World Travel & Tourism News

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In tucked-away Tulum, battle rages for one of Mexico's still untouched beaches
10 July 2008

MEXICO CITY (AP) - The soldiers seemed out of place in paradise.

They stood guard at the sandy entrances to the exclusive, beachside hotels, holding their guns while inspectors took careful measurements and studied documents.

Tourists from around the world sauntered by on their way to spa treatments or sunned themselves on private decks overlooking the Mexican Caribbean's blue-green waters, puzzled but mostly unconcerned.

Until Monday, when the soldiers returned with federal officials who slapped "closed" signs across the hotel entrances and said they would be back on Friday to start clearing out guests.

The federal government's closure of five small, exclusive hotels on Tulum's breathtaking stretch of white-sand beaches has created an uproar over who has the title to one of the few still-to-be-fully-developed coastlines left along the exclusive Riviera Maya. At least five other developments near Tulum's seaside Mayan ruins are also under investigation.

The actions carried into Thursday, when the federal Environmental Department announced it had shut down construction of an Acapulco development that didn't meet environmental standards.

Visitors driving south from Cancun find most of the coast has been divided up and sold off to hotel chains. There are monster, all-inclusive resorts boasting hundreds of rooms and a maze of swimming pools, as well as sprawling communities of vacation villas and beach clubs.

Then there is Tulum, a tiny hippy-style town that started as a backpacker retreat. Most hotels were a collection of primitive thatched huts stuck into the sand and surrounded by beachside jungle.

But it has recently transformed itself into a chic eco-resort, one where travelers pay up to US$500 a night to practice yoga on the beach and stay in minimalist Mayan suites where flatscreen televisions and iPod docking stations are powered by solar energy.

Title disputes have haunted the Tulum beach for decades. At the heart of this dispute, however, is whether the hotels were built in a federal park.

Federal environmental prosecutor Patricio Patron says the land is protected and the government wants to eventually demolish the buildings and leave the area untouched. But he says bulldozers won't arrive for a year or more as the cases work their way through Mexican courts.

John Kendall, owner of Mezzanine, a 10-room resort featuring a beachside restaurant and bar, says the federal government just wants to take back land that is worth millions of dollars.

"The pretext is totally fabricated," he said.

Ari Kantrowitz, a New York City graduate student, said he and his girlfriend were in the pool Monday when two bureaucrats walked up, carrying clipboards and signs that said "closed" in Spanish.

"Suddenly, walking behind them were four guys in full fatigues, helmets and carrying M16 rifles. It was somewhat surreal," he said. "We sort of just sat in the pool ... After a bit, I assumed it was the Mexican government and not some rogue militia."

Kendall has held nightly meetings with his guests, assuring them that he will find alternative lodging if they are forcibly evicted on Friday.

But guest Richard Beaver and his wife aren't waiting to find out what happens. The couple from New Zealand plan to check out first thing Friday. They drove up Monday as soldiers and government officials were posting the closed signs.

"There were guys walking around with big guns, and my wife didn't want to stay," he said. "We thought we had come to a really nice place, but to look at that was pretty intimidating."

Patron says officials will let guests stay until they are scheduled to leave, even if it means they stay past Friday. But he warned the hotels against taking on new clients.

He says the developments have yet to show adequate titles, are too close to the Mayan ruins and are built in an area for protected plant and animal species, including the towering chit palm.

"We are forced to comply with the law," he said.

Hotel owners argue they've been there for up to two decades without problems, and their businesses are built around protecting the environment.

Roberto Palazuelos, a Mexican soap opera actor and president of the Tulum Hotel Owners Association, says the federal government's paperwork to create the protected area in the 1980s was never done correctly. His Hotel Diamante K is among the five that have been closed.

"I think they want to take away the land and divide it between themselves," he said.

The state government issued the land titles and says they are valid. Tourism officials have been visiting the hotels this week and supporting their fight to keep their land.

In the meantime, urban refugees seeking peace and quiet in Mexico's jungle squeeze in one last spa treatment and wonder when the soldiers will return.

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Eiffel Tower takes steps to slash mega-queues
9 July 2008
Agence France Presse

The Eiffel Tower, the world's most visited landmark, is to bring in online ticketing in a bid to slash waiting times of up to two hours for its seven million annual visitors, operators said Wednesday.

Pre-paid Internet tickets for groups will be on sale from next year, when the tower turns 120, and the area between its four iron feet, where tourists are currently made to queue in the wind, will be entirely refurbished.

The renovation plan, set for completion in 2015, also aims to attract more school groups, disabled people, and Parisians -- who currently make up just two percent of visitors.

Other improvements will include a champagne bar on the third floor of the tower, which soars 324 metres (710 feet) above the Paris skyline, and a wider range of shops for tourists.

Designed by the engineer Gustave Eiffel, the tower was built for the 1889 universal exhibition in Paris and was initially dismissed as a eyesore by many Parisians.

The Eiffel Tower was intended to be taken down after 20 years, but the authorities decided to let it stand, first for use as a radio communications tower and then as a landmark in its own right.

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Americans part of India's tourist boom
16 July 2008

NEW DELHI (AP) - Keith Lotman went to New Delhi on a two-week business trip. But a quick day of sightseeing in India's capital city left him enthralled and ready to see more of the country.

"I have about a hundred different places that I'd like to visit," said Lotman, 31, a business executive from Philadelphia, as he checked out the world's largest Bahai temple in New Delhi. "A hundred different kinds of experiences."

He added: "It's very different from any place I've traveled to before. Culturally very different. I'd definitely like to go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal next."

Ever since the Beatles arrived on the banks of the Ganges river in the 1960s to study Transcendental Meditation, India has been on the life list of a certain type of traveler.

And while there are still are plenty of Westerners seeking low-budget Eastern spirituality, India has recently started attracting a different class of visitor -- men and women like Lotman, who certainly wasn't spending his nights bunking in a dingy room with a bunch of backpackers.

