Francine Parnes takes a critical look at travel…through not-so-rosy colored glasses.
Excerpt:
“who needs industry statistics about airplane orders and hotel occupancy rates when the beleaguered business people who are sitting in the planes and sleeping in the hotels are testing another kind of boundary: the limits of humiliation, weirdness, fear and revulsion? Wouldn’t you rather hear their stories? Here are some of them.”
Tags: Travel
A heartfelt tribute and adieu to Steve Irwin, Croc Hunter, who met an untimely end today while diving off the coast of Australia. Officials speculate that the stingray barb to the chest may have triggered a fatal heart attack for the 44 year old adventurer. Steve will be fondly remembered by fans, for this daring and quirky personality and his exciting forays into the hidden natural treasures so few of us ever see ourselves.
“SYDNEY (Reuters) - Steve Irwin, the quirky Australian naturalist who won worldwide acclaim, was killed by a stingray barb through the chest on Monday while diving off Australia’s northeast coast, emergency officials and witnesses said.”
Read the news article here:
Tags: accident, australia, croc-hunter, crocodile-hunter, death, demise, nature, steve-irwin, sting-ray, sydney, Travel, tribute, TV
This May I finally had the chance to return home to Kenya…leaving the growing heat of Bahrain, and work, behind for a few weeks for a brief (isn’t it always?) respite. This East African country is not only the gateway into East Africa but also comparatively a stable, progressive republic with a breathtaking variety of landscapes and holiday options. There is something truly captivating about Africa that only be experienced in person…and one way to do this is to go on a cross-country Safari!
Having moved to Kenya with my family almost 16 years ago, I’ve lived in the 3 main cities – Nairobi, the dynamic capital, Mombasa, the major port city and costal holiday destination…and most recently in Kisumu, that was proclaimed a ‘city’ just a few years ago and is located on the shores of Lake Victoria. We set out for our ‘Safari’ (which literally means ‘travel’ or a ‘journey’ in Swahili, the local language) from the sleepy little hollow of Kisumu to the world-renowned game reserve of Maasai Mara, in our trusty (but aging) Land Rover Discovery…a perfect blend of comfort and horsepower for the roads (and lack of) ahead.
The Maasai Mara is named after the Maasai tribe, who traditionally inhabit the area and is famous for its diverse, abundant game and ‘The Great Migration’ where an immense number of Wildebeest annually migrate to and from greener pastures. The quaint little resort that we stayed at was based right next to the Mara river and featured individual tents with all the traditional amenities of a hotel room plus something that’s a little harder to find…a great view of half-submerged hippos slumbering in the sun.
Our game drive in the afternoon took our caravan of 4X4’s along, over and through paths not oft seen by humans…to the choicest views of game in their natural habitat. In addition to the usual excess of zebra, ostriches, giraffes, antelopes, elephants, wild buffalos and monkeys, the Mara Reserve is also boasts a large Lion population. Our rollercoaster quest finally ended upon a pride of lions, complete with lionesses and cubs…and as our stomachs finally settled, we all watched jungle royalty frolic and bask in all their wild splendour. Spotting big cats on a game drive is always a sign of success…and we returned to the resort to settle down for the night, rattled to the bone by the rough trails but nonetheless elated.
The next stop on our Safari was the capital of Kenya. Nairobi, founded in 1899 by the British as a supply depot for the Uganda Railway, was named after a water hole the Maasai called “Ewaso Nyirobi” (Cool Waters). And “Cool” is an appropriate word to describe Nairobi, both for its pleasant weather and looks. The last century has seen the city grow to a slick, cosmopolitan base for business and politics. The plethora of malls, restaurants and leisure venues promise to keep you occupied and entertained.
After a good night’s rest we forged on to the Aberdare National Park, where the famous Tree Tops Hotel is located. The hotel offers a superb view of game during the day (and at night by spotlights) and is essentially a glorified watch-tower built upon tree trunks and near watering holes. The hotel gained worldwide recognition through Jim Corbett’s story “Treetops” and due to the fact that Princess Elizabeth spent the night there on 5th February, 1952 and awoke the next morning a Queen (during the night, her father George VI passed away). The hotel also features a naturalist, ever full of interesting facts and stories - observing the elephants, buffalos and other animals at such close range can be quite an experience, especially when one spots the unmistakable social behaviour of these animals.
Leaving behind the Aberdares, we headed towards Mount Kenya and the river Naro Moru for a couple of days of complete R&R. The river has various resorts located on its banks and the town of Naro Moru is a popular base for climbers hoping to scale the second-highest mountain in Africa. The resort we chose offered cozy cottages, complete with kitchen and fireplaces and located right on the banks of the river. This offered a perfect base for short excursions to surrounding areas, which include cultural & historical spots and a unique restaurant built in a tree that offers fresh, farm-cultivated trout.
