EasyJet Drops London-Bucharest Route

In a worrying development for Romania's nascent tourist industry, EasyJet today announced that its London-Bucharest route, flying for less than a year, would be dropped from June 1st. The move comes as a result of 'lack of interest'.

EasyJet will continue to fly from Bucharest to Milan and Madrid and will interestingly increase capacity on its London-Sofia route.

Bucharest, clearly not ready to be a city break destination just yet.

It's official: You can trust In Your Pocket

A little self-congratulation...

In the wake of the Lonely Planet scandal at the weekend, the Times today publishes an article about guidebooks you can trust, and comes up with a list of the top ten guidebook publishers. The good news is In Your Pocket made the cut, at number nine.

http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/news/article3752483.ece

http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/news/article3753787.ece

Why?

Because WE DO visit every place we review... and not just once either. All listings in our guide are checked each issue for accuracy.

That is the Pocket difference.

Lonely Copy It

So, not all guide books are written in the way they would like us to believe?

If the outcry over a Lonely Planet writer admitting he blagged a little of his Colombia guide was anything to go by, you would think not.

Here are a few more thoughts we found while trawling the web today:

http://www.gadling.com/2008/04/13/thoughts-on-the-lonley-planet-scandal-guidebooks-are-a-sham/print/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/apr/14/10?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
http://www.gogirlfriend.com/travel-news/thomas-kohnstamm-scandal-are-lonely-planet-books-still-trustworthy-10080

In Your Pocket guides do not have Lonely Planet's problem (sending writers to a country they do not know at all well). All of our writers are residents of the guides they write about.

More on this to follow. Watch this space.

A week is a long time In Your Pocket

Two brand new In Your Pockets are currently in the final throes of preparation. Belgrade In Your Pocket is all but done and dusted - look out for a free PDF version to download any day now, while Ljubljana In Your Pocket will not be too far behind.

We are also, finally about to get some more original video content online. This should happen over the next ten days or so, while a new look for our website is also just weeks away from going into public beta testing.

You will find out first about any new Pocket developments right here.

In Your Pocket is Hiring

Skopje In Your Pocket - Researcher

Skopje In Your Pocket is looking for a part-time researcher to handle a number of research-related duties. Based in Skopje, applicants should be enthusiastic, independent-minded, outgoing, resourceful and preferably have some experience in the travel, research or publishing industry. A good knowledge of spoken and written English is also required.

The successful candidate will also be involved in other related publishing projects in the future. Candidates should email CV, covering letter and two references to Jeroen van Marle.

Dispatches from the Nato Front Line

First day of the Nato conference in Bucharest, first day of trouble...

Reuters first to break with the predictable 'crap organisation' story:

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - No taxis, no badges, no sound -- welcome to Romania, host of the 2008 NATO summit.

Journalists arriving for a conference of the 26-nation defence alliance in this recently joined ex-communist nation got their first shock at Otopeni Airport on Tuesday when they found there were no cabs to take them into the centre of Bucharest.

Reporters were invited to take an official shuttle bus and told it would be allowed to use the cleared VIP lanes on the highway into the city. It was not.

After crawling through traffic jams for 90 minutes, some journalists were barred from entering the summit press centre because crashed computers could not print accreditation badges.

Others were told their applications were still being checked by security.

"Come back in two hours," a Reuters reporter was told. Some journalists were still without a badge on Wednesday, a day after their arrival, and were denied entry to the summit.

Once inside the cavernous 3,000-room Parliament Palace, built as the "House of the People" by late Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, journalists discovered a new snag.

U.S. President George W. Bush's lips moved silently as he delivered a keynote speech at a venue elsewhere in town. The audio link was not working and headphones had not arrived.

Bush's voice suddenly resounded through the marble halls two-thirds of the way through his speech as the connection was established.

The headphones arrived an hour after he had finished, but the promised audio feed from a conference where ministers and opinion leaders from both sides of the Atlantic were debating the summit issues did not materialise.

Instead, journalists were treated to live images of VIPs' cars standing idly on the airport runway.