Students, Profs to Travel to South Africa During Spring

The Elizabethtown group will take with them seven used wind instruments. The other 40, which had been collected by music education and psychology students, had previously been shipped to the school, which Devroop chose from several proposals he had received. That school, located in Pietermaritzburg, has about 1,300 students, 370 of which have lost one or both parents. Students live either with an ailing grandparent or they are homemakers, meaning they live by themselves, according to Devroop. “They live on one solid meal a day and walk about 30 to 45 minutes each way to school,” he said. “Almost all students are faced with extreme poverty.”

South Africa as second in its list of top worldwide travel destinations

According to its iExplore, adventure travel includes activities like hiking, biking, diving, and multi-sport tours, while experiential travel includes activities like cultural, expedition cruising, wildlife safari and culinary tours.

"This is a wonderful accolade for our country," Cape Town Tourism CEO Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold told The Weekender last Saturday. "Cape Town Tourism applauds the efforts of our adventure industry and the valuable contribution made to keeping SA top of mind when it comes to accolades and visitor choice."

North American Airlines suspends Africa flights

North American Airlines flights to Lagos, Nigeria, and Accra, Ghana, end on May 20, the company said Tuesday.

The airline said it was the first airline in decades to establish scheduled service on the routes when it started flights in 2005.

Delta Air Lines later launched service to Lagos and Accra.

North American also will ax service to Georgetown, Guyana, in South America, it said Tuesday.

Travel Postcard - 48 hours in Cape Town

If the weather forecast is hot and sunny, hire a car for the 40 km (25 mile) ride to Boulder's Beach, stopping along the way to watch the whales cavort in False Bay, before arriving at your destination and mingling with penguins. Or stay in the city centre and soldier on towards the Castle of Good Hope (Buitenkant and Strand streets), a pentagonal fortification built by the Dutch between 1666-1679 and South Africa's oldest surviving building. Try to catch a ghostly glimpse of Anne Barnard, the castle's former first lady whose apparition is said to haunt certain sections of the ramparts, with daily guided tours offered to the dungeons and torture rooms.

Africa As Premier Travel Destination

More than 200 representatives from the public and private sectors and travel industry in Africa, North America, Caribbean, Europe, and Asia will convene to discuss Africa as a leading travel destination and hear from expert panelists who will focus on topics such as sports and tourism, infrastructure development, traveler perception, real estate, investment, sports marketing, tour operation, airline and hotel development, and travel trends in Africa.

Chinese Visitors Help South Africa's Tourist Industry

Growing prosperity in China is beginning to affect the global tourism industry. More and more Chinese are traveling abroad - especially this week, which includes the lunar New Year. One place that is benefiting from this trend is South Africa. A surge in Chinese visitors is helping South Africa's tourism industry achieve double-digit growth. For VOA, Terry FitzPatrick reports from Cape Town.

Travel Issue: South Africa in February

It's a philosophy that CC Africa, top-end safari-lodge company, takes seriously. In 1992 the company bought an area of northern South Africa called Phinda and let it revert from pineapple farms and pasture back to rambling bush. They re-introduced game and then built a handful of luxury lodges; 80 per cent of their staff (some of whom are HIV positive) come from local villages and are paid a decent wage and have access to healthcare. Their conservation programmes are copied by game reserves all over Africa and, in partnership with the charity Africa Foundation, part-fund the building of classrooms, medical and technology centres. It's all working so well that they have expanded all over Africa and are moving into India.

The escalating violence in Kenya has destroyed its image for overseas tourists

"The image of Kenya has been destroyed overnight -- the image of palm trees and elephants has been replaced by that of a madman," he said.

"Tourism in Kenya is devastated and the problem is affecting the whole of Africa," he said.

He said that in neighbouring Tanzania, resorts are getting 30 percent cancellations. Tourism officials in Uganda said last week that arrivals have dropped by up to 30 percent.