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www.travelweekly-asia.com | 3 Published by NORTHSTAR TRAVEL MEDIA SINGAPORE PTE LTD SINGAPORE 91 Bencoolen Street, #05-08 Sunshine Plaza, Singapore 189652 • TEL: +65-6801-0450 FAX: +65-6801-0469 BEIJING Room 024, Building 8, Qijiayuan Diplomatic Compound, No.9 Jianguomenwai Street, Chaoyang District 100600, China • TEL: +8610-8532 3611 | FAX: +8610-8532 5293 SHANGHAI Room 2553, The Headquarters Building, No.168 Central XiZhang Road, Shanghai 200001, China • TEL: +8621-5179 8360 | FAX: +8621-5179 8360 Travel Weekly Asia is published on a monthly basis by Northstar Travel Media Singapore Pte Ltd. Located at 91 Bencoolen Street, #05-08 Sunshine Plaza, Singapore 189652. All rights reserved. Volume 8 Issue 8 Please address all subscription mail to the above address, Fax +852 3020 5794, or email travelweeklyasia@asia-ad.net. 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Kemp CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Lisa Cohen PRESIDENT, TRAVEL GROUP Robert G. Sullivan EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, DIGITAL MEDIA Thomas Cintorino EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT/GROUP PUBLISHER David Blansfield SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Lori Cioffi SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Arnie Weissmann SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, HUMAN RESOURCES Janine L. Bavoso SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & PRODUCTION Roberta Muller VICE PRESIDENT, INFORMATION PRODUCTS GROUP Sheila Rice VICE PRESIDENT, IT INFRASTRUCTURE AND OPERATIONS Rich Mastropietro VICE PRESIDENT, DATABASE PRODUCTS Elizabeth Koesser TRAVEL WEEKLY EVENTS PRESIDENT, TRAVEL GROUP Robert G. Sullivan SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, EVENTS, TRAVEL GROUP Alicia Evanko-Lewis Arnie Weissmann has been involved in virtually every aspect of travel jour- nalism, publishing and media for the past 25 years. His writing has won more than 40 national awards, he created the industry's first destination information service (Weissmann Reports), authored a best-selling textbook and has served as publisher of critical hotel and destination guides for the travel industry. TALKING POINT Remembering Ralph the Pig I lived in Texas for 21 years, and for a few of those years had a job that provided me with a company car and assignments in every corner of the state, from the most accurately named town in the world – Notrees – to the most wildly inaccurately named Humble. And what Texas has in profusion along its highways, in addition to stunning wildflowers, are some of the world's most inventive roadside attractions. But after moving to New York, I've learned you can never go home again. I loved Aquarena Springs, home to Ralph the Swimming Pig and submerged teenage mermaids whom you could watch through windows as they puffed from oxygen hoses like a sultan with a hookah. Today the site is home to the Meadows Centre for Water and the Environment, run by Texas State University. Its mission is to inspire "research, innovation and leadership that ensures clean, abundant water for the environment and all humanity." Noble sentiments, but I gotta say Ralph's "swine dive" was inspiring in its own, modest way. I'm attracted to an offbeat or oddball enterprise that glorifies the overlooked, the goofy, the sensational, the historically wondrous, the all- but-forgotten. My world was considerably brightened last year with the publication of "Atlas Obscura" by Joshua Foer, Ella Morton and Dylan Thuras, a book dedicated, as its title suggests, to overlooked but fascinating places around the world. It is published by the marketing geniuses at Workman Publishing Co., who, in 2003, also brought us "1,000 Places to See Before You Die," by frequent Travel Weekly contributor Patricia Schultz. "Atlas Obscura" has a companion website (www.atlasobscura.com). When you first land there, you'll be asked to sign up for its daily emails which highlight items of interest, current and historical. Do so. When I first saw the book, it struck me that there might be a retail travel opportunity in focusing on the little-known and the odd, in addition to the must-sees. A tour that includes roadside attractions, highly specialised museums and markers of underappreciated historical footnotes could have surprising appeal to mainstream travellers. Five mornings a week, the "Atlas Obscura" newsletter arrives in my inbox and calls attention to sights I would go out of my way to see (as well as a few that I might only check out should I be in the neighbourhood). In one email late last July, I learned about Greenland's 300 "ghost villages" (abandoned towns) and some impressive-looking, fairly well- preserved Middle Age ruins in Kilwa Masoko, Tanzania. I'd think it would be worth a travel adviser's time to scan the newsletter each morning to see if some content might appeal to certain clients. The website itself also offers an archive of its content, searchable geographically. It will probably not surprise you to learn that "Atlas Obscura" itself offers tours, sold through its website. Its current offerings include the Amazon, Balkans, Bhutan, Barcelona, Bulgaria, Chile, India, Oman, Romania and Ukraine. The tours include some attractions that have mass appeal, but clearly there's an audience for the lesser-known, as well. Luxury marketers understand the value of scarcity. The less available an experience, a gemstone, a restaurant reservation, a suite, the more it is desired. "Obscure" isn't exactly a synonym for "scarce," but specialised knowledge in the little-known seems a ripe opportunity in travel. This article first appeared in Travel Weekly USA TALKING POINT

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