The World Tourism Organization forecasts that international tourism will continue growing at the average annual rate of 4 percent. By 2020 Europe will remain the most popular destination, but its share will drop from 60 percent in 1995 to 46 percent. Long-haul will grow slightly faster than intraregional travel and by 2020 its share will increase from 18 percent in 1995 to 24 percent.

Hwo are the best national parks in USA and Canada? How are the famous national parks rated as Denali National Park & Preserve, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Redwood National and State Parks, Rocky Mountains National park and Grand Canyon National Park? As National Geographic writes on it`s website: If you visit a national park, you'll often spend plenty of time just outside the park, too—eating, sleeping, parking, shopping, sightseeing—in the town or region that geographers call the gateway. A park and its gateway are really a single destination, with similar history, scenery, and climate. The way park and gateway interact can make all the difference in the quality of your trip and in the sustainability of the destination. Read about the rating at National Geographic Traveller`s scoreboard! The winner is.....

It`s so fantastic standing on the top of the world - Mount Everest. It`s also fantastic viewing the mountains around, but as written about in an earlier article on our website, it`s also a big risk climbing this mountain. In the previous years around 500 climbers yearly have challenged Everest, including high altitude sherpas, and of course those climbers and sherpas need oxygen. In the article Oxygen on Everest - The highest death lab in the world, website ExplorersWeb writes about "sudden deaths" caused by lack of Oxygen. ExplorersWeb warns about the risk and give advise how to take precautions.

More aid is needed for Asian quake victims. Over two months has gone after the devastating quake on 8 October in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan! Emergency relief is still critical for the survivors. The winter is coming and aid organisations as Care, Red Cross, Save the Children, UNICEF and others continue their great efforts to help them. It's a big challenge for organisations operating in these areas to respond to the changing needs of the survivors, and for reaching them who live in remote areas. The quake, which measured 7.6 on the Richter Scale, has so far caused death of nearly 90,000 people and left circa 3.5 million people homeless. Everybody can do something to help! People who have passion for travelling care about other people!

Find the most matching travel magazine for you, and travel your way. There are travel magazines for various kind of travelling as hiking, environmental tours - eco tourism, climbing, diving, cultural tours, backpacking, cruise, romantic holidays, safaris, expedition and adventure travelling. The main groups are mainstream travellers and adventure travellers. Some of the magazines which focus on inspiring travellers to go on adventure tours are Wanderlust, National Geographic Traveler, National Geographic Adventure, National Geographic, Travel and Leisure Magazine, Geographical, and Conde Nast Traveler. For adventure travellers, who is Travel Explorations` main target group, it`s always a challenge to find sources for new inspirations, and especially when it`s come to travel magazines which usual tend to be very general and fact based.

Link your business to internet through us. As a global travel guide Travel Explorations seeks continuously for quality websites related to travelling to be included in our directory of travel resources. To become a link partner with Travel Explorations, you need a website that offers complementary content to our website and its readers. Linking is a part of our strategy for increasing the number of visitors on our website - establishing of reciprocal link partners, and this will also increase our links partners` web traffic......

This is a big paradox: how could this happen in a country with such friendly and hospitable inhabitants? Jordanians are genuine, peaceful and hard working people putting their strongest efforts to build their country and attract tourists to their beautiful country. They have really something to be proud of. We in Travel Explorations express our deepest sympathy to the people in Jordan and tourists who have been stroke by the explosions. I had a wonderful journey in Jordan this summer (2005), and everywhere I met nice people. Many invited me into their private homes for tea and I really enjoyed being with these people.

Readers of Wanderlust, Britain's leading magazine for real travellers, have updated the millennia-old list for the 21st century. Overall, 3,569 travellers' votes were counted in the largest survey of its kind ever. The results reveal what today's travellers view to be the most extraordinary sights on the planet.The clear voters' favourite is the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu, Peru, which received 52% more votes than its nearest rival, the vast temple complex of Angkor, Cambodia. The Great Pyramid of Giza, the only one of the 7 Wonders of the World still standing, has been relegated to eighth place in the definitive updated list.

The World's Best Award winners are selected each year through an extensive survey conducted by Travel + Leisure Magazine. Tens of thousands of questionnaires are sent to the Magazine`s readership world wide. In Travel + Leisure Magazine`s 10th annual poll this year (2005), the result from their readers vote for the best in travel is now avaible. The 15 best tour operators and safari outfitters on the list are: Micato Safaris, Tauck World Discovery, Wilderness Safaris, Lindblad Expeditions, Butterfield & Robinson, Travcoa, Backroads, International Expeditions, Geographic Expeditions, Intrav, Odysseys Unlimited, Big Five Tours & Expeditions, Overseas Adventure Travel, Abercrombie & Kent, and CIE Tours. So what are the qualifications for these travel companies to be awarded?

On Saturday 8 October this year (2005) a powerful earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck the region bordering Pakistan, northern India, and Afghanistan. This quake is estimated to be responsible for at least 20,000 deaths in southern Asia, and the death toll may be as high as 30,000 according to local officials. Everybody can do something to help those affected by the earthquake! People who have passion for travelling care about other people. If you would like to donate to the relief effort, there are several organisations who offer both immediate and long term assistance as Care, Red Cross, Save the Children, UNICEF and others.

Take a virtual sightseeing tour around the world. By using the Google Earth-tool you have the whole globe inside your PC. You can point and zoom to any place on the planet that you want to explore. For example you can find the easiest way in Grand Canyon and the best route up to the top of Kilimanjaro before you go, and you can consider the efforts by studying the terrain. And the best of all: Google Earth is free for personal use.

What is going to happen in the future of leisure travel? What kind of adventures will the travellers demand? How will products, ways of communication, prices and information systems develop? The report "Tourism of Tomorrow, Travel Trends & Forces of Change" from May this year (2005), is worked out by Sara Nordin. She works as a researcher by the European Tourism Research Institute (ETOUR) in Sweden. Her specialising is innovation in the travel industry with emphasis on clusters and innovation systems.

This report is useful for tour operators, agents and other travel organisations for understanding the need in travel market and for being able to take advantage of it.

Computer programmer Luca Mori discovered the remains of an ancient Roman villa when he browsed Google Earth maps showing satellite images of his local area. In the beginning he thought it was just a spot on the map, but when he studied it more thoroughly he suspected it could be something else.

Based on a content-based website, Travel Explorations has over 5 years published travel related information. Fresh content is our key to success. We attract traffic from people looking for information about explorations, expeditions and discoveries for unique adventures.

Our journalists and photographers provide us with articles on topics as tribes, mysteries, wildlife, society and more. The content on our website increases our traffic continuously, and gives us more attention. And of course it increases our statistics too both regarding Unique Visitors and Page Views.

A proverb says: smile to the world and the world will smile to you! It's good to bear in mind when you travel around the world meeting people with different culture and lifestyle. It's not always easy to understand the expressions from faces. The body language accounts for circa 70 % of the communication. One of the most important things is to understand is the signals from the face, especially the smile: it's genuine or false? How can you understand the difference?

Take BBC`s "smile"-test and see how good you are to interpret a smile.