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Young winemakers with bags of bottle

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“Wine should be an exciting experience from beginning to end – from the packaging to the story to the taste.” This comment, from the owner of an excellent new wine shop in the centre of Manchester, England, started me thinking. It can be so easy to fall into the habit of drinking the wines you know you like, from producers you know you can trust. I’m certainly guilty of that far too often. And if we do step out of our comfort zone, we tend to look to the New World for the most exciting young winemakers.

But one of the perks of my job is discovering wines that I might never have come across if they hadn’t been lined up in tastings run by importers or retailers, so I am highlighting here some of the most exciting young winemakers from old Europe. Some are from well known regions that can often be dismissed, such as Beaujolais, and others from emerging areas that deserve to be better known.

Vilosell, Tomas Cusiné, Costers del Segre 2006 (£12.50)
A great label, like a Paul Smith shirt, and definitely a wine where the taste is as exciting as the presentation. Wonderfully fragrant from the first sniff, this comes from a small DO located at 2,300 metres above sea level in the Catalonia region of Spain, Costers del Segre. It was the spot that Tomas Cusiné, a winemaker who has been quietly gaining plaudits over the past 20 years, chose when he decided to found a winery under his own name in 2003. The wine itself has new oak, plenty of vanilla, and it is sweet and smooth but with a really spicy edge. Its silky tannins make it highly easy to drink, without belying the clear quality of the winemaking.

Domaine Jean Marc Burgaud, Morgon Cote du Py, Beaujolais 2006 (£11.50)
If ever there was a wine region that needed to listen to a more dynamic, younger generation, this is it – and growers like Jean Marc Burgaud are exactly what Beaujolais needs. Young, talented and ambitious, Burgaud has mae a wine with a finesse that is more typically associated with Burgundy. But that is not to say that this is a difficult wine to enjoy – it still has the classic sour cherry taste of a Gamay from this region, and at 13 percent it has a light-weight mouthfeel that makes it a great early evening livener.

La Legua Roble, DO Cigales 2006 (£7.10)
Emeterio Fernandez’s winery is located in DO Cigales, in the Castella-León region to the north of the more acclaimed Ribera del Duero. This is by no means a start-up winery – they have been producing wine here for around 300 years, but all the same, things are changing fast. A modern winery has recently been built on top of the old underground cellars, and the chief winemaker, Adolfo Gonzalez is one of the youngest and most acclaimed in the area. On the palate, there is an attractive toast from the new oak that is never overpowering, and it is packed full of bright brambly fruits. A mix of Tempranillo and Grenache, this is a sleek, vibrant wine that is asking to be shared with good friends.

Martin Codax, Cuatro Pasos, Bierzo 2005 (approx £10)
A slightly unusual wine from a co-operative cellar in Leon in northwest Spain. Mencia is the indigenous grape variety of the region, and it makes up 100 percent of this wine, from 80-year-old vines set at altitude in the Bierzo mountains. But enough background – this is a wine that you want to get on with drinking, right from the moment you see the distinctive paw prints on the label. It is almost black in colour, and at 14 percent does pack a punch, but it is so smooth and soft that you barely notice the alcohol. This was again a very popular choice in the tasting, full of rich plums and vanilla from the American oak.

Chante Cigale, Vignes D’Alexandre, Vins de Pays Mediteranee 2007 (approx £9)
Winemaker Alexandre Favier took over the family estate in the village of Chateauneuf-du-Pape from his father Christian when he was in his early 20s, and is now just 27 years old. In five short years, he’s managed to win the regional Rhone trophy at the International Wine Challenge and clock up numerous other garlands from various critics and competitions. Definitely a young winemaker to watch. There is a slight red blush to this, from the red-skinned Roussane grape, blended with Clairette and Grenache Blanc. It is well restained and unoaked, rounded out with rich apricots and white pears. A real slugger, this was perhaps the most popular wine around the table during this tasting.

GD Vajra, Dolcetto d’Alba, Piemonte 2007 (approx £14)
Proving that even the established appellations can hide some of the most exciting new winemaking, this is a seriously wonderful wine from the Barolo region of Italy. Right now it is way too young to really do itself justice, but there is such depth and opulence in this wine that it will be worth the wait. The son of the current winemaker is taking over here from this vintage, and he’s extremely passionate about the future. The wine itself is vibrantly purple, full of brambly fruits, with tight dense tannins and plenty of layers to unpick at your leisure. Definitely one to leave open for a few hours before tucking in.

Podere 414, Morellino di Scansano 2006 (£13.50)
Podere 414 is an estate that straddles a river in the western part of Tuscany towards the sea and near the town of Scansano, with a rocky soil where pretty much nothing would grow but vines. Owned by Simone Castelli, the son of a well-known Tuscan oenologist, with his wife Mara. Just over 85 percent Sangiovese (the name of the DOC is in fact a synonym for the grape variety), with the balance made up of Ciliegiolo and Grenache. The first thing that strikes you is the quality of the fruit – this is full of ripe young blackberries and whole clusters of luscious black cherries. The tannins here are very light, so it’s ready to be drunk despite being so young, and at just 13.5 percent alcohol, a highly seductive wine.

Experience is everything

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Just four short years ago, the word ‘hublot’ still meant a port-hole, at least for French-speakers. And of course it still does mean exactly that. But in the luxury industry the word, with a capital H, has come to be known as the brand of a watch, more particularly a new kind of watch. If, like Cristiano Ronaldo and several other footballers at Manchester United, you can afford a Hublot starting at around 37,500 euros, you have on your wrist a hand-made watch whose ten-fold increase in sales in the last four years is based on a blend of high-tech materials with Switzerland’s time-honoured, horological craftsmanship.

Jean-Claude Biver, the man behind the remarkable revival of Hublot, describes this blend of old and new as “fusion”. And just to emphasise the point, he hired human missile Yves Rossy, dubbed him “Fusion Man”, and subsidized his 200kmh, rocket-powered flight across the Channel last September.

An inspired stunt, you might say. But this is typical of M. Biver, one of the great entrepreneurs of the Swiss watch industry who has revived no less than three brands through, well, a fusion of skills and collected numerous commercial accolades along the way. His career allies a flair for marketing with a passion for traditional watch-making and, by no means least, a management philosophy that owes much to an almost peasant attachment to commonsense.

