Travel 2014: The Top Rail, Europe, Asia and The Pacific Stories of the Year

These 10 stories were what I considered the most significant developments on my beats (Rail, Europe, Asia and the Pacific in 2014). Obviously there were stories off my beat, like the breaking Cuba story, that trumps everything on my list, but that's another writer's responsibility I tried to look at stories that had long term consequence, whether for the good or the bad. There was a lot of good news this year, a year of fools and sages, scoundrels and saints, like every other year.

1. Russia's Swan Dive

Beginning with the Sochi Olympics, Russian leaders managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in 2014. Designed to show an open modernized Russia, the Olympics began when the Duma issued a Draconian law against LGBT people and then began threatening anyone attending the Games that they'd be locked up for any public displays of gay behavior. Vladimir Putin got into it with even more mean spirited rhetoric. It got worse as people began showing up in Sochi and found it wasn't quite ready.

The Western media had a field day with photos of broken toilets and half constructed hotel rooms. Since every Olympics is remembered as much for its Closing ceremonies as it is for its Opening ceremonies, Putin decided to double down by invading the Ukraine to cap it the whole thing off as the farcical insult it was.

The subsequent trade sanctions and the utter collapse in petroleum prices sent the Russian Ruble face first into a pot of steaming borscht. Subsequently, the Russian outbound travel market, which had been the 'R' in the 'BRIC' countries lost its vitality going from Europe's third biggest foreign travel market to a flat line. The Ruble, now worth 80 to the Dollar, lost half its value in about 10 months. In a commentary entitled Russia's Collapse in Five Statistics" that ran on Linked In, Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer noted that on its way down the Ruble passed the Ukrainian Hryvnia along the way.

Now the country is undergoing a drain of capital and brains. "In the first eight months of this year, Bloomberg reports, more than 200,000 people left Russia-more than any full year since Vladimir Putin took control." Capital outflows for 2014 are estimated at $134 billion, according to the Financial Times.

2. The Revival of Greece

The brutal economic collapse that brought one of Europe's proudest countries to its knees in 2011 began reversing its downward spiral in the spring of 2013 and tourism was the star that showed the way. Earlier this year, UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai cited the rebound of Greek tourism as an example of what strong government support for tourism could achieve. In August, Virtuoso ranked Greece #10 on its list of Top 10 destinations. Greece took the top spot on Lonely Planet's Best in Europe list.

In 2013 international arrivals reached 18 million (up 16 percent) and generated $16 billion (up 13 percent). In the first half of 2014 Greek tourism grew by 17 percent, outperforming other southern European destinations by seven percent. Greek officials expect to register a record 19 million visitors overall in 2014, an increase that has created some 50,000 much needed new jobs. Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni lifted Greek tourism out of the complacent rut it had settled into as early as the 1970s. She got regulations against foreign investment lifted and supported the development of high end hotels that would attract high yielding travelers.

3. Thai Demonstrations and Military Pushback

The Bangkok demonstrations, which began in the fall of 2013, ended with the military takeover in May. It was a series of events powerful enough to knock Thai tourism off of a year that was projected to set records. Instead 2014 greatly undershot 2013's 26.3 million visitors. Arrivals between January and October stood at 19,736,600. The impact was also felt regionally because Bangkok is the major gateway to emerging destinations in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

In the past Thai tourism has always rebounded quickly. There have been some 15 coup d' tats in the last 50 odd years in Thailand, but the overwhelming majority of these were palace coups taking place behind closed doors. This past year's events became untenable as the demonstrations paralyzed traffic and filled newspapers around the world with images that were essentially anti-ads targeting Thai travel. The question heading into 2015 is does the country have another bounce back in it.

4. Malaysian Airlines' Double Whammy

In 2014, Malaysian Airlines, the flag carrier lost two jets: one shot down over the Ukraine in summer and the other, the notorious MH370 was lost somewhere over the Pacific in March. Though these were freak occurrences that had little to do with the relative safety of flying on Malaysia Airlines or traveling to Malaysia in general, it hurt the country's popularity with Chinese travelers. About two-thirds of the lost jet's passengers were Chinese.

Somehow the country's tourism recovered quickly. The Malaysia Tourist Promotion Board (MTPB) set a goal of 28 million tourists for 2014, which they believe they are going to surpass despite the absence of a healthy Chinese market. Extra promotional effort in alternative markets in ASEAN, South Asia and other regional markets as well as increased promotion in China helped fill the breach. By August, the Chinese market was up to being only down 9 percent.

