USA: United Airlines Introduces Washington D.C To Edinburgh

United launched a new seasonal direct service between Edinburgh and Washington D.C.

This is the first time a direct flight has ever connected the capitals of Scotland and the USA.

The service will be operated on a daily basis throughout the summer, until October 4, 2018.

The outbound leg will operate under flight number UA146, leaving Washington D.C at 10:10 pm, and landing in Edinburgh at 10:25 am the following morning.

UA147, the return leg, will depart Edinburgh at 12:30 pm, arriving in Washington D.C. at 3:30 pm.

This seasonal route will be used to allow further connection flights across the US building on 20 years of services to Scotland.

United also runs a nonstop year round service from Newark to Edinburgh.

We are excited to inaugurate our nonstop seasonal service between Edinburgh and our Washington, D.C. hub, connecting the two capital cities for the very first time, Bob Schumacher, United Managing Director Sales United Kingdom, and Ireland said.

Our new flight strengthens our international route network and provides our customers from Scotland with greater travel choice, with almost 70 nonstop connections from Washington, D.C. to other destinations across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

The flight will be operated with one of United’s Boeing 757-200 aircraft, which offers a total of 169 seats with 16 flat-bed seats in the United Polaris Business Class and 153 in Economy.

Each plane also offers 45 Economy plus seats which offer additional legroom and increased personal space.

We know that Edinburgh and Scotland are a huge draw for inbound tourists and we look forward to welcoming and showing them the fantastic sights and history that we have, said Gordon Dewar, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Airport.

Business on both sides of the Atlantic will also benefit from increased access, he said.

This is yet another route launch success for United as they continue to expand their dominance across the Scottish market.

With further connectivity between Scotland and the US, travelers will not have to either connect in Manchester or any of the London Airports to fly onwards to the US, they can continue to use Scotland as their gateway to tourism.


Tourism Observer

SCOTLAND: Plans To Build World’s First Craft Beer Hotel

Craft brewer, BrewDog, has announced plans to build the world’s first craft beer hotel, and will launch an immersive craft beer hotel & brewery expansion at the brewery’s headquarters in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

The DogHouse, as the hotel will be called, is scheduled to welcome guests in the first half of 2019.

The 26-room DogHouse will feature beer taps in the rooms, a built-in shower beer fridge, and rooms will overlook the brewery itself.

BrewDog introduced the DogHouse concept last year with the announcement of a hotel in Columbus Ohio at the site of its American brewery, and a recent property acquisition in Ellon has led to this further announcement of a hotel in the brewery’s homeland, Scotland.

In addition to the construction of the hotel, BrewDog is expanding its brewery to include a 300 hl brewhouse and a canning & packaging hall.

The brewery expansion comes soon after the opening of BrewDog’s sour beer brewing facility: The Overworks, which opened last month.

The new brewhouse is also expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Guests will be able to watch brewers at work from rooms overlooking the new facility, providing the ultimate immersive beer experience.

The hotel and brewery will be built on a 3.25 acre site adjacent to BrewDog’s current 1 million hl brewery.

The site has been purchased from screw jack manufacturer Power Jacks, who will move to a new purpose- built facility later this year.

The funding for the hotel and brewery expansion has come from BrewDog’s record-breaking Equity for Punks crowdfunding initiative, which has seen the Scottish brewery raise over £53 million since 2009 from more than 73,000 passionate craft beer fans.

Priority booking for The DogHouse will be given to Equity Punk investors.

In October last year, the brewery launched its fifth round of Equity for Punks, looking to raise at least £10 million, with a stretch goal of up to £50 million, in order to further its global expansion.

This includes planned construction of new breweries in Australia and China, the opening of 15 new craft beer venues in the UK, increasing production capacity in its UK brewery, and the creation of a dedicated craft beer TV network.

Equity for Punks V has so far raised over £12.5 million from more than 27,000 investors across Europe, and hit its initial £10million target ahead of its initial deadline in January.

BrewDog cofounder James Watt said:

The DogHouse is our gift to passionate craft beer fans making the pilgrimage to our brewery in Aberdeenshire.

The idea of opening a beer hotel has always been high on our agenda, and now we are finally able to realise that dream, right here at our HQ.

This will be the ultimate destination for craft beer fans seeking hops with their holidays.

This is a beer Nirvana.



Tourism Observer

EUROPE: Some Dangerous Cities

Europe expereiences a high level of safety, violence does occur and patterns of where and when it does can appear.

This is measured from a city's its homicide rate, which is defined as the intentional death of a citizen at the hands of another citizen or citizens.

These rates are calculated to be per capita, so although one city may experience a higher number of murders than another, if their population is larger the murder rate will be lower as a result.

Areas such as Central and South America and Africa can see rates reaching 50 murders per 100,000 residents, and the homicide rate of the United States is around 5 per 100,000.

