Need a tourism boost? Invite Will/Kate or Harry ... Sing along at Abbey Road

From Alberta to Albania, tourism boards and governments around the world spend millions of dollars researching ways to boost the number of tourist visits.

They're all so stupid, really. I mean, the answer is right there in the morning drive-time TV shows and on the cover of the French tabloids. It's the three little magic words of modern tourism; Will, Kate and Harry.

When Prince Harry recently revealed his uh, great personality, in Las Vegas, bookings went through the roof. It was the best thing that had happened to Sin City since the Rat Pack breezed into town and settled in for a few billion martinis and steaks.

Now, we're apparently seeing something similar at play with Malaysia and Singapore. Travelmole.com reports bookings for both places "have jumped by more than a third due to publicity surrounding the recent visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge."

Prince William and Kate Middleton spent two recent nights in Singapore's Raffles hotel, a sumptuous spot that's the birthplace of the renowned Singapore Sling drink. They also visited the country's Botanical Gardens, the Kranji Memorial Cemetry and the Gardens by the Bay before travelling on to Malaysia.

There, they took in the sights of the capital Kuala Lumpur and then made their way to the jungles of Sabah. Travelmole says they stayed at the Borneo Rainforest Lodge, an exclusive retreat.

Lastminute.com said sales of flights and hotels in Singapore had gone up by 51% while bookings to Malaysia were up 34% compared with the same period last year.

So there you go. It's simple. Make friends with Joe, or whoever it is that does the schedule making for the royal family and get them to add you to the itinerary. Then stand back and watch the dollars roll in.

You won't need a fancy campaign with little hearts above the name of your city. You won't even need a Facebook page or a video contest where folks send in moving images of why they want to drop EVERYTHING IN THEIR ENTIRE LIVES to spend a week in Sarnia. You just need Will or Kate (preferably Kate) or Harry (along with a case or two of Budweiser if you want to get him going).

Of course, it helps if you can convince one of them to shed some clothing. This, to my knowledge, did not happen in public when Will and Kate were in Canada's far north last year. Consequently, there have been no plans announced as yet for a Trump Tower and golf course and spa with diamond-encrusted lockers in downtown Yellowknife.

Another point to make here: try for the younger royals. For some reason, having Prince Philip drop by doesn't seem to generate the same frisson of excitement as the tween idols. Ditto for Prince Edward and Princess Sophie, who've been on a tour of Canada of late and have stopped just short of dominating the nightly news cycle.

Food for thought.

ABBEY ROAD/SAVOY DEAL IN LONDON - WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!

It's not every day I get blown away by a promotion. I get, literally, dozens and dozens of emails a day to promote this hotel deal in St. Bart's or this restaurant opening in St. Tropez. Often there are invitations sent along, as if I can just drop what I'm doing and take the next flight to France and go to this cool restaurant and that, of course, I'd mention it on the front page of that week's Travel section.

Anyway, I get them all the time and it's easy to get jaded by it. But the other day came one that had me in near tears, owing to the fact that there's simply no way I can spend the Star's money on something like this.

Here's the deal: Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Abbey Road studios and The Savoy, a Fairmont managed hotel, "are joining forces to offer guests the opportunity of a lifetime with a new Record a Song Experience."

The press release says the offer "invites guests behind the velvet ropes (bestill my beating heart) for a behind-the-scenes look at one of the world's most iconic recording studios, which is not accessible to the public, where legends like The Beatles and Pink Floyd have recorded."

Once inside, "guests will get the ultimate rock star treatment when they record a group song from the Abbey Road catalogue."

OH MY LORD. Or should I say MY SWEET LORD (technically a George Harrison solo effort but you get the point).

As a memento, guests will hear their record in a playback session at the studio (do I really have to hear myself sing?) and receive a copy of their recording, professionally mixed and mastered (and hopefully overdubbed with Ringo's voice) by Abbey Road Studios engineers, which they can take home and hopefully never play at a party.

Guests also get a two-night stay at the Savoy with a welcome reception, a cocktail master class and a Sunday jazz lunch. Jazz? The experience is available Oct. 12-14 and Nov. 16-18 with 10 packages per weekend. Rates start at 780 British pounds per person, based on double occupancy, but that's still a bargain in my book.

PORTER HEADS BACK TO VERMONT

Porter Airlines says it's preparing for another year of service between Toronto's island airport and Burlington, Vermont. There will be four weekly roundtrip options this year, compared to just two last year.

The flights are great for folks heading to the ski hills of Vermont, and the Porter flights run from Dec. 15 to April 8. There are special Porter ski packages and shuttle bus service for Jay Peak, Smugglers' Notch Resort, Stowe Mountain Resort and Sugarbush Resort at www.skivermont.com/flyporter.

 

Chinese tourists flocking to Sheratons and Westin hotels

Everyone is chasing the Chinese.

Every day, it seems, I get a google alert from somewhere in the world where some tourism official stands up at an Elks Club meeting or Chamber of Commerce rubber chicken lunch and proclaims "I have seen the future of tourism and it is China."

