Brits take Broome to world's hot spots

BRITISH travellers find Paris's Eiffel Tower and Egypt's pyramids a bore and much prefer to flock to some of Australia's top tourist spots, a survey has found.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge, Kings Canyon in the Northern Territory and Broome's Cable Beach have made it into a top 10 list of the best foreign tourist spots for British tourists.
Two of Paris's renowned sites - the Eiffel Tower and Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa at the Louvre - were rated the least impressive foreign sightseeing spots for British travellers.
New York's bustling Times Square and Statue of Liberty, the famous street of Las Ramblas in Barcelona, the White House in Washington DC, Egypt's historic pyramids and Rome's romantic meeting place, the Spanish Steps, also got the thumbs down.
Holidaying on home soil also proved a major disappointment for many Brits, with England's prehistoric Stonehenge named the worst tourist spot in the UK.
Some of London's major attractions - Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye and the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain - fared little better, according to the survey of 1267 British tourists by Virgin Travel Insurance.
Joining the three Australian tourist hot spots in the top 10 foreign attractions was the Grand Canal in Venice, the Treasury monument at Petra in Jordan and Kenya's Masai Mara.
Top 10 tourist sights
1. The Treasury, Petra, Jordan, The Grand Canal, Venice, The Masai Mara, Kenya, Sydney, Harbour Bridge, Taroko Gorge, Taiwan, Kings Canyon, Australia, Cappadaocia Caves, Turkey
Lake Titicaca, Peru and Bolivia, Cable Beach, Australia, Jungfraujoch, Switzerland.

By Belinda Tasker

Bomb blast at tourist spot kills nine

Seven Spanish tourists and two Yemeni drivers were killed on Monday when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into their convoy at an ancient temple in Yemen, officials said.
The interior ministry said the bombing in the restive northeastern region of Marib appeared to be the work of the al-Qaeda network.
"Preliminary information indicates that the al-Qaeda organisation is behind the cowardly attack," an interior ministry official told the Saba news agency.
"This criminal attack has killed seven Spanish tourists and two Yemeni nationals who worked as drivers and tourist guides, and wounded six Spanish tourists and two (Yemeni) nationals."
It was one of the deadliest bombings targeting foreigners in Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden which has been battling a number of attacks by the network in recent years.
Witnesses said the attack occurred as the tourists were wrapping up a tour of a temple in Marib which dates back 3000 years to the time of the biblical Queen of Sheba.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The security official said on the website of the Yemeni defence ministry's newspaper that the bomber slammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the tourists' five-car convoy, which included a police car.
In Madrid, an official had said earlier that six Spanish tourists had been killed and seven others injured in the attack.
Witnesses said the blast took place around 6pm (0100 AEST) in a western suburb of the town of Marib, 170 kilometres east of the capital Sanaa.
Tribal sources said it was heard as far as 20 kilometres away from the site of attack, near the Mahram Bilquis, or temple of the moon god.
Yemen has faced a wave of Islamist unrest among its Sunni Muslim majority which it has been fighting with help from US special forces based over the Bab al-Mandab strait in Djibouti.
In October 2000, 17 US sailors were killed when suicide bombers attacked the destroyer USS Cole off the southern Yemeni port of Aden in an attack claimed by al-Qaeda.
In October 2002, a similar attack against the French tanker the Limburg killed one Bulgarian crew member and wounded 12 others.
Thirty-six Yemenis are currently on trial charged with planning and carrying out attacks for al-Qaeda but several are on the run after tunnelling out of a Sanaa prison in February last year and are being tried in absentia.
Last month, a soldier with "emotional problems" opened fire on oil workers with US energy giant Occidental Petroleum killing an Indian woman engineer and wounding six other people, including the local American boss, in the eastern Shabwah province.
In September 2006, four bombers and a security guard were killed when Yemeni security forces foiled suicide bombings against two oil refineries. In March 2003, a Canadian was killed and another wounded after a Yemeni gunman opened fire at an oilfield east of Sanaa.
Yemen, which has 20 million inhabitants, is one of the world's poorest countries, despite its proximity to oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
The country has also been plagued by frequent kidnappings of Westerners, although all but one have been carried out by tribes with grievances against the central government and the hostages have been released unharmed.
Yemen has also faced a deadly uprising among the Zaidi minority in the mountains on the Saudi border although a ceasefire brokered by the gas-rich emirate of Qatari took effect last month.
In November 2002, a Hellfire missile fired from a US predator drone killed six al-Qaeda suspects in the Marib region, one of them a leading suspect in the sinking of the USS Cole.
It was the first strike outside Afghanistan of the so-called US war against terror.

