I am writing this from the Gambia and want to appeal to everyone to spread the word: this country is open for business and it is not affected by the Ebola outbreak – otherwise I would not be here. I am…
We travel for work, family and play - so what exactly is a ‘tourist’?
Ed Yourdon/Flickr
Every year, on September 27, the global tourism community celebrates World Tourism Day. This year’s theme is about community development and how tourism can contribute to empowering people and improve…
Lapping up the rays… in Scarborough.
Jonathan Pow/PA Archive
Bognor or Borneo? Penzance or Paris? Scarborough or Sao Paulo? The decision of whether to spend your annual leave holidaying in a foreign clime, at a campsite in the UK, or even just in your back garden…
Shantang Canal, in Suzhou’s historic centre.
Michael Silk
Chinese cities are often contradictory bricolages of old and new. They wrestle with extraordinarily rapid rates of economic growth, concentrated urbanisation, the growth of a burgeoning middle class as…
The Wall of Death at the former Auschwitz concentration camp – a place for solemnity, not smiles.
Nicole Low/AAP Image
Ouch. I think my entire body physically cringed when I came across the latest story of a misjudged tweet gone viral this week: the case of Breanna Mitchell, the naïve teenager and self-styled “Princess…
Britain has joined the race to become a leading hub of commercial space flight, announcing eight potential sites for a potential “spaceport” within the UK. There are numerous questions surrounding this…
Brisbane is set to benefit from November’s G20 summit, but more work is required to boost international travel flows.
LJ Mears/Flickr
When the powerful gather for the G20 summit in Brisbane this November, the core mandate is to discuss measures to support global economic growth, including trade liberalisation, investment and infrastructure…
Sunrise over Queenstown in New Zealand in July 2012. This year’s ski season is just beginning in Australia and New Zealand.
Trey Ratcliff/Flickr
Australia’s ski season is finally getting underway, with the first resort, Perisher, opening its ski lifts after some weekend snow fall. But snow lovers are still watching and waiting for good falls elsewhere…
Demanding the awe and wonder it deserves.
Papa Lima Whiskey 2
It was day two of our 18 day trek to Everest’s Base Camp when in the afternoon our head guide Lhakpa Nurbu Sherpa sombrely reported to me that 16 Sherpas had been killed in an avalanche on the mountain…
Seeing orangutans like Big Ritchie in conservation areas can raise vital support to protect his cousins in the wild, new research shows.
Big Ritchie looks up from his pile of bananas, unperturbed by the flock of tourists taking his photo. Sprawled around him, mother orangutans* and their fluffy orange babies groom affectionately, chase…
Tourists reach for the brolly aboard HMS Britannia in Edinburgh.
David Cheskin
When Thomas Cook launched the first group tours to Scotland’s Trossachs in 1846, the attraction was to see the mythical land featured in Sir Walter Scott’s famous poem The Lady of the Lake, written in…
Risky business for sherpas on Everest.
EPA/Buddhabir Rai
Climbing season on Mount Everest was due to enter its busiest time of year: the May “weather window”. But all has come to a halt on the world’s highest mountain following the worst-ever accident – an avalanche…
White water rafting is popular in China, but Chinese tourists have different expectations.
Ralf Buckley
For countries that promote themselves as tourist destinations, China has - for some years - been the new Japan. Two decades ago, tourist towns such as Australia’s Gold Coast put up bilingual signs and…
IWhile the murders of Sophie Collombet and others have given prominence to the issue of violence against tourists, it is still statistically rare for a international visitor to Australia to become a murder victim.
AAP/Dan Peled
The murder of French student Sophie Collombet in Brisbane in late March has sparked a debate about the safety of travellers in Australia. A man has now been arrested and charged with Collombet’s rape and…
The recent debate in the House of Commons on the cost of going away during the school holidays has reignited a long-running concern about price banding in the tourism industry and the educational impact…
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has announced it will allow the dumping of three million cubic metres of dredge spoil from the Abbot Point port redevelopment within the marine park’s boundaries…
Anti-government demonstrations in Thailand are impacting on the country’s tourism.
AAP
Anti-government demonstrations in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, have culminated in the government declaring a state of emergency for 60 days over the city. The Thai government hopes that the restriction…
Home away from home? A Bali beach holiday is not an Australian’s ‘birthright’.
mcsister
This summer, many of us are heading overseas. Australians are the world’s largest spenders on international travel on a per capita basis. In 2012, one in three of us headed overseas. After New Zealand…