World Tourism Blog

AS the sun’s last rays streaked the sky bubble-gum pink and tangerine, the residents of Con Dao Island were calling it a day, and the mile-and-a-half-long beachfront promenade that serves as this small Vietnamese island’s social hub was filling up as the heat of the day finally relented.

Teenage boys pulled up on Honda scooters, kicking off their shoes and rolling up their jeans to play soccer on the white sand; young mothers led small charges by the hand into the gently lapping aquamarine water; an elderly woman, her teeth lacquered black in the style of her ancestors, watched a group of children fly colorful, animal-shaped kites on the pier, built in 1873.

If not for the Communist slogans being piped out of the town’s loudspeakers, it would have been hard to believe this was Vietnam. Where, after all, were the motorbikes, the honking horns, the shiny high-rises, and the constant activity that has come to characterize this rapidly developing country?

Until recently, the isolated 16-island archipelago of Con Dao (its largest island, Con Son, is commonly called Con Dao Island), 110 miles off the mainland’s southeastern coast, was a place most Vietnamese wanted to forget. For 113 years, this island was home to one of the country’s harshest prison systems, established by French colonists in 1862 and later ruled by South Vietnamese and American forces until Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese in 1975, at which point the prisons were closed.

These days, officials on government-sponsored group tours make pilgrimages to the crumbling stone prisons, which have been turned into museums that depict the suffering endured by their comrades.

Other buildings constructed by the French have been converted into cafes and private homes in the main town, which consists of little more than a daily market, a few seafood restaurants and a couple of souvenir shops selling shells, carved wooden canes, and Ho Chi Minh paraphernalia. The few signs along the quiet streets lined with flame-trees and bougainvillea tout pearls of wisdom such as “With the party comes peace, comfort, and happiness.”

But despite, or perhaps because of, its ugly history, Con Dao is one of Southeast Asia’s most untouched and breathtaking getaways. Its past, coupled with its remoteness, have spared it from the million-plus hordes that descend on coastal boomtowns like Nha Trang and Danang every year. (According to government figures, in 2008 Con Dao received 20,000 visitors, only 2,600 of whom were foreign.)

A lack of development and, until recently, of access (the number of 45-minute flights from Ho Chi Minh City has gradually increased from a handful per week four years ago to three times a day now) has also helped to keep the islands’ beaches empty and immaculate. The azure waters are brimming with Vietnam’s best coral reefs, and the forests bustle with macaque monkeys and black squirrels, one of several species indigenous to Con Dao.

Indeed, efforts to preserve Con Dao’s natural beauty are unrivaled in the rest of Vietnam. Of the archipelago’s total area, 83 percent is protected by the Con Dao National Park, including over 50 square miles that make up the country’s first marine reserve.

With help from organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and the United Nations Development Program, the park has just won approval for a $16.5 million development plan through 2020, which will finance natural resource protection, research and eco-tourism.

Though the government hopes to more than double the islands’ population to 13,500 by 2013 through a series of ambitious residential and tourism projects, for now, Con Dao’s slow, friendly rhythms and spectacular beauty remain largely undisturbed.

On a recent visit, except for a film crew shooting a coming season of “Koh-Lanta,” the French adaptation of “Survivor,” foreign tourists were scarce. One of them was Fred Burke, a 51-year-old managing partner of Baker & McKenzie, an international law firm with offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

“This feels like some sort of secret Tahiti,” he said, referring to the lush, rolling hills and sharp cliffs that abut the sea. “Most of the popular seaside destinations in Vietnam are being degraded with trash on the beach, inadequate waste-water treatment, noisy motorbikes and Jet Skis. It’s a complete surprise to find an amazingly beautiful place like Con Dao with almost nobody here.”

Despite its rich beauty, Con Dao is still far from being a luxury destination. Right now there is only a smattering of simple, Vietnamese-run lodgings and restaurants. But the much anticipated arrival late this year of a Six Senses resort, from the Bangkok-based company known for introducing eco-luxury to the region’s most unspoiled up-and-coming locales, suggests that Con Dao might soon become part of the international travel scene.

Though English is not widely spoken and most places cater to Vietnamese tour groups, independent travelers can still partake of the islands’ treasures. The Con Dao National Park arranges guided treks through dense tropical jungle and to remote beaches like Dam Tre Bay, a deep, sheltered cove that is home to golden fields of swaying seaweed and giant clams with electric blue lips. There are also snorkeling trips to Bay Canh islet, where fine sand lures endangered hawksbill and green sea turtles during the May to September nesting season.

