SEE BELOW FOR THIS ARTICLE IN SLOVENIAN / SPODAJ SI LAHKO ČLANEK PREBERETE V SLOVENŠČINI

This is an abridged version of a longer article found here / To je skrajšana verzija daljšega članka, ki ga lahko preberete tukaj

Pince in the east, Budinci in the north, Kot pri Damlju in the south and Robidišče in the west are the four villages that pin Slovenia to the map at its four extremities.

By Mojca Peterka

Photos by: Iztok Bončina.

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Locals from these four villages still remember how businessmen and politicians visited them during special annual meetings in the 1990s. On these rare occasions, discontinued before the start of the new millennium, they enjoyed the country’s attention. One story told is typical of those we heard in all four villages: “It was great fun, really great. But a few years ago they stopped organising them. I went to Pince and Budinci; there were speeches, folk dances, performances. Each village had its own representatives and the event finished up with a big party. I do not know why they stopped.”

For us, the idea of exploring these little outlying places where Slovenia comes into closest contact with its neighbouring countries promised to be an interesting experience.
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Posted under General, Slovenia, countries, local tips, responsible travel

When a father loses track of a travelling daughter, the whl.travel local connection goes where others can’t

By Ethan Gelber

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A detail from the Wat That Luang Neua in Vientiane

On June 15, Len Cordiner, CEO of whl.travel received an email from an anxious father searching for his daughter. She and a friend were travelling in Laos and had booked accommodation in several cities through whl.travel. Len put the father in touch with Teamworkz, our whl.travel partner in Vientiane, Laos.

“My 19-year-old daughter was supposed to stay at the Cheuang Van Na Vong Hotel [in Vientiane] the night of June 12,” the father quickly wrote to Teamworkz. “She was supposed to contact us a couple days ago, but perhaps there is a problem with both her international cell phone and with her computer. We wanted to get a message to her through the hotel front desk: ‘Call home.’ We do not know where she is now, so it would definitely help her mother and I to know if she indeed made it to the Cheuang Van Na Vong Hotel. Attached is her picture. She would be travelling with [a friend], whose name is on the reservation. Can you please find out if she stayed at the hotel and let me know? I am very grateful for your assistance.”

All parents grapple with the angst of watching their children disappear into the world. The tools of today – cell phones, email, skype – allow us to maintain a vital and affordable lifeline so much more immediate than the fortnightly faxes and staticky collect calls I made when I first hit the road. I can only imagine what my parents felt back then in the days before Web-based booking was possible. They had no idea know where I was for weeks on end. Today, a long communication lapse is even more nerve wracking. To whom does one turn, especially if a booking is made through an anonymous engine that cares nothing of one name or face any more than another?

In this case, having booked through whl.travel …your local connection… the daughter left her father with just the right kind of details.

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Posted under Laos, countries, whl.travel news

On June 12, despite earlier announcements to the contrary, whl.travel was revealed as one of five winners in the first ‘Globetrotting for Good – The Condé Nast Traveler Challenge’, hosted by Ashoka’s Changemakers.

“whl.travel is truly defining what innovation means in the field of tourism,” said Charlie Brown, Executive Director of Ashoka’s Changemakers. “Their ability to bridge the gap between traveller and destination is unique in that it doesn’t just service a single tourist but is building a movement.”

Along with whl.travel, whl.travel’s new affiliate in Santa Marta, Colombia, and three other deserving progammes will be highlighted in the September 2009 ‘Power of Place’ issue of Condé Nast Traveler magazine.

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Posted under General, awards, responsible organisations, responsible travel, whl.travel news

On 24 June in London, the winners of the 2009 Travelmole Web Awards were announced. Although both whl.travel and its partner Make Travel Fair were shortlisted, neither took home top honours. We remain no less committed to the work we are doing and look forward to perhaps working with the winners, all of whom we congratulate.

Of the 300 nominations and after more than 15,000 votes, whl.travel was one of four finalists in the Responsible Travel category (see the whl.travel entry), and Make Travel Fair was to be judged along with three others in the Travel Blog category (see the MTF entry).

The finalists were those chosen by Travelmole subscribers, but the ultimate judgment fell to a panel of experts.

Other awards categories covered accommodation, airlines, car rental, cruise and ferry operators, holiday add-ons, hotel groups, mobile technology, recruitment and training, tourist boards, tour operators, travel agents, travel videos and Web 2.0.

Posted under General, awards, responsible travel, whl.travel news

MAI JOS PUTETI VERIFICA COMUNICATUL IN LIMBA ROMAN / SEE BELOW FOR THIS MESSAGE IN ROMANIAN

The medieval tower in the town of Sighisoara

Transylvania, widely known as the home of Vlad the Impaler, or Dracula, is a destination rich in history, with beautiful scenery, ancient traditions, quaint villages and enchanting castles. Travellers will be delighted with the adorable medieval towns of Brasov, Sighisoara, Sibiu and Cluj, surrounded by the soaring Carpathian Mountains and peppered with charming Transylvania hotels offering smiling hospitality in stunning natural scenery.

whl.travel’s recent launch of www.transylvania-hotels.travel now connects travellers to local destination experts in  Transylvania – Melinda Bagoly, Ioana Craioveanu and the team of Wens Tour.

