hotels

All the standout spots to savour while exploring the Townships’ natural beauty

“We want it to feel like you’re in the story,” says Audy Leavitt, co-owner of Charmed Resorts, the themed cottage playground offering a storybook experience.

A California spa that even your dog will love

Quebec goes exploring in medical tourism market

Beirut’s luxury hotels had only just stolen the spotlight back from bombed-out ones when Arab Spring uprisings and trouble on Lebanon’s domestic front dealt a debilitating blow to the city’s tourism industry this year. After the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, the city’s reclamation of its hedonistic reputation and “Paris of the East” moniker was made official in 2009 when the New York Times named Beirut the top place to visit in the world. And the numbers followed: in 2010, Lebanon set a new tourism record with more than two million visitors, exceeding pre-civil-war numbers. But tourism dropped 15.5 per cent in the first four months of this year, while Beirut’s hotel business has dropped 40 per cent. Dozens of restaurants have shuttered, while many that remain open have laid off employees or cut their salaries. Business owners also blame Lebanon’s precarious political situation: after more than five months without a government, the country finally got one on June 13, albeit an administration dominated by militant group Hezbollah. The fast-deterioriating situation in neighbouring Syria is no help, either, as the country is an important land route for tourists travelling from Jordan and Turkey.

Watch What You Tweet: Hotels Are Watching You, Airport Security: Free Flow For Liquid Rules, and Canucks Just Wanna Earn Points

The Americans Are Watching, Room With A View? For $5 We’ll Uncover The Window and Two Best Hotel Lists – Wildly Divergent Results

How Green Is Your Hotel? and A New Way To Protect Your Travel Documents

The reality of the world-wide economic panic seems to be slowly dawning on the Olympic movement, whose official motto “Citius, Altius, Fortius” (Swifter, Higher, Stronger,) might more appropriately be rendered as Pony-Up, Suckers.