China consumers counter economy gloom with travel boom
Chicago Tribune
Soaring numbers of Chinese tourists packed onto flights out of the country is a sure sign that a fast-growing consumer class of around 130 million is not worried that the likely slowest year of economic growth since 1999 will sap their spending power.
Nearly 39 million mainlanders left China on overseas trips in the first half of 2012, roughly double on five years ago and evidence that a powerful consumer force – envisaged by the top leadership as the engine of economic expansion in a generation to come – may be bulking up faster than thought.
Trade body says UK tourism slumped during Olympics
Fox News
A leading trade association for British tour operators says tourism slumped during the Olympics.
A survey of business traffic commissioned by trade body UKinbound during the three weeks of the London games has found that 82 percent of tourism-oriented businesses suffered lost business versus the same period of 2011. Two-thirds said the numbers of tourists fell more than 10 percent.
Mediaeval village over-run by tourists
Independent Online
Perched on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Lot River in southwest France, the mediaeval village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie has survived wars and invasions since the 13th century.
Now the picturesque hamlet is facing a new and potentially more dangerous threat: tourists.
With its stone houses with brown-tiled roofs, narrow winding streets and a lack of modern buildings and amenities, Saint-Cirq seems hardly changed in hundreds of years.
Ethiopian Airlines to become third to fly Boeing ‘Dreamliner’
USA TODAY
The airline takes delivery of the Dreamliner on Tuesday in Seattle, Wash. The plane’s maiden flight the following weekend is to carry 250 select customers and VIPs, who will fly around Mount Kilimanjaro on the Tanzania-Kenya border.
“We are really excited to become the first carrier in Africa, Europe, Americas and Middle East to operate this modern aircraft,” Ethiopian Airlines chief executive Tewolde Gebremariam told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday.
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