Tourist-bashing turns ugly in Berlin
Reuters
Tourism to Berlin is booming as never before and filling the debt-ridden city’s coffers with much-needed cash, but not all Berliners are cheering the influx of visitors.
Some blame the tourists, especially the young 20-something “Easyjet set” who ride the budget airline to party through the night in the uber-cool, hedonistic German capital, for a host of ills from rising rents to noise pollution.
“Noisy tourists go home!” reads one hostile sign in the eastern district of Friedrichshain. “Berlin doesn’t love you,” say stickers plastering traffic lights in nearby Kreuzberg.
A gallery in an area known for its trendy bars featured for months a scrawled sign in the window: “Sorry, no entry for hipsters from the U.S.”
Guatemala Tourist Hub Rocked by Volcano Eruption
Fox News
One of Guatemala’s most famous tourist attractions was hit Thursday by a series of eruptions from a long-simmering volcano that sent thick clouds of ash nearly two miles (three kilometers) high, spewed rivers of lava down its flanks and prompted evacuation orders for more than 33,000 people from surrounding communities.
Guatemala’s head of emergency evacuations, Sergio Cabanas, said the evacuees were ordered to leave some 17 villages around the Volcán del Fuego, which sits about six miles southwest (16 kilometers) from the colonial city of Antigua, home to 45,000 people. The ash was blowing south-southeast and authorities said the tourist center of the country was not currently in danger, although they expected the eruption to last for at least 12 more hours.
Mysterious tourist deaths in Asia prompt poison probe
CNN
Kari Bowerman, 27, and Cathy Huynh, 26, were backpacking in Vietnam while on break from their jobs teaching English in South Korea.
On July 30, the friends were admitted to Khanh Hoa General Hospital in Nha Trang. Both were vomiting, had difficulty breathing and showed signs of severe dehydration.
Huynh was eventually released from the hospital. She returned later that night to hear the devastating news — three hours after being admitted, Bowerman had gone into respiratory failure and died.
Two days later, Huynh was dead.
What we don’t know for sure is what triggered their deaths.
The travelers’ stories are just the latest in a string of mysterious tourist deaths in Southeast Asia. Investigators with the World Health Organization suspect poisoning is to blame, but determining the origin has proven difficult. Meanwhile, friends and family are desperate for answers.
Major airlines nudge fares up $10 each way
TheDay.com
Led by Southwest Airlines, several airlines are raising prices again.
Southwest raised fares Wednesday by $10 per round trip on about 10 percent of its routes. United Airlines expanded the increase later in the day to cover most of its U.S. flights.
“We raised fares to cover the increasing cost of doing business,” United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said Thursday.
American Airlines said that it matched the higher prices on some routes, JetBlue Airways said it matched Southwest’s increase, and Virgin America eventually matched the broader United increase. Other airlines didn’t immediately return messages for comment.
Who am I? I am a typical Gen-Xer and recovering cubicle-dweller who has a passion for all things travel. My site brings a unique perspective that is hard to find online. I am not a backpacker, nor am I...
