Kotor, Montenegro: Why it's the number one city to visit in 2016

A cruise ship in the bay near the Old Town of Kotor in Montenegro.

Montenegro, the bizarre 1980s comedy from Serbian director Dusan Makavejev – a veritable Grimm's fairytale of sex and violence – piqued my interest in that mysterious place.

The film, though not actually set there, showed a surreal, passionate Slavic world representing what I thought must certainly be Montenegro. What was this extraordinary realm that gained independence in 2006, with only 624,000 people, bordering Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albania?

I'm asking that question as our ship puts on its right indicator and veers off the Adriatic into the 30-kilometre long cul-de-sac that is Boka Kotorska, the Bay of Kotor, a hidden sea road that leads us all the way to Kotor, Montenegro.

Our Lady of the Rocks in Kotor Bay.

It's 5.45am when we slide between jade hills onto the polished waters of Europe's southernmost fjord, with 105 kilometres of indented coastline. But glaciers never crept this far south.

The Boka – Italian for mouth – is actually a ria or drowned river valley, made up of four graceful interconnected bays ending at the old town of Kotor. Still, it's a fjord by any other name.

As our ship glides between narrowing vertiginous rock faces, laced with cypress and oak, a fog descends, as can happen in creepy, fantastical tales spun by avant garde Serbian directors, German folklorists or the tellers of Nordic sagas.

We pull our duvet a little higher as something bumps against the hull. Perhaps we simply had one too many cocktails the night before on this indulgent APT Ancient Mediterranean cruise, that has introduced us to a string of Aegean and Adriatic jewels.

It's a mistake to invent a country's story before you visit. We burst from the fog into a place that is not Norway, nor Germany, nor Switzerland, nor Serbia, nor civil war Yugoslavia, nor Disneyland. It is itself – Kotor, Montenegro, world heritage-listed, inhabited since 3000BC, and a very lovely self it is too - no wonder it's Lonely Planet's top city to visit in 2016.

Kotor sits like Flam at the end of Norway's Sognefjord. But in Flam you won't find Mediterranean trees and flowers so profuse they scent the air, mild winters, warm water, Venetian villas, monasteries and 4.5 kilometres of city wall fortifications. Those walls, interspersed with churches, forts and gates, miraculously have survived invasions and earthquakes. Kotor is renowned for having repulsed the Ottoman-Turkish pirate Barbarossa.

We approach our berth near Kotor's Sea Gate, entranced by the flying wedge of red-roofed old town tucked between two rivers and hard up against the sheer rocks of Mount Sveti Ivan (St John). About 1350 stairs snake 260 metres above Kotor to the Tower of Sveti Ivan. You can slog up for $5, and masochists can keep going up the 940-metre Ladder of Kotor to the high Krstac Pass.

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We, however, are happy to loiter at sea level, exploring the town, coveted by kings and pirates, that once sat at the crossroads of maritime and mainland routes leading to rich silver, lead and copper mines.

It's a miniature Dubrovnik, a charming medieval milieu of winding marble streets, squares, piazzas and piazzetas with an equally charming genesis. The cave-dwelling fairy Alkima advised the town should not be built on the mountain. "There is no life for you without the sea," she foretold. And so it was.

Maritime Kotor has benefited from many civilisations – the Illyrians, Romans, Byzantines and Venetians left behind a glittering treasure chest of antiquities, art and architecture.

Grab a guidebook and spend time in the many churches, particularly the Cathedral of St Tryphon built in 1166, one of Europe's oldest cathedrals. The Romanesque-Gothic stone ciborium above the high altar is a masterpiece, as is the altar painting, the work of Kotor's goldsmiths. Revel in the 14th-century Greek frescoes.

Each square offers an array of Gothic, Byzantine, Renaissance and Baroque architecture, beginning with the main Square of Arms and navigating other charmingly named squares – Flour, Milk, Sailors' Revolt, Brotherhood and Unity. The Town Clock Tower is a mini Pisa, inclining to the west thanks to earthquakes. Venetian palaces line the streets pointing to a time of great riches and civilisation.

