Burma travel boycott hypocritical and usless

The following article originally appeared on the National Times on December 22, 2009.

Rangoon could be Asia's Havana. Crumbling colonial architecture quietly decays in the tropical heat while patched-up automotive relics lumber around pot-holed streets. But the former Burmese capital is resolutely off most travellers' itineraries.

Instead, stray dogs growl menacingly at passers-by on the wide boulevards of the city's colonial quarter. The few foreigners taking tea at the impressively restored Strand Hotel are on government business. The other Westerners you see darting out of the 1970s Mazda B400 taxis are reluctant to stop and talk, presumably because they are involved in the less noble trade of sanctions-busting.

Even old South-East Asian hands shun Burma. The reason is the well-funded Burma Campaign, which counts among its supporters high-profile politicians such as former British prime minister Tony Blair and Hollywood A-listers including Jennifer Aniston, Woody Harrelson and Jim Carey. Tourism brings an unacceptable veneer of respectability to a vile regime, runs the campaign's logic.

The group also uses media-friendly guerilla tactics. Its activists recently hijacked the Qantas annual general meeting in Perth over Jetstar's decision to include Rangoon in its route network. Lonely Planet is another high-profile Australian company to feature on the campaign's "black list" of companies "propping up the regime".

Yet there has been a shift in recent years from other pro-Burmese pressure groups away from this hardline approach. The Free Burma Coalition, comprised mainly of exiled Burmese, now fully supports tourism and travel to Myanmar, believing the benefits of contact to outweigh the implied show of support travel brings. In August, Aung San Suu Kyi, the jailed beacon of Burmese democracy and postergirl for freedom activists around the world, appeared to reverse her previously vocal opposition to tourism in comments leaked to the international press.

It is likely that Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) will stop short of a full u-turn until such a policy shift can be used as a bargaining chip to guarantee next year's planned election. Unlike the Government's big foreign currency earners, petroleum exploration and logging, tourism's economic impact is tiny. But its political impact is huge and any NLD endorsement has the potential to unlock the pent-up demand for travel to this unspoilt, quintessentially Indochinese land.

To read more of this article, please go to the original article on the National Times site by clicking this link.

Hong Kong Made to Measure

This article originally appeared in Luxury Travel & Style Magazine Spring 2009 issue

OUR IMPERFECTIONS, IT SEEMS, ARE MERELY DETAILS IN THE HONG KONG BESPOKE PRODUCER'S GOAL OF MADE-TO-MEASURE PERFECTION, WRITES JUSTIN WASTNAGE.

It is not customary to point out physical defects of customers, least of all if you are trying to sell them clothing. But Manu Melwani is a little different.
I am standing before him and he tells me my right arm is five millimetres longer than my left. A common enough problem, he reassures me. Melwani, whose father Sam opened his eponymous tailor shop in the bustling back streets of Kowloon fifty years ago, is not one to stand on ceremony. His rich and famous clientele, most of whom are displayed in photographs on his pokey shop's walls, do not have time to stand around for the endless alterations and fine tuning your Savile Row tailor might wish to make. John Howard and Mark Latham both attest to having had garments made to measure at Sam's, as do Bill Clinton, David Bowie and, inexplicably, Kate Moss.
Instead Melwani has to size you up from the start. “You prefer not to wear a tie, you generally don't button up the jacket,” he asks rhetorically as a seamstress
is measuring my inside step.
There is nothing quite like a made-to-measure suit to flatter unusual body shapes and hide life's excesses. Normally, though, it is price that drags us
back to prêt-à-porter. But Melwani's team of tailors will generally whip up a suit, with an extra pair of pants, and a few hand-tailored shirts for $500.
Hong Kong used to be the capital of copying. The then-British outpost was doing a roaring trade in knock-off bags, watches and t-shirts. But for the more discerning customer, these days Hong Kong's industrious artisans are put to much better use than clumsy counterfeits. Highly skilled jewellers, milliners and shoemakers can make almost anything to measure.
An auspicious event looming in my life, I had investigated the opportunity of having a diamond eternity ring hand made for my wife. Rushing back to Hong Kong Island by metro (far quicker than any other method, but lacking the romance of the Star Ferry), I sidestepped the lunchtime crowds to reach Central. Emailed correspondence ensured that by the time I entered the premises of David Kingsboro, a discreet jeweller upstairs in a nondescript shopping mall, Cynthia Chan had already picked out twelve quarter-carat diamonds and dispatched preliminary sketches to her silversmiths. I was invited to inspect each one for flaws and told to return in two days to pick up the ring and settle up.
Just around the corner, via the Hong Kong franchise of Harvey Nichols, is Admiralty, where inspiration torn from a magazine page can be recreated into a pair of hand-stitched, leather-soled killer heels that fit your feet like a glove at Lii Lii Shoes. A friend tells me to ignore the Russian hooker footwear piled up around the untidy premises and to focus on the sublime experience of having every millimetre of your foot mapped.
A crooked toe, just like a shorter left arm, is no longer the domain of schoolyard freak shows. Our own imperfections, it seems, are merely details in the bespoke producer's goal of made-to-measure perfection.

