A Proper Farewell..

We at GroupANS felt we needed to give you guys something more substantial of a farewell than our last post. Hence we put together this video of the landmarks around the world that we may or may not have covered throughout this blog's entries. We have posted this video to showcase parts of the world in various 'snapshots' and this video is accompanied by one of the best guitar solos I've personally listened to. Zakk Wylde's 'Farewell Ballad' is beautifully played and quite appropriate for the post. Thanks to all our followers and viewers.

Cheers,
Nish

References:
Zakk Wylde - 'Farewell Ballad'

A Farewell from GroupANS..

I'd just like to thank all the people that have listened to 'the call' and followed this blog. It has been a blast setting it up and keeping it going. I hope every one of our followers and readers had a good time with this blog and found it informative for whatever journey they may undertake. I'd like to thank Andrew for contributing so much personal travel information to this blog from his trips to Melbourne and hope we have been able to give all you guys everything you came here for. Thanks again.

Cheers,
Nish

Final Post England

My final post will be on my number 1 place i would like to visit in the near future, England, this country is a country I would really like to see because it has many great tourism attractions and being a just starting photographer the landmarks and scenery would be any photographers dream. These include some of England's historical tourist sites which include

• Brighton: Brighton is a seaside resort which includes two piers, West Pier and Brighton Pier, and is home to the Royal Pavilion.
• Bristol: Brunel's The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a famous landmark, and the ship, the SS Great Britain is another of Brunel's famous constructions, which is now in dry dock in Bristol.
• Cambridge: A famous university town.
• Canterbury: Renowned for its cathedral.

• Dover: A major port with access to the continent. Also well known for its white cliffs, and to a lesser extent for its castle, Dover Castle.
• Haworth: where the Brontë Sisters lived, is very popular with Japanese tourists, as Wuthering Heights has a cult following in Japan.
• Lincoln: A medieval city, home to the very ornate Lincoln Cathedral and to Lincoln Castle, where a copy of the Magna Carta is kept.
• Liverpool: The 2008 European Capital of Culture, a major port and World Heritage Site, home to two cathedrals and houses more listed buildings, museums and art galleries than any other city in the UK outside of London. The home of Liverpool F.C, a world-famous football club. Is also famous for The Grand National, and its musical, maritime and sporting heritage.

• Oxford : A city known for its university, the University of Oxford.
• Nottingham : The city and Nottingham Castle are famed worldwide for their links with the legend of Robin Hood. Sherwood Forest is nearby.
• Portsmouth: Portsmouth is a naval dockyard, and has some famous ships on display, including the Mary Rose, and HMS Victory, all within its Historic Dockyard. Also home to Gunwharf Quays retail center, with its iconic Spinnaker Tower.
• Salisbury: Salisbury cathedral is very well known, and has the tallest spire in the country. Nearby is the pre-historic site of Stonehenge, which is administered by English Heritage.
• Stratford-upon-Avon: The birthplace of William Shakespeare is probably the most visited place in Stratford.
• York: Famous for the York Minster cathedral. Also the location of the National Railway Museum and a wealth of preserved medieval streets and buildings, such as the Merchant Adventurers' Hall and the Shambles.

 Also tourism doesn't just include historical sites it also includes modern and ecotourism sites which are 

• Eden Project in Cornwall.
• The Lake District, a national park with hills and lakes, including Windermere, the largest lake in England.
• The Peak District, a national park in Derbyshire.

Worlds Largest Greenhouse

 Cheers
Andrew...............

Vietnam the other half of my nationality

Tourism in Vietnam is a significant component of the modern Vietnamese economy. In 2004, Vietnam received 2.9 million international arrivals, up from 2.4 million the previous year.In 2010 Vietnam is on-track to receive 4.4 million international visitors. Much of this volume is now made up of nearby countries which don't have to pay costly visa fees. In 2008, Vietnam received 4.218 million international passengers, in 2009 the number was 3.8 million, down 11%. Vietnam Administration of Tourism forecasts that there will be 4.5-4.6 million international foreign tourists to Vietnam in 2010. It's also forecast by this agency that Vietnam will serve 28 domestic tourists in 2010, up 12% from that of 2009.

Tourism is increasingly important in Vietnam. For backpackers, culture and nature lovers, beach-lovers and veterans touring the country for a long time, Vietnam has emerged itself as a new tourist destination in South-East Asia and on is now on lists in magazines worldwide. Hotel investors especially the potential of the 3000-kilometer-long coast line and the big cities. The tourism offer has been increasingly diversified. Local and international tour operators offer tours to ethnic minority groups, walking and bicycle tours, kayak trips and multi-country trips in particular in connection with neighboring Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. In addition, thanks to the lift of several movement regulations, foreign tourists have been able to travel freely in the country since 1997.
The economy of Vietnam has transformed from an agrarian to a service economy. More than a third of gross domestic product is generated by services, which include the hotel and catering industry and transportation. The manufacturing and construction (28 percent), agriculture and fisheries (20 percent) and mining (10 percent) have much smaller shares.

National parks of Vietnam, World Heritage Sites, Man and the Biosphere Programme, National tourist area and the cities........... 

 

Cheers 



^Andrew

Japan

Since now i have nothing personal to post about my travels I will now share some information about touism in japan. Japna is an amazing place to visit for a holiday as it has many tourist destination and is a very interesting culture to experience.