The Maritime Museum housed in the Baroque palace of the Grgurina family traces the complex maritime history. Spend as much time as you can in this lovely town with its friendly citizens, not forgetting to sample the wood-fired Balkan meat and seafood in the open-air piazzas.

As the sun sets over Kotor, we sail away, gliding past the picture-perfect town of Perast and its two islets – Sveti Juraj (aka Islet of the Dead) and Our Lady of the Rock adorned with the life's work of one of the greatest Baroque painters and son of Kotor – Tripo Kokolja.

The writer was a guest of APT.

MORE INFORMATION See aptouring.co.nz; kotor.montenegro.travel

CRUISING THERE APT's 15-day Adriatic & Aegean Odyssey 'Boutique Collection' all-inclusive small ship coastal cruise from Venice to Istanbul (includes Kotor) aboard the MS Island Sky is priced from $14, 695 per person. 

GETTING THERE Emirates flies daily to Venice, the starting point of the cruise, via Dubai, with return flights from Istanbul, where the cruise concludes, via Dubai. See emirates.com

Traveller.com.au

Source: Kotor, Montenegro: Why it's the number one city to visit in 2016

Why Christmas in Central Europe is Kind of Terrifying

PHOTO: Members of the Koatlacker devil's association (Koatlacker Tuifl) dressed as demonic creatures take part in a Krampus procession on December 4, 2011 in Prad near Merano, Italy. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

Holiday season is coming to the alpine regions of Central Europe. When people think of early winter in the mountains of Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, things like mulled wine, Christmas markets and light displays usually come to mind. These quaint images are a major reason tourists come to the Alps each December. However, in many places, the season kicks off with a very different kind of celebration.

A different side to holiday traditions

Often held on the eve of Saint Nicholas Day (which is on Dec. 6), Krampusnacht is named after Krampus, a mythical goat-like demon who is supposedly responsible for punishing children who were bad during the year and deemed unworthy of a visit from Santa.

Traditionally, children place their shoe outside of their door on Krampusnacht. If they have been good, Saint Nicholas leaves them candy or other presents in the shoe. If they are bad, Krampus leaves sticks or coal. In some stories, the beast leaves a rod so that the parents can spank the unruly children. (In darker tellings, Krampus holds a birch branch or other spanking implement and carries out the punishment himself. Happy nightmares, kids!).

For obvious reasons, the Christian leadership of German-speaking Europe has historically opposed any celebration of Krampusnacht. However, festivals featuring Krampus have been becoming more popular in recent years. Costumed events started taking place in Austria and Germany and then spread throughout the region. You can now find parades and processions with hundreds of Krampus impersonators in towns in Germany (especially Bavaria), Northern Italy (especially South Tyrol), Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

Krampus has other names depending on the region. The same (or a similar) character goes by Perchten or Tuifl in some corners of Central Europe. 

PHOTO: A traditional parade of the 'Krampus', beast-like creatures march through the historic city of Bressanone on the eve before St. Nicholas Day in 2013. (Courtesy of Thinkstock)

Fearsome costumes and a wild parade

Some people contend that the reemergence of Krampus is a response to the over-commercialization of Christmas. Others think that now that the countries that mark Krampusnacht are firmly secular places, they wants to celebrate the aspects of their folk culture that had been previously suppressed.

Most of the practices surrounding Krampusnacht are simply about having fun. Halloween-like celebrations feature people dressing in hairy Krampus costumes and masks and running through the streets in something that resembles a parade or procession. Participants sometimes make an effort to play the part, chasing children who are close to the parade route.

Alcohol is usually an integral part of these festivities. In some communities, a special kind of Krampus schnapps is consumed by the parade marchers.

There is a cultural aspect to these celebrations that goes beyond the folklore. Some local artisans spend weeks carving intricate masks that are used during Krampusnacht. The most skillfully made of these can cost upwards of €1,000 when combined with a full costume.

Toning it down for the tourists

The figure of Krampus can seem quite fearsome in the folkloric stories and in the Krampusnacht parades in smaller cities and towns in the mountains The character has been softened for major tourist centers. You can find images of the demon in cities like Salzburg, Austria, but these are often humorous, or they have a Saturday-Night-Post feel rather than being scary.  

