My Heart Goes Out to Chile

In case you haven’t heard by now, the South American country of Chile was rocked by an 8.8-magnitide earthquake, killing roughly 140 people and counting.

Don’t let the Haiti numbers fool you , people, more than 100 people dead is still a big deal.

And it couldn’t have happened to a more beautiful country in Latin America.

It is painful for me to look at pictures of toppled buildings and collapsed bridges, a sharp contrast from the snow-covered mountains and gorgeous lakes I saw when visiting there this summer.

In fact, on Friday, I just finalized a trip to go back there in mid-April. I was actually slated to be in Santiago, the city hit the hardest by the quake, which is still sending off after shocks every hour.

It’s hard for me to think like a member of the travel industry when so much human life has been lost, but the fact is Chile, like Haiti, was right smack in the middle of a major tourism push.

Last year, it hosted the TravelMart Latin America trade show. For anyone not familiar with the show, whoever hosts this show is usually the region’s next top player. Past hosts, such as Ecuador and Colombia, have all went on to huge tourism numbers shortly after hosting and Chile was heading in much the same direction.

And now this.

I still haven’t read the full reports on damage to infrastructure and since it happened over the weekend, I haven’t spoken to my sources there to see what hotels and other tourism facilities and attractions were damaged.

But needless to say, the most damage to be suffered here, from a tourism standpoint, is going to be public perception. Even if there’s not another earthquake or any other natural disaster in Chile for the next decade, people are still going to be fearful of it, much in the same fashion as people are still worried about traveling to Aruba because of one murder that happened a few years ago.

Ok, back to being a human again. If you have family there, work there or live there, my prayers go out to you. And if my Chile trip is still on for April, I’d be more than happy to go, offer a helping hand and tell you all about it.

Luxury Travel Expo Proves Industry is Bouncing Back

The floor was filled with agents at Luxury Travel Expo

The best part of Luxury Travel Expo 2009 for me was not the suite I stayed at in The Signature at MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas nor the filet mignon and lobster I was treated to at the second annual Awards of Excellence on Tuesday. Instead, it was seeing thousands of industry representatives flooding the trade show floor on Wednesday and hearing something from exhibitors that we haven’t heard from tourism representatives pretty much all year – complete confidence.

In fact, there were destinations making strong luxury pushes at the show for the first time in the form of Croatia and Tanzania, there were cruise companies like Variety Cruises adding new destinations for 2010, there were reports from operators proclaiming Mexico was back in business and there were other companies claiming booking periods were getting back to normal.

We found one such example when chatting with Phil Cappelli, director of national sales, for Tauck World Discovery, and learned that the tour operator is bouncing back from a rough start to 2009. Cappelli told us that clients are going back to their old booking patterns of up to six to seven months in advance, something that hardly any supplier has seen in an economy-stricken 2009.

There was not a single empty seat for either of the show’s general sessions, the seminar’s were packed and the show was as populated as a midtown street in Manhattan. It may have taken close to a year, but the luxury industry is back because it never panicked by slashing rates and waited patiently while weathering the storm. Hopefully, luxury hoteliers and cruise companies take this momentum and ride with it through next year.

Culinary Destination: Le Quartier Francais in South Africa

Susan Huxter, the owner of Le Quartier Francais in Franschhoek, Cape Winelands, South Africa, was here to visit yesterday. There’s a lot going on in this Relais & Chateaux property, which is set just 45 minutes outside of Cape Town.

First of all, there’s a new “Culinary Concierge” menu that provides a number of unique experiences throughout the year.
We’re thinking the “Dessert Me” program—which allows guests to spend the morning with the chef learning how to make pastries and tarts that’s followed by wine pairing tips with lunch and, of course, dessert—sounds mighty fine, but there are plenty of other program options based on wine blending, bread baking and even an insider’s tour of Cape Town’s Neighborhoods Goods Market.

While all this sounds like a foody fantasy, we say the best part of the culinary program is “Mrs. Ndaba’s Fridays,” through which guests team up with the hotel to bake nutritious muffins for 67 toddlers who attend a local program run by a 68-year-old woman who cares for the kids gratis so that their parents can go to work. After the baking, guests take the muffins and visit with the children....Now that’s an enriching experience

Visit www.lequartier.co.za

Relais & Chateaux to Launch City Hotels Program

Watch for Relais & Chateaux to launch a City Hotels collection soon; that’s what the group’s president, Jaume Tàpies told us yesterday as we dined at Jean-Georges here in New York.

Tàpies says he would love to have a hotel in Manhattan and he’s currently scouting around. The annual Relais & Chateaux guide is set to be published the first week or so of November and we can watch for the addition of a new hotel in Mexico (Esperanza in Cabo) and a property in Bruges, Belgium, one of our favorite cities. It’s not easy being in the guide; this year 270 establishments applied to be members and only 30 were accepted.

That’s not to say Relais & Chateaux isn’t being aggressive, in fact, Tàpies said that rather than waiting for hotel owners to come to them, the organization is approaching candidates that it feels would be a good fit. On the horizon: Relais & Chateaux, in fact, is seeking to add to its inventory in Mexico, New Zealand and Asia, specifically in India.

By the way, did you know that Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten has a blog? Check it out at jeangeorges.blogspot.com.
 

A Perfect Itinerary for Highlights of Great Britain

Maureen Jones of All Horizons Travel in Los Altos, CA is an expert in Great Britain; here, she shares her top tips for seeing the most important sites in style.

I write a weekly travel column for a newspaper and the Editor asked me to write an article with the five perfect itineraries for a one week trip in the countries I specialize in, namely the British Isles, France, Australia, New Zealand and Italy.  I will share a favorite of mine from my homeland, and a route which I repeat every year to see family and friends.

Young women in Edinburgh walk to the Castle for the annual Tattoo.