Domestic tourism remains a vital part of the Japanese economy and Japanese society. School children in many middle schools see the highlight of their years as a visit to Tokyo Disneyland or perhaps Tokyo Tower. High school students visit Okinawa or Hokkaidō. The extensive rail network together with domestic flights sometimes in planes with modifications to favor the relatively short distances involved in intra-Japan travel allows efficient and speedy transport. In inbound tourism, Japan was ranked 28th in the world in 2007. In 2009, the Yomiuri Shimbun published a modern list of famous sights under the name Heisei Hyakkei (the Hundred Views of the Heisei period).
Neighbouring South Korea is Japan's most important source of foreign tourists, with arrivals of 2.4 million in 2010 which made up 27% of total number of tourists visited Japan.

Tokyo Disneyland is a 115 acre (465,000 m²) theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to be built outside of the United States and opened on April 15, 1983. The park was constructed by Walt Disney Imagineering in the same style as Disneyland in California and Magic Kingdom in Florida. It is owned by The Oriental Land Company, which licenses the theme from The Walt Disney Company. Tokyo Disneyland and its companion park, Tokyo DisneySea, are the only Disney parks not owned by The Walt Disney Company.

Tokyo Tower  is a communications and observation tower located in Shiba Park, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. At 332.5 metres (1,091 ft), it is the second tallest artificial structure in Japan. The structure is an Eiffel Tower-inspired lattice tower that is painted white and international orange to comply with air safety regulations.













Best Regard Andrew

Home sweet home..

Well, I couldn't do a blog on Travel and Tourism without mentioning my favourite destination of them all, the city of Auckland in New Zealand. If I talk about all the things you could do in the whole of New Zealand, even though the country isn't very big, I'd go on for pages and pages and pages and..well you get the idea, so I stick to just Auckland.

First off, some quick facts; Auckland houses the vast majority of New Zealand's population in a very delicate, tiny part of the country. The population is estimated to be 1,354,900 - this is almost a third of the country's population. Auckland's Maori name is Tamaki Makaurau and it is a city that has a blend of cultures in it while maintaining the cultural values of its Maori roots.Auckland was ranked 4th in the 2010 Quality of Living Survey. It offers a laid back lifestyle with the added benefit of being in a very modern city with every possible thing you could need being offered.

The biggest attraction in Auckland is the Sky Tower (shown above). The tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. The Sky Tower offers many different things to suit many different tastes. At the top it has a revolving restaurant which is something everybody must experience at least once in their life. The Sky Jump is another thing that is world famous - which offers you the chance to do a free gliding jump off the top of the Sky Tower. At  the buildings below it also houses Sky City, New Zealand's biggest Hotel and Casino. All these put together combined with the sheer architectural wonder that we see makes this easily one of the best attractions of the world.

Another major part of tourism in New Zealand, this year especially, is sport, to be more specific Rugby, to be even more specific The Rugby World Cup 2011, held solely by New Zealand. Rugby is an integral part of New Zealand's culture and identity as it is shown above. The Final will be at Eden Park, Auckland's main sporting stadium and with it being 24 years since The New Zealand All Blacks won the World Cup in the inaugural World Cup which had a final in Eden Park, there is plenty of history and the world cup will sure bring a multitude of sports mad fans to Auckland. Auckland is the place to be this year, the tourism campaign in New Zealand is usually strong but this year especially its going to be in overdrive so if you want to make a trip to New Zealand, 2011 is the year to do it. Check out the links below to both Tourism New Zealand and Tourism Auckland to get more info and visit the best damn city in the world in 2011.

Cheers,
Nish

References:
Tourism Auckland
Tourism New Zealand
Sky Tower
All Blacks

From French-speaking to France itself..

Well, I've felt that over the past few weeks, Andrew and myself have covered quite a few great destinations around the Oceania region. Andrew has been in Melbourne and given you a comprehensive run down of all the things you can do there and I have chipped in with the discussion on various island destinations that have truly become tourist hotspots....but NOW I think its time for a change to somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Keeping with the trend of French, we go to the place where it all started..France ofcourse!

Well the whole of France has so much to it that would not be easy to write one blog post about it so instead of that I'm going to cover the capital, Paris (if you ever go to France make sure to say Pareee or the French will look at you weird..). Paris has long been thought of as the most romantic city in the world but that's not all it serves as - it provides a quarter of France's GDP and Greater Paris and Paris has a population in excess of 11 million as of a 2007 census. In 2009 and last year Paris was ranked in the top 3 'Most Influential' cities in the world.

But when your on holiday you never think of the facts, you want to know what you can do there to have a good time and that's why I'm going to list the 5 things you need to consider before deciding where to go out every day in Paris, and they are:

- EVENTS: Paris is a city with a million things happening at any one time, they've got new Museums opening up, sporting events and great festive happenings all around the city.
- FOOD FOOD FOOD: Paris as they say is the 'Capital of Gastronomy' and with classy restaurants as well as cafe style bistros - its quality for everyone's budget.
- SHOPPING: Paris has as much variety in shopping as it does with food and there should be something for everyone's tastes and budget.
- ART: Step inside one of their many art museums and you will be in heaven..well maybe not if your like me and don't really know famous art from your 2 year old nephews scribbles..but for some people its a deal breaker.
- NIGHTLIFE: The clubs and partying is top notch - if you fancy french women or french men for that matter, this is I guess what your going to Pairs for.

There is a video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvDMqwMLsDU&feature=player_embedded which describes the 'Art of Living' through a French chef's eyes. If you can't understand French its still a good watch. If your keen on visiting France I suggest a quick look through the guide website that are below in the references. Stay safe and I'll be back next time with my personal favourite destination closer to home.

Cheers,
Nish

References:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvDMqwMLsDU&feature=player_embedded
http://uk.franceguide.com/home.html?NodeID=1
http://www.statueclothing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/eiffel_tower_night3030.jpg