Tallinn, Estonia - 5.5 homicides per 100,000 people

Tallinn is a city in Estonia, situated on the northern coast of the country. With a relatively small population of 443,894, the city experienced 22 homicides in 2010, bringing its rate to 5.5 per 100,000.

This sits lower than the murder rate of Estonia that was calculated between 1999 and 2001, which was calculated as a high of 9.4 per 100,000 people.

The general trend appears to be that the homicide rate in Tallinn is decreasing, as 40 murders were reported in 2005, standing in contrast to 2010.

However, Tallinn's small population size, relatively large amount of murders per capita, and position on a continent where violent crime is highly uncommon gives it a place at the top of this list.

Glasgow, Scotland - 5.1 homicides per 100,000 people

Glasgow is the largest city of Scotland, located in the United Kingdom.

In 2010, the homicide rate of Glasgow was 5.1 per 100,000 residents, calculated from a total of 30 murders that were experienced in the city that year.

30 is a number that appears to be average for the number of violent deaths in Glasgow every year, a number that may be due to organized gangs and turf wars.

Vilnius, Lithuania - 4.7 homicides per 100,000 people

Vilnius is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, which is located in the Baltic states.

In 2010, Vilnius reported 26 crimes, producing a crime rate of 4.7 per 100,000 inhabitants.

This number was, however, actually a decrease from the crime rates experience prior to 2010, which reached a high in 2008 when 58 homicides were recorded resulting in a rate of 10.4 per 100,000 residents.

Despite these numbers of homicides that appear relatively high for Europe, visitors are still much more likely to encounter petty crime such as pickpocketing and credit card theft.

Moscow, Russia - 4.2 homicides per 100,000 people

Moscow is the capital of Russia and the largest city on the European continent with 12.2 million inhabitants.

It is a major cultural center of Europe and is located on the Moskva River.

In 2010, there were 483 homicides reported in Moscow, although this was a decrease from numbers seen in 2005, 2006 and 2007, where 766, 767, and 629 murders were reported respectively.

This decrease in murders may be a sign that violent crime in Moscow is decreasing, although other crime such as car theft remains a problem in this major city.

Podgorica, Montenegro - 3.5 homicides per 100,000 people

Podgorica is the largest city of Montenegro, as well as serving as the nation's capital. Between 1946 and 1992, when Montenegro was part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Yugoslavia), the city was known as Titograd.

In 2010, there were 7 deaths by homicide recorded in Podgorica.

This is a number that seems pretty on-trend for what is reported for Podgorica, although the year 2006 did see an influx of homicides, with 12 in the year bringing the homicide rate of the time up to 6.5 per 100,000 residents.

Belfast, Northern Ireland - 3.3 homicides per 100,000 people

Belfast is the largest city in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom and located in the north of the island of Ireland.

In 2010, Belfast reported a homicide rate of 3.3, which was calculated from nine murders, given Belfast's relatively small population of 286,000.

This crime rate, however, is part of a trend in the lowering of homicides in Northern Ireland.

During the Troubles of the 1970s and 80s, the crime rate of Northern Ireland was closer to 31 per 100,000, which is similar to the homicide rate that could be found in Colombia or South Africa during the early 2010s.

Riga, Latvia - 3.3 homicides per 100,000 people

Riga is the largest city in Latvia, a country located in the Baltic states.

In 2010, there were 23 murders in the city, resulting in a homicide rate of 3.3.

Although the historic city is known to be relatively safe, public parks and the heavily-touristed Old Town are known to be areas where crime could be more likely to occur, although much of this may be petty crime such as pickpocketing.

2010, however, appears to have been slightly lower than what is average for Riga, as the years 2005-2009 each saw over 30 reported homicide incidents.

Kiev, Ukraine - 3.2 homicides per 100,000 people

Kiev is the largest city and capital of the Eastern European country of Ukraine. In 2010, 118 of Kiev's residents were victims of homicide, creating a murder rate of 3.2

This appears to be a number that is a somewhat annual average for Kiev, where murder rates are about 100 per year.

The public transit system, including suburban trains, have been singled out as potential hotbeds for violent crime in Kiev due to their tendency to be overcrowded and require repairs.

Zurich, Switzerland - 3.0 homicides per 100,000 people

Zurich is the largest city in the central European nation of Switzerland.

In 2010, there were 11 homicides reported in the city, which creates a murder rate of 3.0 when the city's low population of less than half a million is taken into consideration.

2010, however, does appear to be somewhat of an anomaly for this Swiss urban area, as both the years 2009 and 2011 saw only 4 and 1 murders, respectively.

Brussels, Belgium - 2.8 homicides per 100,000 people

Brussels is the largest city in Belgium, located in Western Europe.

It is also well known for being the capital of the European Union (EU).

In 2010, there were 31 murders in Brussels, a number that appears to be average for the city with the year 2008 being a slight exception when 44 homicides were reported.

In 2001, Brussels was the fourth most crime-ridden city in Europe, although this number also took into other crimes such as burglary and assault.




Tourism Observer