Consumer watchdogs have condemned travel giant Thomson for switching the 'base fare' of its Menorca flights from London airports to those emanating from Norwich.
This means the majority of holidaymakers travelling with Thomson to Menorca, flying from Gatwick, will have to pay a flight supplement of between £45 and £60 on top of the price in their brochures.

With flights and seven nights' self-catering in Menorca in May 2004 starting at £215 it means that many customers will be paying at least 28 per cent more than they initially expected.

Bruce Treloar of Trading Standards described the move as 'iniquitous': 'If this is soon to become the norm, consumers will not have any idea if it is cheaper to fly from a regional airport or from London.'

Thomson said: 'The reality is we have to pick a base price and although on the whole they tend to be London airports we occasionally use regional ones like Cardiff or Bristol.

'The fact is customers always see the final price before they pay it, then they can make the decision as to whether they want to buy the holiday.'

Thomson is also selling base-fare flights to Tenerife from Liverpool and those to the Costa Blanca from Bristol even though the majority of sales to these destinations will fly from London airports.

A rival tour operator who claimed that Thomson had made the switch in order to 'artificially reduce panel prices' admitted: 'All of us do it a little bit, but Thomson seems to be doing more than anyone else.'

But Thomson denied this and said that even if customers did fly from the airport with the base fare they are not guaranteed to get their holiday at that price, as different flight times often engender supplements.

Last week the Association of British Travel Agents insisted that the £9 security charge added to all flights post-9/11 should be included in brochure prices.

The mayors of the South, demonstrated yesterday that the high level of demand of the society that lives in the region is resulting in a poor health service locally (waiting lists, displacements, lack of beds and even of specialties) Only the construction of a general hospital , would provide the sufficient number of beds required, according to norms established by the World-wide organization of the Health, that is to say, 5.5 beds for each 1,000 inhabitants, of whom three are destined to be emergency patients and two in need of geriatric care; along with operating rooms and other specialist facilities.
The mayor of Santiago del Teide, the nationalist Juan Gorrín is in agreement , but he is conscious that there is a financing problem. All the political groups of the South share the idea in principal that that the hospital is built.

AMUPARNA the association of counties which are all or in part situated in National Park areas of Spain, is holding it's national conference in Teide National Park between the 23rd and 28th of September. So while the visitors were on the island our mayor Juan Damián Gorrín Ramos and the town council gave an official reception at the town hall in Santiago del Teide for them this Thursday (25th) D. Jose' Manuel Diaz-Salazar Martín de Almagro, Vice-president of AMUPARNA and Mayor of the municipality of Daimiel situated in the heart of La Mancha, was presented with a "Five hundred Years of Santiago del Teide" commemorative plaque. also present were 125 other members of the association including D. Isaac Valencia, Mayor of La Orotava and D. Francisco Herrera Councilor and representative of the municipality of Guide of Isora.

After the formalities the guests were entertained at a typical Canarian style lunch, with folk singing and dancers.

Located in Santa Cruz, the auditorium was designed by internationally acclaimed architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava. A number of prestigious publications like The New York Times, Marie Claire, Time Magazine and the Daily Telegraph will cover the event. The Tenerife Symphony Orchestra will perform in a concert following the inauguration. 1,700 guests are to attend, including 200 members of the press. You can catch the inauguration ceremony on TV Canaria at 7:45 on the 26th, while the concert will be shown at 12:45 on the same channel.

The Government of the Island of Tenerife, has lost its bid under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy - UDRP, for transfer of the geographic domain name tenerife.info from the current owners - registrant, Jupiter Web Services Limited of Merseyside, UK.

Dealing with the UDRP is like a boxing match of three rounds. The Complainant must 'win on points' in each round to be successful and obtain a transfer of the www domain name.

round one - trademarks

The first round was the trademark round. Here, Tenerife was successful as they did actually have a registered trademark for the word 'TENERIFE' with the Spanish Patent and Trade Office. The Panelist indicated some concerns with the validity of the mark but stated that this was a matter for the trademark authorities and not for the domain name dispute. To all intents and purposes, the trademark was valid and was registered more than a decade ago.

The Panelist went on to discuss the U.S. Court of Appeals (4th Circuit) decision in Barcelona.com v. Excelentisimo Ayuntamiento de Barcelona, 330 F.3d 617 (4th Cir. 2003) which effectively overturned the decision of a similar domain name panel.