But cruising the winding cliffside roads on a rented scooter might be the most memorable way to experience Con Dao, where the only traffic is the occasional black-haired goat or wild pig. Hidden down a sandy track marked “Mieu Cau,” about eight miles northeast of town, is Dam Trau Beach, a crescent-shaped expanse of golden sand and sapphire fringed by feathery casuarinas, the peace disrupted only by the arrival of flights from Ho Chi Minh City.

By NAOMI LINDT

A beach on Con Son Island, one of the Con Dao Islands off the southern coast of Vietnam.

The Ancient Great Wall of China is a World Heritage Site.

The Great Wall of China is not a continuous wall but is a collection of short walls that often follow the crest of hills on the southern edge of the Mongolian plain. The Great Wall of China, known as “long Wall of 10,000 Li” in China, extends about 8,850 kilometers (5,500 miles).

A first set of walls, designed to keep Mongol nomads out of China, were built of earth and stones in wood frames during the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE).

Some additions and modifications were made to these simple walls over the next millennium but the major construction of the “modern” walls began in the Ming Dynasty (1388-1644 CE).

The Ming fortifications were established in new areas from the Qin walls. They were up to 25 feet (7.6 meters) high, 15 to 30 feet (4.6 to 9.1 meters) wide at the base, and from 9 to 12 feet (2.7 to 3.7 meters) wide at the top (wide enough for marching troops or wagons). At regular intervals, guard stations and watch towers were established.

Since the Great Wall was discontinuous, Mongol invaders had no trouble breaching the wall by going around it, so the wall proved unsuccessful and was eventually abandoned. Additionally, a policy of mollification during the subsequent Ch’ing Dynasty that sought to pacify the Mongol leaders through religious conversion also helped to limit the need for the wall.

Through Western contact with China from the 17th through 20th centuries, the legend of the Great Wall of China grew along with tourism to the wall. Restoration and rebuilding took place in the 20th century and in 1987 the Great Wall of China was made a World Heritage Site. Today, a portion of the Great Wall of China about 50 miles (80 km) from Beijing receives thousands of tourists each day.

Can You See The Great Wall of China from The Moon?

For some reason, some urban legends tend to get stated and never disappear. This legend even appears as a erroneous Trivial Pursuit question. The legend? Many are familiar with the claim that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from space or from the moon with the naked eye. This is simply not true.

The myth of being able to see the Great Wall from space originated in Richard Halliburton’s 1938 (long before humans saw the earth from space) book Second Book of Marvels said that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from the moon.

From a low orbit of the earth, many artificial objects are visible on the earth, such as highways, ships in the sea, railroads, cities, fields of crops, and even some individual buildings. While at a low orbit, the Great Wall of China can certainly be seen from space but it is not unique in that regard.

However, when leaving the earth’s orbit and acquiring an altitude of more than a few thousand miles, no man-made objects are visible at all. NASA says, “The Great Wall can barely be seen from the Shuttle, so it would not be possible to see it from the Moon with the naked eye.” Thus, it’d be tough to spot the Great Wall of China or any other object from the moon. Furthermore, from the moon, even the continents are barely visible.

Regarding the origination of the story The Straight Dope’s pundit Cecil Adams says, “Nobody knows exactly where the story got started, although some think it was speculation by some bigshot during an after-dinner speech in the early days of the space program.”

NASA astronaut Alan Bean is quoted in Tom Burnam’s book More Misinformation…

“The only thing you can see from the moon is a beautiful sphere, mostly white (clouds), some blue (ocean), patches of yellow (deserts), and every once in a while some green vegetation. No man-made object is visible on this scale. In fact, when first leaving earth’s orbit and only a few thousand miles away, no man-made object is visible at that point either.”

By Matt Rosenberg

Tourism is rebounding so quickly in Sri Lanka after the end of the island’s civil war that in one or two years the country will lack the hotel capacity to meet visitor arrivals, according to the head of the country’s biggest listed company.

Ajit Gunawardene, chief executive of John Keells, said Sri Lanka’s tourist infrastructure could handle a maximum of 800,000 visitors a year, comfortably meeting expected demand this year of 500,000.

But in the next one or two years, visitors arrivals are expected to double and then double again two years later to 2m, suggesting that unless the country embarks on a hotel construction boom it will fail to meet demand.

“This gives you an indication of the type of momentum we want to maintain,” Mr Gunawardene said.

Investors in Sri Lanka are betting that the island’s violent past is behind it following the defeat of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam last May in their battle for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east.

Hopes of political stability have been fuelled by landslide victories in the presidential and parliamentary elections this year by the incumbent leader, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and his ruling coalition, the United People’s Freedom Alliance.

Sri Lanka’s market is up 22 per cent so far this year.

