Traveling to new areas of the world becomes number one ‘Bucket List’ priority 30 and 40-somethings are giving ‘early retirement’ a completely new meaning! With more disposable income, flexible hours and retirement looking very different today than it used to, the next generation isn’t waiting around for the retirement lifestyle but rather living with the ‘no more not yets’ mantra! A just-released study dissects the life choices + priorities of American...
Providing a secure and safe Jamaica for tourists is a top priority by Edmund Bartlett, the current minister of tourism. Dr. Peter Tarlow was commissioned to begin an audit of the current travel safety situation in this Caribbean island country last week. Dr. Tarlow recently teamed up with eTN to lead the eTN Travel Security Training consulting program. Dr. Tarlow returned with a tale of two Jamaica. Here is his report: eTN Chatroom: Discuss with readers from around the world: I...
Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) delivered relief items worth UGX 10 Million (USD 3700) to the people who were affected by flash floods and landslides that occurred in October 2018 killing over 60 people in Bududa District. According to Bashir Hangi Communications Manager, UWA, the items that included maize flour (posho), beans, sugar, rice, hoes, cups, plates, soap salt and assorted clothes donated by UWA staff were handed over by the UWA Executive Director Sam Mwandha to the Bududa District...
Santha with Julia, the albino turtle. It was Boxing Day 2004. Santha Fernando, a 27-year-old Sri Lankan operating a turtle hatchery at Kosgoda, south of Colombo, heard the sea water rushing through the bushes before he felt it swirling and frothing around his feet and moving up to his knees before receding. eTN Chatroom: Discuss with readers from around the world: Usually Santha would be on the beach about 300 meters away from the hatchery gathering moss to feed his turtles. That...
Dr. Elinor Garely, editor in chief of wines.travel The weather forecast was horrific! Threats of snow and sleet and other atrocities (that can bring Manhattan to a standstill) dominated the news. Did I really want to go outside, schlep to the westside and Carnegie Hall to learn about the wines of Oakwood, California, a specific AVA area in Napa Valley? My taste-buds said yes! So – on went the boots, gloves, scarf, hat, and – off I went. eTN Chatroom: Discuss with readers from around the world:...
The Hotel Bossert was built in 1909 by Louis Bossert, a Brooklyn lumber magnate, as a residential hotel in Brooklyn Heights. The historic 14-story, 224-room hotel, once referred to as the “Waldorf-Astoria of Brooklyn,” was owned by the Jehovah’s Witnesses since 1984. The Brooklyn Dodgers celebrated their first and last World Series championship when they beat the New York Yankees in 1955. In the lobby of the Hotel Bossert, delirious Dodger fans celebrated by singing “For...
They’re everywhere: Enormous swarm of locusts descends on Mecca Saudi Arabia’s Mecca attracts millions of Muslim pilgrims from across the globe every year, but this time it became a site of completely different pilgrimage. The locust have been plaguing Islam’s holiest site for a few days now, with social media relaying a detailed account of the havoc they caused. They’re everywhere – in the air, on the pavement, on the robes of worshipers and on the walls of the...
His daughter Tulsi Gabbard is running for president in 2020. Hawaii Senator Mike Gabbard is currently attending the Farm Bureau convention in New Orleans where President Trump will speak on Monday. Gabbard’s daughter is U.S. Congresswomen Tulsi Gabbard. Donald Trump contending against Tulsi Gabbard may become a reality in 2020. Tulsi told CNN today about her plans to officially enter the race for president. After President Obama, she would be the second contender for president...
Four foreign tourists killed, dozens injured in Cuba bus crash Tour bus carrying 40 passengers, including 22 foreign tourists from Argentina, Canada, Spain, the United States, France, the Netherlands and Mexico, overturned near Guantanamo in eastern Cuba, killing seven people and injuring 33. Among those killed were two Argentine women, a German and a French. The accident also claimed the lives of three Cubans, according to Radio Guantanamo. eTN Chatroom: Discuss with readers from around the...
