A tour bus  carrying passengers from the Carnival Cruise Lines Millennium has crashed outside Santiago Chile leaving at least 11 people dead and many others injured . The bus was returning from visiting a National Park and was traveling on a poor section of road that ran along a cliffside.

“We have confirmed 11 people killed,” Poli said. He said some of the dead were thought to be from the United States but did not have an exact number or identities.
The crash occurred as the tourists returned to their Bahamas-registered Millennium cruise ship after visiting the nearby Lauca National Park.
“We still do not know the causes of the accident, but the road in that was has several cliffs and is very curvy,” Poli told the Associated Press by telephone via  Yahoo! News.

The Economist Intelligence Unit, a division of the Economist Magazine,  has released it’s annual survey that ranks the top 130 cities in the world by cost of living, and for 2005 Oslo was the most expensive and surprise, surprise, Tehran was the least expensive city to do business in. New York City was the most expensive city in the United States coming in at 27th position.

Latin America saw inflation hit their currencies and moved up the list while the United States saw a modest increase and most of it’s cities moved down the charts.

The 10 Most Expensive Cities in the World

1 Oslo, Norway
2 Tokyo, Japan
3 Reykjavik, Iceland
4 Osaka Kobe, Japan
4 Paris, France 
6 Copenhagen, Denmark
7 London, UK
8 Zurich, Switzerland
9 Geneva, Switzerland
10 Helsinki, Finland

The Economist  goes on further to explain how the cost of living is determined:

There are two major reasons why a city’s cost of living index will change over time: exchange rate movement and price movement. Since a common currency is required in making a comparative calculation all local prices are converted into dollars, which emphasises the role of currency movement. If, for example, a currency strengthens or inflation pushes the price of goods up, so the relative cost of living in that country will also rise.

 

Eco-tourism is the new cool way to travel for the trendy. While not something that I would actively pursue, you can not argue with the concept. Essentially, eco-tourism is a form of travel that is built around assimilating within the local environment and people. It is not lets go teach the natives how to be “ecologically correct”, but more to lets explore the natural beauty of a country in its own way. Lots of hiking and exploring the jungles, as opposed to beaching and pina coladas. 

 Impressed by the success of countries like Costa Rica and Ecuador, which have lured flocks of travelers for mountain treks and jungle safaris, a growing number of regions across the globe are turning to eco-tourism as a strategy for economic growth.

Omar Bongo, the president of Gabon, a developing country in west central Africa, has set aside about 10 percent of the country’s landmass for 13 national parks. Green Visions, a tourism and environment protection company, based in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, is pioneering an eco-tourism development plan in Central Europe with “green adventures” that promote environmental principles and support local businesses. Even Greece, better known for its pumping night life and archaeological monuments, devotes a section of its national tourism Web site to “Greek nature” and eco-tourism.

Over the last four years, at least 48 countries, from Puerto Rico to Portugal, have created or started to define a national strategy for eco-tourism development, according to a 2004 eco-tourism report by Mintel International Group, a market-research company based in Britain.via New York Times.

The Airbus A380 will be entering airlines fleets in 2006, and the impact will be felt initially on the long haul internation routes before they impact domestic routes. These double decker planes are the largest passenger airplanes to go into service. An interesting article from the New Zealand Herald discusses the impact that will be felt on this hard to reach nation with the coming of the A380.

In 2005 the Airbus A380 finally took to the skies. Singapore Airlines will be the first to fly the new plane - it hopes later this year, barring any more delays in testing.

And the giant jet - while not expected to be a regular visitor to Auckland, will be flying not too far from us, with Singapore Airlines first deploying it on the Sydney-Singapore-London route.

There is a total of 159 “orders and commitments” for the massive new plane, though not all are for the passenger model, with the world’s cargo operators keen to start using the freighter version, which is yet to fly.

The impact of the plane on world aviation has been debated for years. Airbus says it may have the same kind of effect as the introduction of the Boeing 747 in the late 1960s - dramatically lowering the cost of air travel.

Emirates, the Dubai-based airline that has been flying to New Zealand for just over two years, may again shake up the local aviation scene with its anticipated Auckland-Dubai direct flights.

Aviation sector awaits A380 effect - 09 Jan 2006 - Business.

It looks like the Queen Mary 2, the newest ocean liner from Cunard, will be the biggest star in Los Angeles next February as it visits and then sets sail to New York. Many cruise lines try to be the best, but Cunard seems to capture the majesty of the sea as it captures the regal glamour like no other.

Queen Mary 2, the grandest ocean liner ever built, will make her Los Angeles debut in February 2006, on a trio of journeys ranging in length from three to 38 days.  The diverse itineraries afford the area’s residents in and around the City of Angels their first opportunity to sail aboard Queen Mary 2, conveniently from the Port of Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles departures include two round-trip journeys, the four-day West Coast Break , departing on February 22, and the 11-day Royal Hawaiian Liner, departing on February 25.  In addition, on March 8 the ship will depart Los Angeles for New York on her 38-day South American Odyssey that includes a trip around legendary Cape Horn.  Those with limited time may book the shorter Andes & the Americas portion of the itinerary, which disembarks in Valparaiso, Chile.

“When Queen Mary 2 visits a port for the first time she is welcomed with a great deal of flourish and fanfare,” said Carol Marlow, president and managing director for Cunard Line.  “In Los Angeles, we plan a stellar celebration to mark our maiden call on the West Coast.” via TravelVideo

We are all looking for a bargain, right? The internet promises to help us enjoy some of the finer things in life without having to deplete the children’s college fund. But how does one find the deals, and then how does one know they are deals?

The Vancouver Sun offers some great suggestions in their article “Luxury Travel Just Got Easier”. The best advice is to get ahead of the curve. With 5 star hotels being built around the world, the trick is not to go to the current hot spot, but to go to places ahead of the crowds.

Roger Kershaw is the general manager of Attache, which specializes in luxury travel arrangements for an affluent clientele. The company has offices in Toronto, Montreal and Calgary. Kershaw’s picks of destinations that are in the forefront of luxury travel but not quite fashionable enough to command five-star prices include: India, which offers great value and ultra-luxury hotels; and Vietnam, which also now boasts luxury resorts. “You can travel in style and luxury in Vietnam at very affordable rates.” Eastern European destinations Prague and Budapest are now popular with Westerners and the prices “are getting up there,” he says. But others, such as Warsaw and Croatia, remain a bargain, he says.

Buenos Aires is another “unbeatable” destination for the price, Kershaw says. The sophisticated Argentine capital, known as the Paris of South America, offers a number of five-star hotels including the uber-cool Philippe Starck-designed Faena Hotel. The country is still recovering from its peso devaluation, which gives the loonie considerable clout. “Couple it with a beach holiday in Brazil and you have a great vacation for excellent prices,” he says.

Traveling to countries that have invested in the tourism infrastructure but are not ahead of the curve is an outstanding way to travel like a Rockefeller and still have a few dollars left in your pocket at the end of the day.