Kenya, the acknowledged birthplace of the safari and home to some of the richest and most verdant wildlife you’ll find in Africa, is also utilizing its “Magical Kenya” powers today – not to mention taking a lesson from the success of the luxury andBeyond and Singita camps and lodges in South Africa – to develop some unforgettable luxury camps and lodges of its own.
The trouble with defining and identifying a luxury product in a place like Kenya is dealing with the issues of subjectivity, taste and the changing nature of the luxury marketplace in terms of the changing demands of the luxury traveler. So to help define that product and the demands of high-end travelers, we went to three different luxury tour operators—all of whom said the majority of their luxury clients customize—to get their input on their experiences in this very unique and diverse destination.
For example, David Jones, v.p. at Ker & Downey, emphasizes that luxury these days is not just about booking over-the-top, drop-dead gorgeous properties. “It’s more about experiential travel now, it’s not just luxury anymore. We’re finding that our particular clients have the means to spend pretty much whatever they want on travel and they want to incorporate the luxury with the experience. They want to ensure that it’s a valid experience and not just a luxury hotel because they can go to a wonderful Four Seasonsanywhere in the world. But they want to make sure the experience matches up with the luxury.” Read more: http://agent.recommend.com/magazine-archive/october-2010/experiencing-the-high-life-in-kenya/
Paris had always been a destination for traders, students and those on religious pilgrimages, but its ‘tourism’ in the proper sense of the term began on a large scale only with the appearance of rail travel, namely from state organisation of France’s rail network from 1848. One of Paris’ first ‘mass’ attractions drawing international interest were, from 1855, the above-mentioned Expositions Universelles that would bring Paris many new monuments, namely the Eiffel Tower from 1889. These, in addition to the Capital’s 2nd Empire embellishments, did much to make the city itself the attraction it is today.
Paris’ museums and monuments are by far its highest-esteemed attractions, and tourist interest has been nothing but a benefit to these; tourism has even motivated both city and State to create new ones. The city’s most prized museum, the Louvre, sees over 8 million visitors a year, being by far the world’s most visited art museum. Paris’ cathedrals are another main attraction: its Notre-Dame cathedral and Basilique du Sacré-Cœur receive 12 million and 8 million visitors respectively. The Eiffel Tower, by far Paris’ most famous monument, averages over 6 million visitors per year and more than 200 millions since its construction. Disneyland Resort Paris is a major tourist attraction not only for visitors to Paris, but to Europe as well, with 12.4 million visitors in 2004.
The Louvre is one of the largest and most famous museums, housing many works of art, including the Mona Lisa (La Joconde) and the Venus de Milo statue. Works by Pablo Picasso and Auguste Rodin are found in Musée Picasso and Musée Rodin respectively, while the artistic community of Montparnasse is chronicled at the Musée du Montparnasse. Starkly apparent with its service-pipe exterior, the Centre Georges Pompidou, also known as Beaubourg, houses the Musée National d’Art Moderne. Lastly, art and artefacts from the Middle Ages and Impressionist eras are kept in Musée Cluny and Musée d’Orsay respectively, the former with the prized tapestry cycle The Lady and the Unicorn.
Many of Paris’ once-popular local establishments have metamorphised into a parody of French culture, in a form catering to the tastes and expectations of tourist capital. Le Lido, The Moulin Rouge cabaret-dancehall, for example, are a staged dinner theatre spectacle, a dance display that was once but one aspect of the cabaret’s former atmosphere. All of the establishment’s former social or cultural elements, such as its ballrooms and gardens, are gone today. Much of Paris’ hotel, restaurant and night entertainment trades have become heavily dependent on tourism, with results not always positive for Parisian culture.
Jordan is a modern country with an ancient culture, a land of which visitors can walk through the valleys, hills and plains whose names have become part of human history by virtue of the simple deeds and profound messages of prophets who walked the land and crossed its rivers during their lives. Many of the sites where they are said to have performed miracles or reached out to ordinary people have been identified, excavated and protected, and are now more easily accessible to visitors. Jordan is an ideal destination for those seeking cultural knowledge and spiritual enrichment. Jordan values its ethnically and religiously diverse population, consequently providing for the cultural rights of all its citizens. This spirit of tolerance and appreciation is one of the central elements contributing to the stable and peaceful cultural climate flourishing within Jordan. More than 92% of Jordanians are Sunni Muslims and approximately 6% are Christians. The majority of Christians belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, but there are also Greek Catholics, a small Roman Catholic community, Syrian orthodox, Coptic orthodox, Armenian orthodox, and a few protestant denominations. Several small shi’a and Druze populations can also be found in Jordan.
