What is our obsession with defining the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, I wonder?. In emulation of what was essentially a Hellenistic tourist guide to Egyptian, Persian and Babylonian sights, a number of concerns have attempted to advance our interest in engineering and tourism. The latest attempt to drive tourism comes from the ‘New7Wonders’ group who have already determined the human wonders of the modern world. Despite a shortlist that contained modern constructions like, the Statue of Liberty and the Sydney Opera House, this 2007 list largely featured ancient wonders from the centuries originally following the Hellenistic list.

Regardless, the new project is an open vote for the even more ancient ‘Seven Wonders of Nature’. The shortlist contains a great density of locations throughout Eurasia and Oceania, but rather controversially finds little of beauty in Russia, North America and Africa. Hopefully people will be inspired to see the candidates for inclusion to judge for themselves, helping emerging tourist economies as they do so. Maldives holidays are immediately obvious conclusions in any tour of the world’s most beautiful sites, and they get a well deserved nod as the final word in tropical island splendour. Other obvious candidates include the Grand Canyon, Amazon and Great Barrier Reef. Environmentally fragile and over travelled anyway, the Great Barrier Reef and Amazon Rainforest are inclusions that won’t really benefit from the results of the poll, whatever happens.

One thing I’d like to see would be how Vietnam holidays boosted by cashing in on the absolutely spectacular Halong bay. The bay ‘Features thousands of karsts and isles in various shapes and sizes’ drawls the new7wonders website in an almost calculated attempt to make this sound like the least significant place on earth. It really fails to do this beautiful bay area justice, even if the photos are truthful enough. The only other thing to grumble about here is that, as positive as this could be for tourism, where is the value in measuring beauty anyway? Beauty is superficial and visual. Is the freezing cold of the Arctic and the baking sun of the Sahara not in some way something to fill us full of wonder?. And just because you don’t see any snaps from my Mauritius Holidays aren’t on the list, doesn’t stop them from being beautiful either.

A quick search for news in the Indian Ocean reveals a recurrent theme: Piracy. In recent news, a Saga cruise ship was chased for a short time by a Somali lifeboat, with the passengers on board told to congregate inside the ship. The targeting of cruise ships is new, and not assumed to be a likely tactic going forward: small private ships and cargo ships are most at risk. It’s easy to hear these stories and be concerned about travelling to the gigantic southern ocean. However, cancelling trips out to this massive ocean space is patently ridiculous. Why would you miss out on Mauritius holidays over the troubles.

The statistics are admittedly frightening: 52 ships seized in 2010, 49 by Somali pirates. But despite this, tourist journeys in the troubled zone aren’t even typical of tourism in the area. Most journeys through that area are via plane, and Piracy in Mauritius is as much a relic of the Golden Age of Piracy as it is in the Caribbean. The problematic zone doesn’t extend to offshore activities, and doesn’t extend very far to the east either. A message to anyone concerned about piracy’s effect on their Maldives holidays, it may be time to double check the Atlas.

If you want further proof of Piracy fear in these island nations, you need look no further than the booming figures for 2010 that both economies posted. And there’s nothing to cure the winter blues like a tropical island holiday: bookings have been up in the first weeks of 2011 after snow locked down Europe over the Christmas break. World events should never stop you from enjoying your vacation, and there’s always a great reason to journey abroad. Tourism has a massive decade ahead of it: new source markets, developing countries opening their doors. Basically, a tourist utopia isn’t far off. Consider for instance how Vietnam holidays are a crucial element of the Vietnamese economy, as well as an important move forward for Vietnamese relations. It is vital that tourists from privileged nations do their bit as tourists, and enjoy a world that has many sights to see, despite the often exaggerated media worries that circle around.

Going away on something like a Maldives spa break is something that a lot of people do not really think about doing when it comes to taking their vacation. This is because they do not think of spa holidays when it comes to going away and this is a big mistake. if you do think about going to somewhere like the Maldives when it comes to a spa break, what should you excpect??