Our trip almost at an end, we headed west, back to Lake Victoria, passing the spectacular Thomson falls on the way. The rains had just set in after a long drought and the landscapes were practically gushing with green. We also passed the Equator a few times during the Safari and witnessed eager tour guides as they demonstrated (often for a charge) how water swirled in different directions on both sides of this imaginary line to excited (and sadly clueless) tourists. When headed west, one also crosses the town of Kericho, which is the centre of Kenya’s large tea industry and offers inspiring views of endless green tea fields.
This week-long Safari was just what the doctor recommended…Kenya, and indeed Africa, has the ability to pull you into its mystery and raw, untouched beauty, as do the people, who are unassuming and welcoming. From the virgin white sands of Mombasa and Malindi to the game parks scattered across the country…the massive Rift Valley running through the country and the desert in the north…the lakes thriving with flamingoes to arid salt lakes…the country has truly something for every taste and inclination.
For now though, it’s back to good old Bahrain…till the NEXT Safari.
by Jitendra Jain
Visit JJ on www.thetalentjungle.com and join the Hospitality Alumni Community online!
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Kenya – Facts and Tips
Location: East Africa
Capital: Nairobi
Politics: Republic, ex-British colony, gained Independence in 1963
Language: English and Swahili
Currency: Kenyan Shilling (KES)
Area: 582,560 sq.km
Population: 34,256,000 (July 2005 est.)
Time Zone: GMT + 3
National Airline: Kenya Airways
Kenya Tourism Board: http://www.magicalkenya.com - visit the website for all the information you need on Kenya and planning your trip.
Popular Swahili Phrases:
Jambo – Hello
Hakuna Matata – No Problem
Karibu - Welcome
Kwaheri – Goodbye
Asante Sana – Thank you very much
Safari Njema – Safe / Good Trip
Starwood Hotels & Resorts has just launched a new website www.starwoodpro.com to cater exclusively to the information and booking needs of a wide and important travel professional base. The official blurb:
Why we’re here: To make matching specific client requirements with the perfect hotel effortless. How we’ve done it: By putting you first. Created by professionals, for professionals, StarwoodPro puts the information and tools you rely on most – the ability to research locations, dynamic search that helps pinpoint the right properties, and a booking shortcut tool – all in easy reach. We’ve also included textural information – such as vivid descriptions of each of our brands and local area information so that you can unite clients with hotels that will not just meet, but exceed expectations.
Visit www.starwoodpro.com for more
The site also lists what’s expected in the future: “On the Horizon”
Working to help you open more hotel doors to your clients, StarwoodPro is looking to do more – provide more tools, more information about our properties, and finding more ways to help you help your clients. Some of the things we’ll be adding in the future:
Enhanced Travel Professional Education – We’re focused on helping you find more ways to use Starwood’s brands to build your business. We also want to get to know you, as well as help you get to know us and each of our brands.
Travel Professional Rates – Stay with us! We’re working on enhancing our current discounted rates for Travel Professionals to give you more opportunities to stay at our hotels and resorts worldwide at preferred rates.
Rewards Program – We’ve got something cooking that may just motivate you to book any one of our 825 + hotels and resorts.
Special Events – Celebrations and business go hand in hand, and we will have a lot to celebrate as we launch new brands and open new hotels.
Tags: book, bookings, ecommerce, hospitality, hotel-bookings, hotels, information, internet, Online, professionals, resorts, starwood, tour-operators, Tourism, Travel, travel-agents, website
A new Dubai fan site cum blog called “Dubai for Life” has made its debut and aims to feature the best picks and fun content from the dynamic and fast-changing city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Check it out at
Tags: blog, city, dubai, dubai-for-life, uae, united-arab-emirates, website
Some pretty good photos of Dubai City in the UAE, taken fresh from the air, showing the development of major projects, hotels, resorts, etc. The photos give a good picture of the overall scope of Dubai city though mostly restricted to the town centre areas of Jumeirah and Bur Dubai.
Tags: aerial, bur-dubai, burj-dubai, city, development, dubai, helicopter, hotels, jebel-ali, jumeirah, photography, photos, real-estate, resorts, tour, uae
Emirates Business 24/7 reported - The UAE has come out on top of an international index ranking the world’s best destinations for resorts and hotels. The Emirates beat such luxury locales as the Maldives, Australia, Tahiti, and Bermuda in the 2007 Country Brand Index issued by New York-based Future Brands. The study found the UAE ranked as the best for resort and lodging facilities because it boasts a wide-variety of hotel accommodation – from family-friendly beach resorts to the world’s only seven-star hotel, Burj Al Arab, in addition to the largest number of new properties under construction.