M. Biver has a degree in economics but insists it taught him nothing. “Experience is everything,” he says. Thus you won’t find the headquarters of Hublot, based near Geneva at the old Roman village of Nyon, full of bright young people with MBAs. “An MBA doesn’t mean you have commonsense,” he says dismissively.

The chairman, chief executive and saviour of Hublot Geneve sets great store on a whole different set of values that isn’t taught on Wall Street or indeed in much of the City, although perhaps it should be. For M. Biver, what counts in business these days is a sense of practicality, the experience of setbacks (“in sport you learn to accept small defeats and that produces success”), and a devotion to the product. As he puts it: “Passion is the essential, a gift from God and it’s superior to any MBA.”

To these three qualities should be added a reverence for tradition, which M. Biver sees as the foundation of innovation. “The Japanese make great watches,” concedes M. Biver. “But the designs have only modernity, not tradition. If you build on tradition, you have a harmony with the past. You must look backwards before you look forward. Experience is not everything. It is yesterday, but it is like the roots of the vineyard. It’s where it all starts. The vision is the future.”

So not exactly economics 101 then, but it works. Last year M. Biver sold Hublot to the leader in the luxury industry, LVMH, for 500m Swiss francs [336m euros at today’s prices] and banked some 100m [67m euros] for himself.

The commercial education of Jean-Claude Biver began in the most unlikely of places – in the rugged Joux valley sheltered by the Jura mountain range. It had been the stronghold of the prestige watch-making industry for nearly 300 years, but in the early seventies was threatened with extinction by the rise of quartz-driven watches. Manufactured by Citizen and other mainly Japanese companies, they kept perfect time at a tiny fraction of the cost of Switzerland’s elaborate timepieces. Even many in the industry believed the Joux valley was dead and buried, and its historic craft skills would go the way of the steam locomotive.

The young Biver, Luxembourg-born but raised mainly in Switzerland, was enchanted with the industry. For him, the intricate workings of a watch reminded him of the mechanical toys he’d played with as a child. Fresh out of university, he joined Audemars Piguet, then approaching its centenary, and spent a first, blissful year working in all the departments. The experience gave him a grounding in the industry and only served to deep his admiration for watchmakers. The passion was born.

In 1980 he left Audemars Piguet – “I thought I could do better,” he recalls – for one of the most responsible jobs in the industry, that of product manager at Omega. Here he acquired corporate skills – – the rules and constraints of a major group and a multinational brand. But it wasn’t him. Hankering for the charm, idiosyncracy and freedoms of a smaller brand, he resigned from Omega in 1982 and returned to the heart of the Joux Valley. With his friend Jacques Piguet, he had become part-owner of Blancpain. One of the treasures of the industry, Blancpain was nearly 250 years old but had been dormant for nearly 30 years and many thought was likely to remain so.

With a statement that became something of a call to arms for the Swiss watchmaker, M. Biver declared: “Since 1735 there has never been a quartz Blancpain watch – and there never will be”. He had nailed his flag to tradition.

The two friends revived Blancpain almost overnight. Within a few years, turnover was up to Swf50m. But the failure of his marriage – Jean-Claude Biver is an unapologetic workaholic – forced him to sell out to what is now the Swatch Group of Nicolas Hayek. Suddenly, he was back at Omega all over again with responsibility for marketing the brand. Over the next ten years, he revived Omega as an emblematic, hand-crafted watch largely through the development of new products endorsed by Cindy Crawford, Michael Schumacher, Pierce Brosnan and other international figures.

They were dazzling and dramatic years, but also exhausting. At the end of 2003 M. Biver took a sabbatical. It didn’t last for long. Within a few months he was tapped on the shoulder by one, Carlo Crocco, who had founded Hublot Geneve in 1980 but was heavily involved in philanthropic work and wanted to hand over the reins. It was a chance to jump back into the world that M. Biver knew best and it proved irresistible.

Crocco had pioneered the match-up of a natural rubber bracelet with a gold watch, a heresy in 1980 but one that had been copied in the years since. The ex-Omega man saw the future and it was called Fusion, the blend of the traditional with the new to make a dramatic and modernistic statement. Not a man for textbook marketing, the new part-owner of Hublot drew his inspiration from a concrete example – the glass pyramid designed by American architect IM Pei for the Louvre. 

Within months, by April 2005, M.Biver and his long-time collaborator Ricard Guadalupe, shocked the industry with a watch called Big Bang. It blended kevlar and carbon fibre, natural rubber and titanium – the materials of F1 – with gold and jewels. It felt good on the wrist and looked magnificent.

With the Big Bang rapidly gaining a following, M.Biver looked around for celebrities with international reach and found them in a sport long regarded as down-market. “Footballers have become stars. Their wives are as pretty as those of actors. They’ve got nice cars, nice houses,” he explains. In short order Hublot Geneve is a sponsor of the 2008 European Cup and a formal partner with Manchester United.

Of all his three rescue missions of Swiss watch brands, that of Hublot Geneve was the quickest and biggest. As sales growth outstripped those of rival brands, luxury giant LVMH clearly felt it had no option but to dig into its deep pockets. In a record valuation, in April 2008 it paid two times estimated earnings to bring Big Bang into its stable.

Although he mixes in a glittering milieu of the wealthy, celebrities and royalty, Jean-Claude Biver prefers the simple life. He spends weekends on his cheese-producing farm with his family and cows. He loves nothing better than to don traditional Swiss garb and go walking with friends in the mountains. And he treasures health more than wealth (“a minute without health is like death”). 

The global recession doesn’t daunt him. Typically drawing on a sporting metaphor, he compares it to a yacht race. “When the wind drops in a regatta, the whole fleet slows down,” he says. “The goal is to finish the course in front.”

Nor does it hurt if you sponsor the race as well. Every year Hublot Geneve has its name on the classic wooden-boat regatta at Monaco where there’s not a Kevlar or carbon fibre boat in sight. Now that’s fusion.

Communication breakdown, it’s always the same

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At last this piece of Albanian-made, badly-glued Bakelite tinkles weakly and I grab it in an urgent, sweaty palm like a man clutching at a lifebelt.

It’s my London office but a voice I don’t recognise, obviously a temp. I shout into the phone and my voice bounces back in an eerie Alpine echo: “Hi, look this is Stuart White in Athens, I urgently need to speak to – “
“Sorry, it’s very hard to hear you. It’s a bad line – you’ll have to call back.” The phone at the other end goes down with a maddening click.