As Jordan is an Islamic state, one may explore the principles of Islam through direct interaction with the people of this monotheistic religion. As the capstone of a long tradition beginning with Judaism and Christianity, Muslims believe that Islam completes the revelation of god’s message to humankind. Islam – which in Arabic means “submission” – is an assertion of the unity, completeness, and sovereignty of god. Muslims believe that god, or Allah as he is known in Arabic, revealed his final message to humankind through the prophet Muhammad and the holy Qur’an, which is the divine immutable word of god. Islam focuses heavily on the equality of all humans before the one true god, and therefore it is in many ways a return to the original doctrine of the pure monotheism that characterized the early Judeo-Christian tradition. Learn more about Jordan here: http://www.visitjordan.com/default.aspx
Why do we travel? Just a hunch here: because it’s fun. Plus we have to occasionally pay a visit to Uncle Greg in Minneapolis or attend that conference on soybean research your boss makes you go to every year. But, at the same time, travel can pay off in many ways, and science backs it up. Here are the four main ways that travel can improve your life:
1. Travel makes you younger
David Eagleman, recently profiled as ‘The Possibilian’ in the New Yorker, studies time perception at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and has made many experiments regarding how life-threatening moments feel slowed down. Travel to new places has always felt like stretched time to me too; a week in Guatemala seems to last as long as three weeks in the Outer
Banks – in a good way. So I asked him, for my recent CNN piece on travel to new destinations, whether science can back up my gut reaction. Eagleman told me adults’ sense of time is more ‘compressed’ than children’s, but that travel to new or ‘novel’ places – the more exotic, the better – is an equalizer of sorts. ‘It essentially puts you, neurally, in the same position as when you were a child.’ Travel: the fountain of youth! And, with its perceived time-stretching possibilities, a life-saver even if you only take a week or two for vacation this summer.
2. Travel makes you smarter
It’s an old cliché that travel broadens your mind. I’d scoff if it weren’t true. A recent psychological study at Indiana University found students had broader answers when they thought the study was imported from Greece, rather than homegrown. What the researchers call ‘psychological distance’ – what we might call ‘armchair travel’ – increases your creativity. A recent
review of the psychological distance concept, suggests that travel, or even planning travel and imagining yourself in an unfamiliar and distant location, might not just improve creativity but self-awareness as well. William Maddux, an American social psychologist, studies how those who live abroad come home more creative too. He told me by phone that ‘immersion’ in a place is key – one of the reasons, he says, he’s working in France. ‘It all depends on someone’s mindset when traveling’, he said. ‘Are they really open to it? If not, and all they do is sit and watch TV, it probably won’t make them more creative… And you don’t necessarily have to cross a border either. What’s more similar New York and Toronto, or New York and Savannah?’
3. Travel makes you more productive
Americans’ relative lack of holiday time is sometimes defended as a strong ‘work ethic’, and a reason the country is so productive. But is it? This fun Business week slideshow shows how many countries’ economic output rivals the US, with far less work time. France, for example, takes off 60% more days off (40 compared to the USA’s 25), and records 98% GDP per hour
worked. While the USA remains the world’s top ‘competitive’ country, runner-up, Switzerland, nearly matches the US mark with a week more vacation time. Some argue taking extended time is even better. In a TED Video on taking sabbaticals, graphic-designer Stefan Sagmeister illustrates how he plans a one-year break from work to ‘experiment’ every seven years simply to generate new ideas.
4. Travel makes you sexier
It’s not just a tan you return with, but stories. According to one recent ItsJustLunch.com survey, the best first-date conversation topic was hobbies, with travel following second. Somehow manage to combine the two, and brace yourself Romeo. Just be sure to have exchanged your Paraguayan guaraní into dollars before the bill arrives. And if travel has already done its job by making you more creative, youthful, self-aware and productive, you’re bound to be looking pretty good out there.
Eritrea’s volcanic ash cloud has disrupted some of neighboring Ethiopia’s flights and has also cut short Hillary Clinton’s Ethiopia trip. Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise, the Addis Ababa-based airline, said in an e-mailed statement today that routes to northern Ethiopia, neighboring Djibouti and the Sudanese capital of Khartoum have been affected, Bloomberg reports. In turn, the company urged travelers to check the status of their flights before embarking on their journey. Getachew Tesfa, a spokesman for the airline, said by phone today that they are “closely monitoring” the situation. “As things get better we are ready to operate. All other flights are operating,” Tesfa said. Philippe Husson is a manager at the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in Toulouse, France. He said in a phone interview that Eritrea’s Nabro volcano erupted on June 12, spewing an ash cloud about 13.5 kilometers (8.4 miles) into the atmosphere, Bloomberg reports After initially projecting volcanic ash for about 36 hours, the volcano is now producing sulphur dioxide and water, he said.
According to the website of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, flights from Frankfurt, Germany to Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa have been cancelled. Husson said, “The eruption is ongoing in terms of gases and water, but there is no more volcanic ash, which is a hazard for aviation.” No records exist of Nabro erupting before, according to Atalay Ayele, associate geophysics professor at Addis Ababa University. “Nobody knows if it has erupted” previously, he said in a phone interview. Atalay said the nearby Dubbi volcano last erupted in 1861, reports Bloomberg. The eruption cut short a two-day visit to Ethiopia by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who left the Horn of Africa yesterday. The State Department said in an e-mail that Clinton departed prematurely “to avoid being unable to travel for an indeterminate period of time.”
Eritrea, a nation of about 6 million people, is roughly the size of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The long dormant Eritrean volcano has spewed ash up to about 13km (eight miles) into the air. The eruption is believed to have followed a string of earthquakes in the region, BBC reports. It is not yet known when the volcanic activity
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