News and Deals: August 30, 2012 – China Pushes Tibet Tourism in Theme Park Project, Tiger tourism ban extended, Airline Sued for ‘Humiliating’ Luggage and Your nightmare vacation could win you a prize

China Pushes Tibet Tourism in Theme Park Project
Voice of America

Just outside Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, the Chinese government is building a $4.7 billion theme park that critics describe as a fairy tale universe that trivializes Tibetan culture and glosses over the nation’s troubles.

The construction gets into high gear as Tibetans continue to demonstrate and set themselves on fire to protests Chinese policies in the nation Beijing invaded 63 years ago. The 50th such self-immolation took place this week.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington refuses to comment on the theme park project, or the self-immolations. But Beijing’s official news agency, Xinhua, quoted the deputy mayor of Lhasa, Ma Xingming, as saying the project “is designed to improve Tibet’s tourism credentials and be a landmark of the cultural industry.”

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Tiger tourism ban extended
Telegraph.co.uk

Tourism was banned in the “core areas” of more than 40 tiger reserves last month, in an attempt to protect the endangered animals – of which there are as few as 3,200 remaining in the wild.

In a hearing yesterday, the Supreme Court indicated that it would consider relaxing the ban should India’s central government establish acceptable new guidelines to regulate tiger tourism in the country.

The extension will leave tour operators facing an uncomfortable few weeks. The ban will only begin to affect holidaymakers when the peak season for tiger tourism begins in October, and the country’s reserves open their doors

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Airline Sued for ‘Humiliating’ Luggage
ABC News

A Virginia couple is suing Continental Airlines and United Continental Holdings, claiming they discovered at baggage claim a sex toy workers had taped to their luggage.

On May 21, 2011, realtor Christopher Bridgeman, 34, and Martin Borger, 35, an architect, returned from a vacation from Costa Rica to Norfolk,Va. When the couple arrived in Houston on a layover, they retrieved their checked luggage, “which was undisturbed at that time,” according to the suit filed against United Continental Holdings and Continental Airlines with the Harris County district court in Virginia on Friday.

The couple went through customs, then rechecked their bags before boarding their flight to Norfolk with Continental, which was merged with United Airlines in 2010 to form United Continental Holdings. After arriving in Virginia, they went to the baggage claim.

“Plaintiffs’ bags were sent to the baggage carousel where Plaintiffs discovered, to their horror, that a private sex toy had been removed from one of their bags, covered in a greasy foul-smelling substance, and taped prominently to the top of their bag,” the suit states.

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Your nightmare vacation could win you a prize
USA Today

Most of us have had a trip that went wrong, due to accidents, illness or injuries.

Mine was the time I contracted a serious bacterial infection from a bug bite, ended up barely able to get out of bed with a fever of 104 degrees and had to pay for a bush pilot to fly me out of Denali National Park in Alaska to the Fairbanks hospital. An IV drip of antibiotics set me on the road to recovery.

How bad is your worst travel horror story? It could win you a prize.

MedjetAssist is seeking stories of medical emergencies on the road in its “It Happened to Me” contest. One traveler will win a hopefully mishap-free five-night vacation for two at Lost Iguana Resort & Spa in the Costa Rica rainforest and a short-term MedjetAssist membership. Medjet, as you may guess, is a service that flies members who’re away from home to places where they can get quality medical care.

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