Pooling Pleasure

We don’t want to sit around when we’re travelling, we want to do things, get fit or simply pump up the adrenaline. An example: bicycle touring. This could be gently pedalling from one stylish guest house to another (with winery stops in between) in France, or cycling the length of Africa with the Tour d’Afrique organisers. They also put on adventurous long-distance bicycle tours in other regions, including India. Or trekking — head to Nepal for the Himalayan heights or almost any other country you care to mention. I’ve joined long distance walks in recent years in England, Italy, Colombia and Australia. Then there’s skiing of course, scuba diving (I’m off to Tonga in a month) or adventurous interludes like hot-air ballooning, bungee jumping, white water rafting. Name an activity, and it’s a growth field. The growth of Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai as a three-point superhub, reinforced by three super airlines — Qatar, Etihad and Emirates — will continue. It’s a combination of a whole list of factors.

They’re an efficient location; Dubai has become the one-stop jumping off point to almost anywhere

Everything will continue to get more specialised. There’s still lots of demand for big, featureless, you-could-be-anywhere-in-the-world hotels, but there’s also a lot of demand for small, specialised places ranging from super-deluxe boutique resorts to interesting budget places. Aman Resorts may have kicked off the super-deluxe category, but there are plenty of other contenders today.

Cruise ships are a big growth category anywhere, but much more interesting than the big ships are the small ones, whether they’re heading south to Antarctica, north to the Arctic searching for polar bears, nosing into lagoons on remote Pacific islands or threading their way up the inlets in Australia’s wild Kimberley region. Then, there are long train trips — South Africa’s Blue Train, Australia’s Ghan, the Trans-Siberian across Russia. Or, specialised visits to archaeological sites. Name a speciality and it’s a growth field.  
 

(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 13-01-2014)

Pooling Pleasure