Paradiso Is Latest Square Spot to Close

Higher rent prices have led to yet another store closing in Harvard Square, as the popular eatery Caffe Paradiso shut its doors for the last time earlier this month.Oscar De Stefano, Paradiso’s owner since it opened 23 years ago, said that the reason his cafe closed was that he couldn’t keep up with his new lease agreement.“The renegotiation went on behalf of the landlord, and the flow of traffic wasn’t there to support the new conditions,” De Stefano said.He added that landlords seem to pay more attention to cutting costs than to making sure businesses can afford the rent.“They respond to banks,” he said. “And banks have no feelings.”De Stefano pointed to what he saw as stagnant tourist levels as the explanation behind the demise of many older establishments.“In the 80s it was great and in the 90s it was better,” he explained. “But from 2001 on, it’s been a real struggle to keep up with the times.”Caffe Paradiso is just the latest in a string of independent store closings in Harvard Square. The Greenhouse Coffee Shop and Restaurant closed in April after nearly 30 years of serving the Harvard Square community. Ferranti-Dege Photographic Store, which opened in the Square in 1955, was forced to close last October.But Denise A. Jillson, the executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association—an advocacy group that any Harvard Square business, from local independents to national chains, can join—thinks the recent closings are just part of a normal cycle of the continually changing face of the Square. “If you look at who has joined our association in the last month, it’s all tiny businesses,” she said. While neither Caffe Paradiso nor Greenhouse were members, Jillson said that if De Stefano had come to them and asked for help in renegotiating the lease, they would have done their best to keep Paradiso in business.“We see the value of local independents staying in the square,” she said. “Paradiso was a gem with a loyal following and we feel badly that they’re no longer here.”While De Stefano has come to accept his retirement and looks forward to “less day-to-day responsibility,” the restaurateur also wonders whether changing social patterns may have added to his cafe’s demise.“It used to be two kids would come in and one would pay for both,” he explains. “Then the next day they’d be back and the other would pay. These days everyone pays for themselves, and you don’t want to have to pay for coffee everyday.”

Staff writer Nathan C. Strauss http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=519289

Popular Tourist Spots in Cyprus

Ayia Napa was a very poor village, the only income came from the fishing port. After the invasion in 1974 from Turkey Ayia Napa was born. For the young we have the centre of Ayia Napa that caters for their night life with bars and clubs and it is one of the most popular tourist spots in Cyprus. Over the years it has developed into a popular holiday resort with its beautiful crystal clear blue beaches with golden sands and is visited by many people from all over the world. In recent years, apart from being a family holiday destination, it has become a party capital similar to Ibiza. All beaches in Ayia Napa have been awarded with the EU blue flag for their level of cleanliness and the comprehensive facilities offered in line with the uniform standards set by the European Union. Water sports such as wind surfing, canoeing, speed boating and scuba diving are very popular here. The Cyprus Tourism Organization supervises the beaches and is responsible for protecting the interests of all tourists. It is also very well known for its magnificent night clubs and bars which cater people of any age. The Square, is in the middle of the town, and is filled with nightclubs and restaurants and shops, and for many is seen as the focal point of the Ayia Napa night life. The clubbing season in Ayia Napa starts off in June and lasts all summer until September or October, though a few clubs like the Black and White are open all year round. Licensing hours in Cyprus last nearly all day, starting at 9am and running through to 2am. Like all the major towns in Cyprus, it is bursting with markets and shops. Leather goods, clothes, jewellery and CDs are particularly well stocked and are a fair bit cheaper than at home. It now has a few shops open all day, every day of the week. Well known for its haute cuisine people tend to come here for other reasons. But there is a wide range of food from around the world available Thai, French, Mexican, Indian Chinese, and British. If you want fish and chips, you can have it. There is a McDonalds too. If you want to try something traditional in a restaurant, ask for some meze. It is a selection of different foods, some spicy, and a choice of dips and sauces.

By Douglas Scott

Parks at San Francisco

San Francisco Bay residents and travelers have many grand gardens and parks to be explored. San Francisco is one of the biggest metropolitan cities in the world and it boasts eye-catching and sophisticated parks and gardens. From the seasonal open-air festivals of Yerba Buena Gardens to the biggest urban park around the world, one and all are bound to find the ideal spot to relax and enjoy nature.Golden Gate Park is the best city landmark worth spending a glossy afternoon in or at the very least a turn through. It is larger than the New York City's Central Park; Golden Gate Park is about 1,000-acres of fields, gardens and made up of wooded paths. Whether you are chartering a row boat at stow Lake or tentative the over 6,000 plant species at Strybing Arboretum and at the Botanical Garden, the park has something amazing for every nature lover. Highlights of the park comprise Shakespeare Garden, the Conservatory of Flowers as well as the Japanese Tea Garden.The Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park is residential in a recently renovated Victorian glass makeup and is touted as the oldest public greenhouse in the western hemisphere. The greenhouse is actually open on Tuesday till Sunday. A nominal fee is obligatory for admittance to the greenhouse, but it is waived for the first Tuesday of every month.

