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Tag: travel and tourism

  • Crammed with tourists, Alaska’s capital wonders what will happen as its magnificent glacier recedes

    Crammed with tourists, Alaska’s capital wonders what will happen as its magnificent glacier recedes

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    JUNEAU, Alaska — Thousands of tourists spill onto a boardwalk in Alaska’s capital city every day from cruise ships towering over downtown. Vendors hawk shoreside trips and rows of buses stand ready to whisk visitors away, with many headed for the area’s crown jewel: the Mendenhall Glacier.

    A craggy expanse of gray, white and blue, the glacier gets swarmed by sightseeing helicopters and attracts visitors by kayak, canoe and foot. So many come to see the glacier and Juneau’s other wonders that the city’s immediate concern is how to manage them all as a record number are expected this year. Some residents flee to quieter places during the summer, and a deal between the city and cruise industry will limit how many ships arrive next year.

    But climate change is melting the Mendenhall Glacier. It is receding so quickly that by 2050, it might no longer be visible from the visitor center it once loomed outside.

    That’s prompted another question Juneau is only now starting to contemplate: What happens then?

    “We need to be thinking about our glaciers and the ability to view glaciers as they recede,” said Alexandra Pierce, the city’s tourism manager. There also needs to be a focus on reducing environmental impacts, she said. “People come to Alaska to see what they consider to be a pristine environment and it’s our responsibility to preserve that for residents and visitors.”

    The glacier pours from rocky terrain between mountains into a lake dotted by stray icebergs. Its face retreated eight football fields between 2007 and 2021, according to estimates from University of Alaska Southeast researchers. Trail markers memorialize the glacier’s backward march, showing where the ice once stood. Thickets of vegetation have grown in its wake.

    While massive chunks have broken off, most ice loss has come from the thinning due to warming temperatures, said Eran Hood, a University of Alaska Southeast professor of environmental science. The Mendenhall has now largely receded from the lake that bears its name.

    Scientists are trying to understand what the changes might mean for the ecosystem, including salmon habitat.

    There are uncertainties for tourism, too.

    Most people enjoy the glacier from trails across Mendenhall Lake near the visitor center. Caves of dizzying blues that drew crowds several years ago have collapsed and pools of water now stand where one could once step from the rocks onto the ice.

    Manoj Pillai, a cruise ship worker from India, took pictures from a popular overlook on a recent day off.

    “If the glacier is so beautiful now, how would it be, like, 10 or 20 years before? I just imagine that,” he said.

    Officials with the Tongass National Forest, under which the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area falls, are bracing for more visitors over the next 30 years even as they contemplate a future when the glacier slips from casual view.

    The agency is proposing new trails and parking areas, an additional visitor center and public use cabins at a lakeside campground. Researchers do not expect the glacier to disappear completely for at least a century.

    “We did talk about, ‘Is it worth the investment in the facilities if the glacier does go out of sight?’” said Tristan Fluharty, the forest’s Juneau district ranger. “Would we still get the same amount of visitation?”

    A thundering waterfall that is a popular place for selfies, salmon runs, black bears and trails could continue attracting tourists when the glacier is not visible from the visitor center, but “the glacier is the big draw,” he said.

    Around 700,000 people are expected to visit this year, with about 1 million projected by 2050.

    Other sites offer a cautionary tale. Annual visitation peaked in the 1990s at around 400,000 to the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center, southeast of Anchorage, with the Portage Glacier serving as a draw. But now, on clear days, a sliver of the glacier remains visible from the center, which was visited by about 30,000 people last year, said Brandon Raile, a spokesperson with the Chugach National Forest, which manages the site. Officials are discussing the center’s future, he said.

    “Where do we go with the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center?” Raile said. “How do we keep it relevant as we go forward when the original reason for it being put there is not really relevant anymore?”

    At the Mendenhall, rangers talk to visitors about climate change. They aim to “inspire wonder and awe but also to inspire hope and action,” said Laura Buchheit, the forest’s Juneau deputy district ranger.

    After pandemic-stunted seasons, about 1.6 million cruise passengers are expected in Juneau this year, during a season stretching from April through October.

    The city, nestled in a rainforest, is one stop on what are generally week-long cruises to Alaska beginning in Seattle or Vancouver, British Columbia. Tourists can leave the docks and move up the side of a mountain in minutes via a popular tram, see bald eagles perch on light posts and enjoy a vibrant Alaska Native arts community.

    On the busiest days, about 20,000 people, equal to two-thirds of the city’s population, pour from the boats.

    City leaders and major cruise lines agreed to a daily five-ship limit for next year. But critics worry that won’t ease congestion if the vessels keep getting bigger. Some residents would like one day a week without ships. As many as seven ships a day have arrived this year.

    Juneau Tours and Whale Watch is one of about two dozen companies with permits for services like transportation or guiding at the glacier. Serene Hutchinson, the company’s general manager, said demand has been so high that she neared her allotment halfway through the season. Shuttle service to the glacier had to be suspended, but her business still offers limited tours that include the glacier, she said.

    Other bus operators are reaching their limits, and tourism officials are encouraging visitors to see other sites or get to the glacier by different means.

    Limits on visitation can benefit tour companies by improving the experience rather than having tourists “shoehorned” at the glacier, said Hutchinson, who doesn’t worry about Juneau losing its luster as the glacier recedes.

    “Alaska does the work for us, right?” she said. “All we have to do is just kind of get out of the way and let people look around and smell and breathe.”

    Pierce, Juneau’s tourism manager, said discussions are just beginning around what a sustainable southeast Alaska tourism industry should look like.

    In Sitka, home to a slumbering volcano, the number of cruise passengers on a day earlier this summer exceeded the town’s population of 8,400, overwhelming businesses, dragging down internet speeds and prompting officials to question how much tourism is too much.

    Juneau plans to conduct a survey that could guide future growth, such as building trails for tourism companies.

    Kerry Kirkpatrick, a Juneau resident of nearly 30 years, recalls when the Mendenhall’s face was “long across the water and high above our heads.” She called the glacier a national treasure for its accessibility and noted an irony in carbon-emitting helicopters and cruise ships chasing a melting glacier. She worries the current level of tourism isn’t sustainable.

    As the Mendenhall recedes, plants and animals will need time to adjust, she said.

    So will humans.

    “There’s too many people on the planet wanting to do the same things,” Kirkpatrick said. “You don’t want to be the person who closes the door and says, you know, ‘I’m the last one in and you can’t come in.’ But we do have to have the ability to say, ‘No, no more.’”

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  • Crammed with tourists, Alaska’s capital wonders what will happen as its magnificent glacier recedes

    Crammed with tourists, Alaska’s capital wonders what will happen as its magnificent glacier recedes

    [ad_1]

    JUNEAU, Alaska — Thousands of tourists spill onto a boardwalk in Alaska’s capital city every day from cruise ships towering over downtown. Vendors hawk shoreside trips and rows of buses stand ready to whisk visitors away, with many headed for the area’s crown jewel: the Mendenhall Glacier.

    A craggy expanse of gray, white and blue, the glacier gets swarmed by sightseeing helicopters and attracts visitors by kayak, canoe and foot. So many come to see the glacier and Juneau’s other wonders that the city’s immediate concern is how to manage them all as a record number are expected this year. Some residents flee to quieter places during the summer, and a deal between the city and cruise industry will limit how many ships arrive next year.

    But climate change is melting the Mendenhall Glacier. It is receding so quickly that by 2050, it might no longer be visible from the visitor center it once loomed outside.

    That’s prompted another question Juneau is only now starting to contemplate: What happens then?

    “We need to be thinking about our glaciers and the ability to view glaciers as they recede,” said Alexandra Pierce, the city’s tourism manager. There also needs to be a focus on reducing environmental impacts, she said. “People come to Alaska to see what they consider to be a pristine environment and it’s our responsibility to preserve that for residents and visitors.”

    The glacier pours from rocky terrain between mountains into a lake dotted by stray icebergs. Its face retreated eight football fields between 2007 and 2021, according to estimates from University of Alaska Southeast researchers. Trail markers memorialize the glacier’s backward march, showing where the ice once stood. Thickets of vegetation have grown in its wake.

    While massive chunks have broken off, most ice loss has come from the thinning due to warming temperatures, said Eran Hood, a University of Alaska Southeast professor of environmental science. The Mendenhall has now largely receded from the lake that bears its name.

    Scientists are trying to understand what the changes might mean for the ecosystem, including salmon habitat.

    There are uncertainties for tourism, too.

    Most people enjoy the glacier from trails across Mendenhall Lake near the visitor center. Caves of dizzying blues that drew crowds several years ago have collapsed and pools of water now stand where one could once step from the rocks onto the ice.

    Manoj Pillai, a cruise ship worker from India, took pictures from a popular overlook on a recent day off.

    “If the glacier is so beautiful now, how would it be, like, 10 or 20 years before? I just imagine that,” he said.

    Officials with the Tongass National Forest, under which the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area falls, are bracing for more visitors over the next 30 years even as they contemplate a future when the glacier slips from casual view.

    The agency is proposing new trails and parking areas, an additional visitor center and public use cabins at a lakeside campground. Researchers do not expect the glacier to disappear completely for at least a century.

    “We did talk about, ‘Is it worth the investment in the facilities if the glacier does go out of sight?’” said Tristan Fluharty, the forest’s Juneau district ranger. “Would we still get the same amount of visitation?”

    A thundering waterfall that is a popular place for selfies, salmon runs, black bears and trails could continue attracting tourists when the glacier is not visible from the visitor center, but “the glacier is the big draw,” he said.

    Around 700,000 people are expected to visit this year, with about 1 million projected by 2050.

    Other sites offer a cautionary tale. Annual visitation peaked in the 1990s at around 400,000 to the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center, southeast of Anchorage, with the Portage Glacier serving as a draw. But now, on clear days, a sliver of the glacier remains visible from the center, which was visited by about 30,000 people last year, said Brandon Raile, a spokesperson with the Chugach National Forest, which manages the site. Officials are discussing the center’s future, he said.

    “Where do we go with the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center?” Raile said. “How do we keep it relevant as we go forward when the original reason for it being put there is not really relevant anymore?”

    At the Mendenhall, rangers talk to visitors about climate change. They aim to “inspire wonder and awe but also to inspire hope and action,” said Laura Buchheit, the forest’s Juneau deputy district ranger.

    After pandemic-stunted seasons, about 1.6 million cruise passengers are expected in Juneau this year, during a season stretching from April through October.

    The city, nestled in a rainforest, is one stop on what are generally week-long cruises to Alaska beginning in Seattle or Vancouver, British Columbia. Tourists can leave the docks and move up the side of a mountain in minutes via a popular tram, see bald eagles perch on light posts and enjoy a vibrant Alaska Native arts community.

    On the busiest days, about 20,000 people, equal to two-thirds of the city’s population, pour from the boats.

