Bangkok tourism

The AAG sent out this feed and it is pretty interesting.  Check out tourism info.

Note the quote "A map of global tourism spending is really a map of people and money."

Memorial Day 2013

Let's not forget our canine vets out there.  After all, dogs have been our companions for thousands of years.  Here is a shot of Biscuit who, between begging for scraps at the picnic yesterday, wants to honor our canine vets around the world.

Hurricane Season for Atlantic predicted to be big

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, the Atlantic Ocean is expected to have a busy Hurricane Season this year.   The Pacific is expected to be more calm.

On a related note especially since Super Storm Sandy slammed the east coast last fall, Tornado victims in Oklahoma may not get the badly needed help since their own representatives believe the US should not help victims from disasters.

From the Washington Post:

Oklahoma has one of the most conservative congressional delegations of any state: seven Republican men, including fierce advocates for cutting federal spending.

Five of those seven voted no in January on a bill to provide $50 billion in disaster funding for states hit by Hurricane Sandy.

On Tuesday, the disaster was Oklahoma’s instead, a deadly tornado that swept through the town of Moore on Monday afternoon. So those representing Oklahoma all faced the same question: Would they support an influx of new funding — if necessary — for disaster relief efforts in Oklahoma?

Weather sites for travel

I have my favorites around here, you know wunderground.com, intellicast.com and the old standby weather.gov (not the commercial one).

But what about overseas?  Sure you can select one of the others, but usually better info can be had from the government sponsored site, like this one for Iceland (http://en.vedur.is/).  Even if in a foreign language, Chrome can translate the pages.

Always check to see if one is local at your travel destination!

Ray Harryhausen RIP

A true artist. Ray Harryhausen passed away earlier this week.  See his website for details.  I met him briefly at the Monster Bash Conference a decade or so ago, and I am glad to have had the opportunity!

History and Tourism

There is a good historical review of tourism prepared by Towner and Wall (1991).  The basic premise is "The historical perspective is described and a chronological survey of historical tourism research is presented, with emphasis on the ancient and medieval worlds, the Grand Tour era, and spas and seaside resorts."

I believe it is an essentially reading for all tourism students.

Five Themes of Geography

I have blogged about the five themes of geography before (link)  (link), so this is nothing new.  For teachers, there is a lesson plan from the National Geographic Society.  Another good site is the about.com one.

So how does one use "movement" in a exploration of Tourism?

Miscellaneous Themes in Tourism

Check out these Tourism themes:

Adventure tourism, Atomic Tourism, Backpacking, Culinary, Dark Tourism, Film / TV , Last Chance Tourism, Literary tourism, Pilgrimage, Slum/ghetto tourism.

For example, Dark Tourism can be defined as the act of travel to sites associated with death and suffering.

And Last Chance Tourism is where tourists explicitly seek vanishing landscapes or seascapes, and/or disappearing natural and/or social heritage.

Which have you done?

Sierra Club's Dangerous Trails List

Want to have a high adventure?  Check out these trails.  I would have added the Lion's Trail on Mt. Washington, the Mt. Lafayette Range or any exposed mountain trail on the east coast when the weather changes.

Gosh, even Mt. Monadnock, the northern terminus of the M&M Trail can be nasty in the winter.

Time to get ready for National Trails Day 2013.