Tag: Tourism
‘World’s Brainiest Tour Operator’ Now (Sort of) Affordable
by Eva Holland | 02.26.09 | 2:36 PM ET
For all the high culture addicts out there, good news from Arthur Frommer: British tour operator Martin Randall Travel has been spotted advertising in Harper’s, which means, as Frommer writes, “that tours with profound intellectual content will henceforth be marketed to the American public; the ‘dumbing down’ of travel may be significantly slowed through this effort.” The guidebook mogul figures the shifting exchange rate, which has made Britain much more affordable for Americans in recent months, is behind the unprecedented stateside marketing effort. The tours still aren’t for shoestringers—the all-inclusive packages hover around 300 pounds per person per day—but, as Frommer notes, they’re cheaper than comparable college alumni tours, and thanks to the sliding pound they’re within easier reach than ever.
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Yahoo! BuzzPromo Videos Gone Wrong: ‘Nebraska: Who Knew?’
by Eva Holland | 02.19.09 | 12:21 PM ET
Next up in our ongoing series on unintentionally humorous tourism promo videos? An offering from Nebraska Tourism, with a slogan—“Who knew?”—that probably hits the nail a little too firmly on the head. Self-deprecation is a tricky thing for any tourist board to pull off, and I’m not sure a promo spot is the right place to remind your viewers that nobody thinks there’s anything worth seeing in your state. (Though for what it’s worth, I’ve always wanted to see Carhenge, myself.)
The clip—which, to be fair, includes some pretty impressive Great Plains scenery—is after the jump.
Recession Hits Antarctica (Is That Good or Bad?)
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.13.09 | 12:58 PM ET
Trips to the (melting) frozen continent can cost anywhere between $8,000 and $30,000, a prohibitive amount in today’s crisis economy of failed banks and indebted consumers. That may explain the projected 7,000-person drop in visitors between the 2007-08 season (which registered a record high of 46,000 people) and the current 2008-09 season, which the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) predicts will bring in around 39,000 people.
Touring Tokyo’s Underbelly
by Julia Ross | 02.04.09 | 2:17 PM ET
I’ve been a fan of MP3 audio tours since I discovered the transporting Soundwalk series several years ago. In fact, Soundwalk’s moody MP3 tour of New York’s Chinatown still reverberates in my ears every time I walk down Mott or Bayard Street in lower Manhattan. So I wish Tokyo Realtime’s new audio tour of Kabukicho, Tokyo’s red light district, had been available when I visited the city in 2007. From the preview posted on their site, the tour mixes just the right amount of music, political commentary and local history to make at least one corner of the overwhelming metropolis accessible. And god knows, anything that helps tourists cut Tokyo down to bite-size portions is helpful.
Those looking for the peep shows and brothels documented in the tour may be disappointed, however. The Guardian reports efforts are under way to clean up Kabukicho in line with the city’s short-listed bid to host the 2016 Olympics.
Promo Videos Gone Wrong: ‘Telly Savalas Looks at Aberdeen’
by Eva Holland | 02.02.09 | 4:47 PM ET
There’s something inherently funny about most promotional tourism videos. Maybe it’s the inevitable score swelling dramatically, or the cheesy tag lines, but it’s rare to find one that doesn’t make me giggle and roll my eyes. Still, there are some that are more memorable—and more eye-roll-worthy—than others. I’d like to honor those extra-special specimens here, in an occasional series.
First up, “Telly Savalas Looks at Aberdeen”: A quota quickie, narrated by the “Kojak” star, that aired ahead of the main feature in movie theaters in the 1980s. Between the reference to “black gold” (the first time I’ve heard the term since the Beverly Hillbillies remake) and Telly’s declaration that he was “captivated by everything” he saw—while the camera panned across a parking lot—I was sold. Take a “look-see” (to use Telly’s word) after the jump.