5. Japanese Rebound

Even as planners began attending the first real meeting sessions of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the country was performing at a really surprising rate especially when considered in the light of how abysmal Japanese tourism was faring in the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Sendai.

Now just a few years later, Japan is setting records in arrivals from the U.S. At last count, through October, U.S. arrivals are up about 10 percent over last year. Japan is now expecting a record 870,000 U.S. visitors in 2014. The strength of the U.S. Dollar, which now buys 118 Yen, is a major factor in the surge of tourism. In late 2012 the Dollar purchased only 77 Yen to the greenback. That huge increase in spending power has U.S. travelers reaching into their bucket list and pulling out Japan.

6. A Railway in the Clouds

Rail has now scaled the heights of the Tibetan Himalayas, thanks to an incredible engineering feat across the very highest mountains in the world. Completed this past August after four years, the 150-mile long connection between Tibet's two biggest cities, Lhasa and Shigatse, is probably the world's most scenic train ride unless the clouds get in the way. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway now brings passengers from Beijing to the very door step of Mount Everest giving them a breathtaking view of the world's highest peaks, deepest valleys and swiftest rivers.

The train's inaugural run carried more than 800 passengers on the three hour journey between the two Tibetan cities at an average speed of 72 miles per hour. The new service cuts travel time from the six hours the bus takes to the three hour ride by train and with a fare of 45 yuan ($7.31), it's about half that of the bus. Altogether, the Chinese government has invested about $2.2 billion on the Tibetan railway and considers it a marvel of modern engineering with the numerous bridges and tunnels that had to be built at the world's highest altitudes ranging from 11,000 to 13,000 feet. The Chinese hope in time to extend the rail line to both the Nepalese and Indian borders.

7. German Success

When the unification of Germany took place in 1990, most observers spoke of it as a strictly political event, but in retrospect it seems the healing of that wound lifted an enormous cultural burden off the country as well. Ricarda Lindner, the director North America of the German National Tourist Office likes to characterize the reunification as the addition of an amazing set of attractions in the former East Germany to an already thriving destination in the former West Germany. She seems to have it just right.

In November, Berlin celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall. In looking back, it's plain that all of that investment in tourism friendly improvements from restored city centers, transport connections and the emergence of rural tourism left Germany as a new multi-dimensional destination. Inbound tourism statistics have only been kept since 1993. By 2013, 20 years after 1993, the number of overnight stays by foreign visitors in Germany had almost doubled. Last year Germany recorded more than 70 million overnight stays.

8. Myanmar River Cruises

Since 1995, Myanmar's Irrawaddy River had been in sole possession of the Belmond Road to Mandalay. That changed this fall when a budding armada of ships took to the river and its tributary the Chindwin River. AMA Waterways, Avalon, Pandaw, Sanctuary and Viking are all sailing or readying to set sail on what has become a competitive market. That competition will be determined by the quality of the ships, the on-board service and, last but not least, the quality of the guides and lecturers, because the attractions of the Irrawaddy are basically the same for everybody.

9. Spirit of Christchurch

The 2011 earthquake that hit Christchurch New Zealand, the second in one Hellish five month period, destroyed some 40 percent of the city's historic buildings. Almost four years later, the city has agreed on a Blueprint that will essentially completely rebuild the devastated downtown area in into a completely new city of low-rise buildings framed by green spaces, that's described by planners as a "city in a garden." The Blueprint won an Urban Design - Future Projects prize at the World Architecture News (WAN) Awards, a London-based international architectural awards program.

10. Polar Emergence

It wasn't long ago that non-urban tourism usually needed a palm tree to sell itself. Going to where winter was more wintery was never an option. It all began to change when Antarctica became popular as a touch stone for travelers who like saying they've been everywhere. From there ice continued its courtship with tourism up on the remote Hudson Bay community of Churchill with its Polar Bear sighting safaris.

Hurtigruten's journeys up the coast of Norway and its journeys to Spitsbergen as well as Finland's promotion of Lapland in winter are making icy landscapes popular even for people who don't ski. Iceland had its real break out year in 2014, established itself as a major "European" destination with an appeal strong enough to spill over into Greenland.

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