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TRAVELLING BEYOND FEAR
STEVE WEINMAN, EDITOR
THE WORLD TRAVEL MARKET, a trade fair held in London every November, provides a good barometer for the state of global tourism. So it was encouraging to hear generally optimistic noises emanating from the most recent WTM.
One might have expected something different, given that the world has been subjected to such an avalanche of abuse recently.
We've become wearily familiar with terrorist outrages around the globe, including locations we associate with holiday diving, such as Egypt, Bali, Jordan and Turkey. Add these man-made acts to a relentless catalogue of natural disasters, and you have what on the face of it might seem a disincentive to travel.
In 2004, hurricanes devastated diving locations in the Caribbean. Last year Katrina, Rita, Wilma and the rest left an even grimmer trail, and while the effect on Louisiana overshadowed all else, Mexico's Yucatan was one popular diving area to suffer. And it's only a year since the Tsunami hit Thailand, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Sumatra.
So are we cowering at home with National Geographic and a nice cup of tea? Not a bit of it. Fuelled by cheap airfares, higher disposable incomes and an insatiable passion to roam, we're moving on. The industry estimates that tourism into and out of Europe grew by 4% in 2005 and will rise by another 2-3% this year.
Fuel costs may edge air fares up but the rise of international tourism seems unstoppable. The trend is expected to be towards shorter trips, but we will make more of them.
Sure, we all make personal risk assessments of destinations, but as the list of potential dangers mounts, so it seems many travellers simply throw their fate to the winds and do what they want to do. Divers have always been good at this.
Many will take advantage of reduced rates to enjoy holidays in afflicted areas, but we also get the impression that public-spirited divers are planting their tourist dollars with care and consideration.
Readers tell us they are planning to go to Phuket because it will help dive operations struggling to get back to normal, or that they booked a holiday in Grenada last year because they had been before and wanted to show their support since the hurricanes.
It may not exactly be your duty to support the global dive industry, or to agonise over which deserving area to support, but conscience has become a factor in planning dive holidays. Move over eco-tourism, this is recovery tourism.
We don't even try to second-guess Nature, terrorists or viruses in selecting destinations to feature in our traditional January Holiday Special. Each country we highlight, from Bali to Egypt, has had its share of unfortunate headlines in the past few years, localised as the problems may have been. We've had our problems in the UK, too.
All we hope is that wherever you choose to go, you have the diving trip of your life.
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