The Daily Mail has a piece today entitled Falling pound spells costlier holidays abroad for UK holidaymakers.

Why is the UK media so intent on making life even harder for UK travel companies than it already is? Although the article is basically true, it does its best to mislead.

Firstly, the title suggests sterling is falling. This isn’t the case; over recent weeks it has stabilised and even staged a (very mini) recovery.

Secondly, the piece goes on to state that since the end of July 2007, the pound has fallen 27.7% in value against the euro. This is taking the euro at a peak of 1.48 and comparing it to a rate of around 1.07. It is currently around the 1.13 mark. The above line certainly seems to suggest that the current rate is 27.7% less than two years ago. In fact, if you compare today (1.136) with two years ago (1.475) it is 22.98% down.

It might all seem like a matter of degree, but why make out that things are worse than they actually are?

The Daily Mail says Freedom Direct have left 200 Britons ‘stranded’. The CAA says all 200 will be able to complete their holidays and fly home as normal.

Are they really stranded or was the “DAILY MAIL REPORTER” just looking for a nice headline that could include the word Britons?

With our media roundup we take pride in our almost masochistic desire to trawl the travel media in search of something inspired amongst all the PR puffery. However,we often grind to a halt when we reach The Mail.

This week alone they have travel pieces by Nancy Dell’ Ollio, Melinda Messenger (married to Wayne – good job she didn’t go on an Activities Abroad holiday), John Sargeant, Piers Morgan (Antigua…man, has it got talent) and Beverley Knight. It’s Celebrity Hell.

But should we cover The Mail? They have an expensively revamped travel site with squillions of readers and judging by how many trips are thrown their way by  the travel trade, they are an important media outlet.

Maybe it’s just personal prejudice, but they don’t  help themselves with their roster of C-list celebrities with poorly written pieces and headlines such as  “Cuba: Havana good time” and “Prepare for the Scilly season”.