Delegates from 40 countries to address some world problems through tourism and travel
I certainly won't be at Host Stenden University in Leeuwarden, Netherlands later this month for the International Institute for Peace through Tourism's first IIPT European Conference, October 21-24. The theme is “Bridging the North-South Divide through Sustainable Tourism Development.” Delegates from more than 40 countries from Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean will be there to exchange their experiences, knowledge, insights and visions as to how travel and tourism can build on, expand and leverage current sustainable tourism development, wealth creation, poverty reduction and societal betterment in developing countries.
The conference is being organized by IIPT in partnership with the U.N. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and UN Environment Program (UNEP) in support of the UN Decade of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World and the UN Millennium Development Goals. IITP says that the conference will bring together Ministers of Tourism, senior executives from both the public and private tourism sectors, European Union representatives, UN agencies, foundations, donor agencies, NGOs, educators, policy analysts, leading practitioners, entrepreneurs, future leaders of the industry and senior representatives of related sectors including environment, culture, sport and sustainable economic development.
The conference program is serious and formal, with plenary sessions featuring inspiring keynote speakers and also practical sessions and workshops with case studies of “success stories” and “models of best practice.” If is a lofty and worthy goal, and I frankly don't know whether the US is one of the 40 participating nations. After all, aren't we the country whose president, after the 9/11 attacks, asked Americans to go shopping to prove the patriotism? And until the current economic meltdown in the the US, Americans comprised a huge portion of international travelers.
In my very humble opinion, encouraging international tourism, particularly to developing countries, is a worthy goal. Perhaps the conference will find ways for tourism to benefit local people and local economies rather than cruise lines, hotel chains and other travel providers based in first-world, industrialized countries. And perhaps in this violent and unstable world, it will further pave the way to peace through cross-cultural understanding.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Foliage Season: Drive a Car, Ride a Bike or Take a Hike
The aspens are at or near peak -- but won't be for much longer
The view across the Blue River Valley toward the Gore Range (below) reminded us, again, why we live here:
Some of the aspen were thick-trunked, while others, like those below, were straight and tall as lodgepoles. Seen from right below, their high branches silhouetted against a gray sky resembled lace:
Wherever I've lived in fall foliage country, people have always tried to time their travels to catch peak color, whether in New England with maples that show red, orange and yellow, or the Rockies where aspen leaves take on the color of freshly painted highway lines that contrast again the dark conifers. In the last two weeks, I have driven to or through the high country three times, enjoying the through-the-windshield views of Colorado's autumn glory.
My trips along Interstate 70 were to research Western Slope subjects for various assignments, and I didn't have a chance to stop. Therefore, I was really eager to go for a high-country hike. Yesterday, despite gray skies and a forecast for afternoon rain, four of us headed west to hike the Ptarmigan Trail out of Silverthorne. Even when "civilization" was in sight (below), the aspen display was splendid.
The view across the Blue River Valley toward the Gore Range (below) reminded us, again, why we live here:
Some of the aspen were thick-trunked, while others, like those below, were straight and tall as lodgepoles. Seen from right below, their high branches silhouetted against a gray sky resembled lace:
Below is a short video of those leaves coming down when a breeze stirred the treetops.
Much of the trail (below) was "paved" with the gold of new-fallen leaves, and a canopy of gold was overhead. It felt magical.
Even in October, we spotted occasional end-of-season wildflowers (below).
Most of the leaves will drop soon, if not by next weekend, most likely by the weekend after that. We met a pleasant young couple and their dog (below) who were heading deeper into the backcountry to hunt grouse.
We also encountered a team from the Colorado Mountain Club inventorying the condition and usage of the Ptarmigan Trail as one of more than 50 areas for possible addition to existing wilderness areas. The area we hiked through would be annexed into the Ptarmigan Peak Wilderness.