    City leaders and major cruise lines agreed to a daily five-ship limit for next year. But critics worry that won’t ease congestion if the vessels keep getting bigger. Some residents would like one day a week without ships. As many as seven ships a day have arrived this year.

    Juneau Tours and Whale Watch is one of about two dozen companies with permits for services like transportation or guiding at the glacier. Serene Hutchinson, the company’s general manager, said demand has been so high that she neared her allotment halfway through the season. Shuttle service to the glacier had to be suspended, but her business still offers limited tours that include the glacier, she said.

    Other bus operators are reaching their limits, and tourism officials are encouraging visitors to see other sites or get to the glacier by different means.

    Limits on visitation can benefit tour companies by improving the experience rather than having tourists “shoehorned” at the glacier, said Hutchinson, who doesn’t worry about Juneau losing its luster as the glacier recedes.

    “Alaska does the work for us, right?” she said. “All we have to do is just kind of get out of the way and let people look around and smell and breathe.”

    Pierce, Juneau’s tourism manager, said discussions are just beginning around what a sustainable southeast Alaska tourism industry should look like.

    In Sitka, home to a slumbering volcano, the number of cruise passengers on a day earlier this summer exceeded the town’s population of 8,400, overwhelming businesses, dragging down internet speeds and prompting officials to question how much tourism is too much.

    Juneau plans to conduct a survey that could guide future growth, such as building trails for tourism companies.

    Kerry Kirkpatrick, a Juneau resident of nearly 30 years, recalls when the Mendenhall’s face was “long across the water and high above our heads.” She called the glacier a national treasure for its accessibility and noted an irony in carbon-emitting helicopters and cruise ships chasing a melting glacier. She worries the current level of tourism isn’t sustainable.

    As the Mendenhall recedes, plants and animals will need time to adjust, she said.

    So will humans.

    “There’s too many people on the planet wanting to do the same things,” Kirkpatrick said. “You don’t want to be the person who closes the door and says, you know, ‘I’m the last one in and you can’t come in.’ But we do have to have the ability to say, ‘No, no more.’”

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  • Heat and wildfires put southern Europe’s vital tourism earnings at risk

    Heat and wildfires put southern Europe’s vital tourism earnings at risk

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    RHODES, Greece — Tourists at a seaside hotel on the Greek island of Rhodes snatched up pails of pool water and damp towels as flames approached, rushing to help staffers and locals extinguish one of the wildfires threatening Mediterranean locales during recent heat waves.

    The quick team effort meant that “by the time the fire brigade came, most of the fire actually was dealt with,” said Elena Korosteleva from Britain, who was vacationing at the Lindos Memories hotel.

    The next morning, some unsettled guests cut their holiday short — but most stayed on as the resort wasn’t damaged in the small brush fire outside its grounds.

    The Greek island known for sparkling beaches and ancient sites is nursing its wounds after 11 days of devastating wildfires in July. After thousands of people were evacuated during the height of travel season, Rhodes is weighing how the crisis will affect its vital tourism sector, which fuels most of its economy and some 20% of Greece‘s.

    It’s the same for other Mediterranean destinations, like Italy and Spain, where the tourism sector also is being hit by heat waves and wildfires. Greece, Italy, Algeria and Tunisia combined lost more than 1,350 square kilometers (520 square miles) to blazes that affected 120,000 people in late July, according to European Union estimates. And Greece is expecting even more extreme heat in the coming days.

    The mayor of Villardeciervos village, in part of northwestern Spain ravaged by fires last summer, said hikers are still coming.

    “Tourism is bound to suffer a bit in the next few years, (whether) we like it or not,” Rosa María López said. “On the hiking trails, there are no trees, and it is very sad to see. … But this area is still highly valued by tourists in spite of everything. We will have to adapt.”

    Fires have chased away tourists in hard-hit parts of Greece and Italy. Rhodes saw mass cancellations of flights and the trend is similar in Sicily, said Olivier Ponti, vice president of insights at ForwardKeys, a travel data company with access to airline industry ticketing data.

    While travel to Greece overall has not been hit too hard, Italy isn’t as lucky. Wildfires “have caused a slowdown in bookings for many Italian destinations, even places not close to the fires,” he said, noting a drop for Rome in the last week of July.

    Even without the flames, summer heat intensified by climate change can be a turnoff for travelers.

    Hoteliers are worried in southeastern Spain’s coastal resort city of Benidorm, a longtime favorite for British and Scandinavian tourists.

    “If heat waves were to be repeated every summer, the impact on our economy would be significant,” said Antonio Mayor, chair of the hotel and tourism association in the Valencia region, which includes Benidorm. “Our activity is centered on the three summer months.”

    That could mean tourists head north to Scandinavian countries or the United Kingdom instead.

    “Record-setting temperatures in European countries such as Greece, Italy and Spain are not scheduled to ease up as we enter August, so it might be considered a much safer option to opt for a stay in northern Europe,” said Tim Hentschel, CEO of digital booking platform HotelPlanner.

    The World Meteorological Organization and the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service calculated July to be the hottest month on record. Heat records foreshadow changes ahead as the planet warms, scientists say, including more flooding, longer-burning wildfires and extreme weather events that put people at risk.

    With that in mind, U.S.-based climate technology startup Sensible Weather is developing insurance that would compensate people if extreme heat wrecks their holiday.

    It’s rolled out “weather guarantee” coverage to travel companies in the U.K., France and the U.S., which pays travelers if prolonged rain ruins their beach break or there’s no snow for a ski trip.

    Sensible Weather will soon add a heat cover option “in anticipation of next summer,” founder Nick Cavanaugh said. “People are asking me about it more because they’re thinking about these things more.”

    While people differ on how hot is too hot, “in the simplest version, if it was 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit) for three hours in the middle of the day and you couldn’t go out and do an activity, we could give you some money back,” he said.

    Rhodes had expected foreign arrivals to increase 8%-10% over a bumper year in 2022, when about 2.6 million people flew in to the Greek island, mostly from Britain and Germany. But after the fires, flight cancellations in the last week of July exceeded all bookings made in the equivalent week in 2019, said Ponti of ForwardKeys.

    Manolis Markopoulos, head of the Rhodes hotel association, is optimistic that rebounding arrivals to parts of the island not damaged by flames can salvage much of the projected boost in tourism.

    “Every day we’re seeing more business,” he said. “By Aug. 8-10, I think we’ll be back to our normal pace at all these resorts,” which account for about 90% of the island’s 220,000 beds.

    In damaged areas, “some brave tour operators have already decided to bring customers from this coming weekend,” Markopoulos said. “These areas have a longer road before they return to normality — but they’re not even 10% of the (island’s) total capacity.”

    New bookings for future travel to Rhodes did take a hit, falling 76% the week of July 17, when the fires began, over the previous week. For Greece as a whole, they slumped 10%, Ponti said.

    While some major British operators briefly canceled all Rhodes flights and holidays — offering refunds to people who’d booked for fire-hit areas — other budget airlines kept offering seats and reported normal travel figures, HotelPlanner’s Hentschel said.

    In Germany, leading travel operator TUI is again offering vacations to all parts of Rhodes after it stopped flying tourists in.

    “We would do more damage to the people of Rhodes if no more tourists came now after the forest fires,” TUI CEO Sebastian Ebel told Germany’s dpa news agency.

    Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis offered an additional incentive, appearing on ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” this week to promise people whose Rhodes vacations were spoiled by the fires a free week on the island next spring or fall.

    Korosteleva, the Rhodes vacationer, said the blazes should motivate action against climate change.

    “It makes people aware what we’ve caused to the planet, that this change may not be reversible. So it’s not just about tourism,” said Korosteleva, who heads the University of Warwick’s Institute of Global Sustainable Development. “I think it actually clearly touches upon how we need to start acting now.”

    ___

    Chan reported from London. AP reporters Nicholas Paphitis in Athens, Greece; David Brunat in Barcelona, Spain; Sylvia Hui and Courtney Bonnell in London; and Kirsten Grieshaber and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.

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  • Heat and wildfires put southern Europe’s vital tourism earnings at risk

    Heat and wildfires put southern Europe’s vital tourism earnings at risk

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    RHODES, Greece — Tourists at a seaside hotel on the Greek island of Rhodes snatched up pails of pool water and damp towels as flames approached, rushing to help staffers and locals extinguish one of the wildfires threatening Mediterranean locales during recent heat waves.

    The quick team effort meant that “by the time the fire brigade came, most of the fire actually was dealt with,” said Elena Korosteleva from Britain, who was vacationing at the Lindos Memories hotel.

    The next morning, some unsettled guests cut their holiday short — but most stayed on as the resort wasn’t damaged in the small brush fire outside its grounds.

    The Greek island known for sparkling beaches and ancient sites is nursing its wounds after 11 days of devastating wildfires in July. After thousands of people were evacuated during the height of travel season, Rhodes is weighing how the crisis will affect its vital tourism sector, which fuels most of its economy and some 20% of Greece‘s.

    It’s the same for other Mediterranean destinations, like Italy and Spain, where the tourism sector also is being hit by heat waves and wildfires. Greece, Italy, Algeria and Tunisia combined lost more than 1,350 square kilometers (520 square miles) to blazes that affected 120,000 people in late July, according to European Union estimates. And Greece is expecting even more extreme heat in the coming days.

    The mayor of Villardeciervos village, in part of northwestern Spain ravaged by fires last summer, said hikers are still coming.

    “Tourism is bound to suffer a bit in the next few years, (whether) we like it or not,” Rosa María López said. “On the hiking trails, there are no trees, and it is very sad to see. … But this area is still highly valued by tourists in spite of everything. We will have to adapt.”

    Fires have chased away tourists in hard-hit parts of Greece and Italy. Rhodes saw mass cancellations of flights and the trend is similar in Sicily, said Olivier Ponti, vice president of insights at ForwardKeys, a travel data company with access to airline industry ticketing data.

    While travel to Greece overall has not been hit too hard, Italy isn’t as lucky. Wildfires “have caused a slowdown in bookings for many Italian destinations, even places not close to the fires,” he said, noting a drop for Rome in the last week of July.

    Even without the flames, summer heat intensified by climate change can be a turnoff for travelers.

    Hoteliers are worried in southeastern Spain’s coastal resort city of Benidorm, a longtime favorite for British and Scandinavian tourists.

    “If heat waves were to be repeated every summer, the impact on our economy would be significant,” said Antonio Mayor, chair of the hotel and tourism association in the Valencia region, which includes Benidorm. “Our activity is centered on the three summer months.”

    That could mean tourists head north to Scandinavian countries or the United Kingdom instead.

    “Record-setting temperatures in European countries such as Greece, Italy and Spain are not scheduled to ease up as we enter August, so it might be considered a much safer option to opt for a stay in northern Europe,” said Tim Hentschel, CEO of digital booking platform HotelPlanner.

