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What’s the difference between a beach in Thailand and one in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland?

Quite a lot you might say, but that didn’t stop Thai tourist officials from promoting Kai Bae Beach by using a picture of the Isle of Berneray. The give-away is the picturesque range of the Harris Hills in the background.

The subterfuge was first spotted by the British writer Ian McNamara, who runs a small guest house on Koh Chang island where Kai Bae Beach is located. It seems the Thais lifted the picture from the website www.isleofberneray.com.

Photographer John Kirriemuir took the shot four years ago. He said: “True, there are some similarities – great sand, unpolluted sea. But also some differences: if you swam off both beaches, you would very quickly realise what one of them is.”

A VisitScotland spokeswoman said: “Here in the Outer Hebrides we are fortunate to have some of the most spectacular scenery in the world right on our doorstep.”

“They do say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, so although the use of the photo of a beach on the Isle of Berneray to represent a Thai beach is somewhat misleading, I’m sure it’s a compliment in disguise.”

by Andy Moreton

Luxique offers the best rates at 27 luxury hotels in Thailand.

The Australians are to try a new strategy for keeping beachgoers safe from shark attacks off Sydney in the forthcoming summer months.

They’re going to try helicopter patrols during weekends and public holidays in December and January when the waters off Sydney are at their most crowded.

The trial will take in the 51 beaches between Newcastle to the north and Wollongong to the south, including the popular Manly and Bondi beaches, which are already protected by shark nets.

The New South Wales minister responsible, Ian MacDonald, said nets and common sense were still the best way to avoid a shark attack, but the government had a duty to do all it could to protect bathers.

Three people have been attacked by sharks off Sydney this year, although Mr MacDonald observed:

“You’re more likely to be killed driving to the beach than being taken by a shark.”

Marine experts say that environmental protection of Sydney’s beaches and harbour has created a cleaner sea, but is also attracting sharks closer to shore as they chase fish.

by Andy Moreton

If you’re planning a visit to Australia’s most vibrant city, check out Luxique’s selection of luxury hotels in Sydney.

A hundred years ago, the Venice Lido was one of Europe’s most glamorous playgrounds for movie stars and royalty, and there’s now going to be a bold attempt to recapture its glory days.

The Lido is an 11-mile strip of land dividing the Venice lagoon from the Adriatic. It comes alive once a year in September for the Film Festival, when it’s besieged by actors, journalists and paparazzi, but for the rest of the year it all goes quiet.

“The Lido has slowly turned residential and gone to sleep, covered in dust,” said Giovanni Gusso, President of the Lido’s municipal council.

Now, hundreds of millions of euros of private funding are being lined up to restore the area’s Art Deco and Art Nouveau gems. In addition, government money is being spent on a new terminal for the city’s vaporetti (water buses).

But (there always seems to be a ‘but’ in these planning developments) one aspect is meeting disapproval – and it concerns the plans to demolish a group of beach huts. These are not just any old huts – they were famously depicted in the iconic closing scene of Visconti’s 1971 film Death In Venice, starring Dirk Bogarde.

More than 2,000 people have signed a petition protesting at the plans to demolish those and the turn-of-the-century Bagni Alberoni pavilion at the south end of the Lido.

Stefano Bartoli, the owner of the Bagni Alberoni bathing establishment, said:

“If these plans go ahead, we will have to close, it’s that simple. It won’t be possible to stay open. And if we close, lots of jobs will be lost and the local community will die – so, too, will a little piece of history.”

by Andy Moreton

Luxique can offer the best available rates at the pick of the luxury hotels in Venice – including the elegant and tranquil Albergo Quattro Fontane on the Lido.

A couple of years ago, at a seaside resort on the west coast of England, I saw a seagull take an ice cream cone clean out of a woman’s hand as she strolled along the promenade.

If pigeons are the scourge of the cities, gulls hold menacing sway by the sea.

Now one resort on the east coast of England is taking drastic action, warning holidaymakers that they could be fined up to £2,500 ($4,100) for feeding the birds – either intentionally or by leaving food waste.

The town council in Aldeburgh, an up-market resort in Suffolk, says the area is under siege from the gulls. The town has two renowned fish and chip shops and therein lies the problem.

Some people have been offering tit-bits of chips (French fries), which has encouraged the birds to swoop and steal food. Other visitors have discarded wrappings, which the gulls scavenge for food scraps. As well as that, holidaymakers and locals alike are woken by their raucous calling.

Aldeburgh, which hosts an internationally-renowned music festival, also has a message for those contemplating walking their dogs on the beach during the summer months – don’t. This offence carries a maximum penalty of £500 ($825).

by Andy Moreton

As summer gets into full swing over here in Europe, I return to a rather prickly subject – jellyfish.

A warning has gone out on the beaches of the Costa del Sol in Spain about the arrival of the potentially deadly Portuguese man o’war. This creature has tentacles that can be 30 yards long and are barbed with a sting ten times stronger than an ordinary jellyfish.

Xavier Pastor, from Oceana, an ecological campaigning group, said: “The Portuguese man o’war hasn’t been seen in the Mediterranean for a decade and its appearance could herald a process of colonisation, which has happened with other invading species.”

The Spanish are doing all they can to tackle the swarms of this and other potentially dangerous stingers. In the north-east area of Catalonia, where 20,000 people received treatment after being stung last summer, the authorities are using satellite images to track swarms. When they seem dangerously close to shore, boats will be sent to scoop them up.

It’s thought the large rise in the numbers of jellyfish is a result of global warming and the overfishing of predators.

Spain’s environment ministry is distributing leaflets alerting bathers to the dangers.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique offers a selection of luxury hotels throughout Spain – beach and city.

