Return to Transcripts main page
Business Traveller
Travelling in Zurich
Aired September 08, 2007 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Hello and welcome to CNN BUSINESS TRAVELLLER. I'm Richard Quest. This month reporting from, well, an overcast and certainly rainy Zurich in Switzerland. It's appropriate that today it is like this and not clear, sunny and looking like the top of a chocolate box because the program is all about health and well-being and all too often in our traveling life on the road, conditions are anything but perfect.
So how do we stay fit and healthy and get the job done?
Coming up, we show you where to go for the best quality of living. All is well when you're eating olive oil. This is the little bottle that can. And the dees gest (ph) with a difference. The one-off solution to hotel renge (ph).
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Oh. This is much better. A coffee and a brioche at the Hotel Storen's (ph) cafe and right on the banks of the River Limmat. It's raining cats and dogs today and it's perhaps difficult to understand why Zurich is number one in the Mercer Quality of Living Survey.
But the fact is the Swiss cities of Zurich and Geneva regularly top the Mercer poll. Expats and business travelers alike say the cities are easy to do business in and have an excellent standard of life. Now in the course of the program we're going to be looking closely at what it is that travelers look for when they want to define quality.
First, though, we need to get to grips with Zurich.
James Morn (ph) is your typical 21st century expat. He came to Zurich for six months. He stayed for 10 years. When it comes to quality of living, the mean streets of his native U.K. are no match for the beautiful boulevards of Zurich. He's now one of the third of the local population here who came from overseas. So, what's the appeal?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a place where you can get a good job, good conditions, that helps a lot. You don't have much commuting time. I mean, the public transport system is unbelievable. Rolex sets its watches by the trains, not vice versa.
In your leisure time you can do sport as much as you want.
QUEST: James isn't alone in his views. Switzerland is the regular winner of Mercer Consulting's annual Quality of Living Survey. The survey ranks 39 political, social, economic and environmental criteria to develop the Quality of Living Index. This year saw Switzerland's two most important cities, Zurich and Geneva top the poll, with Vancouver and Vienna coming equal third.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The scores are ranked against the index, base index of New York City is ranked at 100 so all of the different scores are ranked against there, and probably the top 60 or 70 cities out of the 215 in the survey are in that 100 to 109 scoring. So the differences are very, very small.
QUEST: The Mercer Survey is important for more than just national pride. Companies use it to translate the quality of living rank into hardship allowances for their staff. Simply put, are you going to a nice place or a nasty one and does your boss need to shovel a bit more money into your pay for a privilege.
It's not hard to see why when you see the criteria at the bottom of the league. Zurich comes out so well because it's politically stable, it's multilingual, it's bang in the middle of Europe and it's clean.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The biggest criteria in the whole survey is political and social climate. And that takes almost 25 percent of the rating in the ranking scores and there are five pages of questions on that.
Now, Switzerland is historically known as one of those very neutral territories and scores very, very highly in that category. So Switzerland will always feature quite strongly in this particular survey because that characteristic has such a high rating.
QUEST: What does the survey really tell us? Cities high up are safe and stable, but they often lack a certain oomph. Paradoxically, it's just that spice of life that can lower their competitors.
The key here is that this is a quality of living survey, not a quality of life. Mercer only looked at the tangibles, such as sewerage, education and health. Oh, and one last thing, compare quality of living with the Economic Intelligence Unit's Cost of Living Index.
Zurich's not that expensive after all. Looks like if you get a posting here, you win. It's a twofer, as they stay in the States.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Good morning. If you're like me, the hotel gym in the morning is all just too much effort. But if I'm going to start trying to be healthier in my travels, well, I guess the hotel room is the perfect place to start. I've got to make the best of what I've got.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right, Richard, good morning. Are you ready to go? Are you feeling good? No, you're feeling a bit jetlagged, feeling a bit tired.
The first thing we're going to do, let's get you a glass of water.
QUEST: Why am I drinking water?!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because you need to rehydrate your system. You've been flying. You're dehydrated. We want to get your liver, your kidneys, everything functioning well to start the day.
QUEST: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now hand on your tummy. Nice deep breath in breathing right though to your lower abdomen, so in through the nose, keep your shoulders down and let it out.
QUEST: How many of these should I be doing?!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two or three is enough. You don't want to overventilate.
OK. So you do some stretching. Let's get your arms up nice and high. Really stretch up. Really stretch up. Take another deep breath in and out.
Now let's just take one side over. Really bend over. A bit more stretch and really feel the sides there stretching. You're stretching your lower back muscles that you've been sitting all day on. In the plane, at the laptop. They're just getting tight, OK? Let's go to the other side. Really stretch it out and take it over. Good. OK.
Right. Now let's just go to the bathroom because I want to show you how you can make use of some of the things in there.