Morning Links: Glum Gladiators, ‘Nutters and Nudies’ and More
by Valerie Conners | 01.16.09 | 8:39 AM ET
- Yesterday’s incredible US Airways rescue in the Hudson River has yielded a medley of media coverage including eye-popping slideshows, surprising facts about bird strikes on planes and even a sprinkling of gallows humor.
- One New York City diner is taking the ultimate road trip to Alabama.
- Boston.com is featuring a series of stunning photos taken from NASA’s Earth Observatory website.
- Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn announced plans for the band’s third album, dubbed the “Syria Sessions” and inspired by Arabic orchestral music. The band will head to Syria to record in March.
- The backlash against Slumdog Millionaire has begun, including harsh words from one critic describing the film as “poverty porn.”
- With the number of foreign tourists to Rome down more than 12 percent from last year, the dolce vita is no more for the city’s “glum” gladiators, carriage drivers and other tourism operators.
- Vegas’s iconic topless showgirl review, “Les Folies Bergere,” is closing after entertaining oglers for 49 years.
- We previously noted Australia’s call for applicants for the “best job in the world.” Now, the video applications are rolling in, and there’s no shortage of “nutters and nudies.”
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Venice: Souvenir Vendors Could Go the Way of the Pigeons
by Eva Holland | 12.05.08 | 6:21 AM ET
Look out, Venetian vendors of cheap tourist tat. Your canal-side stalls (“fully-fledged examples of urban decay,” according to the city council) are the next target in the city’s ongoing crusade against all things ugly or rude. Local authorities in Venice have already showed the flocks of pigeons and shirtless, napping tourists who’s boss.
What do Afghanistan, Cuba, Liberia and Sudan All Have in Common?
by Eva Holland | 11.25.08 | 8:27 AM ET
They’re the four countries deemed so dangerous that they’re excluded from the holiday coverage offered by a major UK insurer, Direct Travel. As Simon Calder notes in this sarcasm-laden response, the news that Cuba is as risky as Kandahar or Darfur may come as a surprise to the 2 million tourists who visited the island this year.
Bienvenido a Cuba, 2 Millionth Tourist!
by Valerie Conners | 11.17.08 | 2:25 PM ET
“Strong mojitos” and a salsa band greeted Cuba’s two millionth tourist (albeit symbolically—they actually greeted the incoming plane holding number two mil), as the island celebrated what it hopes will be a record year for tourism. Despite the three crippling hurricanes that ripped through here earlier this year, Cuba expects to have had more than 2.3 million visitors in 2008.
China: Not a ‘Pseudo-Place’
by Eva Holland | 11.13.08 | 12:00 PM ET
When The Smart Set’s Paula Marantz Cohen headed off on a two-week organized tour of China, she expected to experience one of the tourism industry’s manufactured “pseudo-places,” as Paul Fussell calls them. That is, “tourist commonwealths, whose function is simply to entice tourists and sell them things.” But as she explains in this thoughtful essay, she was mistaken.
‘Great’ Wall Street Crashes: The Three Hour Tour
by Valerie Conners | 11.05.08 | 11:46 AM ET
Notes From an Unofficial Tourist Greeter
by Julia Ross | 09.17.08 | 4:51 PM ET
Summer is over, and so is Julia Ross' season as an ambassador to travelers in Washington, D.C.'s Woodley Park neighborhood. She's happy to be off duty.
See the full audio slideshow: »
U.K. Tour Operator’s Collapse Strands Thousands
by Valerie Conners | 09.12.08 | 11:29 AM ET
Nearly 90,000 British travelers have been stranded across the globe after the UK’s third largest tour operator collapsed and grounded all its planes. XL Leisure Group blamed “high fuel prices and a sagging economy” for its demise, the AP reports, noting that the Civil Aviation Authority will be making arrangements to bring affected travelers home.