New tourists like Lotman have helped feed a boom in travel to India, and the country is now nearly as popular a destination for Americans as Spain. Travel to India from the United States increased 10 percent between 2006 and 2007, on top of an 8 percent rise the year before. More Americans visited India last year than went to Ireland or Thailand, according to the most recent data from U.S. Department of Commerce.

The upsurge in Americans visiting India is part of broader boom in India's tourism industry. In 2007, some 5 million travelers headed to India, nearly double from 2000, according to the Tourism Ministry. Visitors from the U.S. accounted for 15.7 percent of the total.

These include a large number of business travelers, wealthy retirees out to explore India from the comfortable confines of an air-conditioned luxury bus or train, and people of Indian origin eager to see their parents' -- or grandparents' -- homeland.

What has made India as attractive as Europe or South America for American travelers is a combination of a booming economy, an aggressive marketing campaign and what the Tourism Ministry describes as "the diversity of our product."

Most international airlines fly into New Delhi, making it a natural first destination for visitors.

The city is more than a sleepy administrative center, and tourists can spend days gawking at the sprawling British colonial-era bungalows and exploring the crowded bylanes of Old Delhi, the capital of India's medieval Mogul rulers.

About 125 miles (200 kilometers) south -- close enough for a day trip -- is Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, the white-marble monument to love built by the Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan between 1632 and 1654 for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The monument, a must-see for most tourists, hosts some 3 million visitors a year.

A bit farther afield is Rajasthan, a region in western India famous for its fabulous splash of colors, medieval forts, ancient temples and camel safaris. There, visitors can spend a night in one of the myriad palaces that have been converted to hotels, getting waited on hand and foot, much like the maharajas of bygone days.

But The New-Delhi-Agra-Rajasthan circuit known as the "Golden Triangle" is just one corner of the country.

What might make India daunting -- a vast, complicated country of 1.1 billion people where dozens of languages are spoken across an area of more than a million square miles (2,590,000 square kilometers) -- is also its biggest draw.

"There's the history and the spirituality that everyone knows about and then there's more," says Leena Nandan, a joint secretary in the Tourism Ministry. "We now have business travelers, medical travelers, luxury travelers, adventure tourism."

There are the hippie haunts of Varanasi and Rishikesh on the banks of the Ganges, sacred to millions of devout Hindus; the all-night raves on the beaches of Goa, a slice of India once ruled by Portugal; the luxury resorts on the sparkling backwaters of the southern Kerala; the spartan yoga retreats and the bare-bones experience of Ayurvedic holistic healing in the Himalayas.

And then there are the myriad domestic airlines that have proliferated since India liberalized its economy. Even on the budget flights, meals are standard -- and on the full-fare carriers, they are often accompanied by luxuriously embroidered cloth napkins, metal cutlery and friendly service.

Travelers may have to contend with the same kinds of flight delays seen in the United States, but, says Gary Goodlin, who travels frequently on business between Chicago and Mumbai, "you couldn't get that kind of service on a low cost airline in the U.S."

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If You Go...

GETTING THERE: Most international carriers fly in to the capital New Delhi. There are direct flights between New York and New Delhi and plenty of options between Los Angeles and New Delhi. Depending on when you fly (the peak season is November to early January) the price for an economy class roundtrip ticket should run between US$1,200-2,000.

WHERE TO GO AND WHAT TO DO:

-- The Golden Triangle: For history buffs, New Delhi, Agra, and Rajasthan are a good start. There are several low-cost airlines connecting the Indian capital to Agra, as well Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Udaipur in Rajasthan. The cities are also well-connected by train and bus services.

-- Bodh Gaya: Buddhist pilgrims from all over the world flock to this town where the prince Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment after intense meditation and became the Buddha.

-- Dharamsala: The Himalayan town is home to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of millions of Tibetans Buddhists, and his government in exile. It's now also a major center for the study of Buddhist and Tibetan culture.

-- Goa: This former Portuguese colony is now a beach-lined tourist hotspot that attracts everyone from the hippie backpackers who come for the all-night beach parties to well-heeled travelers who come for the luxury hotels.

-- Kerala: Sandwiched between the Arabian Sea and the tropical rain forests of the Western Ghats mountain range, Kerala is among India's most popular tourist spots. Millions of travelers head here each year for its Ayurvedic holistic resorts, beaches, tropical wildlife and a dance form called Kathakkali.

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Beijing plays down worries on Olympic hotel bookings

BEIJING, July 15 (Reuters) - Beijing officials on Tuesday sought to downplay worries about low hotel reservations for next month's Olympics, insisting the numbers were in line with expectations and refusing to draw a link with new visa controls.

Xiong Yumei, deputy head of the Beijing Tourism Administration, told a news conference that more than half the rooms in four-star hotels in Beijing over the Olympic period were still available, though bookings were edging up slowly.

"This is what we expected," she said. "There are still quite a lot of people from other cities and provinces who have tickets but have not yet booked rooms. When August comes, the occupancy rate will be much higher than the present booking rate."

Over the same period last year, four-star hotels had booking rates of close to 70 percent, but there are now 20 more hotels competing for business than last year in Beijing, Xiong added.

"Beijing is doing quite well for accommodation resources," she said.

Yet just a few weeks ago, Xiong's boss Zhang Huiguang implied that there was a different reason for low hotel bookings -- the storm of bad publicity surrounding China in the run-up to the Games, potentially putting off visitors.

Since the start of this year, southern China has been hit by freak freezing weather, which cut power to millions, there has been violent unrest in Tibetan areas, anti-Chinese protests on the international leg of the Olympic torch relay and a huge earthquake in Sichuan.

There have also been warnings from Interpol that terrorists may target the Games, and the government has claimed to have broken up a plot by ethnic Uighurs from China's restive far western region of Xinjiang to attack the Olympics.

"I think maybe there will be some psychological effect on some foreign tourists who don't understand the situation," Zhang said in late May.