------------

LUXE LIST
Lii Lii Shoes, set over a few stores in the Admiralty Centre, will
make custom ladies’ footwear from HK$1800 (A$280) per pair. Allow one week.
Shop 75, 1st Floor, tower 2, Admiralty Centre, 18 Harcourt Rd, Central

Sam’s Tailor, a formal wear institution, sits just off Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Beware of numerous touts en route pushing imitators. Suits from HK$2000 (A$310), allow three days.
Ground Floor, Burlington Arcade, 94 Nathan Road, Kowloon www.samstailor.biz

David Kingsboro has a very secure shop right in the heart of the luxury part of Queen’s Road. Jewellery custom made either to order or after consultation. Allow
two weeks from scratch, or one week if pre-arranged via email (davidkingsborojewellery@yahoo.com.hk)
Shops C & D, 2nd Floor, Entertainment Building, 30 Queen’s Road, Central

Myanmar-ed by controversy

This article originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia magazine

Burma has been off-limits to travellers for ethical reasons for decades. But there appears to have been a subtle shift in the opposition to visiting of late. Justin Wastnage reports from Rangoon

Lovers of more exotic travel destinations will have been warmed by news that Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition leader, has recently dropped her opposition to tourism. For several years Burma has been among the highest profile of rogue states, due to its thuggish military rulers.

Nobel Peace Prize recipient Suu Kyi, who has been kept under house arrest for much of the 19 years since her National League for Democracy (NLD) won a thumping 82% in the last election, has main tained that tourists should stay away. “Burma will be here for many years, so tell your friends to visit us later. Visiting now is tantamount to condoning the regime,” she said in 1995.

Yet tour operators on the ground in Burma (or Myanmar, see box below) have been lobbying for greater numbers of tourists, who bring much-needed money into the hands of ordinary Burmese people.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Burma or Myanmar? Rangoon or Yangon? Like Mumbai and Beijing before it, the government of Burma decided in 1989 to rename its country Myanmar, as well as changing several city names. The name is more inclusive, since the Bamar, or Burmese only account for around 80% of the population. But since most countries do not recognise the government as legitimate, most (including Australia) still refer to the country as Burma.
Most of the Burmese people (including the stridently anti-government) prefer the term Myanmar, although Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy prefers Burma.

Whether Suu Kyi did indeed call for a scrapping of the tourism boycott is moot, as she is banned from speaking publicly. But many within the NLD want tourists. So the fact that ‘The Lady’ might have u-turned has re-opened the debate on whether tourism could help the country more than it hinders.

One thing on which all commentators agree is that the military junta is a vile lot. The State Peace and Development Council, as it calls itself, holds tens of thousands of political prisoners, bans free speech and has forced up to half a million people from their homes.

Even Sylvester Stallone cast the Myanmar regime as the ultimate baddies in the latest Rambo film.

Australia, along with the European Union and the US, has imposed trading sanctions on the country, although the Department for Foreign Affairs does not support a tourism boycott.

But like Cuba, the isolation has left the country as a time capsule. It is a perfectly-preserved slice of pre-tourism South East Asia.

True, the former capital city Rangoon (officially Yangon) is dilapidated and shabby, but has Havana-esque charm. Outside, the country is also stunningly beautiful.

David Mathieson, Burma researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW) sums it up by saying: “Burma is not just a human rights disaster, but a fantastic place with great people.” The Buddhist relics, temples and ruins that dot the land are unrivalled in South East Asia.

The history of this quintessentially Indochinese land, is far richer than the popular destinations of Vietnam and Cambodia, says Karen Hogue, a US travel agent who specialises in the region. Inle Lake, in the country’s interior, is breathtakingly beautiful in its tranquillity, while the beach town of Ngapali has sun-bleached sands unmatched anywhere else in the Mekong. Pagan (or Bagan, pictured above) was the centre of Theravada Buddhism in the 12th Century and is still Burma's top tourism draw.

The Burmese, too, are a huge asset. With a high level of English proficiency, the courteous, gentle and endlessly patient people of Myanmar are not yet jaded by tourists and appear to cherish every interaction with foreigners.

