Arthur Frommer: The Biggest News is the Dominance of Tourism by the Chinese
Posted on 09/05/2018, 12:00 AM
Suddenly, the press that deals with travel is full of articles about the sudden rise of Chinese tourism. All over the world, Chinese citizens have become the largest source of tourism, edging out the American, German, British and French. This doesn’t happen by accident. In recent years, the Chinese government has encouraged the movement towards international travel as a means of accomp...
$999 for a Week in Vietnam, Including Air! Outstanding, Writes Arthur Frommer
Posted on 08/24/2018, 9:00 AM
To enjoy a travel miracle—a memorable tour to an exotic nation, for less than the cost of airfare alone—is to lend excitement to life. Several months ago, we described an awesome Chinese-American named Wilson Wu who operates two-week tours of Vietnam for as little as $1,599 per person, including round-trip air from the U.S. West Coast. Now, the same Mr. Wu, through his company called World Sp...
“Crazy Rich Asians” May Feel a Lot Like Going to Singapore, Says Arthur Frommer
Posted on 08/22/2018, 3:00 AM
Let me be entirely frank. I greatly disliked the movie Crazy Rich Asians, which I recently saw. I was so horrified by its fawning depiction of irresponsible wealth that I almost walked out of the theatre during the first half hour of the show, and only stayed because things improved a bit in the remaining hour and a half. Crazy Rich Asians is a two-hour romantic comedy about an ultra-rich ...
National Comedy Museum Opens in New York State
Posted on 08/13/2018, 12:00 PM
Think of the word museum and you’ll probably think of old paintings. You might expect the sound of footsteps crossing a quiet gallery or guards standing watch over masterpieces. The National Comedy Center, which just opened in Jamestown, New York, shatters that lofty picture in favor of something more fun. If this museum is doing its job, attendees will be laughing their way through more ...
The 'Mamma Mia!' Sequel is a Lie: That's Not Greece!
Posted on 08/02/2018, 8:30 PM
You may remember—or perhaps you studied it in your Great Achievements of World Cinema class—that the first Mamma Mia! movie was set in Greece. Based on the hit Broadway musical, the film was famously, dazzlingly Greek, so Greek it made Zorba look shy. Meryl Streep's American character has decamped there to run a preposterously picturesque cliffside inn, where old flames hover and neighborhood teens...
Former High-Security Prison in Tennessee Opens to Visitors
Posted on 07/30/2018, 6:00 PM
Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary was not a spot often visited for just one day. This former maximum-security prison held dangerous criminals with sentences exceeding 200 years. The penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee, about 40 miles west of Knoxville, has been closed since 2009, but last Saturday it opened to the public as a tourist attraction, giving outsiders access to this rustic lockup like ...
WWOOFing: Explaining a Different Way to Travel, Farm by Farm
The Game-Changing Museums of Indianapolis
Posted on 07/09/2018, 6:45 PM
Indianapolis is reinventing the museum. As dropping attendance and revenues plague museums across North America, Indy’s most storied institution, Newfields: A Place for Nature and the Arts—once known as the Indianapolis Museum of Art—has become the sixth-most-visited museum in the United States per capita. Part of the reason for its success has to do with that name change. In 2017, curato...
This Midwest American Town Is Turning 350 Years Old
Posted on 07/03/2018, 7:15 PM
You might have heard that New Orleans and San Antonio are each celebrating a 300th birthday this year. Both cities made our list of the Best Places to Go in 2018 for that very reason. But it's likely you missed the news about another riverside municipality's big milestone—even though it bests the other two by half a century. Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan turns 350 this year. The Soo, as it's kn...
Route 66 and Puerto Rico Among USA's Most Endangered Historic Sites
Posted on 06/28/2018, 3:30 AM
Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Route 66 all appear on 2018's "Most Endangered Places" list, the National Trust for Historic Preservation's annual roundup of important architectural and cultural sites in peril. The purpose of the list, the group says, is to raise awareness and spur action to protect landmarks—and in some cases landmasses—"facing a range of challenges and threats, from d...
Current Volcanic Eruptions Bring Memories of Vesuvius, Says Arthur Frommer
Posted on 06/27/2018, 12:00 AM
I have found it odd that in all the media coverage of the eruption of Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii, no journalist has drawn a comparison to the eruption of Vesuvius outside Naples in 79 A.D. That may be because Kilauea is a “baby” by comparison with Vesuvius, the latter (pictured above) having become one of the greatest tourist attractions in all of Italy. The cataclysmic eruption of ...
Arthur Frommer: Quintana Roo, Mexico, is Gaining as a Tourist Destination
Posted on 06/26/2018, 12:00 AM
While numerous destinations in Mexico are suffering from what some describe as an overly sensitive spate of tourist warnings from our U.S. State Department, one area is obviously resisting that trend. In 2017, some 22 million tourists visited the state of Quintana Roo, in sharp contrast to some declines in Mexican tourism elsewhere. Quintana Roo is the location for super-popular Cancun, Pl...