According to the results of a sociological survey conducted among German citizens by the online platform ab-in-den-urlaub, German holidaymakers are most annoyed by fellow vacationers from Russia and Great Britain. Among 12 nationalities appearing in the survey, Russians were the definite leaders: the Germans were irritated by their noisiness (60% of respondents), their passion for drinking (56%), poor table manners (50%), rude behavior (38%) and selfie-taking mania (24%). eTN Chatroom: Discuss...
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel today announced that the city set a new tourism record, welcoming more than 57.6 million visitors in 2018 – a growth of 4.3% over the previous year. “When it comes to attracting tourists and business travelers, Chicago can go toe-to-toe with any city in the world,” Mayor Emanuel said. “By continuing to set new tourism records and bring millions more people to Chicago every year, we are creating jobs and economic...
Latin America outperforms North America in tourism growth With five percent more international trips, outbound travel from the Americas has shown solid growth in 2018 with a plus of 5 percent. In contrast to the previous year, where North American growth exceeded Latin America, the first eight months of 2018 reflected the contrary. While North American outbound travel increased by four percent, Latin America was twice as strong with eight percent more international trips. Looking at 2019, the...
The Whitsunday Islands are one of the most famous tourist regions in Queensland, Australia. Beaches at this usually peaceful scenic tourist region are closed as of Thursday when an elderly woman was bitten while wading in shallow waters ad Catseye beach on Hamilton Island. A girl remains in hospital in a stable condition after being attacked in the Whitsunday Islands by what was first believed to be a shark. After a second look, it wasn’t a shark, but a toadfish that attacked the...
Norovirus outbreak cancels Oasis of the Seas’ Jamaica cruise Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Oasis of the Seas cruise ship was forced to return to homeport after Norovirus outbreak sickened almost 300 cruise passengers on board. Prior to forced U-turn, even after the Oasis of the Seas was essentially declared a quarantine vessel – the government of Jamaica forbade passengers from disembarking at Falmouth, where they had a day of excursions planned – Royal Caribbean had...
UNWTO may be on its way to a new home in China or Georgia. UNWTO was a guest in Spain since 1974. Spain has been enjoying a permanent seat in the UNWTO Executive Council as a host. eTN Chatroom: Discuss with readers from around the world: A move planned for a new home within Madrid for the only U.N. agency in Spain may not materialize due to increasing conflicts between the World Tourism Organization and the Spanish Ministry of Tourism under the leadership of Maroto Reyes, minister of Industry...
“O’naturel” closes due to lack of demand from ‘shy customer base’ The owners of the suggestively named “O’naturel” restaurant in Paris, said they would be shutting down the eatery in February due to a shocking lack of diners fascinated with watching naked strangers feed themselves. Thus, having severely overestimated consumer desire to have strangers watch them eat in the buff, Paris’ first nudist café will soon be history. eTN...
While it may be best known as a financial hub with skyscraper type buildings, tropical Singapore is still home to a rainforest and wildlife, from monkeys to pangolins – also known as scaly anteaters. Singapore is creating a vast eco-tourism zone in a bid to bring in more visitors, but environmentalists fear the development will damage natural habitats and are already blaming it for a series of animal deaths. eTN Chatroom: Discuss with readers from around the world: Tourists love the night...
It was reported by local media in social outlets that a drone had collided with a British Airways passenger jet today. As it turns out, this happened in 2014. British Airways contacted eTN and categorically denied this had happened today. London’s Heathrow Airport did stop all flight departures today after a drone was sited at Heathrow Airport in London before 6:00 pm. eTN Chatroom: Discuss with readers from around the world: As a precaution, the airport suspended all departures, leaving...
Chinese tourism to Russia booming China’s largest travel company, Ctrip, says that Russia was in the top three (after the United Kingdom and France) most popular European travel destinations for Chinese tourists in 2018. The number of Chinese travelers visiting Russian Federation increased significantly last year, with Ctrip, organizing tours for over 130,000 people. eTN Chatroom: Discuss with readers from around the world: Chinese tourists were also showing increased interest in new...
