Take a dose of global warming, add an increase in tourism and a fire in Maui, and what do you get? In Hawaii, it adds up to a new tourist tax.

In his State of the State address, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green renewed the call for a “climate impact fee” to be charged to every visitor to the Aloha State.

A proposed $50 charge failed to pass the legislature last year. But this week, Green proposed a “modest” $25 fee, to be paid by every visitor who stays at a hotel or short-term rental on any Hawaiian island.

The resulting $68 million a year would be used for “beach preservation, fire breaks, and other prevention measures to help us avoid tragedies like the one last year in Maui,” Green said.

“A Climate Impact Fee on visitors would provide the needed resources to protect our environment and increase awareness of the impacts of climate change,” he noted. “I believe this is not too much to ask of visitors to our islands Hawaii’s natural resources — our beaches, forests, and waterfalls — are an essential part of our culture and our way of life.”

At a press conference following the State of the State, House Speaker Scott Saiki and Finance Committee Chair Kyle Yamashita said they will consider Green’s visitor fee, as well as an increase in the existing transient accommodations tax, currently 10.25%.

I had been eagerly looking forward to interviewing Robert Drumm, CEO of Alexander + Roberts, to hear his views on current events from his perspective as head of the company that has done more than any other to promote American tourism to Russia since the 1950s.

As explained elsewhere, Alexander + Roberts, under its previous name General Tours, was the first American tour operator to offer tours into Soviet Russia in the 1950s. It began in the early years of the Cold War, while there was a Red Scare blazing in the United States. Popular figures at the time were being blacklisted, prevented from earning a living, for even the suspicion of sympathies with the Communist Party at any time in their lives. It took a lot of courage for Alex Harris, the founder of General Tours, to launch tours to Russia in that climate.

Bob Drumm started working with Alex Harris in the ‘80s, and in the 1990s Harris passed the baton to him to head General Tours. Drumm continues to head the company today Read the rest of this entry »

Although your anglophile clients have been unable to fly to the UK since the end of March 2020 (!), aspects of Britain have been appearing frequently on their/your TV screens with reruns of Endeavour, Morse, Lewis, Poldark, Doc Martin, Father Brown, Keeping up Appearances, Grantchester, Downton Abbey, The Vicar of Dibley, All Creatures Great and Small—along with a whole host of irresistible movies, dramas, and sitcoms.

They’ve done a huge job of waving the GB flag, and I think you’re missing a trick if you’re not talking to some of your frequent UK travellers about how you can customise a tour that blends together leisurely On Location visits for their favourite TV shows with other must-see visits to castles, stately homes, cathedrals, literary shrines all washed down with some memorable meet the locals, pub lunches and suppers.

Here’s a handful of travel-less, see-more suggestions for you to consider. Read the rest of this entry »

Lilly Ajarova, the CEO of the Uganda Tourism Board, visited New York last week in preparation of Uganda’s rolling out of a rebranding campaign.

The slogan for the country will change from “Uganda, the Pearl of Africa” to “Exploring Uganda, the Pearl of Africa.”

It’s only one word changed, but as Mark Twain said, the difference of one word can be like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

More important than the change of slogan, the tourism department is changing its idea of how to market itself and to whom.

“We’ve been able to define who our audience is,” Lilly Ajarova told me. “We are looking for travelers, not just tourists, people who are more responsible, more mindful, and travel in a responsible way, as opposed to Read the rest of this entry »