European hotels, car rental companies and government tourism agencies are ramping up marketing and turning to creative payment plans, complimentary cellphone use and deep discounts to salvage the summer travel business.
These efforts aimed at American tourists are intensifying as fluctuating exchange rates, rising airfares, and a gloomy economic outlook threaten to deter the world’s most [...]

In a matter of months,the economic partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe will be signed in Barbados.
While the formal treaty arrangement may come into being against a background of demonstrations, in part orchestrated by bodies from outside the region, there is no political appetite in the region to reject what has been agreed.
This means that the [...]

The cross-dressing potter Grayson Perry has come up with a brilliant strategy for making his work look good. It’s such an obvious wheeze, I wonder why others haven’t employed it before. Asked by the Arts Council to select a show from the huge collection of modern British art it has built up, Perry has plumped [...]

Evolution has run riot on Yemen’s windy isles of Socotra, whose dizzying cliffs, jagged peaks and exotic plants entice the imagination to do the same.
Here be dragons, or at least Dragon’s Blood trees, prized for their red medicinal sap. Fearsome gales blow beaches up hillsides. People speak an obscure language older than Arabic.
The ancients cherished [...]

So where the “bloody hell” have all the tourists gone? Australia.
The controversial and recently axed Where The Bloody Hell Are You? tourism campaign appears to have paid off with Australia posting its strongest tourist spending in close to a decade.
Holidaymakers injected A$85 billion ($NZ102 billion) into the A$1 trillion economy in 2006-2007, with overseas visitors [...]

Everyone enjoys a touch of paradise, whether it’s a white-sand beach or untouched rural setting, but it seems to get harder to find a spot that is not already teeming with tourists.
Men’s web portal AskMen.com has come up with a list of its top 10 paradises on earth that have long been forgotten. This list [...]

Anthea Levy said she was horrified when she saw the trout for the first time.
%26quot;Last year we redesigned the waterfront and its really nice down there and suddenly this big trout appears. Its not appropriate.%26quot; The Te Anau lakefront had been unspoilt before the trout appeared at Easter, she said.
%26quot;You look across at the mountains [...]

South African hopes for an Asian treble were dashed after they were routed for 121 in the second innings on a crumbling pitch after conceding a vital 60-run first innings lead.
India eased to 64 for two in the fourth innings to claim the match with two days left and square the series.
South Africa crushed India [...]

Ganguly was ninth out after South African bowlers kept the pressure on a deteriorating pitch to reduce India to 288 for nine at stumps on the second day after the tourists were bowled out for 265 in their first innings on the first day.
Dale Steyn struck two quick blows as the South African fast bowlers [...]

The tall Sharma took three for 55 coming back from injury and off-spinner Harbhajan took three for 52 to lead the spin attack after skipper Anil Kumble was ruled out due to injury.
South Africa skipper Graeme Smith gave his side a superb start after he won a crucial toss on a dry Green Park pitch [...]