What a difference a month makes. In December 2011 we traveled to Sudan on business, taking a careful glance over the country's tourism industry whilst we were there. We met plenty of expats - most of them involved in aid or security - but no actual tourists. Given the comments we'd received before going, this was hardly surprising: most of them involved words such as "dirty", "chaotic" and, particularly in the case of Khartoum, "overwhelmingly dull".
Scroll forward to the start of 2012, however, and readers of Wanderlust, one of the UK's best-selling travel magazines, have voted Sudan as the #1 emerging destination for 2012. How can this be? I'm not entirely sure. Sudan's own statistics, not to mention those of the airlines, show a distinctly limited number of tourists visiting the country who could report home from personal experience, and magazine articles with a positive angle on the country are even more scarce. Where on earth are Wanderlust readers getting their ideas from?!
I'm actually quite pleased to hear Sudan is on the up, but a little apprehensive nonetheless. In 2009 we successfully angled to have Kyrgyzstan included in Conde Nast's Top 10 new destinations for the year ahead. The Kyrgyz were delighted... and then went and had a revolution. The tourists understandably stopped thinking about coming. Now that Sudan is taking teetering steps towards tourism, will it meet a similar fate? Politics in the country seem somewhat fraught and there is concern in some areas that President Bashir may yet become another victim of the Arab Spring.
Scroll forward to the start of 2012, however, and readers of Wanderlust, one of the UK's best-selling travel magazines, have voted Sudan as the #1 emerging destination for 2012. How can this be? I'm not entirely sure. Sudan's own statistics, not to mention those of the airlines, show a distinctly limited number of tourists visiting the country who could report home from personal experience, and magazine articles with a positive angle on the country are even more scarce. Where on earth are Wanderlust readers getting their ideas from?!
I'm actually quite pleased to hear Sudan is on the up, but a little apprehensive nonetheless. In 2009 we successfully angled to have Kyrgyzstan included in Conde Nast's Top 10 new destinations for the year ahead. The Kyrgyz were delighted... and then went and had a revolution. The tourists understandably stopped thinking about coming. Now that Sudan is taking teetering steps towards tourism, will it meet a similar fate? Politics in the country seem somewhat fraught and there is concern in some areas that President Bashir may yet become another victim of the Arab Spring.
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