Nike Riesz

For example, notes Philip Clapham, formerly of NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center and now Senior Scientist at SeaStar Scientific, the populations that migrate from the Antarctic along the coasts of eastern and western Australia “may well have been reduced to a few hundred animals by the time the Russians, in what was then the Soviet Union, finished illegally plundering them in the 1960s.

Nike Riesz "The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity."

The results floored them: The turtles were swimming around the river together, in some cases never straying three feet from a fellow animal. "It felt like I was tracking a pod of whales," says McKnight, an ecologist at LaTrobe University in Australia and the Belize Turtle Ecology Lab.

These social turtles may flip on its back what we think about the supposedly solitary animals, he says. It was previously thought that turtles will gather when they’re seeking the same resource, such as a sunny rock, but generally do not interact with one another.

“Even though most of us now live from tourism, we are overwhelmed,” says Christine Godfrey, an American who, with her husband, Nicola, owns Cinque Terre Trekking. In their spare time the couple work with village elders to uncover and restore portions of the stone trails once used by Nicola’s ancestors. Their goal is simple, Nicola says: “to encourage visitors to explore beyond the main streets and understand the impact of our handmade walls.”

In the shadow of Belstone Tor – a distinctive hill topped by granite rock formations – standing stones formed a circle in the cropped grass. Some say the stones were once maidens, petrified into rocks for dancing on the sabbath; others warn that to move the stones is to welcome a curse. In reality, the "Nine Maidens" mark a Bronze Age burial chamber, one of the countless ancient sites hidden across Dartmoor National Park's 368sq miles of moorland, valleys and forests.

Macau has set out to be Asia's new gambling centre, but recently tourists have been coming slowly and expectations have fallen behind. Two new casinos, the Galaxy Macau and Melco Crown's Studio City, opened in October in an attempt to attract new visitors.

The former Portuguese colony, reached an income of 45 billion dollars in 2013, but since then revenue has declined by a third. Still , Asia's top gambling hub makes 7 times more money than Las Vegas.

One of the reasons for the decline of Macau's gambling industry is the slowing down of Chinese economy. Most of the island's customers are wealthy people from the Chinese mainland. Macau is the only place where Chinese citizens can gamble legally.

But this has led to widespread corruption throughout the island. Chinese authorities, who have been in control of the island since 1997, have been cracking down on illegal businesses and money laundering.

Although the number of visitors to the island has gone down, investment is still big. Recently new casinos have expanded their attractions in an attempt to make the island more family-friendly. The world's largest rooftop swimming pool and a gigantic roller coaster are two new attractions that have been added. Hotels are offering their rooms at lower prices too.

How the World Attracts Chinese Tourists

A hundred million tourists from China travel to all corners of the world every year. Destinations around the world are fighting desperately to attract these tourists because they know Chinese big spenders will bring them money in the following decades. In 2013 alone, Chinese travellers spent over 100 billion dollars abroad.

A booming economy and a growing Chinese middle class allows more people to travel than ever before. Western countries have been preparing for the mass influx of Chinese tourists for some time. They are also making it easier for Chinese travellers to feel at home when on holidays.
France, for example, has started hiring police officers from China to protect tourists in Paris and other cities. Other countries, including the United States and Great Britain, are not requiring visas for Chinese travellers any more. Chinese credit cards are becoming more and more accepted in Europe and elsewhere. Hotels, airports and shopping malls around the world have been hiring Mandarin speakers.

Shopping is the main reason for Chinese citizens to travel abroad. China is becoming the biggest market for luxury goods. Louis Viton bags and Rolex watches are only two items that Chinese are fond of, and they will do anything and go anywhere to get them. Luxury items are bought as status symbols. Many Chinese buy them abroad because there are high taxes on such goods inside China.
However, shopping is not the only reason for China’s travel boom. Chinese citizens go to other countries for sports and leisure activities. Canada, for example, wants to help Chinese tourists during the winter months by hiring Chinese skiing instructors. They also go on extended tours of Europe and the US and enjoy a new culture that is different from what they experience at home.

More Tourists from rising economies

Tourism trends are changing as wealthier people from rising economies are travelling abroad. While Europeans and Americans are not travelling as much anymore, Russians and Chinese are going on holidays more than ever before.

Tourism in developed countries is expected to rise by 2.2% in the next years, but the number of travellers from other countries will increase by 50%. By the year 2030 over a billion travellers are expected to come from these countries.

The new tourists represent a rising middle class in their countries. They want to see other places and experience other cultures. Some just go shopping or want to have fun somewhere else.