And despite China's public message that it welcomes all to the Olympics, the government has significantly tightened controls on visas in the run-up to the event, procedures it says are normal for an Olympic host city and needed for security.

Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic organisers, denied that the new visa regime was responsible for low hotel bookings.

"The visa policy is very clear -- it's to guarantee the security of competitors over the Olympics period ... We will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure a peaceful Games," Sun said.

"We welcome foreign friends from all over the world to come to Beijing to compete in and watch the Games, and continue to take measures to provide convenience in applying for visas," he added.

Beijing expects to play host to between 450,000 and 500,000 overseas visitors during the August Olympics, only marginally up from the 420,000 who came in the same period last year, though August, which can be searingly hot, is normally a low tourist season.

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Weaker pound keeps Britons abroad on tight budget

LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) - A weaker currency and rising household bills kept more Britons at home this spring, while those that ventured abroad kept to tighter budgets.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show the number of visits abroad by UK residents fell by 1 percent to 17.7 million in the three months to May when compared with the previous three months.

Spending while abroad fell even more, by 3 percent to 9.1 billion pounds, according to the seasonally-adjusted figures.

Foreigners, meanwhile, appear to be taking advantage of the weaker pound. Despite a global economic slowdown, there was no slippage in the number of overseas residents visiting Britain and those that did spent more.

The combination of more foreigners coming to the UK for shopping bargains and more Britons staying at home may go some way to explaining the surprising strength in UK retail sales growth.

If official figures are to be believed, retail sales have grown robustly since the start of the year and rose in May at their fastest monthly rate since records began in 1986.

The pound fell 12 percent in trade-weighted terms between last August and this April. Against the euro, sterling's losses have been even greater, explaining the particularly strong rise in the number of visitors to the UK from Europe.

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Cushman & Wakefield finds new way to forecast hotel demand

NEW YORK, July 22 (Reuters) - Real estate services company Cushman & Wakefield has found a new method to help hotel investors forecast room demand, combining office space demand with hotel fundamentals, the company said on Tuesday.

Using hotel data from Smith Travel Research, Cushman & Wakefield found that in some markets for every 1,000 square feet of occupied office space there is a certain amount of occupied hotel rooms per year in that market, within a 6 percent margin of error.

"Anticipating hotel room night demand has been an unscientific exercise," Eric Lewis, head of Cushman & Wakefield's Hospitality and Gaming Group, said. "However, with office space, although not an exact science, there's a lot more certainty to project those numbers given the visibility of major tenants, the longer leases, the publicity surrounding large tenants moving into and out of the market."

The forecasts correlate demand movements for office space that employs multiyear leases with hotel demand, which essentially relies on a one-night stay.

"If we project what's going to be happening with the occupied office space in a given market over two-year time horizon, we have a pretty good idea of what hotel demand should look like over that same horizon," Lewis said.

The formula is applicable for cities that have a substantial office market in relation to its hotel market, such as Manhattan, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Los Angeles.

It is not accurate for leisure-driven markets such as Orlando, Florida, Lewis said.

Currently hotel investors use a combination of factors such as convention center bookings, consumer sentiment and corporate travel spending patterns. For some markets, such as convention-driven Las Vegas, some of these indicators may be better forecasters, Lewis said.

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Tide turns for English pier as cash-strapped Britons stay home
28 July 2008
Agence France Presse

With colourful arcades, dizzing rides and rich-smelling food stalls, the English pier has long been a key part of a British seaside holiday -- but this summer could be its busiest for years.

Piers like those in Weston-Super-Mare -- which largely burnt down Monday -- and Brighton are traditional 19th century decks extending into the sea housing fairground carrousels, fish and chip shops and other wholesome family fare.

They first sprung up as the growth of railways and better working conditions under Queen Victoria prompted more people to take seaside holidays but fell out of fashion in the 1960s as package breaks opened up mass market foreign travel.

Now, though, Britain's 55 piers could be on the cusp of a revival as rocky economic conditions mean many people -- including Prime Minister Gordon Brown -- are holidaying in their own country this year, while there has also been a string of redevelopment projects capitalising on pier nostalgia.

"The architecture's all really old -- this is the way the Brits do it," said Danny Alder, 30, from Melbourne, Australia, strolling down Brighton pier in 27 degrees Celsius heat.

"It's the kind of stuff you would see in old movies," added his friend Geraldine Hickey, 29, also from Melbourne.

Judging by the number of recent redevelopment scenes, the fascination with the faded grandeur of piers is widespread.

Weston-Super-Mare pier had reopened just months before Monday's fire after being bought by new owners, who installed a go-kart track and climbing wall as part of a multi-million pound (dollar/euro) regeneration of the resort.

Southwold, where Brown is holidaying this week, also has a newly redeveloped pier which, to cater to its largely middle-class clientele, features an art shop and cafe selling muffins and coffee.

Brighton residents have also staged a long-running campaign to rebuild the resort's second West Pier, which burnt down in 2003 after falling derelict.

There could also be more tourists around British resorts to appreciate such new developments this year, experts say.

Dorothy and John Smith from Sheffield, northern England, are among those shelving a holiday abroad for a British seaside break this year due to the credit crunch, which they fear could continue to bite for several years.

The couple normally vacation in the south of France but this year came to Brighton on the spur of the moment, without a booking.

"There aren't many places like this left," said Dorothy Smith, about to start a promenade along Brighton pier with her husband.

"I just like everything that's on it -- and the fact that it's still here."

Holiday website lastminute.com has recorded an increase in British holiday bookings of nearly 20 percent, British media reported.

The head of tourism promotion body VisitBritain, Tom Wright, is optimistic of rising numbers, telling newspapers: "Economic factors coupled with renewed enthusiasm for what a holiday in Britain can offer present real potential for domestic tourism this summer."

Chris Foster of the National Piers Society, which works to conserve the historic relics, also detected a rise in Britons holidaying at home this year.