    The World Meteorological Organization and the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service calculated July to be the hottest month on record. Heat records foreshadow changes ahead as the planet warms, scientists say, including more flooding, longer-burning wildfires and extreme weather events that put people at risk.

    With that in mind, U.S.-based climate technology startup Sensible Weather is developing insurance that would compensate people if extreme heat wrecks their holiday.

    It’s rolled out “weather guarantee” coverage to travel companies in the U.K., France and the U.S., which pays travelers if prolonged rain ruins their beach break or there’s no snow for a ski trip.

    Sensible Weather will soon add a heat cover option “in anticipation of next summer,” founder Nick Cavanaugh said. “People are asking me about it more because they’re thinking about these things more.”

    While people differ on how hot is too hot, “in the simplest version, if it was 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit) for three hours in the middle of the day and you couldn’t go out and do an activity, we could give you some money back,” he said.

    Rhodes had expected foreign arrivals to increase 8%-10% over a bumper year in 2022, when about 2.6 million people flew in to the Greek island, mostly from Britain and Germany. But after the fires, flight cancellations in the last week of July exceeded all bookings made in the equivalent week in 2019, said Ponti of ForwardKeys.

    Manolis Markopoulos, head of the Rhodes hotel association, is optimistic that rebounding arrivals to parts of the island not damaged by flames can salvage much of the projected boost in tourism.

    “Every day we’re seeing more business,” he said. “By Aug. 8-10, I think we’ll be back to our normal pace at all these resorts,” which account for about 90% of the island’s 220,000 beds.

    In damaged areas, “some brave tour operators have already decided to bring customers from this coming weekend,” Markopoulos said. “These areas have a longer road before they return to normality — but they’re not even 10% of the (island’s) total capacity.”

    New bookings for future travel to Rhodes did take a hit, falling 76% the week of July 17, when the fires began, over the previous week. For Greece as a whole, they slumped 10%, Ponti said.

    While some major British operators briefly canceled all Rhodes flights and holidays — offering refunds to people who’d booked for fire-hit areas — other budget airlines kept offering seats and reported normal travel figures, HotelPlanner’s Hentschel said.

    In Germany, leading travel operator TUI is again offering vacations to all parts of Rhodes after it stopped flying tourists in.

    “We would do more damage to the people of Rhodes if no more tourists came now after the forest fires,” TUI CEO Sebastian Ebel told Germany’s dpa news agency.

    Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis offered an additional incentive, appearing on ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” this week to promise people whose Rhodes vacations were spoiled by the fires a free week on the island next spring or fall.

    Korosteleva, the Rhodes vacationer, said the blazes should motivate action against climate change.

    “It makes people aware what we’ve caused to the planet, that this change may not be reversible. So it’s not just about tourism,” said Korosteleva, who heads the University of Warwick’s Institute of Global Sustainable Development. “I think it actually clearly touches upon how we need to start acting now.”

    ___

    Chan reported from London. AP reporters Nicholas Paphitis in Athens, Greece; David Brunat in Barcelona, Spain; Sylvia Hui and Courtney Bonnell in London; and Kirsten Grieshaber and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.

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  • DeSantis appointee to Disney board taught seminar using discredited research claiming White people were slaves in America | CNN Politics

    DeSantis appointee to Disney board taught seminar using discredited research claiming White people were slaves in America | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    An appointee by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to an oversight board of Disney’s special tax district taught a seminar in 2021 falsely claiming “Whites were also slaves in America,” using discredited research to say there was an “Irish slave trade.”

    The comments were made by Ron Peri, one of five people DeSantis appointed earlier this year to oversee the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District to replace the old board after the company spoke out against what critics dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law in Florida.

    Peri, an Orlando-based pastor and CEO of a Christian ministry group called The Gathering, made the comments in an hourlong class for his group posted on YouTube about critical race theory called “Cunningly Devised Fables.”

    In other comments Peri spread false claims that Irish slaves were forcibly bred with enslaved Africans. He also said a “significant” number of free Blacks in the antebellum era owned slaves, claims disputed by reputable historians who say the number was minimal. CNN archived Peri’s comments from 2021, which he deleted from YouTube following his appointment to the Disney oversight board.

    The oversight board, previously called the Reedy Creek Improvement District, governed Disney’s sprawling 25,000 acre footprint around Orlando. Created in 1967, its duties include providing services like sewage, fire rescue and road maintenance and issuing debt for infrastructure projects supporting Disney’s theme park empire.

    “Slavery is a moral wrong wherever it exists or existed and is one of America’s great historical wrongs,” Peri told CNN in a statement Tuesday. “Similarly, racism is likewise wrong. I countenance neither to any degree, so the criticism of the belief that thousands of people being held in slavery was significant and a terrible wrong is severely misplaced. Even one person in slavery is egregious and morally reprehensible, regardless of race.”

    The DeSantis administration but did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

    Peri’s 2021 comments came in the context of him pushing back on claims of “systemic racism” in the United States from past White ownership of slaves.

    “Look at old newspapers, as old as you can find, and you’ll find that Whites were also slaves in America,” said Peri. “The Irish slave trade began when James II sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the new world. His proclamation of 1625, which you can go back and see, required Irish political prisoners be sent overseas and sold to English settlers in the West Indies.”

    “By the mid 1600s, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat,” Peri added. “From 1641 to 1652, over 500,000 Irish were killed by the English, and another 300,000 were sold as slaves.”

    “The settlers began to breed Irish women and girls with African men to produce slaves with a distinct complexion,” Peri added.

    Peri’s claims are based on fabricated material that has circled the Internet over the last two decades and has been the subject of repeated debunkings from news organizations like the New York Times, Reuters, the Associated Press, Snopes, and frustrated historians – many of whom signed an open letter in 2016 disputing the claims.

    Even the article Peri cited as evidence was updated before he used it in the seminar to note it contained a number of factual errors.

    Historians who spoke to CNN said that the research Peri cited is ahistorical and based on invented research: Whites were never considered slaves in America, legally or socially; 300,000 Irish were not sent as slaves to the Americas; English King James II – who Peri cited as issuing the proclamation in 1625 – was not born until 1633 and did not take the throne until 1685. Even then, no proclamations by King James II on Irish slaves exist. The Irish did not “breed” with African slaves, as Peri claimed.

    Irish immigrants in North America and the Caribbean were never considered slaves but were indentured servants, said Matthew Reilly, a professor of anthropology at City College of New York.

    Indentured servitude consisted of a fixed period of time, usually five to seven years, and was not inheritable. Whereas the race-based chattel form of slavery kept enslaved people as property for life and children would inherit their mother’s status.

    “The conditions may have been like that of slavery, but socio-legally, it was a very different form of unfreedom,” said Reilly.

    In another comment, Peri used data attributed to the 1830 census to say the numbers showed a “significant” and “large number” of free Blacks owned slaves. However, the 1830 census data cited by scholars show that out of 2,009,043 slaves in the United States, 3,776 free Blacks owned 12,907 slaves – 0.006%.

    “The justification that they have for it is they claim that systemic racism emanates from White ownership of slaves,” Peri said. “Therefore, all White wealth is based on the hard work and abuse of Black slaves and women. That’s their justification. Well, the reality is all races owned slaves.”

    “A significant number of these free Blacks were the owners of slaves,” Peri added.

    Historians, like esteemed Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., have noted that a large number of those Black slave owners “owned” their own family members to protect them – oftentimes by purchasing a family member. And that pointing to other races owning slaves is a way to minimize the brutal realities of slavery.

    “The vast majority, the overwhelming majority – to the tune of millions of people who were brought from West and West Central Africa to the Americas – they were enslaved. Not people who were perpetrating slavery themselves,” Jenny Shaw, a professor of history at the University of Alabama, told CNN. “There’s a small number who did because they rose up in society and did what society was doing, which was enslaving people.” And that some people of African descent enslaved people because they were family members bringing them into their households with the intent of freeing them.

    Peri’s unearthed comments come amidst the controversy over the Florida Board of Education’s new standards for teaching Black history.

    Peri’s appointment to the Disney oversight board followed a clash between the company and DeSantis over a state law that would restrict certain classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity. While Disney first declined to weigh in publicly on the legislative fight over what critics called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, then CEO Bob Chapek, under immense pressure from the company’s employees, later changed directions, and shared his concerns with the legislation. Later, after it became law, the company in a statement said it would work to get it repealed.

    However, Peri has also accused Disney in the past of adopting teachings of critical race theory in its company training. The comments touched on another top concern of DeSantis, who sought to ban employers from training workers about privilege and systemic racism when he signed the Stop Woke Act, parts of which were blocked by a federal judge from going into effect.

    “We’re seeing companies embracing CRT,” Peri said in his Zoom. “I’m gonna just share two – Walt Disney you’re quite familiar with. You know, down here in Orlando.”

    DeSantis has faced backlash in recent days over Florida’s board of education approving controversial new standards for teaching Black history in the state, which includes teaching “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” DeSantis has defended the state’s curriculum.

    Peri previously faced scrutiny after CNN’s KFile uncovered that the Orlando pastor had suggested tap water turned people gay. Peri disputed that he made the remark during a May 1 Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board meeting, saying from the dais, “I never said that. I don’t believe it, certainly.”

    The latest revelations about Peri’s beliefs come as DeSantis’ conflict with Disney is embroiled in dueling legal challenges. Peri is named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by Disney, which alleges that the Florida governor has punished the company for exercising its First Amendment rights while describing his hand-picked board as a pawn in his “retribution campaign” against the entertainment giant.

    In its complaint, filed in the United States Circuit Court for the Northern District of Florida, Disney alleged DeSantis picked board members who would “censor Disney’s speech and discipline the Company” and that DeSantis’ action against the company “threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights.”

    Peri, meanwhile, voted with the rest of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board to sue Disney in state court. In the past week, a Central Florida judge rejected Disney’s request to dismiss the state lawsuit. In the federal case, lawyers for DeSantis have asked the court to delay a trial until after the presidential election while Disney attorneys suggested a timeline that would put the case before jurors next July.

    The board installed by DeSantis has said much of its power was stripped by Disney in an agreement reached before the governor’s appointees took over in February.

    Since then, DeSantis and the board have focused on clawing back authority while threatening to develop the land around Disney – including by building a prison or a competing theme park next to Disney World.

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  • Greece plans hourly caps on visitors to ancient Acropolis and will let in up to 20,000 daily

    Greece plans hourly caps on visitors to ancient Acropolis and will let in up to 20,000 daily

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    ATHENS, Greece — Visits to the Acropolis of Athens, Greece’s most popular archaeological site, will be capped starting next month at a maximum 20,000 daily and subject to varying hourly entry limits, the Greek government said Wednesday.

    Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said the controls are needed to prevent bottlenecks and overcrowding at the UNESCO World Heritage site. As many as 23,000 people a day have been squeezing into the monument complex, mostly large groups visiting before noon.

