How simply adding one small candy heart can make a world of difference in presentation.
Ran out of chicken stock cubes, except for this interesting little box. Got no clue what language it’s in. One reassurance, though, it’s still from Unilever.
Nice:
Eating alone is one of the downsides to (business) travel. That’s why we came up with Shareatable. It is an initiative that makes it easy for (business) travelers to join others at their table and eat together. Tables in (business) hotels are often occupied by only one person, even though most (business) travelers admit that they really don’t like eating on their own. However, asking somebody you don’t know whether you can join them is just too scary. Shareatable makes this so much easier!
I am an information glutton. Seriously. So stumbling upon whole BBC radio series about food from all kinds of angles, is like getting an instant info-high. Free!
About 12 years ago, I invested some time in making a business plan for listening to books and magazines on your mobile phone. Seemed like a good idea at that time, yet we could not get to a proper solution to let customers pay for the service.
Only 4 weeks ago, I started with playing around with audiobooks myself, via the Audible website. I honestly can say that I am totally hooked. Doing the dishes, hanging up laundry, weeding the garden, all the more or less boring household chores have become a valid excuse to spend a some time with the latest thrillers and mysteries.
And today, I finally discovered the podcasts, the often free, short and informative columns. And not only that, it appears that there is a whole food podcast scene as well. I know, for many of you this is old news, did that, etc. Still, if any of you is a bit like me, often overwhelmed by the enormous amount of infotainment out there, and too occupied to dig into all of it, this may be a useful tip.
There are probably many ways to get the podcasts to your phone or pc, right now I am using iTunes. Browsing through the podcast selection within iTunes makes me feel like kid in a candy store. I’ll keep you updated about my favourite episodes and other great finds. Have a go yourself!
Here’s my first list of the things you have to taste when you are going to London, in other words, the Famous Flavours of London. These are the top of my head flavours I can think of, all real stereotypes. The next step is to dig into the literature and identify other – less obvious – flavours. And then the shifting will have to start, to get to a list of a maximum of 20 famous flavours.
1. Fish and chips
2. Ale
3. Tea
4. Pimm’s
5. Bangers and mash
6. Full English breakfast
7. Strawberry’s and cream
8. Local cheese
9. Scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam
10. Salt and vinigar chips
11. Sheppard’s pie
12. Sunday roast (with yorkshire pudding)
13. Lam’s roast with mint sauce
14. Bread and butter pudding
15. Steak and kidney pie
Making choices, that is to say, having to decide not to do something, is not my favourite hobby. For example, making this list with “only” 10 cities, “only” in Europe, make me feel I am passing on many attractive destinations. Hm. So, to limit this uneasy sensation, I will give myself a backdoor exit, I will call this list “the current selection of first 10 cities to be included in the Famous Flavours guides”.
Here’s the list. The making of the Famous Flavours guides of Paris and Amsterdam are underway, London should be next due to its nr 1 position of most travelled city destination, and Brussels gets priority because it’s the most practical destination for me to do on a short term.
1. Paris
2. London
3. Brussels
4. Rome
5. Barcelona
6. Dublin
7. Amsterdam
8. Istanbul
9. Madrid
10. Prague
My first reaction when thinking about to tourism, and people interested in culinary tourism related activities, would be to focus on “true tourists”, people travelling for pleasure alone. Yet when I think back at the times when I travelled for business (quite a bit in my IBM times), there was often some time to kill before or between appointments. And quick and pleasant culinary activities could just be a great past time. So the destinations mentioned below are important to keep in mind when considering the ordening of the destinations I will be working on. Helsinki comes as a bit of surprise, by the way.
Financial hubs and Meetings-Incentives-Congresses-Events tourism
Although 80% of inbound arrivals to cities are tourists, MICE travel (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) is increasingly important for cities, not only because of the higher per capita expenditure of MICE travellers, but also because of its promotional impact. From Dubai (4) to Tallinn (64) or Valencia (84), international events have helped to set cities firmly on the map of the world’s leading destinations. Investment in convention centres, hotels and travel infrastructure cannot be judged solely in terms of MICE activity, but instead as part of an integrated tourism strategy.
