Travel promotes freedom and understanding -- but human beings being what they are, all too often politics and conflict can get in the way. What do you think about the relationship between politics and travel, and how to reconcile them?

Cover photo: The Interfaith Observer.

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Politics is on the menu in ´ Sicily, Where What’s Not on the Tour Itinerary Is as Important as What Is´

Vito Manzari Contibutor Fyllis Hoffman writes, "it happend all the time with the tour operator Overseas Adventure Travel. I start out expecting to write about the trip itself – in this case, Sicily's Ancient Landscapes & Timeless Traditions"-- and I end up writing about all the things that aren't on the itinerary – what OAT refers to as "learning and discovery." Sure, I wanted to focus on the extensive ruins of the Greeks and Romans from the 8th century BCE; the city market initiated by the…

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How should travelers/travel industry respond to Brunei's barbarism against gays?

Many voices in the civilized world have been speaking out in horrified outrage at Brunei's new edict  decreeing death by stoning for gay sex, and numerous individuals and institutions joining a boycott. Should travelers and the travel industry/media join as well by not traveling to, working with, or covering Brunei, nor other entities associated with it such as the nine luxury hotels in the West owned by its sultan, such as London's Dorchester, the Plaza Athénée in Paris, and the Beverly Hills…

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Cross-border migration and tourism

All across the world - Europe, the United States, Australia, Asia, and elsewhere - immigration and refugees are hot topics. But little attention has been paid to how this issue meshes with the other great mass movement of our era: tourism. An integral part of tourism is the exchange of cultures and the appreciation of the “other”, and the industry is often dependent on "importing” guest workers from abroad, who provide needed services and often also give a sense of the exotic…

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  • One week after the government of the Maldives shut down all spas at high-end resorts in order to conform with Sharia, the government has beaten a hasty retreat and allowed the spas to reopen. But how much p.r. damage has been done? 

  • Will it, or will wiser heads convince the hard-liners that this is self-destructive?  (On a related note, I will drink alcohol tonight, God help me.)

  • I hope it hits them hard.

  • The government of the Maldives has shut down spas at high-end resorts because their practices do not conform to sharia. How badly will this hit Maldives tourism?

  • It would seem the marijuana ban would drive it back underground, which is why I thought pot was tolerated there in the first place.

  • No more marijuana in Holland!? "Foreign visitors will be banned from cannabis-selling coffee shops in southern Netherlands from January 1 to combat anti-social behaviour among tourists," reports the Daily Mail (UK).

    "The Dutch justice ministry announced the ban after a consultation period and despite opposition from some MPs who branded the move 'tourism suicide'."

    How much will this change tourism -- especially in Amsterdam?

  • All those with an honest interest in learning about Cuba can find a legal path, either by signing up for an appropriate open enrollment trip or by putting together their own group. (Let me know if I can help you do that: director@ffrd.org)

     

    Religious organizations and higher education students can easily go now under a general license without any notification to or permission from bureaucrats in Washington.

     

     Overview of legal travel:

     http://cubapeopletopeople.blogspot.com/2011/03/overview-of-legal-tr...

     

    Links to travel providers

     http://cubapeopletopeople.blogspot.com/2011/04/list-of-travel-provi...

     

    We continue to await OFAC's disposition on people to people licenses, emphasizing how much better it would have been if the President had authorized general licenses for all authorized travel.

     

    John McAuliff

    Cuba/US People to People Partnership

    Fund for Reconciliation and Development

  • Pack your sunscreen, boys and girls: Just a few weeks or so now before the Obama administration loosens travel restrictions. So if you haven't gone, are you going to go now?
  • "Tourism officials are asking Gov. Deal not to sign the new Arizona-style immigration bill. Already, the group Southerners on New Ground is calling for a national boycott of conventions and vacation travel to Georgia. How will this play out?"  I saw this on another Tripatini group, and I would use other words to ask this question: Will the governor of Georgia let anti-Hispanic legislators damage his state's tourism income? 
  • Obama announces loosening of restrictions on travel to Cuba. http://yhoo.it/eogiy0 Who will benefit? Who will howl?

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