Destination: Middle East
Holy Land Hooters
by Jim Benning | 03.19.07 | 3:13 PM ET
No kidding. The restaurant chain is bound for Israel. Declares the man behind the project: “I strongly believe that the Hooters concept is something that Israelis are looking for.”
Related on World Hum:
* Hooters Casino Hotel Opens Today in Las Vegas
* Lesson No. 1 of Hooters Air: It Is Awfully Difficult to Make Buffalo Wings at 30,000 Feet
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzDubai on the Cheap?
by Jim Benning | 03.14.07 | 2:40 PM ET
It sounds like an oxymoron, but it seems that budget travel opportunities are at least beginning to emerge in Dubai. The Economist notes that the country’s first easyHotel is being built, promising modest accommodations at rates of up to 20 percent below its competitors. What’s more, a total of six easyHotels are planned for Dubai as part of an expansion into the region by the London-based chain. The first property is due to open next year.
Lebanon: The Story Behind the World Press Photo of the Year
by Michael Yessis | 03.01.07 | 2:10 PM ET
The judges of the World Press Photo of the Year said Spencer Platt’s image—it captures a group of young, fashionable Lebanese women driving through a devastated Beirut neighborhood soon after Israeli bombings struck last summer—“has the complexity and contradiction of real life, amidst chaos. This photograph makes you look beyond the obvious.” Apparently many viewers haven’t been looking hard enough.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: The Explorers
by Michael Yessis | 02.02.07 | 9:38 AM ET
Travelers appear top of mind this week, not destinations. The journeys of Daisann McLane, Bill Bryson, Paulina Porizkova, Martin Sargent, celebrity watchers and Dora the Explorer lead off the Zeitgeist.
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Daisann McLane: ‘Learning Cantonese’ in Hong Kong
Most Popular Travel Podcast
iTunes (current)
Travel Song Medley by Dora the Explorer
Most Read Story
World Hum (this week)
Paulina Porizkova: A Model Traveler
Most Read Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Oscars Tourism: Celebrity Sightings and a Hotel Within Gawking Distance of the Red Carpet
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
* We like this book.
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (current)
Area-Daily.com Launches
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Farecast
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
A Walk in the Woods
Most Dugg Travel Podcast
Digg (current)
Martin Sargent: Web Drifter
Petra Makes Push for Seven Wonders Status
by Michael Yessis | 01.17.07 | 12:03 PM ET
Until last century, Petra was virtually off limits to non-Arab travelers. And in recent years, troubles in the Middle East have kept travelers away. But now that Petra has been shortlisted for the New Seven Wonders of the World list, the Jordanian government is making a push to show off the “rose red city half as old as time.” The BBC’s Jon Leyne reports that Petra “has probably not seen such a buzz of activity since civilised life ended there in the 8th century AD.”
‘The Cultures That Produced Dubai and Las Vegas Surely Must Have Something in Common’
by Michael Yessis | 01.09.07 | 8:40 AM ET
Seth Stevenson believes Dubai’s “media moment” has passed. “The flurry of breathless write-ups —in Sunday travel sections and glossy lifestyle magazines—has come and gone,” he writes in the latest edition of Slate’s Well-Traveled. “We’re on to the next destination already. (Laos. Yemen. Low-altitude space orbit.)” Yet Stevenson couldn’t resist Dubai’s “profound wackiness,” and set-forth on a trip that, in typical Stevenson fashion, he mines for insight and laughs.
Unlocking Beirut
by Catherine Watson | 12.29.06 | 1:23 PM ET
When Catherine Watson left Lebanon's capital city in the 1960s, she carried home the key to her former apartment. Forty years later, she returned with her prized souvenir and found it could still open doors.
