Focus on tourism in the Solomon Islands

THE Solomon Islands government is looking to the tourism sector to attract 60,000 visitors annually by 2025, in the process netting the country’s economy SBD1 billion. With International visitation to the Solomon Islands growing on average nine per cent annually, the destination is hopeful of achieving the 30,000 mark by the end of 2019.  

Addressing delegates attending the 2019 ‘Measure What Matters’ Tourism Focus in Honiara, #SolomonIslands caretaker prime minister, the Hon. Rick Rick Houenipwela said contributions from tourism in recent years had now grown to the point when the sector was now looked at to plug the gap left by the country’s former key economic drivers, including forestry and mining."

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Grand Canyon West: Open for Visitors

THOSE looking to experience the natural beauty of the Grand Canyon amid the federal government shutdown can do so at Grand Canyon West.

Grand Canyon West is owned and operated by the Hualapai Tribe through its Grand Canyon Resort Corporation. Grand Canyon West is not part of the National Park Service. Thus, the tourism center, which attracts more than 1 million visitors each year, has not been at all affected by the current federal government shutdown.

Visitors are welcome to explore the world-famous Skywalk glass bridge, which hovers more than 4,000 feet about the floor of the Grand Canyon. Other Grand Canyon West experiences include Hualapai Ranch, which is a replica of an old western town, and majestic viewpoints like Eagle Point and Guano Point.

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Forces of mass construction

VOLCANOES 3D: THE FIRES OF CREATION, blasts into the California Science Center IMAX theater on January 21, 2019. Join intrepid explorer Carsten Peter as he dodges boulders at the edge of an active volcano in Indonesia, descends to a boiling lava lake in Vanuatu, and visits incredible acid ponds, geysers and mineral deposit fields in Ethiopia.

Peter also explored the archeological ghost town of Pompeii, hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean and witnessed the devastating effects of the 2018 Kilauea eruption in Hawaii. With over 500 active volcanoes, Earth is bursting at the seams with these forces of mass construction. The story of volcanoes is the story of the planet's creation, and the story of us.

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Vienna at your fingertips

VISITORS to Vienna can now gain access to more than 60 of the city's most popular attractions, tours and museums directly via their smartphones with the newly launched mobile version of the popular #Vienna PASS sightseeing card (www.viennapass.com).

The mobile Vienna PASS places the best of the city at the visitor's fingertips and makes it possible to use the pass within seconds of purchase. An email booking confirmation contains a link to the free Vienna Guide app for iOS or Android devices, which acts as a platform to download the mobile pass. The Vienna PASS customer then simply scans the app's barcode straight from their smartphone to gain entry at a featured attraction.

The app also acts as a digital guidebook, containing full details on all Vienna PASS attractions as well as maps of the city and essential tourist information. Once downloaded, all of the app content including the mobile Vienna PASS is available without an internet connection.

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Surprising and Inspiring Travel

THE publication of National Geographic Traveler magazines annual Best Trips issue, reveals its 28 must-see destinations and travel experiences for 2019. Together, Traveler editors and National Geographic Explorers have selected their top places to travel across four categories: Cities, Nature, Culture, and Adventure.

The year's Best Trips list is relevant, surprising and inspiring, highlighting a globe-spanning mix of destinations from the Peruvian Amazon to Kansas City, Missouri.

National Geographic's Best Trips destinations for 2019 are:

CITIES

Dakar, Senegal
Salvador, Brazil
Kansas City, Missouri
Toronto, Canada
Matera, Italy
Perth, Australia
Mexico City, Mexico

NATURE

Peruvian Amazon
Montenegro
Belize
Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique
South Walton County, Florida
Fanjingshan, China
Tahiti, French Polynesia

CULTURE

Cairo, Egypt
Hoang Lien Son, Vietnam
Galway, Ireland
Bauhaus Trail, Germany
Oakland, California
Vervey, Switzerland
Dordogne, France

ADVENTURE

Greenland
Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, New Mexico
Isla de los Estados, Argentina
Macedonia
Canterbury Region, New Zealand
Caño Cristales River, Colombia
Oman

The December/January 2019 issue of Traveler magazine, is now available on newsstands and online at NatGeoTravel.com/BestTrips2019.