Thousands of tourists ended the last Christmas holiday in the Alps on Sunday being evacuated. This included visitors to the famous glacier Matterhorn in Switzerland. Airports and trains experienced mass cancellations. Heavier than usual snowfalls in the Alps have cut off towns in higher elevations and increased the threat posed by avalanches. Thousands of winter holiday-makers are trapped in some of the mountain range’s most popular ski resorts in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. eTN...
Jamaica is both a place and a state of mind. This is a land of sun and surf, sea and mountains. Stay tuned to experience how this country under the direction of their tourism minister Edmund Bartlett will own the spirit of tourism resilience. Once outside of the large tourist resorts there are the more intimate “Jamaica’s”: the world of chicken jerky and coffee plantations, the world of reggae music, Bob Marley and “yea-man”. Jamaica is also a world of...
European travelers love Tunisia, and it shows. Despite the U.S. having travel alerts in place, Europeans travel again to Tunisia. Tunis Tourism receipts went up to USD 1.4 billion in Tunisia from January to 20 December 2018, according to numbers provided by the Ministry of Tourism and Handicrafts to the news agency Tunis Afrique Presse ( TAP ). The value equals 3.9 billion dinars (USD 1.4 billion) and represented a 42.1% growth over the same period in 2017. According to TAP, 2018...
Every day 8000 Chinese tourists enter the United States, and every day an average of 5000 American tourists enter China. Americans should exercise increased caution in China due to arbitrary enforcement of local laws as well as special restrictions on dual U.S.-Chinese nationals. eTN Chatroom: Discuss with readers from around the world: A trade war between the two superpowers is obvious and issuing a travel alert in the midsts of such a conflict could create a response from the other party...
Perhaps Charles Dickens said it best when he stated that we live in the best and worst of times. There is little doubt that the tourism industry is facing some interesting and challenging times. Its transportation component has to deal with the irregular and hard to predict cost of fuel, both in the form of gasoline and jet plane fuel, but also the fact that antiquated air systems combined with a major decline in customer service have made millions of travelers understand why we derive the word...
Angkor is one of the most important archaeological sites in South-East Asia located in Cambodia’s northern province of Siem Reap. Stretching over some 400 km2, including forested area, Angkor Archaeological Park contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century. They include the famous Temple of Angkor Wat and, at Angkor Thom, the Bayon Temple with its countless sculptural decorations. UNESCO has set up a wide-ranging...
Last year 555 airline passengers died in plane accidents. This is the worst year according to a report by BBC. The good news is with 4.5 billion airline passengers traveling on 45 million flights in 2018, the yar was still the ninth safest in aviation history. The worst accident was a Lion Air crash in Jakarta, Indonesia. This crash killed all 189 people on board the Lion Air flight. It opened a discussion on the safety of Airbus Max and resulted in a number of canceled order for the European...
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s 2030 has a vision that includes a reform to decrease Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil revenues through upgrades to its economy and public service sectors such as education, health, infrastructure, and tourism. Saudi educators have started preparations to introduce the study of philosophy in the kingdom’s schools. Working in conjunction with British experts, they have started training 200 instructors who will teach high-school students a...
The President of the Italian Republic Mattarella has a New Year’s message and a message for the World Day of Peace for Pope Francis and the world. This is a “high” and “incisive” valid message “for every ruler, believer or non-believer, in every corner of the globe”. It’s a message to Pope Francis for the celebration of World Day of Peace: “Good politics is at the service of peace”, These are the words of the...
As a paradise in the Indian Ocean, Seychelles competes with many other island nations across the globe, from South East Asia to the Caribbean, as well as with nearby countries. Nevertheless, you’ve managed to position ourselves as one of the top tourism destinations worldwide. What competitive and comparative advantages set this country apart from its main competitors? Within the Indian Ocean itself, I think Seychelles combines the best of the islands. On one side we have Mauritius which...
Seychelles has a diverse tourism product which makes its strength and which has guaranteed its success. Seychelles offers tourism for all. Visiting journalists to the islands continue to raise this question, and only last week Alain St.Ange, the former Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine was quizzed on the ‘Tourism for All’ he had pushed during his campaign as a Candidate for the post of Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism...
