Recently in Olympics Category

New tourism minister Barbara Follett is to be interviewed by Caterer, and we are inviting comment from you.

If you have a question for Mrs Follett, then please feel free to enter it in the comment space below.

It could be to do with the amount of money allocated to the tourism industry. Perhaps you feel that it could be better directed, or that insufficient is given over to promoting Britain abroad.

Or maybe you feel there that Mrs Follett will find it hard to improve on the work of her predecessor - how can she keep up the high standards set?

Perhaps you would like to ask Mrs Follett exactly how much time will be devoted to tourism, as opposed to other aspects of her role - culture and the creative industries - for which she is also a minister.

Or you may have reservations about whether the most will be made of the Olympics in 2012.

In summary, we'd like you send us questions, however wide-ranging, sycophantic or critical, and we'll put them to Mrs Follett. This is your chance to have a say - so make the most of it.

Barbara Follett becomes new tourism minister >>

The Government should show industry support, says Good Hotel Guide >>

We visited one of London's less salubrious hotels in our Dec 11th issue last year. Our feature 'The Long Road to 2012' looked at how ready the capital was to receive visitors in four years' time - and the answer was in the case of one play to stay overnight, not at all.

But it seems we're not alone in criticising cheaper hotels. While the branded budget market came out well in our feature by comparison with the less well-known 'Olympic House hotel' others haven't recently. Both Ibis and Travelodge have had problems in some outlets, according to a recent edition of Which? Holiday magazine.

Mould was found on a mattress in an Ibis property on Charles Street, while Travelodge had some dirty bathrooms, said the magazine. Both say they have taken steps to ensure cleanliness to the correct standards.

Comfort Inns and Jurys Inns, meanwhile, performed well in the survey. Let's hope all are up to scratch over the next few years.

Budget hotels in the UK 2008 - Industry data>>

The value of budget hotels>>

  The new Atlantis resort, on the The Palm Jumeirah resort in Dubai launched last night, at a cost of $20m.

Chefs Nobu Matsuhisa, Santi Santamaria, Michel Rostang and Giorgio Locatelli had come up with an array of elaborate dishes for party attendees such as Robert de Niro, Lindsay Lohan and Charlize Theron. Denzel Washington, Janet Jackson and Michael Jordan were also in attendance, partying to DJ Samantha Ronson's wheels of steel.

Kylie Minogue performed for an hour, and took away £1.3m for her work. Then there was a video sequence including Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra performing as the Goddess of Atlantis, a suitably evocative but vague role, while a firework display six times bigger than the Beijing Olympics opening effort hit the skies. Who needs to worry about money?

QE2 floating hotel plans unveiled >>

Giorgio Locatelli takes authentic Italian to Dubai >>

When organising a conference called Open To All by 2012 espousing the benefits of making your hotel fully accessible for the Olympics in London it's good to book a venue that's beyond reproach.

Alas, although the London Development Agency (LDA) organised event last week in the capital was inspiring and informative in equal measure, the venue, the Royal Society for Arts off the Strand, was to put it simply, a bit of a pig for the disabled delegates and speakers to navigate.

As the venue for a conference on disability this is about as appropriate as the decision by officials in Australia to dedicate a swimming pool to former Prime Minister Harold Holt who drowned in 1967.

On the day of the conference it prompted Sarah Ebanja, deputy chief executive of the LDA, to apologise unreservedly to attendees just after the morning coffee break for booking the venue in the first place, which is admirable in a way.

This did however throw Kitchen Rat off kilter as we'd been presuming the choice of venue was a deliberate ploy to highlight how far London still has to go to deliver the most accessible Games ever as envisioned by mayor Boris Johnson. Bugger.

Boris Johnson: hardworking mayor of London>>

London 2012>>

Last week's London Development Agency seminar Open to All aimed to dispel some common myths about customers with disabilities ahead of London staging the Olympics in 2012.

Two amusing, but pertinent, anecdotes from the seminar's speakers exposed the day-to-day preconceptions we all carry around with us.

Chris Holmes, a nine-times gold medal winning Paralympic swimmer and now a lawyer at a City firm, spoke of winning a record breaking sixth gold in the pool at the Barcelona Games in 1992.

Having won a breathless final in the outdoor pool at the games, beating the Spanish favourite in the process much to the horror of the partisan crowd, Holmes, who has been blind since the age of 14, was immediately set upon by an excited British media and interviewed for BBC radio.

Still trying to take in the enormity of his acheivment Holmes was put through live to the broadcaster in the UK while at poolside and asked:

"So Chris, how is it competing in a wheelchair?"

Holmes, who had only moments to think of a reply said: "As I can't see, bloody dangerous!"

The second tale is now part of London concierge folklore.

Yes with the euphoria of the London Olympic bid success well and truly behind us and cost projections for the project spiralling to an eye-watering £9b, it seems the Great British public have returned to type and are busily moaning about the 2012 Games.

In a wonderful whirl of empty marketing speak and pomp, the organisers of the London Games revealed the "new brand and vision" for the project today, essentially an odd looking logo.

Still, if the London tabloids are anything to go by, this has drawn a level of public criticism not seen since the Millennium Dome from the great unwashed, with one enterprising type even going as far as to launch an online petition to get it changed.

It appears the London Development Agency (LDA) may have taken onboard the spirit of the Olympics too enthusiastically, choosing to adopt the Greek mentality to the Games and time management, which at the 2004 event was pretty much, it'll be done when it's done.

At the Fit4Pace conference in Coventry a few weeks back the Rat hears that the LDA, London mayor Ken Livingstone's device for hopefully getting things done, had stalled on the start line.

A speaker from the organisation, who shall remain nameless to save his blushes, was down on the conference bill to talk about 'opportunities for all' around the 2012 London Games.