Top Stories
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Tourism helps drive Kenya’s rapid economic expansion
DestinationsKenya’s government said the economy is forecast to expand 6 percent in 2013, the fastest pace in six years, as investors gain confidence after a peaceful political transition and good weather boosts farming output. Gross domestic product may expand from 4.6 percent last year, Anne Waiguru, planning secretary, told reporters today in the capital of [...]
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Traveling to Burma? U.S. says it’s now okay to call the country Myanmar
DestinationsThe Southeast Asian nation formerly known as Burma received further backing from the White House on Monday in its campaign to be called Myanmar. Successive U.S. governments have refused to acknowledge the name change made in the late 1980s by the country’s military rulers. The United States for years deliberately referred to the nation of [...]
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Tourism to Egypt on the rise, but full recovery not expected until after 2014
DestinationsThe number of tourists visiting Egypt rose in the first four months of 2012, the cabinet said on Tuesday, but analysts say the sector is still suffering from the aftermath of the country’s 2011 uprising. The revolt that ousted President Hosni Mubarak sparked more than two years of protests, riots and political instability, denting Egypt’s [...]
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Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown” episode 6 recap: Peace signs in Libya
DestinationsIf Quebec was Bourdain’s most gluttonous episode to date, Libya is its most austere. Geopolitics and Libyan culture are the snippets that viewers and Bourdain feast on in this week’s episode; and images of Libyan children offering the peace sign serve as a decadent dessert. Bourdain calls episode 6 of Parts Unknown “the best piece [...]
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Travel in Tunisia: Separating the headlines from reality
DestinationsSidi Bou Said’s signature blue-and-white houses are framed with sweet-smelling jasmine and bougainvillea. The soft sunshine is making them seem so picture-perfect it’s hard to associate this with tanks and barbed wire. A short cab ride away from the Tunisian capital, this coastal hilltop town is full of steep cobbled streets, beautiful buildings and lazy [...]
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Egypt’s economy in a tailspin as tourism & investment dries up
DestinationsEgypt is suffering its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, a former finance minister of the country and one of its leading economists have warned. In terms of its devastating effect on Egypt’s poorest, the country’s current economic predicament is at its most dire since the 1930s, Galal Amin, professor of economics at the [...]
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Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown” episode 5 recap: Imaginary Tangier
DestinationsIn episode 5 of Parts Unknown, Bourdain goes in search of a dream city, a city described by one journalist as “a Moroccan city with an European outlook.” Bourdain takes Tangier, what is considered by some savvy travelers as a dingy dangerous port city, and transforms into a poetic destination visited by inspired minds looking [...]
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Egypt’s private commandos are doing well during current instability
DestinationsAs angry protesters rampaged through Cairo in early 2011 and fought with police, Hesham Samy was dispatched with fellow naval commandos to guard upscale residential compounds. In what he saw as “awful” security, Samy spotted an opportunity. The officer, who had spent more than a year training with U.S. Navy SEALs, quit last year to [...]
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Nigeria is world’s second biggest spender on champagne
DestinationsThe lyrics to Pop Champagne – one of many Nigerian pop songs to pay homage to the ubiquitous French drink – are self explanatory. “We dey pop champagne, pop pop pop pop, pop champagne!” the song goes, as a nightclub jumps with men holding bottles and women glasses full of bubbly. But Nigerians’ love of [...]
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Egypt to live stream from tourist destinations to show it is safe
DestinationsEgypt’s Minister of Tourism, HE Hisham Zaazou has revealed that the Egyptian Government is attempting to attract Arab Families with special offers in a bid to boost tourism figures. Speaking at a satellite event scheduled for the ATM at Raffles Dubai, Zaazou also explained that live camera streams had been set up in popular tourist [...]
