The travel specialist, TUI Travel, has seen its profits rise on the back of an increase in package holiday bookings.

Europe’s largest tour operator says that all-inclusive package holidays are “back in vogue”.

Interested in a UK pension transfer to QROPS? HMRC has issued new advice on overseas pensions.

QROPs, or Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme, denotes any offshore pension scheme recognised by HMRC into which non-UK residents transfer their UK private or corporate pension, free of tax.

Workers at the Moviflor furniture store in Olhão have not been paid properly since August and some families are facing dire straights with bills unpaid and a bleak Christmas to look forward to.

The workers’ union, CESP, said today that "workers are worried about the viability of the company that continues to employ them but is unable to pay their salary arrears. There are many families experiencing difficulties without money to buy food or pay for kindergartens for their children, but they continue scrupulously to fulfill their work schedules," said Maria José Madeira, leader of the union in the Algarve.

High winds have battered the Portuguese island of Madeira, forcing the cancellation three flights departing from Lisbon, and another from Oporto.

The bad weather also led to the diversion of other two flights, one from Sweden that was sent to Porto Santo, and another from Germany which ended up in Lanzarote.

'Rainha da Brisa,'  registered in Fuseta, was scheduled to return to the port of Olhão at around 13.00 on Monday. A sea and air search on Monday afternoon revealed nothing of its whereabouts but after further searches on Tuesday, the boat is assumed to have sunk and the men to have drowned.

The 7.5 metre fishing boat set off with two fishermen on board, aged 35 and 58, and was listed officially as missing on Monday afternoon. The search and rescue operation included a Navy ship, a launch, a lifeboat, members of the Coast Guard and a helicopter from the Portuguese Air Force.

A company in Gondomar has reached the end of its tether over a €2,500 invoice to Faro council that after 4 years remained unpaid.

One of the council’s bank accounts has been frozen and municipal property, an apartment, was seized by order of the court until the debt is settled.

A poll by Visit Britain found that the palace is the top attraction for tourists in 15 out of 19 countries surveyed. People from Australia, the USA, China, Italy and Mexico all voted it number one.

Snatching a view of London from the new Shard building or from the London Eye placed second.

Fraudsters are at it again, this time producing counterfeit French wines with high price tags.

Bottles being passed off as vintage Bordeaux are in fact simply counterfeit plonk.

The huge fraud was exposed by French customs and fraud agents. Thousands of bottles were shown to be fake at a specialist lab in Bordeaux, operated by the country’s finance ministry.