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Announcing: Winners of The Backdoor travel writer competition!

It is with great pleasure that the Make Travel Fair team announce the winners of our inaugural annual travel writing competition The Backdoor!

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WHL Consulting announces collaboration with E+Co

WHL Consulting has started work on the Invisible Schoolhouse – an innovative educational program that is part of a wider collaboration between WHL Consulting and E+Co.

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A journey into South Africa’s apartheid era

Sikhululekile, the new luxurious Robben Island ferry, cruised across Table Bay at a strong 25knot pace with a full load of 285 passengers.

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South Africa tourism development with a long term view

The world’s biggest sporting event will kick off in Johannesburg, South Africa on 11 June 2010. The FIFA World Cup will attract international travellers from all around the globe to the Rainbow Nation.

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What’s really happening in Iran right now?

I have deeper ties than most to the country. Not only did I spent several weeks travelling in Iran last year, but I did so with a girl who spent the first twenty-four years of her life growing up in Tehran, and to whom I’m now engaged.

Hotel Masshad, Tabriz / Photo by Tom Allen

Having access to her very personal perspective on current events and the historical context that created them, as well as my own first-hand experience of the views and lifestyles of a wide section of Iranian society – from the rural poor to the urban intelligensia to the ethnic minorities – I have witnessed, germinating in front of my very eyes, the very epitomy of the Western propaganda machine itself.

New media response gives western governments exactly what they want

It is a testament to the terrible power of the media that, without ever publishing an openly fallacious statement or doctored image, the coverage of Iran’s elections has motivated millions of outsiders, who until a fortnight ago were entirely disinterested in the complexities of Iranian internal affairs, to lend their support to a single facet of a fractured society – the facet which, in present times, offers the most in terms of opportunity for Western governments to get what they’ve long desired from Iran. How?

By focusing entirely on those reformists who are sufficiently motivated to take to the streets against the election results, the digital town-criers to whom we hasten for news on the big, bad world out there have painted Iran as “a nation in chaos”. In this one-dimensional behemoth characterized by corruption and violence, the Iranian people are battling bravely against a power-hungry religious dictatorship that pulls the strings of peasants and presidents alike.

Iran is more than just Tehran

What none of the reports mention is that a win for conservative Ahmadinejad was actually quite likely. Of course, it wouldn’t look that way if you asked passers-by in Tehran. The capital is the natural home of the educated, middle-class liberal. But Iran is more than just Tehran. The conservative population – those who elected Ahmadinejad in the first place and who could quite realistically have voted him in for a second term – is enormous. But these people are also the ones without access to mobile phones, internet connections and of course, Twitter. Does this mean their opinions are worthless?

Metro Station in Tehran / Photo by Tom Allen

It is outstandingly obvious from a brief glance at the #IranElection Twitter channel that practically all of the information coming out of this online shouting match is from pro-reformist users. Those unaware of the true nature of Iranian society could be easily forgiven for being overwhelmed and thinking they were listening to a country entirely at odds with its rulers.

The fundamental flaw of new media

The last ten days have highlighted the fundamental flaw of the system – not just Twitter but new media in general: Rather than facilitating the free distribution of objective information, it has facilitated the free distribution of the views and experiences of a minority demographic who have access to it. If you’re reading this, you’re probably part of that demographic yourself.

Why do news editors and faraway observers alike assume that Twitter represents the voice of Iran? Are we psychologically equipped to deal with globally-sized paradigms? Has the light-speed progress of the Information Age left good old evolution trailing in its wake?

The frightening power and influence of the media

Commentators such as the BBC have wasted no time in embroidering the canvas that they’ve been helping to build over the last few decades. An Australian girl who I met here in Dubai was surprised to hear my stories from the country. She’s always assumed it was just “some twisted place that was making nuclear weapons”. This was someone who’d never needed or wanted to take any particular interest in Iran, but had grown up around the ‘background noise’ that we’re all exposed to every time we absent-mindedly put on the six-o’clock news or glance at a headline as we walk past the newsagent. It wasn’t an unusual comment to hear. Is that ‘background noise’ accidental, or the result of years of nurturing?

