Virgin to grow veggies on its flights

Here’s a story that kind of grew on me when I read it - and they assure me it's not an April Fool's Day joke.

Virgin Atlantic will begin growing fresh herbs and vegetables onboard flights for Upper Class passengers starting today.

Richard Branson’s Virgin, which always takes airline gimmicks to new heights, will install a specially-designed vegetable patch in the galley of all its aircraft so Upper Class passengers get the freshest of ingredients for their overcooked steak and soggy lasagna.

Don’t despair you second class economy passengers – Virgin says if the trial is successful, it will offer those fresh herbs and veggies to all passengers.

In Upper Class, fresh herbs will be used to complement drinks and cocktails from the bar area including thyme for Bloody Mary’s and fresh mint for Mojitos, Pimms and tea.

The vegetable offering will complement the in-flight meal with availability of vegetable depending on your destination.

Carrots, baby new potatoes and spinach will be available on flights returning to Great Britain.

Miniature pumpkins and sweet potatoes will be grown on transatlantic flights to the U.S., while Tokyo routes will have the choice of okura (okra) or shiitake mushrooms.

If the initiative is successful, Virgin Atlantic plans to roll the idea out to all routes including the Caribbean, Africa, India, Australia and Dubai.

To guarantee the success of the trial, all Upper Class cabin crew will attend a one day horticultural course at the Royal Horticultural Society in London.

Visit Britain downsizing in Canada

The exodus and/or downsizing in Canada of European tourism bureaus continues at a record pace.

I just learned that Visit Britain has decided to drop a couple of employees at its Toronto office - leaving two people to defend British Tourist interests here in Canada. The downsizing from four to two will be complete by summer's end and is all part of the British government's budget cutbacks.

I've also learned that Visit Britain's offices in New York will soon close and tourism staff will be moved to Britain's consulate offices in the Big Apple.

In the past few years, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and the Czech Republic have all abandoned Canada - citing cost cutbacks as the reason - and Germany's once powerful tourist office in Toronto has been reduced to one desk in a local PR company. How sad!

While others pull out, Switzerland is staying in Canada. Ironically, the Swiss have just moved into offices in the German consulate on University Ave., which were once occupied by the German National Tourism Board. The Germans hired a Toronto PR firm last year to handle their tourism interets in Canada.

We hear that cash-strapped Greece and Ireland may be the next to leave town.

European Union countries are investing all their euros in emerging tourism markets like China and India and have none left for long-time supporters like Canada.

The EU tourism folks did not even renew the contract of their fine long-time Canadian representative John Stephenson this year.

Maybe it's time Canadian travellers give up on Europe since they've given up on us!