Of course, not EVERYONE is going to get an increase in tourism from China. It seems Toronto has done fairly well, partly because we're close to Niagara Falls and partly due to our immigration patterns and perhaps also partly because we're close to New York City.

I suspect folks in Winnipeg and Philadelphia and Denver will have a slightly tougher go than us in grabbing what is surely going to be an immense future market.

Actually, it might not be as hard to get Chinese tourists as some cities might think. According to a study on Chinese hotel booking habits, maybe the easiest thing to do is to change all your hotels into a Sheraton or a Westin; both part of the Starwood chain.

CNN says a report by a Swiss-based luxury market research firm - based on an analysis of 170 million Internet searches between January and March - shows that those two brands are at the top of the heap for Chinese tourists.

Here's the full top 10:

1. Sheraton

2. Hilton

3. Shangri-La

4. InterContinental

5. Westin

6. Four Seasons

7. The Peninsula

8. Kempinski

9. Nikko

10. Ritz-Carlton

I'm surprised that the Ritz is that far down the list as, from what I've seen, well-to-do Chinese consumers often love the real luxury brands. Then again, the report says findings confirm what many folks in the west already suspected, which is that brands who got into China early have the greatest loyalty.

"As the saying goes 'the early bird catches the worm,' and in this case it is true," the report says. "Sheraton was the first western hotel brand to begin operations in China in 1985 [after the economic opening-up], and today it is the most searched-for hotel."

BROOOOOOOCCCCCEEEE!!

On a personal note, I just gotta say that Bruce Springsteen's show at the Rogers Centre Friday night was utterly spectacular. Easily the best I can remember seeing, and I've been to at least six of his shows over the years. He was animated and having a wonderful time and the crowd was eating it up on a perfect summer's night with the roof open and the CN Tower flashing lights and a real festival atmosphere.

According to his website, Bruce came off the stage after his 3 hour, 42 minute marathon and told his band mates it was the best Toronto crowd he'd ever had.

He's playing in Hamilton and Ottawa in October, and any fan who hasn't booked a ticket yet ought to give their head a shake.

 

 

Brace yourselves - flying is getting even more uncomfortable these days ...

Hard to believe it could get worse, but flying is about to do just that.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the airport, a look around the world of aviation finds that airlines are now stampeding to REDUCE leg space on their planes.

For those who missed it, one of the first out of the gate was our very own WestJet, which recently announced it was creating a super economy section with higher fares and that to do so it would have to reduce leg room for the rest of us poor slobs.

JetBlue Airways, which the Boston Globe reports has “long boasted the most legroom in the industry,” announced earlier in August that it had taken an inch of legroom in the back 11 rows of its Embraer E 190 planes so it could give more space to folks buying more expensive tickets.

Now Southwest is reconfiguring some of its planes, adding six rows of seats so it can create rows with extra legroom for folks willing to pay for it. That apparently means about an inch less space for other folks.

The Globe tells the story of passenger Justin Klein, who’s 6-3 and recently found his knees crunched on a Southwest plane, and also found he wasn’t able to recline his seat as far.

A decade ago, the standard distance between seats on a plane was 32 inches. Now it’s 31 inches. It may not sound like much, but it makes a big difference in comfort on a flight, especially a long one.

I’ve never flown with them, but Spirit Airlines is said to have a pitch of just 28 inches on all its planes, which explains their lower prices.

Yeah, flying is so glamorous these days. Want a pillow? You’ll need a VISA card. Want a sandwich? Got ten bucks on ya? You want to take that Christmas present to Aunt Martha in Winnipeg? That’ll be $25 for the extra bag, sir.

Unbelievable.

The Boston Globe story talks about how several U.S. airlines are charging extra for window or aisle seats. Which makes for fewer “regular” economy seats. Which makes it harder for families, for example, to find a row of “regular” economy seats together, by which I mean economy seats where they charge you $800 to fly to Los Angeles.

I mean, have you looked at prices lately? I’m considering a flight to Miami and it was going to be $550 on Air Canada. I was looking at maybe taking a flight to New Zealand and just from L.A. it was $1,800. Let alone the cost of getting to L.A.

UNLEASH YOUR INNER YODELER

Great story from Associated Press out of Vienna, saying that the country has inaugurated a new hiking path where participants are encouraged to let loose with a nice yodel.

At rest stops along the way, hikers can push a button and hear a recorded yodel in, wait for it, two-part harmony.

There are harmony yodelers? Really? Even for a country like Austria I find this hard to believe.

 

A short meeting with American music star Rosanne Cash - wow!

It’s not everyday you get to meet a musical legend.

Wednesday night it was my turn as I got to chat briefly with country (mostly) star Rosanne Cash. It was only a minute, but I quickly got a sense of her intelligence and wit.

I asked her how long she’s been on her tour, and she promptly replied, “About 30 years.”

Touche.