Those were the supposedly bad old days of business travel communication, before international direct dialling, email, laptops slimmer than Kate Moss, and the ubiquitous BlackBerry. Now wherever you are on this apparently shrunken globe, you’re never more than a second away from instant communication.

Not so. The fact remains that keeping in touch with head office is still the numero uno six-Panadol travel headache for every business person. There’s a laughable BBC promo which shows their intrepid correspondents typing out reports on laptops in far-flung African villages and Middle East warring hotspots. When all of us know that you can still hit a communications impasse in the world’s biggest cities and the most modern business hotels.

In New York I checked into a major chain hotel, went out for a meeting, came back, jet-lagged and tired and wrote out a 1,500 word report. I then – pre Wi-Fi – went to plug my laptop modem into the phone socket. It wasn’t there. I looked and looked, wiping my eyes in case I was somehow missing it. I felt like Manuel in Fawlty Towers after Mr. O’Reilly did his erratic building work: “Where is door? Door is gone.” That was me. Where is phone socket? Phone socket gone.

Someone, on hotel instructions, had sealed the phone socket inside the wall, protected by a layer of plaster. I urgently dialled reception: “Ya, well we had people, ya know, stealing the phones and all.”

Could I use their sockets? No; the hotel in its paranoid intensity had sealed every phone socket in the hotel inside the walls. It was now midnight and I was desperate. I tried to get another hotel, but gave up after fourteen attempts. It was convention time.

This report had to be in London when the bosses got in at nine. I took out my wallet. They worship only one God in Manhattan, and His name is Greenback. I called maintenance and lied that my TV wouldn’t work. A corpulent Puerto Rican equipped with tools arrived 45 minutes later. I pointed to the plastered over socket and waved five Andrew Jackson’s in front of him. For $100 would he rip out the plaster so I could utilise the socket?

Thirty minutes later the wall resembled the start of an escape tunnel at Colditz. Humming the theme tune I plugged in and sent my report. Eduardo then tried to patch up the wall. Like a furtive Stalag PoW, after he left I started to strategically place furniture around the still gaping hole in case of a snap guard inspection.

That wasn’t a one-off. I’ve had Wi-Fi connections that wouldn’t… connect that is. I’ve had Business Centres that seem to open every other Tuesday except when there’s an “aaggh” in the month. I once deposited an urgent package for FedEx in a Manila hotel Business Centre. (The hotel had some bizarre rule that FedEx employees could not go to individual rooms – ‘to discourage prostitution.’ I dunno, somehow FedEx and call girls never seemed synonymous.) The next day London said the package hadn’t arrived and what was I playing at? I called FedEx but they knew nothing about it. I went down to the Business Centre. It was Out-to-Lunch. The sole receptionist finally returned picking her teeth of stray rice and sipping a Sprite. She opened her office; I saw the package and – I seem to remember – screamed in anguish. She pulled a rueful face: “I knew there was something I’d forgotten to do yesterday.”

I’ve spent hours in cabs in Third World countries, fuming in traffic jams trying to find Black Hole of Calcutta-like internet cafes because either my hotel Business Centre had internet connection speeds that would shame a particularly lethargic snail with bad blisters, or was missing, presumably off spending more time with its family.

Everything works in theory; it’s when that theory is put into practice that it all too often goes wrong. Never come across Wi-Fi that doesn’t frequently turn into No-Fi? Cell phones that suddenly say, “No signal” just because you crossed the Channel? At least in the past those communication problems came with a certain charm and amusement totally absent today.

At the Royal Hibernian Hotel in Dublin you couldn’t even dial from your phone, you had to go through the operator. When I picked up the phone a charming colleen answered and I asked her – the wording is important here – was it possible she could get me a call to a (specified) London number?

She said that was no problem at all, at all, sorr. I waited, and waited, and waited. After 20 minutes I lifted the receiver again. I enquired after my phone call to London. She was a little baffled: “Well you only asked me if it was it possible to get the number? And I told you it wasn’t a problem. Are you now saying you actually want me to make the call?”

To contact Stuart White email stuartwhite383@btinternet.com

The crunch is no time for sour grapes

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As things tighten financially the world over, the idea of drinking fine wine becomes not only less attainable, but somehow less relevant – there are just many more important things to worry about than whether you can afford to buy a bottle of first growth claret, or a top flight Napa. Restaurants in London are reporting drops in average spend on bottles by up to 40 or 50 percent, as people look for smarter choices. What that means for a region like Bordeaux is that people want to buy the less well known vintages, that can be significantly better value (think 2002 or 2004, still very good quality but far less expensive than 2005 or 2003) or second wines of the big names.

I am going to concentrate here on second wines – which mean you are buying something made by big name chateaux, with the same winemaking teams, and the same expertise, but that may come from younger vines, so have not had time to develop the same complexity as those destined for the first wine. In practice, this means vines that are under ten years of age, which produce less tannic fruit. This has the added benefit of making wines that are enjoyable to drink far earlier than the more renowned first wines.

So there’s no need to give up on wine as we watch our finances – as someone very wise said to me recently, ‘In good times, people like to drink wine. In bad times, they need to…’

La Parde de Haut Bailly, Pessac Leognan 2006 (approx £20)
La Parde de Haut Bailly was created in 1967, making it one of the earliest second wines to be made in Bordeaux. It is the epitome of elegant, restrained Bordeaux, and the second wine is no less lovely than the first. The estate was bought in 1998 and the chateau and winery have been completely restored. The day to day running of the estate is carried out by Veronique Sanders who is also president of the Association of Cru Classes of the Graves.

Les Hauts de Smith, Pessac Leognan 2004 (approx £20)
The second wine of the Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte, owned by Florence and Daniel Cathiard, this 2004 has seductive fruit and good depth of flavour. The oak is evident, but toasty and smoky enough to get away with it. I am a big fan of the white wine from this property also, one of the best of the new wave of Bordeaux whites that are gaining international attention. Both red and white look to favour these rich, concentrated flavours while losing none of their finesse.

La Reserve du Comtesse, Pauillac 2004 (approx £35)
This is the second wine of Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. The beautifully kitsch label sets a light tone for the whole experience – and the wine itself is medium-bodied with plenty of fresh red fruits. It has a smoky edge, with some savoury herbs that lift the whole thing up, and I can report that it works perfectly with the classic Bordelais entrecote et frites. Pichon Lalande’s new owner, the Roederer champagne firm, have taken over this property since the bottling of the 2004, but everything I have tasted recently suggest that this is still in safe hands.

