"I am a real tourism ambassador"

Having found the other half in the dryer, VOV debuts the next tourism ambassador. She likes a nice silk Ao Dai too.

Visit Landscapes of The Hobbit & LOTR in Glenorchy & Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, known as the adventure capital of New Zealand and renowned for its spectacular lake and mountain scenery, has also been a major base of operations in filming of both the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit prequels.

Dozens of nearby locations were used in the movies, making Queenstown a great base from which visitors can explore Middle Earth. Finding some of the remote locations can be a daunting task, though Ian Brodie’s excellent ‘The Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook,’ complete with maps, directions and GPS coordinates, makes this a lot easier.

Several tour operators in and around Queenstown also lead well-organized trips to see and experience scene locations from the movies, complete with expert guides who can fill you in on the latest developments in filming for The Hobbit.

I explored film locations northwest of Queenstown, along Lake Wakatipu, with the fantastic Pure Glenorchy Overland Tours. The tour included a memorable picnic lunch at a lake in Mount Aspiring National Park.

The ‘Wizard’s Vale,’ otherwise known as Nan Curunir in Tolkien’s Middle Earth, was a brief cut-scene used in the movies.

This location along Lake Wakatipu was the place in The Two Towers where Sam, Gollum and Frodo argued over the brace of conies and then encountered the Oliphants (giant elephant-like creatures).

The mountains across lake Wakatipu, on the way to Glenorchy.

The elven forests of Lothlorien, at the south end of Mount Aspiring National Park

The only sign that Peter Jackson’s gang was ever here in ‘Lothlorien’ is a camera rig forgotten and left hanging in a tree, still there more than 10 years later.

This landscape (minus the fence) was used for scenery around the tower of Isengard in Lord of the Rings.

This wetlands near Glenorchy was used as the scenery for the Dead Marshes in The Two Towers. It is such a fragile ecosystem and so vital to wetlands birds that Peter Jackson wasn’t allowed to actually bring all the people and equipment for the location shoot here. Instead he filmed the scenery then reassembled the landscape he desired on computers at his studio in Miramar.

Beautiful scenery at Glenorchy, New Zealand.

Beorn’s House. This scenery was recently used for a location film shoot of The Hobbit. The house of Beorn, a shape-shifting character in The Hobbit, was constructed at the site, at the right end of the forest under the mountains, for filming. It was torn down when the filming was finished and the landscape restored to its original state. The first instalment of The Hobbit is scheduled to premier in Wellington in December, 2012.

Contact Pure Glenorchy to book your adventure in the landscapes of Middle Earth.

Pure Glenorchy Overland Tours
tel: +64 3 441 1079
toll free: 0800 787 349
www.pureglenorchy.com

Book a Queenstown hotel with my trusted parter, Agoda:

Red my previous post about The Hobbit film locations around New Zealand. Visit Tourism New Zealand’s website and the official website of Queenstown New Zealand Tourism for more information too: www.newzealand.com and www.queenstownnz.co.nz. And stay tuned, I have a Hobbit-themed article coming out in Jetstar Airline's onboard magazine next month too...

All images above, as always, are copyright Adam Bray 2012 and may not be published elsewhere without permission.

Ho Chi Mermaids & VC Honey Badgers

The South China Sea dispute between Vietnam and China continues to fester through a state propaganda tit for tat.

As predicted in my earlier post on the most recent incident between the two communist countries, the USA has remained on the side lines this time around, in an effort to secure China’s participation in putting Iran back in the cage.

This has left Vietnam to reach out to other neighbours, pushing them in front. In this round of tension, instead of American war ships heading to the South China Sea to diffuse things, we have official visits from the Japanese and Burmese navies. Vietnam has made good use of the opportunities with dozens of ‘See China, we have friends with big boats, so don’t screw with us’ stories in the press (never mind that at the first sign of trouble the friends would sail home without hesitation).

We’ve seen a few more Photo-shopped galleries of naval performances in the Vietnamese media too, and photo journals of Vietnamese life on the atoll stilt-shanties, er ‘islands.’

Tuoi Tre, Vietnam's popular English-language newspaper, has treated us to more than one story on Vietnam’s new military helicopters and special ops. With all the sincerity of a tiny, 3^rd-World Marxist regime that desperately wants to oppress with the big dictators, but with the unintended delivery style of Randall's 'Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger',  they’ve given us veritable Viet Cong Honey Badgers (warning: course language in that video link).

From ‘state-of-the-art-aircraft’ with ‘crashworthy seats’ to the ‘4-axis automatic pilot significantly reduces flight crew workload,’ we can be sure that Vietnam’s crew are willing and able.

Vietnam’s special ops pilots are highly trained for precision missions with a high success rate.

“The content of the crew was to ensure operations in emergency situations when one of the two engines broken down at sea and safely pilot it back to a nearby army base, landing with air cushion trouble, plane’ failure of hydraulic power system, and operating from a very small helipad at sea or on shore.”

China can be sure that Vietnam’s men are ready for any mission.