"One of the things they will be drawn to will be amusements that are there on piers," he added.

Local business people in Brighton are hopeful that their own pier -- immortalised in Graham Greene's noirish novel "Brighton Rock" -- will draw in hoards of crowds this summer.

"Clairvoyant to the stars" Eva Petulengro, who has a shop in the shadow of the pier, said the town was seeing many more Britons taking holidays there and foresaw great success in the coming months.

"I predict that pier will have a big summer, the best summer for 20 years, because of the weather and the fact that people are not going away," she said.

"We're going to have an Indian summer."

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Crime fears hindering S.Africa tourism growth

CAPE TOWN, July 31 (Reuters) - Perceptions of violent crime are the "Achilles heel" hindering growth in tourism in South Africa, a top tourism official said on Thursday.

South Africa will be the first African country to host the soccer World Cup, in 2010, but its status as one of the world's most violent countries outside a war zone has alarmed tourists keen to enjoy its beaches and wildlife.

"Crime continues to be the Achilles heel of the tourism industry in this country," Moeketsi Mosola, chief executive officer of the South African Tourism agency, told the Cape Town Press Club.

"There is no question that we are losing a lot of people ... due to the perception of safety and security," he said, adding the country was committed to providing a safe destination for visitors.

"In (the) last year we had 99.99 percent of tourists who came to South Africa and had a great time. Less than 0.1 percent were affected (by crime)," Mosola said.

Despite fears of crime, tourism in Africa's strongest economy remained resilient, particularly in the face of soaring global fuel prices which have caused some airline ticket prices to triple, Mosola said.

A global economic slowdown, which has its roots in the American housing market and has been accentuated by rising food prices and inflation, has hit consumers hard.

"The key source market outside Africa comes from North America and Europe and when there is a slowdown in the GDPs of these regions ... it is likely to negatively affect our arrivals to South Africa," he said.

Mosola said South Africa's tourism growth easily outstripped the global average of 5 percent for the first quarter of 2008, surging to 11.9 percent after a record 9.1 million tourist arrivals last year.

Tourism contributed 60.1 billion rand or 8.4 percent of South Africa's GDP in 2007, providing 785,000 jobs.

Mosola said SA Tourism was aiming for 10 million visitors in 2010 and a "historical high" GDP contribution of 12 percent by 2014.

"Tourism has the potential to do that," he said, although the fight against crime was crucial in achieving targets.

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London's economy hit as tourism tapers off

LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Rising inflation and faltering consumer confidence are hurting London's tourism industry, according to the British capital's tourism authority, with prospects poor for the rest of this year and next.

More than 25 million people visited London last year, making travel and tourism an enormous contributor to the economy. It generates 16.6 billion pounds ($33 billion) of business and employs more than 250,000 people, according to Visit London.

But a weakening dollar, rising inflation and a general downturn in major world economies have taken a toll in recent months, and the impact is likely to last well into 2009.

"Economic conditions have deteriorated badly since May, with business and consumer confidence weakening significantly," Visit London said in its latest quarterly report.

"We now expect overall visits to fall by 2.7 percent in 2008 and by 1.2 percent in 2009. Visit spending is anticipated to grow by less than inflation in both years," it said.

"Although strong visitor growth since 2005 does mean London is facing this slowdown from a position of relative strength, there are significant risks that this slowdown could be more severe than predicted."

The decline is visible in both domestic and international visitor numbers. Internationally, the downturn is most marked from the United States, with a weak dollar constraining Americans' ability to travel and spend freely.

While the euro has strengthened against both the dollar and the British pound, the increase has not been enough to entice substantially more European visitors and offset the decline in numbers from across the Atlantic.

"Although some sectors of the visitor economy, such as retail and theatre, continue to report robust trade, others such as hotels, business venues and attractions are witnessing weakening trade. Soft future booking levels have also been widely reported," the report said.

Overseas visitors to London spent more than $16 billion in 2007, providing a huge injection of cash to the capital. Sights such as the London Eye, Big Ben, the British Museum and Madame Tussauds have made London a global tourism leader.

Visit London expects total visitor numbers to decline to 24.8 million in 2008 and 24.5 million in 2009. The figures register those who stay overnight, not day-trippers.

Japanese and American visitors are both expected to fall this year, while numbers should rise by 4-5 percent this year for Russian, Indian and Middle Eastern tourists.

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Bordeaux reaches out to top-class tourists
2 August 2008
Agence France Presse

Known for its high-end wines, sumptuous chateaux and aristocrat vineyard-owners, Bordeaux has been strangely short of luxury tourist activities, but times finally are a-changing.

"Not enough is done at the very top end of the tourist market," said billionaire Bordeaux wine producer Bernard Magrez who, finding too little luxury for his liking has decided to open his own tour agency.

"Everyone in Bordeaux thinks people wait on bended knee for their wines, but nowadays excellent wines are produced all over the world," he told AFP.

So from September this year, when his agency officially opens, Magrez will be offering luxury short stays in four of his 18 Bordeaux chateaux, with helicopter or Rolls Royce on call for tours of the region.

Prices, understandably, start at 2,000 euros (310 dollars) per person for a two-day, one-night stay.

Dinner at the chateaux with one of the family, a rare vintage tasting, a private music concert, cookery courses with a top chef or a wine blending session with internationally-known winemaker Michel Rolland, are some of the options Magrez will be offering rich wine-lovers, or just simply the very rich.

From a low start, Bordeaux wine tourism services over the last 10 years have grown rapidly, but the trend has been toward numbers.

Early experiences largely were chateaux-owners welcoming wine-buyers, or students and backpackers working in the vines. But a local wine crisis in the early 2000s, when too much wine chased too few buyers, prised open chateaux doors to a more general public.

"The oenotourism trend in Bordeaux is more oriented towards volume, agencies and hotels and restaurants catering to the very top end are harder to find," said Anne Francoise Quie, who started her own luxury tourism business in 2006 with three colleagues.