    “That’s a huge number,” Mendoni said in an interview with the Real FM radio network. “Obviously tourism is desirable for the country, for all of us. But we must work out how excessive tourism won’t harm the monument.”

    The new entry limits will be implemented on a trial basis from Sept. 4, and will come permanently into effect from April 1 2024, the minister said. There will be no limit on how long visits may last, although Mendoni said people who come with organized tours or from cruise ships, who account for about 50% of the daily visitor count, spend an average 45 minutes at the site.

    Different numbers of visitors will be allowed in hourly during the site’s 8 a.m.-8 p.m. opening hours. Half of the Acropolis’ foot traffic currently arrives between 8 a.m. and noon, Mendoni said. Under the new system, 3,000 people will be granted access from 8-9 a.m., 2,000 during the next hour and the numbers will vary during the rest of the day.

    “The measure will address the need to protect the monument, which is the main thing for us, as well as (improving) visitors’ experience of the site,” she added.

    Similar caps will be imposed for other popular archaeological sites, Mendoni said. The decision for the Acropolis followed consultations with tour and cruise operators, and was delayed due to Greece’s June 25 general election, she added.

    More than 3 million people visited the site last year, according to Greece’s statistical authority.

    Greek authorities closed access to the Acropolis and other ancient sites during midday hours last month at the height of a heat wave that also caused huge wildfires across the country. They also installed awnings as sun protection for people lining up to see the Acropolis’ 5th century B.C. temples. Mendoni said those steps would be repeated, if necessary.

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  • US military to conduct additional interviews with witnesses of Kabul airport bombing | CNN Politics

    US military to conduct additional interviews with witnesses of Kabul airport bombing | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The senior US general for the Middle East has ordered additional interviews be conducted regarding the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, which killed 13 US service members during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the US military announced Friday.

    The additional interviews are the result of an internal review ordered by the commander of US Central Command Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, who directed US Army Central commander Lt. Gen. Pat Frank in June to review public testimony about the bombing for any new information not included in CENTCOM’s previous report.

    “The purpose of these interviews is to ensure we do our due diligence with the new information that has come to light, that the relevant voices are fully heard and that we take those accounts and examine them seriously and thoroughly so the facts are laid to bare,” said a statement from CENTCOM spokesman Michael Lawhorn.

    Though the interviews don’t constitute a formal reopening of the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the attack, this represents an effort by the military to re-examine testimony after members of those killed have expressed anger and dissatisfaction with the original review.

    It’s unclear if the new interviews will include Afghans who witnessed the blast, which killed more than 170 Afghan civilians.

    When pressed on whether the interviews would include Afghans, Lawhorn said it would be “up to the Supplementary Review Team to decide who to interview.”

    “I cannot be explicit about anything that the Supplementary Review Team may or may not decide to review in the future,” Lawhorn said.

    CENTCOM released a lengthy after-action review last year that included statements from more than 100 witnesses. Many service members interviewed gave conflicting recollections about the person they were on the look-out for – some said no description seemed to fit clearly, or that they didn’t see anyone fitting the description they’d been given before the blast, while others said they believed they saw the person in question in the crowd.

    Among the differing recollections of what happened on August 26, 2021, is testimony from Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, who was seriously injured in the blast and who has said he was not interviewed in CENTCOM’s original investigation.

    Vargas-Andrews testified before Congress in March that Marines had requested permission to shoot who they believed to be the suicide bomber, but never got permission.

    “Plain and simple, we were ignored. Our expertise was disregarded. No one was held accountable for our safety,” Vargas-Andrews said.

    Lawhorn’s statement said that Vargas-Andrews’ public comments “made statements about his experience that contained new information not previously shared by any other witness.” Frank’s review also found that additional service members were not interviewed due to “their immediate medical evacuation in the aftermath of the attack.”

    “These interviews will seek to determine whether those not previously interviewed due to their immediate medical evacuation possess new information not previously considered, and whether such new information, if any, would affect the results of the investigation, and to ensure their personal accounts are captured for historical documentation,” he added.

    The news comes just weeks after Gold Star family members of some of the 13 US troops who were killed in the Abbey Gate bombing demanded answers before Congress, saying they did not feel that they’d been given the full truth about what happened to their loved ones.

    Lawhorn’s statement said that the next of kin of the 13 service members who were killed “are currently being informed of the supplementary interviews.”

    The process for the interviews will begin “in the coming days,” Lawhorn said. Kurilla has requested an update on those interviews within 90 days, but has directed Frank to “take whatever time is necessary to ensure each of the witnesses not interviewed as part of the investigation have an opportunity to share their experience and perspective.”

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  • Biden says he plans to travel to Vietnam ‘shortly’ | CNN Politics

    Biden says he plans to travel to Vietnam ‘shortly’ | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden on Tuesday said that he plans to soon visit Vietnam in an effort “to change our relationship,” with the Southeast Asian nation.

    “I’m going to be going to Vietnam shortly, because Vietnam wants to change our relationship and become a partner,” he said, according to press pool reports from a campaign reception.

    Biden’s off-camera remarks in Albuquerque, New Mexico, come as his administration is seeking to counter China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

    The White House declined to comment Wednesday, telling CNN the administration has “nothing to speak to today.”

    “On Vietnam, I don’t have any travel details to speak to today,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told CNN’s Kevin Liptak during a virtual gaggle Wednesday.

    “We have a very good relationship with Vietnam, and that relationship is improving, and it is improving across lots of sectors—in the security world, certainly diplomatically, and even economically, and so, we’re going to continue to look for opportunities to improve that relationship, and it’s a critical one in a very critical part of the world.”

    Last year, Biden, along with leaders from Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) during a visit to Tokyo.

    The announcement had marked one of the centerpieces of Biden’s visit to the continent.

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  • GM’s Cruise slashed fleet of robotaxis by 50% in San Francisco after collisions | CNN Business

    GM’s Cruise slashed fleet of robotaxis by 50% in San Francisco after collisions | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    California authorities have asked General Motors to “immediately” take some of its Cruse robotaxis off the road after autonomous vehicles were involved in two collisions – including one with an active fire truck – last week in San Francisco.

    California’s Department of Motor Vehicles confirmed to CNN that it is investigating “recent concerning incidents involving Cruise vehicles in San Francisco.”

    “The DMV is in contact with Cruise and law enforcement officials to determine the facts and requested Cruise to immediately reduce its active fleet of operating vehicles by 50% until the investigation is complete and Cruise takes appropriate corrective actions to improve road safety,” the department said in a statement.

    That means Cruise, which is the self-driving subsidiary of General Motors, can have no more than 50 driverless cars in operation during the day, and 150 in operation at night, according to the department.

    The California DMV said that Cruise has agreed to the request, and a spokesperson from Cruise told CNN that the company is investigating the firetruck crash as well.

    The accidents come less than two weeks after California regulators officially gave the green light for Cruise and competitor Waymo to charge money for robotaxi trips around San Francisco at any time of day. Prior to the approval, Cruise was only authorized to offer fared passenger service from driverless cars overnight from 10 pm to 6 am, when there are fewer pedestrians or traffic that could confuse the autonomous vehicle’s software.

    The collisions, which both occurred on Thursday, reveal potential risks of driverless technology.

    In a blog post, Cruise’s general manager for San Francisco said the firetruck crash occurred when an emergency vehicle that appeared to be en route to an emergency scene moved into an oncoming lane of traffic to bypass a red light. Cruise’s driverless car identified the risk, the blog post said, but it “was ultimately unable to avoid the collision.”

    That crash resulted in one passenger being taken to the hospital via ambulance for seemingly minor injuries, according to the company.

    Cruise told CNN the other crash on Thursday took place when another car ran a red light “at a high rate of speed.”

    “The AV detected the vehicle and braked but the other vehicle made contact with our AV. There were no passengers in our AV and the driver of the other vehicle was treated and released at the scene,” Hannah Lindow, a Cruise spokesperson, told CNN.

    It is unclear whether the two accidents would have been avoided had there been a human driver rather than an autonomous vehicle (AV) involved – but the crashes were not the only two incidents involving Cruise’s driverless cars in San Francisco last week.

    On Tuesday, Cruise confirmed on X, formerly known as Twitter, that one of its driverless taxis drove into a construction area and stopped in wet concrete.

    “This vehicle has already been recovered and we’re in communication with the city about this,” the company said.

    The recent events underscore the challenges of creating safe, fully driverless passenger vehicles.

    General Motors acquired Cruise Automation in 2016 for $1 billion, solidifying its place in the autonomous vehicles race, but many companies have since scaled back, or abandoned their driverless car ambitions. The endeavor has proven costly, and mastering all situations that humans might face behind the wheel is difficult and time-consuming.

    Ridesharing giants Uber and Lyft have both sold autonomous vehicle units in recent years. Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has been optimistic about autonomous vehicle technology, has yet to fully deliver on his promise.

    Tesla vehicles now come with the option to add a “full self-driving” feature in beta-testing for $15,000, but drivers must agree to “stay alert, keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times and maintain control of your car.”

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  • Tourists flee Rhodes wildfires in Greece’s largest-ever evacuation | CNN

    Tourists flee Rhodes wildfires in Greece’s largest-ever evacuation | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A large wildfire tearing through the Greek island of Rhodes forced thousands of tourists to flee their hotels in what Greek officials said was the largest evacuation effort in the country’s history.

    Those caught up in the blaze described chaotic and frightening scenes, with some having to leave on foot or find their own transport after being told to leave.

    The wildfire in the central and south part of Rhodes – a hugely popular island for holidaymakers – has been burning since Tuesday. It is the largest of a number of blazes in Greece, which is sweltering due to a heat wave that experts say is likely to become the country’s longest on record.

    Amy Leyden, a British tourist in Rhodes, told Sky News she was told she had to leave her hotel immediately or her and her family “would not make it.”

    “It was just terrifying,” she said. “We’ve got our 11-year-old daughter with us and we were walking down the road at two o’clock in the morning and the fire was catching up with us.”

    Cedric Guisset, a Belgian tourist, fled Saturday with nowhere to go. “We told the hotel about the messages we had received on our phones to evacuate the area, but they didn’t even know about it,” he told public radio station RTBF.

    “We really just took our identity cards, water and something to cover our faces and heads.”

    The Greek government said nearly 19,000 people had been evacuated on Rhodes since Saturday.

    Boats were used to take some tourists to safety.

    The government called the operation “the largest such effort Greece has ever seen,” and said 16,000 people, including tourists and residents, were transported by land and 3,000 by sea.

    According to the local fire service, there are currently three active fronts firefighters are focusing on in the central and south part of the island.

    The blaze is burning near the areas of Kiotari and Lardos, not far from the Lindos archaeological site. The site has not been threatened so far.

    Hotels, schools, sports centers and conference centers have been activated in safe parts of the island to host evacuees in need.

    Greece’s foreign ministry will set up a dedicated helpdesk to assist tourists on their return to their respective countries, according to the Greek government. Tour operators have additionally ordered charter flights to land in Rhodes without passengers “in order to pick up travelers who wish to leave the island,” it said.

