Posts filed under Airlines

The Film GRINGO TRAILS Pleads for Respectful Travel

Tourism is one of the most powerful forces globalizing our plant. Travel to distant places has expanded and thankfully broadened our horizons. Tahiti is no longer just a photo in an aging copy of the National Geographic. Now the adventurous traveler can fly and stay almost anywhere in total comfort.

Yet all is not as marvelous as it seems. Consider the Gringo Trails

Crisscrossing South America, Africa and Asia, the Gringo Trails offers hardy traveler rural indigenous adventures. But at the same time, thoughtless travelers have an equal opportunity to alter the once pristine environment and disrespect the local culture.

A new film, Gringo Trails, presents the strong belief by leading members of the Travel Industry, from Lonely Planet to the National Geographic Society, that travel to another cultural or environment MUST be respectful of that culture and environment. Otherwise, just Stay Home!

This not to say that cultural tourism should be stopped. Rather it is a plead from regional tourist boards, rural villages, travel writers and even members of the Bhutan Royal Family to learn to travel respectfully, without injury to place or people.

This insightful film asks all who see it to consider the once beautiful beaches now covered with cans and broken bottles, the peaceful village where blaring music now shatters the calm.

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In short, who has the right to define a community: those who live there or those who only visit there and then depart? 

There are a growing number of organizations now beginning to address this very question. One such organization is the World Food Travel Association. Founded and directed by the world veteran traveler Erik Wolf, this organization offers both training and certification focused on a wiser and more consider form of travel than the older what’s-in-it-for-me-alone form of tourism.

Food, as Erik Wolf points out, is a common human experience. So is travel and the longing to see other places and meet new people. Let’s be sure we do both with respect and honor.

Your Culinary World Copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel  2014

In Memory of Our Friends Who Died on 9/11

The date of September 11th is a painful one for all of us in the Hospitality Industry. On that dark day, when the sun was shining so brightly, we lost so many friends and dear colleagues.

Each day we reenact how those we knew started their day. Like them we open, greet the vendors as products are delivered and plan with staff members how we will serve our many guests.

Perhaps we stand with a cup of coffee in our hand, just as they did, listening, planning, hoping, as they did, that perhaps in some small way graciousness and hospitality can make the world a better place, at least for a few minutes.

How we miss them even now twelve years later. We miss their talents, their creativity, their laughing voices on the phone and their warm greetings at conferences. It is a "pain that goes on and on..."  

But they would want us to go on, to continue. Currently the world is talking yet again of war and battle and death. Surely there are better ways than sticks and stones, though today we call them smart bombs and nerve gas.

There is a better way to go, a road less taken but well known - try a conference table, negotiate, reconcile the differences, speak with respect to each other as human beings  - in short, find a way that does not involve the scream or death of a single child.

If our leaders could be that brave then be assured we in the Hospitality Industry, who have endured our restaurants and hotels around the world being bombed and gassed, would gladly serve each leader their beverage of choice as we all toasted together the longed for blessings of universal peace

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013