QUEST: The bathroom? Are you mad?
Small but cozy. We have to make the best of what we've got, don't we, Rachel?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nice, stable surface. Take your arms, take your legs back and just pull in your tummy. Take your head down and just hold onto the sink and just gently pull back. What you're doing here is stretching your lower back. Now take your breath in.
QUEST: This is important stuff. It could help your back make it through the day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stick your back out and just bring out your chin.
Let's take it back into the bedroom. We're going to find a chair or something, we can do a few more stretches.
QUEST: Chair.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
QUEST: There's a chair.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE. Now, we're going to stretch these neck muscles, so I want you to take opposite hands to opposite ear and the other free hand take it behind your back. And you're just going to gently pull across.
OK, now what you've got to do is keep that shoulder down. The shoulder where your hand is behind your back, you want to keep that low, so keep it right down and then you're going to feel that stretch a lot more.
So we'll do that the other side just so you're even. Nice deep breath in, holding over the ear and just gently pull. Good. Keep that shoulder down, keep that hand down. Good. Great. That's good. OK.
QUEST: That feels rather good.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Coming after the break, a healthy alternative onboard the plane. Ever wondered about these little bottles of olive oil? We'll show you where it all comes from in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Get up early and you'll enjoy the morning mist which rolls in over the Italian hillside. Welcome back to CNN BUSINESS TRAVELLER where I left Switzerland for the time being and I am now in Perugia in the Umbrian region of Italy. Here they grow the olives that are exported around the world as olive oil. Olive oil, of course, is a perfect addition to a healthy diet.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Behind me is the Castello Montavibiano (ph). Here they fill these little bottles with the amber liquid. Now, these bottles are probably rather familiar to those of you who fly business or first class. Full of olive oil, the Umbrian olives are amongst the most traveled in the world.
And the journey starts here. The olive groves that surround Montavibiano. Lorenzo Fasello Buruno (ph) is the man who overseas the whole operation.
What's the time from picking the olives off the trees to pouring the oil on the plane?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We pick the olives, press them, and in one month and a half has to be on the plane.
QUEST: But these olives, even if they get to full growth, they are not the same size as the olives you would have with a drink.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is the same like the grapes. There are grapes that you eat, and grapes that you use it for the wines. Same happen with the olives.
QUEST: This is what you produce. How many olives does it take to make the olive oil for this bottle?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More or less this quantity together, is one single portion's olive oil.
QUEST: Those single portions are what it's all about. Once onboard the aircraft, they become the ingredients X that transform the flavor of high altitude cuisines with the passengers themselves deciding how much to use.
But convincing airlines was no easy task for Lorenzo.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to go and say why extra virgin olive oil was good up in sky. Because I think that every single plate you have onboard, even if you have the best chef possible, all the ingredients that you can put, at the end of the day, they are dry, and the extra virgin olive oil on top just makes the possibility for all the flavor to come out again.
QUEST: Lorenzo works with all the major airlines providing bespoke blends.
Is there a flavor once that you tried that didn't work?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We tried once the truffle with the melon and it didn't work at all because it works only with scrambled eggs or meat.
QUEST: How did it taste.
UNIDENTFIED MALE: What, the truffle with the melon? Disgusting.
QUEST: Different combinations are one thing, but the taste of pure, fresh olive oil, that's another.
You actually drink it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes I drink it. Right. You will taste something completely different, distinct, you cannot fine in a market. Because the shelf life goes immediately away. You see the power?
QUEST: Lorenzo has gone a step further to preserve this goodness. Costello Montovibliano (ph) is the only producer that freezes its olive oil. In other words, the olives are picked, pressed, bottled and frozen, all on the same day.
At the moment your project is business class and first class.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
QUEST: Is anybody putting your product in economy, and are you getting ready for that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am getting ready but we are just starting very soon.
QUEST: For the moment, if you're lucky enough to fly at the front of the plane you may find the little bottle that could. It tantalizes your taste buds.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Olives aren't the only thing to keep you well oiled on the road. Don't forget the magnificent grapes to make the marvelous Italian red wine. That will also keep you merry when you're away from home.
Unfortunately we can't spend all our time in the olive groves and vineyards of Umbria. Wish that we could. Instead, our travels will take us far and wide. And then it becomes really important to take care of what we eat. Remember the old adage, rubbish in, rubbish out.
Christian Maynor (ph) has some thoughts about how we can improve things.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It turns out that 75 percent of us eat more unhealthily when we're on the road and a massive 50 percent suffer digestive problems when we're on trips. So what can we do about it? Nutritionist Annie McRae (ph) here is going to give you some ideas.