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Seven Reasons to go on a Blind Date with the World

THE world travel championship, known as The Global Scavenger Hunt, will take place between April 12 and May 4, 2019. It may be the best travel adventure of 2019. Here’s seven reasons why:

1. A $50,000 winner-take-all cash prize awaits the world travel championship winners.

2. Adventurous Indiana Jones-types will not only circumnavigate the globe but take A Blind Date with the World visiting 10 mysteriously secret far-flung exotic countries.

3. The Global Scavenger Hunt is all about authentic, participatory and challenging site-doing, not passive sight-seeing.

4. This travel adventure competition crowns The World’s Greatest Travelers.

5. For 23-days travelers escape their daily grinds, living outside their comfort zones learning to trust strangers in strange lands.

6. This “Amazing Race for real people” tests their mettle and travel IQ against other great international travelers in a real-life adventure.

7. Imagine…a daily series of micro-adventures, from sunrise to sunset, that checks off priceless bucket list-worthy experiences creating thrillionaires out of its participants on a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

Event participation open—but limited; the $25,000 per team entry fee includes: all international airfare, First Class hotels, 40% of meals, and special event travel gear. All travelers are interviewed for suitability and single travelers are welcome to apply. 

GlobalScavengerHunt.com

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Day trips on the Odakyu line

THE Odakyu Electric Railway, established in 1948, is one of Japan's major private railway companies. With the Shinjuku central transportation terminal in the capital of #Japan, Odakyu lines extend to Hakone, one of Japan's foremost hot spring tourist destinations, and Enoshima-Kamakura, the historical seaside town close to the city center, and they are used not only for sightseeing but also by two million commuters traveling to work every day.

Four types of day tours allow travelers from abroad to enjoy the tourist attractions in areas along the Odakyu lines.

1) Yoyogi Uehara near Shinjuku and Shibuya in downtown Tokyo;

2) Shimokitazawa well known for young people's subculture;

3) Nature-rich, sacred mountain Oyama also known as a historic site; and

4) Odawara, which is the gateway to Hakone and where there is a station on the Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train line.

All four tours are day trips requiring advance reservations. On all these tours, guides provide detailed information in English on local tourist attractions in these four respective areas. Reservations for these tours can be made online as well as at INBOUND LEAGUE and Odakyu Sightseeing Service Center Shinjuku West for foreign tourists, both situated in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.


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The Perfect Road Trip

THE perfect road trip involves three people, covers 190 miles and is accompanied by rock music, according to new research by British Airways. To celebrate the airline’s new route to the South African coastal city of #Durban; the gateway to national parks, African plains and safaris, travellers were also asked to name the celebrity they would most like to see in the passenger seat, with James Corden topping the poll (11 per cent), followed by Tom Hanks (9 per cent) and Stephen Fry (9 per cent). 

To be considered a road trip, the journey needs to be at least 190 miles long and last three hours and 42 minutes and the ideal drive should take place in a VW camper van (16 per cent), Range Rover (14 per cent) or Ford Mustang (8 per cent). There needs to be at least one toilet stop every 100 miles, good weather and a reliable sat nav, yet one in three Brits (33 per cent) said getting lost is the fun part of a road trip. 

The study also found that the music played on a road trip is more important than the destination, but your road trip companions topped the list as the most important factor with 62 per cent, closely followed by the scenery outside (60 per cent). 

More than half (57 per cent) of Brits like the idea of a ‘fly drive’ holiday and 35 per cent would happily drive in a foreign country, even if they hadn’t before. 

However, almost half (48 per cent) worry they won’t be able to get used to driving on the other side of the road and 39 per cent worry they won’t be able to read or understand the road signs. 