Yet travellers will have difficulty seeing anywhere beyond the “tourist triangle” outlined above. The shiny new capital city Naypyidaw (which translates as ‘the abode of kings’) is reportedly a marvel of obscenely lavish spending, but foreigners are generally prohibited from visiting. Similarly, maps of the country show many regions, towns and even sections of roads from which non-Myanmar citizens are banned.

Previous generals in charge of the country closed it completely; transforming Burma from the richest in South East Asia at time of independence to one of the world’s poorest. The main aim of the tatmadaw (army) has been to preserve national unity at all costs. It has been fighting ethnic separatist groups since independence from the UK in 1948. “Tourists going to Burma
don’t realise there is quite intense conflicts going on relatively near to where they are,” Mathieson says.

Zetty Brake, coordinator for the Burma Campaign Australia is blunter. Inle Lake, which features on most tourist itineraries, lies in the centre of Shan State, site of much of the ethnic disturbance over the past 20 years. Political imprisonments and disappearances are common and the lake’s shores saw “hundreds bludgeoned to death in 1988,” Brake says.

Burma is not a bad country, but it has bad rulers. This could be said for a great number of tourist destinations around the world, such as Zimbabwe. Leon van Neer, Burma general manager of upmarket destination management company Exotissimo says he had previously been in Syria, where he had become convinced about the positive force of foreign visitors, curbing the excesses of police brutality and opening up the eyes of locals to everyday freedoms.

But tourism to Burma, Brake says, is directly linked to human rights abuses in a way it is not in similarly despotic lands. The International Labour Organization found in 1996 that large numbers of forced labourers were working on railway, road, construction and other infrastructure projects, many of which were related to the government’s efforts to promote tourism. Amnesty International reports as recently as 2008 that forced labour continues, although there is some evidence that its use is not as pervasive as it once was.

The Burma Campaign is the most vociferous supporter of a tourism boycott, enlisting the help of celebrities including Joanna Lumley, Susan Sarandon and Helen Mirren. The campaign has been effective, with a recent poll by the UK’s Guardian newspaper showing that 75% of Britons would not venture into Burma. The group also publishes a “dirty list” of companies that promote tourism, which includes Abercrombie & Kent (A&K), Gecko’s, Jetstar, Lonely Planet, Exotissimo and Shangri-La Hotels.

Yet there is strong debate over whether this blanket ban has been effective. The Free Burma Coalition, a US pressure group comprising expatriate Burmese, reversed its opposition to tourism “after having reviewed the effectiveness” of its pro-sanctions campaigns “against the objective of building an open society back home”. The coalition now fully supports tourism and travel to Burma as part of its support for the emergence of an open society. Mathieson concurs, saying that, “so long as they do research before they go, travellers to Burma can be a force for good”.

Su Su Tin, managing director of Exotissimo Myanmar is a living example of the good that can be achieved. Female entrepreneurs are rare in Burma, but Su Su Tin seized the opportunity that presented itself when the government allowed private companies to form joint ventures with foreign firms in 1995. Kyi Kyi Aye, a spokeswoman for the Myanmar Hotels and Tourism Ministry says there are now 16 such joint ventures and 692 locally-owned tourism ventures,
compared with only a handful of direct government-owned businesses.

But Su Su Tin says the pro-boycott lobby has prevented many potential tourists from coming. “If I go to trade shows or talk to agents, some companies don’t want to include Burma because the business would be small compared to the trouble of fending off the boycott,” she says.

In the Australian marketplace, both Wendy Wu Tours and Intrepid Travel have pulled out of Burma on ethical grounds. Much of Burma’s marketing is aimed at non-English speaking markets. Russia is a surprising growth market where the population have less knowledge of the regime.

Exotissimo sells packages mainly to French and Spanish travellers and as such, goes to some length to ensure it uses as little government-owned infrastructure and accommodation as possible. Su Su Tin says this is due in part to the ethical demands of the clients. The company uses privately-owned domestic airlines such as Yangon Airways rather than Myanmar Airlines, the government airline.

Lonely Planet, in its Burma guidebook, debates the implications of spending tourist dollars in the country. It estimates that through visa fees, taxes and licences around 15% of any stay will filter its way to the junta. Brake says the figure is around double this at five-star accommodation. Mathieson says that given the closed nature of the economy private entrepreneurs that want to build upscale accommodation “inevitably” have close connections with the junta.

Some of these connections are more unsavoury than others. Arms dealer Tay Za, on Australia’s sanctions list, is owner of Air Bagan and several upscale resorts. He is a close associate of the country’s ruler, senior general Than Shwe.

AGENT TIPS
❑ Do not use the government- owned Myanmar Tours & Travel (including any of its many affiliates) and avoid, where possible, government-controlled infrastructure.
❑ Use privately-owned hotels and transportation – including airlines – and make direct inquiries on ownership before using those offered by wholesalers.
❑ Advise your clients of both opportunities and potential pitfalls with regards to spending their personal money while in Burma.

