Farewell MSC Sinfonia
AFTER over 20 departures during the 2013-2014 South African summer season, MSC Sinfonia set sail for Genoa Italy on March 17. The ship will be replaced in the upcoming season by the MSC Opera, and the newly revamped MSC Armonia for the 2015-2016 season.
MSC Sinfonia first arrived in South Africa in 2009 and rapidly became one of the most popular cruise ships the SA market has experienced to date.
“It has been a record-breaking season with both MSC Opera and MSC Sinfonia in our waters at the same time and has enabled around 115 000 passengers to experience local cruising,” notes Allan Foggitt of MSC Cruises SA. He said the MSC Armonia would be stretched to accommodate an additional 500 passengers.
The Armonia, Lirica, Sinfonia and Opera will all be lengthened by approximately 30m to incorporate new entertainment options, a new on-deck water park, extended shops and nearly 200 new cabins on the ships.
MSC Opera remains in South African waters until April 28, sailing to Mozambique.
KEEP COMING, SAYS MALAYSIA TOURISM Malaysia says tourism to that country is unlikely to be affected by the drama around the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, despite tensions with China over the search-and-rescue mission.
According to the Daily Mail, Tuan Omar, deputy director of domestic marketing at Tourism Malaysia, said he still expected strong arrivals.
Chinese arrivals account for 12% of Malaysia’s visitors, so the number could be affected by the disaster, as two-thirds of the 239 passengers aboard MH370 were Chinese citizens.
GIZA’S HORSES FACE STARVATION HORSES used to entertain tourists at the pyramids in Cairo are facing starvation due to a downturn in tourism. The horses are used to transport tourists in carriages. According to the Telegraph, Egypt experienced its worst September ever last year in terms of visits from international tourists, with a 90% year-on-year drop in numbers compared to September 2012.
The number of holidaymakers at the pyramids at the tail end of 2013 was just half of what it was during the same period (September to December) in the previous year.
At a press conference in London last month, Hisham Zaazou, Egypt’s tourism minister, described the pyramids as a “ghost town”. He said tourists were likely to delay plans to holiday in Egypt after seeing footage of the demonstrations on the television news.
He also said he had been approached by a kalesh (horse and carriage) owner, who had asked him whether he should be buying food for his child or his horse.
TRIPADVISOR UNDER FIRE NEW research has revealed thousands of suspect postings on the Chinese version of the tourism website.
The Telegraph reports that the study, carried out by Kwikchex, an “online reputation-management” company that has been a regular critic of TripAdvisor, uncovered what it called “alarming patterns” on Daodao, the site’s Chinese domain.
Chris Emmins, Kwikchex co-founder, cited “amazingly prolific” reviewers on the site, including one member who had posted 2 633 reviews since 2010.
He sited instances where these so-called “super-reviewers” seemed to follow similar patterns of travel, posting reviews about the same businesses in the same parts of the world.
One reviewer, who had posted 1 361 reviews since October 2013, claimed to have stayed in 51 Paris hotels in a single month in 2013, while also posting reviews on 50 other hotels in several other countries. TripAdvisor has taken down the suspect reviews. All of the reviews on Daodao, which was launched in 2009, go on to TripAdvisor.com too.
BANGKOK CALM THAILAND is to lift the state of emergency in the capital Bangkok, reassuring tourists that the security situation has “improved”.
Protesters have shut down their camps, which were blocking key intersections, and moved to Lumpini Park in the city.
In November, protesters took to the streets to call for the resignation of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatrain, but the struggle is now targeting government buildings. The army has been using plants and flowers to make checkpoints look more beautiful and friendly because of fears that they were scaring tourists.