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Contribute to sustainable tourism in the Ecuadorian Amazon

CEO of Advantage Travel and Anakonda Amazon Cruises, Raul Garcia, has been nominated for PURE Awards 2018’s Contribution to Experiential Travel honor. Garcia is one of five contestants shortlisted for the award. The annual trade show describes the honor as going to an “individual whose efforts have directly influenced the development of the experiential travel movement.”

Driven by a desire to conserve and explore the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, Raul Garcia has spent over 40 years promoting responsible tourism and introducing people from all over the world to the ancestral communities of the Amazon. Raul founded the first and only luxury river cruise in the Ecuadorian Amazon—the Anakonda. On the 25th anniversary of his successful travel agency, Advantage Travel, Raul unveiled a second vessel, the Manatee, in July 2017. By developing a model where the local communities of the rainforest share in the profits of the industry, Raul has helped to promote sustainable tourism in the region.


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Sustainable travel off the Golden Route

TOKYO based startup tour operator Heartland JAPAN is leading the way in creating sustainable #travel #destinations off the so-called Golden Route (Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima etc.) which is currently overburdened by the year on year increase in inbound travellers (an increase of 450% over the past five years), set to reach 40M in 2020.

In spite of the staggering rise in foreign tourists, relatively little has been done so far to make travellers aware of alternative destinations, with a continued fixation on commercialised travel spots. It is here that Heartland JAPAN positions itself in providing the information and means for inbound visitors to journey off the beaten track.

Heartland JAPAN aims to create life-changing journeys, to provide physical and spiritual fulfillment through outdoor activities, hands-on experiences and cultural exchanges with locals. The company’s current fully guided adventure tours cover five destinations across #Japan, all of which are reachable from the various 2019 Rugby World Cup and 2020 Olympics game sites, providing the perfect opportunity for visitors to these events.

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Time to shine again for Christmas Island

CHRISTMAS Island’s tourism industry finally has the opportunity to shine again. This week, the island’s Immigration Detention Centre (IDC), which opened its doors in 2008, will scale back to ‘hot contingency’ status, which means it will be closed to detainees, and only operational should the need arise. 

Tourism operators on the tropical island, located 2600 kilometres north-west of Perth, hope this change in status of the centre means the spotlight can once again be shone on the island’s extraordinary natural wonders. “Our industry has had to endure many challenges during the past ten years,” reports Lisa Preston, Chair of the Christmas Island Tourism Association, adding “it’s great to be able to finally start getting our positive messages out into our markets”. Earlier this week, the tropical island celebrated its 60th anniversary as an Australian Territory.

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Enjoy Granada with a little help

THE Italian startup for electric bike tours BikeSquare, is expanding to #Spain to offer the chance of visiting and discovering by ebike the most important Spanish cities with their different history, character and traditions.

Thanks to the collaboration with its partner, E-bike Tour Granada, BikeSquare is offering an electric bike tour of the city, to enjoy #Granada historical districts and their spectacular viewpoints.

Accompanied by a professional guide, visitors will have the chance to visit the fascinating neighbourhoods of Albayzín and Sacromonte, perched on the hill. The Albayzín is a charming area, located at 700-800 mts height, that maintains the Moorish traits, with its narrow lanes and well-kept traditional houses. It is famous especially for its dramatic views overlooking the Alhambra palace. The Sacromonte, is known for its Abbey and its caves, where every night gypsies celebrate with their songs and flamenco dance.

Thanks to the powerful electric bikes, it will be easy reaching the top of the hill and enjoying this charming and authentic areas. The 3 hour tour starts on the roads and Forest trails of the Alhambra. Visitors will enjoy the magnificent views of the Albayzín and the Alhambra, the Sacromonte Abbey, with the viewpoints of San Miguel and San Nicolás, coming back to the center of Granada by the Sacromonte.


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Welcoming the royal newly-weds

NEW ZEALAND is preparing to welcome the royal newly-weds, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, on their first official visit to the southern realms.

The four-day royal visit (28 October - 1 November) will be the last stop on a 16-day royal tour that also includes visits to Australia, Fiji and Tonga. 