Cash was in southern Ontario for a concert at Hamilton Place (my first time there and I loved the intimate setting). The reason I was there, along with a bunch of travel types, is because there was an event prior to the show sponsored by Travel South USA, a U.S. organization that represents tourism in southern states, and by Brand USA, the group that’s pushing the first-ever U.S. government attempt at nation-wide marketing to potential tourists from overseas.

Until recently, U.S. tourism efforts were provided by states or regions or cities. But President Obama, sensing an opportunity to boost the American economy, opted to form a group that’s pushing the U.S. as a whole.

With that in mind they decided they needed a theme song. I’ll let Cash’s remarks from last night’s reception tell the rest of the story, as there’s no point in my getting in the way.

“I was contacted by (advertising/marketing agency) J. Walter Thompson and they told me the first-ever tourism campaign in U.S. history was going on. I was like, ‘The first time in history? Really? We’re just doing this?’”

Cash said she was told she could submit a song, so she and husband John Leventhal came up with Land of Dreams.

“We had to write and submit the song and I was a little worried. We (the U.S.) don’t exactly have a reputation for the most shy and retiring nation and I didn’t want something chest-thumping or red, white and blue.”

Rather than overt patriotism, Cash said she wanted “a modern This Land is Your Land.”

“For the government I knew it had to accessible right away,” she said of the song. “I didn’t want an American Express commercial or something glossy or jingoistic.”

Cash explained that she’s lived in New York for 20 years.

“It’s a small island off the coast of America,” she said with a laugh.

Cash said she was commissioned solely as the writer of the song and didn’t know if she’d get to sing.

“I got the word that I was going to sing it and then I really wanted to do the video. Then I got the word I could do that, too.”

The song and video are a paean to America that some folks feel could pass for a Canadian multiculturalism commercial. Cash starts the video singing with a band of musicians from all walks of life on what looks like the shores of the East River in New York. There are African-American musicians in New Orleans, cowboys on the range, folks drawing strange diagrams on a beach and an Asian-American couple dancing in Central Park., along the requisite – and beautiful – shots of majestic mountains and sleepy green bayous and colourful South Asian festivals and convertibles sliding through South Beach and deep red canyons of the west. All the while the Land of Dreams tune flows along gently, with kind words about the U.S. but no chest thumping.

The song sounds country but there are instruments from all over the world mixed in, giving it a full, rich and world-wide sound.

“So play your song to make them real, There’s a place for all we feel, And it’s closer than it seems, Come and find your land of dreams.”

I’m biased as I grew up in the U.S., but I find the video incredibly moving. It’s not just me, as the production has received great reviews from all over. Almost too great, Cash said with a smile.

“I’m kind of jealous cuz this is getting much more attention than my records,” she said. “But the images of America make me very proud.”

Cash said she’s been busy and that last night was the first chance she’s had to talk about the process with tourism folks.

“I really was concerned about this,” she said. “It wasn’t just a gig.”

I’d never met Cash before, and, to be honest, I wasn’t hugely familiar with her music. But I came away from the meeting hugely impressed with her character and intelligence.

The tourism folks were kind enough to give the media a copy of Cash’s latest CD, called The List. It’s a fabulous record, made up of songs her dad, Johnny Cash, had once written down for her on a legal pad as important country songs she should know about.

Cash was born in Tennesseee but grew up in southern California and now lives in New York. She’s seen a lot of the U.S. and experienced a lot of the U.S., and you can hear it in the music. She’s also been through a lot; having suffered through a rare brain condition and other medical issues. She was once married to country music star Rodney Crowell (author of the fabulous Til I Gain Control Again, covered by Blue Rodeo on their Five Days in July CD).

The List features duets with four stars of music: Bruce Springsteen, Rufus Wainwright, Elvis Costello and Jeff Tweedy of Wilco – a personal favourite of mine. She covers such tunes as Miss the Mississippi and You, Heartaches by the Number, 500 Miles, Girl from the North Country (a Bob Dylan tune) and Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow.

Great music from a great artist.

Dissecting sex toys in SF, Vegas party in L.A. and Great Places Canada votes

It was towards the end of the day when I was sitting at my press table here at the U.S. Travel Pow Wow meeting. I’d spent an hour and-a-half at a desk in a kind of reverse speed-dating procedure wherein tour operators or tourism types get a chance to turn the tables on the media by approaching us and asking questions or giving information, versus the other way around.

Anyway, I was nicely busy (I was afraid nobody would want to talk to me; which is a thought that probably occurs to everyone in this situation) and then, near the end, a nice woman from the Exploratorium in San Francisco approached my table and asked to have a word. After demanding five bucks, I relented and let her talk.

She proceeded to tell me how the facility – like the Ontario Science Centre but more hands-on as I recall – will be moving from the historic Palace of Fine Arts to one of the piers on San Francisco Bay; about midway between the Ferry Terminal and Pier 39. It all sounded fine, and the photos looked lovely and all that. But then she REALLY got my attention.

“We have all sorts of events,” she said. “Sometimes we do adults-only nights and serve cocktails.”