The trail ends on the summit of 12,948-foot Ptarmigan Peak, but we didn't go that far. After about 2 1/2 miles and nearly a 1,200-foot elevation gain, the clouds thickened and a downright cold wind picked up. So we turned around and retraced our steps, reaching the car just as it started to drizzle. Truncated or not, a good hike was had by all.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Jessye Norman in "Nabucco" Concert At Masada
American-born diva, Biblical story, Israeli mesatop venue -- coming this June
The first Society of American Travel Writers convention that I attended was in Israel in the fall of 1983. The trip was full of memorable experiences and sights, and when I learned that Jessye Norman (right) will give a concert performance from "Nabucco" at the fortress of Masada this June, two memories came flooding back.
One was from a day trip from Jerusalem that included a visit to a magnificent Roman amphitheater in Caesarea. Our guide, whose name I think was Yossi and who was then old enough to have had personal memories of World War II and Holocaust horrors, told of a Berlin State Opera performance there of "Nabucco." The Giuseppe Verdi opera is set during the Babylonian captivity. Sharing the stage with the Berlin company were legions of locally cast spear-carriers. He said that it "was the first time that the Germans played Jews and Jews played Babylonians." The word "healing" was not yet in vogue, but I couldn't help but think that this performance with all of its symbolic layers must have been a positive event for all involved.
One was from a day trip from Jerusalem that included a visit to a magnificent Roman amphitheater in Caesarea. Our guide, whose name I think was Yossi and who was then old enough to have had personal memories of World War II and Holocaust horrors, told of a Berlin State Opera performance there of "Nabucco." The Giuseppe Verdi opera is set during the Babylonian captivity. Sharing the stage with the Berlin company were legions of locally cast spear-carriers. He said that it "was the first time that the Germans played Jews and Jews played Babylonians." The word "healing" was not yet in vogue, but I couldn't help but think that this performance with all of its symbolic layers must have been a positive event for all involved.
A group of us spent three days hiking and camping in Judean and Negev Deserts. On our last night, our little convoy of Army surplus personnel carriers drove up to the back (west) side of Masada, the fortress overlooking the Dead Sea. We camped at the foot of a 375-foot-high ramp (story below) and hiked up before sunrise and before hordes of tourists disembarked from the aerial tram that comes up from the east. In short, we had mesatop to ourselves. A handsome young Israeli soldier, surely selected for his resemblence to Sal Mineo in the 1960 movie "Exodus," told the Masada story. Totally captivating. We made our way down the ramp and returned to camp before the first tourist-toting tram unloaded.
Masada is as iconic in Israel as a combination of Lexington and Concord, Valley Forge, Fort McHenry and perhaps Gettysburg in the US -- maybe more so. Herod the Great fortified Masada, also in the first century B.C., in case of a Jewish insurrection. In 66 A.D. the Jews in fact did begin revolting. A group called the Sicarii, whom newscasters might today describe as extremists, defeated the Roman garrison at Masada and took over the mesatop from which they then attacked Roman forces. The Romans tried repeatedly to uproot the Jews and finally succeeded after they built the ramp, hauled a battering ram up it and breached the walls. When the Romans entered the fortress, they found that the 900 Jews had burned all of their supplies and committed mass suicide. I can only imagine what today's media would make of such an incident, but Masada remains an Israeli symbol of Jewish survival, and soldiers are sworn in there. What a fitting setting for "Nabucco."
The "Nabucco" Weekend features sunrise performances of Verdi's "Nabucco" directed by Israeli conductor Daniel Oren on an elaborate stage at the foot of Masada, June 3 and 5. The gala concert featuring American soprano Jessye Norman accompanied by the Israeli Opera Orchestra will br on June 4 atop Masada.
Packages revolving around this performance are now available, start at from $668 per person, double occupancy for one night and the performance $1,769 pp/do for a weeklong country tour (May 31 to June 6) with the "Nabucco" weekend at the core. These prices are for foreign visitors only, and it is unclear whether Israeli citizens actually pay less. For package details, click here. When you go to the website and hear the "Nabucco" soundtrack, you'll want to book immediately. I sure did.
