A Trip News

It has been the butt of jokes from southerners, has attracted millions, been home to the Nutmobile, and now it is heritage listed.
Queensland’s Big Pineapple was today named on the heritage register in the state.
Originally a way of attracting people to a working pineapple farm, the 16-metre high fibreglass pineapple beside the main highway north to the Sunshine Coast was one of the nation’s first ventures into agri-tourism and led the way in creating a veritable fruit salad of “big” oranges, (more…)

The current owners of Noosa’s Big Pineapple are expected to take the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to court to appeal the heritage listing of the Sunshine Coast icon.
EPA senior heritage officer Mary Burns said the owners are expected to lodge their appeal after the 15-metre fibreglass “big thing” and the surrounding pinapple farm and train ride were granted historical status today.
“Nothing will change, except if the owners wished to demolish the pineapple itself or the whole site, (more…)

A sleepy seaside hamlet in northern NSW has been named Best Town in Australia by a panel of tourism and travel experts.
Yamba , a township of 5600 people whose sole industry is fishing and best known as the town closest to Angourie, one of Australia’s most famous surf breaks, beat some of Australia’s tourism “hot spots” to top the list of the best 100 towns.
According to the survey conducted by Australian Traveller magazine, Port Douglas, Broome, Byron Bay, Port Fairy and Margaret River were (more…)

Think of Costa Rica as a Rorschach test for travelers. Outlined on a map, it has no recognizable shape. But enclosed in tropical lines of latitude, with appropriate squiggles for mountains, coasts and interior borders, it's an inkblot for projecting travel fantasies. Beach lovers trace the craggy coasts and see hammocks swinging in the sunset breeze. The eyes of the nature-minded glaze when they note all the national parks. And adrenaline fanatics fixate on the mountains and rivers.
Costa (more…)

Mexico City’s Tourism Secretary Alejandro Rojas said on Thursday he had proposed the Federal Government to abolish the visas for Chinese tourists.
    The measure would help attract more Chinese travelers to the country, Rojas said while addressing the opening of the first China-Mexico International Conference of Tourism.
    Among millions of Chinese travelers going abroad, only some 18,000 come to Mexico City each year, Rojas said.
    If (more…)

The Philippines’ top aviation official has been suspended after his son nearly collided with a commercial plane while giving his girlfriend driving lessons on the runway, the government said Tuesday.
A Cebu Pacific Airways pilot filed a police complaint after nearly hitting the van on Saturday as he was about to land at Legaspi airport southeast of Manila, President Gloria Arroyo’s spokesman Cerge Remonde said.
He aborted the landing and waited for the runway to clear.
The 80 passengers (more…)

An American flight attendant has developed a novel way of ensuring passengers pay attention during the pre-flight safety announcement - he delivers it as a rap.
Forty-year-old David Holmes, a flight attendant for US airline Southwest, has become an internet celebrity since passengers began posting videos of his cabin announcements three months ago.
“Before we leave/ our advice is/ put away electronic devices/ fasten your seatbelt/ then put your trays up/ press the button and make the seat-back (more…)

The European Commission on Tuesday launched an investigation into the growing problem of lost air passenger luggage, voicing concern at “the scale of the phenomenon.”
The announcement came hours after the British Air Transport Users Council (AUC) issued a report charging that passengers were too often not fairly compensated for lost luggage.
The problem is a huge and growing headache for air travellers, with an estimated 1.2 million bags “irretrievably lost” in 2007, around one bag for every (more…)

LOADED up and ready, the helicopter revved its engine and levitated from the snow. The horizon jumped, then angled away, a swatch of sky rushing in.
We whirled north over chairlifts and chalets, skiers dwindling to dots on a slope below. Then, in minutes, we were on a far peak, a guide shouting as passengers poured from the craft: “Stay down! Keep low!”
It was early afternoon at Powder Mountain, and I was lining up for another run downhill in search of fresh snow. The chopper whipped (more…)

China and the USA will play a key role in shoring up visitor numbers to Australia this year amid the global downturn, a key tourism forum has been told.
The Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC) chief Daniel Gschwind said some markets could still show growth, despite the Tourism Forecasting Committee’s (TFC) prediction of a 4.2 per cent fall in overall international arrivals.
“Although the US is facing weakened financial conditions, the TFC has actually predicted a one per cent increase (more…)