My ears perked up at that. And then came the kicker.

“Sometimes,” she said with a nonchalant voice, “we’ll dissect sex toys.”

Only in San Francisco, folks. Only in San Francisco.

FINAL DAY WRAPUP

Las Vegas is hosting next year’s Pow Wow, and they put on a great show on Wednesday at a grand finale lunch.

They had a couple of women done up in true Las Vegas style, with skimpy outfits (gee, ya hate to see that on a Wednesday) and giant hats and all that. And a couple of Elvis (natch) impersonators playing at a volume that was WAY TOO LOUD.

Anyway, the best part was a display of some truly incredible athletic performances from a couple of Cirque du Soleil shows, including Zumanity. I never thought I’d be much of a Cirque fan but I went to see the Beatles Love show a couple years ago and was utterly transfixed. A truly spectacular, colourful, wild and wonderful show filled with great music, of course, but also awe-inspiring costumes, effects and jaw-dropping jumps and swoops and aerial spins.

They’re doing a Michael Jackson show next year. Nice music, I guess, but not something I’d go to. The guy had talent but I can’t get past his creepy lifestyle…

Things wrapped up Wednesday night with a big bash at LA Live, the entertainment/restaurant/hotel complex downtown, next to the Staples Center. It was supposed to be outside in another location but the forecast called for a heavy rain so they had to shift it indoors. The show featured a deejay as well as the band Earth, Wind and Fire.

CANADA’S GREAT PLACES

The votes are in for this year’s Great Places Canada awards. Top street award went to Queen St. in Fredericton, N.B., while Osborne Village in Winnipeg was named best neighbourhood. Top public space went to the Cape Forchu Lighthouse in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

The awards are based on online voting numbers, plus a panel of experts. While Ontario got shut out of the overall awards, it did pick up two honours in the People's Choice category, which is based entirely on voting. Winning the People's Choice for best public space was the South March Highlands in Ottawa. The People's Choice for best neighbourhood was Woodfield, in London, Ontario.

 

Las Vegas and singer Matt Goss steal the show at tourism event, NYC news!

LOS ANGELES - Leave it to Las Vegas to trump the competition.

Tuesday was day two of the U.S. Tourism Pow Wow convention here in L.A., and there was a steady parade of press conferences.

Orlando brought in some cute, fuzzy characters. Sea World had a small group of penguins to promote their new Antarctica exhibit. (They were cute, but why on earth did I see a grown woman on her HANDS AND KNEES on the floor, trying to lure a penguin over towards her and pursing her lips as if seeking a kiss? I mean, geez, lady, these are wild animals on the floor of a convention centre. Leave them alone. And do you really want fish breath that badly?)

Vegas had a briefing session of its own, but instead of making reporters schlep down the hall for a press conference, they brought the conference to the media room and staged a late morning concert with singer Matt Goss, who headlines at Caesars Palace.

Goss is a great band singer and he had a smoking hot band with him, including a horn section that practically blew the keys off my laptop keyboard. My goodness, that’s a great, great band.

Goss plays regularly at Las Vegas and, despite not being a huge Vegas guy, I’d make the trip just to hear him sing – and to hear that band again.

Las Vegas officials said they attracted 38.9 million visitors last year, their second highest-ever.

“Las Vegas is back,” said convention and visitors authority chief Rossi Ralenkotter.

Orlando boasted that it drew a record 54 million visitors last year, while New York said it set a record with 50.5 million visits.

New York also announced that, for the first time ever, Canada sent more tourists to their city than any other country, with just over a million Canadians heading to town. The UK has traditionally been top of the list, A-number-one, but slipped behind Canada last year.

Brazil is charging up the charts in remarkable fashion when it comes to New York travel. They had barely 100,000 visits as recently as six years ago but New York officials predict a million will come by the year 2015. That’s a good thing, because they tend to spend a great deal of money on their shopping trips in Manhattan, and New York is aiming to increase its tourism economic impact from about $48 million last year to $70 billion by 2015.

New York put on a big show at lunch for some 6,000 Pow Wow delegates. They had a choir of kids singing New York New York as delegates entered the main balllroom. Then, over lunch, they had songs and dances performed by cast and crew members from Jersey Boys, Memphis, Spider-Man, Sister Act and the Lion King, which was probably best of them all in my book.

Folks seated at the New York City tourism table were given CD’s from several New York Broadway shows, which was a nice touch.

These Pow Wow meetings are filled with press conferences so that cities and tourism groups can get their message out. Almost all such gatherings feature a goodie or two for the freebie-mad media. Often it’s a scarf (Sea World) or a t shirt (the U.S. Travel Association) and a USB stick with data and images. But sometimes there’s a little more. And sometimes there’s a lot more.

Vegas, naturally, topped the billing on Tuesday. They gave out black bags that had miniature binoculars, Nobu green tea, Shadow Creek golf balls, a Tryst nightclub ball cap (hey, honey, look what I got you in L.A.!), lip balm, a Cirque du Soleil CD and more.

