Travel Wires
A hole lot of success Hot tip for Tourism NZ: Get Donald Trump to insult us. After he dumped on Haiti, El Salvador and the, er, whole of Africa, a Zambian tourism agency posted a picture of a safari sunset: “Visit shithole Zambia — where the only stars and stripes you’ll have to see are in the sky and on a zebra.” Botswana captioned its picture of elephants, zebras and antelope: “Botswana is a waterhole country.” Haitian adman Fabien Dodard plans adverts to “show off Haiti’s shitty landscape, totally shitty people, and year-round shitty weather”. Even Airbnb responded: “We heard there’s been some expletive-filled interest in these beautiful destinations. We also know a few people who would love to show you around. Let’s open doors, not build walls.” Imbibing in Ibiza Speaking of which . . . Ibiza has banned Airbnb and similar rentals. It says tourists are taking accommodation for seasonal workers and professionals, and has introduced fines up to $675,000. Councillor Vicente Torres: “We cannot continue to have shortages of doctors, teachers and tourism workers because homeowners and these platforms insist on operating illegally.” Ibiza is also cracking down on drunken visitors after protests against mass tourism, which, locals say, is spoiling the island. How to survive Venice Venice has had a gutsful of tourist rip-offs. A civic rights group is publishing “a user’s guide for visitors on how to survive in Venice” and restaurateur Benedetta Fullin says: “There are many tourist traps and they are not run by Venetians. Most of the time they are run by foreigners . . . They don’t have a kitchen, they don’t have chefs or use local suppliers. All they have are tables, cutlery, a microwave to heat up a frozen lasagne at ridiculous prices.” She and fellow chef Raffaele Alajamo advise visitors to use guidebooks rather than TripAdvisor to find a place to eat. Travel Wires’ advice: Never eat in a restaurant with photos of food outside or with a menu turistico in more than four languages. The world’s least-exciting cities are . . . Singapore is upset TimeOut lifestyle magazine ranks it among the world’s least-exciting cities. The mag ranked Singapore 31st out of 32 cities, one spot above Istanbul, based on a survey of more than 15,000 people. Sydney also did poorly at No 28. Chicago topped the index, followed by Porto and New York City. In response, the Singapore Tourism Board posted a video highlighting Universal Studios Singapore, the Grand Prix, Artscience Museum and a new AJ Hackett bungy jump at Sentosa. Forget Singapore: We’re gobsmacked that 15,000 people couldn’t find anything exciting in Istanbul. — travel@nzherald.co.nz