    Eight people have been taken to hospital with respiratory problems, according to fire officials.

    British airline Jet2 canceled all flights and holiday offers to Rhodes on Sunday. Holiday group TUI has also canceled all holiday packages to the Greek island up to and including on Tuesday due to the ongoing wildfires, both companies have said in statements.

    According to the Greek Ministry of Civil Protection, 13 departments, including the Attica region where the capital city of Athens is located, were under red alert for wildfires Sunday, which is the highest state of alarm due to the extreme risk of fire.

    In Athens, visiting hours for the Acropolis and other archaeological sites have been revised due to soaring temperatures. Staff at some sites are on strike to protest working conditions.

    “We will probably go through 15 to 16 days of a heat wave, which has never happened before in our country,” the Director of Research at the National Observatory of Athens Kostas Lagouvardos told CNN.

    He told CNN that the streak could go beyond those days, but at the moment “it’s hard to predict.”

    The longest continuous heatwave that Greece has faced was 12 days long, back in July 1987, Lagouvardos said.

    Lagouvardos said temperatures in Athens this summer could possibly break the city’s all-time record, which was set in June 2007, when Athens registered 44.8 degrees Celsius (112.64 degrees Fahrenheit).

    A tourist cools off with ice cubes at the entrance to the Acropolis in central Athens.

    Large parts of the northern hemisphere have seen fierce temperatures, with Europe seeing dramatic shifts from one form of extreme weather to another.

    Italy’s northern region of Veneto was pounded with tennis-ball sized hail overnight on Wednesday, injuring at least 110 people. Emergency services responded to more than 500 calls for help due to damage to property and personal injuries, the Veneto regional civil protection said.

    The country also experienced record-breaking heat, with capital Rome hitting a new high temperature of 41 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. Earlier in the year the country was hit by devastating floods.

    In the Balkans, severe thunderstorms storms claimed several lives after hitting on Wednesday, CNN’s affiliate N1 reported Thursday.

    Scientists are warning that the extreme weather may only be a preview of what’s to come as the planet warms.

    “The weather extremes will continue to become more intense and our weather patterns could change in ways we yet can’t predict,” said Peter Stott, a science fellow in climate attribution at the UK Met Office told CNN.

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  • Lake Tahoe officials tackle overtourism with focus on management, not marketing; new fees may loom

    Lake Tahoe officials tackle overtourism with focus on management, not marketing; new fees may loom

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    SAND HARBOR, Nev. — Lake Tahoe tourism officials were surprised, and a bit miffed, when a respected international travel guide put the iconic alpine lake straddling the California-Nevada line on its list of places to stay away from this year because of the harmful ecological effects of overtourism.

    But with an influx of visitors and new full-time residents due to the COVID-19 pandemic already forcing local leaders to revisit the decades-old conversation about overcrowding, “Fodor’s No List 2023” may have served as a wake-up call that some sort of change is necessary.

    “I can’t go to my own beaches anymore,” said Susan Daniels, 70, a lifelong resident of Kings Beach, California, whose parents met at a Tahoe-area ski resort in 1952. That includes her favorite, Sand Harbor, which lies just across the Nevada border and is known for its turquoise water and rock formations. “I cannot go to Sand Harbor, where I grew up, unless I get in line at 7 in the morning.”

    Since Fodor’s declared last November that “Lake Tahoe has a people problem,” some unlikely voices have expressed a new willingness to consider taxes or fees on motorists, a nonstarter not long ago.

    Meanwhile local business and tourism officials are lining up behind a new effort to persuade people to check out less trafficked parts of the lake and to visit outside of high season.

    The idea is to preserve a $5 billion local economy built around the tourists who come to hike, camp, boat, bike, ski and gamble, while also easing their impact on the environment and communities. Roughly one-third the size of the Sierra Nevada’s also-crowded Yosemite National Park, the Lake Tahoe Basin gets about three times as many visitors — around 15 million each year.

    “We know that we really need to get out of the tourism marketing business and get into the tourism management business,” said Carol Chaplin, CEO of the Lake Tahoe Visitor’s Authority.

    “And that has a lot to do with the Fodor’s article, really. How are we managing our tourism?” she said. “Not that it is overtourism — I think that was a little bit shocking. But we are not denying some of that.”

    This month saw the unveiling of the Lake Tahoe Destination Stewardship Plan, a 143-page document backed by a broad coalition of more than a dozen conservation, business, governmental and private entities that prioritizes “sustainably preserving” the goose that lays the golden egg — the twinkling cobalt waters that turn blue-green near the lake’s 72 miles (115 kilometers) of shoreline.

    Two years in the works and full of ideas but short on specifics, the document has as one emphasis easing traffic gridlock, which causes not only parking nightmares but increased air pollution and lake sedimentation.

    The plan also considers measures adopted by other tourist destinations, such as requiring reservations, timed-entry permits and capacity limits.

    But “we’re not a national park,” said Amy Berry, CEO of the nonprofit Tahoe Fund. “We don’t have gates. We’re not going to ever shut the door on folks.”

    The document does not carry the weight of law, and there is no enforcement mechanism to ensure the aspirations it lays out come to fruition.

    Tahoe officials have talked this way before. But they insist this time’s different.

    Congestion has reached such a critical point that it’s time to adopt “user or roadway pricing to limit the vehicles in the basin and incentivize the use of public transit,” said Washoe County Commission Chairwoman Alexis Hill in Reno, Nevada, the closest major city, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of the lake.

    One of an increasing number of people to take that view, Hill knows the idea that would have been dismissed out of hand a decade ago by hotels, casinos, ski resorts and other business concerns opposed to anything that might discourage visitors.

    And she acknowledged it won’t be easy, especially because of the multiple jurisdictions involved, including five counties in two states, individual towns, regulators, the Coast Guard and the U.S. Forest Service.

    “But honestly, I think people may have recognized we may already be getting to the point of unsustainability,” Hill said.

    “When you have folks like Fodor’s say, `Don’t go to Lake Tahoe,′ that’s not good for us as a region. We need folks to visit here, but we need a system to manage them,” she said.

    Berry, Chaplin and others believe two key strategies for managing tourism are encouraging midweek and off-season visits and promoting hidden gems that many tourists have never seen — such as Spooner Lake, an underutilized site above the east shore where a new visitor’s center and parking lot recently opened.

    “There’s a lot to explore in the Tahoe Basin,” Berry said. “You know, it’s over 200,000 acres. There’s trails. There’s lakes. Lots of things to do.”

    There’s skepticism, however, about how easily tourists can be nudged off the beaten path.

    “I don’t think it will work. … They don’t want to get out of their cars,” said Jason Kenneweg, 43, a longtime Reno-Sparks resident who has spent more than 25 years boating and snowmobiling at Tahoe.

    Daniels is one of those convinced that some sort of user fee for motorists is inevitable: “Something like the 17-mile drive in Monterrey (California), where you have to pay to drive through.”

    She envisions a $50 annual sticker required to drive within the basin. Locals would pay each year when they get their car licensed. Visitors’ stickers would be good for a year too, but they’d have to pay even for just a one-day visit.

    “If you hit people’s pocketbook, it usually has an effect,” Daniels said.

    So far, few appear to have heeded the travel guide’s suggestion that one of the world’s deepest lakes, whose contents would be enough to cover the state of California with 14 inches (35 centimeters) of water, “could use a break in order to heal and rejuvenate.”

    Hotel occupancy between December and April, the height of the ski season, was up 12% from last year, Chaplin said, and that included a stretch when visitation fell off or was flat as one of the wettest winters on record snowed in neighborhoods and businesses and buried roads and higways.

    The stakes are high for Tahoe’s ecosystem and way of life, with some longtime residents already having left, fed up with the traffic jams, packed supermarkets and soaring housing costs.

    After years of joining Daniels at public meetings to advocate for the protection of the lake, Ellie Waller finally had enough not long ago and moved from Tahoe’s north shore over the mountains to the Carson Valley, south of Reno.

    “This was my husband’s dream, to live and have this the rest of our lives,” Waller said. “And at some point, we begrudgingly left it.”

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  • Tourists fined for dingo selfies as rangers warn of rising wild dog attacks | CNN

    Tourists fined for dingo selfies as rangers warn of rising wild dog attacks | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Two tourists who snapped selfies with dingoes have been fined more than $1,500 each for taking the “extremely dangerous decision” to interact with the native wild dogs following a recent spate of ferocious attacks, Australian authorities said.

    In a statement Friday, Queensland Department of Environment and Science compliance manager Mike Devery said the two women were lucky not to be attacked in the separate incidents on the popular tourist island of K’gari, formerly known as Fraser Island.

    An image provided by the department showed an unnamed New South Wales woman, 29, laying down next to a pack of sleeping dingo pups. “She was lucky the mother of the pups wasn’t nearby,” Devery said.

    The other tourist, a 25-year-old Queensland woman, appeared in a selfie video posted to social media that showed her with a growling dingo, “which was clearly exhibiting dominance-testing behaviour,” he said.

    “It is not playful behaviour. Wongari are wild animals and need to be treated as such, and the woman is lucky the situation did not escalate,” he added, referring to dingoes by their indigenous name.

    In an update Friday, the department said a 23-year-old woman was hospitalized with serious injuries to her arms and legs after she was bitten by dingoes while jogging on an island beach Monday.

    Tourists Shane and Sarah Moffat jumped in to rescue her, CNN affiliate Nine News reported.

    “There was a big piece missing out of her arm there and there was puncture wounds all up the side of her legs,” Shane Moffat told Nine News.

    The leader of that dingo pack was later euthanized, the department said. It had also been involved in recent biting incidents that led to the hospitalization of a 6-year-old girl, the department said.

    “It was also clear from its behaviour that it had become habituated, either by being fed or from people interacting with it for videos and selfies,” the update said.

    “Our number one priority is to keep people on K’gari safe and conserve the population of wongari (dingoes), and those who blatantly ignore the rules for social media attention can expect a fine or a court appearance,” Devery said.

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  • Emergency evacuation slide from United flight falls into neighborhood near Chicago O’Hare International Airport | CNN

    Emergency evacuation slide from United flight falls into neighborhood near Chicago O’Hare International Airport | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A United Airlines Boeing 767 plane lost its emergency evacuation slide in mid-air Monday – and it ended up in the backyard of a home near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, officials and a witness said.

    Patrick Devitt lives in the neighborhood where the slide came down, several miles from the runways at O’Hare. He told CNN affiliate WLS his father-in-law and son were inside their home and heard a boom in their backyard around 12:15 p.m. CT. Devitt’s father-in-law walked outside, saw the slide in the backyard and told Devitt’s son to call 911.

    Devitt was on his way home from work at the time. When he got to the house, he dragged the slide from his backyard to the front of the home. He said the large piece of equipment damaged the roof of the home and a kitchen window screen, WLS reported.