"In my view, luxury tourism can only be tailor-made, for very small groups, often of two people," she said.

Quie and her partners offer a "gourmet day" that includes visits to the four participating Margaux chateaux -- Rauzan Gassies, Kirwan, Prieure-Lichine and La Tour de Bessan -- plus lunch or dinner with the owners. Prices start at about 1,000 euro a day for two, and clients can also spend the night. "We have no limits really. It is up to what people want," Quie said.

Over at the newly opened Regent Grand Hotel, which brings the number of luxury establishments in the area to five, concierge Bastien Lalanne said top-end tourists were mainly foreigners.

"Americans are the avid wine-lovers, they are looking for discoveries, to learn about different grapes and comparisons with Californian wines. They want to know the history," he said.

Russians, on the other hand, tend to go for big names such as Petrus, Cheval Blanc and Margaux, he said, pinpointing a factor that may influence how luxury travel develops in the future.

Where wine-lovers in the past, cash-heavy or cash-strapped, came respectfully on bended knee to Bordeaux, newer and less wine-savvy wealthy travellers, demand simply to see the highlights and move on.

"The Russians stay two or three days with a chauffeur and an interpreter and have very heavy tasting schedules," said Lalanne politely, meaning their wine intake was high.

But Bordeaux is realising it must adapt to those with less respect but much more money, mainly because markets are changing and rich tourists are also potential buyers blessed with bulging bank accounts.

Other than wealthy Americans and Russians, Brazilians and Chinese have also been sighted, and there are now 25 high-end tour agencies in Bordeaux compared with only three 20 years ago.

Listing examples of luxury extravagance, guide and interpreter Marie-Chantal Leboucq, mentions a plane flying a "happy birthday" trailer over a chateau filled with Russian guests, all in 18th century costume, and another decked out for a party in sumptuous 16th century Queen Margot trappings.

"There are more and more luxury clients but the competition is tough,"

said Marie-Christine Dubosq, who runs another agency catering to high net worth clients. "Places like Italy, Spain and Portugal have made huge efforts. We have lessons to learn," she said.

After all, up to now, for the lucky rich wanting a piece of Bordeaux, the habit was to spend a couple of thousand on a few bottles. Alternatively, like Bernard Arnault, director of luxury goods group LVMH, owner of chateaux Yquem and Cheval Blanc, or Simon Halibi, the Syrian investor and owner of Cantenac Brown, you could simply buy the chateau, rather than just visit it.

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Spain tourism profits to suffer in 2009-Sol Melia

MADRID, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Profitability among Spanish travel companies has fallen below expectations and will continue to languish through 2009, Spain's biggest hotel group Sol Melia said in an interview published on Monday.

Sebastian Escarrer, co-vice president of Mallorca-based Sol told El Mundo an economic slowdown in Spain, aggravated by the credit crisis, was affecting tourism as much as other cyclical sectors.

"This summer demand, and therefore income and results, will be below expectations across the sector and this will continue at least into the last quarter of 2008 and the whole of 2009.

"We companies have to prepare ourselves to face the deceleration in our two principle markets: the Spanish and British," said Sebastian Escarrer.

He added that a 15 percent weakening of the pound against the euro would have a major impact from 2009 since tour operators had already fixed their prices this year. His brother Gabriel, who is also a co-vice president, said the slowdown offered opportunities to companies like Sol as property developers, who have diversified into the tourist sector, are forced to sell assets to boost cashflow.

"In many Spanish cities like Madrid, Barcelona and Seville we are already seeing a freezing of the over-supply of recent years, many of the projects have ground to a halt, which will help to improve profitability in many establishments," said Gabriel Escarrer, whose family own 66 percent of Sol Melia.

The economic crisis had not had such a major impact on luxury travel, Gabriel Escarrer told the newspaper, but below that things were more difficult. "It's clear that everyone's pocket is suffering, but the mid-range sector is probably suffering with greater intensity."

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Ethiopia aims to earn $200 mln from tourism in '08

ADDIS ABABA, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Ethiopia hopes to boost tourism earnings 15 percent to $200 million this year, the government said on Wednesday.

"Tourist flow into Ethiopia has shown a marked improvement over the last five years," said Solomon Ali, head of public relations at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

"That is due to publicity campaigns aimed at changing the country's image from the stereotypical picture of famine and war to a nation of ancient history and culture."

Solomon said Ethiopia hopes to attract 400,000 tourists this year, up from 340,000 in 2007 when it earned $170 million.

The country hopes to trade on its reputation as the cradle of humankind, and the government has invested heavily in hotels, airports and other infrastructure to lure visitors.

Much of the focus has been on historic sites in the north, which include the obelisks at Axum -- reputed to be the home of the Biblical Queen of Sheba -- the stunning rock-hewn churches of Lalibella and several ancient castles.

Many tourists also visit Afar in the far northeast of the country to see the site where "Lucy", the fossilised bones of a 3.2 million-year-old hominid, was discovered.

Solomon said Lucy's remains were currently on a six-year tour of museums in the United States, and officials hoped this would create more interest in Ethiopia. Some Ethiopians, however, worry that the fragile bones may not survive the tour.

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Cambodia tourism up 13 percent, but Thais may turn away
AFP
Tue Aug 5, 12:19 PM ET

Tourist arrivals in Cambodia soared 13 percent in the first half of 2008, but the tourism minister warned Tuesday that Thais may avoid the kingdom as a border dispute drags on.

Ministry of Tourism statistics showed that nearly 1.1 million foreigners, including 67,502 from neighbouring Thailand, entered Cambodia from January until June, up 13 percent on the same period last year.

"This is a satisfactory increase," Tourism Minister Thong Khon told AFP.

But he said arrivals of Thai tourists were expected to drop after a territorial dispute on their joint border over land near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, which was listed as a UN World Heritage Site last month.