Tuesday night was party night. California put on a great mixology event with a Los Angeles couple that makes their own liquor and their own modifiers/liqeurs, both totally organic. They also source entirely organic fruits and herbs and make their own syrups from honey and make their own bitters.

They gave a handful of media types the chance to help mix their own cocktails, as even California doesn’t allow folks who aren’t licensed to pour their own alcohol into a cocktail shaker, even at a sanctioned tourism event. Mine had homemade spiced rum, lime and lemon juice, hibiscus liqeur, lavender liqeur (I think), honey syrup (like simple syrup but made with honey instead of white sugar) and a pinch of basil. Yum.

Later there was great Napa Valley wine from Duckhorn at a Visit California event, then New York City held a party on the ground floor cocktail bar at the JW Marriott, located at the L.A. Live hotel/restaurant complex next to the Staples Center. They had a guy cooking made to order macaroni and cheese, complete with toppings that included your choice of diced veggies, Serrano ham, pancetta, caramelized onions, bacon, truffle oil and more.

Upstairs, St. Petersburg/Clearwater had an outdoor bash next to the pool on the fourth floor in rather cool and blustery conditions. Almost everyone wore white and there were fountains and huge, Vegas-like ad displays on the walls of the condos and the Ritz Carlton next door.

San Francisco, host of the 2011 Pow Wow event, put on a crazy good show. They had a huge ballroom set up with a miniature Golden Gate Bridge and a series of bars and food stations and a DJ. They also had a pair of go-go dancers clad in white mini-skirts and skimpy tops and white go-go boots, as well as young male dancers stripped mostly down to the bare essentials.

The women were dancing in a section of the ballroom sponsored by Open Top sightseeing tours of San Francisco, and their shirts had the words “It’s better on top.”

I’d like to tell you more but after three parties I didn’t feel like taking notes or asking go-go dancers if I could take their picture…

Texas also had a big bash Tuesday night but I didn’t have the energy for it.

Wonderful and lively town of Lahaina: A highlight of any trip to Maui

LAHAINA - This might be one of the great towns of the world.

Folks ask me all the time about Maui and Hawaii, and one of the reasons I prefer West Maui and the Kaanapali/Napili area to Kihei/Wailea is the proximity to Lahaina.

It's got fabulous restaurants, a great waterfront, incredible history, several small beaches, good surfing, fun shopping and what might be the world's largest banyan tree; a 200-foot-wide, 60-foot high tree with more than a dozen trunks and hanging vines and a central spot in one of the main town squares, just inches from the Pacific. It's a great place for meeting folks or hanging out when they have their regular markets; nice and shady and cool in a city whose name in Hawaiian means "merciless sun." There are often musicians about, too.

The tree dates way back to 1873, when it was planted to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the New England missionaries who tried (and mostly succeeded) to tame Lahaina's wild reputation as a haven for seafaring types looking for entertainment on shore leave.

Just steps away are the ruins of an old fort; always a fun place for kids to climb. Across the street and down just a bit is old Baldwin Home, a missionary family house that's a great source of history and information that dates to 1834. Also on Front St. is the Wo Hing museum, which illustrates some of the history of the area's Chinese population and also has a small Taoist shrine. There's a small shack behind the main building that shows old-time movies of Hawaii produced by none other than Thomas Edison. Now THAT's a great history lesson.

It seems to me there are a few less galleries than in the past, but there still are lots of spots to buy up some pop art or a watercolour painting of your favourite Hawaii beach. Front St. also has dozens of jewelry shops with silver and gold and pearls done up in the shape of whales, turtles, palm trees, pineapples and, probably somehow somewhere even a Don Ho likeness. I love the Honolua Surf Company's clothing line, and I can't stop from loading up whenever I go to one of the many ABC stores in Hawaii. There are two on Front St., I think, and they offer everything from Hawaiian shirt-shaped notepads to Hula girl calendars to hibiscus flower towels and sand castle gear to groceries and suntan lotion and aspirin and liquor; pretty much everything you need.

Be sure to check out the historic Pioneer Inn right next to the Banyan Tree. It can be a bit noisy but it's a fun spot and there's a lovely courtyard and it's right in the action and only a few steps from the beach. It's also maybe 20 feet from the yacht harbour, where the whale-watching and snorkeling cruise ships depart, as well as general tour boats and the ferry to the island of Lana'i, which is definitely worth a short side trip. If nothing else, the view of Lahaina, with the lovely, mist-shrouded West Maui mountains rising behind the city, is a fabulous experience (see photo above right)

The Lahaina Grill gets great reviews for dinner, but my only night in town on my recent trip was spent at Kimo's because it's right on the water and also because Kimo means James in Hawaiian and I like the tiki torches and the touristy ambience and I've going there for years. So there. They make lots of great seafood and a very good mai tai, to boot. Oh, and don't forget to have lunch at Cheeseburger in Paradise. Dynamite views of Lana'i and the ocean area known as the Lahaina roads, not to mention cold Longboard Lager from Kona, Hawaii.

