This is positively my last word on ‘The Best Job In The World’ – the campaign to find a caretaker for an Australian paradise island (see previous).
The victor was Ben Southall from the UK, but also a big winner was Tourism Queensland, which gained the equivalent of £49 million ($80 million) worth of advertising space.
Because of that, the ad. agency behind the campaign, Brisbane-based, Nitro, has become the third winner. It has taken the top two awards at the industry’s equivalent of the Oscars – the Cannes Lions. It won the PR Grand Prix – the first time public relations has been included in the 56-year history of the festival – and the direct marketing Grand Prix.
Nitro’s campaign, which has since been dubbed ‘the world’s greatest PR stunt’, attracted tens of thousands of candidates who uploaded video applications saying why they should get the dream job.
“It was not a pre-requisite, but the idea had so much scalability to be a global idea that all the judges had seen and heard of it no matter where they came from,” said MaryLee Sachs, one of the judges of the PR Lions.
Ben Southall’s stint as island caretaker began on July 1st.
by Andy Moreton
A leading US magazine has named Tokyo as the world’s hottest city for food lovers – for a second consecutive year.
Food and Wine singled out the Japanese capital for its cutting edge restaurants and superb ingredients. “Tokyo is the best food city hands down,” said the magazine’s travel editor, Jen Murphy. “That’s where chefs are going for innovations. They are so far ahead of us.”
The magazine said Japanese chefs were dictating the world’s dining trends with their fierce devotion to seasonality and respect for aesthetics.
Barcelona came in second, followed by Copenhagen, London and New York. Of Copenhagen, Food and Wine said: “The world’s foodies are fascinated by the city and its avant-garde chefs, who experiment with unconventional ingredients.”
One surprise was that Paris slipped out of the top list. “Right now, there’s no new excitement to the food scene there,” claimed Ms Murphy.
Also out is Food and Wine’s 2009 list of the top restaurants at hotels worldwide. It includes Celadon at the Sukhothai in Bangkok; Moo at Omm in Barcelona; NoMI at the Park Hyatt in Chicago; Lung King Heen at the Four Seasons in Hong Kong; Le Meurice at Le Meurice in Paris and Mathias Dahlgren at the Grand in Stockholm. All these luxury hotels are bookable at the best rates through Luxique.
by Andy Moreton
When you go on your holidays, it’s nice to know what the weather’s going to be like. Do I need a raincoat/sunscreen/ski boots?
Prior knowledge is even more essential here in the UK, where you could get all four seasons in one day.
We rely on the Meteorological Office to give us a clear and unambiguous forecast of the day ahead. Occasionally they get it wrong. And the reason they occasionally get it wrong was explained on their website:
Seasonal forecasts indicate how slowly-varying large-scale climate influences make particular seasonal conditions more likely than others. Random, unpredictable factors (’chaos’) also partly determine year-to-year variations, and these will sometimes override large-scale influences. Such uncertainty makes a probabilistic format, as used here, advisable for seasonal forecasts.
This classic piece of gobbledegook won a ‘Golden Bull’ in the annual awards of the Plain English Campaign. The Campaign said the 45-word (if we’re being generous) message could have been said in three: “We’re not sure.”
by Andy Moreton
Zagat, which has become an influential and much-thumbed guide to the world’s restaurants, has sprung a surprise in naming its current London favourite.
Ahead of such prestigious places as The Ivy, Gordon Ramsay and Le Gavroche comes the chain of fast-food noodle bars called Wagamama.
Tim Zagat, the founder of the guide, said he was not surprised at how well Wagamama had done, considering diners were increasingly looking for value for money. “I think it is a really wonderful place. It’s good food at a good price.”
Opened in 1992, there are now more than sixty UK outlets of the bustling restaurant, where the most expensive course is just £10.50 ($20). Most of the Japanese-inspired noodles are cooked in minutes, and served by waiters in T-shirts.
Zagat’s volunteer testers – 5,300 dedicated gourmets – ranked London’s restaurants by various categories. While Wagamama was most popular, Gordon Ramsay came top for food and The Ritz for décor. And the guide firmly believes that London dining is better than Paris because it embraces so much international cuisine.
Zagat’s research also suggests that the high price of a meal in London (the average is almost double that in New York or LA) has not had a severe effect on the numbers eating out. Only 18 per cent of those surveyed said they were going out less than they were two years ago.
by Andy Moreton
Luxique can serve up a fabulous selection of luxury hotels in London and a London guide to help you get the most from your visit.
Our friends at the excellent Conde Nast Traveller magazine have just announced the results of their readers’ survey on the world’s best holidays and hotels.
Voted the most popular leisure hotel in Europe was La Residencia in Majorca, which was lovingly and luxuriously fashioned from two 17th Century farmhouses. It was where Lord (Andrew) Lloyd Webber put up the guests for his glittering 60th birthday party earlier this year.
For the Middle East and Africa, the Chedi Muscat in Oman came out on top. Clearly its guests share the hotel’s claim that it’s ‘an oasis of mysticism and luxury.’
In the UK, The Grove in Hertfordshire on the outskirts of London was the most popular choice. It scored highly not only for its leisure facilities (it boasts one of the finest new golf courses in Europe) but also for its value for money.
In the Overseas Business Hotel category, five of the top 20 were in Dubai. But out in front was the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower in Mumbai, described in Luxique’s guide as simply ‘The Grand Dame of India.’
And the island that consistently tops luxury holiday polls for its beaches and facilities is the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. Luxique offers a choice of ten fabulous luxury hotels in Maldives.
by Andy Moreton
