Global Travel News

The traditional prayers for good fortune took on greater meaning this year as people around Asia on Tuesday ushered in the Lunar New Year – the third since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak – amid concerns over the coronavirus and virulent omicron variant, even as increasing vaccination rates raised hopes that the Year of the Tiger might bring life back closer to normal.

The Lunar New Year is the most important annual holiday in China and fell on Feb. 1. Each year is named after one of 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac in a repeating cycle. The Year of the Tiger follows the Year of the Ox.

Celebrations across Asia this year were again more subdued than usual, with people taking strict health and safety precautions, and some traditional festivities either reduced in size or cancelled.

In the Japanese capital, the Tokyo Tower was illuminated in red with a display to celebrate the diplomatic relationship between Japan and China, and the Beijing Winter Olympics.

In Cambodia, ethnic Chinese people performed a traditional dragon dance in Phnom Penh, while people prayed for good fortune at the Tai Hong Kong Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand.

In Hong Kong, which saw a surge in cases in January, people wore surgical masks as they shopped for red and tiger-themed holiday items. The city has closed schools because of the outbreaks and required restaurants to close at 6 p.m., forcing many to dine at home for traditional New Year’s Eve family dinners.

With the Year of the Tiger, many are hoping the traditional powers attributed to the animal will help put the country on a path out of the pandemic, said Chen Lianshan, a Beijing university expert on Chinese folklore.

“The tiger is a protection against evil spirits and it can defeat demons and ghosts of all kinds, and the Chinese believe that the plague is one kind of an evil spirit,” he said.

Elsewhere in Asia, there were signs that celebrations were subdued, though not quite as much as they were last year. Despite ongoing pandemic restrictions, most people are now vaccinated with at least two shots in many of the region’s countries.

In the old quarter of Hanoi, people flocked on the weekend to the traditional market to get decorations and flowers for the festival, known as Tet in Vietnam. Still, the country has cancelled Tet fireworks and other large events to minimize risks this year.

In Thailand, where 69% of people are fully vaccinated, Bangkok decided not to hold traditional Lunar New Year celebrations in Chinatown for the second year in a row, but was going ahead with lighting seasonal lanterns on the district’s main street.

In Singapore, Lunar New Year celebrations are more subdued due to coronavirus restrictions that allow residents to receive only five unique visitors a day, and preferably only one visit daily. The rules are likely to get in the way of the tradition of visiting relatives during the holiday.

Business was brisk at a flower market in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei on Monday as people made last minute purchases. Some 73% of Taiwanese are fully vaccinated.

Empowered by an 85% vaccination rate more Chinese have been travelling domestically this year despite government warnings, and many people prepared to celebrate by buying red lanterns and other decorations for their homes, and food to mark the beginning of a new year.

Still, 63-year-old retiree Huang Ping lamented as he shopped at a Beijing flower market that the new year’s “atmosphere has faded” with the closure of temples and seasonal fairs to prevent large crowds. He said he hoped for better times soon.

Some 260 million people travelled in China in the first 10 days of the holiday rush starting Jan. 17 – fewer than before the pandemic but up 46% over last year. Overall, the government forecasts 1.2 billion trips during the holiday season, up 36% from a year ago.

This year the celebrations coincide with the Beijing Winter Olympics, which open near the end of the weeklong holiday. The Chinese capital has been tightening controls to contain coronavirus outbreaks ahead of the sporting event.

The Games are being held inside sealed-off “bubbles,” and organizers have announced that no tickets will be sold to the general public and only selected spectators will be allowed.

“I’ll watch the games with my kid,” said Wang Zhuo, a retail manager from Beijing, “but of course on TV!”

First published at Travel Industry Today

First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News

When you think about it, Jamaica has many tourism touchstones – sun, sand, and Sandals, amongst them, not to the mention the famously friendly people. But more distinctly, visitors also think of Bob Marley/reggae music, Red Stripe and rum, Blue Mountain coffee and jerk seasoning, superb slang (irie, ya mon!), James Bond (or at least 007 author Ian Fleming who wrote the spy novels there), and, naturally, bobsleds!

