Top five Christmas presents for travel executives
Travel blogger Helena Beard picks her favourite Christmas presents for the successful travel executive.
Vino to go Portable Wine Glass from £8.99, Amazon – At last. The solution to getting to work unscathed whilst drinking a full glass of Malbec. No more stains on your suit. No more spillages on the seat. Now you can drink and travel effortlessly.
Blue tooth gloves – £49.99. Firebox Because if you don’t make enough of a fool of yourself at the Christmas party, you can make up for it by walking around doing this. Then there will be no doubt as to your idiocy.
Anker Astro phone charger. £13.99. Amazon. So you are on your way to the airport, you’ve forgotten to turn your wifi off, and your poor phone is reaching out for new networks every five minutes. By the time you reach the departure gate, you’re on 15% and you only went on Facebook twice and called your mum.
Because we all love our smartphones, but we all bemoan the battery life, these are essential items for every travel executive. In a variety of colours. Probably avoid the pink if you are CEO level. Or a man.
Easy Peasy Chinese – £7.19. The Book People. Because according to every single article, blogpost, statistic or comment written in the travel press since the turn of the century, there are literally billions of Chinese people winging their way to Europe right now. Fortunately, all we have to do to have a bright future in travel is learn Mandarin. Unfortunately, this book is guilty of false advertising. Learning Chinese is really difficult. Like super, uber, three times as difficult as Ancient Greek difficult. Don’t learn. Employ a translator.
Fly Me I’m Freddie – the biography of Sir Freddie Laker, – Used from just 1p, Amazon. What an absolute bargain. You can learn all about how the king of travel made his fortune and lost his airline. Alternatives to stoke your entrepreneurial ambition include classics such as ‘Life’s a Beach’ – Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart and the story of Sandals, ‘Losing My Virginity’ by Sir Richard Branson or ‘Orange Was The New Black’ by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou (I made that last one up. He hasn’t written his memoirs. What a missed opportunity…)
Happy Christmas Everyone!
Helena Beard is a marketing and brand specialist and co-owner of China Travel Outbound, a representation and PR agency working in the Chinese market.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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