News Flash: NY Times Travels to Colorado Wine Country
Colorado wine country in prestigious newspaper -- including some factual slippage
In a New York Times travel feature called "Biking Colorado's Wine Country," New York-based wine writer Stefani Jackenthal explores the Palisade region on two wheels. She and a friend spent three days cycling, sipping, dining and B&Bing. I love it when the the prestigious Times focuses attention on Colorado, but why, oh, why does the self-proclaimed "newspaper of record" always get something wrong? The last time was the misleading "36 Hours in Denver" feature with so many off-the-mark facts and suggestions that I blogged it and, more importantly, the Times' mailbox was loaded with objections and corrections from indignant Coloradans.
The wine country piece, which will appear in Sunday's Travel Section but is already available online and in Friday papers, is also somewhat off the mark. Jackenthal wrote, "The first contemporary Colorado winery opened in 1968, but it was slow growing; by 1990, there were only four wineries. Eventually, however, the industry took root. Today there are 72 recognized Colorado wineries, according to the Colorado Wines trade group, with more on the way." Ivancie Winery indeed opened 1968 using non-Colorado grapes but was fairly short-lived. Wineries and vineyards hiccuped into being, and it was two decades before Colorado wineries really were producing wines from Colorado grapes. The trade group is called the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board, more of a mouthful than Colorado Wines but it's the correct name.
The town of Palisade is described as being "surrounded by the Book Cliffs mountain range and Grand Mesa." Palisade isn't surrounded by those two geological features. The Grand Mesa is to the southeast. The Book Cliffs are on the other side of the Colorado River to the north. That leaves the south and west, which are drier than the Mesa and flatter than both. The Book Cliffs are not a mountain range but rather a 60-mile-long escarpment of exposed, eroded sedimentary rock. Wikipedia currently calls them a "mountain range," which is probably where she found the inaccurate description.
Halka Chronic's geologically definitive Roadside Geology of Colorado desribes the Book Cliffs as "towering palisades of Mancos shale. This gray shale, yellow where it is leached, contains types of clay that swell when wet and shrink when dry. Such action brings about a loose soil that is so constantly eroding that it won't support much in the way of vegetation. Where it is not protected by the Mesaverde caprock, the Mancos shale erodes into hump-backed gray and yellow badlands."
But then again, Jackenthal visited several Colorado wineries, compared their wines to European ones and generally enthused about what she found. So who am I to worry that she's weak on Colorado geology and that she implies a non-existent continuum between Ivancie's winery, the real start of the modern Colorado wine industry two decades later and its increasing maturation 20 years after that.
In a New York Times travel feature called "Biking Colorado's Wine Country," New York-based wine writer Stefani Jackenthal explores the Palisade region on two wheels. She and a friend spent three days cycling, sipping, dining and B&Bing. I love it when the the prestigious Times focuses attention on Colorado, but why, oh, why does the self-proclaimed "newspaper of record" always get something wrong? The last time was the misleading "36 Hours in Denver" feature with so many off-the-mark facts and suggestions that I blogged it and, more importantly, the Times' mailbox was loaded with objections and corrections from indignant Coloradans.
The wine country piece, which will appear in Sunday's Travel Section but is already available online and in Friday papers, is also somewhat off the mark. Jackenthal wrote, "The first contemporary Colorado winery opened in 1968, but it was slow growing; by 1990, there were only four wineries. Eventually, however, the industry took root. Today there are 72 recognized Colorado wineries, according to the Colorado Wines trade group, with more on the way." Ivancie Winery indeed opened 1968 using non-Colorado grapes but was fairly short-lived. Wineries and vineyards hiccuped into being, and it was two decades before Colorado wineries really were producing wines from Colorado grapes. The trade group is called the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board, more of a mouthful than Colorado Wines but it's the correct name.