Clos Canon, Saint Emilion 2006 (approx £22)
The name Clos Canon comes from the 18th century wall that encloses the vineyard of Château Canon. Purchased by Chanel in 1996, this second wine of Chateau Canon, a classified Saint Emilion, is run by John Kolasa, the wonderfully talented director of Rauzan Segla who has done so much to improve quality at both estates. And because its reputation has not yet quite caught up with the investments, you can still get this wine at a relatively good price. Plenty of rich summer fruits and ripe tannins – and a good quantity of cabernet franc making its subtly spicy presence felt.

La Demoiselle de Sociando Mallet, Haut Medoc 2006 (approx £16)
This estate, owned by Jean Goutreau, is one of the few real cult wines of Bordeaux. Consistently good value, and well recognised for its exemplary quality, it remains just outside of the circuit of big names and consumers in the know are all the luckier for it. The second wine, like the first, puts pleasure first. Only 20 percent of this wine is put into new oak during the ageing process, with the rest remaining in stainless steel tanks – a process that ensures it is the fruit that takes centre stage, rather than the smokier, more intense flavours developed by a long oak ageing. The wine is then bottled without fining or filtration; a technique that keeps subtleties of flavours.

Petit Mouton, Pauillac 2006 (approx £50)
The idea of drinking a first growth may have to be put on hold for a while longer, but the second wines have always been, and still are, very good value comparatively speaking. As with Chateau Mouton Rothschild, this has one of the prettiest labels in the business. But what everyone always wants to know is whether it is worth paying the extra money for these wines – and I can tell you that the pedigree is apparent from the first sniff. It is rich in the deep dark fruits of cabernet sauvignon, but has a beautifully raspberry puree sweetness, and its flavours are still lingering in the mouth a good five minutes after the sip. If you look at it that way, you can be satisfied with less wine, and so see twice the savings…

Villa des Quatres Soeurs, Margaux 2006 (approx £20)
Luc Thienpont, brother of Jacques Thienpont of Le Pin, makes this small-production second wine from the insider’s Margaux, Clos des Quatres Vents. To be exact, it is not a true second wine, because it comes from an entirely separate plot of vines, but it is positioned as such. This is an enormously rich and flattering wine, and very well textured. Of the two vintages I tasted, the 2006 had the ripest, roundest fruit, and was utterly delicious. Only 7,000 bottles are made each year, and it sells out pretty much immediately, so if you want this wine, get in early.

Timed to perfection

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ckCalvin Klein Men’s CK-Chronograph Watch
£132
The CK Chronograph is a dress watch with silver-tone hands and indexes, small black numbers and indexes, analogue date display, polished stainless steel bezel and has water resistance of 30m.

tag

TAG Heuer Formula 1 Indy 500 men’s Chronograph Watch
£825
Prestige and innovative technology define TAG Heuer’s philosophy in creating its iconic watches.  It has a chronograph and date function on its dial completing the sporty chic look.

longines

Longines gents Evidenza Watch
£1,290
Longines gents Evidenza features automatic movement, a brown leather strap, power reserve indicator, silver dial with a date function, sapphire glass and is water resistant to 30m.

breitling

Breitling Colt Quartz
£995
The colt quartz has among its features a silver dial with date, quartz movement, chronometer, brushed stainless steel case, blue calf leather strap, deployment buckle, unidirectional rotating bezel, sapphire crystal, and is water resistant to 500m.

Spa turn

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The Czech Republic has a number of mineral springs, which have been used for medicinal purposes since the early 15th century. Spa towns with specific spa architecture and grand urban conceptions grew up around mineral springs. The colonnades of Karlovy Vary and the splendid spa buildings in Mariánské Lázne are world-famous. Czech spa towns are invariably located in natural landscapes and are attractive for both their urbanistic layout and their specific spa architecture. Some spa houses even boast elaborate original furnishings.

Large spa houses started to be built along with colonnades and decorative structures above and around mineral springs. Spa towns began adopting a systematic approach to their architectural planning and strove for a unified appearance. Much attention was devoted to the mineral springs themselves, with geological probes and chemical analyses of the waters’ contents; this was a very dynamic era. Tough competition became the hallmark of the spa industry, and local spa entrepreneurs thrived.

Czech spas were frequented by a highly sophisticated clientele. To this day, the spa towns of Karlovy Vary and Teplice pride themselves on the visits by Peter the Great, King Edward VII of England and Albrecht of Wallenstein. Frequent spa guests also included such giants of European culture as Goethe, Schiller, Chopin, Beethoven and Wagner, to name just a few.

The 18th century was the period of birth and development of the spa industry; but it was the 19th century in which spas truly began to flourish. Spa complexes were expanded and modernised; a number of new treatment methods were introduced. Spa procedures became specialised, and the Czech spa industry became renowned for its medical efficiency. Spa stays were no longer considered just a form of treatment; they became a hallmark of social status. Spa towns have developed into centres of social and cultural life and magnets for tourism. After Prague, they were the second most visited destination in the country.

The last decade of the past century opened up new horizons to Czech spas. Lifestyle changes dictated the expansion of spa programs to include new forms of relaxation and regeneration, beauty treatments and stress-reduction programs. These are all complemented by a range of sports and fitness activities such as golf, cycling, hiking and walking, tennis, gym routines and other activities. Expanded spa programs are offered by no fewer than 40 spa towns in the Czech Republic.

Trebon
The town of Trebon is situated on the hilly landscape of South Bohemia. The well-preserved historic town centre became a conservation area. The spa, the Renaissance chateau with attached parks and the large artificial lake, Svet, create an attractive complex with unique diversity. Deep forests and a number of colourful artificial lakes add up to a beautiful landscape. The whole region is a protected area and a biosphere reserve of UNESCO. The landscape has been cultivated for centuries from the original swamps and peat bogs. The Trebon area is also the traditional area for fish farming, mainly the famous Trebon carps.

There are many facilities and activities available including, swimming pools, gymnasiums, fitness facilities, solariums, tennis courts, horseback riding, fishing, water sports, cyclist routes and sports equipment, mountain bike and boat rentals. Observation sailing is possible on the Svet and Hejtman lakes.

