Australia
Australia’s tourism problems Tourism in Australia is currently struggling. It doesn’t take a genius to work out why – the Australian dollar is so high at the moment that it makes the country extremely expensive to visit. There’s no point pretending otherwise, which is why Ben Groundwater’s recent post on the Sydney Morning Herald website [...]
Ashes win Earlier today, the England cricket team retained the Ashes against Australia. For the uninitiated, this is cricket’s oldest and arguably most keenly-fought contest. For me, it’s one of the few occasions where I get stirrings of national identity. I am, by luck of the draw, English. I don’t think that endows me with [...]
Continue reading about National identity and travel: Not necessarily a great mix
Why Victoria’s road safety campaign is counter-productive. As some of you may know, I am currently driving through the middle of Australia. It’s a magical journey that I recommend everyone undertakes at least once in their lifetime. However – if like I did – you start in Melbourne rather than Adelaide, be prepared to [...]
Future of tourism at Uluru Sydney Morning Herald blogger Clive Dorman has sparked a big debate on the future of tourism at Uluru (the monolith formerly known as Ayers Rock). His reaction seems to be that if you can’t climb the rock, then there’s no point in visiting. Background to climbing debate That, frankly, [...]
Continue reading about Why climbing Uluru shouldn’t be banned – and why you shouldn’t climb it
Travel industry rent-a-quotes By travel industry standards, I am by no means a catch-all rent-a-quote expert. Certainly not when compared to the Independent’s Simon Calder or Travel Supermarket’s Bob Atkinson, by any chalk. Areas of expertise But in certain areas, I’m pretty damned good. I know Sheffield well and I know Australia extremely well. [...]
Great travel journalism With all the talk in the last week or so about the death of travel journalism, I thought I’d recommend what I think is the best piece of travel journalism I have read this year. It’s not travel journalism is the traditional sense of travel for the sake of travel. But I’ve [...]
Continue reading about Book recommendation: The Dig Tree by Sarah Murgatroyd
Tourist information office advice If you go into a tourist information office, you are generally looking for advice on what to do, where to go etc. It would be a bad tourist information office that just told you to look at all the leaflets and brochures that are scattered around the room. Tourism authority [...]
Continue reading about Why tourist board websites alienate travellers
Reluctance to join Twitter I was extremely reluctant to join Twitter. As with many who have an antipathy towards it, I thought it was a place for self-obsessed morons to blather about what they had for breakfast. I didn’t know what it was for – and in a way I still don’t, but I have [...]
Continue reading about Twitter and the travel industry: Bringing the outsiders together
Greyhound bus from Cairns to Brisbane In May and June, I slowly made my way down the Queensland coast in Australia. Because I’m a big coward and didn’t fancy hiring a car, I used Greyhound buses all the way down from Cairns to Brisbane. It’s arguably the cheapest way to get down the coast if [...]
Continue reading about Australia’s Greyhound buses and the roadhouse misery breaks
A common complaint amongst air stewards and stewardesses is that passengers keep their headphones on whilst trying to communicate. This is an absolutely understandable gripe – it’s incredibly rude, and forces the crew member to try and bellow over the top of a film when they’re trying to ask what drink you’d like. Anti [...]
Continue reading about Should flight crews be wearing masks?