Canada doesn’t make the top 20 in Lonely Planet’s traveller’s choice destinations

Lonely Planet just released its traveller’s choice destinations, based on a survey of 3,000 of their Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Thorntree fans. The results were revealing:

• Canada didn’t even crack the overall top 20 destinations. Half of the destinations were Asian, and both Australia and New Zealand made the top five.
• The big winners? Bhutan, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Thailand, and India.
• Canada made it into only two categories – it came in ninth in the Nature category. The winners here? Costa Rica, Iceland, New Zealand, Bhutan, and Australia. So even though we feel we “own” nature, and certainly have lots of it, travellers don’t see us as the top destination to go for nature.
• Canada also came in fourth for safety.
• We didn’t make it to the top 10 in the adventure category.
• Bhutan won the prize as best overall destination, and made it into the top 10 in 8 out of 16 criteria. Interesting, as it is not cheap to travel there.

While this survey only sampled a certain type of traveller, it does show that despite our great national tourism brand, we have some work to do when it comes to marketing our country.

Countries that entered the to 10 of most categories in Lonely Planet’s 2013 Traveller’s Choice awards.

What’s wrong with voluntourism in developing countries

If you are considering going on a voluntourism trip to a developing country, think again and watch this video first.

It is very difficult to make a difference in a few days. As Daniela so correctly points out, one has to be in a country a lot longer,  to first of all, learn, and then maybe make a difference.

Amazing Rockies aurora timelapse

The Mountains in Motions team recently captured some amazing aurora timelapse footage at Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park. Stay tuned for the release of the full movie in fall 2012.

Teachings From Long Ago Person Found

Teachings From Long Ago Person Found: Highlights from the Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi Project. In 1999, a most amazing discovery was made in the northwest corner of BC. The remains and belongings of a man buried in ice for hundreds of years were discovered melting out of a remote glacier and became the focus of study in a collaborative project by the community and scientists, including several museum staff, over the next decade. Read an excellent and fascinating summary of the project to find out who he was. The story is close to my heart as I lived for two years on Chilkat Pass, only a few km from where he was found.

RAW or JPG?

This is a dilemma for many a photographer: shoot JPG, which don’t need any processing, or RAW, which provides you more opportunity to enhance the image in the computer? Darwin Wiggett and Sam Chrysanthou wrote an excellent intro on RAW vs JPG on their blog.

Yosemite Timelapse Project

Yet another great timelapse project, this time in Yosemite NP.

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

Mountains in Motion timelapse project

This trailer for a new documentary on the Rocky Mountains has some amazing footage. I can’t wait to see the full movie! Make sure to watch it in HD.

Mountains in Motion: The Canadian Rockies | Official Trailer from The Upthink Lab on Vimeo.

Jasper National Park: 12 months of adventure

Jasper National Park offers a great variety of adventures, anytime of the year. These photos reflect on some of them.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Longer timelapse video of earth from the International Space Station

This video of earth from the International Space Station is even better than the short timelapse video of earth I found last week. The scene at 0:31 shows the Rockies and Jasper National Park just to the left of the middle of the frame. An island of darkness in a sea of light.

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

View of earth from International Space Station

Last month I posted a photo of the International Space Station flying over Jasper National Park. Here is the view from the other side: North and South America from the ISS. The flyover starts over the Pacific NW of Vancouver Island, continues over the western US, down to Mexico, and on to South America. It ends with sunrise over the Antarctic.

The large areas of city lights show how important Dark Sky Preserves like Jasper National Park are.