The latter, of course, relates to the now legendary story of the 1988 Jamaican bobsled team – four athletes who had never seen snow – inexplicably qualifying to take part in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

Such was the improbability – and renown – of the tale that it was turned into the 1993 Disney movie “Cool Runnings,” starring the beloved late Canadian comedian John Candy.

“I just want to tell you, everywhere I go in the world, a reference point is ‘Cool Runnings,’” Jamaican tourism minister Edmund Bartlett said at a virtual press event Friday. “It’s an amazing impact we made on the global scene, not just in entertainment and film but in giving a definition of Jamaica that lingers. People still see us as being that unique country that created a unique experience of bobsleighers who had never seen snow.”

(Ed. note: bobsled/bobsleigh are synonymous terms, the former predominantly used in North America).

And now with Jamaican athletes once again ready to intrigue the world by participating in bobsled disciplines (as well as alpine skiing for the first time) at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing starting later this week, Jamaican tourism is primed once more to slide along on the ride.

Indeed, the ministry of tourism and industry partners (including Sandals) have even contributed J$3 million ($24,533) to the Jamaica Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation to help support a sport that has amazingly become synonymous with the Caribbean nation.

Certainly, Jamaica is known for sport – particularly its renowned for its sprinters, and most notably Usain Bolt who carved out a career as the world’s undisputed fastest human being. And in 1998, the ‘Reggae Boyz’ mimicked the bobsled team, taking the World Cup of Soccer in France by storm as the Caribbean’s first English-speaking country to reach the final.

But it was the unlikely emergence of the Jamaican bobsled team in the ‘80s – winter athletes from a nation that trades on being an antidote to winter – that found its way into the global consciousness, and whose indomitable spirit and tenacity was captured in what has become a cult classic film.

And similar interest in this year’s team (which will compete in not one but three bobsled events) will clearly delight Jamaica tourism officials, who even unveiled an official team theme song – “Rocket Blaster” – on Friday, with culture and entertainment minister Olivia Grange declaring, “Jamaica will be the hottest thing on ice” at the Beijing Games.

But the participation of the bobsled boyz – and girlz – speaks to a larger issue, says Bartlett, namely the development and diversification of Jamaica’s tourism product.

“Entertainment and sport are going to be to mega pillars on which the new tourism is going to be built,” he adds. “Sport is going to be critical. We need to respond to people’s passions and build products around their passion points.”

In the meantime, Grange says Jamaica will take advantage of her nation’s outsize reputation on the international sporting scene to generate exposure and interest.

“Whenever there is a global sport event,” she says, “we can guarantee one thing: Jamaica will get great exposure – during, before and after the event. And we have been seeing that great exposure for Jamaica over the last few weeks as the world gets ready for the Winter Olympics… The stories about the extraordinary bobsleigh and skeleton representatives in the 2022 Games have been the greatest advertisement about everything we want the world to hear and see about Jamaica.”

Further, she observes, Jamaican athletes are “great ambassadors” for the country. “They may not be giving the explicit invitation for people to come to Jamaica,” she says, “but their presence on the world scene has caused so many people to ‘make it Jamaica.’ In their role as sports and cultural representatives, every single one of them has contributed meaningfully to Jamaica, especially in the areas of commerce, travel and tourism.”

Grange says her culture ministry supports 40 national sports federations in the country and has contributed J$70 million (approx. $572,500) to the bobsled team’s preparation for the Winter Games alone.

She adds that their success and profile is especially welcome this year as Jamaica celebrates its 60th anniversary of independence.

“Who could have imagined that our nation could have such an impact on sport and culture in such a short time,” exclaims Grange. “The (bobsled) teams are a reminder – and proof – that nothing is impossible. We don’t have no snow, but here we are, competing with the world’s best in winter sports!”

First published at Travel Industry Today

First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News