Destination: Australia & Pacific
UNESCO Adds Three Sites to Danger List, Names Next World Book Capital
by Michael Yessis | 07.10.07 | 11:14 AM ET
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has had a busy few weeks. Not only was it busy issuing a press release claiming no affiliation with the new seven wonders, during meetings in Christchurch, New Zealand, the group added the Galapagos and their surrounding marine reserve; Samarra, Iraq; and Senegal’s Niokolo-Koba National Park to its list of endangered World Heritage sites. Two more sites—the Royal Palaces of Abomey, Benin and Kathmandu Valley, Nepal—were removed from the Danger List.
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzThe Best in ‘Geek’ Travel: From Tokyo to Tatooine
by Michael Yessis | 06.29.07 | 11:43 AM ET
Where does someone who’s, say, willing to spend days in line waiting in line for an iPhone go on his or her travels? Apparently, where there’s a lot of technology and, in one case, nuclear fallout. Among the “geek vacation” spots recommended by Christopher Null in Wired’s July issue: New Zealand (for “The Lord of the Rings” movie locations); the South Pole (“Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station will warm any geek’s heart”); Tokyo’s Akihabara district (the “ultimate red-light district for gadget fetishists”); and Prypyat, Ukraine. Prypyat is “a town whose 47,000 inhabitants had to split within 36 hours of the meltdown” of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Sounds better suited for Dark Travelers.
Uluru: Outback Icon or Aboriginal Bargaining Chip?
by Jim Benning | 06.26.07 | 4:03 PM ET
At the moment, it seems to be both. The Australian government recently announced plans to crack down on child abuse in some Aboriginal communities by banning alcohol and pornography and sending in police and troops. In response, the angry leaders of one Aboriginal township near Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, are threatening civil disobediance by banning tourists from hiking up the landmark, the AP reports. For Aborigines, the government crackdown evokes painful memories of children taken from their families as part of a government assimilation strategy—children referred to now as the Stolen Generation.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: From the Great White North to the Land Down Under
by Michael Yessis | 06.08.07 | 12:49 PM ET
This week travelers trek the length of the globe, from Canada to California to Mexico to Costa Rica to Australia. There’s also the inevitable Paris Hilton vs. Hilton Paris match up. Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
In Napa, Wilderness Above the Wineries
* That’s Napa, pictured above.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
Paris Hilton accommodations vs. Hilton Paris
* Christopher Reynolds pits the two head-to-head.
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Mexico to (Miss) U.S.A.: Boooooo
* Readers have mixed feelings about the now-infamous boos.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
JetBlue Tries to Bounce Back From Storm of Trouble
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Air Traffic Control System Command Center
Most Read Feature
World Hum (this week)
An Island in Costa Rica
Most Popular Travel Podcast
iTunes (current)
National Geographic’s Atmosphere
* Current podcast: Mount Everest Expedition
What Happened to the ‘Lovable Aussie’ Traveler?
by Michael Yessis | 05.14.07 | 9:30 AM ET
Ben Groundwater says being an Australian abroad used to be “awesome.” “You’d find yourself the token conversation piece at get-togethers, where you could persuade people that you wrestled kangaroos for a living,” he writes on The Backpacker, a Sydney Morning Herald blog. “Doors magically opened, hassles were incredibly smoothed over, with the help of an Australian accent. But it’s all gone wrong…” In short, Groundwater says, Australian travelers are now often greeted with disdain. Among the possible reasons: Overexposure, “blokes on buck’s weekends,” politics and jealousy. He concludes: “The bottom line, however, is that anyone who’s travelled knows there are a lot of Australians out there acting like dickheads, and it’s giving the rest of us a bad name.” As you might expect, the post has stimulated some heated—and interesting—conversation.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: The Naked and the Red
by Michael Yessis | 05.11.07 | 3:45 PM ET
From Sin City to St. Petersburg, Russia, we’re not worried about traveling with too many clothes this week. Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
36 Hours in St. Petersburg, Russia
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Sin City Uncovered: Vegas Strips Down to Embrace its Naughty Side
* It’s an $8 billion embrace.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Telegraph (current)
The Perfect Break: Jersey
* The island, not the home of Bon Jovi.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Brisbane Times (current)
Gang Violence Marring NZ’s Image
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
A Mass-Transit Trek Through Portland’s Singular Sites
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
* It’s been so many weeks now we’ve stopped counting.
Bring Your Tray Tables to the Upright Position and…Duck!
by Jim Benning | 04.03.07 | 7:35 AM ET
The pilot of a Lan airline jet reported seeing flaming debris fall past his plane as he prepared for a landing in Auckland. NASA officials suspect it was meteors. You want space tourism? Lan’s got your space tourism.
Australia’s ‘Bloody’ Success
by Michael Yessis | 03.16.07 | 7:56 AM ET
When Australia rolled out it’s “Where the bloody hell are you?” campaign last year, more than a few people claimed to be offended. Thirteen months later, “Australia has become a success story on how to capitalize in the competitive global tourism market,” according to a story by Lee Berthiaum in Embassy, the Canadian Foreign Policy newsweekly. The key, Berthiaum writes, was emphasizing Australia’s personality.
Rolf Potts in the Australian Outback
by Jim Benning | 03.05.07 | 3:14 PM ET
Slate began a Well-Traveled series today by Rolf Potts about his trip to Australia to explore aboriginal culture—and particularly the uneasy relationship between the continent’s indigenous people and curious tourists. That relationship, Potts notes, can easily be captured on film at the famous red monolith Uluru, by the sign near the trailhead.