There are a couple of fine beaches right in town, which is more than you can say for most cities of the world. And you can surf just a few metres from the banyan tree. It's not hard, but try to avoid low tide so you don't tumble off your board and stick your hand onto a sea urchin on the shallow reef, which I once did, forcing me to spend an hour and-a-half of my vacation at the doctor's office.

I was lucky enough once to be in Lahaina on Easter, and the service at tiny Maria Lanakila Catholic Church was one of the highlights of my life. Seriously, the music was awesome and the little kids were dolled up for Easter and the dads were wearing their finest Hawaiian shirts and the place was rocking and the smell of the tropical flowers was wafting through the windows on a hot April day. Absolutely glorious and highly recommended, even if you're not Catholic or even not remotely religious. The music and the joy are something to behold.

One last thing: If you're a fan of the band The Eagles, drive a minute or two north of town on Front St. and you'll come to a giant electric sign that says "Jesus Coming Soon." It's been there for years, and it's mentioned near the end of the Eagles song "The Last Resort," where Don Henley sings about leaving it all behind and sailing to Lahaina and the missionaries and the giant neon sign that says "Jesus is Coming."

 

Maui not resting on its tourism laurels ...Neither is Bal Harbour, Florida

It's almost always named top island in the world by the big tourist magazines. But Maui isn't letting the attention get to its head.

The Hawaiian island continues to make improvements; adding wine and food festivals, upgrading hotels, and adding new cultural attractions or romance packages.

The Maui tourism folks say the number of Canadian visitors were up 15.2 per cent in the first 11 months of 2011, to nearly 196,000 people. Nice.

Before I go any further on Maui, I should offer a disclaimer. I've been going on a regular basis since I was a little kid, and I absolutely love the place. I love the people. I love the Hawaiian culture. I'm a sucker for Hawaiian music, even when I can't understand the words. I love the beaches. I love the fresh fish. I love the golf. I love the fact you can drive to the top of an enormous volcano and drive through desert-like conditions and two hours later - if not less - be in the middle of a jungle with towering, orange African tulip trees dripping with moisture and the sound of waterfalls outside your car window. You can be at a perfect, tropical beach and, 20 minutes later be "upcountry" in Makawao, eating a Portuguese pastry and walking streets filled with cowboys and stores selling giant belt buckles and rich-looking saddles.

I've always been a bit of a Maui nut, which is probably why the tourism bureau took pity on me and gave me their annual Kalama award last week for helping talk about their culture and way of life. It IS a tremendous culture, that of Hawaii and Maui. There's rich history, with epic battles and fierce kings and kindness to strangers intent on stealing their land. There's a wonderful story-telling tradition that goes back centures. There are hugely colourful people; folks like Grammy-award-winning singer George Kahumoku Jr. and singer-songwriter Cody Pueo Pata.

Cody is a bit of a travelling ambassador for Maui. He started a tourism board meeting in Toronto last week with a deep, booming welcome chant and then sang a song about ice hockey that he'd written especially for the occasion. And that's not something you're likely to hear when the folks from, say, Slovakia or Burma come to town.

Anyway, it was quite something. The information passed along to journalists at the session is far too meaty to fit into a travel blog, but here are some highlights I took away:

The Sea House restaurant at the wonderful Napili Kai Beach Resort (that's it in the photo above left), which is on perhaps the best beach in the world, Napili, was given the award last year for the best breakfasts on the entire island. Not only is the food great all day long, it's perhaps the only restaurant/bar on Maui that fronts directly onto the beach. You can sit at a beachside table and the silky waters of the Pacific are perhaps 20 feet away. Sheer perfection, with great snorkeling, swimming and body-surfing and killer sunsets. Wednesday nights they do a Masters of Slack Key guitar, with folks like the remarkable George Kahumoku on stage for singing and storytelling. Don't miss it.

Ka'anapali Beach not only has great shopping, food and hotels (I love the very Hawaiian Ka'anapali Beach Hotel but the Westin and Hyatt also get great reviews), but they have a number of events that are free or cost less than $25. They do nightly torch-lighting along the beach, and there's also cliff-diving (which I've somehow never seen) and more. At the Hyatt, they'll take you up on the roof for a "couples stargazing" event, complete with chocolate-covered strawberries and champagne.  The first-ever Ka'anapali food and wine festival, called Ka'anapali Fresh, will take place around Labour Day weekend this year. The Westin at Ka'anapali has added outrigger canoe rides, which I highly recommend. They also have Hatha Yoga and even belly-dancing lessons for teenagers. And, on Fourth of July, instead of shooting off fireworks they have a helicopter hover overhead and drop 50,000 orchids on the property and the pool area, and how romantic is that?

