X Factor winner Alexandra Burke may have topped the Christmas chart, but that was about the only predictable event of 2008.
What an extraordinary year it turned out to be. The world is a different place: Madonna and Guy have split, Fern Britton is five stone lighter and Carol Vorderman is no longer number crunching on Countdown.
Of course, it’s not just the celebrity landscape that looks different. The travel industry is looking a lot leaner than it did a year ago. Gone are Eos Airlines, Silverjet, Zoom Airlines and – most shockingly of all – XL Leisure Group, the UK’s third biggest operator, causing heartbreak and trauma for staff and clients alike.
My guess is that ‘consolidation’ is going to be the buzzword of 2009 as companies follow the trend set by the likes of Thomson and First Choice, Thomas Cook and MyTravel. British Airways is courting potential suitors in anticipation of tying the knot, so there’s one high-profile union in the offing.
In spite of what the pundits, politicians and media would have us believe, no year is entirely without good news stories and, in the midst of the financial gloom of 2008 there was still some fun to be had.
The Olympics, hosted in Beijing, were a triumph. Politics aside, it was the moment when the Chinese people started to feel like our neighbours in the global village, rather than the recluses we never saw. Half a million tourists visited Beijing, and if London can expect the same in 2012 we could make enough to pay off the debt Gordon Brown’s racking up.
I’m thinking of investing in a load of umbrellas, plastic macs and Olympic wellies ready to sell to overseas visitors. After all, they might be able to upgrade the Jubilee line, but they’ll never change the weather.
The success of Team GB was a highlight of the summer. Let’s face it, with all the rain that fell, we needed something to smile about and our cyclists, sailors and swimmers certainly gave us that. A new superhero was born in the shape of triple gold medallist, Chris Hoy. No champion looked better in lycra!
On the courts of the All England Tennis Club in July, we saw the emergence of a new king. Rafael Nadal’s final against Roger Federer saw me bite off all my nails in one sitting and seriously consider taking up smoking. Now that’s what I call a Wimbledon final, and who wouldn’t want a double-handed backhand from him?
This year saw the return of some old favourites, too. Indiana Jones came back to our screens, older, yes, wiser, maybe, and every bit as attractive in a film which outgrossed the previous three Indy movies.
As we approach a year when the comfortably retired could well prove our most lucrative market, I’m all for promoting pensioners as action heroes. Let’s encourage them to go surfing, trekking, potholing and sky diving in long-haul destinations. Heck, I even have a feeling the insurance companies are going to be that bit more willing to cover them.
The perennially suave action man, James Bond, reappeared in 2008 in Quantum of Solace, which sounded to me like an advanced maths problem. It certainly did cause a few maths problems in the making, losing £134,000 when one stuntman crashed an Aston Martin into Lake Garda. I shall certainly be using that as a USP when I’m promoting the destination to clients.
But perhaps my favourite hero (though ‘anti-hero’ might be more appropriate) of the year had to be a man who captured the public’s imagination in a way no fictional character could have done. Peculiarly British in that distinctively posh way and covertly subversive, this was a man who moved not with the dashing muscularity of James Bond, or even the geriatric energy of Indiana Jones, but with all the grace of an epileptic hippo. I speak of John Sergeant, the uncrowned prince of Strictly Come Dancing.
Kept in the competition far longer than his ability merited, John Sergeant proved that, in spite of black October and the spectre of deflation, recession and unemployment, the British people will always find something to smile about.
It’s our sense of humour that will see us through the tough times that 2009 may well bring, but it’s also the thing that continues to attract visitors from around the world. Well, that and the weakness of the pound…