In Dubai, developments in the pipeline stretch out to 2020 and are in line to deliver 80,000 extra hotel rooms by 2010, with 100,000 people employed in the sector. The UAE’s investment in the tourism industry stands at more than Dh878 billion, with Dubai leading the field with Dh454bn in projects followed by Abu Dhabi with Dh305bn, according to a recent report. The UAE was also awarded third place among the most popular emerging destinations under the category ‘Rising Star’ after Croatia and China, who came in first and second respectively. For fine dining, the country came in seventh, topped by destinations like France, Italy, Singapore, Japan, the US and UK. The Emirates was also in the top 10 for best business destinations.
In other news:
The number of visitors to Abu Dhabi grew by 16 per cent in 2007 – one of the highest growth rates for the sector in the world. However, the head of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) said the emirate does not have enough hotel rooms to accommodate the increase.
A strategic study on Abu Dhabi’s tourism sector conducted by ADTA for 2015 said about 1.37 million tourists visited the capital in 2007, compared to 1.18m in 2006. And the study predicted the sector will host 1.58 million visitors in 2008.
The study said the emirate is likely to see 12 per cent annual growth in the coming years, with three million tourists planning trips to Abu Dhabi by 2015.
Tags: abu-dhabi, best, development, dubai, emirates, future-brands, growth, hospitality, hotels, new-york, resorts, survey, Tourism, tourists, uae, visitors
Kenya has always been considered a safe haven in East Africa and is a great tourist spot for beach holidays and African safaris. However the recent post-election clashes and continuing violence in the country has torn apart the economy - tourism and the Kenyan hotel industry has been hit hard. News reports indicate a high number of hotel closures and lay-offs with declining visits. At the Coast of Kenya, which accounts for about 2/3rds of the hotel industry, 20 hotels have been shut down (of 150 hotels with 32,000 beds in the region) and others are recording a dismal 10 - 20% occupancy. It is clear that the situation is headed towards a spiral if nothing is done to bring warring parties to an agreement - the hotel industry, which took some time to recover from the blasts half a decade ago, is right back where it started at that point, much to the dismay of hotel operators and tourists.
About Kenya: The Republic of Kenya is a country in Eastern Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest, with the Indian Ocean running along the southeast border.
Tags: closures, economy, hotel-industry, hotels, kenya, kenya-hotels, kenyan, kenyan-hotel-industry, Tourism, Travel, turmoil, violence
Kango.com has introduced a new travel blog search widget which hopes to alleviate the trouble most of us go through searching for (and through) good travel blogs / posts. The widget employs custom Google search and scours the contents of selected travel blogs which have made it on the list. A great promotion tool, no doubt, for Kango itself, but also a good value addition to most travel blogs to help their readers search for more travel content out there…
What is Kango?
The official site blurb:
Kango is a travel information search engine - your first step to deciding where to go, where to stay or what to do. We’re here to help you make informed decisions about what best fits your travel preferences. We have scoured the web to collect 400,000 places to go, things to do and places to stay. Then we have analyzed and organized millions of travelers’ opinions to enable you to search based on your exact travel requirements and preferences.
Tags: hospitality, hotels, kango, search-widget, Tourism, Travel, travel-blogs, travel-search
Dubai is certainly doing a lot in terms of tourism development - a keystone to this is water sports, which Dubai is a superb host to. The Mina Seyahi complex in Dubai is one of the key drivers to water sports in the city and offers a great location to watch events (live and in person) that would normally be only covered on television. The Maktoum Sailing Regatta will be held from 21-29 February 2008 and the video below offers a glimpse into the event and sailing in Dubai.
The prestigious Maktoum Sailing Trophy 2008 is a Regatta of 10 Inshore Races and one offshore passage race for individual yachts from the Thursday 21st February 2008 to Friday 29th February 2008. The Organising Authority is the UAE Marine Sports Federation through the Mina Seyahi Dubai (a division of DIMC).
The race will take place at the new Mina Seyahi Dubai (MSD), situated in the City of Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Another great video above showing the many facets of sailing in Dubai with Mina Seyahi (DIMC - Dubai International Marine Club)
The video covers the Dubai Match Race Challenge, the Dubai Junior Regatta as well as the ISAF Nations Cup Dubai
Tags: dimc, dubai, dubai-sailing, dubai-sports, le-meridien, maktoum-trophy, mina-seyahi, regatta, sailing, uae, westin