Sujata Ramen, managing director of Abercrombie & Kent in Australia and New Zealand is bullish about the benefits of operating in the country. “We’ve kept the office open even under intense pressure and even when there was no tourism,” she says. “We have to show the Burmese that the world has not forgotten them,” she says. A&K was also able to push almost US$650,000 (A$750,000) in aid to local people after Cyclone Nargis devastated the country in 2008. “Without having a local office that money would have gone through government channels,” she adds.

Local people selling souvenirs, postcards and handicrafts are all eager to supplement their meagre income with dollars, she adds. The government is not too concerned with tourism, as oil, gas and logging provides the bulk of its foreign earnings. Mathieson says sanctions are much better targeted at France’s Total Oil, or Western Australia’s Twinza Oil which have both exploited the country’s oil fields. Even the tourism ministry admits most destination marketing
is relegated to private firms, since the government allocates no funds.

The tourism ministry has revised its target for international visitors to 500,000 from the oftquoted one million it announced in 1989. In 2006 a reported 264,000 tourists entered the
country, the best year so far. Exotissimo saw a dramatic drop after the last round of prodemocracy protests in 2007 and again after Nargis, but Su Su Tin expects 2009 to match 2006 levels.

An Australian tourist, Bill, a former commercial fisherman from Darwin, told me in Bagan that a
bigger barrier to tourism for most Aussies is the country’s lack of credit card facilities and mobile
phone roaming, both the result of sanctions. “It’s a real hassle to have to carry around a fortnight’s money in US dollars,” he says.

The real hope is for the future. The military regime is understood to be tearing itself apart with infighting. The ailing and ageing Than Shwe has promised to pursue elections next year, although
opposition political parties are still banned. Sadly, clearly rattled by the prospect of losing, the military government has more than doubled the number of political prisoners in the past two years, including more than 100 imprisoned in recent months, Human Rights Watch says.
A pro-democracy activist in Rangoon, who preferred to remain anonymous, told me the best hope the country has is for a powersharing deal between the military and an elected government.

If the government does change, even partially, the Burmese people expect the tide of tourism to finally turn their way. With one of the most unspoilt countries left in Asia awaiting, it is a tidal wave many in travel can be expected to ride. ■

Justin Wastnage travelled to Burma courtesy of Exotissimo Travel

TWO SIDES OF THE DEBATE
GO NOW
“Peregrine and Gecko’s understand and share the concerns of the global community regarding the current situation in Burma. We firmly believe that our presence in Burma is in keeping with the spirit of Aung San Suu Kyi’s extended comments regarding tourism, and that our presence is a positive one. Our aim is to expose the country to outside scrutiny and to give the Burmese a chance to communicate directly with foreign visitors. It is not an endorsement of Burma's current political system or human rights record.”
Tietse Stelma, operations and responsible tourism manager, Peregrine Adventures

“There is no question that the military dictatorship in Burma is among the most brutal and oppressive regimes in the world. Supporters of a tourism boycott have urged Lonely Planet to abandon publication of its Myanmar (Burma) guide, which they argue encourages tourism and implicitly supports the regime.
Lonely Planet takes this view extremely seriously. We therefore considered long and hard whether we should publish our 10th edition. In the end, we came to the conclusion that it was important to continue. Our aim in publishing this guide is to provide objective information to help travellers make informed decisions about visiting Burma. No one reading our guide could be in any doubt about our opinion of the current regime.
For those who do decide to go, Lonely Planet’s guidebook is one of only very few sources of information that enables travellers to maximise their support for the local population, and minimise the prospect of any money which they might spend going to the military regime.
When such travellers return, we encourage them to speak out about what they have seen, to write to the local Burmese embassy and to share their experience with others.”
Piers Pickard, Acting Global Publisher, Lonely Planet

GO LATER
“Insight Guides has postponed a new edition of our Insight Guide Burma (Myanmar) in the light of recent events. We have every sympathy with those who find the current regime in Burma repugnant and as a publisher and distributor in Asia we do no business with that country.”
Katharine Leck, managing director, APA, publishers of Insight Guides

“Intrepid Travel operated trips to Burma from 1995 to early 2000. We had been very aware of both the positive and negative aspects of running trips to a country being ruled by a corrupt non-elected junta that continues to suppress people’s basic human rights. In 1999, after a review of the political situation and after consultation with many stakeholders, we decided to suspend trips to Burma – the decision was based on a vote made by Intrepid Travel staff.
Intrepid remains committed to the ongoing debate on the role of tourism in Burma. A review of our position was held in June 2002. Three trips ran in 2003, but after a deterioration of the situation there we suspended again. In July 2006 we researched our decision yet again. After a lot of discussion on the pros and cons with many on government organisations, operators and experts, Intrepid chose to continue its stance not to run trips in Burma. We will continue to monitor the situation and review our decision again, when we feel there is more progress towards human rights in Burma.”
Jane Crouch, responsible travel manager, Intrepid Travel

