SCRUMPERS’ DELIGHT

As this year’s crop weighs heavy on the trees, apple aficionados and scrumpy connoisseurs will be delighted to learn of a new guide to Cider Lover’s Somerset, which can be downloaded from www.visitsomerset.co.uk . The pomaceous guide lists cider farms to visit, pubs selling the stuff and a range of hotels in which to sleep off the after-effects.

WAVES OF JOY

Surfers in New Zealand have welcomed an innovative proposal by the Auckland government to protect their favourite surf spots by turning them into national parks. Six world-class breaks - including Shipwrecks, in Northland, Raglan, on the west coast of the North Island, and Papatowai, on the South Island - would become protected surfing reserves.

TUMBLEWEED IN BLACKPOOL?

Tourist chiefs in Blackpool have warned that a decision to charge a £20 entrance fee for the town’s celebrated Pleasure Beach will turn the resort into a ghost town. Blackpool council leader Peter Callow described the move as “incredible”, adding, “I fear the British public might vote with their feet.”

RELIEF FOR STATUES

Authorities in Venice have claimed victory in the war against pigeons, following the latest - two-year - effort to banish the birds from Piazza San Marco. According to Renata Codello, from the Italian cultural works ministry, a controversial ban on pigeon-feed salesmen had been key to the success of the strategy - of the 20,000 pigeons estimated to have lived around the square, less than 1,000 remain. “They’ve left to find food on the islands,” she said.

‘HUMAN ZOO’ CLOSED

A tourist attraction in Thailand featuring refugees from the Pa Dong tribe has been closed down following complaints from human-rights campaigners. The replica village, first reported in The Sunday Times last May, allowed tourists staying in Pattaya to see the “giraffe-necked” women without making the long trek to Chiang Mai. A local businessman, Weerasak Yai-nart, and 11 tribeswomen were arrested.

‘CRAZY’ CROC CULL CALL

Demands for a crocodile cull in Queensland’s tourist hot spots, following the disappearance of the British holidaymaker Arthur Booker from a camp site on the Endeavour river, in the state’s tropical far north, have been described as “absurd” by politicians and conservationists Locals suspect he was taken by a 50-year-old, 20ft croc called Charlie.

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