The Blue Moon

agazines on tourism and hospitality industry are soft in their writing. They never criticize any service nor point out its shortcomings. After reading a ‘travel trade’ magazine one draws the conclusion that “Bhaiyya, all is well!” on the contrary it never is. At times things are as bad as they can be, but everything is swept under the carpet and the reality remains hidden behind that mask of a silly smile that many wear in the industry. One comes across magazines that merely write about new postings in the industry. There are articles eulogizing bureaucrats even if they have never ever achieved success in their entire bureaucratic career.

Some airlines are described as the ultimate luxury in air, while their toilets stink and their cabin crew are stiff necked. They believe wearing short skirts is a service to the passengers. While cabin crew of private airlines keep spending heavily on their vanity bags, the pilots are often caught with alcohol content in their blood higher than permitted by the aviation authorities. Nothing happens to them No action, no reaction. They are once again flying the aircraft next day. All of us must have heard of cases of airhostesses complaining of misbehaviour against senior pilots. Nothing appears about these incidents in the so-called aviation magazines. They dare not – it is a matter of bread and butter for them. They will be refused advertisements if they reported anything negative.

We have had out personal share of experiences with the aviation industry. Jet Airways, said to be number one in the country, avoided all our efforts to do features on the airline’s services, maintenance and recruitments. It was in 2008 when THE BLUE MOON was an online magazine that Jet Airways sidelined every request to cover features on such subjects. Several requests to their communications department landed on deaf ears, the only answer we got was that the lady looking after the PR and Communication department was traveling. Unfortunately for us, she has since been traveling, never landed, permanently on the plane. What a flimsy ground to avoid being shown the mirror. If airlines considering themselves top of the line avoided such reviews, then there is certainly more to hide than reveal. During this period we had another good experience with a low cost carrier, MDLR, a company where the secretary of the CEO and MD was all powerful. She asked for 100 copies and then said she could release advertisement to the magazine for the first page at an incredibly low price. Our business representative refused -- we are not of the lot. Later, they signed a contract for three release and never paid after the first was published. No wonder, the airline was managed and run by a builder whose proximity to a top politician in Haryana was well-known. After this politician lost the elections, MDLR also ran into rough weather. Among the international carriers, we often published release from Lufthansa. Much was written, often positive. Once our business representative called up their office for advertisements and they said, “We have no budget.” All this while we heard Lufthansa advertisements in Hindi on the local FM. Airlines have their favorites and their policies, can’t help it.

Airlines, national and international, both look for free publicity. If a magazine is not worth attention, why do they send press releases to them? After all publishing is a business and no charity. Experiences with the hotel industry were not pleasing either. They all expected that THE BLUE MOON writes a review which is all positive. The hotel and its services should be praised. They considered themselves to be perfect, which they are not, till date.

I recall writing a review about a 5-star hotel in Jaipur. We pointed out in the review that the hotel had failed to notice that the carpet leading to the lobby was torn and damaged. The rest was all satisfactory. I had expected a strong reaction from the management. However, this one seemed very tolerant and intelligent. They were decent enough to have replaced the carpet in about a month’s time. After that the Sales Manager invited me over for dinner several times. Once I did have time, so I landed there for lunch. After the meal, the Sales Manager quietly took me down through the passage where the carpet was torn on the earlier occasion. We passed by and at the reception, the Manager looked at me enquiringly. Did I have anything to say? I thought twice and then he said, “The carpet is replaced, so please replace those lines from the review on your website.” This was great. We did it promptly. This was Country Inn and Suites by Carlson.

The worst I experienced was at the Le Meridien, Kukas, Jaipur. They committed two blunders and instead of being apologetic, one of their Managers called up to say “How we could do that?’ Perhaps he had always come across lollypop licking travel writers and magazines. We are not the ones.

Our entry was banned from Le Meridien after that episode --- A lady had entered into my room with her electronic key while I was sitting in my ‘bikini suit’ working on pictures on my laptop. Both of us were shocked. How could a room be allotted to someone else when it was already occupied?

Another shock came from the Taj group’s PR agency when they behaved in a highhanded manner while giving us a chance for reviewing one of the Taj properties. I am certainly experienced in my work than their ‘hired’ half baked PR personnel. We never approached them for reviews after that.

It is strange that hotels should react in such a manner even though THE BLUE MOON offered them reviews without charging a single dime. We shot our own pictures and we used them on the website and in print. We never charged a single penny for the professional work. But perhaps they are used to those ‘travel trade’ magazines which do anything for getting money. The ones who charge for shoddy write-ups and call themselves journalists.

We came across PR agencies playing a dubious role in the industry. There are agencies which get press releases published and then charge their principals for the published matter. The magazine gets nothing. There are yet others who give out advertisements for favours in cash and ‘kind’. We got names of some in the industry who do it, but it will be wise to hold them back. Some stoop too low, beyond the limit of decency, to get advertisements and others do it to give it to them. Certainly any publication which starts off needs to have funds to run the show. They come from advertisements. How a magazine gets advertisement is a matter of ethics.

THE BLUE MOON came across good hoteliers who looked at it professionally and there were others who wanted to stoop. Sorry ! we are not the ones to bend backwards.

There was a pleasant surprise when one fine day a hotelier told us that we had reviewed over 80 hotels in 2008. Surprisingly even we had not kept the count, but this flattered us.

THE BLUE MOON’s biggest achievement was “The Confluence”, a music concert for and by the diplomats. It was a first time ever event and that too for a publication which was barely a year old. However, success was ours. Good participation from diplomats and a big support from Leela Kempinski, Gurgaon made it a big success.

Among the travel agents and tour operators, we noted that there were few who took interest in reading THE BLUE MOON because it was different. It criticizes the wrong.

THE BLUE MOON always got a positive response from the diplomatic community. Ambassadors and other senior diplomats showed interest in reading the magazine and responding.

For the success today, THE BLUE MOON thanks all those who have supported it in surviving the brickbats. We assure them that THE BLUE MOON will continue its “critical appreciation of the tourism and hospitality industry.”

Needless to repeat the saying. “Your critic is your best friend.”