The BBC clearly has an agenda. Its articles are carefully seeded – count how many times we are reminded that the Assembly Of Experts can “in theory remove [the Supreme Leader] if he is deemed incapable of fulfilling his duties” – a minor theoretical postulation which, repeated often enough, is designed to lead us to believe that there is a real chance that the current regime is about to topple.

Cafe in Tehran / Photo by Tom Allen

And notice that Ahmadinejad himself is credited with being “a founding member of the student union that took over the US embassy in Tehran in 1979″ – a statement carefully designed to vaguely link the man with a famous hostage-taking incident, despite the fact that a critical reading of the sentence would reach no such conclusion. This, in the BBC’s opinion, is important enough to form the thrust of the first of four short paragraphs describing Ahmadinejad’s role in Iranian politics in their ‘who’s who‘ primer on the BBC News website.

Why is it in the BBC’s interest to espouse the ’selective truth’ like this – an act which is, in my opinion, just as subvertive as outright lying? It would be naive to forget that intelligence agencies and media have long been in each others’ pockets. The BBC itself broadcast the ‘go’ signal for Operation Ajax, in which the MI6 and CIA orchestrated the overthrow of Iran’s newly-elected prime minister in 1953.

Highly convincing yet highly biased reporting

Those with such an agenda must be cackling in glee at the Twitter frenzy – it’s doing their job for them, and it’s doing it incredibly well. One of my favourite travel blogs – from Canada – has seen fit to publish two articles in recent days urging its readers to support the activists. The premises are based solely on limited secondary sources. Neither author has ever visited Iran. How legitimate can such opinions possibly be, when they are based on highly convincing yet highly biased reporting?

What explains the absence of self-criticism of the achievements of propaganda in today’s media, and the perverse way in which media channels report on stories concerning themselves in the third person and without comment, as if doing so is somehow an intrinsic act of redemption? “A spokesman said foreign media were ‘mouthpieces’ of enemy governments seeking Iran’s disintegration,” I read on the BBC website this morning. Come on. This is old news.

Important not to confuse the complaints of the few with the wishes of the many

How many people are there with a vague, disinterested misconception of the “twisted place” called Iran – one for which they aren’t at all to blame? If there’s one thing I learnt in two years of travel, it was that everything I’d heard about other countries was wrong. It’s certainly not just Iran that’s suffered this blackened image, either. That’s what I mean by the terrible power of the media. And it’s against this backdrop that the current events have been played out.

Bike Shop in Tabriz / Photo by Tom Allen

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not taking a stand against the protests, or against the principle of a fair and just election. But it’s important not to confuse the complaints of the few with the wishes of the many. There may well have been hundreds of thousands of people on the streets in Tehran a week ago, and there may well have been discrepancies in the ballot – it wouldn’t be the first time or the first country in which it’s happened.

But this is a country of nearly 80 million people. The protests of a few thousand of them are being used, for whatever reason, to represent all of them. And, if we’re true believers in democracy, they all have an equal right to choose their leader – whether or not their circumstances have afforded them a digital voice. In the absence of proof of election-rigging and in the complete dearth of objective reporting, the best we all can do is keep our mouths shut and withhold judgement until the evidence is in.

When does foreign support become foreign meddling? How much of our opinions is truly our own? Can we trust the media to portray global events objectively? Can we ever truly understand the intricacies of any of the world’s problems just by reading about them?

Can we admit that sometimes we just don’t know?

Leading Travel Publishers take your questions

What a great Webinar this was! We had people signing-in to listen from Mexico, Brazil, UK, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Australia, USA, Indonesia, Vietnam. Truly global. Questions from listeners during our first Webinar had been in short supply but this time I could hardly keep up, it was brilliant!

Tom Hall talks about Lonely Planet

It’s possible to listen to the travel publishers Webinar online and also read a transcript of the chat that took place during the session.

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Adrian Phillips talks about Bradt Guides

It’s possible to listen to the travel publishers Webinar online and also read a transcript of the chat that took place during the session. Unfortunately there are voice conflicts in the recording that weren’t present during the actual Webinar. It is for this reason that we’ve produced a written account here of all that was said by Adrian Phillips.  To find out more about the event visit ‘Next Webinar hands the mic to Travel Publishers‘.