    “When it’s all stretched out,” Devitt told the Chicago station, “it’s larger than a small car. It’s a very, very big piece of equipment that fell.”

    Maintenance workers at O’Hare discovered the plane was missing its slide after it landed, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. United Airlines said, “We immediately contacted the FAA and are working with our team to better understand the circumstances around this matter.”

    The Chicago Police Department said it responded to the incident in the 4700 block of North Chester Avenue but deferred questions about the investigation to the FAA, the lead agency.

    In 2019, a slide fell off a Delta flight landing at Boston’s Logan International Airport. It, too, fell in a residential area. There were no injuries.

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  • French tourism businesses are wary of customers drying up as droughts worsen

    French tourism businesses are wary of customers drying up as droughts worsen

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    SAINTE-CROIX du VERDON, France — At the pristine southern French lake of Sainte-Croix-du-Verdon, tourists in pedal boats and on white water rafts — and the businesses that welcome them — have been buoyed by generous rainfall and good water management this spring.

    After a prolonged drought last summer, then another in the winter that followed, the once cracked lakebeds are now abundantly watered. Dams are releasing water into reservoirs on a consistent schedule for activities in the lake.

    But tour operators are still wary.

    “Rafting and kayaking is great, but if tomorrow there is not enough water in the river, we will have to reinvent ourselves,” said Antoine Coudray of Secret River Tours, that operates in the gorges of Verdon.

    The artificial lake of Sainte-Croix, a bustling tourist attraction, is one of three reservoirs in the area built for 16 hydroelectric dams. The dams supply the southeastern region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur with 35% of its electricity needs.

    Human-caused climate change is lengthening droughts in southern France, meaning the reservoirs are increasingly drained to lower levels to maintain the power generation and water supply needed for nearby towns and cities. It’s concerning those in the tourism industry, who are working out how to keep their lakeside businesses afloat in the long term if water levels remain low or unpredictable.

    The three reservoir lakes in the area — Serre Ponçon, Castillon and Sainte-Croix — quickly became a draw for nature lovers after their construction in the middle of the 20th century. They’re known for their crisp, clear waters in undisturbed valleys surrounded by tall mountains. The region attracts over 4.6 million visitors a year, the bulk of whom flock to the cool lakes during the summer months.

    Water levels in the reservoirs are set and managed by national energy giant EDF, which operates the dams.

    Last year, the low water levels from a lack of snow and rain in the spring meant the company was forced to draw on the reservoirs to keep hydroelectric power going and water pipes in southern France flowing for drinking and agriculture.

    Then it kept getting worse. By August, France’s government warned the country was in the midst of its fourth heat wave that year, further dwindling water supplies that evaporated in the blazing temperatures.

    For many in the tourism industry, last year’s low water levels came as a shock.

    “In 35 years of working here, I’ve never seen a year like last year. We were not at all prepared,” said Jean-Claude Fraizy who runs a canoe and kayak rental base on the Castillon lake. His leisure center’s sales figures were down by 60% last year.

    “If there is no water, there is no desire to come to the lake,” he said.

    More shocks could follow. A 32-day long dry spell over winter — the longest in recorded history — means reservoirs still haven’t fully recovered for this summer.

    Paul Marquis, founder of meteorology service E-Meteo, said the winter saw 40% less snowfall, keeping water levels below average despite recent rain.

    The Serre-Poncon lake reached just 755 meters (2,480 feet) over winter, prompting EDF to hold back its hydroelectric production so that the water level would have a chance of returning to the optimal level of 780 meters (2,560 feet) in time for the summer season, Marquis said.

    Marquis added that groundwater in the region will also not replenish fast enough, “meaning that we could see water restrictions come in to place during the summer.”

    Touring companies are already preparing.

    “These days we have to be conscious that there will be less and less water in the river for us, so we have to know how to adapt,” said Coudray. He’s introduced “drought-proof” packrafting into the region over the past of couple of years, where the inflatable bottom allows it to float in much shallower waters in the Gorges du Verdon.

    Guillaume Requena, a tour guide at the company Aquabond Rafting, said they have started to offer tubing, another activity that works on lower water levels as they can float along the surface.

    Wary of the spring rains being a temporary blip in the longer-term trend toward drier conditions, Requena knows tour companies need to find a longer term solution and try to ensure that water levels in the reservoirs can be maintained.

    “All of the actors affected by how the water is managed in the region by EDF will have to keep negotiating at the table for their own interests as a changing climate adds more pressure,” he said.

    But with so many people reliant on the dams for power and water in the cities and towns below, Requena is all too aware that propping up the lakes’ tourism industry is further down on the priority list.

    “It is not necessarily the twenty or so rafting businesses who have the final say in the management of water resources,” said Requena. “In many ways we are the last wheel on this wagon.”

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • French tourism businesses are wary of customers drying up as droughts worsen

    French tourism businesses are wary of customers drying up as droughts worsen

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    SAINTE-CROIX du VERDON, France — At the pristine southern French lake of Sainte-Croix-du-Verdon, tourists in pedal boats and on white water rafts — and the businesses that welcome them — have been buoyed by generous rainfall and good water management this spring.

    After a prolonged drought last summer, then another in the winter that followed, the once cracked lakebeds are now abundantly watered. Dams are releasing water into reservoirs on a consistent schedule for activities in the lake.

    But tour operators are still wary.

    “Rafting and kayaking is great, but if tomorrow there is not enough water in the river, we will have to reinvent ourselves,” said Antoine Coudray of Secret River Tours, that operates in the gorges of Verdon.

    The artificial lake of Sainte-Croix, a bustling tourist attraction, is one of three reservoirs in the area built for 16 hydroelectric dams. The dams supply the southeastern region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur with 35% of its electricity needs.

    Human-caused climate change is lengthening droughts in southern France, meaning the reservoirs are increasingly drained to lower levels to maintain the power generation and water supply needed for nearby towns and cities. It’s concerning those in the tourism industry, who are working out how to keep their lakeside businesses afloat in the long term if water levels remain low or unpredictable.

    The three reservoir lakes in the area — Serre Ponçon, Castillon and Sainte-Croix — quickly became a draw for nature lovers after their construction in the middle of the 20th century. They’re known for their crisp, clear waters in undisturbed valleys surrounded by tall mountains. The region attracts over 4.6 million visitors a year, the bulk of whom flock to the cool lakes during the summer months.

    Water levels in the reservoirs are set and managed by national energy giant EDF, which operates the dams.

    Last year, the low water levels from a lack of snow and rain in the spring meant the company was forced to draw on the reservoirs to keep hydroelectric power going and water pipes in southern France flowing for drinking and agriculture.

    Then it kept getting worse. By August, France’s government warned the country was in the midst of its fourth heat wave that year, further dwindling water supplies that evaporated in the blazing temperatures.

    For many in the tourism industry, last year’s low water levels came as a shock.

    “In 35 years of working here, I’ve never seen a year like last year. We were not at all prepared,” said Jean-Claude Fraizy who runs a canoe and kayak rental base on the Castillon lake. His leisure center’s sales figures were down by 60% last year.

    “If there is no water, there is no desire to come to the lake,” he said.

    More shocks could follow. A 32-day long dry spell over winter — the longest in recorded history — means reservoirs still haven’t fully recovered for this summer.

    Paul Marquis, founder of meteorology service E-Meteo, said the winter saw 40% less snowfall, keeping water levels below average despite recent rain.

    The Serre-Poncon lake reached just 755 meters (2,480 feet) over winter, prompting EDF to hold back its hydroelectric production so that the water level would have a chance of returning to the optimal level of 780 meters (2,560 feet) in time for the summer season, Marquis said.

    Marquis added that groundwater in the region will also not replenish fast enough, “meaning that we could see water restrictions come in to place during the summer.”

    Touring companies are already preparing.

    “These days we have to be conscious that there will be less and less water in the river for us, so we have to know how to adapt,” said Coudray. He’s introduced “drought-proof” packrafting into the region over the past of couple of years, where the inflatable bottom allows it to float in much shallower waters in the Gorges du Verdon.

    Guillaume Requena, a tour guide at the company Aquabond Rafting, said they have started to offer tubing, another activity that works on lower water levels as they can float along the surface.

    Wary of the spring rains being a temporary blip in the longer-term trend toward drier conditions, Requena knows tour companies need to find a longer term solution and try to ensure that water levels in the reservoirs can be maintained.

    “All of the actors affected by how the water is managed in the region by EDF will have to keep negotiating at the table for their own interests as a changing climate adds more pressure,” he said.

    But with so many people reliant on the dams for power and water in the cities and towns below, Requena is all too aware that propping up the lakes’ tourism industry is further down on the priority list.

    “It is not necessarily the twenty or so rafting businesses who have the final say in the management of water resources,” said Requena. “In many ways we are the last wheel on this wagon.”

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • United Airlines agrees to give union pilots big pay raises

    United Airlines agrees to give union pilots big pay raises

    [ad_1]

    United Airlines and the union representing its pilots said Saturday they reached agreement on a contract that will raise pilot pay by up to 40% over four years.

    The union valued the agreement at about $10 billion. It followed more than four years of tumultuous bargaining that included picketing and talk of a strike vote.

    The deal reflects the leverage enjoyed by labor groups, especially pilots, as airline revenue soars on the strong recovery in travel.

    The Air Line Pilots Association said the agreement, which is subject to a ratification vote, would put United pilots on par with counterparts at Delta Air Lines, who approved a pay-raising deal earlier this year.

    The union said the agreement includes substantial increases in pay, retirement benefits and job security.

    At least on pay, the deal appears far better than one that United pilots rejected last November.

    Once the deal is approved, pilots will get immediate wage-rate increases of 13.8% to 18.7%, depending on the type of plane they fly, followed by four smaller annual raises, according to a summary on the union’s website.

    Over the course of the contract, pilot pay would rise 34.5% to 40.2%.

    Garth Thompson, chair of the United pilots’ union, called it an “historic agreement” that was made possible by the resolve of the 16,000 pilots.

    In a statement on the LinkedIn social media site, CEO Scott Kirby said, “We promised our world-class pilots the industry-leading contract they deserve, and we’re pleased to have reached an agreement with ALPA on it.”

    Pilots at American Airlines are scheduled to begin voting July 24 on an offer that includes average cumulative raises of 41.5% over four years. Southwest Airlines pilots are still negotiating. American and Southwest have independent unions, while pilots at Delta and United are represented by ALPA.

    The unions believe they are in strong bargaining position with airlines, which took $54 billion in federal aid to help get through the pandemic, booming because of a resurgence in travel. The number of people flying in the U.S. is roughly back to pre-pandemic levels.

    This week, Delta reported a record quarterly profit of more than $1.8 billion and record revenue during the April-through-June period that includes the first part of summer travel season. United is scheduled to report results Wednesday, and analysts expect the airline to post a profit of more than $1.3 billion, according to a FactSet survey.