States' wholesale exodus

The article below originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia

State governments once saw owning a chunk of the travel distribution chain as the solution to domestic travel's woes. But as Justin Wastnage writes, history has shown private industry often does things better

Insulting your hosts is usually considered bad form when arriving at a party. But Margaret Jackson, most famous for staying in her post as Qantas chairman despite the failure of the private equity bid she engineered, is clearly a woman not afraid of ruffling feathers. It was hardly surprising, therefore, that Jackson showed up at the tourism industry's premier trade event, the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE) with heavy criticism for the industry.

The industry faces serious long-term decline unless urgent and sustained action is taken, she said in a report as chair of the National Long-Term Tourism Strategy Steering Committee. Not only is the country losing overseas visitors, with a 14% drop in our global share between 1995 and 2008, but Australia's domestic tourism performance has "flat-lined over the past ten years, while outbound travel has soared". A generation of young Australians is only holidaying overseas, the report said.

The mood at ATE was downbeat. The challenges outlined by Jackson were well understood by the 1700 sellers inside the new Melbourne Conference and Exhibition Centre. This year was always going to be bad, but domestic travellers were supposed to ease the pain. Instead, the most recent domestic visitor night survey showed another 14% drop in domestic overnight stays for the first three months of the year.

Chris Brown, managing director of industry lobby group Tourism and Transport Forum puts the slide down to the cheap availability of international flights. "Australians are filling seats on outbound planes, especially to short-haul, Pacific rim destinations like New Zealand and Indonesia," he said.

The drop-off in domestic activity has already seen casualties. The well-liked Tasmania's Temptations Holidays was put up for sale by the Tasmanian government just before ATE. The state's tourism minister Michelle O'Byrne said the recent dramatic fall in sales was due to "significant changes to the tourism wholesale market in recent years". The business would lose $3 million this year and probably more in years to come, she said.

No buyer has been announced, although many delegates at ATE expected the AOT group to step in as the white knight. The wholesale giant has been on the acquisition trail in recent years, taking over both Queensland's Sunlover Holidays and New South Wales Holidays from their respective state governments last year. It is thought that both tourism boards garnered significant leverage over brochure content as part of their sell-offs.

Tasmania, by contrast, could have lost all bargaining power in pulling the plug before finding a buyer, an industry insider said. "It would have been worth more as a going concern," the source said. AOT was unavailable for comment, but its Travelpoint brand already brochures the state and it may wish to shy away from the inevitable meddling that any government pact may bring. The TTF, for example, has concerns that the Tasmanian government was looking at a quick fiscal fix in taking its decision, with little of the promised ongoing support for tourism in the sell-off announcement evident in its June budget.

Geoff Buckley, the outgoing managing director of Tourism Australia, cites the agency's own technology initiatives as having hastened the decline of state wholesalers. In 2007, the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse formed an alliance with software company V3 Leisure to create the Tourism Exchange Australia (TXA) booking platform. "Ironically the TXA has allowed operators to bypass state wholesalers and deal direct with agents," he said.

Governments are notoriously bad at running businesses. Public transport networks, utilities and lotteries that were once the fiefdoms of political powerbrokers are being sold off around the country. Oddly, as the Jackson report points out, this desire to run businesses extends to travel distribution; Australian state and territory governments tend to have far more ownership or control of tourism-related assets and expenditures than in other countries.

But most attempts to run wholesalers have been clumsy. Nathan Harding, group managing director of Discover West Holidays, the largest domestic wholesaler in Western Australia, says "whenever governments get involved in distribution, the costs go up". Worse still, private companies such as his shy away from those states where the government owns the main operator, meaning the government dollars have to go twice as far because third parties are not promoting the destination.

But recently the tide has turned in favour of state governments getting out of the distribution game. WA started the trend, offering its Best of the West to Discover West to operate under licence before scrapping the program in favour of joint marketing initiatives. Victoria has also preferred to work with established players.

With Tasmania out, all eyes have now turned on South Australia and the Northern Territory as the only states or territories still funding a wholesale arm. SA is bucking the trend, launching a new wholesale product, South Australia Holidays.

The NT, meanwhile, is continuing to run Territory Discoveries as a government business. Tourism NT acting chief executive Angela Collard said wholesale representation to retail travel agents is "particularly important for the increasing number of small to medium operators that offer unique tourism products and experiences in the Northern Territory, which are not otherwise sold by commercial travel agents."