The town of Palisade is described as being "surrounded by the Book Cliffs mountain range and Grand Mesa." Palisade isn't surrounded by those two geological features. The Grand Mesa is to the southeast. The Book Cliffs are on the other side of the Colorado River to the north. That leaves the south and west, which are drier than the Mesa and flatter than both. The Book Cliffs are not a mountain range but rather a 60-mile-long escarpment of exposed, eroded sedimentary rock. Wikipedia currently calls them a "mountain range," which is probably where she found the inaccurate description.
Halka Chronic's geologically definitive Roadside Geology of Colorado desribes the Book Cliffs as "towering palisades of Mancos shale. This gray shale, yellow where it is leached, contains types of clay that swell when wet and shrink when dry. Such action brings about a loose soil that is so constantly eroding that it won't support much in the way of vegetation. Where it is not protected by the Mesaverde caprock, the Mancos shale erodes into hump-backed gray and yellow badlands."
But then again, Jackenthal visited several Colorado wineries, compared their wines to European ones and generally enthused about what she found. So who am I to worry that she's weak on Colorado geology and that she implies a non-existent continuum between Ivancie's winery, the real start of the modern Colorado wine industry two decades later and its increasing maturation 20 years after that.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
United Jet's Landing Gear Collapses
"They" say a picture is worth a thousand. Thee AP photo above shows a United Airbus 319 with a collapsed wheel and subscquent damaged wing at Newark Airport on Sunday evening. Click here for the MSNBC.com story.
Seeing this image after reading the online discussion on Elliott.org on the virtues and annoyances of flying. Chris Elliott wrote a post called "Flying Under the Influence of the TSA. What now?" that kicked off lively comments about flying versus other ways to travel. Landing gear collapse hadn't yet entered into. it, but now it could.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Skiing Utah: Sundance
Sundance: Robert Redford's ski mountain -- slopes amid a super-environmentally aware resort
Why would a Coloradan ski anyplace else?, friends ask when I go out of state (or out of the country) to make some turns. First (and really foremost), I travel so that I can write about ski resorts beyond the Centennial State's rectangle. But beyond that, I find that experiencing skiing and mountains and mountain resorts elsewhere refreshes my perspective on the Colorado Rockies. After all, when a person lives two hours from Vail and there are seven closer ski areas, it's easy to become jaded.
Why Sundance?
To reduce culture when leaving the People's Republic of Boulder, Sundance is a good place to start. In fact, if Boulder could design its own mountain resort, it would create Sundance. Just 450 acres of 6,000 that Robert Redford owns have been lightly developed for skiing. Sound environmental practices have gone into infrastructure and operations of the resort (an anti-resort, really). Smart building, conservation and recycling efforts have a high profile in the lodging and dining operations -- and it's Redford's founding philosophy, not just for show. For instance, the reusable shopping bag, right, contains a statistical reminder that unnecessary plastic bags are a major waste. The small print reads: "Use this bag twice a week for 2 years and each bag will SAVE 11 pounds of garbage, 832 plastic bags, enough petroleum to drive a car 60 miles."
Culture Under the Sundance Umbrella
Other Sundance efforts that are umbrella-ed under several intertwined entities. The Sundance Preserve, Utah's answer to the older Aspen Institute but with a lower-key public presence. The Sundance Preserve has hosted world leaders, Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, Academy Award-winning actors and directors, innovative scientists and accomplished corporate leaders to discuss public policy, social issues, art and the environment. The non-profit Sundance Institute is dedicated to the discovering and nurturing independent artists and audiences. It supports and inspires independent film and theater word introduces American and global audiences to their new works. The Sundance Channel provides further outreach. This cable television network airs independent feature films, world cinema, documentaries, short film, and original programs, all are shown uncut and without commercials. It is interrelated with the Sundance Film Festival (January 21-31 this year), which is now so big that it has spread to Park City and even to Ogden for enough venues. Then there's Sundance Cinemas, the commercial and educational arm of the Sundance film presence.
