel frescos and gilded balustrades. That makes it popular with film industry executives, says Foldes Gabor, director of PR and marketing. Business travellers make up 20 per cent of the property’s guest list, a bit lower than pre-pandemic, but recovering. • It’s a similar story at the Four Seasons Gresham Palace, on the riverside, its façade a masterpiece of Art Nouveau and its foyer a magnificent glass cupola with wrought-iron peacocks. The presidential suites overlook the river and its spa occupies the whole of the top floor. • Also on the riverbank, but over on the Buda side, the glamorous Hotel Gellert sits next…

Best for hiking: La Gomera There are no direct flights from the UK to La Gomera, so many visit on a day trip from neighbouring Tenerife. While there, you should head into the interior and explore Europe’s Amazonia on foot. The Garajonay National Park is an enchanting Atlantic rainforest that takes up one-third of the island and accommodates 18 numbered trails. Named after the Canary Islands’ version of Romeo and Juliet, Gara and, yes, Jonay, this is also home to La Gomera’s highest peak. Ascending 1487m above sea level offers a great vantage point to appreciate the island group as a whole. The longest route through this UNESCO World Heritage site is number 18. It’s also known as Gran Ruta Circular Garajonay. Allow around four hours to complete this 16-km…

BACKGROUND Avianca has a large fleet of Airbus aircraft (A319, A320 and A321) as well as long haul A330 and B787. CHECK-IN We arrived at the airport at 0835 for the 1015 departure on AV649. The check-in desk was close to the taxi drop-off bays, and on the same level. The terminal was light and airy, in a pleasant contrast to some other airports in Central America, such as Mexico City. Avianca’s check-in had several desks, despite only around a dozen customers in the area, and though there was a separate queue for Star Alliance Gold and business class passengers this had little effect since all passengers were being processed quickly. The Avianca staff were polite and efficient, rejecting my attempt at Spanish with polite English. We had bags to…