Down in Wailea, they have an outdoor film festival on the driving range, and they'll be doing a restaurant week in May and November with specially-priced meals. Proceeds will help a local food bank, which is terrific. And they'll have a wine and food festival of their own later this year. They're also big on civil unions for the LGBT crowd down at the Grand Wailea, a fabulous resort with a great pool (see photo at right) that features waterslides and rope swings and incredibly luscious grounds, right on a great stretch of beach. They've beefed up the spa as well and, in honour of their 20th anniversary, have a 20-hands massage treatment that sounds out of this world. Add in the new Amasia restaurant by Alan Wong, reportedly President Obama's favourite chef, and there's lots of reasons to check out Wailea.

Just a minute or two down the road is the lovely Makena resort area, a tad quieter and a little less brash than Wailea. The Makena Beach and Golf Resort has packages with free breakfast, free parking and no resort fees. They do wedding packages and have free bikes you can use. They even have a constellation night with campfires and iPads so you can learn about the stars.

Maui's tourism board also include the neighbouring islands of Moloka'i and Lana'i. Moloka'i has the only fringe reef in the United States, a massive, 28-mile long affair that stretches along a wide part of the island. There are no traffic lights and only a couple resorts on the island, which is a real throwback to a simpler way of life. Definitely worth checking out. It's the site of the famous leper colony where Father Damien did such remarkable work. They're adding new flights to the Kalaupapa peninsula, too, so it'll be easier to get there in the future. It's a stunning piece of greenery that lies alongside massive sea cliffs, with pounding surf and a real South Pacific feel to it.

Over on Lanai, things are a little more fancy. There's a small hotel in the tiny town of Lana'i (the Hotel Lana'i) that's quite charming, but most folks stay at the Four Seasons Lodge at Koele, an English-style getaway nestled in the cooler hillsides and surrounded by towering trees, or at the beachside Four Seasons Manele Bay, where you can dine on incredible Asian cuisine and swim in a quiet bay with a pack of wild dolphins. A simply magical experience. You also can rent UTV (ultimate terrain vehicles) or hike or cycle or go horseback riding or even hunting. And the golf courses at both Four Seasons resorts are among the best on Hawaii.

BAL HARBOUR BOOST

The new St. Regis Bal Harbour resort in Bal Harbour, Fla. is drawing attention to this enclave just north of Miami Beach. The property is a stunner that's right on the beach and right across the street from the glitzy Bal Harbour shops.

The hotel (see photo) features a Jean-Georges restaurant and all 243 rooms feature glass-enclosed balconies with "floor to ceiling panoramic ocean views and the brand's signature white-glove butler service."

The waterfront Bal Harbour Quarzo is a boutique hotel that opened just a year ago, with 29 condo-sized suites with full kitchens. There's also The Sea View Hotel for families or the ONE Bal Harbour Resort and Spa, which opened in 2009.

Top dining options include Makot by Stephen Starr, Mister Collins for oceanfront dining, a caviar and French wine bar called Savarin and the J and G Grill, which is the Jean-Georges restaurant.

They have an expansive cultural program, including fitness classes on the beach, a beach camp for kids and even movies on the beach, featuring the likes of Harry Potter, Casablanca, Indiana Jones and Midnight in Paris.

 

 

 

 

 

Celine, Obama, The Queen: Who would YOU want to sit next to on a plane??

Oprah over Obama. Celine over Suzuki. And Kate over the Queen.

FlightNetwork.com recently asked some 780 Canadians who they’d most like to sit next to on a plane. They gave 10 choices for three categories; Canadian celebrity, U.S. celebrity and international celebrity, and came away with some surprises.

In the Canadian category, the runaway winner was Celine Dion, with 23.7 per cent of respondents naming her as their favourite seatmate. It makes sense: since she weighs approximately 48 pounds, it’d be like having an empty seat next to you the whole trip. And if she, God forbid, started to sing, you could always pretend you were watching the map channel onthe TV monitor.

“Oh, look, we’re over Bismarck, North Dakota.”

Second for Canuck celebs was David Suzuki at 19.5 per cent. This speaks well for our social conscience, but what is Suzuki doing on airplane that’s sucking carbon from the earth at supersonic speed?

Third in the Canadian content category was comedian Russell Peters, while Wayne Gretzky came a respectable fourth at 14.1 per cent. (How they didn't substitute Sidney Crosby for Gretzky I don't know. I suspect the pollsters were born in 1946 and are the kind of guys who get excited about re-mixes of Anne Murray Christmas tunes.)

Lower down were such luminaries as Steve Nash (6.5 per cent) and Pamela Anderson (supply your own jokes about protection during a crash landing) at 4.4 per cent. Poor Justin Bieber collected only 3.2 per cent of the votes, but at least he was ahead of Conrad Black, who notched just 1.7 per cent in a poll in which only 48 respondents were Florida prison inmates.

On the U. S. side of the ledger, it’s probably no surprise that the omnipresent Oprah Winfrey garnered 38.3 per cent of the votes. She trashed American president Barack Obama, who received only 19.5 per  cent of votes and immediately put out a press release blaming Republicans in Congress. Third was Tina Fey at 10.5 per cent, followed by, wait for it, Charlie Sheen at 8.7 per cent and Anderson Cooper of CNN at 8.3 per cent. BEHIND Charlie Sheen? Anderson, your star is slipping.

