Northstar

2 | www.travelweekly-asia.com 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 7 Issue 11 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, PRESIDENT, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Lori Cioffi SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Arnie Weissmann SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, HUMAN RESOURCES Janine L. Bavoso VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING SOLUTIONS Michelle Rosenberg VICE PRESIDENT, PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION Roberta Muller VICE PRESIDENT, CONTENT LICENSING 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 Siew Hoon is a traveller who loves to write and a writer who loves to travel. She's combined her two loves into a career in travel journalism that has seen her launch several travel industry titles and conferences, including WIT. She loves the change and discovery that comes with travel and the business. GETTING TO GRIPS WITH DONALD TRUMP TALKING POINT I am sitting at San Francisco airport, waiting for my flight back to Singapore. I am connecting from San Diego, where I've just spent the weekend exploring this city that's 20 minutes from the Mexican border. My Californian friends had jested that I'd better not visit Tijuana on the Mexican side because I might not be allowed back in. They said it in humour, but I sensed a real disquiet among those who were still coming to grips with the results of the Presidential election, which saw the man who wanted to build a wall on the Mexican border win. This is the state that voted the other way and arriving as I did in Los Angeles, three days after the November 8 election, I had never seen a more subdued or quiet Los Angeles. There were protests held, and people I spoke to were either outraged or depressed and Uber drivers were generally not shy of sharing their opinions. It reminded me of when I was in London, again three days after the Brexit vote and the city of London was similarly subdued, like the air had been let out of a giant balloon. Young Londoners in particular looked the most glum because, like in the US election, the majority of youths had voted in favour of continued globalisation. Spending time in both Los Angeles and San Diego reminded me the diversity of these cities – the reason they are so appealing to travellers. In Los Angeles, I attended an art exhibition at Ace Art Gallery in Beverly Hills and hobnobbed with the rich and nearly-famous. This was a particularly significant exhibition because the gallery was closing and being demolished to make way for a new train station. It made me homesick to hear this because my neighbourhood in Singapore is also being dug up to make way for a new train station – progress is everywhere as is anti-globalisation sentiment. In LA, I ate at a wonderful Italian restaurant, Sotto, as well as Nobu, the restaurant Americans think is Japanese. To remind myself I was in California, I headed to Venice Beach to have an organic farm-to-table burger. LA is big on organic. Even its people, I think, are organic. At San Francisco airport, there's even a farm-to-flight restaurant. In San Diego, Mexican is the way to go and a good spot to eat is at Coronado, across from San Diego Bay. This is a high-end neighbourhood where residents own as many cars as they do boats. In recent years, San Diego has become a retirement haven for affluent Americans although my LA friends said it's also great for "rewirement" – when you need to destress from the big city life. Watching the seagulls swoop down for their daily pickings – I have never seen such fat seagulls – I wondered if travellers will still swoop down on the new America? A survey done by Phocuswright immediately after the elections showed one in three Germans are less likely to visit the U.S. for leisure compared with one in five in the U.K., and women were less likely to visit than men. If you were to ask me in a survey whether I'd still want to travel to the U.S. for leisure, post-Trump, based on only what I was being fed by the media, I'd probably say no – but having spent the last 10 days here on the ground, I am reminded that although the elections showed up cracks in society, America for travellers largely remains unchanged. This is why with travel, you have to be there to feel it. This is why in 2017, we in travel have to go high when they go low.

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