#152: Green Skeptics, and a Week of Bizarre Travel News |
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A survey finds that Americans are very skeptical of green claims by hotels. And this was a week of some very strange news stories, including a tour to Afghanistan, a misplaced monument in the US, a dark Titanic cruise, Zimbabwe has not money, and pets flying first class... |
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Travelography
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Alan A. Lew
 
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Show's Description
The Travelography podcast discusses travel and tourism related news, opinions and more from around the globe. I discuss travel in the news, and news that affects travel.
Most Recent Post
#153: Mexico and Thailand's Tourism Challenges, and more... |
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Stories discussed in this podcast are from the Travelography Twitter Blog for the week of 21 to 27 April 2009. This podcast is available at PodcasterNews.com, Blubrry.com and Travelgeography.info.
Canada
is one of the few remaining countries that hasn't been granted
"approved destination status," known as ADS, by the Chinese. As a
result, the Canadian tourism industry cannot actively market Canada in
China, and Chinese travel agents can't advertise and promote Canadian
trips. But that may be about to change.
Tourism
was hit particularly hard by recent street violence in a long battle
between royalists, the military and urban Thais who back the current
government and supporters of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra whose power base was mainly drawn from the millions of rural
poor. "The combination of the impact of the slowdown of the global
economy and the social unrest domestically means that we're
anticipating tourist arrivals, originally forecast at 14 million, to be
something closer to…
“With
passengers voting overwhelmingly for a ‘fat tax’ we are now asking them
to suggest which format the charge should take. The above four points
seem to us to be the simplest, fairest and administratively easiest to
apply. In all cases we’ve limits at very high levels so that a ‘fat
tax’ will only apply to those really large passengers who invade’ the
space of the passengers sitting beside them."
By
a show of hands citizens of the tiny canton (state) of Appenzell Inner
Rhodes voted overwhelmingly at their traditional open-air annual
assembly to impose a 200 Swiss franc ($176) fine on violators. Only a
scattering of people on Sunday opposed the ban on the back-to-nature
activity that took off last autumn when naked hikers — primarily
Germans — started showing up in eastern Switzerland. RT @markwilliams
Given
the circumstances (Tijuana's 843 murders last year doubled 2007's), it
takes moxie to launch a [tourism] campaign. Number one on the list:
"Take a picture with the famous Tijuana zebra donkey." Number 75: Get
out of town by "Flying direct to Narita, Japan, from Tijuana Airport."
Delusional thinking or marketing optimism?
The
ID cards are embedded with an image of the traveler's eye that is used
to verify his identity. Industry groups say the program will encourage
travel to the USA by reducing the hassles of clearing customs.
"The
revenue from tourism could drop 35 percent... to only 350 billion baht
from 540 billion baht in 2008," ... The kingdom's tourist-friendly
image was dented by a nine-day seizure of Bangkok's airports at the end
of last year that left thousands stranded, and was further affected by
rallies held by rival demonstrators last week.
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Posted April 28, 2009
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Last 5 Posts
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