By Amjath

global Chains Take Over Vietnam Tourism

GLOBAL CHAINS TAKE OVER VIETNAM TOURISM
UPON the news of Vietnam’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) hotel investors have flocked to the country with plans for large-scale beachside resorts, hoping to turn the golden sands of the burgeoning holiday destination into a gold mine. Amid the wave of interest, industry experts caution that Vietnam will have to choose between mass tourism and a more sustainable approach that looks beyond profits and preserves the country’s cultural and ecological heritage.
Recent weeks have seen a flurry of announcements for new luxury beach resorts which leading developers are hoping to build in Vietnam over coming years. Dubai-based Kingdom Hotel Investments (KHI) said it plans to build a US$65-million Raffles resort by 2011 on China Beach, the famed rest & recreation site of American troops during the war. The Raffles Da Nang complex would feature about 150 hotel suites and 15 private villas for sale on 154,000 square metres of beachfront land, said KHI.
Singaporean Banyan Tree group has pledged US$200 million to build an international standard tourism and services complex in central Vietnam. The 200-hectare complex in Thua Thien-Hue province's Chan May-Lang Co special economic zone (SEZ) will include six resorts and hotels with 2,400 rooms, according to a memorandum of understanding the firm signed recently with the local government.
In the far south, Vietnam’s largest island, Phu Quoc, is drawing unprecedented interest as the government is planning to turn the sleepy, coral-fringed get-away into what is called an ‘eco-aqua-tourism’ destination. Under ambitious plans, Hanoi hopes Phu Quoc, an island now best known for its fish sauce production, will draw up to three million tourists a year by 2020, rivalling Phuket and Bali.
High-end developers from the US, Switzerland and Canada have applied to invest billions of dollars in luxury tourism complexes on the island near the Cambodian border. One project by the US-based Rockingham Asset Management boasts a 2,000 room resort with a 36-hole golf course, villas for rent, entertainment and health care facilities, and even a motor racetrack, according to Thanh Nien News.
Switzerland’s Trustee Suisse that specializes in international tax and estate planning is planning a US$2.6 billion development on Phu Quoc. In addition to the resort area comprising of hotels and holiday villas, the 200-hectare complex, to be named ‘Asian Pearl’, will also include a financial centre and residential units.
Until recently, Vietnam attracted mainly ‘off-the-beaten-track’ tourists, pioneer travellers who braved visa hassles and cheap hotels when the socialist country emerged in the 1990s from post-war poverty and political isolation. Since then rapid economic development and global integration have raised Vietnam’s profile.
“From a PR point of view, the WTO entry sends a message that Vietnam is open and welcomes investment,” said Rick Mayo-Smith, founding partner of Ho Chi Minh-based Indochina Capital, a company that invests in hotels and manages US$300 million in property funds. Vietnam wants to boost tourist numbers to six million by 2010, up from 3.6 million arrivals in 2006. Tourism is now the second largest foreign exchange earner for the country after oil and gas. However, there are increasing worries that the government’s keen interest in tourism development will bring unwanted cultural and environmental impacts, as experienced in mass tourism destinations such as Thailand.