Jeseník
Jeseník is situated in the Olomouc region. It became famous for gold mining and the production of damask, as well as its Silesian marble. But it has become even better known for its spas. In 1820, Vincent Priessnitz founded the Jeseník spas. He discovered the healing effects of the local cold springs. The health resort specializes in the treatment of respiratory diseases and disorders of the motor and nervous systems. On the slopes of Studnicní vrch near the spa complex, there are 60 curative springs. The proximity of the Jeseníky Mountains offers an ideal way to relax either in winter or in summer.

The microclimate, combined with water treatments are suitable for respiratory diseases, circulation disorders, thyroid diseases, physical and gynecological disorders and skin diseases.

Tennis, mini-golf, squash, bowling, horseback riding, indoor swimming pool, sauna, sports equipment rentals, fitness programs, skating, skiing are all available.

Podebrady
In the 15th century, King George raised the status of the town of Podebrady to that of royal town. In the 17th century, a small spa was built on the site of one healing spring. The recent history of the town and spas had its beginning in the Art Nouveau period, when another strong mineral spring was discovered. The spring contains a lot of carbonic acid, magnesium and calcium. The spa centre is hidden in the green of the parks. The flat area near the Labe River that is surrounded by forests is ideal for the treatment of heart diseases. The town is also famous for the production of crystal plumbic glass. The romantic environment is suitable for relaxation as well as active tourism.

The natural healing source is mineral carbonic water. The spa specialises in the treatment o heart disease, diabetes, and disorders of the motor system.

Activities available in the town include tennis, golf, mini-golf, swimming, surfing, yachting, fishing, volleyball, squash, bowling, horseback riding, cycling, special fitness programs and sailing trips on the Labe.

Podebrady mineral water was discovered with the use of a stick in 1905 by the famous water-diviner, the Prussian nobleman Büllow. In 1926, the remarkable spa guru Dr. Libenský, founded the Cardiology Institute in Podebrady and initiated the tradition of “heart spas” that implemented carbonic baths and strict medical care.

Balancing the books

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I’ve seen them reduce hardened businessmen to tears. I’ve watched high-flying executives blank-faced with terror in front of them. I’ve witnessed corporate bosses capable of killing with a glare, turned into gibbering wrecks by them.

And I’ve personally sat as rigid as a rabbit hypnotised by a swaying cobra, riveted to the most feared phenomenon in the business travel world.

They are no respecter of rank, race, gender, religion or salary status. They can render us virtually unable to function, their grip is mesmerising and total.

They are – the expenses sheets.

We thought the company credit card would do away with all that expenses malarkey. Just sign on the dotted line and it all comes back to HQ duly itemised.

How wrong we were. Computers were meant to be the death of paper, and now we swim in a sea of it. And thus it has been with expenses. The company credit card didn’t end the weekly horror of the expenses sheets; it only made them more difficult.

Those drinks at the Tribeca Grill while I was waiting for my table? I paid cash and know they cost the equivalent of both arms and both legs, but how much exactly were they? And – damn it – can I even legitimately claim them?

I used cash for the sandwich and beers at lunch that day at the deli, and the receipt has vanished. But I have another nice little blank one I found somewhere else. Can I…you know….just get creative on the blank one? And if I’m found out – even though I have actually spent the money, albeit somewhere else for something else – will I get Gucci-booted out of my job?

Before I was entrusted with a company Amex card I was once sent to Florida at short notice with airline ticket and hotel pre-paid. But within a day I was told to immediately fly from Fort Lauderdale to Tallahassee – which I did. Then back to Fort Lauderdale, purchasing the tickets on my personal credit card. I submitted the actual tickets themselves on my return. It was, I recall $1,200 and hey, the price was on the ticket, so no argument there, surely?

I got my monthly expenses cheque. They’d reimbursed me only $400 of the $1,200. I went to see the numbers guy. I had the tickets attached to the sheet. “Look,” I said, “that’s exactly what I paid.” He gave me a stare one might give to a prodigal son who’s just spent his inheritance, and said: “But those prices are ridiculous. I simply refuse to pay them.” My jaw dropped. American plane journeys are notoriously expensive when bought at short notice, but, hello…they’d asked me to go, and I had actually paid out the money.

Mr. Accountant argued that I should have taken my rental car and gone by road. It’s about 460 miles and they wanted me there three hours later? Surely he could do the maths? Eventually, reluctantly, as though it was his own money, he agreed I could get the rest of it reimbursed. But I emerged sweating and swearing.

The expenses sheets are a nightmare pen-and-paper torture chamber involving memory, creativity and enough moral conundrums to have a panel of intellectuals arguing.

A colleague once spent two weeks in France and Italy, a non-stop journey of trains, planes and automobiles. He grabbed receipts where he could – frequently blank. On his return and in a daze of exhaustion he filled out about 14 pages of expenses and submitted them.

Mr. Numbers called him in and peered over the rims of his half-moon spectacles. “I suggest,” he said, “that you go back and do them again. They are unsatisfactory and I refuse to sign them.” Malcolm was high on fatigue and caffeine. He bluntly refused. Mr. N persisted with a note of urgency in his voice.

Malcolm still refused. Eventually Mr. N got up from his desk and hurled the offending sheets at Malcolm.

“For your own sake bugger off – and do them again.” And slammed his office door in Malcolm’s face. When Malcolm got back to his desk and examined the offending sheets he realised to his horror that every single receipt he’d submitted was – blank. He’d forgotten to even pretend they were genuine. The apparently hard-hearted accountant had actually saved my colleague’s job by giving the sheets back for – well, some creative work.

Sometimes the system can work in your favour, as when you exchange Sterling for a strange non-convertible currency. The official Gluk-£ exchange rate is 3 to the £, but on the mean streets of the Eastern European capital it’s more like 50 to the £. Mr. Accountant has usually never been further than Majorca, so you make a nice little killing.

But mostly expense sheets are a brain-numbing exercise trying to match expenditure to days and receipts. I’ve known people give up and just swallow the loss rather than ruin their days off with the tedious exercise.

But to inspire us there are always the Hemingways of the business. My prize for sheer brass nerve goes to the WW2 American newspaper correspondent covering the Pacific War. One month he put in almost five hundred dollars claims for taxi fares, including dated receipts. His office in New York politely pointed out he’d been based on an aircraft carrier off Okinawa for the last four weeks. The correspondent famously messaged back in terse cablese: “It very large aircraft carrier.”

