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global warming, but if we want people to cut down on their flying, we need to offer them a safe, comfortable and affordable alternative,’ says Mark. ‘That’s where seat61 comes in. ‘I don’t think the travelling public realise just how quick it can be to zing around Western Europe. But in a world where you are bombarded with adverts for air travel, motorway buses and package holidays, civilised, romantic, exciting overland travel by train is still possible – across Europe and beyond. With the easy eloquence of a talking timetable, Mark cites new high speed routes in Europe as evidence of rail travel’s capacity to improve: ‘Paris to Amsterdam, which used to take all day, is now just 3hr 18min; Paris to Geneva will be cut to three hours in December; and a new high-speed line to Figueres just over the border into Spain, also in December, will take just 5hr 5mins, which means you could leave London at 10.25am and be in Figueres at 8.45 in the evening. His one major gripe these days is that cooperation between rail companies is getting worse, not better, making it more of a maze than it needs to be.
‘Before 1995, I could go to Victoria and buy a ticket to anywhere and every train company could issue a ticket for every other company. Now, however, we live in a fragmented, liberalised, open-access world where all the train prices are controlled like air fares in a reservation system and you need to go to a different website to book different routes. Internet access and cheap advance fares mean that if you know where to look it’s easy to get a good deal, which helps to keep me in business I suppose, but is nevertheless still frustrating!’ ‘With seat61 I am helping people to become travellers rather than tourists. There’s more to travel than just the destination. It’s called the journey.’ www.seat61.com what the judges said No stranger to the Awards, Seat61.com has proved invaluable in the last year not only to those who knew they want to travel by train or ferry but also to those who didn’t. Strikes, airlines collapsing and volcanic ash forced many travellers to turn to turn to Mark Smith’s remarkable site with up-to-the-minute information for travellers. The site has grown from 6.5million to almost 10 million users and been instrumental in the growth of rail travel bookings.
Station to station • Seat61’s most popular European
• Beyond Europe, the top five are
on the Glacier Express; and Chicago to San Francisco on the California Zephyr – ‘I did it again this summer and it is simply wonderful, and so cheap. You can get a reclining seat for £130.’
Thailand, Malaysia, China, India and Vietnam.
• An updated version of Mark’s book
• Mark’s favourite rail journeys
based on the site, The Man in Seat 61, was published in April
destination pages are Italy, then Holland, France, Spain and Germany
include London to Fort William on the overnight Caledonian Sleeper – ‘you lift the blind the next morning and see deer bounding away across the beautiful highland scenery ’ – Zermatt to St Moritz
sponsored by
The Quito Visitors’ Bureau, Ecuador The Quito Visitors’ Bureau develops and promotes tourism in the capital of Ecuador. We are responsible for working with local tourism businesses in the city as well as promoting Quito on the international stage. As such we are in a unique position of both developing and encouraging sustainable strategies, and making the travel industry and end-consumers aware of them. As one of the Municipality of Quito’s many organisations, we are proud to present the work the authorities have carried out over the past decade. Quito has invested more than any other Latin American capital in safeguarding cultural heritage, investing half a billion dollars since 2001. The regeneration of the historic centre – Quito was the first city to be named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1978 – has created investment in tourism infrastructure, as well as media interest. The development of tourism here is set on a sustainable course. The city has also worked hard to improve its public spaces and parks. It now boasts one of the highest per-capita ratios of open space to inhabitant on the continent, and has planted tens of thousands of native trees. The Bureau promotes these areas, and places like the Botanical Gardens, as well as opportunities for sports in the city – such as the weekly ‘Cycle Sundays’ when 20 miles of roads across the capital are closed to traffic with some 30,000 people participating. The Andes region around Quito is highly biodiverse; we promote responsible tourism to these rural areas, and work with small businesses to improve their services while minimising their impact. We signed an agreement with Rainforest Alliance in 2008 to work together to promote best practices.
• There is also a possible TV series – Mark filmed a pilot with actor Ken Cranham (watch a taster on his website) and is hoping to turn it into a series.
www.quito.com.ec
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