World tourism to be slower than expected this year

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The UN World Tourism Organization just changed its mind about global travel and tourism this year. I guess forecasting is easy when you can always issue a new one … as long as the previous efforts are forgotten. Well, I wish I could tell you that the UN believes we’ve turned the corner – and that travel is going to spike this year. But, it isn’t. The group has added a bit more doom and gloom to its prediction, given continued economic instability and the swine flu situation.

Worldwide, the organization predicted a 4 percent to 6 percent international tourism decline for the year – this is down from the January prediction of zero to 2 percent. The changed direction coincides with the International Monetary Fund‘s sense of the global economic situation. In January, it called for economic growth of 2 percent this year. Now, it’s predicting a fall of 1.3 percent.

For the first four months of 2009, the World Tourism Organization noted an 8 percent drop in global tourism, with only 247 international tourism arrivals. Europe‘s results were more severe than those of the world as a whole, off 10 percent. Asia was down 6 percent, and Africa and South America were up 3 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

Even in tough times, everybody wants to go to France, which remained the top tourism destination with 79 million arrivals. The United States moved into second place for the first time since the September 11, 2001 attacks, reclaiming its position from Spain.

Photo of the Day (7.4.09)

by Brenda Yun on


Happy Fourth of July everyone! I know you were probably expecting a photo of fireworks, but this photo really spoke to me as a natural firework in the sky. I’m not a huge fan of fireworks anyway — at least not in the physical sense. I am, however, a huge proponent of emotional fireworks, and photos like this set those off for me. The world is a beautiful, wondrous place. And we should appreciate the freedom (it’s Independence Day) and luxury (we live in the United States of America) to travel the world and snap photos like this one.

Today’s Photo of the Day comes to us from one of my favorite Gadling photographers, localsurfer. This one was taken on a journey down the Rufiji River in Tanzania on a quest for surf. There are hippoes in that water!

If you have some great travel shots you’d like to share, be sure to upload them to the Gadling pool on Flickr. We might just pick one as our Photo of the Day!

DreamTours makes your cycling adventures a reality

by Kraig Becker on

Have you ever wanted to go on an epic cycling expedition? Perhaps explore the Serengeti by mountain bike or maybe ride the Silk Road? Perhaps you’ve always wanted to go on a cycling adventure to some remote place, but just weren’t sure how to prepare or handle the logistics. If so, you’re luck, as DreamTours is here to help!

DreamTours comes to us from the same team that organizes the annual Tour d’Afrique, an annual ride from Cairo to Cape Town, crossing 7500 miles of African wilderness in the process. The concept behind DreamTours is simple, come up with a great idea for your cycling adventure, post it on the DreamTour website and invite friends, family, and cycling buddies to vote on the concept and weigh in on the idea. If you get enough people to join your tour, the DreamTeam will handle all the logistics and make the adventure a reality. The best part, you’ll get to ride for free!

The DreamTour website acts like an online forum for adventure cyclists. Once you create your account, you’ll be able to post your ideas for cycling adventures, vote on the tours posted by others, and leave comments or questions about those trips. If you see one that looks interesting, you can elect to join the tour, or recruit riders to join your adventure, and you’ll soon be off and riding. If your tour sells out, you’ll get to go along for nothing, or you can choose to apply your discount to the entire team, saving everyone money in the process.

With the DreamTour team taking over the planning process, there will be nothing left for you to do but train for your cycling adventure. Once they have everything organized, and the logistics in place, you’ll simply hop a flight to your destination, and hit the trail.

Photo of the Day (6.30.09)

by Grant Martin on

I find myself slightly unsettled about my upcoming travel to Dakar, Senegal this Tuesday, partially because the tourism office in New York wont pick up the phone and partially because Dakar is rock bottom on the Economist’s recent liveability survey.

Yet as our tweeters and my archaeologist friend Cameron assure me, Dakar is a magnificent place. This photo, shot by cfarivar on the island of Goree just off the coast of Dakar tends to reassure me. Despite having the knowledge that Goree was a former slave trading hub, the colors, architecture and history of the region seem most endearing, a trait that any traveler can grow warm to. I’ll let you know how the trip goes…

Think you’ve got what it takes to submit to the Photo of the Day series? Add your photo to the Gadling Pool on Flickr and we might use it down the road. Make sure you save them under Creative Commons though, otherwise we can’t use them!

One-day sale from Intrepid Travel starts now!

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Intrepid Travel puts together some amazing trips, and today’s deal will make them even more accessible than usual. For the next nine hours, trips will be discounted deeply … all Intrepid trips … more than 400 of them. Price cuts range from 15 percent to 60 percent in this rare opportunity.

Trips departing soonest, of course, come with the greatest price breaks. Book an excursion that leaves in July, and you can generally knock 60 percent off the price. Those taking off in August can net you a savings of 30 percent, with the rest of the year’s trips 15 percent off.

The sale starts now and runs until 7:30 PM this evening. Each includes all accommodations and land transportation, some meals and a guide.

After the jump, you’ll get a sense of how much you can save.

Inca Encounter: this nine-day jaunt from Lima to Cuzco in Peru is only $664, down from $1,660

Road to Budapest: spend 15 days going from Vienna to Budapest for $692 – instead of $1,730

Kenya Adventure: eight days in Kenya will cost only $604, rather than $1,510