About Bradt travel guides

Bradt was founded on the idea of responsible travel. Hilary Bradt set up the company about 35 years ago as a direct response to being asked by someone (a traveller publisher at the time) whether she could write a guide book without even visiting the destination.  She was so enraged by this that she decided to set up her own company.

Our niche has traditionally been in offering guidebooks to destinations that other publishers aren’t covering.  We’ve got guides to Sierra Leone, Iraq, Rwanda, Kosovo, those sorts of destinations.  The books often cover areas that have been recently devastated by war or famine, and where tourist revenue is vital to their recovery.  We like to think that by just being out there the guides are promoting a responsible attitude, in that the destinations are benefiting in ways that perhaps they otherwise wouldn’t if the information wasn’t provided.

A wider view of responsible tourism

The other thing I think we do is take a more adult approach to travel.  In my view there’s a fairly narrow view of what it is to travel responsibly.  So much of the debate at the moment defines travel as a guilty pleasure.  Flying is seen as the big bad thing, the carbon footprint is the be all and end all.  We’ve always viewed travel as a powerful force for good.  It just so happens that some of the poorest nations of the world are a long way from us.   If we restrict ourselves to places accessible by train or bike we’re really just using our money in the first world.

Tourism is the overwhelming impulse behind conservation projects, people need to make a living from their local environment.  Tourism offers them the motivation to preserve that piece of rainforest rather than cutting it down and turning it into furniture.  We changed our tag line from ‘giving something back’ to ‘travelling positively’ because we kind of felt it suggested people should feel guilty, as though they need to give something back, when in actually fact if they travel more positively in the first place they’re already giving.

Encouraging positive travel

I suppose our main contribution to positive travel is encouraging that mindset in everyone who is  travelling.  It might be deciding to go to an emerging destination as I mentioned before, rather than your typical holiday hot-spot.  It might just mean getting off the beaten track to villages or areas that most other people aren’t going to in a more mainstream destination, and so what our books try to do is provide the information that allows visitors to do that.

We work with a charity called stuff your rucksack which was setup by Kate Humble and that provides information on things required by local schools, or by orphanages.  It says specifically what they need at that moment, travellers can then log-on to the website, find out where they’re visiting and perhaps take marker pens or whatever in spare space they have in their luggage.  Delivering them personally to the schools at the other end gets you much closer engagement with the culture.  I think over all we just need to encourage this positive mindset towards travel and that in itself will bring the rewards.

Every destination has different requirements

Travelling responsibly can mean very different things for different destinations.  There are different kinds of publications – there will be a more narrow scope for covering responsible travel in Berlin than there might be for travelling in Rwanda, but there will always be local charities that will benefit from support through guidebooks from publicity, there will always be conservation projects whether that’s architectural, wildlife or whatever.  I would have thought that the general attitude toward travelling responsibly could be promoted whatever the destination, but certainly it’s going to be more readily propagated for certain places, and is more desperately required in some more than others.

What’s required in areas is sufficient visitor numbers to ensure that the local environment is protected, that the wildlife is protected, but not too many visitors so that in their very number they’re actually damaging the environment.  I think it all feeds back into working with local organisations on the ground.  Again this is very much part of what we would try to promote as part of positive travel, and obviously it’s great to work with international charities in many ways but it’s the local ones I think where travellers can actually make a very real and visible difference during a visit.   Certainly Bradt authors themselves can play a part in monitoring that, and certainly our authors will say if they believe that an area is getting over visited.  There’s no perfect world here, and certainly the responsibility lies very much with the authors as they take the lead with this responsible travel.

Ranking accommodation on eco-friendliness

We’ve come up against this problem or suggestion before that we should some how rank accommodation by their eco-friendliness.  The reality is that it’s actually something that’s very difficult to do.  There are different levels of eco-friendliness from destination to destination.  What you’re probably find is that areas in the first world are far more ecologically friendly than some of the poorer areas of the world, so I think it’s quite difficult to get a benchmark for how you go about assessing these things.

In a practical sense it’s also extremely difficult, an author’s already having to be a jack of all trades to write about the country’s economy, markets, wildlife etc. There’s a limited amount of money to spare to pay authors and they have to make the most use of their time.  To try and assess accurately the level to which a hotel is meeting certain criteria is quite difficult.  Having said that, our individual authors are very conservation minded and will only promote places which they think are taking steps in that sort of direction or meet those sort of aspirations.  To come up with a fixed template by which to judge these places is very difficult I think.