CAMBODIA

ANGKOR OVERWHELMED BY MARAUDING HORDES OF TOURISTS:-
AS Cambodia has settled into peace and opened to the world, the temples of Angkor have in recent years gone from stone to gold for the national government. This year, a deluge of tour operators is expected to cart in nearly one million foreign visitors, a six-fold increase since 2000.
Including Cambodians, the number of visitors to the archaeological park will reach a record two million this year and at least three million by 2010, according to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which identified Angkor as a World Heritage site in 1992.
The growth has put the Cambodian government in a difficult position, forcing it to balance the potential to make money against the need for preservation, restoration, and study. Preservationists and archaeologists here fear that the frenzy to commercialize Angkor, now also a hot set location for films such as Angelina Jolie's "Tomb Raider ," is winning out over the need for preservation.
Nowhere is that clearer than at Phnom Bakheng, located atop the highest peak of Angkor, where a number of new guidebooks advise visitors not to miss the sunset from the temple's summit. Tips like that have led to a daily siege by an armada of tour buses around dusk. On a recent afternoon, about 4,000 visitors, speaking Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, English and a host of other languages, scampered to the top of the temple, stepping on pictorial stones and manhandling ancient statues.
"The problem we're facing is that the pace of visitor growth is accelerating far faster than the ability to manage such huge crowds," said Teruo Jinnai , UNESCO's top official in Cambodia. "There is no doubt that this is beginning to cause damage to the temples and that it has the potential to become much worse if nothing is done."
Six months ago, the US-based World Monuments Fund (WMF), which is doing major restoration work at Phnom Bakheng, roped off the rapidly deteriorating main stone path leading to the temple area because of a combination of trampling tourists and rain runoff. Inside Phnom Bakheng, statues and carvings in low relief have sustained new damage from tourists. Fresh graffiti have been sprayed alongside sandstone carvings of flying celestial nymphs and Garuda warriors. On one side of the temple, piles of sandbags placed last year to hold up a retaining wall have been damaged by tourists who have climbed and descended the temple's sides without waiting their turn on a number of steep stone staircases.
"In the 10th century, this was a perfect creation, a structure built with mathematical and religious harmony and where the king and a few of his monks would come to worship," John Stubbs , the WMF vice president for field projects, said as he surveyed the crowds on the temple summit. "But now, look at this," he said. "It simply was not built for these thousands of people to be here at once. Tourism is a double-edged sword. We want everyone to appreciate the importance of Angkor's temples, but not like this."
The Cambodian government has come under fire over Angkor. Only a few local and foreign businesses appear to be benefiting from the economic boom generated by the ruins, by far Cambodia's largest tourist attraction. The concession to run the admissions centre - which generates tens of millions of dollars a year that preservationists say is rarely pumped back into the site itself - was granted to a politically connected company run by a powerful Cambodian businessman. Many of the street vendors who now peddle trinkets inside the park have come from the capital, Phnom Penh, rather than nearby villages.
As a result, the rural province surrounding Angkor remains the third- poorest in Cambodia, despite the opening of a string of five-star hotels and shopping arcades in the nearby town of Siem Reap, according to a study released in 2005 by the Cambodian Development Resource Institute.
The concerned government agency APSARA claims it has not enough funds to properly manage the temples. On the other hand, the government has found the means to push forward on initiatives designed to lure even greater numbers to the park. In recent weeks, authorities launched a pilot programme with Korean tour operators for a night-time ‘sound and light’ show at Angkor Wat. A Japanese tourism company has been granted rights to hold large, moonlit banquets inside the park at US$60 per person. "Angkor has become a sort of cultural Disneyland," said Khin Po Thai, a long-time Angkor guide and preservation activist. "We are overwhelmed by the crowds we have now, but they are still trying to bring in more and more people. No one ever sees where the money goes. It certainly doesn't go back into preservation."

TOURISM KNOCKED OUT

The powerful tsunami attack hitting the coastlines of the Indian Ocean on 26 December has come as a big shock to the world. But it appears that, as so often before, incompetence, greed and bureaucratic bungling have made the natural disaster worse. And once again, the tourism industry is playing a very problematic role in this drama that is still ongoing.
Ironically, Thailand’s tourism authorities have been running a promotional campaign under the slogan “Happiness on Earth”. But the country’s tourism lobby has obviously learned little from the HIV/AIDS, SARS or bird flu crises. This time, the international community has taken note with grave concern – if not anger - that a tsunami warning in Thailand was very well possible but may have been halted in order “to protect” tourism. Experts say that ringing the alarm bells following the news about the earthquake off the coast of northern Sumatra could have saved thousands of lives, reduced injuries and reduced some of the property damages.
It is also sad that in the aftermath of the tsunami, locals in southern Thailand repeatedly complained that government agencies only send rescue teams to major beach resort areas – in Phuket, Phi Phi Islands and Khao Lak, for example –, while other local communities were desperately waiting for help. Only three days after the tsunami attack, reports began to surface in the official media about the immeasurable losses and hardships faced by locals.
On the other hand, it took the corporate tourism industry only a few hours to throw on their propaganda machines at full speed in order to lure back tourists as soon as possible. The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) issued a statement on 27 December, saying “Most of Asia unaffected by Tsunami”, but then listed Asia’s most important coastal and marine tourist destinations that were all destroyed by the natural disaster. Other hotel and resort businesses in affected areas of South and Southeast Asia were quick to downplay or even deny the damages of their facilities. With no remorse for the thousands of dead bodies piling up on the beaches, they were keen to get out the message to the world that everything was getting back to normal so there was no need for sun-seeking holidaymakers to cancel their trip.