Russians, for example, have been locked up in their country during the Communist period for much of the 20th century. Most of them have only experienced trips to other Communist countries in Eastern Europe or to Black Sea resorts in their own country. Now they are flooding Europe and other continents in an attempt to catch up on what they have missed.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s mainly wealthy Russians travelled abroad, but now a growing middle class is experiencing tourism. However, they do not spend as much money as Westerners and tend to go to cheaper places. Mediterranean countries like Turkey and Greece are adapting to this trend and have been attracting Russians with special, cheaper offers.

In China, the middle classes are also spending more and more on travelling. China is the fastest growing country when it comes to spending money abroad. In 2012 Chinese travellers spent 100 billion dollars overseas, more than the previous top spenders Germany, Britain and the United States. Chinese tourists prefer shopping to cultural travel. While foreign goods in China are expensive they bring back items that cost a lot at home.

In South America, Brazil is the major money-spender in tourism. About 30% of all Brazilians who go on holidays travel to other countries.

While spending a lot abroad, not all of these countries are on the receiving end of tourism. Travelling to China has been popular among Europeans and Americans for some time, mainly because of the culture and the Asian way of living. In Brazil the upcoming football World Cup and the Olympic Games are expected to attract millions of foreign tourists to the country and bring in a lot of money. In contrast, Russia does not make very much money from tourism. One of the reasons is the bad infrastructure that dates back to the Communist period and lack of investment.

Voluntourism

Volunteering to help people in need combined with travelling to faraway places is a new trend in the travel industry.It is called voluntourism. People travel to other countries, learn languages and other cultures and gain new experiences. On the other side, they volunteer to help others who are not as well off as they are.

Recent statistics show that in the past few years voluntourism has been one of the fastest-growing areas of tourism. More than 1.6 million people around the world are volunteers in other countries. They work in orphanages, help build schools, assist in hospitals and do farming work in developing countries. Some of them establish lasting bonds with people far away.

While voluntourism has been around for over a century, modern volunteering started with the Peace Corps, a program that the US government started in the 1960s.

There are many reasons why people want to engage in voluntourism. Students see it as a gap year after school, others simply want to take time out from a job and do something else. Then there are those who are bored and merely seek adventure. However, many voluntourists do not see volunteering as what it is. They think it is a cheap way of traveling and don't really want to get involved in hard work.

Not everyone sees voluntourism in a positive way. Critics say that if people really want to help those in need there are many opportunities in their own community to do this. On the other side, volunteers are often not skilled enough for the tasks that they do. Travel experts point out that in some cases voluntourists are exploited by the organization that sets up the trips.

Job organizations urge volunteers to inform themselves about organizations and projects before applying for a job. Serious development programs are mostly sponsored by international organizations.

Riding waves and scaling rocks around Ericeira and Sintra in Portugal

I have never until now taken time to consider the creation of a wave. To fathom the climatic and gravitational forces propelling salt water across sunken topographies so that it swells, rises, arcs and finally dissipates in powerful fits of foam. And this lack of prior attention feels like a critical failure now I’m standing — wetsuit plastered on, awkwardly gripping a sturdy beginners’ softboard — on one of Europe’s most famous surfing beaches.

Instructor Francisco Romeiras from Ericeira Surf Clube points at the waves raking across the mouth of Ribeira d’Ilhas, a sensational amphitheatre of a beach with sheer, golden cliffs cupping the Atlantic. “It’s a long point break, breaking on the right,” he says, drawing on a lexicon unique to boardriders. “This wave, its consistency, the way it delivers in all tides, it’s what drew the first surfers to Ericeira back in the early 1970s. Ready to give it a try?”

I’m relieved I’m not directed towards the distant figures carving shapes out in the deep water. Instead, I spend an hour with Francisco finding my feet nearer the shore. “Don’t overthink it,” he reminds me as a small wave catches my board and I discover I’m travelling with the ocean at what feels like break-neck speed. “Knees bent! Eyes on the beach!” he shouts as, for the first time, I successfully launch from belly to feet, before eventually toppling, starfish-limbed, into the shallows.

When we pad out of the surf an hour later, Francisco draws my attention to a promontory marked by a silver statue of a surfer. ‘The Guardian’ was created by José Queiroz in 2017, as a clarion call for environmental protection and preservation. It’s become the unofficial symbol of Ericeira as the town continues to settle into its status as a World Surfing Reserve. The designation, awarded in 2011 by Save the Waves Coalition, celebrates the culture, economy and environment of outstanding surf locations and Ericeira was the second place in the world after Malibu, California, to be recognised. “It really put us on the map,” Francisco says. In May 2023, a 12th location was enshrined that delighted British surfers: North Devon.

