Destination: Asia
The Theme Park Industry ‘is Moving to Asia’
by Eva Holland | 09.21.10 | 1:07 PM ET
Florida may not be the unofficial Theme Park Capital of the World for much longer. The theme park business is exploding in Asia, thanks in large part to a growing middle class in countries like China, India and Indonesia—and a resulting domestic tourism boom. The AFP has the details:
Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea, the Universal Studios park in Osaka and South Korea’s homegrown Everland ranked among the world’s top 10 theme parks in terms of visitors last year, according to industry consultancy Themed Entertainment Association (TEA).
Encouraged by Asia’s promise, Universal Studios signed a deal in January to build its largest theme park in the world in South Korea at a cost of around 2.67 billion dollars.
When completed in 2014, the resort will be bigger than Universal Studios’ four other parks in Hollywood, Florida, Osaka and Singapore combined.
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Yahoo! BuzzWorld Travel Watch: Turmoil in Kashmir, Criminal Gangs in El Salvador and More
by Larry Habegger | 09.16.10 | 10:46 AM ET
Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news
World Travel Watch: Mudslides in Guatemala, Bombing in Cancun and More
by Larry Habegger | 09.08.10 | 1:41 PM ET
Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news
Interview with Michael Scott Moore: ‘Sweetness and Blood’
by Jim Benning | 09.08.10 | 12:32 PM ET
Jim Benning talks with the author of a new travel book about the spread of surfing around the globe
World Travel Watch: Plague in Bolivia and Peru, Warnings in Northern Ireland and More
by Larry Habegger | 09.02.10 | 12:09 PM ET
Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news
New Travel Book: ‘Dreaming in Chinese’
by Jim Benning | 08.31.10 | 6:42 PM ET
Anyone who has ever tried to learn even a few words of Chinese will appreciate the difficulty of the task. It turns out it was a serious challenge even for a woman with a Ph.D. in linguistics and six languages already under her belt.
That would be Deborah Fallows, author of the new book, Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love and Language.
NPR just profiled her. My favorite passage from the radio piece concerned her attempt to order take-out Taco Bell, of all things:
Her tones weren’t very good at that point, though, so Fallows’ request for “takeout”—dabao—was met with a blank stare from the Taco Bell employee. Fallows tried saying dabao with every combination of tones she could think of—rising tones, falling tones—and when that didn’t work, she started pointing at the menu, and then miming the action of walking out the door with a bag of food. After a consultation with several other employees, finally—eureka! Yes, dabao! Yes, of course, they did takeout.
World Travel Watch: Tube Strikes Looming in London, China’s Epic Traffic Jam and More
by Larry Habegger | 08.25.10 | 11:59 AM ET
Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news
P.J. O’Rourke Goes to Afghanistan
by Jim Benning | 08.25.10 | 11:50 AM ET
The occasional travel writer takes a fun shot at parachute journalism:
If you spend 72 hours in a place you’ve never been, talking to people whose language you don’t speak about social, political, and economic complexities you don’t understand, and you come back as the world’s biggest know-it-all, you’re a reporter.
Ouch.
China’s 10-Day Traffic Jam, in Photos
by Eva Holland | 08.24.10 | 4:50 PM ET
NPR has a sequence of remarkable photos from the ongoing jam, which stretches for more than 60 miles. Hat tip to Boing Boing’s Maggie Koerth-Baker, who speculates about how the AP photographers managed to make it to and from the scene: “I’m imagining a dirt bike was involved.”
Travelers Checks: Now Available in Yuan
by Eva Holland | 08.24.10 | 10:41 AM ET
Yep, American Express is now offering the first-ever travelers check in Chinese currency. The news begs two questions: First, is this more evidence that China is on its way to becoming the world’s top tourist destination? And second, does anyone still use travelers checks?
Genghis Khan and the New Mongolia
by Eva Holland | 08.23.10 | 4:03 PM ET
The Atlantic has a dispatch from Bill Donahue, who’s been traveling in a changing Mongolia. As Donahue explains, the long-dead warlord is central to the country’s new commercial efforts:
Genghis Khan is Mongolia’s future. After his conquests were downplayed in the history books during seven decades of de facto Soviet rule, the nomad who ruled an empire stretching from the Caspian Sea to Siberia reemerged in 1990, as democracy was being established. Today, he is a poor nation’s avatar of hope—and he’s becoming a major industry.
In Ulaanbaatar, you can drink Chinggis beer at the Grand Khaan Irish Pub. (For obscure reasons, the local spelling differs from the Western.) The Genco Tour Bureau, an Ulaanbaatar-based company, has spent about $7 million on the Chinggis Khaan Statue Complex, a commercially minded homage where the giant steel Chinggis will soon be flanked by an artificial pond, a skating rink, and 200 small gers, or round tents, for paying campers. Nearby, Genco has also built a 13th-century living history museum, sort of a Colonial Williamsburg on the steppes, where artisans make felt by beating wool with wood sticks. And at the Chinggis Khaan Golf Country Club, the greens are tiny, bright patches of artificial turf on the infinite brown.
With a poignant hopefulness, Mongolia, population 2.7 million, is trying to establish a market economy in the deep shadow of neighboring China.
Afghan Carrier Offers ‘Cheerfully Blunt’ In-Flight Magazine
by Eva Holland | 08.19.10 | 1:21 PM ET
Here’s something you won’t read in most in-flight magazines:
The rooms are individually air-conditioned, accessorized with amenities you will find in 4-star hotels abroad, sheets are clean, view from the room is nice, and—after the suicide bombing that took place—security measures have been implemented.
But, apparently, that sort of unblinking coverage is standard for Safi Airways, the Afghan airline whose in-flight magazine is profiled in this Wall Street Journal story. Says a Safi executive: “Anyone who is going to Afghanistan knows about these issues anyway. What would be the point of not talking about them openly?” (Via Julia Ross)
World Travel Watch: Flesh Fines in France, Medical Tourism Risks in South Asia and More
by Larry Habegger | 08.18.10 | 12:22 PM ET
Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news
Venezuelans Show Some Love For Love Hotels
by Michael Yessis | 08.17.10 | 11:25 AM ET
Japan’s love hotels get a lot of media love. Now it’s Venezuela’s turn in the spotlight. Rachel Jones writes:
University students such as Daniel Ramirez, 24, often turn to mid-range hotels in central Caracas to be with their significant others. On his first visit to Hotel Roda, Ramirez had the opportunity to be intimate with a month-long girlfriend for the first time.
“There was no place I could go to see her,” said Ramirez, who lives with his family because he can’t afford an apartment. He was reasonably satisfied with his experience—including clean rooms, wall and ceiling mirrors, and a television with pornography—and later returned with another girlfriend. The awkward part, he said, was a lack of privacy in the hallways.
“Couples pass each other like this,” Ramirez said, ducking his head and cupping one hand over his eyes.
World Hum Travel Movie Club: ‘Eat, Pray, Love’
by Eva Holland, Eli Ellison | 08.16.10 | 8:49 AM ET
A big-screen incarnation of author Elizabeth Gilbert heads to Italy, India and Indonesia. Eva Holland and Eli Ellison go along for the ride.