Youth trumped age in the international category, as sensation Kate Middleton came in at 22.6 per cent. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was second at 16.2 per cent, nudging out The Queen herself at 15.9 per cent. Who probably IS quite amused, being a good sport and all from what I’ve seen.

The FlightNetwork polling folksdidn’t even ask about sitting next to Prince William or Prince Charles (remember him?) or even Prince Philip, who no doubt was too busy being entranced about the idea of a map of North Dakota.

Somehow the worldwide supernova phrase "Lady Gaga" appears to have passed by the FlightNetwork polling group. Instead they used the international category to ask about British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay (13.5 per cent) and Virgin executive Richard Branson (11.8 per cent). It's interesting that Ramsay and Jaime Oliver combined for nearly 30 per cent. I mean, 20 years ago, who would've thought the words "British" and "celebrity chef" would ever meet in the same sentence?

And what's with the heavy duty British influence? British chefs, British royalty. I would think folks who represent something called FlightNetwork would realize that some planes go beyond Britain and visit places in such exotic places as France and Belgium. I mean, nobody ever gives Belgian celebrities a fair shake anymore.

Finally in the international category, we have TV guy and former newspaper hack Piers Morgan at 7.8 per cent and hockey star Alexander Ovechkin at 6.7 per cent. We wanted to get Morgan’s thoughts on his placement but couldn’t get him to come to the phone.

 

Jimmy Kimmel and Guillermo Rodriguez tour Toronto ...funniest thing in years!

A buddy of mine sent me the YouTubelink to the five-minute bit that Jimmy Kimmel and sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez did following their Toronto visit during the Film Festival.

They did some TIFF stuff for the show, which I didn't see. (I found a photo of Diaz dressed like a Mountie, however). I was surprised there wasn't something about TIFF in the video they did. That having been said, it's a great video and it puts the city in a pretty good light.

I'd never seen, and this is embarrassing to admit, but I'd never seen Jimmy Kimmel on TV. I wouldn't have recognized him if I'd bumped into him at the library. I'd never even HEARD of Guillermo Rodriguez. But after watching their shtick, I think these guys have the best chemistry I've seen on our streets since Keelor and Cuddy. Or maybe Gillick and Beeston, that famous duo who helped bring a pair of World Series titles to our beloved Blue Rays, as Diaz calls them.

I adore that old, yellow car (a Lincoln, maybe) that Diaz drives, and I love that he speaks into this clunky old p.a. system even when they're a foot away from each other in the car, or when they walk Sugar Beach holding hands, which is a great scene.

I think somehow the city itself, although we don't have a speaking role, comes off as somewhat self-deprecating. Which is great. The streets shine, Lake Ontario sparkles, and the Ontario Tower pokes its head up into a great, wide, blue, Canadian sky, rising over a people blessed with fabulous bacon and fresh syrup.

We learn many things on this wondrous trip. Winston Church Hill was a Canadian who apparently lived from 1974 to 1935. Our baseball team has the same name as a famous style of DVD, the Blue Ray. And our weather is beautiful.

"We should move here," Kimmel (see photo) tells Rodriguez as they wander the streets, avoiding death from sliding left into the path of oncoming streetcars (which also look good on TV; better than in person). "The weather's beautiful."

Rodriguez agrees.

"They have syrup."

"They have the bacon that's better than our bacon," Kimmel replies in a very sweet, not too overly smarmy kind of way (like, say, David Letterman, who I like a lot, would do).

I find the end, when they sing at the Celine Dion star on our horribly cheesy walk of fame, a bit of a letdown. Too easy a target for guys who are this clever. Or maybe I just hate having Toronto saddled with the shadow of someone like Celine Dion, who's vocal stylings are so much posturing and designed far too much to impress, not unlike the yahoos who foul up the national anthems at the Blue Rays games.

(Hey, did anyone else who watched the video catch that weird bit in the middle? They're down at Harbourfront looking at the lake, and Kimmel asks Diaz if they can get out of the car. Diaz says of course, but then the video cuts to a scene of the car travelling NORTH past the Ontario College of Art and Design. Then, suddenly, they're at Sugar Beach near Jarvis and Queen's Quay - the opposite direction. They must've got their directions from a Toronto cabbie. It's a pretty minor thing. Not quite like the scene in The Graduate where Ben (Dustin Hoffman) is travelling the wrong way on the Bay Bridge to get to Berkeley. But kinda the same thing. Well, sorta the same thing.)

Anyway, I can't believe I've never seen these guys before. They're wonderful together. And I love the fact that Rodriguez used to be the parking lot security guard at Kimmel's studio. Some folks might think he's being exploited, but you gotta love the ability of a security guy to rise up so fast so quickly. I think he's absolutely marvellous.

And it's nice to see Toronto come off looking pretty spiffy.

Next time they're in town, the Toronto Star will take them out for bacon and syrup. All they can eat.