Why is it cheaper to go to Dubai than Turkey in June?
Simon Calder answers your questions on a Dubai pricing anomaly, delayed Esta applications, expiry dates on passports, and Venice’s ‘cultural congestion charge’
Q I am planning a 10-day, all-inclusive sunshine holiday in June. Why am I seeing prices for Dubai cheaper than for Lara Beach in Turkey?
JLG
A June is a superb time to travel in Europe. The sense of spring freshness lingers; the crowds of July and August have yet to arrive; and prices are significantly lower than the summer peak. Yet, you have evidently found an anomaly. How can it be that flying twice as far can possibly offer cheaper holidays than one of the Mediterranean’s best-value destinations?
For some evidence, let me turn to Tui – Europe’s biggest holiday company – for its climate information on Dubai in the sixth month of the year. The company says: “Days are usually hot with balmy evenings, so visitors should pack light and cool clothing.” What’s wrong with a bit of summer heat, you might ask? Well, to continue with the travel firm’s temperature data for June: “The average daily maximum is 42C and the average daily minimum is 28C.”
To put those numbers in perspective: most of us would be happy with a maximum of 28C – which in the Mediterranean is fairly typical in June. While June is not quite so hot in Dubai as July and August – when temperatures can often be a couple of degrees higher – life for travellers is frankly too warm to enjoy any meaningful outdoor activity during the day, and even in the evening the heat may be uncomfortable.
“It’s a particularly good time of year to swim in the sea,” Tui continues, “with water temperatures around 32 C.” But that requires you to expose some of your skin to the unremitting solar rays. Sunbathing in such circumstances is verging on dangerous and personally, I would spend my time trying to avoid the sun.
All in all, I can see no good reason to go to Dubai in June except possibly to change planes. Since many others take the same view, hoteliers are rationally pricing their offerings so low that bargain hunters will be tempted. Please don’t be. Stick to Turkey – or, much closer, Benidorm – instead.
Q A friend of mine has just applied for an Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (Esta) to visit the United States. He is due to fly there at the weekend. It’s been showing as “pending” for a week – even though the normal processing time is said to be 72 hours. He’s never had a problem before. Would it be a bad idea to submit another application? He tried to call the US embassy but they were pretty useless.
Name supplied
A The American government brought in the Esta in 2009. You apply online, answer a long string of questions and pay $21 (£17) with a credit card.
Most applications are processed automatically, and permission to travel to the US is usually granted within hours. Last week a friend of mine who did not realise that an Esta expires at the same time as the passport to which it is linked managed to obtain a fresh one while at Heathrow airport before his flight to New York.
But sometimes the process can take a frustratingly long time, with the unhelpful status of “pending” continuing for days. While the target time is 72 hours, US Customs and Border Protection makes no promises – and urges travellers not to book flights or other elements of their trip until the Esta is granted.
The main reason for entering the “pending” zone is when the system flags up an issue of concern that an officer needs to examine. This can happen if someone’s personal data or appearance is a close match to an individual on one of the databases the Esta system consults. When this happened to me on my first application, the Esta was issued within about 36 hours. I have not had problems since with renewals.
Another possible cause: his bank has paused payment for fear of fraud. A weird small payment in US dollars may alert the fraud team. At this stage all I can suggest is that he checks with the bank that the payment has gone through – and, if it has not, urges them to clear it immediately. Making a second application with the same data is likely to be met by an immediate refusal. So all he can do is hope and wait.
Q You said you saw a Ryanair check-in person at Stansted advising passengers whose passports were approaching 10 years old to renew soon. That prompted me to check mine. It was issued on 20 November 2014 and expires on 20 March 2025. I like to take a short break every couple of months, and I really don’t want to find myself stuck in a long queue of renewals ahead of summer. So should I renew now?
Megan D
A Emphatically, no. Compared with many other British travellers to the European Union, you are in an excellent position. If your intended destinations are all in the EU or wider Schengen area, you can travel out up to 20 November 2024 for a stay of a month; the latter limit is because you must intend to return from the zone with at least three months remaining on your passport, ie, by 20 December 2024.
I don’t know how that fits with your plans but in your position, I would renew towards the end of the year. Suppose you went away on a city break in November (a lovely, uncrowded and atmospheric time to visit almost anywhere in Europe): applying online for a renewal when you return would feel right. Processing times for passports in late November and early December are swift. Even if you plan to be abroad for Christmas, putting in an application any time in November should be fine.
If your travel plans go beyond Europe, though, you might want to renew later – or earlier. No other countries apart from the EU/Schengen area care about the issue date of your passport. Tunisia, the US, Canada, Japan and Australia are among the many countries that accept your passport until the day it expires. Conversely, though, Egypt – an excellent place to be in November – needs six months remaining, which suggests a renewal in September would be in order if the Red Sea or pyramids are on your agenda.
Q I read your article about Venice introducing a daytripper tax. Surely, though, fewer visitors means less money spent, lower revenue and less tax – are they sure this is a good idea?
Ian A
A Yes, because the idea of the €5 charge for day visitors between 8.30am and 4pm on 29 peak days this spring and summer is not about the money – at least, not directly.
As I learnt from Simone Venturini, Venice’s deputy mayor for tourism, the new “cultural congestion charge” (my term) is aimed squarely at coachloads or trainloads of visitors from reasonably nearby locations. Consider the citizens of Bologna or Trieste, both an easy two-hour train ride away – costing around €15 each way. The €5 access fee represents a one-sixth increase in the cost of a day trip. They may be “nudged” into travelling on a different day.
As Simone so crisply put it: “Venice is always here. They are always there. So they can pick another day to visit Venice.” If they do, they will enjoy a cheaper awayday with less crowding – and ease the pressure of numbers for overseas visitors who have less choice about when they can travel to one of humanity’s most glorious creations.
Venice is almost wholly dependent economically on visitors. But tourism deflected does not mean revenue reduced. I imagine the city authorities will have modelled the effects. A short-term reduction in visitors (and spending) may come from prospective travellers to Venice who get the wrong idea about the access fee – and regard it as a signal that tourists are not welcome.
In the long term, though, if people can be nudged toward off-peak days, the effect should increase tourist satisfaction, length of stay and overall spending.
Meanwhile, my advice for anyone hoping to visit Venice remains as it always has been: make it November, when the Adriatic mists of early winter will deliver an extra dimension of magic – and the crowds of summer will have long departed.
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