“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and avoid the people, you might better stay home.” – James Michener Reality is Harsh There are at least two sides to the Caribbean tourism industry: the side travelers experience as they transit from airports in air-conditioned vans and limos to their hotels, and the locals’ […]
Tourism in a Time of Chaos
Chaos Theory Chaos is a term used to describe the world when nothing makes sense; when 2+2 does not equal 4, leaving us completely and totally confused. Sometimes the “butterfly effect” is used to explain the phenomenon: the idea is that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in Argentina could cause a tornado in Texas […]
Should all Makeup be Halal Cosmetics?
It was not until I was meandering down the Javits aisle at the recent In-Cosmetics event that I even thought about Halal cosmetics. Halal food markets are widely available in New York, so the halal concept was not new; however, the idea of halal applied to cosmetics was totally different. Halal For Muslims, the term “halal” […]
Do Not Travel! Without your makeup
Many women will not appear in public with a nude face and there are a growing number of men who are treating their public face to astringents, creams, masks, colors, tubes and pencils. In a May 2017 survey of American consumers, 41 percent or respondents between 30-59 years of age, wear makeup daily, with 25 percent wearing […]
Retail: Here Today, Here Tomorrow
Tasting wines, blind
Tasting Blind Wine industry professionals (i.e., winemakers, writers, sommeliers, researchers, educators, buyers, sellers, importers, sales managers) have many ways to spend their days: Harvesting grapes, meeting with customers, researching trends, wine tastings, and, one of my favorites, joining a group for a blind wine event. A few days ago, I spent a grey New York […]
NY drinks NY wines: History and hybrids
New York Wines: Disaster in the Beginning Historians have documented the fact that grapes were first introduced to New York by the Dutch (1647-1664); sadly, the crops failed. A few years later, the French Huguenot settlers in Ulster County tried to plant European varietals (1667) and they too were unsuccessful. William Robert Prince (1795—1869) Finally, […]
It is wine time: Meet the new competition
The Association for the Promotion of Wines and Spirits in North America (APVSA), headquartered in Montreal, Canada, provides assistance to European wine and spirits producers who want to export their products – especially to North America. To reach this objective, the association schedules 6 tours per year primarily in the USA, Canadian and European markets. […]
Travel professionals take over Javits
If you happened to walk by the Javits Convention Center in January, you would have found thousands of travel professionals dashing to and from dozens of travel-related events. It started 16 years ago, when the NY Times first started the Travel Show. The 2018 event brought 32,398 participants to Javits, including 10,268 travel trade, 22, […]
All about Whiskey
The world of whiskey extends well beyond smelling, sipping and tasting. To learn about the brown liquid in your glass you should speak with Lew Bryson, one of the world’s leading authorities on whiskey. If you don’t have the time to take a whiskey course with Bryson, you can buy his book, “Tasting Whiskey. An […]