For local people, these celebrations are an integral part of the holiday season. So tourists who want to get the whole Central European Christmas experience might want to consider including Krampusnacht when they are planning out their European Alps itinerary. 

PHOTO: From the folklore of Alpine countries, the Krampus is thought to punish children who had misbehaved and naughty. He is the devilish companion of St. Nicholas. (Photo courtesy of Thinkstock)

Source: Why Christmas in Central Europe is Kind of Terrifying

Exploiting intra-European talent mobility

EU enlargement, increasing globalisation and economic fluctuations have precipitated and posed challenges for corporate intra-European mobility, according to the findings of a new Worldwide ERC survey.

A recent Worldwide ERC study exploring intra-European talent mobility, the motivations behind it, the challenges associated with different types of mobility, and the strategies firms were using to resolve them found that 96 per cent of respondents from 85 organisations with intra-European moves anticipated that volumes of intra-European mobility would increase or remain the same over the next three years.

Quoting data from a September 2014 European Commission (EC) report, Labour Mobility within the EU, Worldwide ERC's Intra- European Mobility Survey 2015 report notes that, when comparing the characteristics of recent mobile workers (2009–2013) with those seen during the previous five-year period (2004–2008), the following trends emerge:

Germany and the UK are the top destinations for mobile workers within Europe

More EU workers are heading to Austria, Germany, Belgium and the Nordic countries, and fewer to Spain and Ireland

Mobile workers in the EU tend to be young, but the share of those aged from 15 to 29 has declined from 48 per cent to 41 per cent, indicating that more established employees are on the move

Mobile EU workers are increasingly well-educated, with 41 per cent having at least a college degree in more recent years (2009–20113), up from 27 per cent during the period 2004–2008.

Worldwide ERC's findings mirror those of the EC, with the UK and Germany (reported as destinations by 77 per cent and 50 per cent of respondents respectively) topping the list of destination locations.

These countries were also the locations most frequently cited by companies as locations of mobility origin. In fact, the top four destination locations were also the top four origin locations, as illustrated in Figure 1.

Not surprisingly, the primary drivers of intra-European mobility varied by assignment type. For each category of assignment, by percentage of organisation, the top three were:

Long-term assignments – Business need (75 per cent), employee development (66 per cent), to fill a skills gap (59 per cent)

Short-term assignments – Project/task completion (82 per cent), to fill a skills gap (68 per cent), employee development (66 per cent)

Permanent moves – To fill a skills gap (76 per cent), business need (71 per cent), succession plan (43 per cent)

Commuter arrangements – Business need (65 per cent), to fill a skills gap (59 per cent), project/task completion (56 per cent)

Extended business travel – Business need (72 per cent), project/task completion (61 per cent), knowledge transfer (50 per cent)

When it came to assignment success, only 7 per cent of respondents reported that their organisation had a formal definition. Nearly three-quarters indicated that their systems for tracking success were 'fair' or 'poor'.

Formal definitions provided by respondents included reliance on a performance appraisal system, focus on ROI and retention after assignment end, goals established at the start of the assignment, and terms and conditions met.

For more Re:locate news and features on the mobility industry, click here and for more on Europe, click here
Source: Exploiting intra-European talent mobility

New destinations seek to get in on the act at World Travel Market

The tourism industry's leading global event includes some 250 new exhibitors this year.

At the 2015 World Travel Market in London, upcoming tourist destinations have a unique chance to put themselves on the map.

Georgia likes to call itself "Europe's best kept secret" –but that could be about to change.

"Last year we have received 5.5 million international visitors and this year will be like 6 million international visitors. The population of Georgia is just 3.7 million," said George Chogovadze, head of the Georgian National Tourism Administration.

Recognising tourism's potential, some countries such as Kazakhstan have got rid of visas for most visitors.

But in Europe the opposite is often happening.

Restrictive visa policies towards markets such as China, India, Russia, or Turkey mean billions of euros in lost revenue.

If we delivered visa-free travel from these top ten tourism markets to Europe over the next five years, we could see an additional 84 million visitors coming to the continent here spending more than 114 billion euros," said Mark Henry, Vice-President of the European Travel Commission.

In Asia, the Philippines is trying to boost the visitor appeal of the whole country. Last year tourism accounted for eight per cent of GDP.