The Go Slow movement

Author’s fall almost naturally into the Go Slow movement really.  It’s very much about travelling with low impact whilst on the ground, and certainly buying local crafts, eating local food, engaging with local businesses.  We’re actually bringing out some books that are UK based next year called Go Slow guides, targeting the Go Slow movement more specifically.

Further information:

• Interview: Hilary Bradt MBE, Creator Of Bradt Travel Guides

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Who do you trust for your information?

The ability to trust or reject information we’re given is a skill we acquire over time. As we grow to understand the place and the culture in which live we assemble a good judgement for whether something we’re told is true or not.  Controversy surrounding a recent Survival International campaign has opened a debate on whether we should inherently trust a company, NGO or charity that reports and campaigns on international issues.

Some Balinese practice their Hindu faith / Photo by Stephen Chapman

Trust is always an issue when abroad

Everyone who travels abroad to a new place, particularly a new culture sacrifices the ability to confidently trust people they meet, atleast for a short while.  Many of us will have experienced this with the endlessly evolving plethora of intricately composed scams that target tourists the world over.  I’ve suffered the hard sell of gems in Bangkok; the ‘friendly’ money changer in Havana, Cuba; the sob stories of art gallery owners in Yogyakarta, Indonesia to name a few, and they are tough experiences that I don’t think you ever really get used to, or anymore adept at spotting.  Nobody likes to be made a fool of.

Who do we and who should we trust at home?

These issues of trust are equally present when we’re at home, only we’re often running too much on auto-pilot to acknowledge the automated process of acceptance.  Anything the media tells us, anything the government tells us, anything an NGO or charity tells us we tend to listen to and value for no other reason than the fact that we trust the source.  This inherent trust can be a dangerous thing, but it also necessary.  We cannot possibly question everything we are told and research the facts ourselves.  In the same way we all choose to have faith in different religions so too we all choose to trust different sources of information, and we can’t expect these to be correct 100% of the time.

Responsible tourism companies question facts of Survival International campaign

‘Celebrity resort threatens isolated tribe‘ was the story run by UK based charity Survival International, referring to a new project being setup on the Andaman Islands by India based company, Barefoot.  This company is featured on the India based responsible tourism site Travel to Care, and as such there have been questions raised (by Travel to Care) as to whether the claims made by Survival International are simply sensationalist, out of touch and attention seeking.  Barefoot’s response to Survival International’s press release tends to suggest that they may well be in this case.  The letter sent to Barefoot by Survival International can also be read online. Neither side is without an agenda.

Survival International stand by their claims

Following the initial publication of this article Survival International have issued a response and stand by their claims.  The location of the reserve perimeter to which they refer, and hence proximity of the resort to the Jarawa people is contested by both parties.  If Barefoot can prove that it is indeed 3.2kms away and not the 500m claimed by Survival International then there will no doubt be a mutual acceptance of these facts.  It is important to note that Survival International have visited the site and spoken with reliable sources themselves.

Great discussion taking place on the Irresponsible Tourism Forum.

Where do you place your trust?

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Konjic, Bosnia & Herzegovina: A legend & a slice of reality

Rafting on the Neretva river / Photo by Thierry Joubert

The Legend of Konjic

This is the legend of Konjic and how it came to be the major settlement of northern Herzegovina. It’s a charming story and one of my favourite Bosnian tales.

A homeless nomad roamed through the village near Boracko Lake, Bosnia & Herzegovina. He asked the villagers for warm food and a place to stay. They not only shooed him off but grunted offenses at him. He continued on, seemingly unscathed by their remarks. He came to a widows home. Her husband had died several years earlier and left her with three children. The wanderer asked the widow the same question he had the other villagers. She warmly greeted him and invited him into her home for a meal.

Whilst they were eating he issued her a warning. “Thank you ma’am for your kind hospitality. I have an important message for you if you are willing to listen. The ground here will soon begin to shake immensely. The entire village will be destroyed as well as everyone in it. You must take your children on horseback through the canyon and over the mountain to safety. You will know you are safe when your horse stops and digs his hoof into the ground three times. This place will be your new home.”