The rally has been led by John Keells, which accounts for about 10 per cent of market capitalisation and is expected to be one of the main beneficiaries of the economic recovery given its interests in hotels, ports and retail.

“The UPFA’s win bodes well for policy continuity and investment-led growth,” said Anushka Shah, an economist at Citigroup.

Tourist arrivals have risen for 10 consecutive months and were up 29.3 per cent in the nine months to March 31 compared with a year earlier.

Mr Gunawardene said John Keells had begun renovating hotels and building more to meet the tourism boom.

It is upgrading its large hotel in Colombo, overhauling one in Trincomalee in the war-torn east and building tourist accommodation in the popular south.

John Keells also plans to participate in the expansion of Colombo’s port, which is strategically placed on shipping lanes between Europe, the Middle East and China.

The group is expected to bid with its partner Denmark’s Maersk for an additional terminal when the port’s capacity is increased to 16m 20ft equivalent units a year for the next decade. That would make Colombo south Asia’s biggest port.

Tenders for the three terminals in phase one are expected to be valued at about $500m.

By Joe Leahy in Colombo

Tourist arrivals to Asia are expected to shrink as much as 5 percent this year before rebounding modestly next year, but full recovery will only set in by 2011, a travel group said Tuesday.

The region’s performance has been mixed this year with countries such as China and South Korea showing resilience but others like Thailand and Vietnam still in the doldrums, said Greg Duffell, president of the Bangkok-based Pacific Asia Travel Association.

The industry has experienced a slight upturn amid new hopes of a global economic recovery, but visitor arrivals to the region are still down by 5 percent from a year ago and likely to shrink between 4 percent and 5 percent this year, he said. Next year could bring a rebound of between 2 percent and 3 percent growth.

Travel within Asia is largely driving the industry, he added, with long-haul tourism from the U.S., Europe and other distant locations lagging.

“We will see full recovery only from late next year or by 2011,” Duffell told The Associated Press on the sidelines of an airports conference.

Duffel said China’s tourism market has been buoyed by government stimulus and 20 million Chinese were expected to travel out of the country this year. In South Korea, the won’s depreciation has helped spur tourism while Indonesia and Malaysia are both showing robust growth, he said.

But Vietnam, which used to be a tourism hotspot a few years ago, is losing its shine as it has became vastly overpriced, he said. Thailand’s tourism industry is also in the blues, hurt by political instability that has kept holiday travelers away. Because the country serves as a major aviation hub, Thailand’s problems have weighed on regional tourism as well, he said.

With its growing affluence and huge population, “China is shaping globally to be a leading destination and source market for the world” amid further economic liberalization, Duffell said. China is building 92 new airports and accounts for 13 percent of all new aircraft order in the next 20 years, he added. Hard money training

Cyprus tucked away in the top right hand corner of the Mediterranean is so close to Europe, Asia and Africa that it rightly, claims to be a stepping stone to three continents .

An island whose rich dramatic history can be traced back over nine thousand years; an island so coveted over the centuries that it has been invaded and claimed by a fascinating mixture of civilizations from near and far all of which have left their culture and shaped its character.

An island whose archaeology stems from the Neolithic Age, the Ancient Greeks and the Roman period; where churches and monasteries still stand from Byzantine times; castles and palaces from the days of Crusaders and Frankish Lusignans and splendid city walls from Venetian days.

An island chosen by the mythical gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece who indulged themselves here in sport pleasure and tragedy; where Aphrodite goddess of love and beauty, emerged from the Pafos foam to become a famous cult figure - centre of attraction for the first visitors who flocked to the island to worship her.

With such a historic and legendary background it is hardly surprising that Cyprus has developed a character which is quite unique. It is blessed with beauty, natural beauty that ranges from golden beaches and rugged coastlines to rolling hills and forest clad mountains, dotted with picturesque villages. Hard money training

Mecca, receiving over 3 million pilgrims a year during the month of hajj, and during month of Ramadan for umrah around 2 million. During the rest of the year Mecca receives around 4 million for umrah. This is not really tourism, but rather religious pilgrimage, i.e. people who want to fulfil their goal of seeing the Kaaba or other attractions and observe religious rites. The Hajj, or pilgrimage to the city, is one of the 5 pillars of Islam. However, it is forbidden to non-Muslims.

The mountains, valleys and Red Sea beaches with turquoise water known for some of the world’s finest diving attract some, but not much. Some other spots are hard to reach, such as Nabatean ruins, a four-hour drive from Medina, the nearest city with an airport for visitors to fly into. It is almost dependent on oil, a habit Prince Sultan Bin Salman wants to change by forming the Tourism commission in 2000. No non-Muslim can enter the kingdom without a sponsor. There is also the famous bridge to Bahrain.