"Ultimately the entire nation has to be ready to accept tourism and that everybody should play a role in making sure that the experience of every visitor is a fun one," said Domingo Ramon C. Enerio III, President of the Tourism Promotions Board in the Philippines.

There are deals to be done but competition is fierce.

It's a good moment for eye-catching offers.

Kenya for instance says it's to subsidise charter airlines flying tourists to the coast.

Euronews correspondent Sebastian Saam reported from the World Travel Market:"Colourful, appealing, and open to the world. This is how every country wants to present itself at the World Travel Market, gathering together the tourism industry's main decision makers. It's about trends, it's about latest developments, but it's also mainly about one thing: business."

Source: New destinations seek to get in on the act at World Travel Market

BMW surprises with profit rise as Europe recovers | Reuters

BERLIN/FRANKFURT BMW reported a surprise rise in third-quarter operating income as strong sales in higher-margin core European markets outweighed weak demand in China, keeping profitability within its target range despite high investment in new models.

The company's automotive operating profit margin slipped to 9.1 percent from 9.4 percent a year earlier, behind rival Mercedes-Benz's 10.5 percent but beating Audi's 8.0 percent in the quarter.

The other two premium German carmakers are challenging BMW's global leadership in luxury car sales, but BMW said it "firmly intends to remain the world's leading premium manufacturer of vehicles in 2015" ahead of its centenary next year.

Some analysts have criticised the chasing of sales volumes over profitability, which they say was supported last quarter by accounting for more of the upfront development costs over a number of years, flattering the margin.

"The latest emissions scandal at Volkswagen should once again make it clear that size is no virtue in itself," NordLB analyst Frank Schwope said, referring to widening accusations of air pollution test cheating against VW on Monday.

BMW said on Tuesday it still expected a profit margin in the automotive division of 8-10 percent this year, compared with 9.6 percent in 2014, as well as higher sales and pretax profit.

But the Munich-based group cited a raft of headwinds including heightening competition in the United States, upfront spending on new products and technology as well as rising personnel costs and slowing demand in China.

Finance chief Friedrich Eichiner said he would be "looking in a crystal ball" if he could predict a turnaround in China, where Mercedes is making gains on BMW and market leader Audi.

But he told a call with reporters: "At the moment, our experience is that it seems to be stabilising .... We are acting on the assumption that we have reached a bottom."

Shares in BMW, up 10 percent since the emissions scandal broke out at rival VW in September, were down 1.4 percent to 93.07 euros by 1310 GMT, underperforming a 0.6 percent weaker German blue-chip index.

BMW's quarterly sales in Europe, destination of over 40 percent of its deliveries, were up 6.9 percent to 545,062 cars, leading the group to affirm its goal of beating last year's record 2.12 million sales.

Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) rose 4.3 percent to 2.35 billion euros ($2.59 billion), BMW said, matching the top-end forecast in a Reuters poll. The poll had predicted on average a 6.3 percent drop in EBIT.

($1 = 0.9077 euros)

(Editing by Mark Potter)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.

Source: BMW surprises with profit rise as Europe recovers | Reuters

Europe’s Tourism recovery looks set to continue

Long-haul travel to Europe has enjoyed an encouraging summer and the upward trend in arrivals is expected to continue, according to the latest analysis from ForwardKeys, which monitors future travel patterns by analysing 14 million reservation transactions each day.Total international long-haul arrivals from January to September were up 5.1% on the previous year and issued bookings -ie bookings for future travel, referred to as On The Book (OTB), are up 4.8% for the rest of the year.

The ForwardKeys data was announced at the Destination Europe Summit, hosted by the European Travel Commission and the European Tourism Association (ETOA) with support by the European Commission, at the Barbican Centre in London on October 29.

Sebastien Cron, Global Sales Director, ForwardKeys, said: "While it's widely recognized that Europe is losing its competitiveness, it's good to see from our data that long-haul travel to Europe has been growing well recently, pushed up by a strong summer season, particularly in July."

