“The wind is in from Africa, last night I couldn’t sleep.”

–from Carey by Joni Mitchell

It’s almost time for Indaba. South Africa’s Travel Indaba will take place this year May 9-11 at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa. The return of Indaba every May reminds me of all the reasons I love South Africa and am constantly trying to get my American friends to go there and experience it. Read the rest of this entry »

While Covid laid waste restaurants, entertainment and tourism businesses, it didn’t hurt Netflix any. Netflix gained 8 million subscribers in 2020. And you don’t need market research to know that people spent a lot more time watching screens in 2020 than in 2019.

Long before the passenger jet industry made global travel easy and accessible, movies were already established as one of the best ways to travel if you couldn’t leave your hometown. Travel scenes have always been a large part of the appeal of movies. And movies are great vehicles for promotion of places where they are set.

Even if the movie does not feature iconic scenes in Paris, New York, Rio or the African bush, it takes you somewhere besides where your physical body is presently seated. We traveled virtually in movies long before anyone used the word “virtual” the way we do now. During 2020 and the Covid pandemic, most people all over the world were restrained from Read the rest of this entry »