Skiing at Sundance
But what about the skiing, you ask? Sundance Resort's lodgings and public buildings tucked among the trees lie at the foot of a mid-size ski area with 41 runs, three chairlifts and a respectable 2,150-foot vertical. that, from the bottom, looks smaller than it skis. The only visible lift, a quad named Ray's after the pre-Redford owner, ferries riders to a midway unload for those who want to ski or snowboard the lower mountain, continues to the front-mountain summit and another unloading area and then drops into a low spot from which the Arrowhead triple reaches the area's highest lift-served point. Looking south beyond the signs and the safety fence is a long view past the mountains to the flat and across to the next mountains.
Skier's right leads to Sundance's most challenging terrain -- a landscape of ridges, gulleys and glades. Skier's left features some short, steep shots, a bit of gladed terrain and wonderful cruising runs. It is possible to yo-yo on Arrowhead all day long, mixing and matching blue and black runs. Back to the lower mountain, its tamest beginner terrain is served by a short handle tow, but beyond that, novices and intermediates can get a lot of mileage on the long green and blue runs measuring to 1,325 vertical feet. Most of these runs are again lit for night skiing after many dark years. A handful of terrain features built into one short blue trail (Montoya, I think) attract boarders. Up the road is the Sundance Cross-Country Center, with 26 kilometers of daily groomed trails for skating and classic track skiing and also 10 kilometers of dedicated trails through the woods.
Why would a Coloradan ski anyplace else?, friends ask when I go out of state (or out of the country) to make some turns. First (and really foremost), I travel so that I can write about ski resorts beyond the Centennial State's rectangle. But beyond that, I find that experiencing skiing and mountains and mountain resorts elsewhere refreshes my perspective on the Colorado Rockies. After all, when a person lives two hours from Vail and there are seven closer ski areas, it's easy to become jaded.
Why Sundance?
Culture Under the Sundance Umbrella
Other Sundance efforts that are umbrella-ed under several intertwined entities. The Sundance Preserve, Utah's answer to the older Aspen Institute but with a lower-key public presence. The Sundance Preserve has hosted world leaders, Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, Academy Award-winning actors and directors, innovative scientists and accomplished corporate leaders to discuss public policy, social issues, art and the environment. The non-profit Sundance Institute is dedicated to the discovering and nurturing independent artists and audiences. It supports and inspires independent film and theater word introduces American and global audiences to their new works. The Sundance Channel provides further outreach. This cable television network airs independent feature films, world cinema, documentaries, short film, and original programs, all are shown uncut and without commercials. It is interrelated with the Sundance Film Festival (January 21-31 this year), which is now so big that it has spread to Park City and even to Ogden for enough venues. Then there's Sundance Cinemas, the commercial and educational arm of the Sundance film presence.
Skiing at Sundance
But what about the skiing, you ask? Sundance Resort's lodgings and public buildings tucked among the trees lie at the foot of a mid-size ski area with 41 runs, three chairlifts and a respectable 2,150-foot vertical. that, from the bottom, looks smaller than it skis. The only visible lift, a quad named Ray's after the pre-Redford owner, ferries riders to a midway unload for those who want to ski or snowboard the lower mountain, continues to the front-mountain summit and another unloading area and then drops into a low spot from which the Arrowhead triple reaches the area's highest lift-served point. Looking south beyond the signs and the safety fence is a long view past the mountains to the flat and across to the next mountains.
Skier's right leads to Sundance's most challenging terrain -- a landscape of ridges, gulleys and glades. Skier's left features some short, steep shots, a bit of gladed terrain and wonderful cruising runs. It is possible to yo-yo on Arrowhead all day long, mixing and matching blue and black runs. Back to the lower mountain, its tamest beginner terrain is served by a short handle tow, but beyond that, novices and intermediates can get a lot of mileage on the long green and blue runs measuring to 1,325 vertical feet. Most of these runs are again lit for night skiing after many dark years. A handful of terrain features built into one short blue trail (Montoya, I think) attract boarders. Up the road is the Sundance Cross-Country Center, with 26 kilometers of daily groomed trails for skating and classic track skiing and also 10 kilometers of dedicated trails through the woods.
