October 24, 2008, Travel News You Can Use, By Judy Newell

Travel News You Can Use
By Judy Newell
October 24, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Mexico Travel News

Airport construction delayed

Plans to build airports in Puerto Peñasco, Ensenada and on the Riviera Maya have been moved to the back burner. Work on all three, as well as Tizayuca—near Mexico City—was to begin sometime this year. Now nothing is expected to happen until 2009, if then.

Puerto Peñasco, about a two-hour drive south of Tucson, had been seen as a retirement community for aging baby boomers. Not for the moment, however. Aeromexico, which had been flying into the one small airport there has now quit the route as unprofitable. Ensenada, 60 miles from Tijuana, is scheduled to become a major container port, but that will take a while. The Riviera Maya is served by Cancún, but some Riviera hotels are nearly a two-hour drive from that airport. Tizayuca could become the new Mexico City airport, but the investment required would be huge.

Acapulco festival dates

The two-week Nao Cultural Festival in Acapulco starts November 1 this year. The festival takes its name from the Nao de China, otherwise known as the Manila Galleon, a Spanish ship that arrived annually carrying treasures from the Orient. At that time, apparently everything on the other side of the Pacific was regarded as China, including the Philippines, which had been colonized by Spain.

Thanks to the Nao, Mexico was the prime source of Far Eastern silks and spices for Europe until the beginning of the nineteenth century and Mexican independence. The Philippines, China, Japan and Korea will participate in the festival this year.

El Dorado Resorts launch green program

El Dorado Spa Resorts & Hotels, a collection of Gourmet Inclusive properties along the Riviera Maya, has launched Pasión por el Medio Ambiente (Passion for the Environment). The program is derived from the Mesoamerican Reef Tourism Initiative (MARTI) and is designed to encourage guest and staff participation in environmentally sustainable practices.

Running completely on solar power, El Dorado Maroma is 100 percent invested, while El Dorado Seaside Suites operates at 70 percent and El Dorado Royale at 40 percent solar power. Additionally, all El Dorado resorts have implemented quality controls over towels and sheets, restroom sensors and the use of green cleaning supplies.

Half a million hotel rooms

Mexico now has nearly 15,000 hotels with 583,000 rooms, according to the National Tourism Confederation, a private organization. This is 8.5 percent more than existed when the twenty-first century began. According to the confederation, most growth in recent years has been in the construction of luxury establishments that now account for nearly six percent of the total. Currently the trend is toward the construction of more moderately priced chain hotels hoping to serve business travelers in smaller provincial cities.

Hotel rating system called deceptive

Although 866 hotels in Mexico claim to be five-star establishments, the designation is one each has made for itself. Several organizations, including the National Chamber of Commerce and the Mexican Association of Travel Agents, are asking that some official system be charged with rating not only hotels, but also restaurants and tour operators.

Two decades ago, the Tourism Ministry began classifying hotels, but gave up because of political pressures from unhappy hotels and chains. Later, an agreement was made to have the American Automobile Association (AAA) take over, but some hoteliers objected to a foreign organization being assigned this task.

Technically, star ratings are given on the basis of physical size, in-room amenities (shampoo in bathrooms, color television), number of restaurants, meeting space, etc. The quality of service, being subjective, is not considered.

Visiting the famed Giza Pyramids in Egypt has long been irritating for tourists who have to fend off peddlers relentlessly offering camel rides and trinkets. But the hustlers were gone August 11, as Egypt began the first stage of an elaborate US$26 million project to modernize the area and make it friendlier to tourists.

The changes also improve security with a 12-mile chain-link fence featuring cameras, alarms and motion detectors.

The three Giza Pyramids have been unusually accessible for a 5,000-year-old Wonder of the World. The desert plateau on which they stand was once isolated, but as the capital has expanded, slums have been built right to the edge of the site, separated in places by only a low stone wall. In the past, tourists were barraged by peddlers selling statues and T-shirts and sometimes followed by men on camels selling rides or photos, and rarely taking no for an answer. There were other security concerns—bombings in Sinai resorts in the past four years have kept officials wary.

The new technology is intended to curb all sorts of security problems. The long fence around the plateau is 13 feet high at some points and is dotted with infrared sensors and motion detectors. Tourists will now enter through a new brick building, with half a dozen gates equipped with metal detectors and X-ray machines. Almost 200 closed-circuit cameras monitor people’s movements on the plateau. Once the project is complete, golf carts will drive tourists around, similar to systems in Luxor and other sites.

World’s top trekking vacations

For travelers who enjoy getting away from it all, online site for adventure travel iExplore has come up with a list of the world’s top hiking and trekking vacation spots.

1. Annapurna Circuit, Nepal. The 186.5-mile, three-week Annapurna circuit gets you up close to some of the highest mountains in the Himalayas and is considered the best hike in the world by many.

2. Appalachian Trail. Each year tens of thousands of people set off to complete the entire length of this 2,175-mile trail that takes months to complete, while thousands of others hike just sections of the trail.

3. Santa Cruz Trek, Peru. This 4-day, 31-mile hike passes through wildflower-filled meadows and turquoise lakes and near the highest snow-capped peaks outside the Himalayas.

4. Kilimanjaro National Park, Tanzania. Apart from the snow-capped cone of Mount Kilimanjaro, the various routes take you through gorges and past Africa’s amazing wildlife.

5. Tour de Mont Blanc, France/Italy/Switzerland. The 106-mile trail near the highest peak in the Alps traverses all three borders.

6. West Coast Trail, British Columbia. A 75-mile coastal hike on Vancouver Island’s pristine wilderness includes views of caves, cliffs, coves, beaches and shipwrecks.

7. Overland Track, Australia. The 50-mile trek in Cradle Mountain and Lake St. Clair National Park in Tasmania is often considered Australia’s best.

Wall Arch in Utah’s Arches National Park collapsed sometime in August. The arch was along Devil’s Garden Trail, one of the most popular in the park. For years, the large arch has been a favorite stopping point for photographers.

The arch was claimed by forces that eventually will destroy others in the park: gravity and erosion. It was the first collapse of a major arch in the park since nearby Landscape Arch fell in 1991.

Like others in the park, Wall Arch was formed by entrada sandstone that was whittled down over time into its distinctive and photogenic formation. First reported and named in 1948, the arch was more than 33 feet tall and 71 feet across, and ranked 12th in size among the park’s estimated 2,000 arches.

Sources: Mexican Tourism News, Travel Pulse Daily, Associated Press, MSNBC, TRO Travelgram

Judy Newell, a writer and travel industry executive, heads the custom tour company Perfect Journeys that specializes in luxury and adventure travel. Contact her with comments or suggestions at JudyNewell_03@msn.com or go to her website www.PerfectJourneys.net.