What appears to be a strong performance this year needs to be set in the context of long- term relative decline. Tom Jenkins, ETOA CEO, urged industry experts not to be lulled into a false state of security over figures showing growth. "Travel and tourism in other parts of the world is increasing faster than in Europe. Although the statistics show we are continuing to grow at an average annual growth rate of 3.6% since 2007, the rest of world is growing at a rate of 5.7% over the same period.

Within Europe, the picture is mixed. Germany and the Netherlands have been the stand-out performers since 2007, displaying total tourism growth of 37% and 33% respectively for the period, a 4.6% and 4.2% annual average, whereas the UK and France have grown just 13% and 10% for the period an average of just 1.7% and 1.4% per annum.

Tom Jenkins continued: "The European tourism industry is facing global competition. We need to be aware of what is going on in the major origin markets. The USA may finally be looking positive; Russia – Europe's biggest volume market - is negative. China shows signs it may not be as promising as everyone seems to think."

Arrivals on the book from the USA currently look set to rise for the rest of the year. Clients from the west coast are significantly up: San Francisco leading the way, followed by Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago.

More than half the bookings for future arrivals from the USA will stay longer, 4-8 nights – another encouraging sign.

Tourism from Russia has nosedived. Visitor numbers are down 15.9% from January to September, with forward bookings down 24.1% for the rest of the year.

China, having grown well during the first ten months of 2015, appears to be falling back in November and December with bookings for outbound travel from the most important origin city, Beijing, 6.4% behind where they were at the same point last year. However, the lower numbers may indicate that the Chinese are becoming later bookers.

Top European destinations for arrivals, between January and September, were London, Paris, Istanbul and Rome, though growth in London and Paris was anemic, with London 0.3% down and Paris just 1.6% up. For the rest of year, Barcelona and Milan, top the list for the fastest growing destinations, up 20.3% and 25.6% respectively, owing to the Milan Expo and improved connectivity to Barcelona, particularly via Dubai.

Eduardo Santander, Executive Director, ETC, led the call to action on increasing Europe's competitiveness, urging obstacles to be eliminated, including visas, excessive taxation of tourism and onerous regulation. He also called for a focus on the most important source markets, joint promotional strategies, increased promotional budgets and closer co-operation between the public and private sectors at continental, national, regional and local levels.

And he issued this warning: "The European tourism industry is facing increasing global competition from emerging destinations that are attracting increasing numbers of tourists. Destinations in Asia and the Pacific will benefit from the expansion of intra-regional travel and by 2030, North-East Asia will replace Southern and Mediterranean Europe as the most visited sub-region."

Source: Europe's Tourism recovery looks set to continue

Russia Mourns as Officials Work to Determine Cause of Jet Crash

Photo Flowers and stuffed animals piled up at a makeshift memorial at Pulkovo airport on Sunday, forming a somber scene as Russians commemorated their dead. Credit Dmitry Lovetsky/Associated Press

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Russia held a day of mourning Sunday for the 224 people, mostly young families on vacation, who died in a passenger jet crash in Egypt over the weekend, while a senior Russian aviation official said the wide scattering of the debris showed the plane had broken up in the air.

Dispersed over a black-pebble desert in the Sinai Peninsula were suitcases, rainbow-hued beach clothing, children's dolls and the bodies of Russians, the latter wrapped in white shrouds, footage showed.

Viktor Sorochenko, the director of the Interstate Aviation Committee, said the pattern of the debris proved that the plane disentegrated in the air.

Government officials and airline executives are considering either mechanical failures or terrorism as possible causes, as preconditions for both scenarios seemed to be present.

Russian charter airlines have a poor safety record while an Islamic insurgency against the Egyptian government has simmered for years in the northern Sinai Peninsula area where the plane crashed.

Photo Egyptian soldiers stand guard next to the luggage and belongings of passengers at the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Credit Khaled Desouki/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Flight recorders from the Airbus A321-200 airplane that had been recovered a day earlier were in good enough condition to decipher, Maksim Sokolov, Russia's minister of transportation, said Sunday.

But no new details of the possible cause of the crash came to light. Government officials and airline executives were considering both mechanical failure and terrorism as possible causes.

Mr. Sokolov had issued a statement on Saturday rejecting reports that the plane had been the target of a terrorist attack as "fabrications."