"We don't expect many more Thai tourists to come because they cannot go see the Preah Vihear temple," Thong Khon said.

Cambodia closed the border crossing from Thailand to Preah Vihear in late June, ahead of the July 15 arrest of three Thai nationalist protesters who tried to illegally cross into Cambodia to reach the temple.

The incident sparked a military stand-off, and more than 1,000 Thai and Cambodian soldiers are now stationed on a patch of disputed land near the ruin.

The tourism ministry did not say how many Thais entered Cambodia at the Preah Vihear crossing this year.

Of all international visitors, more than half flocked to Cambodia's famed Angkor temples in northwestern Siem Reap province, the ministry said.

Those World Heritage-listed ruins have been key in reviving Cambodia's tourism sector since 2003, when a regional SARS panic and anti-Thai riots in the country's capital Phnom Penh drove visitor figures into the ground.

But the government has also begun planning a number of tourism initiatives as part of a broader plan to both keep foreigners in Cambodia longer, and develop some of the country's more impoverished areas.

Tourist arrivals to Cambodia topped two million in 2007, and the sector remains one of the few sources of foreign exchange for the country, where millions live in poverty after decades of civil strife.

[hkskyline]

FEATURE-Sarajevo may rebuild wartime tunnel

SARAJEVO, Aug 15 (Reuters) - The narrow tunnel that ran beneath Sarajevo airport was people's only escape route during the longest siege in modern history, a symbol of a brutal war that split families and pitted neighbours against each other.

After marking the 15th anniversary of the now largely destroyed tunnel's opening, some in the capital of Bosnia hope to reconstruct the passage which meant escape or at least brief relief from desperate times. Yet the sensitive project lacks funds and they say it may be an opportunity for foreign investors.

"It should be reconstructed to remember those times and show Bosnians and the world how we lived, how we survived," said Ismet Hadzic, a general during the war who ran one half of the tunnel. "If the city rebuilds it, it would become the premier tourist destination in the city."

Like Vietnam's Cu Chi tunnels or the Anne Frank House Museum in Amsterdam, the tunnel that helped ordinary people survive in Sarajevo through more than 1,000 days under siege embodies the local spirit of resistance.

But even as Bosnia slowly recovers from the 1992-95 war, its government is still divided by ethnic and religious tensions. For some, memories of Sarajevo's bloody past are still too raw and its economy too battered to contemplate such a venture.

During the war, Bosnian Serb forces surrounded Sarajevo, a city that once boasted of tolerance between Muslims, Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Jews.

About 14,000 people were killed during the siege, according to Norwegian government-backed research by the Sarajevo-based Investigation-Documentation Centre.

Sarajevo's population of about 350,000, of which about 90 percent are now secular Muslims but still includes Serbs and Croats, has made significant progress in rebuilding since then. Yet nearly 40 percent of Bosnians are still officially unemployed.

Tourism is growing as an economic force. A 2007 report by the World Travel and Tourism Council estimated that almost 12 percent of Bosnia's economy is linked to travel and tourism, and war sites are among the attractions.

Last year, more than 119,000 international visitors came to the Sarajevo region, up from fewer than 90,000 in 2005, according to the Tourism Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina. More than 1 million visited the house in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her Jewish family hid from Nazis in World War Two.

Bosnia's inefficient politics could complicate rebuilding the tunnel, but local officials are optimistic. "We have political agreement from all parties," said Damir Hadzic, mayor of the Novi Grad district of Sarajevo. "We are going to start rebuilding next year."

IN THE TUNNEL

The 800-metre wood and iron tunnel, which opened on July 30, 1993, was the city's only direct link with the outside world: through it passed weapons, food, the wounded and supplies.

The structure connected a residential part of Sarajevo far from the centre with a more rural area beyond the airport, whose runway was controlled by United Nations forces. Many died coming and going as Bosnian Serbs shelled from afar.

Those who made the trip recall stumbling hunched below the roof, carrying back-breaking packs in a claustrophobic space dimly lit and often partially flooded.

Almost all the tunnel was destroyed after the airport was rebuilt, although about 25 metres are still intact. That final stretch exits into the Kolar family home on the far side of the airport, where a year after the war they opened their own Tunnel Museum.

Visitors to the museum, reliving the abbreviated tunnel crossing, still risk bumping their heads on low rafters but unlike Sarajevo citizens then, do not have to wade through water or suffer a shortage of air.

Great-grandmother Sida, who once handed cups of water to those arriving through the tunnel, still wanders around the property, wearing a headscarf.

The Kolar's home bears many scars of bullets and shells. Edis Kolar, 33, remembers how one day a shell killed nine people in the room near the entrance where he was sleeping: "Even I wouldn't come here if this wasn't my house," he said. "It is maybe too early to remember."

JOINT VENTURE?

To mark the 15th anniversary, the tunnel's builders and Bosnian fighters who used it gathered for a ceremony. Many had several-day old beards with rugged faces and solemn expressions that suggested they had seen many horrors in their lives.

They opened the ceremony with a moment of silence for the dead and lifted palms upwards in Muslim prayer.

Hajrudin Ibrahimovic, the Sarajevo region's minister for war veterans' affairs, said he wanted to restore part but not all of the original tunnel. "The tunnel needs to be reactivated," he said, but added that a complete reconstruction was not needed.

"It could be a joint venture with a foreign firm," he said, adding such plans are just an idea. "They would get a concession or something like that."

Even supporters of the idea are unsure if they will be able to attract foreign investment. Continued political uncertainty 13 years after the end of the war has kept investors wary, even as tourism has grown.

Some Slovenian and Austrian firms have put money into Bosnian tourism, but an Austrian investment in Sarajevo's best-known Holiday Inn hotel is now under legal dispute. Libya earlier this year pledged to invest 500 million euros in Bosnia, including in hotels, and others have expressed an interest in spa resorts. Still, foreign investment is not flooding in.