So, Annie, what should us business travelers be thinking about when it comes to food?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, you're best to go for fresh foods, not ones that are convenient, packaged foods. There are so many additives that are not going to help the journey at all and how you feel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell me about the signs (ph) behind the traveler's diet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. One thing to look at is energy. Energy from food and we want to look at slow releasing carbohydrates, there's a way we measure how fast the food is being released and nuts, for instance, are a very good food because they're high in protein and fiber and fat, the right fat, and so they're quite slow releasing.
And put together with fruit would be very good indeed because fruit can be high on its own.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And if we want to stay hydrated, what should we be thinking about?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, any herb tea will be really good because that also is giving you water but also the nutrients and antimicrobials sometimes in herb teas. Which when you're traveling, you pick up lots of bugs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I'm traveling, my big weakness is making a beeline for the chocolate. I presume .
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're not alone in that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You mean my undoing is not .
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are immediately satisfying - but you - that's just going to upset your blood sugar levels and your energy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's going to basically do to me then?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, you're not going to feel that great.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel great when I eat it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You do right away but you're going to have that dip if you don't eat anything else with it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So if I am going to leave this behind, what should I be going for?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, these cereal bars are much better options because they've got the low releasing, slow releasing carbohydrate in them. But you've got to read the label.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Little and often is the key. Those cakes and treats just have to stay at home.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: You know, in Italy it's hard not to eat well.
When CNN BUSINESS TRAVELLER returns in a moment, distressing in a different way. We'll show you a smashing good time.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Lake of Geneva looks like any other Swiss lake. That is, until the city's famous landmark fountain gets underway. I've been giving the privilege of starting the Jet Deaux (ph) this morning, but I've been told this being Switzerland, I have to do it at exactly 9:00.
Geneva may not be the biggest city in the world, but there's plenty to do from sunrise to sunset.
Don't let the weather put you off. It will soon clear up, I'm told.
The first thing on your list, if you've got a bit of time whilst on business here is the view from Mount Celette (ph). The cable car is just 10 minutes outside Geneva. It opens at 9:30. Best to get your bearings early. It takes just two minutes to climb 1,000 meters to the top and the cable car runs all year long.
This all feels very relaxed. Most people leave their cars behind. They use the trams and the buses. The city is very well connected and a daily travel card is valid from 9:00 till midnight and costs you five dollars.
Seventy percent of visitors to Geneva are here on business, so let's learn a little about the city.
Geneva is Switzerland's second largest city. Sitting on a beautiful lake on the far western side of the country. It's the second home of the UN. The headquarters of the World Trade Organization and host to more than 200 other organizations. Geneva has fantastic connections to the rest of Europe by road, rail and air.
There are international direct air services from all major European cities. With the city center only five kilometers away from the airport, the journey takes 10 minutes. The local currency is the Swiss franc and you're on Central European Time here.
By the time it comes to sunset, you'll want to make sure you have dinner with a view of the water. This is Parc de Volvie (ph). This place is spot on.
Life on the road can be pretty stressful, even here in Switzerland, where of course everything runs like clockwork. But things don't always go according to plan. The rain won't stop even when you want it to.
You'll want to get rid of all that pent-up aggression. Some lucky travelers in Madrid got the opportunity to get it out of their system.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Madrid. European city of culture, 1992. It's here that 40 lucky volunteers will live out their wildest destructive dreams. And yes, if you're a business traveler, sing with delight. It's on a hotel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We really expected to have, let's say 15, 20, 30 people helping out to refurbish the rooms but at the end we have nearly 1,000 so this is really turning out to be a good idea.
QUEST: Since this is Madrid and not the fall of Rome, a little light sifting was requiring. Cue the stress test. A boxing match between highly stressed applicants and a rubberized corporate fat cat.
And now the real fun begins.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You look excited.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. I know. This is going to be great.
QUEST: Fernando Summers (ph) works in a bank. He hates his job. In fact, he hates pretty much everything.
There's never-ending decent (inaudible) these days, so don't worry. Go on. Let it out.
No matter where you are in the world, frustrations of business are the same.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My boss! The meetings! The job! My mortgage!
QUEST: Come to the bathroom for some piece and quiet, not in this hotel. Seven years bad luck. And our favorite of all. The surprisingly indestructible generic (inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel much better now.
I'm sure that this afternoon when I go back to work I will be quite more calm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You took off work to do this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do they know this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just said I had a meeting.
QUEST: So, for stress busting these days, forget the pills. All you need is a sledgehammer and a hotel. (Inaudible)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: And that's CNN BUSINESS TRAVELLER for this month. I'm Richard Quest reporting from Switzerland and Italy. Wherever your travels may take you, I hope it's profitable. For now, see you next month.
END
TO ORDER VIDEOTAPES AND TRANSCRIPTS OF CNN INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMING, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE THE SECURE ONLINE ORDER FROM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