To contact Stuart White email stuartwhite383@btinternet.com

Winter wines

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One of my most unpleasant wine experiences was with a pinot noir. It was from a very well known and well respected Argentinian producer, and I was at his winery in a gorgeous location not far from Mendoza, known for its experimental cellar-door bottlings. This winemaker makes fantastic malbec wines, and I was excited to try what is a relatively unusual group for the country. But it was barely drinkable – the pinot was at 15.5 percent alcohol, way too much for this most delicate of grapes to handle, and the alcohol had stripped away every bit of fruit.

But that is the thing about pinot. Every great winemaker thinks about producing his own version, because it is a famously maddening, elusive grape to get right. Pinot has been described as, ‘the most romantic of wines, and ‘sex in a glass’ – maybe because for the wine drinker, it offers gorgeous pure fruit flavours with, at its best, a hint of mystery. Now that winter is hitting its stride, for me these are the months that pinot noir really comes into its own. We traditionally think of cold weather as being the best time to reach for big, heavy wines like an Oz shiraz or a Napa cabernet, but personally I think the full heat of summer can match those big, blowsy flavours, while the calm chill of winter is best expressed though the subtle charm of a good pinot.

2005 Beaune, Domaine des Croix 2005 (£18.95)
Creamy red fruits, a sweet edge combined with a lightness of touch make this a real Burgundy find. At only 12.5 percent alcohol, winemaker David Croix shows that pinot thrives at these lower alcohol levels. This may be light, but it is full of flavour, with more strawberry and redcurrant flavours than the full summer attack of some New World pinots. This is the first vintage that David has been making wine at this five-hectare site, and really is a name to watch.

Willamette Valley Estate Pinot 2006 (approx $40)
You get the feeling that you are in the hands of experts here: Willamette Valley is a very accomplished, polished wine that has a real depth of flavour. Alcohol levels reach 14.5 percent but for once in a pinot this amount of alcohol is fully in balance with its fruit and structure. Seductive smoky notes nudge upwards into the damson and fresh plum flavours. Worth knowing also that because of the climate in Willamette Valley, this wine has some of the highest reservatrol levels of any pinot – which means it is rich in a natural antioxidant.

Wild Earth Pinot Noir 2006 (approx £17.99)
A good date wine, as this makes a lovely first impression, with ripe dark fruit flavours and real spice as it opens up. The 14.3 percent alcohol makes it slightly hot on the aftertaste, however, which spoils things just slightly. With a good long meal, this would definitely be a rewarding bottle, and its numerous plaudits (it recently won Best International Pinot at the International Wine Challenge) attest to the many fans of this full-flavoured approach to the grape. The success of this family run winery established by Quintin and Avril Quider in 1998 looks set to grow.

2007 Don Victor, Pinot Noir, William Fevre, Chile (£6.95)
Just had to include this for the fabulous value offered from Chile, brought to you with some Burgundian flair from one of my favourite winemakers (he is more usually found in Chablis than at this winery located 700 metres up in the Maipo Valley). The wine is made in small open tanks in the Burgundy style, with traditional punching down to gently extract the soft red fruit flavours. There is some spice and new oak sweetness, and although it perhaps lacks a little sparkle on the finish, it’s worth seeking out. I would usually steer clear of low-priced pinots, so this was a really pleasant surprise.

Saint Clair Pioneer Block 14 Doctor’s Creek Pinot Noir 2006 (approx €20,00)
Neal and Judy were among the first contract grape growers in Marlborough with first plantings in 1978, and they now make their own wine with winemaker Matt Thomson. This single vineyard pinot from Hawkesbury Road on the southern side of the Omaka Valley is deftly made and very accomplished – with a silky texture that is immediately appealing. Lightly creamy, with plenty of spice to add depth to the fruit, if perhaps a touch too obvious with the new oak. One of my favourite wines of the tasting – and at just 13 percent alcohol, an easy wine to love.

Domaine A Pinot Noir, 2005, Tasmania (approx £29.49)
This 20-hectare estate is located in Cool River Valley in southern Tasmania. The clue is in the name – this region has the fresh temperatures, combined with heat, that pinot noir loves when developing its subtler aromas. The finish of this wine has an almost medicinal, minty flavour that is very appealing, giving real definition to the flavour, and the palate is run through with a sweet, mild smoky cedarwood. At 13.5 percent, it is a light, very elegant wine – and one that disappears fast, as an average year sees just 10,000 bottles.

Markus Molitor, Brauneberger Klostergarten Spatburgunder (Pinot Noir) 2005 (€39.50)
This wonderful German pinot is about to become seriously sought after. Molitor is above all a Riesling man, with just three percent of his vineyards planted to pinot, but he puts this tiny amount to particularly good use in this bottle. The vines themselves are old clones from Gevrey-Chamberin in Burgundy, and he works them using traditional methods, with no selected yeasts, no enzymes and no fining. The wine is then stored for 16 months in new French oak barrels – and then, happily, it is ready to drink. Full-bodied but very elegant, this has fine tannins and a minerality that lifts the palate. Gorgeous.

Reward points; what’s the point?

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Heading off to the airport my wallet bulges like one of those doorstep-size pastrami-on-rye sandwiches from Jerry’s Deli at Marina del Rey in Los Angeles.

Pierre Cardin’s finest cowhide is crammed with (apart from the usual credit cards) five airline reward cards, four bits of plastic indicating my loyalty to various hotel chains, and a card pledged to give me goodies from an American long-distance telephone programme I still use.

The wonder is that I ever have to pay for a flight, a holiday, a case of wine or a domestic appliance. Each card comes with gasping prose promising me the earth – or at least the parts of it the airlines fly to – as well as a host of other freebies.

I’ve collected 14,500 miles with one programme, 8,500 with another, and 6,000 with a third.

And if American Airlines had not mistakenly given me a card calling me Scuart White – (I mean, honestly, is there anyone with the first name of Scuart?) – I’d have about 25,000 with them.

When I try to tell AA I am Scuart White (as it were), they tell me I’m not. (And if there is such a named person out there, get round to my place toute-de-suite and for a small outlay in my direction there’s some seriously free long-distance travel in it for you.)

Hotels? Well with my points from three of the world’s major chains I should in theory be able to live comfortably in Hawaii for a year.