The globalisation of the world economy has also had a positive impact on city travel, especially with regard to global financial centres. Despite new technologies, the world financial centres of London and New York (ranked first and sixth respectively), far from dying out, have continued to attract more businesses, thus, increasing the amount of business travel to these financial clusters. Furthermore, other cities have followed suit, becoming important financial hubs. Shanghai (13), Hong Kong (5), Singapore (4) and Dubai (7) have entered the list of global financial hubs according to The Economist, alongside long-established powerhouse such as Tokyo (51), Zurich (55) or Geneva (98)
Top 10 Cities by Number of Meetings 2006
City Number of meetings Paris 1 363 Vienna 2 316 Singapore 3 298 Brussels 4 179 Geneva 5 169 Helsinki 6 140 Barcelona 7 139 London 8 118 Amsterdam 9 117 New York 10 93
The 150 leading world destinations accounted for 27% of the global inbound tourism in terms of arrivals. Cities are the key driver of growth in the tourism industry, benefiting from the development of the air industry and the investment in infrastructure and iconic buildings. From Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum to Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Twin Towers, the new skylines of cities attract millions of tourists to their airports and hotels, boosting the tourism industry to unprecedented levels.
Even though the data dates back to 2006, the results of this worldwide city destinations tourism research is still worth noting, because huge shifts amongst the destinations in Europe, the VS and other main stream destinations are not expected.
The overview can therefore perfectly serve as a base for deciding the order of the production and publications of the Famous Flavours guides. The only thing is that I am missing Brussels in the top 20, which seems kind of odd, considering the fact that Brussels is the European capital. So I have taken the liberty to include Brussels in my own priority top 10.
Let’s have look at the list. I started with marking the European city destinations, because those will be most easy to start with on the shortest possible notion within my available time/money budget.
Top 150 City Destinations 2006
| City | Ranking | tourist arrivals |
| London | 1 | 15,640,000 |
| Bangkok | 2 | 10,350,000 |
| Paris | 3 | 9,700,000 |
| Singapore | 4 | 9,502,000 |
| Hong Kong | 5 | 8,139,000 |
| New York City | 6 | 6,219,000 |
| Dubai | 7 | 6,120,000 |
| Rome | 8 | 6,033,000 |
| Seoul | 9 | 4,920,000 |
| Barcelona | 10 | 4,695,000 |
| Dublin | 11 | 4,469,000 |
| Bahrain | 12 | 4,418,000 |
| Shanghai | 13 | 4,315,000 |
| Toronto | 14 | 4,160,000 |
| Kuala Lumpur | 15 | 4,125,000 |
| Istanbul | 16 | 3,994,000 |
| Madrid | 17 | 3,921,000 |
| Amsterdam | 18 | 3,901,000 |
| Mecca | 19 | 3,800,000 |
| Prague | 20 | 3,702,000 |
| Moscow | 21 | 3,695,000 |
| Beijing | 22 | 3,593,000 |
| Vienna | 23 | 3,339,000 |
| Taipei | 24 | 3,280,000 |
| St.Petersburg | 25 | 3,200,000 |
| Cancun | 26 | 3,074,000 |
| Macau | 27 | 3,072,000 |
| Venice | 28 | 2,927,000 |
| Warsaw | 29 | 2,925,000 |
| Mexico | 30 | 2,823,000 |
| Los Angeles | 31 | 2,513,000 |
| Guangzhou | 32 | 2,512,000 |
| Benidorm | 33 | 2,457 |
| Berlin | 34 | 2,309 |
| Rio De Janeiro | 35 | 2,185 |