As we store away our boards, I’m introduced to Ulisses Reis, a veteran of the scene. “I was one of the first people teaching here. There was just a basic surf camp on the beach, a place for hippies to hang out,” he tells me, momentarily lost in his memories. “But it was demolished.” Today, there’s a sleek boardwalk with wood-slatted surf shacks, showers and a cafe. The complex is home to Ulisses’ surf school, Blue Ocean, from where his sons now give lessons. It’s also one of over 50 in Ericeira. “I worry about the commercialisation of surfing here, how fast things are changing. This is all great,” he says, gesturing around, “it’s my whole life now. But personally I preferred it before.”

If there’s tension in the community over the rising tide of travellers, it’s impossible to feel it as I explore the white-washed lanes of the historic centre later that day. Surf shops, upmarket clothing boutiques and cafes serving poke bowls fit alongside timewarp tavernas and bakeries selling ouriços (local almond cakes). I discover houses inlaid with antique tiles petitioning saints against maritime disasters and modern street art filled with surfing motifs. The sport may be a relatively new phenomenon in this traditional fishing community founded in 1229, but it’s already woven into the very fabric — and driving the local economy.

“It’s hard being a fisherman. The tides, the conditions. The older men are glad their sons can work in surf tourism for a good life and still live off the sea,” says Ana Vaz, from the region’s tourism bureau, the next day. We’re touring Ericeira’s interpretation centre, just off the main square.

Inside, an interactive model of the 2.5-mile coastline explains its seven distinct wave formations. Along with Ribeira d’Ilhas, there’s Pedra Branca and Reef, both found off Empa Beach; Crazy Left, Coxos and Cave, near Dois Irmãos Bay; and São Lourenço, a fast wave rising off a rocky plateau some 300 metres out from the beach. I finally begin to understand the geographical factors at play in creating conditions for surfing — and get a sense, too, of the culture and marine ecosystem locals are keen to preserve.

“Ericeira is no stranger to visitors. It was founded by seafarers, and its mineral-rich waters were discovered by travellers centuries ago, even before Vila Galé hotel was built,” Ana says, referencing the palatial local icon, built in 1955. Since the start of the pandemic, record numbers of digital nomads have also made Ericeira their temporary home. “The challenge is balancing the needs of new visitors with those of the residents, and encouraging travellers to explore beyond the World Surfing Reserve. There’s so much to do if you look inland, too.”

Taking this as a challenge, I plot a path into the department of Mafra. I pass rolling green pastures peppered with lemon farms; small stone villages like José Franco, famed for ceramics; and family-run vineyards such as Quinta de Sant’Ana. At the heart of the region is the sumptuous Palace of Mafra. Built by King João V in the 18th century, the baroque edifice is buttressed by a basilica, convent and the 2,000-acre walled Tapada hunting grounds.

It’s in the hilltop honeypot of Sintra, to the south, that I try my hand at another sport. The flowering town, with its old fortresses and crooked alleyways, needs little introduction — 19th-century poet Lord Byron is among the many British travellers to have fallen for its charms, describing it as a ‘glorious Eden’. But few visitors would guess that the granite mountain slabs stacked beneath the western ramparts of the 8th-century Moorish Castle offer some of the best rock climbing in the country.

“You have to trust. In your feet, your equipment, your mind,” says Luis Batista, a climbing instructor from adventure sports company Desnivel, as he tightens my harness. “It’ll be worth it for the view.” We crane our necks at the 150ft-high mass of stone rising from the forested path. This is Penedo da Amizade, the largest cliff face in Sintra, with a purported 72 different near-vertical paths of ascent. Luis gets me started on an easy grade III, which he first models nimbly, demonstrating how to grip onto sheer surfaces and leverage body weight to climb. As with surfing, my first attempts aren’t steady or dignified, and fear mixes queasily with resolve. But on my third ascent, something clicks. I trust my feet. I reach higher. I find purchase where none could be found before, and I make it to the top.

The western coast of Portugal is laid out below me like a map, land unfurling towards a binary expanse of ocean and sky. The past week has seen me exploring both of these unlikely domains, learning new skills — and gaining new perspectives — alongside experts who’ve made riding waves and scaling lofty heights the focus of their lives. I take a moment to drink in the scene: the tiny, turreted pleasure palaces of Sintra dotted below and the gulls gliding by on balmy thermals. But only for a moment. Luis is calling out and it’s time to come back down to earth.

Niagara: A helicopter pilot’s perspective
“I originally came to Ontario for three years, and that was 20 years ago! I came to Toronto and loved the hustle and bustle—it’s such a cultural melting pot, no matter who you are or where you come from, you’re welcomed with open arms. Niagara is for the thrill seeker, especially through the window of a helicopter. It’s such a rush seeing the curvature of the Earth, and the natural wonder of the falls in different contexts; brilliant sun, wind, rainbows arching over the cascading water. I’ve been over the falls in the region of 45,000 times, showing all manner of people the sights—families, retirees, couples from all over the world. It’s always a thrill, for them and me!”