In #NewZealand, their royal highness's will visit the main cities of Wellington and Auckland, travel across Cook Strait to Abel Tasman National Park on the northern tip of the South Island, and Rotorua - the cultural and geothermal heart of the central North Island.

Royal Tour Outline

• Tuesday 16th October - Monday 22nd October: Australia 
• Tuesday 23rd October - Wednesday 24th October: Fiji 
• Thursday 25th October - Friday 26th October: Tonga 
• Saturday 27th October: Sydney, Australia 
• Sunday 28th October: Wellington, New Zealand
• Monday 29th October: Wellington and Abel Tasman, New Zealand
• Tuesday 30th October: Auckland, New Zealand
• Wednesday 31st October: Rotorua, New Zealand

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Falling for Flagstaff

AS the fall months begin to emerge, Flagstaff's LEAF-ometer is the answer to the question: What color are the fall leaves? To experience the autumn season at its most exhilarating, visitors can use the LEAF-ometer and catch the changing foliage on the trails and around town.

Flagstaff is only 80 miles from the Grand Canyon an ideal home base for visitors to explore some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. Visitors experience Route 66, a charming historic downtown with trains, shopping, art galleries, events, music, restaurants and nightlife. Flagstaff is the World's First International Dark Sky City

Time your leaf-viewing trip and plan to get here to experience cool temperatures, amazing scenery and outdoor adventure. For more information, suggestions and conditions visit flagstaffarizona.org or www.flagstaffarizona.org/leafometer.

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Dig it down under

TAKE a geological journey through pre-history along the Tropic of Capricorn. “Dig the Tropic” is a Geo-Tourism Trail linking the wonders of the Southern Great Barrier Reef with the mysteries of Queensland’s Outback. This driving trail enables visitors to discover dinosaurs, view remnants of an inland sea, explore ancient lands, and fossick for gems. 

It is the only known trail of its kind in the world, so it is a self-drive holiday like no other. Following the Tropic of Capricorn, visitors can experience a living museum created by ancient events left behind visiting sites as varied as gem fields, caves and the Great Barrier Reef. Dig the Tropic is a trail ideal for fossickers, camping enthusiasts, birdwatchers, bush walkers, photographers and all fans of the fascinating history of #Australia. 

https://www.capricornholidays.com.au/digthetropic

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Colonial chic river cruising

CRUISING is an attractive option to experience corners of exotic Southest Asia landscapes, mysterious World Heritages and colonial history - a leisurely relaxing trip on the tranquil waters of some most stunning rivers. The intimate cruises experience take deeply to the water on a relaxed voyage to explore far flung destinations from the river. 

Experience the sights and sounds of Burma’s Ayeyarwady River or the World Heritage Site of Vietnam’s Halong Bay on a elegance wooden yacht. Sail between Vietnam and Cambodia in a colonial style vessel. Ciao Travel offer amazing journeys for 2018 and 2019, either Cruises or experience land destinations around magical Southest Asia.

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Stopover offerings whilst in Ethiopia

PASSENGERS traveling through Addis Ababa and continuing their journey to one of the destinations on Ethiopian network can now take advantage of stopover offerings from Ethiopian Holidays, the tour operator wing of Ethiopian Airlines, enabling them to discover and experience the many historical, cultural, religious and natural treasures of #Ethiopia, Land of Origins. An online e-visa service for processing stopover visa is available for all international visitors to Ethiopia at https://www.evisa.gov.et/.

The packages range from #sightseeing in Addis Ababa, the diplomatic capital of Africa, to visits to the pre-Christian era obelisks of Axum, the stunning medieval rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, the amazing 9th century mosques of Harar, the majestic castles of Gondar, the stunning source of the Blue Nile, the jaw-dropping Simien Mountains, the splendor of the lake side resorts of Hawassa and Arba Minch, or the unique coffee farms of Kaffa, birth place of coffee.