“I felt embarrassed when I was sitting in the driving seat facing the automatic flight control panel,” Huy admitted. “It’s so modern and complicated.”

Vietnam’s ‘urgent’ anti-terrorism special forces are not only badger-like but also “possess swift combat skills like a falcon; they climb vertical walls of several meters, climb water pipes and operate on the roof without a sound.”

Vietnam’s men are always prepared:

Captain Thieu Dinh Truc says, “While training, there were always an ambulance and a water-supply car running alongside….”

Make no mistake China, Vietnam’s special ops are expert marksmen.

“They let us shoot as we pleased, just so that we could feel the trigger and get used to the firing sound, then came the more focused training such as shooting from many positions, landing, climbing, and jumping skills while in combat”.

With only a day’s supply of alcohol and sleeping “1hr a night for 4 months” they kill woodland creatures to eat and role play to get ready for their mission.

In case the special ops fail, Vietnam has another battle resource: monks. Its unclear if the weaponized monks are the renowned, flame-throwing monks of Chua Thien Mu, or if the monks are highly-trained Chinese missile-interceptors. Either way, The government announced that it is shipping a gaggle of them out to the islands this week and expects good things.

Meanwhile, if you ever thought Ho Chi Minh had a messianic air about him, apparently he walked on water too. Since last year Hanoi has been pushing the preservation of a ‘Ho Chi Minh Trail on the Sea.’ The cadres up north believe that if they can established an alleged sea route for shipping North Vietnam’s war supplies via the Spratlys and Paracels during the war, then it would help support their claim of ownership on the Islands. Never mind that this argument wouldn’t go over very well if applied to the real, er, ‘land version’ of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, much of which runs on the Laos and Cambodia side of the border…

I’m sure next we’ll be re-educated on the ‘Cu Chi Tunnels of the Sea.’ How industrious the brave Viet Cong doctors must have been, administering life-saving intravenous solutions of sea water… using old bicycle tires for tubing. And the ingenious air filtration systems running dozens of metres down to the sea floor and then hundreds of kilometres to Hanoi to pipe in only the sweetest air... all made of bamboo, of course. 

Vietnam Tourism Numbers Inflated by 40% Year on Year

Everyone living in Vietnam assumed it. Government tourism statistics just didn't match reality. Claims of huge influxes of tourists were common, yet tourist venues remained only moderately busy at best. We all figured the government was lumping in ALL foreign arrivals whenever state-controlled media gave us the 'tourism' arrival statistics. It turns out we are right. Below is a subset of data from the Vietnam government's General Statistics Office. The total numbers reported by the Vietnam press end up being inflated by an average of 40% because they include business, family visits and other (presumably diplomats, students, etc). The government only gave us the grand totals when they announced the latest 'foreign tourist arrivals' before, but never broke it down for us--they never told the truth.

Year	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
TOTAL (thousands)	3477.5	3583.5	4229.3	4235.8	3747.4	5049.9
Tourism	2038.5	2068.9	2605.7	2612.9	2240.9	3110.4
Business	495.6	575.8	673.8	844.3	742.1	1023.6
Visiting friend & relative	508.2	560.9	601.0	510.5	517.8	574.1
Others	435.2	377.9	348.8	268.1	246.6	341.7

While I don't have the precise breakdown for 2011, we know the government claimed there was a total of about 6 million foreign tourist arrivals to Vietnam last year. If the figures were inflated at the same rate as previous years, that means there may have really only been about 3.6 million foreign tourists.

This doesn't necessarily change the fact that a certain number of foreigners actually arrived in Vietnam (unless the actual data has been tampered with, which happens a lot in Vietnam), but here's the real problem: Businessmen, students, diplomats and other assorted non-tourist visitors neither spend their money in the same way, nor the same amounts as do tourists. A visiting student in Saigon may never take a cruise in Halong Bay. A businessman in Hanoi for the week may never take the train for a weekend in Sapa. Neither will behave like a tourist, and both might just stay where they are and spend very little money. Dishonestly about tourist statistics by the government leads to a lot of adverse, complicated, and far-reaching effects for business planning, marketing and management in the tourism industry.

Tourism New Zealand’s TripAdvisor Uproar

Tourism New Zealand raised a fuss recently when it added a TripAdvisor ratings function to the national tourism board’s own Qualmark ratings system. Tourism venues in New Zealand display TNZ’s Qualmarks on websites and at their place of business. Tripadvisor claims to be the world’s largest travel website.

As both a professional travel writer and website designer who has specialized in tourism sites, I happen to have very strong feelings on the issue. I always advise tourism businesses not to link to TripAdvisor. Here’s why:

TripAdvisor allows users to freely write reviews of hotels, restaurants and other venues; both good and bad. It is well known for generating fake reviews as well; both positive and negative, either from businesses trying to boost their status, or disgruntled customers (and competitors) trying to tear them down. This is why TNZ's move has upset more than a few New Zealand business owners.

The purpose of a website, of any marketing endeavour, is for a company to take control of their image and put their best foot forward. Linking to TripAdvisor takes all that control away from the business and hands it to TripAdvisor. Businesses can respond to user reviews on the site if they go through an application process, but they can not remove them.

