Is this hotel offering acupuncture to my dog?

The Holne Chase Hotel in Devon (United Kingdom) offers a luxury pack for dogs that came with their guests. This includes a king-size sleeping basket, dinner, unlimited use of all the hotel trees and even a blind date with the resident dog (that has its own Web). On the other hand, the Lucies Farm Luxury Dog Resort offers a dog's health pack, like a 'human' spa, that includes acupuncture, hydrotherapy, massages…

This is part of a tourism trend named 'pet travel', analysed by the World Travel Market, an annual travel fair celebrated in London. The WTM published the Global Trends Report 2007 (pdf) document, which looks at some 'odd' trends of the tourism.

In the United Kingdom, that trend was that more and more people want to travel with her mascots and, therefore, the demand of pet friendly places and packages increases. At the same time, the general spending of the families in its mascots has increased to 3.300 billion Euros in the 2007. And, in addition, the number of pets has grown a lot (to 49 million in the 2007 for 60.5 million inhabitants).

The report of the WTM emphasises that it is mainly a domestic tourism (within the United Kingdom), because quarantines and other laws complicate to legally take animals out of the archipelago. On the other hand, the report emphasises that whereas they are a good amount of hotels that accept mascots, sometimes without surcharges, they are less means of transport that accept them, and sometimes it is necessary to pay high supplements. Also, the pet friendly places have to offer facilities and special personnel to take care of pets.

Travelling with my dog in a strange way.

Photo: Batty Basset, the resident dog of the Holne Chase Hotel, as in its Web