Buckley expressed doubt that either SA or the NT could sustain their direct investment long-term into the future. "The NT is probably not now where they'll end up, but some political circumstances will mean small products will continue to be promoted," he said. Collard hinted that going forward; Territory Discoveries will "establish long-term strategic partnerships within the travel industry".

One of Jackson's key recommendations for fixing the problem that is domestic tourism is to rip Tourism Australia apart and restructure it. At Tourism Australia's ATE, this was akin to telling your hostess that her interior design needed serious work. Yet such is the slump in Australian tourism, that delegates seemed in a mood to listen. If that mood filters down to domestic tourism distribution, then travel agents will be the ones to benefit.

---------------------------------------

Flight club

Originally published in the New Scientist

I am sitting inside the cabin for
the new longhaul 787 aircraft
from manufacturer Boeing and
it feels huge.
Boeing is calling this aircraft the
Dreamliner and a lot of the thought has
gone into passenger comfort as well as
the aerodynamics. A good example is the
inclusion of thousands of tiny blue lightemitting
diodes which fool the eye into
thinking the 787 cabin is larger.
“Eyes can focus very easily on cold
white light, but the frequency of blue
we use makes it very hard to focus on,
enhancing the sense of space,” says Ken
Price, who heads up the revenue team
of the 787 project, working with airline
customers.
The galley of the Dreamliner is where
this sense of space is most impressive;
the entryway is an atrium arch, giving the
sense of a hallway in a stately home. There
are other tricks, too. The aircraft is the first
commercial airliner to be built of advanced
composites, which allow for moister air at a
higher, more natural pressure than in metal
aircraft as the fuselage has no rusting rivets
to worry about.
Boeing is obviously banking on passengers
wanting to find out more about this new
technology, as it has transformed the
traditional tour of its facility north of Seattle
into a Future of Flight museum packed with
concept aircraft from blended wing bodies
to hypersonic aircraft capable of reaching
Sydney from London in two hours.
The airframer’s plant is a fascinating
place too. I met my wife on a tour, having
shoe horned ourselves into the cramped
crew sleeping quarters that are hidden
inside the roof of a 777. The efficiency of
the facility’s work flow processes are as
much a marvel as its sheer size.
Located at the edge of the Puget Sound that
separates the US from Canada’s Vancouver
Island, the Boeing factory is also close to an
area of outstanding natural beauty.
For those who like to combine the
traditional holiday habits of good food and
wine with a little aeronautic sightseeing,
the factory of Boeing’s archrival Airbus is
just as attractive. Its A380 visitor centre,
dedicated to the two-storey flying castle, is
in the southwestern French city of Toulouse.
There are plenty of quirks about the
beautiful city, known to Frenchmen as the
home of rugby and fine food. That the
Airbus facility is here at all, in the middle of
the mountainous Midi-Pyrénées region, is
a twist of historical fate: it is the site where
French aviation pioneer Pierre-Georges
Latécoère founded his factory at the end
of the First World War, far from both the
German border and sea access.
Today, the British built wings and
German-built fuselages have to wind their
way through medieval towns on transporters
from the nearest port in Bordeaux to the
Toulouse suburb of Blagnac.
The site was most famous as the
headquarters of the Franco-British
supersonic aeroplane Concorde, which first
took flight from Blagnac in 1969.
All of this history is presented in a
surprisingly cheap Airbus facility tour,
which Nicole Pradines from the tourism
board of Midi-Pyrénées recommends
combining with a visit to the space
adventure park Cité de l’Espace.
Aside from space paraphernalia from the
past half-century, its Terradome presents
the history of space from the Big-Bang
to the creation of the solar system, while
its hypothetical human settlement on the
moon is entitled, confusingly, Astralia.
Both the third and fourth largest aircraft
manufacturers, Bombardier of Canada
and Embraer of Brazil, also allow tours
of their facilities, although Montreal is far
easier to reach than the jungle city of São
José dos Campos.

FLIGHT TIMES
• The Airbus facility in Toulouse,
France, is home to the world’s fastest
commercial plane, the Concorde, and
the largest, the A380. Manatour Taxiway
offers a combined tour of the A380
assembly line and the Concorde for
EUR22 (AU$41): http://pagespersoorange.
fr/manatour-taxiway.fr/gb/
airbus.htm
• The Future of Flight Aviation
Centre and Boeing Tour are located in
Mukilteo, Washington, approximately
30 miles north of Seattle. The centre
features hands-on exhibits, videos,
graphics and interactive stations to
involve and appeal to the whole family.
For example, you can digitally design
and test your own jet or ride a simulator
of the multi-passenger XJ5 supersonic
jet. General admission costs US$15
(AU$22). Further details are available at
www.futureofflight.org

Efforts bearing fruit

The following article originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia.