Tourism in China has greatly expanded over the last few decades. The emergence of a newly rich middle class and an easing of restrictions on movement by the Chinese authorities are both fueling this travel boom. China has become one of the world’s most-watched and hottest outbound tourist markets. The world is on the cusp of a sustained Chinese outbound tourism boom.

China is the world’s fourth largest country for inbound tourism. The number of overseas tourists was 55 million in 2007. Foreign exchange income was 41.9 billion U.S. dollars, the world’s fifth largest in 2007. The number of domestic tourists totaled 1.61 billion, with a total income of 777.1 billion yuan.

According to the WTO, in 2020, China will become the largest tourist country and the fourth largest for overseas travel. In terms of total outbound travel spending, China is currently ranked fifth and is expected to be the fastest growing in the world from 2006 to 2015, jumping into the number two slot for total travel spending by 2015.

An archipelago in the Pacific, Japan is separated from the east coast of Asia by the Sea of Japan. It is approximately the size of Montana. Japan’s four main islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku. The Ryukyu chain to the southwest was U.S.-occupied from 1945 to 1972, when it reverted to Japanese control, and the Kurils to the northeast are Russian-occupied.

egend attributes the creation of Japan to the sun goddess, from whom the emperors were descended. The first of them was Jimmu, supposed to have ascended the throne in 660 B.C. , a tradition that constituted official doctrine until 1945.

Recorded Japanese history begins in approximately A.D. 400, when the Yamato clan, eventually based in Kyoto, managed to gain control of other family groups in central and western Japan. Contact with Korea introduced Buddhism to Japan at about this time. Through the 700s Japan was much influenced by China, and the Yamato clan set up an imperial court similar to that of China. In the ensuing centuries, the authority of the imperial court was undermined as powerful gentry families vied for control.

At the same time, warrior clans were rising to prominence as a distinct class known as samurai. In 1192, the Minamoto clan set up a military government under their leader, Yoritomo. He was designated shogun (military dictator). For the following 700 years, shoguns from a succession of clans ruled in Japan, while the imperial court existed in relative obscurity.

First contact with the West came in about 1542, when a Portuguese ship off course arrived in Japanese waters. Portuguese traders, Jesuit missionaries, and Spanish, Dutch, and English traders followed. Suspicious of Christianity and of Portuguese support of a local Japanese revolt, the shoguns of the Tokugawa period (1603–1867) prohibited all trade with foreign countries; only a Dutch trading post at Nagasaki was permitted. Western attempts to renew trading relations failed until 1853, when Commodore Matthew Perry sailed an American fleet into Tokyo Bay. Trade with the West was forced upon Japan under terms less than favorable to the Japanese. Strife caused by these actions brought down the feudal world of the shoguns. In 1868, the emperor Meiji came to the throne, and the shogun system was abolished.

Indonesia is an archipelagic country of 17,508 islands (6,000 inhabited) stretching along the equator in South East Asia. The country’s strategic sea-lane position fostered inter-island and international trade; trade has since fundamentally shaped Indonesian history. The area of Indonesia is populated by peoples of various migrations, creating a diversity of cultures, ethnicities, and languages. The archipelago’s landforms and climate significantly influenced agriculture and trade, and the formation of states.

Fossilised remains of Homo erectus, popularly known as the “Java Man”, suggest the Indonesian archipelago was inhabited two million to 500,000 years ago. Austronesian people, who form the majority of the modern population, were originally from Taiwan and arrived in Indonesia around 2000 BCE. From the seventh century CE, the powerful Srivijaya naval kingdom flourished bringing Hindu and Buddhist influences with it. The agricultural Buddhist Sailendra and Hindu Mataram dynasties subsequently thrived and declined in inland Java. The last significant non-Muslim kingdom, the Hindu Majapahit kingdom, flourished from the late 13th century, and its influence stretched over much of Indonesia. The earliest evidence of Islamised populations in Indonesia dates to the 13th century in northern Sumatra; other Indonesian areas gradually adopted Islam which became the dominant religion in Java and Sumatra by the end of the 16th century. For the most part, Islam overlaid and mixed with existing cultural and religious influences.

Namaskar, welcome to Incredible India, where culture echoes, tradition speaks, beauty enthrals and diversity delights.

Bounded by the majestic Himalayan ranges in the north and edged by an endless stretch of golden beaches, India is a vivid kaleidoscope of landscapes, magnificent historical sites and royal cities, misty mountain retreats, colourful people, rich cultures and festivities.

The timeless mystery and beauty of India has been waiting for you for 5000 years, always warm and inviting, a place of infinite variety - one that favours you with different facets of its fascination every time you visit India.