Seven New Wonders of the World Fever: Catch It
by Jim Benning | 11.16.06 | 7:36 PM ET
Yesterday, we noted USA Today’s list of Seven New Wonders of the World, and we briefly mentioned another list of Seven Wonders in the works. Today, CNN.com published a story about that other list, and according to the report, it’s generating loads of interest. More than 20 million people so far have cast votes for their favorite wonders in a global competition started in 1999 by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber. A panel of architectural experts, including former UNESCO chief Federico Mayor, helped narrow down the nominations to 21 sites, from Machu Picchu, the Great Wall of China (pictured) and Turkey’s Hagia Sofia to Petra, the Statue of Liberty and the Eifel Tower. The public can vote until July 6, 2007. The winners will be named the next day.
Iran Hopes to Lure Western Travelers With Cash Incentives
by Michael Yessis | 11.03.06 | 7:54 AM ET
The country is offering $20 a head, and it goes to “those who attract European or American tourists to the country,” according to an AP report. Visitors from other countries would earn travel agents US$10.
Exporting Dubai
by Terry Ward | 11.02.06 | 8:46 AM ET
For me, visiting Morocco has always meant hanging with my host family in Fes (I studied Arabic there in 2003), seaside sardine feasts for a few bucks in Essaouira and strolls through the medinas to soak up the chaos and color. But when you’re Emaar—Dubai’s largest property group, backed by the ruling Maktoum family—Morocco is just another stage for a decadent Arabian playground, replete with a golf-course-cum-ski-resort, luxury shopping streets and fake beaches. Never mind that the construction site, Oukaimeden—a small provincial ski resort in the High Atlas mountains, not far from Marrakech—is nowhere near the United Arab Emirates.
Space Tourist Anousheh Ansari Transfixes, Befuddles Iran
by Michael Yessis | 10.31.06 | 6:46 AM ET
Last month, Iranian-American businesswoman Anousheh Ansari spent in the neighborhood of $20 million to hop a ride aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to become the first female space tourist. Folks in the land of her birth were obsessed with Ansari’s trip, according to Nazila Fathi’s New York Times story. The journey stimulated much debate about the plight of women in Iran and whether Ansari’s money might have been better spent helping out the country’s poor.
The Critics: Jason Elliot’s ‘Mirrors of the Unseen’
by Jim Benning | 10.30.06 | 2:49 PM ET
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Skimpy Skirts and Thunderbolts
by Michael Yessis | 10.27.06 | 11:30 AM ET
There’s a hint of fear in the air, but, as always, we’re still hitting the road. This week the Zeitgeist leads to Paris, Dubai, Iowa, Mexico City and the most scenic toilet in the world. Let’s go.
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Japanese Tourists Succumb to “Paris Syndrome”
* I’ve seen a bit of coverage of this story this week, and the New York Post gets the best headline award: Paris Leaves Japanese French Fried.
World’s Least Favorite Airline
TripAdvisor (survey)
Ryanair
Most Blogged Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Beyond Skimpy Skirts, a Rare Debate on Identity
* Hassan M. Fattah’s story explores the limits of multiculturalism in Dubai.
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir
* Two weeks in a row at the top for Bryson’s memoir of growing up in 1950s Iowa.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Hotels Ditch Imposing Desks for Friendly ‘Pods’
* Three reasons why: To lure younger customers, to improve employee productivity and, of course, to increase revenue.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (current)
Farecast
Most Dugg “Travel” Story
Digg (current)
Apple’s Gift to Travelers: Magsafe Airline Power Adapter
Time Out Beirut: We’re Coming Back
by Jim Benning | 10.25.06 | 3:09 PM ET
Mosque Tourism in Dubai
by Jim Benning | 10.25.06 | 8:10 AM ET
Apparently it’s all the rage—at least at Jumeirah Mosque. Tours aimed at boosting understanding of Islam among Western tourists have expanded, according to an AP story, “from irregular gatherings of a dozen people to five-times-weekly tours of a hundred or more.” And what’s more, “Now, the government-linked center wants to expand inside the United Arab Emirates and beyond with an eye on the more than 1 million Westerners, mostly Europeans, who visit every year.”