And therein lies the grouse. It’s all very well earning these points and having them stored on your points statement, but just you try actually using them.

I have. Frequently. I recently tried to shave a thousand or so points off one lot by getting a couple of tickets to Lisbon. TAP had a direct flight from Gatwick. I keyed in the details. The rewards system could certainly get me to Lisbon on my miles, just as long as I didn’t mind leaving at 4am from Manchester and having hours-long stop overs and flight changes at Paris and Prague en route. And no I’m not joking. If you don’t know how ludicrous that routing is, check a map.

I estimated the journey time on what is a two hour direct flight from London at – oh about 14 hours. I said abrigado but no abrigado to that one.

I once tried to see if I could use some of my points with a hotel chain which had better remain nameless, to get six nights on a Mexican beach in February.

When I called I heard stifled laughter from the female rewards programme staffer and a muffled remark to her colleague that I imagine went along the lines of, “This must be the most naïve jerk on the planet.”

February was peak period; in short it was a blackout date. Ah, the blackout dates. It means that whenever you actually want to go on holiday using your points, you can’t. That’s usually May, June, July, August, September in Europe; the winter months in the Caribbean and Mexico.

Wise up is the message. We’re not giving you a free room at peak times that we can sell at premium rate.

We’re not putting you in a seat on a direct flight that we can sell to a punter with plastic and a pin-code.

I gave up on Lisbon. I gave up on Mexico. Now just the thought of trying to arrange anything depresses me.

OK, I confess I did once get two free tickets from Los Angeles to Fiji with Air New Zealand on the Star Alliance programme, and two BA freebie flights London-Seychelles through the Air Miles programme. And an automatic coffee percolator.

But that was ten years ago. They’re not stupid these rewards people. They know that the power of inertia is the strongest power of all.  After a while you give up, or you forget. You file those ever-growing mileage and points statements in the waste bin. Sometimes the system ends in Kafkaesque fashion. With my free flights London-Mahe return, I booked my own hotel for 12 nights in the Seychelles – at the rack rate.

When I got back I discovered an all-inclusive brochure holiday to the same hotel for less than I’d paid for the hotel alone independently.

My ‘free’ deal actually left me out of pocket. Next time I think I might dump the cards and pack that pastrami sandwich.

To contact Stuart White email stuartwhite383@btinternet.com

Challenge ACTE

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In January 2006, the travel management industry returned from their holiday break to find a major re-shuffling of assets and management amongst the world’s leading agencies. Though the dust from the merging and re-branding campaigns has largely settled some years on, the industry now faces a number of new challenges.

In Europe, there is an ongoing aim to square business travel with a growing sensitivity to the environment. New security threats and regulations implemented this year at airports throughout Europe, the rise of new all-business jet carriers, the impact of open skies, and the ever important matter of how changes in ownership and the landscape of the global distribution firms will affect access to supplier content, are all key topics for EU travel managers and buyers.

“Our industry is evolving rapidly. We face new pressures in the industry everyday but they often bring new opportunities and ways of working that improve our client services,” observes David Herrick, head of American Express Business Travel, EMEA, American Express. “Environmental concerns have become one of the emerging issues this year, with a heightened focus around many business activities including business travel,” he says.

Indeed, Eurostar, which reported a 13 percent rise in its business travel passenger sales in the first six months of this year, believes the rise is directly related to corporate travellers’ growing environmental conscience.  German financial giant West LB, for example, recently implemented a travel policy mandating travellers on the London-Paris route take the Eurostar, rather than fly. Industry pundits believe concerns over climate change will continue to be reflected in many more businesses’ travel policies and purchasing decisions.

Earlier this year, the UK government announced plans to implement a standard for carbon offsetting and is proposing an accreditation for offsetting firms to ensure that self-proclaimed sustainable development projects are truly making a positive impact on the environment. The policy changes are likely to bring a shift away from a focus on carbon offsetting, toward adoption of more intelligent travel policies, of which offsetting will be only one component.

In addition, the new UK Companies Act, which will go into effect October 2007, will strengthen companies’ Corporate Social Responsibility remit, making company directors responsible for environmental decisions. This is expected to have a massive impact on the supply chain, as company directors in a purchasing capacity will have to think more cautiously about the environmental practises of the companies they work with, including travel suppliers. They will also be responsible for the environmental impact of their own companies’ operations and this will include business travel.

“The Green agenda is here to stay,” says Bob Govan, head Portman Travel. “We can expect further measures to try to reduce carbon emissions—many of which will impact travel companies, so the upcoming challenge for business travel users and their suppliers must be to develop core business models which are self-evidently socially robust.”

Beyond the environment, Mike Buckman, CEO of BCD Travel sees the hot-button issues confronting the travel management industry in Europe as centering on the “three C’s” of capacity, compliance and content. “Airplanes packed to the brim and high hotel occupancy rates mean that traveller frustration is at an all-time high,” says Buckman. The situation is not helped by new, more stringent security procedures being implemented throughout the UK and Eurozone.

New baggage restrictions put in place at London’s major airports following this summer’s terrorist attack at Glasgow airport, have caused many problems for those transiting to other European cities from North America, for example. New passenger security measures in Spain, which, akin to the US, requires airlines to submit the names of passengers prior to departure, has also caused a number of headaches for frequent, last minute business travellers.

“In the face of a deeply-pressured infrastructure, both corporations and TMCs have a huge role to play in giving travellers the tools they need to stay focused, informed and productive,” says Buckman.  On the plus side, he points out that increasing price pressure on transatlantic routes, helped by the entrance of new business carriers such as Eos and SilverJet, along with global consolidation, has brought a number of savings opportunities for buyers who are willing and able to shift market share.

“The current environment is a perfect storm for travellers trying to get where they need to go and travel managers/procurement officers seeking to control spend and optimize supplier contracts,” says Buckman.  More than ever, he says policy compliance must be corporate travel managers’ bulwark. BCD’s recently released 2007 Client Benchmark Survey marks the first time in three years that mandating travel policy ranks as the number one travel policy change.

“Companies are becoming stricter in their efforts to police policy adherence and implementing procedures that penalise non-compliance. Those efforts are bearing fruit, as we have seen significant increases in air programme compliance,” says Buckman. “Online booking tools, automated fulfillment and intelligent management reporting remain important weapons in the arsenal to improve communication to travellers and increase compliance.”