Coastal erosion is threatening Byron Bay, one of Australia’s most popular tourist areas.

Severe storms and tides have combined to push the shore at Byron Bay back by 20 yards in some places.

The local council has closed paths on some of the town’s beaches and has warned that the weather has created dangerous vertical sand dune escarpments of up to 16 feet along the shore.

Situated on the north coast of New South Wales, the Bay is a favourite stop-off for backpackers on the route from Sydney to Cairns.

It’s also home to some of the most expensive properties in the country, with some selling for the equivalent of £3.5 million ($5.7 million). It’s these waterfront homes that have been most at risk from the advancing waters.

Locals believe the council is not doing enough. They’ve warned that if the spit of sand at Belongil, which separates the ocean from the Belongil estuary, is breached, the ocean will flow into the low-lying town of Byron itself.

by Andy Moreton, with Bonnie Malkin in Sydney

Luxique has a wide selection of luxury hotels in the New South Wales region and throughout Australia.

A campaign is going on to try to preserve one of the last pristine Mediterranean beaches in Spain.

The area of Cabo de Gata in the south-east of the country includes 40 miles of protected coastline and a dramatic volcanic landscape. But campaigners say the authorities are down-grading the degree of protection afforded the beach area and other parts of the natural park, and this could lead to large-scale hotel development.

A 20-storey hotel was built on supposedly protected parkland next to El Algarrobico beach, despite local orders for construction to stop. Politicians have long promised to bulldoze it, but the 411-room glass and concrete structure still towers over the beach.

The Guardian’s correspondent in the area, Giles Tremlett, says that with swathes of Spain’s Mediterranean shoreline buried under concrete, the fate of this beach and park is seen as a test of how much politicians care about the damage done to the coasts of one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations.

Pilar Marcos of Greenpeace said: “Saving these last virgin spaces has to be a top priority. If they fail here then there will be nothing left. We will be leaving a legacy of brick and cement.”

But municipal architect, Manuel Rodríguez, countered: “We have growing unemployment here. Just building the hotel provided 200 jobs. What we need now is tourism and everybody knows that tourism starts with one hotel. This was our flagship.”

by Andy Moreton

Luxique offers a selection of luxury hotels in Spain – beach and city.

There’s cautious optimism that there will be lasting peace in Sri Lanka after 26 years of civil war.

The government recently announced an end to the fighting after its troops took the last piece of land held by Tamil Tiger rebels, and said it had killed the top rebel leader.

There is much to be done before the island can return to normal – the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has been there to discuss the plight of about 275,000 displaced people.

While it’s still too early to predict the future course of events, the prospect has opened up of tourists returning to the pristine sandy beaches of the north and east of the country.

“This is a good step forward, but we have to be cautious, there is still a lot of work to be done to bring about a true peace,” said Jean-Marc Flambert, who promotes a number of hotels in Sri Lanka.

Throughout the years of conflict, places like Trincomalee – described by Admiral Nelson as the finest harbour in the world – and Arugam Bay have been off-limits to all but domestic visitors and intrepid backpackers. They lack the hotels and infrastructure of the more developed south and west.

“There is a great potential to develop tourism on that side of the island,” said Mr Flambert. “Obviously people are going to remain cautious for a while but many have been waiting for this day.”

by Andy Moreton

Luxique has a fine selection of places to stay in the south of Sri Lanka – from the ocean-side Saman Villas in Bentota to the peace and tranquility of the traditional eco-village of Ulpotha Sanctuary.

Congratulations to Ben Southall, the 34-year-old British man, who fought off competition from 34,000 applicants to land the ‘Best Job in The World’.

As regular readers to this column will know, that job is to be caretaker on palm-fringed Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia for six months with a hefty salary, a villa and a very modest work schedule.

Ben, a project manager, sounds like an all-action man – in his spare time he runs a music festival and keeps fit running marathons, climbing, scuba diving, bungee-jumping and mountain-biking.

“The most important thing to me in life is to have an exciting job that makes me happy, puts smiles on people’s faces and achieves challenging goals,” he said.

Tourism Queensland is also extremely content. Global interest in the competition was so great that in the first two days, 200,000 people logged on to the islandreefjob.com website, causing the server to crash.

Tourism Queensland spent £830,000 ($1.25 million) on the campaign, but it’s estimated to have generated more than £54 million ($81 million) in free advertising.

Also happy is Ben Southall’s Canadian girlfriend, Bre -she’s accompanying him to paradise.

by Andy Moreton

Don’t forget that even though you didn’t win, you can still enjoy the magic of the Great Barrier Reef at the Hayman Island Resort, bookable through Luxique.

The global recession is having a severe effect on the Caribbean region - five countries are reporting double-digit drops in tourist visits.

Statistics released last week by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) show Anguilla taking the biggest hit, with a decline of 18.8 per cent in the early months of 2009.

Visits are down in all twelve reporting nations and territories except Jamaica, Cuba and Mexico’s Cancun region. Tourist traffic fell 14.3 per cent in Antigua, 13.7 per cent in St Lucia, 11.6 per cent in Montserrat and 11.3 per cent in the Cayman Islands.

Winfield Griffith, acting Director of Research at the CTO, said the steep declines in the first quarter were the worst since the tourism slump that followed the Sept. 11th attacks in 2001. “The point at which it will hit bottom is not clear,” said Mr Griffith.

He said the small islands were finding it hardest, partly because airlines have started removing flights to save money.

There’s also been a decline in arrivals of cruise ship passengers, although these have considerably less economic impact because they don’t involve overnight stays on the islands.

by Andy Moreton

Now might be the time to get a top deal in the West Indies. Luxique has a wide selection of luxury Caribbean hotels at the best possible rates.