The woman was startled. Confused. She didn’t know what to think. She said nothing as the man finished his meal and dozed off to sleep. When the woman woke the next morning the man was gone. There was worry in her heart. She thought of her children. Her village. She went and told her neighbours what the nomad had said. They all laughed it off as ridiculous and accused him of trying to scare off the village so he could loot the place.

The woman still struggled with the warning. She contemplated leaving but balked. At that moment her little daughter came running around the corner. An overwhelming sense of love came to the woman and in the same instant so did clarity of vision. She packed the children up on her horses and they left that evening towards the canyon. They traveled all night. By morning they reached the open valley of the Neretva River. As they slowly strutted through the alpine meadow the lead horse suddenly stopped. He became agitated. Bucked a bit. And then dug his hoof into the ground and scraped it three times.

As the horse stood up a tremendous roar came through the canyon valley. The tremor lasted several moments. The earth shook. The horses spun in fear. The woman was beyond herself. She dismounted in the lush fields her horse had led her to – this was to be her new home.

Re-opening of an ancient Ottoman stone bridge

An ottoman bridge / Photo by moslihh

The majestical place of Konjic is having a ceremony to re-open one of these ancient Ottoman bridges similar to those in Mostar, Visegrad and Trebinje that were bombed into oblivion by German forces during WWII. They are indeed a marvel of creation. News crews will be out on mass as well as the entire town to see it returned to its old glory. What troubles me though is that the value we place on a stone bridge is so overwhelmingly higher than the value we place on the irreplaceable miracles of Mother Nature in and around Konjic.

Failure to learn the value of a natural resource

Photo by Thierry Joubert

As an environmentalist and eco-tourism expert, I believe that Konjic and Foca are the most dynamic and beautiful municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There is unbelievable potential here to develop eco-tourism and organic agriculture as a means of sustainable living for every citizen of Konjic.  The mountaintops of southern Bjelasnica, Visocica, Prenj, Bitovnja, and Crvanj bless the skyline. The Neretva and Rakitnica Canyons, carved out over millions of years by the patient flow of rivers, create an eco-system that is unmatched in southeast Europe.  Unfortunately the once thick forests responsible for the exceptional air quality, and home to some of the richest bio-diversity in Europe have all but disappeared due to rampant logging.

What has happened over the past decade is no less horrendous than the rape and pillage of the brutal war we lived through.  The most protected tree in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the endemic Munika, has been hacked off the mountain face of Prenj.  A senseless road has decimated the once primeval beauty of the strictly protected Rakitnca Canyon. Mini-dams which destroy vital riverside bio-diversity are being constructed in every corner of Konjic’s territory. All of this in the name of progress and development. I prefer to call it immoral monopolies.  I ask the citizens of Konjic, ‘what benefits are you gaining from the silent destruction of your beloved land?’

Pre-war plans damaged the Neretva river

Fish in the Neretva River / Photo by Thierry Joubert

I challenge anyone to find a river like the Neretva, or Una for that matter in continental Europe. The simple fact is that there are no more major potable waterways left. The Neretva is clean from its source to Dzajici near Konjic. Over 100 kilometres of gorgeous, crystal clear, drinking water.

Public opinion against pre-war plans to dam the Neretva river is over 70%, but that does not phase the local authorities nor the energy mongers in Sarajevo, Ljubljana, Vienna or Blagaj.  The question of the Neretva has been a political one for quite some time. The river is God’s blessing to us. It is neither a question of economics nor politics. It gives us life. Fresh air. It feeds our eco-system which gives us the best meat, fruit, vegetable and dairy products in the region. It gives us beauty. And who does not want to come and see beauty?

The damming of the Neretva is purely a moral issue, and morality is one thing that is greatly lacking in our difficult time of transition. We celebrate this opening of the Ottoman bridge with wide eyes and warmed hearts. I share that sentiment too, but how on earth can we not see the value of millions of years of Mother Nature’s work.  A creation that cannot be rebuilt. Cannot be replaced. When its gone. It’s gone forever. What legend’s will they speak of when we are no longer? Will we leave a legacy to be proud of, or one that our grandchildren will curse us for?

Further information:

• Bosnian version of this article
• Green Visions: Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Follow @greenvisions on Twitter