Skiing Better at Sundance
I'm going out on a limb when I write that if you want to learn to ski or overcome a plateau on which you've been stuck, there's no better place to do so than Sundance. It is the home hill of Jerry Warren. His titles are director of mountain operations and director of skiing, but his real renown comes in ski instructor circles. Jerry, one of the country's top ski technique gurus, used to coach the Professional Ski Instructors of America elite demo team. Last June, he received PSIA's Lifetime Achievement Award, only the sixth person so honored in half a century. There's simply no one better to identify and fix skiing problems -- and I'm betting that he clinics his ski instructors to do so too. My pals and I spent a few very productive hours skiing with him and taking his counsel.We didn't go through Warren's entire three-day Ski Performance Lab program (including videoanalysis and seminars), but those few hours were enough to fine-tune my turns.
I just wonder why I didn't get around to taking a picture of Jerry too. I guess I was too busy concentrating on my technique and practicing what he preached -- gently and with humor, of course.
Sundance Info
Sundance Resort is up in Timpanogas Canyon above Provo at 8841 North Alpine Loop Road, Sundance, Utah 84604. Phones: 866-259-7468 (main number), 800-892-1600 (lodging reservations), 801-223-4110(snow report), 801-223-4140 (ski/snowboard school and Ski Performance Labs), 801-223-6000 (activities and events), 801-223-4170 (cross-country center). Click here to sign up for Sundance's newsletter.
Southwest Numbers Soften in September
Even the country's savviest discount carrier sees passenger declines
Southwest Airlines, arguably the country's smartest air-transport company, guess right on fuel prices, kept its fares relatively stable and declined to impose the rigorous extra fees (notably for checked baggage) that other airlines imposed. So its September figures reveal the recession that in which the country found itself, even before the government was forced to bail out failed financial institutions.
Southwest reported that it flew 5.3 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) in September 2008, a walloping 5.9 percent decrease from the 5.6 billion RPMs flown in September 2007. Available seat miles (ASMs) increased 0.8 percent to 8.4 billion from the September 2007 level of
8.3 billion. The combination of fewer miles flown and more available seat miles made for a load factor of 63.4 percent, down from 67.9 percent in 2007.
While September was down, the numbers for the nine months that ended on September 30, 2008, were up. Between January and September, Southwest flew 56.2 billion RPMs, up from the 54.8 billion RPMs for the same period in 2007 (an increase of 2.6 percent). Available seat miles were also up, increasing 4.6 percent from 74.4 billion to 77.8 billion. The year-to-date load factor declined slightly to 72.3 percent from 73.7 percent during the same period last year.
Southwest Airlines, arguably the country's smartest air-transport company, guess right on fuel prices, kept its fares relatively stable and declined to impose the rigorous extra fees (notably for checked baggage) that other airlines imposed. So its September figures reveal the recession that in which the country found itself, even before the government was forced to bail out failed financial institutions.
Southwest reported that it flew 5.3 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) in September 2008, a walloping 5.9 percent decrease from the 5.6 billion RPMs flown in September 2007. Available seat miles (ASMs) increased 0.8 percent to 8.4 billion from the September 2007 level of
8.3 billion. The combination of fewer miles flown and more available seat miles made for a load factor of 63.4 percent, down from 67.9 percent in 2007.
While September was down, the numbers for the nine months that ended on September 30, 2008, were up. Between January and September, Southwest flew 56.2 billion RPMs, up from the 54.8 billion RPMs for the same period in 2007 (an increase of 2.6 percent). Available seat miles were also up, increasing 4.6 percent from 74.4 billion to 77.8 billion. The year-to-date load factor declined slightly to 72.3 percent from 73.7 percent during the same period last year.
Normally, I don't include financial numbers here, but when such a savvy airline experiences such a decline, it is an eloquent testimonial to the countries financial problems in general and the woes of the travel industry as well.
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