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Discover the locals Italy

OUTSIDE of Italy's spectacular cities, travelers can find some of the planet's most beautiful scenery. From the pastel hues found along Italy's dramatic, steep-cliffed coast to the lush green hilltops that envelop medieval, magical villages in the heart of the country, Globus is taking travelers outside of Rome, Florence, Sorrento and Venice to discover the places Italian locals go on holiday.

Here are eight places throughout #Italy that boast some of the world's most spectacular views and the awe-inspiring tours that take you there, showcase the stories behind the scenes and offer an "undiscovered" glimpse of one of Europe'smost popular countries.

Monterosso  - Part of Italy's "fabulous five" Cinque Terre villages, Monterosso offers travelers a beautiful beach, village – known for its lemon trees and anchovies – and incredible views for miles.

Portofino - A fishing village pulled from the pages of a fairytale picture book, Portofino's small harbor with colorful buildings, rests on the shore of the Italian Riviera.

Erice - A historic, walled-in medieval town located on top of Mount Eryx (about 2,500 feet above sea level), Erice is situated in the province of Trapani and offers sweeping views of the sea and valley below.

Ragusa
A UNESCO World Heritage site, Ragusa is one of the most picturesque hilltop towns in Sicily (or anywhere). Its "modern" Baroque streets, piazzas and homes date back to 1693 (the year an earthquake razed the village).

Volterra - Enclosed by stone walls sits this mountaintop town in the land of wine. With historical sites that date back to the 7thcentury BC, Volterra invites travelers to take a step back in time on its medieval, cobblestoned streets.


Spoleto - Resting in the shadow of mountains and surrounded by olive groves and vineyards, this hill-town is stunning in every way. Its beauty and views will leave you breathless.

Ostuni - A sparkling white gem in a sea of greens (hills) and blues (Adriatic Sea), Ostuni – and its whitewashed houses – is one of the most stunning cities in Southern Italy.

Lecce - Described as the "Florence of the Baroque" and the "Rome of the South," Lecce was also deemed the "most beautiful city in Italy" by 18th-century traveler Thomas Ashe.

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Explore East Africa

AFRICA is becoming an increasing popular tourist #destination and those who love nature and wildlife love to explore this amazing continent. However, East #Africa is still unexplored by many African safari lovers and Augustine Tours is bringing these beautiful destinations within reach.

The most popular tour offered by Augustine Tours Limited is an exciting seven-day trip to Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. The trip will take these tourists to the hills, parks, lakes and other historical, natural and cultural destinations of these amazing African destinations. 

The company also arranges trips to Tanzania and Kenya, which are already some of the most popular tourist destinations in Africa. 


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Number One city in Mexico is . . .

SAN Miguel de Allende, Mexico has been named the #1 top city, overall, for the second year in a row in the 2018 “Travel + Leisure” World’s Best Awards, which honor the top travel destinations and companies around the globe as rated by the magazine’s readers. The World’s Best Awards appear in the August 2018 issue of “Travel + Leisure,” on sale July 27 and online at this link: https://www.travelandleisure.com/worlds-best. The city was also named #1 in #Mexico.

The World Heritage site city is one of only three cities that have taken the top honors two years in a row. In the past, Kyoto and Sydney also have been ranked #1 twice sequentially.  San Miguel de Allende is known as the “Heart of Mexico” thanks to not only a central location, but also its rich history and continuous embrace of Mexican culture. Mexico’s independence movement was born in San Miguel de Allende and, in the 1960s, it became one of the country’s top colonial-era destinations when its perfect natural lighting, architecture and greenery began attracting foreign expats.

Today, San Miguel de Allende boasts more than 80 hotels - two of them Virtuoso members and one a Design Hotel, plus 30 boutique properties - around 70 international or Mexican restaurants, three golf courses, and several spas and art galleries.

The best way to see San Miguel de Allende is walking its streets and getting lost in its cobbled alleyways. Visitors will find a wonderland of colorful homes, stately mansions, balconies, doors and people. In the city’s surroundings, visitors can enjoy the natural heritage of the destination by bathing in hot springs, strolling vineyards, riding in hot-air balloons or getting their adrenaline pumping with an ATV ride.

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