Encouraging indigenous tourism is a key priority for the federal government. Justin Wastnage asks will Australians join overseas travellers in experiencing our diverse cultural heritage?

When Queen Elizabeth II
opened the Sydney Opera
House in October 1977 the
controversy that most remember is
the absence of Danish architect
Jørn Utzon, whose genius was
belatedly celebrated in Sydney last
month. Instead, the appearance on
the Opera House’s sails of Ben
Blakeney, a direct descendant of
governor Phillip’s trusted Eora
translator Bennelong, raised
eyebrows from most and ire among
others who saw little place in
honouring the original inhabitants
of what is now Bennelong Point.
Fast forward 30 years and
relationships between indigenous
and non-indigenous Australians
have improved. But tourism is still
in its infancy: roughly one in six
overseas visitors have a tourism
experience involving either
Aboriginal or Torres Strait
Islanders, whereas for domestic
Australian travel this figure is
barely one in a hundred.
For most of the operators
gathered at the first Australian
Indigenous Tourism Conference in
Townsville last month, the figures
for Australian visitors are usually
less than 5%. “I cannot remember
the last Australians we had walking
with us,” says Francis Walker,
manager of Walker Family Tours in
Wujal Wujal, a coastal community
380km north of Cairns.
Yet there are signs of change.
Aden Ridgeway, executive
chairman of Tourism Australia (TA)
Indigenous Tourism Advisory Panel
says polls show that some 60% of
Australians express some interest
in having an aboriginal experience.
This figure has jumped from 40%
thanks to Baz Luhrmann’s Australia
and its Stolen Generations plot.
There is an opportunity this year,
Ridgeway insists, for travel agents
to sell indigenous experiences as
part of the credit crunch trend for
domestic holidays. TA data shows
that domestic indigenous tourism
visitors stay twice as long as other
domestic visitors. They also spend
more per night, making their total
spend three times as high as
traditional domestic trips.
The problem is, according to
Caroline Densley, director of
Diverse Travel, one of the largest
wholesalers of indigenous product,
that very few agents know where
to go to find information.
“There is also reluctance among
what I would describe as ‘my
parents’ generation’ to venture into
aboriginal areas,” she adds.
But agents only sell what is
demanded by their clients says
Michelle Sawtell, domestic product
manager at Flight Centre’s Infinity
Holidays. Infinity and Discover
Australia Holidays (formerly
Discover West Holidays) are among
the mainstream wholesalers adding
more indigenous product to their
domestic packages.
Densley says the current “gentle
sprinkling” of soft experiences like
the popular Anangu Waai! cultural
tours at Uluru will increase as this
generation becomes more
comfortable with aboriginal people.
Perhaps due to a level of
nervousness, domestic overnight
indigenous tourism visitors spend a
greater proportion of their total
expenditure on organised tours and
packages than other domestic
overnight visitors, TA found.
Equally, indigenous tourism visitors
were less likely to stay with friends
and relatives than other domestic
visitors, which gives travel agents a
better stab at commissions, says
Marlene Harding, executive
director of Discover Australia.
Of the experiences themselves,
many have a strong environmental
aspect. “There is a strong
connection between us and the
land and its sustainability,” says
Terrence Coulthard from South
Australian eco-lodge Iga Warta.
There are many cultural tours,
often including traditional
interpretations of the land, its flora
and fauna. Nature projects, like
turtle rescue are also popular.
Yet there has been a paucity of
high-end indigenous product. There
are some exceptions: Alice Springs
Helicopters runs private art tours
and is owned by the Santa Teresa
community. Home Valley Station, a
new luxury ranch modelled on El
Questro, has an on-site technical
and further education (TAFE)
college for indigenous youth.
There are also efforts underway
to address the lack of
professionalism that has blighted
indigenous tourism endeavours in
the past. The Australian Tourism
Export Council (ATEC), the peak
body for the Australian inbound
tourism industry is actively
engaged in making indigenous
operators “export ready”, which
involves having a contingency plan
for the mass mournings, or sorry
time, that follows a death in the
community and can lead to
unplanned tour cancellations.
Similarly, the Northern Territory
government with federal assistance
has established Central Australia
Aboriginal Experience, a marketing
company to interface with
wholesalers. “The aim is to have a
roster of around ten tour operators,
so that some will flourish and go on
their own, but if others die or
disappear for a while, as they often
do, we will guarantee a tour by
having a suitable replacement,”
says Neil Hermès, its director.
In short, there is a lot being
done, but there is a long path to
travel. But just as ‘welcome to
country’ ceremonies are now part of
the Australian cultural landscape,
indigenous tourism should be on
the path to becoming mainstream.

