tourism

Wednesday, April 16th, 2014

The Shifting, Sonic Geography of Cartagena, Colombia

It had been three years since I’d visited Cartagena, and I was shocked by all the changes. They must have been bubbling under the surface the last time I came, because they seemed so drastic. On my first visit to Colombia’s Atlantic coast, I was on a mission to hear of Afro-Colombian sounds produced and consumed

Tuesday, September 11th, 2012

File Under No Comment: ‘Send Me To Africa’

With a click of the button… (a contest sponsored by sponsors). It’s an empty landscape. With pyramids.

Thursday, May 24th, 2012

Pinkwashing South Africa

This week BBC News reported on the rise in Cape Town’s status as a premiere international gay tourist destination. The article itself went on to report at length from gay South African hoteliers and organizers, many of...

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Apparently revolutions are not good for tourism

That used to be mainstream opinion in white South Africa and is what Tina Brown and her editors think about. What drove Newsweek’s editors to commission and publish a feature–in the latest issue–on “Five Places to See...

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

T.I.A. @ The Liberty Bell

The Liberty Bell, a symbol of the American Revolution, is housed in a complex on Market Street in Philadelphia, reminding us of liberties gained and liberties denied. It’s one of the few historical exhibits I’ve seen that...

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

“Rhythm like you’ve never seen before”

I stand corrected, but no one mixes nationalism, tourism and sport in a feelgood cocktail quite like the South African advertising industry. Like in this TV commercial for South Africa’s national tourism authority, where Diski, a South...