When it comes to content, Buckman observes that executives responsible for managed travel programmes feel caught between travel suppliers’ drive to remove costs from their distribution systems and their own need for easy access to full content inventory. “Despite last year’s flurry of opt-in agreements between GDSs and airlines in the US and the UK, this remains a painfully uncertain issue,” he says.

Isabelle Koch, vice president of corporate and marketing communications for Carlson Wagonlit Travel, and a member of the global board of directors of ACTE, believes transportation is one of most significant issues facing the industry. “Transportation systems must be modern and efficient, both at domestic and international levels. In Europe, major air and rail hubs are saturated and mobility is undermined,” says Koch. In addition to the challenges presented by an overburdened infrastructure, the priorities that demand our collective attention include a pragmatic but optimal approach to safety and security, more liberal access to foreign ownership of airlines, particularly with regard to US carriers, and a more efficient global air traffic control system, says Koch.

“We need effective measures to halt the disproportionate taxation on air travel, ensure the continuous reduction of greenhouse gases and guarantee access to relevant content through global distribution systems. In order for business travel to continue to generate economic prosperity for individual organisations and society as a whole, governments and the private sector must work together now to find solutions that will ease the demands on organisations and their travellers.”

Carbon offsetting 101

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With climate change recognised as a threat facing our planet, the race is now on to find effective means to mitigate the impact.  Fortunately there are an increasing number of options available to the travel industry, organisations, and individuals who want to take positive action to tackle their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.  

One such option is “carbon offsetting” – a mechanism that in combination with the measurement of emissions and reductions at source can allow a business to effectively reduce its net CO2 emissions to zero. This is how it works:

Measurement
Company X measures (or commissions an audit) of its “carbon footprint” or total CO2 emissions

Reduction
The emissions assessment identifies how to take steps to avoid or reduce CO2, for example switching offices to a renewable energy tariff and delivering greater energy efficiency.

Offset unavoidable emissions
However far reaching the reductions, there will be some remaining unavoidable emissions. Travel emissions most often fall into this category: The carbon footprint of vehicle fleets are changing slowly but face to face meetings using air travel are a ‘must’ for some global corporations.

These unavoidable emissions can be compensated for or offset by working with a specialist like ACTE partner The CarbonNeutral Company (TCNC). For every 1000 tonnes of CO2 produced by Company X, TCNC pays for 1000 tonnes of CO2 to be saved somewhere else in the world (these are called ‘carbon credits’). For example, the saving can be achieved by replacing fossil fuel energy in Sri Lanka with solar panels or supporting forestry (where the trees literally absorb CO2).  

The benefits of this approach are multi-levelled. The process of offsetting, for example, helps companies to re-price carbon emissions by putting a financial cost on the climate change impacts of their business. As legislation is likely to get tighter, this sort of voluntary action can be part of a ‘future proofing’ strategy. In tandem with reductions, offsetting also buys some time whilst low or no carbon technologies are being developing.  And, last but not least, whilst carbon offsetting is not a silver bullet for climate change, the purchase of carbon credits also helps to channel crucial funds into renewable energy and energy efficiency projects around the world that reduce CO2 emissions and help many communities in developing countries to grow in a sustainable manner.

10 mistakes to avoid in travel procurement processes

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Time and timing
In most procurement processes, Request for Proposals (RFPs) are issued and they detail the timeline for the process. Invariably deadlines are missed (and some by large measure). Whatever time you may think it takes to complete a bid process, add more time between each stage. Suppliers will appreciate it and you will have more credibility internally.

Data
In order to obtain a response to an RFP that will be of optimal value (and to maintain integrity), data supplied to bidders needs to be accurate and complete. Whatever the category; airline, hotel, car, travel agency, card, etc., a supplier needs to fully understand the opportunity. Undervaluing the bid because of bad data will yield a less than competitive response, while overvaluing may cause problems in the future should a company not be able to produce at the levels proposed. When asking for data from the supplier, only request data that is relevant to the RFP decision. A request for data that is not relevant becomes extremely frustrating to suppliers and is counterproductive.

Requirements
 In order for suppliers to respond effectively, they need to understand the prospective client’s business requirements. As an example in a travel agency bid, it would be critical to understand if the company has a requirement for VIP servicing; perhaps they have a significant amount of hotel-only reservations that would require a hotel desk, or the account requires multilingual agents in Canada, etc.

Bidder list
Companies are inviting poor results if they do not take the time to match up their culture and requirements with prospective bidders. It is costly for suppliers to bid on new business, and it takes time for the procurement team to review each proposal. Make sure that each bidder has a realistic chance to be a winner in that particular procurement project.  Incumbents should always be included, even if experience has been problematic.

The right team 
Make sure that the right team is assembled from your company to effectively evaluate the bidders and their proposals. Some procurement projects have a technology component, so it would be advisable to have IT/IS represented on the team. Depending on the category, it may be a good idea to have a cross-functional group representing different parts of the company and various user groups.

Evaluation factors 
Try not to keep suppliers in the dark in terms of what is important to your company in this particular sourcing initiative. Giving them as much information as possible will only improve the responses.

Lengthy and irrelevant RFPs 
This generally reinforces the theory of “garbage in/garbage out.” RFPs that result in 100-page responses are a waste of paper and time. Virtually nobody is going to read that much material, and the supplier is going to provide standard marketing-produced responses.

Print vs. eRFPs 
Consider the use of Electronic RFPs (not to be confused with eAuctions) that can provide improvement with the problem of cycle time and be more succinct in responses to RFPs. The ability to evaluate responses can be improved by using an eRFP tool as well. To improve decision clarity, you can use an eRFP tool’s automated functionality to calculate scores weighted by your choice of emphasis.

Objectivity in reviewing RFPs
One of the biggest dangers in a procurement process is failing to establish an objective methodology of evaluating suppliers. Without a formal structure for reviewing RFPs, evaluators fall into the trap of becoming overly influenced by marketing and sales presentations.

Be thorough
This is a complex industry with many component parts. A procurement process for almost any category within travel represents a large purchase. It requires a very detailed and deliberate process. Pre-evaluation of suppliers needs to be completed; assessing accurate and consolidated data is a requirement; developing a strong evaluation team that includes subject matter expertise; producing a well crafted RFP; having a comprehensive process in order to evaluate bidders objectively, and allowing yourself time are all extremely important components of such an important sourcing process.