Stil l, Emirates airline on Sunday joined Air France and Lufthansa in announcing that flights would be rerouted around the Sinai Peninsula as a precaution until the risk of a surface-to-air missile attack could be ruled out. Lufthansa said this would involve rerouting flights to six destinations.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia established a state commission to investigate the crash. The Russian government also sent planes from its emergency services to take to the scene a team of investigators, who arrived on Sunday.

By midmorning, search crews had transferred 163 bodies from the site to Egyptian hospitals and morgues.

The crash threw a spotlight o n the extraordinary popularity among Russians of wintertime vacations to Egypt, which is widely considered here the cheapest destination with reliable winter sun.

The sharp drop in the value of the ruble and tensions with the West over the past year have sharply diminished the number of Russians traveling. But despite the downturn, Russian tourism to Egypt has declined only 13 percent this year, compared with a 25-percent drop in travel to Turkey and a 43-percent decline in travel to Spain.

Continue reading the main story What We Know So Far

A basic package tour, including a flight, hotel and meals, can be had for as little as $500 or $600 a week — but often comes with a trade-off: transportation on aging airplanes operated by little-known charter airlines.

The wife of the co-pilot of the Airbus that crashed told Russia's NTV channel that her husband had complained about the mechanical condition of the plane, operated by Kogalymavia, a private company flying planes under the name Metrojet. The woman, Natalya Trukhacheva, told the station that her husband had said "before the flight that the technical condition of the airplane left much to be desired."

On Sunday, the newspaper Izvestia reported that the airline had fallen into financial difficulties recently and owed money to a pension fund. A spokeswoman for the airline said on Saturday that its planes had undergone regular maintenance and were flown by experienced pilots.

RBK, a Russian newspaper, noted that the passenger manifest included many people with the same last names, indicating that the plane was packed with families on vacation.

Two of the passengers were Yuri and Olga Sheina, a husband and wife from St. Petersburg who had meticulously documented their holiday on VKontakte, a Russian version of Facebook.

The trip was intended to celebrate a special day, Oct. 27, the fourth anniversary of their wedding and also the tenth anniversary of the day they first met, according to their posts.

"Egypt, sun, sea," Mrs. Sheina wrote before leaving St. Petersburg, a city that grows increasingly dark and gloomy at this time of year. "We are flying on vacation!"

On the anniversary date, celebrating by the sea, she wrote, "this is the day we met and fell in love with each other forever," and posted coquettish snapshots of herself posing before a spray of bougainvillea flowers, smoking a water pipe and sunning by a po ol.

Continue reading the main story

Altitude data from flight

Altitude data from flight

The last post showed her husband carrying onto the Metrojet Airbus their 3-year-old daughter, who wore a pink T-shirt that said "Sweetie" on it. "Hello Peter, Goodbye Egypt" the girl's mother wrote.

But the plane never made it out of Egypt, crashing about 25 minutes after takeoff in the Sinai Desert. The first remains were expected to arrive later Sunday in St. Petersburg, where the authorities had collected DNA samples from 140 relatives by Sunday morning to aid in identifying the victims.

On Sunday, St. Petersburg mourned. Through the day, flowers and stuffed animals piled up at a makeshift memorial at Pulkovo airport, forming a somber scene as Russians commemorated their dead, lowered their heads, and cried.

"This is a personal tragedy of St. Petersburg," said Dmitry Komarov, who came to the shrine with his wife, Anastasia Komarova. She was weeping.

While travelers passing the airport memorial said they now feared to fly on charter airlines, others saw terrorism as the likely culprit.

Sergei Kubar, who traveled to the Sharm el-Sheikh resort just a month ago with a different airline, blamed terrorists. "When Putin started to bomb Syria, I said we could expect something like this."

One man, who offered only his first name, Ivan, came to commemorate a friend, a man he had met years earlier in a cafe and had stayed in touch with.

"He was just a good person, a friend," Ivan said, as he blinked his eyes filling with tears.

The stack of flowers, in bouquets of even numbers, the tradition for honoring the dead here, grew on a bench along with multiple rows of soccer balls, teddy bears and other toys laid out on the ground in a farewell to the children who died.

Source: Russia Mourns as Officials Work to Determine Cause of Jet Crash