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  • Over 100 people trapped for several hours in mystery writer Agatha Christie’s former home | CNN

    Over 100 people trapped for several hours in mystery writer Agatha Christie’s former home | CNN

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    Over 100 people were trapped for several hours in Greenway, the former home of famed British mystery writer Agatha Christie, in the English countryside on Friday.

    In a series of events which could have been lifted straight out of the pages of one of Christie’s mystery novels, the group of tourists were left stranded after stormy weather knocked down a tree, blocking the road leading down to the property in the county of Devon, southwest England.

    Caroline Heaven, a tourist who was visiting Greenway, contacted local news outlet Devon Live to spread the word that roughly 100 tourists were trapped in the grounds of Christie’s former holiday home.

    Britain’s National Trust which manages the historic site quickly put a message on its website, announcing that a large tree had fallen on the single-track road leading into Greenway.

    A spokesperson for the National Trust said it was aware that there were “visitors, staff and volunteers still at Greenway unable to leave,” adding that the National Trust was “doing everything” to ensure their comfort whilst they waited.

    The stranded tourists kept themselves busy, drinking cups of tea in the houses’ tearoom and playing rounds of croquet on the lawn, Heaven told Devon Live.

    Heaven, who arrived at the house around 11.30am local time (6.30aET) on Friday, commended the efforts of staff to look after the tourists.

    “They are doing a great job, they are giving us free teas and things. It’s a bit bleak,” she remarked.

    Christie herself was known to while away the hours on Greenway’s lawns, playing clock golf and croquet and entertaining guests with snippets from her latest mystery novels, according to the National Trust website.

    The trapped tourists would also have had the time to explore the estate’s walled gardens and famous boathouse which serves as the scene of the crime in Christie’s novel, “Dead Man’s Folly.”

    Despite the seemingly calm atmosphere, some social media users couldn’t help but draw a parallel with Christie’s iconic novel “And Then There Were None,” which sees ten strangers inexplicably invited to a remote mansion off the Devon coast. As members of the party are mysteriously killed off, the group soon realizes there is a killer in their midst.

    One social media user shared a link to the Devon Live article with a tweet counting down, “99, 98, 97, 96, 94 (grisly), 93.”. Another user shared the article, advising the trapped tourists to “implement a buddy system immediately.”

    However, the tourists ending up meeting a less grisly fate than that of Christie’s characters, managing to leave the estate on Friday evening after local rescue services managed to reopen the road.

    Those looking to get a taste of Christie’s murder mystery magic will have to wait a bit longer, however, as the National Trust warned prospective visitors in an update Saturday that Greenway is set to remain closed due to the “extensive storm damage” it sustained.

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  • United Airlines agrees to give union pilots big pay raises

    United Airlines agrees to give union pilots big pay raises

    [ad_1]

    United Airlines and the union representing its pilots said Saturday they reached agreement on a contract that will raise pilot pay by up to 40% over four years.

    The union valued the agreement at about $10 billion. It followed more than four years of tumultuous bargaining that included picketing and talk of a strike vote.

    The deal reflects the leverage enjoyed by labor groups, especially pilots, as airline revenue soars on the strong recovery in travel.

    The Air Line Pilots Association said the agreement, which is subject to a ratification vote, would put United pilots on par with counterparts at Delta Air Lines, who approved a pay-raising deal earlier this year.

    The union said the agreement includes substantial increases in pay, retirement benefits and job security.

    At least on pay, the deal appears far better than one that United pilots rejected last November.

    Once the deal is approved, pilots will get immediate wage-rate increases of 13.8% to 18.7%, depending on the type of plane they fly, followed by four smaller annual raises, according to a summary on the union’s website.

    Over the course of the contract, pilot pay would rise 34.5% to 40.2%.

    Garth Thompson, chair of the United pilots’ union, called it an “historic agreement” that was made possible by the resolve of the 16,000 pilots.

    In a statement on the LinkedIn social media site, CEO Scott Kirby said, “We promised our world-class pilots the industry-leading contract they deserve, and we’re pleased to have reached an agreement with ALPA on it.”

    Pilots at American Airlines are scheduled to begin voting July 24 on an offer that includes average cumulative raises of 41.5% over four years. Southwest Airlines pilots are still negotiating. American and Southwest have independent unions, while pilots at Delta and United are represented by ALPA.

    The unions believe they are in strong bargaining position with airlines, which took $54 billion in federal aid to help get through the pandemic, booming because of a resurgence in travel. The number of people flying in the U.S. is roughly back to pre-pandemic levels.

    This week, Delta reported a record quarterly profit of more than $1.8 billion and record revenue during the April-through-June period that includes the first part of summer travel season. United is scheduled to report results Wednesday, and analysts expect the airline to post a profit of more than $1.3 billion, according to a FactSet survey.

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  • Tourists are packing European hotspots, boosted by Americans

    Tourists are packing European hotspots, boosted by Americans

    [ad_1]

    VENICE, Italy (AP) — Tourists are waiting more than two hours to visit the Acropolis in Athens. Taxi lines at Rome’s main train station are running just as long. And so many visitors are concentrating around St. Mark’s Square in Venice that crowds get backed up crossing bridges — even on weekdays.

    After three years of pandemic limitations, tourism is expected to exceed 2019 records in some of Europe’s most popular destinations this summer, from Barcelona and Rome, Athens and Venice to the scenic islands of Santorini in Greece, Capri in Italy and Mallorca in Spain.

    While European tourists edged the industry toward recovery last year, the upswing this summer is led largely by Americans, boosted by a strong dollar and in some cases pandemic savings. Many arrive motivated by “revenge tourism” — so eager to explore again that they’re undaunted by higher airfares and hotel costs.

    Lauren Gonzalez, 25, landed in Rome this week with four high school and college friends for a 16-day romp through the Italian capital, Florence and the seaside after three years of U.S. vacations. They aren’t concerned about the high prices and the crowds.

    “We kind of saved up, and we know this is a trip that is meaningful,” said Gonzalez, who works at a marketing agency. “We are all in our mid-20s. It’s a (moment of) change in our lives. … This is something special. The crowds don’t deter us. We live in Florida. We have all been to Disney World in the heat. We are all good.”

    Tourists visit the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Friday, June 30, 2023. Crowds are packing the Colosseum, the Louvre, the Acropolis and other major attractions as tourism exceeds 2019 records in some of Europe’s most popular destinations. While European tourists helped the industry on the road to recovery last year, the upswing this summer is led largely by Americans, who are lifted by a strong dollar and in some cases pandemic savings. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

    Americans appear equally unperturbed by recent riots in Paris and other French cities. There was a small drop in flight bookings, but it was mainly for domestic travel.

    “Some of my friends said, ‘It’s a little crazy there right now,’ but we thought summer is really a good time for us to go, so we’ll just take precautions,” Joanne Titus, a 38-year-old from Maryland, said while strolling the iconic Champs-Elysees shopping boulevard.

    The return of mass tourism is a boon to hotels and restaurants, which suffered under COVID-19 restrictions. But there is a downside, too, as pledges to rethink tourism to make it more sustainable have largely gone unheeded.

    “The pandemic should have taught us a lesson,” said Alessandra Priante, director of the regional department for Europe at the U.N. World Tourism Organization.

    Instead, she said, the mindset “is about recuperating the cash. Everything is about revenue, about the here and now.”

    “We have to see what is going to happen in two or three years’ time because the prices at the moment are unsustainable,” she said.

    Tourists stabd behind a fence, visit the Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, July 4, 2023. Crowds are packing the Colosseum, the Louvre, the Acropolis and other major attractions as tourism exceeds 2019 records in some of Europe’s most popular destinations. While European tourists helped the industry on the road to recovery last year, the upswing this summer is led largely by Americans, who are lifted by a strong dollar and in some cases pandemic savings. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

    Tourists stabd behind a fence, visit the Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, July 4, 2023. Crowds are packing the Colosseum, the Louvre, the Acropolis and other major attractions as tourism exceeds 2019 records in some of Europe’s most popular destinations. While European tourists helped the industry on the road to recovery last year, the upswing this summer is led largely by Americans, who are lifted by a strong dollar and in some cases pandemic savings. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

    The mayor of Florence is stopping new short-term apartment rentals from proliferating in the historic center, which is protected as a UNESCO heritage site, as mayors of Italy’s other art cities call for a nationwide law to manage the sector.

    Elsewhere, the anti-mass tourism movements that were active before the pandemic have not reappeared, but the battle lines are still being drawn: graffiti misdirected tourists in Barcelona away from — instead of toward — the Gaudi-designed Park Guell.

    Despite predictable pockets of overtourism, travel to and within Europe overall is still down 10% from 2019, according to the World Tourism Organization. That is partly due to fewer people visiting countries close to the war in Ukraine, including Lithuania, Finland, Moldova and Poland.

    In addition, Chinese visitors have not fully returned, with flights from China and other Asia-Pacific countries down 45% from 2019, according to travel data company ForwardKeys.

    Tourism-dependent Greece expects 30 million visitors this year, still shy of 2019’s 34 million record. Still, the number of flights are up so far, and tourist hotspots are taking the brunt.

    The Culture Ministry will introduce a new ticketing system for the Acropolis this month, providing hourly slots for visitors to even out crowds. But no remedy is being discussed for the parking line of cruise ships on the islands of Mykonos and Santorini on busy mornings.

    Tourists visit the Acropolis ancient hill, in Athens, Greece, Tuesday, July 4, 2023. Crowds are packing the Colosseum, the Louvre, the Acropolis and other major attractions as tourism exceeds 2019 records in some of Europe’s most popular destinations. While European tourists helped the industry on the road to recovery last year, the upswing this summer is led largely by Americans, who are lifted by a strong dollar and in some cases pandemic savings. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
    Tourists visit the Acropolis ancient hill, in Athens, Greece, Tuesday, July 4, 2023. Crowds are packing the Colosseum, the Louvre, the Acropolis and other major attractions as tourism exceeds 2019 records in some of Europe’s most popular destinations. While European tourists helped the industry on the road to recovery last year, the upswing this summer is led largely by Americans, who are lifted by a strong dollar and in some cases pandemic savings. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) –

    Thanassis Stavrakis/AP

    Revellers, mostly tourists, look on from balconies at the running of the bulls during the San Fermín fiestas in Pamplona, Spain, Saturday, July 8, 2023. Crowds are packing the Colosseum, the Louvre, the Acropolis and other major attractions as tourism exceeds 2019 records in some of Europe’s most popular destinations. While European tourists helped the industry on the road to recovery last year, the upswing this summer is led largely by Americans, who are lifted by a strong dollar and in some cases pandemic savings. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)
    Revellers, mostly tourists, look on from balconies at the running of the bulls during the San Fermín fiestas in Pamplona, Spain, Saturday, July 8, 2023. Crowds are packing the Colosseum, the Louvre, the Acropolis and other major attractions as tourism exceeds 2019 records in some of Europe’s most popular destinations. While European tourists helped the industry on the road to recovery last year, the upswing this summer is led largely by Americans, who are lifted by a strong dollar and in some cases pandemic savings. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos) –

    Alvaro Barrientos/AP

    Spain’s tourism minister, Héctor Gómez, called it “a historic summer for tourism,” with 8.2 million tourists arriving in May alone, breaking records for a second straight month. Still, some hotel groups say reservations slowed in the first weeks of summer, owing to the steep rise in prices for flights and rooms.