| Budapest | 36 | 2,043 |
| San Francisco | 37 | 1,993 |
| Orlando | 38 | 1,993 |
| Miami | 39 | 1,972 |
| Munich | 40 | 1,925 |
| Shenzen | 41 | 1,904 |
| Milan | 42 | 1,902 |
| Sydney | 43 | 1,852 |
| Oahu/Honolulu | 44 | 1,733 |
| Cairo | 45 | 1,720 |
| Florence | 46 | 1,715 |
| Lisbon | 47 | 1,715 |
| Las Vegas | 48 | 1,647 |
| Hangzhou | 49 | 1,562 |
| Marrakesh | 50 | 1,500 |
| Tokyo | 51 | 1,467 |
| Abu Dhabi | 52 | 1,459 |
| Varadero | 53 | 1,448 |
| Copenhagen | 54 | 1,375 |
| Zurich | 55 | 1,369 |
| Edinburgh (GB) | 56 | 1,338 |
| Cape Town | 57 | 1,323 |
| Zhuhai | 58 | 1,318 |
| Suzhou | 59 | 1,286 |
| Seville | 60 | 1,234 |
| Nice | 61 | 1,227 |
| São Paulo | 62 | 1,095 |
| Washington DC | 63 | 1,062 |
| Chicago | 64 | 1,062 |
| Guilin | 65 | 1,021 |
| Stockholm | 66 | 1,003 |
| Tallinn | 67 | 1,001 |
| Boston | 68 | 997 |
| Krakow | 69 | 992 |
| La Havana | 70 | 953 |
| Salvador de Bahia | 71 | 935 |
| Melbourne | 72 | 923 |
| Manchester (GB) | 73 | 912 |
| Salzburg (City) | 74 | 874 |
| Tianjin | 75 | 850 |
| Nanjing | 76 | 843 |
| Helsinki | 77 | 842 |
| Xi’an | 78 | 801 |
| Qingdao | 79 | 795 |
| Xiamen | 80 | 792 |
| Birmingham (GB) | 81 | 779 |
| Glasgow (GB) | 82 | 741 |
| Hamburg | 83 | 739 |
| Lyon | 84 | 715 |
| Montreal | 85 | 679 |
| Mumbai | 86 | 672 |
| Dalian | 87 | 666 |
| San Diego | 88 | 650 |
| Bruges | 89 | 641 |
| Antwerp | 90 | 636 |
| Liverpool (GB) | 91 | 625 |
| New Delhi | 92 | 612 |
| Valencia | 93 | 611 |
| Kunming | 94 | 607 |
| Granada | 95 | 606 |
| Wuxi | 96 | 594 |
| Chennai | 97 | 588 |
| Geneva | 98 | 577 |
| Agra | 99 | 560 |
| Chongquing | 100 | 544 |
| Innsbruck | 101 | 536 |
| Oslo | 102 | 522 |
| Chengdu | 103 | 508 |
| Fortaleza | 104 | 503 |
| Atlanta | 105 | 477 |
| Houston | 106 | 455 |
| Bratislava | 107 | 455 |
| Oxford (GB) | 108 | 449 |
| Foz do Iguacu | 109 | 438 |
| Gothenburg | 110 | 422 |
| San Jose | 111 | 412 |
| Luxembourg City | 112 | 406 |
| Bristol (GB) | 113 | 403 |
| Buenos Aires | 114 | 395 |
| Reykjavik | 115 | 371 |
| Nürnberg | 116 | 356 |
| Naples | 117 | 356 |
| Buzios | 118 | 355 |
| Cardiff (GB) | 119 | 355 |
| Cambridge (GB) | 120 | 348 |
| Seattle | 121 | 325 |
| Newcastle-upon-Tyne | 122 | 317 |
| Florianópolis | 123 | 314 |
| Monaco | 124 | 313 |
| Leeds | 125 | 292 |
| Brighton/Hove | 126 | 265 |
| Ghent | 127 | 261 |
| York | 128 | 253 |
| Inverness | 129 | 252 |
| Heidelberg | 130 | 245 |
| Bath | 131 | 245 |
| Dijon | 132 | 242 |
| Genova | 133 | 239 |
| Dresden | 134 | 227 |
| Reims | 135 | 226 |
| Nottingham | 136 | 219 |
| Graz | 137 | 206 |
| Reading | 138 | 202 |
| Goa | 139 | 200 |
| Linz | 140 | 199 |
| Bilbao | 141 | 198 |
| Aberdeen | 142 | 195 |
| Marseille | 143 | 180 |
| Chester | 144 | 173 |
| Jerusalem | 145 | 165 |
| Saragossa | 146 | 159 |
| Tarragona | 147 | 154 |
| Malmö | 148 | 131 |
| Bregenz | 149 | 96 |
| Turku | 150 | 87 |
| World Tourism Organisation, European Cities Tourism, National Statistics, National Tourist Boards, Local Tourism & Convention Bureaux, Trade Press (local and national newspapers, The Economist, Business Travel News), Euromonitor International. |
| Mainland China’s cities exclude visits from Hong Kong and Macao (and vice versa), but include visitors from Taiwan. |
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