Pack Your Bags For World Tourism Day

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), a specialized agency in the UN, has made World Tourism Day 2021 a day to focus on “Tourism for Inclusive Growth.” The UNWTO wants to help tourism become responsible and sustainable as it recovers post-pandemic. The UNWTO sees tourism as a way to help countries reach sustainable development goals like no poverty, gender equality, decent work, and economic growth, and help to reduce inequalities.

Guide Scott's favorite place to visit - Yosemite National Park

"Here are some pictures I took at Yosemite National Park a few years ago. I love all the national parks but this one is my favorite. The majesty of the iconic mountains there is breathtaking. My wife and I spent a week there and went on some of the most magnificent hikes of our lives."

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Guide Russ's favorite place to visit - Buena Vista, Colombia

"It's almost impossible for me to name my favorite place. I love Ireland, the people, the landscape, the history, the music: everything about it. I've been to England and Scotland six times, have biked the length of it, have hiked its pathways, stood in awe at its great Cathedrals.

I've hiked the Alps in Switzerland and stood in awe before the snowy mountain ranges, even in summer. I want to go back there again.

I've been six weeks walking 500 miles across Spain on the Camino de Santiago, a place I now feel I know intimately, step by step. I long to walk there again.

I've walked the Umbrian Mountains in Italy, a place where the light and the air feel so fresh and sublime that they enchant you. I'm heading there next year.

But as I thought of how to answer this impossible question of my favorite place, the answer came to me easily: Buena Vista, Colombia.

Buena Vista is a small, out-of-the-way town in the coffee region of Colombia, nearly 5.000 ft. high, near the Equator, with lush, green mountains, colorful red and green and yellow birds flying everywhere, with fruit and flowers hanging from every tree and a slow, laid-back lifestyle to go along with it. It's the closest place on earth to what I could call Paradise.

I stayed there for three days in 2018, one of just a handful of tourists in this as yet undiscovered place. Our hotel was inexpensive and at the top of the hill above the town, which itself was on a pointed ridge that jutted out from the mountains above, a view of the enormous valley below. We ate all of our meals outdoors on wide verandas since the climate is so temperate that it is like a Mayday, year-round. Everywhere was peace.

Photos of the place do not do it justice. I long to go back and spend a week there again."

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Learner Hashim’s First Trip With His Mom Post Lockdown - Goa, India

“When I tell people I am going to Goa for a holiday, most of them ask me what for? I am a teetotaler, have turned vegan, and have two left feet, which make my attempts on the dance floor fill bystanders with alarm, as they think I am having a seizure or a stroke. But you don't have to do any of the above to have a good time.

When the time came to decide on a trip I could take finally after the lockdown, my thought was Goa! One of the reasons I didn't cancel my Goan holiday when my friend was indisposed, was my desire to partake in the hospitality of the Taj. Though I had stayed at the Taj earlier, on business at a conference, it was never on holiday. Somehow I could convince my mom to fill in and was not disappointed. The service was unparalleled, even before I checked in, I got a couple of phone calls, asking me about my preferences, answering my queries, and informing me of the protocols that were to be followed. That set the tone for the rest of the trip, and put me at ease, quelling my nerves of traveling in times of Covid. In fact on the advice of my brother, I extended my stay for one more day, and am glad I did, wishing that I could have stayed more.”

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