The problem here, as everyone knows, is that a single negative review (in any sphere) has far more impact than a whole group of positive reviews. As a business, would you want to use the one opportunity you have online to craft your own image and show your best side, and instead paste a negative review on the front of your website? When a business links to TripAdvisor, that is quite often exactly what they were doing. I would advise businesses to never link to any site that they have no affiliation with, which has the ability or purpose to evaluate their business without any accountability to that business.

Tourism New Zealand’s job should be to promote the businesses of New Zealand equally and fairly. As arguably one of the best tourism administrations in the world, TNZ has generally done this. However, by linking to TripAdvisor, New Zealand surrenders this role, and its own sovereignty and the online reputations of its businesses, to a private American company with no responsibility or accountability to either the government or the businesses that TNZ is representing.

TripAdvisor is here to stay, for now. User reviews will continue. Let TripAdvisor be TripAdvisor. Businesses can choose to participate by monitoring and responding to reviews as they wish (often out of panic rather than appreciation for TripAdvisor), but my advice to tourism businesses is do not undermine your own right and ability to craft your own image by linking to TA.

Business management is not a democracy. Businesses have no responsibility to share all the criticisms they receive with the public. Neither businesses nor individuals should ever allow others to define them. People will always have opinions, and in free countries express them, but there’s no reason to wear them around our necks. If you receive a good review, by all means quote it on your website. But don’t link to an unfiltered list of reviews that has a potential to do your business harm.

How Iran is Suddenly Complicating Politics in the South China Sea

Last week Vietnam issued a statement that it was ‘reaffirming its sovereignty’ over the Spratly and Paracel Islands; disputed maritime territory which China largely controls. The press said that the statement was in response to new announcements made by China about plans to develop the islands.

I commented last week to friends, and online, that whenever Vietnam does this, it means there has been a secret skirmish between the two countries at sea.

A few days later, Vietnam issued a bizarre story in state-controlled press that it had concluded a friendly meeting with China and came to an agreement of mutual understanding on issues related to the South China Sea. Such meetings are always red flags.

Then today Vietnam finally announced that last week, government statements were actually in response to Vietnamese fishing vessels that were detained by the Chinese navy, who allegedly assaulted the Vietnamese fishermen on board.

It should be noted as well that Vietnamese ‘fishermen’ actually means Vietnamese naval officers in disguise. Communist agents, police and military in Vietnam seem to routinely spend as much time in plain cloths working undercover as they do in uniform. Do a Google search and you’ll find that prior to every discussion of the South China Sea (positive or negative), there is a mysterious incident of Vietnamese ‘fishermen’ lost at sea or ‘attacked by pirates’ near the islands controlled by China.

Now, what does this have to do with Iran, you ask? Lets take a step back to other event this week.

The US just announced that North Korea has agreed to suspend nuclear activities and missile tests in exchange for food aid from the US. North Korea is a key ally and supporter of Iran’s nuclear program and its likely this new arrangement with the US will curtail cooperation between North Korea and Iran.

Officials in the US this week have suddenly accused Saudi Arabia of involvement in 9/11 attacks in the US. The US government has had this information for about a decade. Why is it only now coming out? The US is exerting pressure on Saudi Arabia to back the US against Iran. If it doesn’t, I’m sure we can expect more revelations about Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks.

The US is going around the world pulling strings in order to pressure other countries to help the US government contain Iran--before a world war erupts—an event which appears to now be dangerously close to fruition. The key players remaining in the game however, other than the US, are actually China and Russia.

One can only imagine what the US and Russia are discussing—perhaps a promise of no more derogatory comments from Clinton about Putin during this period of national elections and protest.

It’s clear what the conditions laid out by China to the US are: If you (the US) want support with Iran, then let us (China) have the South China Sea. 

It’s a heavy price, and its not clear that the US is willing to pay, but that hasn’t stopped China from testing the waters. Last year, after several violent incidents between China and Vietnam, the Vietnamese press announced that the US just happened to be sending war ships into the region. The US didn't always make the announcements themselves, nor confirm statements by the Vietnam government (nor was the information usually mentioned by the press outside of Vietnam). It was obvious however, that Vietnam was sending a message to China. If the US concedes to China in this most recent bout of conflict, we may see the US sit on the sidelines this time while Vietnam loses advantage at sea.


Up until now the US has sought to keep the seas open, not only as a means of transport and trade in Southeast Asia, but also because of rich maritime oil reserves in the region. The US has rapidly strengthened ties with Vietnam over the last decade, including assistance joining the WTO, frequent visits by high-level US government officials, substantial economic and relief aid, and even rumours of military agreements. All of this appears to be an attempt to ally with Vietnam in order to contain its northern neighbour.

As I already stated in my predictions for 2012, there will be heightened tension between Vietnam, China and the US this year over the South China Sea. The question is however, whether the South China Sea, or Iran will motivate the US more in its foreign policy—and how China will respond, particularly in regard to other key players in the disputed territory, including Taiwan, Philippines and Vietnam.