Photo by sun dazed via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Photos: ‘80s Tourists in Their Native Habitat
by Michael Yessis | 09.12.08 | 11:17 AM ET
Back in the Reagan Era, Lucian Perkins went to the most touristy place in Washington, D.C.—The National Mall—and photographed tourists. The former Washington Post photojournalist’s images are currently on display at D.C.‘s Carroll Square Gallery, and also in a fleshy and compelling online slideshow, Visitors From Another Planet.
Elliott: Five ‘Ridiculous’ Travel Rules That Should Be Abolished
by Jim Benning | 08.15.07 | 1:00 PM ET
Consumer travel columnist Christopher Elliott has identified five travel rules that he says “make no sense whatsoever” and should be done away with. For starters, he thinks airlines should stop barring travelers from changing the name on an airline ticket they purchased, so they can transfer that ticket to someone else if, say, a relationship goes south before a trip. “Well, air carriers disingenuously claim that they prohibit name changes because they’re worried about security and potential fraud,” he writes. “But what they won’t tell you is they’re also worried about their earnings.”
Leo Hickman: In Search of the True Cost of Travel
by Frank Bures | 07.13.07 | 8:44 AM ET
Are travelers destroying cultures, economies and the planet? Are they making the world a better place? Frank Bures chats with the author of "The Final Call" about the ethics and consequences of world travel.
Which Country’s Tourists are the Worst in the World?
by Michael Yessis | 10.10.06 | 6:46 AM ET
Rolf Potts touches on the perennial hostel-lounge argument topic in his latest Traveling Light column on Yahoo! His opinion: The country a traveler hails from isn’t the problem. “The problem here is that assessing your travel companions by nationality is rarely an earnest inquiry so much as it is a dull parlor game—an empty exercise in rhetorical one-upmanship,” he writes. “The worst travelers in the world are, after all, the rude, small-minded ones—and rude, small-minded travelers can hail from any nation.”
Bon Jovi Comes to Aid of New Jersey Tourism
by Michael Yessis | 04.20.06 | 1:23 PM ET
Where would oft-bashed New Jersey be without its homegrown rock stars? I can’t think of any state that gains more from its association from musicians, namely Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi. The latter has donated its latest hit song, “Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” to New Jersey’s latest tourism campaign.
Visitors Slow to Return to Bali
by Jim Benning | 02.02.06 | 8:40 PM ET
After a terrorist attack in Bali last October left 20 dead, experts predicted the island’s tourism industry would rebound within a year or two. That may yet happen, but at the moment, four months after the attack, the tourism business is still in a major slump, and owners are worried, according to an AP story on CNN. The numbers tell the story. Said the director general of Indonesia’s Tourism Ministry: “Just before the bombing, the number of tourists arriving every day had reached 5,000. Today it’s about 2,100.” If you’ve been reading World Hum, you already know that Bali-lover Liz Sinclair has been undeterred by the attack.
R.I.P. Bali Bomb Victims, Bali Tourism
by Jim Benning | 10.17.02 | 7:48 PM ET
The terrorist bomb that killed hundreds in Bali has touched travelers the world over. Jason Gaspero, for one, knew he’d never be the same when he heard about
the explosion from his home in Hawaii. Gaspero spent years teaching English in Bali, and he was a regular at the Sari Club, the site of the explosion.
“The Sari Club was, in my opinion the finest international vortex of hedonism and decadence in the whole wide world, and I say that after much consideration,” he writes on Lonely Planet Online. “I mean, you could find people from everywhere in this place: Australia; Canada; Sweden; New Zealand; South Africa; Denmark; Norway; England; Argentina; South Korea; France; Germany and dozens and dozens of other countries. It was the United Nations of drunken, sweaty, sex-crazed glory, and it was all in fantastic fun.” Gaspero insists that his will to travel will not be diminished.
Meanwhile, shaken British tourists are returning home. Australians are trying to make sense of the devastation in their backyard. And Southern California surfers, at least a few of them, say they won’t be deterred from visiting Bali, where great waves promise to be less crowded than ever.
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