    Costs are growing as flights from the U.S. to Europe are up 2% from 2019 levels, according to ForwardKeys.

    “The rising appetite for long-haul travel from America is the continued result of the ‘revenge travel’ boom caused by the pandemic lockdowns,” said Tim Hentschel, CEO of HotelPlanner, a booking site. “Big cities within these popular European countries are certainly going to be busy during the summer.”

    Americans have pushed arrivals in Italian bucket-list destinations like Rome, Florence, Venice and Capri above pre-pandemic levels, according to Italy’s hotel association, Federalberghi.

    Here’s the latest for Thursday July 13th: New attack on Kyiv, Ukraine; Two Birmingham, Alabama firefighters shot; Tornado strikes Chicago area; US heat wave not cooling off.

    They bring a lot of pent-up buying power: U.S. tourists in Italy spent 74% more in tax-free indulgences in the first three months of the year, compared with same period of 2019.

    “Then there is the rest of Italy that lives from Italian and European tourism, and at the moment, it is still under 2019 levels,” Federalberghi president Bernabo Bocca said.

    He expects it will take another year for an across-the-board recovery. An economic slowdown discouraged German arrivals, while Italians “are less prone to spending this year,” he said.

    And wallets will be stretched. Lodging costs in Florence rose 53% over last year, while Venice saw a 25% increase and Rome a 21% hike, according to the Italian consumer group Codacons.

    Even gelato will cost a premium 21% over last year, due to higher sugar and milk prices.

    Perhaps nothing has encouraged the rise in tourism in key spots more than a surge in short-term apartment rentals. With hotel room numbers constant, Bocca of Federalberghi blames the surge for the huge crowds in Rome, inflating taxi lines and crowding crosswalks so that city buses cannot continue their routes.

    Tourists on a boat sail the Seine River in Paris, France, Tuesday, July 4, 2023. Crowds are packing the Colosseum, the Louvre, the Acropolis and other major attractions as tourism exceeds 2019 records in some of Europe’s most popular destinations. While European tourists helped the industry on the road to recovery last year, the upswing this summer is led largely by Americans, who are lifted by a strong dollar and in some cases pandemic savings. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

    Tourists on a boat sail the Seine River in Paris, France, Tuesday, July 4, 2023. Crowds are packing the Colosseum, the Louvre, the Acropolis and other major attractions as tourism exceeds 2019 records in some of Europe’s most popular destinations. While European tourists helped the industry on the road to recovery last year, the upswing this summer is led largely by Americans, who are lifted by a strong dollar and in some cases pandemic savings. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

    –

    In Rome and Florence, “walking down the street, out of every building door, emerges a tourist with a suitcase,” he said.

    While Florence’s mayor is limiting the number of short-term rentals in the historic center to 8,000, no action has been taken in Venice. The canal-lined city counts 49,432 residents in its historic center and 49,272 tourist beds, nearly half of those being apartments available for short-term rental.

    Inconveniences are “daily,” said Giacomo Salerno, a researcher at Venice’s Ca’ Foscari University focusing on tourism.

    It difficult to walk down streets clogged with visitors or take public water buses “saturated with tourists with their suitcases,” he said.

    Students cannot find affordable housing because owners prefer to cash in with vacation rentals. The dwindling number of residents means a dearth of services, including a lack of family doctors largely due to the high cost of living, driven up by tourist demand.

    Venice has delayed plans to charge day-trippers a tax to enter the city, meant to curb arrivals. But activists like Salerno say that will do little to resolve the issue of a declining population and encroaching tourists, instead cementing Venice’s fate as “an amusement park.”

    “It would be like saying the only use for the city is touristic,’’ Salerno said.

    ____

    AP reporters Aritz Parra in Rome, Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Ciaran Gilles in Madrid, Angela Charlton in Paris and Kelvin Chan in London contributed.

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  • Tourists are packing European hotspots. And Americans don’t mind the higher prices and crowds

    Tourists are packing European hotspots. And Americans don’t mind the higher prices and crowds

    [ad_1]

    VENICE, Italy — Tourists are waiting more than two hours to visit the Acropolis in Athens. Taxi lines at Rome’s main train station are running just as long. And so many visitors are concentrating around St. Mark’s Square in Venice that crowds get backed up crossing bridges — even on weekdays.

    After three years of pandemic limitations, tourism is expected to exceed 2019 records in some of Europe’s most popular destinations this summer, from Barcelona and Rome, Athens and Venice to the scenic islands of Santorini in Greece, Capri in Italy and Mallorca in Spain.

    While European tourists edged the industry toward recovery last year, the upswing this summer is led largely by Americans, boosted by a strong dollar and in some cases pandemic savings. Many arrive motivated by “revenge tourism” — so eager to explore again that they’re undaunted by higher airfares and hotel costs.

    Lauren Gonzalez, 25, landed in Rome this week with four high school and college friends for a 16-day romp through the Italian capital, Florence and the seaside after three years of U.S. vacations. They aren’t concerned about the high prices and the crowds.

    “We kind of saved up, and we know this is a trip that is meaningful,” said Gonzalez, who works at a marketing agency. “We are all in our mid-20s. It’s a (moment of) change in our lives. … This is something special. The crowds don’t deter us. We live in Florida. We have all been to Disney World in the heat. We are all good.”

    Americans appear equally unperturbed by recent riots in Paris and other French cities. There was a small drop in flight bookings, but it was mainly for domestic travel.

    “Some of my friends said, ‘It’s a little crazy there right now,’ but we thought summer is really a good time for us to go, so we’ll just take precautions,” Joanne Titus, a 38-year-old from Maryland, said while strolling the iconic Champs-Elysees shopping boulevard.

    The return of mass tourism is a boon to hotels and restaurants, which suffered under COVID-19 restrictions. But there is a downside, too, as pledges to rethink tourism to make it more sustainable have largely gone unheeded.

    “The pandemic should have taught us a lesson,” said Alessandra Priante, director of the regional department for Europe at the U.N. World Tourism Organization.

    Instead, she said, the mindset “is about recuperating the cash. Everything is about revenue, about the here and now.”

    “We have to see what is going to happen in two or three years’ time because the prices at the moment are unsustainable,” she said.

    The mayor of Florence is stopping new short-term apartment rentals from proliferating in the historic center, which is protected as a UNESCO heritage site, as mayors of Italy’s other art cities call for a nationwide law to manage the sector.

    Elsewhere, the anti-mass tourism movements that were active before the pandemic have not reappeared, but the battle lines are still being drawn: graffiti misdirected tourists in Barcelona away from — instead of toward — the Gaudi-designed Park Guell.

    Despite predictable pockets of overtourism, travel to and within Europe overall is still down 10% from 2019, according to the World Tourism Organization. That is partly due to fewer people visiting countries close to the war in Ukraine, including Lithuania, Finland, Moldova and Poland.

    In addition, Chinese visitors have not fully returned, with flights from China and other Asia-Pacific countries down 45% from 2019, according to travel data company ForwardKeys.

    Tourism-dependent Greece expects 30 million visitors this year, still shy of 2019’s 34 million record. Still, the number of flights are up so far, and tourist hotspots are taking the brunt.

    The Culture Ministry will introduce a new ticketing system for the Acropolis this month, providing hourly slots for visitors to even out crowds. But no remedy is being discussed for the parking line of cruise ships on the islands of Mykonos and Santorini on busy mornings.

    Spain’s tourism minister, Héctor Gómez, called it “a historic summer for tourism,” with 8.2 million tourists arriving in May alone, breaking records for a second straight month. Still, some hotel groups say reservations slowed in the first weeks of summer, owing to the steep rise in prices for flights and rooms.

    Costs are growing as flights from the U.S. to Europe are up 2% from 2019 levels, according to ForwardKeys.

    “The rising appetite for long-haul travel from America is the continued result of the ‘revenge travel’ boom caused by the pandemic lockdowns,” said Tim Hentschel, CEO of HotelPlanner, a booking site. “Big cities within these popular European countries are certainly going to be busy during the summer.”

    Americans have pushed arrivals in Italian bucket-list destinations like Rome, Florence, Venice and Capri above pre-pandemic levels, according to Italy’s hotel association, Federalberghi.

    They bring a lot of pent-up buying power: U.S. tourists in Italy spent 74% more in tax-free indulgences in the first three months of the year, compared with same period of 2019.

    “Then there is the rest of Italy that lives from Italian and European tourism, and at the moment, it is still under 2019 levels,” Federalberghi president Bernabo Bocca said.

    He expects it will take another year for an across-the-board recovery. An economic slowdown discouraged German arrivals, while Italians “are less prone to spending this year,” he said.

    And wallets will be stretched. Lodging costs in Florence rose 53% over last year, while Venice saw a 25% increase and Rome a 21% hike, according to the Italian consumer group Codacons.

    Even gelato will cost a premium 21% over last year, due to higher sugar and milk prices.

    Perhaps nothing has encouraged the rise in tourism in key spots more than a surge in short-term apartment rentals. With hotel room numbers constant, Bocca of Federalberghi blames the surge for the huge crowds in Rome, inflating taxi lines and crowding crosswalks so that city buses cannot continue their routes.

    In Rome and Florence, “walking down the street, out of every building door, emerges a tourist with a suitcase,” he said.

    While Florence’s mayor is limiting the number of short-term rentals in the historic center to 8,000, no action has been taken in Venice. The canal-lined city counts 49,432 residents in its historic center and 49,272 tourist beds, nearly half of those being apartments available for short-term rental.

    Inconveniences are “daily,” said Giacomo Salerno, a researcher at Venice’s Ca’ Foscari University focusing on tourism.

    It difficult to walk down streets clogged with visitors or take public water buses “saturated with tourists with their suitcases,” he said.

    Students cannot find affordable housing because owners prefer to cash in with vacation rentals. The dwindling number of residents means a dearth of services, including a lack of family doctors largely due to the high cost of living, driven up by tourist demand.

    Venice has delayed plans to charge day-trippers a tax to enter the city, meant to curb arrivals. But activists like Salerno say that will do little to resolve the issue of a declining population and encroaching tourists, instead cementing Venice’s fate as “an amusement park.”

    “It would be like saying the only use for the city is touristic,’’ Salerno said.

    ____

    AP reporters Aritz Parra in Rome, Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Ciaran Gilles in Madrid, Angela Charlton in Paris and Kelvin Chan in London contributed.

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