The court in that case had found that the jurisdiction of the U.S. courts applied (because both parties had submitted to it in the event of a challenge to the panel's decision) and that U.S. law would not furnish trademark protection to a city name used in a purely geographically descriptive sense. However, the Panel found that the present case was different on its facts from the Barcelona case; in particular, the parties had asserted no jurisdictional or substantive legal connection with the United States or U.S. law. So the Complainant won the first round.

round two - legitimate interest

Things, however, got complicated in the second round. The Respondent asserted a legitimate interest because it has an active Internet-based business that provides information regarding Tenerife as a tourist destination and is using the term "TENERIFE" in web addresses, "www.tenerife-apartments.co.uk" and "www.tenerife-apartments.com," that identify an active commercial website. There was an issue raised about the fact that, according to the Respondent, the 'true' registrant was different from that shown on the WHOIS register.

This was explained by the Respondent as the result of the disputed domain name being 'locked' by the registrar - the typical effect of the registrar noting a bogus trademark on the register. If the domain name is unlocked, the Respondent asserted that it would transfer it to the true owner who would use it in connection with the stated activities. The Panelist accepted this explanation. The Respondent accordingly won round two.

On the key point of whether the registration of the domain name under false pretences was relevant, the Panelist first noted that the Respondent had 'essentially told the Registrar and Registry that it had no valid trademark, presumably in hopes that its registration would not be challenged by a third party or the Registry'.

However, the Panelist decided that the UDRP does not require the holding of a valid trademark - a requirement of the original 'Sunrise Policy'. The Panelist also focused on the fact that the Complainant could have made a Sunrise Challenge to the domain name on the basis of the bogus trademark and failed to do so.

In the circumstances, the Panelist decided that while the Respondent did not come before it with 'clean hands', he would decide the case according to the 'legal principles at issue in this proceeding'.

The Panelist did not make a formal finding in round three as it was evident that the Respondent had already 'won on points' in at least one of the preceding rounds. Accordingly the Respondent won the case and the Complaint by our Island Government was denied.

Puerto deSantiago is highest with 92%.occupancy

Maria González Perez the head of the Tourism department of the Santiago del Teide town council, today announced the level of tourist occupation during the past month (August 2003) in the county of Santiago del Teide as reaching an average 83 per cent across the municipality.

The three main tourist nuclei in the area reported figures as follows: Playa de la Arena 69%, Los Gigantes 88% and in the various complexes of Puerto Santiago 91%.

These figures show, once again that Santiago del Teide is continuing to fall in line with the performance in the rest of the Southwest zone of Tenerife, maintaining an overall percentage average of 70% occupation in the months of June, July and August.

Seven young women will present themselves as candidates. The gala will commence at 10pm on 19th September and will feature a number of musical performances, from Spanish artists

School fight getting out of hand?

A row is brewing in a junior school in Las Galletas, Arona after the father of a five year old has reported an attack on his son to the police

According to the parent, an 11 year old pupil attacked his child, causing injuries to the face and mouth and the loss of some teeth. However the school say it was a playground accident and that the 11 year old has no history of aggressive behaviour towards other children. Subsequent to the incident, a number of residents in the area have used the occasion to voice their concerns about the level of discipline in the school, which has had problems with junior delinquency in the past.

The sequences are to form part of a Pilot Show for a programme called - I want that holiday!!!

The Pilot for Tenerife will show sequences from a walking tour based around the North of the island and taking in Masca , staying a luxury resort in the South of the Island and Staying at the Playa de La Arena Hotel with activities including Diving in and around our very own LOS GIGANTES under the expert guidance of the Los Gigantes Diving Centre. This is not the first time that the team has got a British broadcaster out of trouble.

"This Morning"Granada TV presenter Mark Simpkins pictured second from the right about to dive with Neville Widdrington (2nd left). Sheila Widrinton (right) and Paul Marley (left)

Mark Simpkins for Granada "This Morning" TV programme, visited the stingray feeding site that was established 6 years ago by Neville Widdrington (Los Gigantes Diving Centre) to film some underwaters equences last year.On the recommendation of S.P.E.T. (Tenerife Tourist Board), they enlisted the help of Sheila Widdrington (Ocean Eye Video) and Paul Marley (Dragonfire Communications SL)

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