Wens Tour is active in promoting and supporting their community by working with small accommodations instead of big urban hotels, thereby helping to sustain small entrepreneurs. They also employ local guides in their tours and involve as many local service providers (accommodation, food, transportation) as possible.

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Posted under General, Romania, countries, new local connections, whl.travel news

On Thursday 18 June at 13:00 GMT, the second session of a free webinar (Web-based seminar) series about responsible tourism welcomed travel publishers to the stage. Four speakers representing Bradt Guides, Footprint Travel Guides, Lonely Planet Publications and Wanderlust magazine were scheduled to share how responsible tourism is increasingly important to them and their organisations, but sound problems kept two out of the live discussion.

Seated around the virtual table were:

MODERATORS
* Sally Broom, CEO of Your Safe Planet & Fringe Network
* Stephen Chapman, Founder of Make Travel Fair

SPEAKERS
* Tom Hall, Travel Editor at Lonely Planet Publications
* Dan Linstead, Editor of Wanderlust magazine
* Alan Murphy, Commissioning Editor and Publisher, Footprint Travel Guides
* Adrian Phillips, Publishing Director at Bradt Travel Guides.

Biographical material about the moderators and speakers can be found below.

During the 60-minute session, Tom Hall and Adrian Phillips made brief presentations about what is (and is not) being done to give readers what they need to travel as responsibly as possible. A question-and-answer period followed, and included the participation of Toby Sawday from Sawday Publishing.

For details, consult:

* a written account of all that was said by Tom Hall of Lonely Planet
* a written account all that was said by Adrian Phillips of Bradt Travel Guides
* written questions and answers compiled from the webinar chat room
* the full recording of the webinar with voice conflicts that were not present during the live session
* the full chat transcript

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Posted under General, responsible travel, responsible travel news, webinar

By Ethan Gelber

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OK, I’ll just come out and say it: The best thing that ever happened to world tourism was the global financial crisis.

That probably comes across as terribly impolitic or obnoxiously cavalier. Is it really a good thing that a massive economic contraction has led to thousands of lost jobs and punishing reductions in foreign currency flows to countries that rely heavily on income from tourism? Well, put in those terms, of course it isn’t. But I also believe this is an unfair representation and that, ultimately, other gauges – those harder to quantify – will show that the worldwide slowdown benefited us all.
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Posted under General, opinion, responsible travel, whl.travel newsletter

Wild Asia is a young, Malaysia-based organisation helping to lead the charge for nature conservation and ‘green’ business practices in Southeast Asia. Established in 2003, it is a social enterprise sensitive to the connections between natural areas and communities reliant upon them. Fundamental to its growth has been the equally sociable building of partnerships with businesses that share similar social and environmental sensitivities.

Put succinctly on the Wild Asia website: “Our ultimate goal is to promote sustainable practices that will minimise adverse impacts on the environment, ensure that local communities are engaged and that local cultures are respected.”

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Posted under General, responsible organisations, responsible travel, responsible travel news, whl.travel newsletter

Chinatown is often the area for budget accommodation and an intriguing cultural experience in its own right. But remember that it doesn’t represent the entire city.

By Stephen Chapman

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Zainald grills his halal satay in Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown. Photo © Stephen Chapman

Most people are familiar with a Chinatown, often the location of cheap eats and sleeps and hives of activity day and night. I recently returned to Kuala Lumpur (capital city of Malaysia) and was granted a fascinating perspective from the point of view of a Malay and it emphasised something extremely important.

Whether it’s based on a desire to rough it and to get under the skin of a place, or on Chinatown being known as a backpacker hangout, many travellers gravitate there. When you use Chinatown as a base from which to explore, particularly in Asia, there is a tendency to believe that it is in some way representative of the culture and character of the city within which it’s based, and for Kuala Lumpur and many other cities around the world this is far from the truth. It is no more representative of a city in Asia than it is of San Francisco, New York or London. There is no denying its value and influence, particularly on Kuala Lumpur, but it is only a small piece of the cultural jigsaw that makes up a city.
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Posted under General, Malaysia, countries, local tips, responsible traveller, whl.travel newsletter

Cape Verde is a fascinating country – an amazing group of islands and mesh of cultures – located about 700km west of Senegal. Still relatively unknown to many travellers, Cape Verde has however been attracting more and more attention, especially from Europeans, who can reach it by plane in only four hours from Lisbon, Portugal. Other flights by TACV Cabo Verde Airlines now also arrive regularly from Africa and the Americas.

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Posted under Cape Verde, General, countries, local tips, responsible travel, whl.travel newsletter