Ibrahimovic estimated the rebuilding cost at 2.5 to 5 million euros ($7.73 million), although some city officials say the project could cost twice as much.

Others say visitors who did not live through the war need to experience the full wartime length of the narrow tunnel. "Twenty five meters is not enough for people to remember how we suffered in the war," Kolar said.

"If people think about the past, we couldn't have wars," he continued. "We forget what happens to us every 50 years."

For years, few other than NATO soldiers and visiting delegations visited the museum, and the authorities have never officially recognised it. Yet recently on summer days it has attracted 50 to 100 visitors who pay 2.5 euros admission.

Dignitaries, and actors including the current James Bond Daniel Craig, have come. "Please don't let the world forget," Craig wrote during his visit.

Still, some local people say Bosnia is too retrospective, with items about war anniversaries frequently leading television news and press. Despite Sarajevo's progress, some buildings remain in ruin and many badly need costly repairs.

The Sarajevo International Airport's central runway runs along the remnants of tunnel. Airport General Manager Bakir Karahasanovic said he had crossed the tunnel often during the siege and it could be rebuilt without disrupting the runways.

"No one who was in the war would be against rebuilding it," he said. "It was our only way of surviving."

[hkskyline]

Conflict sinks Georgia's fledgling tourism industry
21 August 2008
Agence France Presse

At the site of Georgia's largest functioning cathedral, a leading tourist attraction a short drive from the capital, a few trinket sellers have set up stalls but there are no signs of buyers.

"Tourism has been dead since the start of the war. There's been nobody," says 57-year-old Lili Kostua, who has been selling souvenirs and religious symbols in Mtskheta, the ancient Georgian capital, for 15 years.

In front of her stands the medieval UNESCO-listed Sveti-Tskoveli cathedral, which means "life giving column." Lili depends on it to draw the tourists from Tbilisi who buy her bracelets, crucifixes and postcards.

"Before the fighting, there were lots of people from lots of different countries. Now I can't remember what a foreign language sounds likes," jokes the mother-of-one, smiling despite her hardship.

The car park next to her is nearly empty. Usually there are buses, she says.

The Georgian-Russian conflict which began on August 7 has dealt a devastating blow to the country's fledgling tourist industry in the middle of the summer season.

Travel warnings are in place, holidays have been cancelled and those tourists in the country when fighting broke out were advised to leave.

Beka Jakeli, acting head of the government's tourism department, says the number of foreign tourists more than tripled from 55,000 in 2003 to 194,000 in 2007. In the first six months of this year, 117,000 were registered.

His department has toured foreign tourism trade fairs and hired leading British public relations agency Saatchi & Saatchi last year, which led to a branding campaign centred on the slogan "Europe starts here."

"Obviously the conflict will have a very negative impact," he says.

A favourite holiday destination for the elite during Soviet times, Georgia's potential was constrained by political instability and violence after the country's independence in 1991.

In recent years, however, its snow-capped mountains, Black Sea coastline, charming capital and the renowned hospitality of its people has earned it a name among travellers looking for something out of the ordinary.

The Lonely Planet guide book describes it as "the most consistently beautiful country of the former Soviet Union." In the capital Tbilisi, at least three high-end hotels are under construction.

Manuka Burduli founded a Tbilisi-based travel company in 2003 looking to cash in on Georgia's growing reputation by offering biking, trekking and rafting tours, mainly to tourists from Israel and Germany.

After buying new equipment before the summer, he and his seven full-time employees and 10 part-time guides now face an uncertain future.

"It's a catastrophe," he says of the conflict. "Everyone has cancelled. The season is over."

For the future, he says the return of people to Georgia will depend on whether foreign embassies lift their travel warnings.

Help for him and others struggling with the aftermath of fighting could come from the government, which promises an aggressive overseas marketing campaign as soon as the conflict is resolved.

For Jakeli, the cloud of war might even have a silver lining.

"Before the conflict started, only two-three percent of the world had heard of Georgia," he told AFP. "At present, most of the world's population know about the country."

[hkskyline]

Visitors to Egypt increase more than 25 pct

CAIRO, Aug 25 (Reuters) - The number of people visiting Egypt increased more than 25 percent in the financial year 2007/8, compared with the previous year, Tourism Minister Zoheir Garrana told Reuters in an interview.

The minister declined to give the absolute figures but monthly statistics show that Egypt had about 9.8 million visitors in the financial year 2006/7. The ministry stopped releasing monthly statistics after February this year.

The number of nights tourists spent in Egypt and the amount of tourist revenue reaching the country increased 32 percent in the year, which ended in June, the minister added.

Egypt has not yet seen any slowdown in tourism because of slower growth in the European or U.S. economies, he said.

He added: "We anticipate a slowdown but as long as we are within the budget that potential travellers have, I think we will continue to have the growth we have witnessed in the past three years."

Egypt is a relatively cheap tourist destination but Garrana said that a combination of high inflation and a stable Egyptian pound could pose problems in the future.

The consumer price index rose 22 percent in the year to June and the Egyptian pound has appreciated about 3 percent against the dollar since the start of the year.

"Definitely cost has become a big factor in how people are coping and calculating their selling prices. If we increase the prices above a certain figure, it can have a negative impact on the flow of the industry," he said.

He said that for the sake of tourism he would like to see the pound-dollar exchange rate at seven or eight pounds to the dollar, compared with about 5.3 pounds now.

"But there are a lot of other factors that have to be taken into consideration," he added.

Tourism accounted for 6.5 percent of Egypt's gross domestic product in 2007, World Bank figures show.

It employs directly or indirectly about 13 percent of the workforce. The government estimates that every extra million tourists create 200,000 new jobs.

One of the biggest growth areas has been tourism from Russia, which now accounts for more tourists to Egypt than any other country. Russian tourists numbered 1.5 million in calendar 2007, overtaking Britain, and Garrana said he expected that to rise to 2 million in calendar 2008.