“This sign, which was erected by the local Pitjantjatjara people, solemnly requests that you don’t climb up the face of a rock that they consider sacred,” Potts writes. “Aim your camera at a certain angle, however, and the top half of your viewfinder will capture the knots of tourists who’ve decided to climb the rock anyway (aided by a safety chain designated by the Australian National Park Service for that very purpose).”
How Pure Are New Zealand’s ‘100% Pure’ Ads?
by Michael Yessis | 02.20.07 | 9:09 AM ET
Less than 100%, say some critics. Why? “One advertisement shows an idyllic scene of two kayakers with dolphins swimming around their canoes,” reports TVNZ. “But the image is not a single photo. Instead it is a digital adjustment which blends two different photos—one of dolphins and the other of kayakers—together.” Tourism New Zealand spokesperson George Hickton defends the image as representative of what goes on in the country every day, “and therefore it’s a 100% pure New Zealand experience.” Hmmm. It’s not as misleading as the recent Nepal-Peru mix-up, but when you’re promoting your country as 100% pure you might want to avoid doctoring photos. Via Jaunted.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Celebrations and the ‘Soccer People’
by Michael Yessis | 01.26.07 | 9:14 AM ET
Happy Australia Day! This week online travelers are going Down Under, up Mount Everest and around the world via Clarkston, Georgia. Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most Viewed Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
‘The Soccer People’: Heartbreak and Triumph in Clarkston, Georgia
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (current)
Melburnians Celebrate Australia Day
* Among the highlights of the day for Australians: Whipping England at cricket.
Best Travel Magazine
North American Travel Journalism Association Awards (2006)
Budget Travel
* The list of winners includes National Geographic Traveler (best online travel magazine) and St. Louis Post-Dispatch (best newspaper travel section).
Most Blogged Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Site Calculates Risk Factors for Travelers
* It’s a joint project by “researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, with support from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.”
Most Popular Travel Podcast
iTunes (current)
Travel With Rick Steves
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Travel Like a Pro: 8 Tips To Make Your Journey Easier
Most Read Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Online Oracles Promise to Ease Your Airfare Angst
* An overview and comparison of Farecast, Farecompare, Kayak, Hotwire and Airfarewatchdog.
Nation Branding: What the World Can Learn From Spain, India and New Zealand
by Michael Yessis | 12.21.06 | 7:30 AM ET
They’re “universally acknowledged to be the crown jewels in the recent annals of nation branding,” writes John Cook in the January 2007 issue of Travel + Leisure, the latest publication to address one of our favorite topics: how countries present themselves in an effort to lure travelers. Cook recounts success stories—Spain’s transformation from a “sleepy low-rent vacation spot for the British and German working classes to a hip, cutting-edge cultural destination” and New Zealand’s capitalization on its starring role in the Lord of the Rings trilogy—but, more interestingly, also examines countries with branding problems. Among them: Serbia, Ecuador and Kazakhstan.
Christmas Island
by Ben Keene | 12.08.06 | 9:00 AM ET
Coordinates: 10 30 S 195 40 E
Area: 60 sq. mi. (155 sq. km)
Maybe if he’d given it more thought, Old Saint Nick would have opened his workshop in a slightly more salubrious location than the North Pole. Somewhere like, say, Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. Very nearly as remote but considerably warmer than Finnish Lapland where he can currently be reached, Christmas Island was so named when a ship owned by the East India Company anchored offshore on Dec. 25, 1643. Granted, the monsoon season might be a slight annoyance and the humidity would require some adjustments to his suit, plus Santa would probably have to trade in his reindeer for a team of red land crabs (roughly 120 million currently reside here), but squeezing in some scuba diving would certainly be easier. At present this small Australian dependency south of Java supports some tourism, limited tropical fruit farming and phosphate mining.
—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.
Surviving the Coup in Fiji
by Jim Benning | 12.07.06 | 2:49 PM ET
CBS is in the midst of filming another series of “Survivor” shows in Fiji, where a military coup has just occurred. Will the show’s production be affected? Apparently not. It is “Survivor,” after all. A CBS spokesman told the Associated Press: “Our producers on location have been assured by the Fiji military that we are safe on the remote island where we are filming and that our cast and crew will be permitted to leave the country safely when the show wraps production.” If they’re lucky, they might even be able to find a completely ridiculous “I Survived Rebel Coup in Fiji” T-shirt, as I did when I visited the country during a coup in 2000. One tip: Ask one of the cashiers in the shops at Nadi Airport. If your experience is like mine, they’ll quietly pull the T-shirts out of the back—contraband, apparently—and sell them for cash only. I still wear mine—the front is pictured above—with pride.
Photo by Jim Benning.
Seven Travel Stories to Tell Before You Die
by Jim Benning | 10.02.06 | 6:43 AM ET
I’ve never been too enamored of the 1,000 Places to See Before You Die approach to travel—or at least the approach that the title of the book suggests. Among other things, it emphasizes quantity over quality. But the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Flinn has offered a modest alternative checklist that I can get behind: seven travel stories you should be able to tell before you die. It puts the emphasis where it belongs, I think: on experiences and stories. Flinn just concluded a series of columns exploring the seven stories he believes are essential for every traveler, and he recounted his own version of each. “Go ahead and visit every one of those ‘1000 Places to See Before You Die,’ as catalogued in the best-selling book,” he wrote. “But spare your friends the description of the Taj Mahal. Yes, it’s beautiful. And, yes, of course, the Great Barrier Reef is awesome. Everybody knows this. And we don’t need to hear about the seventh hole at Pebble Beach. What we want to hear are stories.”