To read the article as it originally appeared, click onto the PDF above

No trouble in paradise

Originally published in TravelWeekly Australia September 5, 2008

The untouched charm of Vanuatu is slowly reaching the mainstream, with a series of new resorts opening, reports Justin Wastnage from Port Vila

Vanuatu is gearing up to welcome plenty more Australians in coming years

The feelgood factor is something politicians are keen to foster heading into an election. So Vanuatu's leaders will be happy with the current upbeat mood in the Pacific archipelago, which was recognised as the happiest place on earth by the New Economics Foundation, a think tank. The mood was lifted further by Priscila Tommy, who has just returned from the Olympics, where she represented Vanuatu in table tennis, despite the country only having four ping-pong tables.

More importantly, the country's tourism industry (which ANZ Bank estimates to represent around 40 per cent of the country's economy) is booming. So no surprise that deputy prime minister Edward Natapei took time out of electioneering to address the Tok-Tok travel conference in Port Vila at the end of August. "Tourism has overtaken copra [coconut oil] as our main earner, so all the parties are strongly supportive," he said.

Australians account for around 60 per cent of all tourists, followed by New Zealanders and residents of New Caledonia, says Annie Naitu from the Vanuatu Tourism Office (VTO). The VTO expects 100,000 Australians to visit this year, up from 83,000 last year. It has a plan to double this in 2009 and reach 300,000 the year after, she says.

Wholesalers are taking the country very seriously as well, with 68 attending this year's Tok-Tok, up from 50 last year - and well up from a mere 20 a few years ago. They are drawn by a wealth of new product, says one buyer from Creative Holidays. Her Qantas Holidays' counterpart was scheduled to spend ten days visiting properties on several Vanuatu islands, while Infinity Holidays' buyer had two days of appointments with the new resorts and hotels that have sprung up in the past few years.

Naitu bristles (as much as anyone in this laid-back land does) when asked about the comparison with Fiji as a safe, family-friendly destination. Packages are cheap, she admits, but the culture of the native ni-Vanuatu people is alive and well, (in contrast to Fiji, Naitu implies). "Vanuatu is more authentic, more unspoilt," she says. With well-developed cultural tours, soft adventure activities and natural wonders, there is more to do during the day outside resorts, one wholesaler said.

But historically this has been compensation for less developed accommodation than Fiji's upscale resorts. This is beginning to change, says Tony Burns, president of the Vanuatu Hotel and Resort Association and also general manager of one of the country's top addresses, Le Lagon.

Sophistication is coming fast, he says, with accommodation choices following restaurants in moving upscale. The quality of the naturally organic meat and produce means it is almost effortless to create fantastic food, says Paul-Alexandre Bossy, head chef at the Les Alizés French restaurant that is a fine dining staple of Vanuatu itineraries.

New resorts are springing up not only on Efate and its capital Port Vila, but also on the volcanic beach island of Tanna and Espiritu Santo, home to some of the best dive sites in the world. Spreading the benefits of tourism outside Efate is also a key goal of the government, Natapei explains.

Testimony to the increased demand is the robust health of national flag carrier Air Vanuatu, which will soon have the youngest fleet in the South Pacific as it replaces older aircraft. The routes to Australia are the first to benefit, with a brand new Boeing 737-800 now flying down here since January, Malcolm Pryor, the carrier's Australian general manager says.

The carrier now faces increased competition, with Virgin's Pacific Blue announcing services from Sydney and Brisbane from December. In response, Air Vanuatu recently added Melbourne to its departure points of Sydney and Brisbane and is pleased with the results to the point it will add additional services, he says. "Victoria delivered a high proportion of our passengers even before the direct flights because it's an adventurous market. They've been to the Pacific before but they want something different and Vanuatu is largely untouched," he says.

But Vanuatu is about to get a whole lot more touched. The US government has donated US$7 million (A$8.2 million) for a road building project that will pave the entire highway circling Efate. Billboards announcing beachfront development opportunities in currently inaccessible locations may be a sign of things to come. Tok-Tok also welcomed its first ever delegation of US wholesalers, which could herald a rise in standards (and prices) if Americans start visiting the island chain.

Natapei says the growth must be moderated, not least to ensure the destination's unspoilt charm that attracts so many, is not lost. At the same time, tourism brings in welcome dollars. Meanwhile, the national Vanuatu interest in table tennis has swollen so much since Tommy's appearance in Beijing (and her gold medal performance at the warm-up South Pacific Games) that the government has pledged to spend some of the growing tourism receipts on buying ping pong equipment for every village if it wins the upcoming election. With peaceful elections to remind Australians that not all Pacific islands have coups, Vanuatu will be the winner, no matter who takes power.