By the end of 2008 the number of hotel rooms in Egypt will increase to 240,000 from 203,000 now, meeting earlier than expected one of the six-year targets President Hosni Mubarak set in his presidential re-election campaign in 2005, he said.

"Altogether 140,000 new rooms are now being built and they will be ready over three or four years," Garrana added.

[Skyprince]

1.5 million Russian tourists to Egypt last year ?? That's almost 1 in every 100 Russian pop !

[hkskyline]

Mideast tourists flock to Paris in early 2008

PARIS, Aug 26 (Reuters) - The weak dollar knocked Americans from their place as Paris' top foreign visitors in the first half of the year but tourism from oil-rich Middle Eastern countries surged, a report released on Tuesday showed.

Data from the Paris tourism office showed U.S. visitors spent 20.1 percent fewer nights in the city during the first six months of 2008 compared with the same period a year earlier.

"The last time we saw such a drop from the U.S. must have been over 15 years ago," Paul Roll, head of the tourism office, told a news conference upon announcing the figures.

"Clearly it's due to the exchange rate, but overall Paris is doing quite well -- urban tourism in general is very strong because it is easy to visit cities on short trips," he added.

British tourists, many taking advantage of the Eurostar and low-cost flights for weekend visits, overtook Americans as the city's top visitors despite the euro's strengthening against the pound, the officials said.

But the biggest single increase in foreign tourists came from the Middle East, a bloc that registered a 23.7 percent jump on the year as oil spiked to a new record of more than $148 a barrel. There was no breakdown available on which Middle East countries the tourists came from.

France is the world's top tourist destination, drawing nearly 82 million visitors a year.

Paris has the most expensive "high-end" four-star hotels in western Europe, with an average price of 388 euros ($570.80) per night, the report said, citing a study by auditors MKG Hospitality.

Overall, hotel occupancy increased 1.4 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, a trend expected to last through the second half of the year and top 2007's record.

The figures showed French tourists favoured their capital far more than other nationalities, racking up 6.2 million nights spent in hotels there, followed by the British with 1.8 million, Americans with 1.7 million, and Italians with 1 million. Middle East visitors came in 11th.

Visits by Japanese tourists, traditionally an important bloc, fell 8.1 percent over the period.

Chinese tourism fell by 6.7 percent, but Roll said this had more to do with domestic affairs than with a boycott of France called for by some Chinese after demonstrators clashed with police at the Paris leg of the Olympic torch rally.

"Even before the boycott, we were projecting fewer Chinese visitors in 2008 because they would be more interested in the Olympics in China," Roll said.

[hkskyline]

Record number of tourists flock to Japan

TOKYO, Aug 22 (Reuters) - A record 4.3 million foreign tourists visited Japan in the first half of this year, up 10 percent from the same period last year, Japan's tourism promotion agency said on Friday.

Increased promotion by overseas travel agents, more flights from Asian centres and a cheaper yen helped boost numbers to their highest for a January-June period, the Japan National Tourist Organisation (JNTO) said in a statement.

"I think many Aisan tourists came to Japan instead of faraway destinations due to a surcharge from high oil prices," JNTO researcher Kenichiro Ozaki added.

South Korean tourists formed the largest group of visitors, with numbers rising 8.1 percent to 1.3 million.

Longer holidays at home and increased numbers of flights helped boost Hong Kong visitors 36.7 percent to 267,000, the agency said.

[hkskyline]

Welcome to Bavaria's 'thousand-star' hotel
2 September 2008
Agence France Presse

Welcome to the Bad Kissingen Hotel, where there is no room service, no bed, no wi-fi -- in fact, no room at all.

Here in what is officially one of Germany's weirdest hotels, you sleep in a field.

It is laid out like a labyrinth in a wheat field in Bavaria in southern Germany. You arrive at "reception" -- a circus tent -- before being led along paths to one of 19 "rooms" where you sleep.

Forty-year-old Monika Fritz says she first had the idea when she heard on the radio a 1970s German folk hit called "Ein Bett im Kornfeld" ("Bed in a cornfield") by crooner Juergen Drews.

She then teamed up with local farmer and town councillor Otto Funck, 64, and the hotel is now in its seventh year, charging seven euros (10.30 dollars) a night -- three euros for kids -- plus eight euros for a hearty breakfast.

"The people that come here are looking to get away from the everyday and to get close to nature," Fritz told AFP, who calls her business "romantic, good value and adventurous".

Dubbed the "thousand-star hotel," it is not quite under the stars that you spend the night, however. There is a small awning above you to keep the rain off, but through the open sides you can still see the night sky and the sunrise the next morning.

Open for just two weeks during August, there is little in the way of privacy with just four or five metres (13-16 feet) of wheat -- actually triticale, a hybrid of wheat and rye -- between each individual sleeping area.

But being able to hear neighbour's night-time activities or snoring didn't seem to bother the 30 or so guests on one recent night. Nor did they seem overly bothered by straw stabbing through the sleeping bag or the complete lack of mod-cons.

"It was magical and so comfortable, I saw a thousand and one stars," says enthusiastic 22-year-old student Wiebke Aszmutat, her blond hair all in a mess after a night out in the open.

To ease her slight aches and pains, Wiebke then made a beeline to the "wellness" section of the hotel where she planned to lay down in a container full of potatoes for a an unusual, rustic massage.

Her boyfriend, 27-year-old Christian Wohlfart, who was less impressed by the sleeping arrangements but who "loved the sunrise," meanwhile planned to put his legs in a basin of clay.

The whole experience was his birthday present.

Other attractions on the programme include a box full of "healing earth" you can squelch in with your bare feet, a "romantic" bed -- an iron bed-frame filled with straw -- and a maze in a neighbouring sweetcorn field.

"For the kids it's paradise here, they live outside all day, completely free," said 35-year-old Irene Weiss as she sat around the remains of the previous night's fire.

"We could have slept on straw in my parents' barn but I am telling you, this is something else."