From proud show of world travel highpoints to an embarrassing show of world travel wannabees. ‘New7Wonders of Nature announcement this week of its 7 ‘winners’ vindicated the Maldives Marketing and Public Relation Corporation’s bold move to withdraw from the suspiciously dodgy campaign. I’m as much up for a good publicity stunt to draw attention in a fun and creative way, but when the New7Wonders group started trying to extort big bucks from participants, its true colours showed and the Maldives wisely withdrew. Now this hokum has run out of time (it had been going on for years) for bilking keen tourism agencies and had to finally come to some conclusion. It was kind of like the TV series Lost that captured the imagination at first, then got tired, and in the end was exposed as an aimless exercise. The end result announced this week was no more satisfying than Lost’s final perplexing and insulting episode.
“Amazon in South America; Halong Bay, Vietnam; Iguazu Falls, Argentina and Brazil; Jeju Island, South Korea; Komodo, Indonesia, Puerto Princesa Underground River, the Philippines; and Table Mountain, South Africa.”
Really, that’s the ‘7 Natural Wonders of the World’? If that’s them, then the Maldives is right to withdraw itself from such weak company. The results reinforce the increasingly evident assessment that the whole campaign was simply a vehicle for the most desperate destinations to try to get some exposure and faux bragging rights.
For starters, the Grand Canyon doesn’t even make the list. The Grand Canyon is one of those jaw-dropping, jelly-kneed natural wonders that top everyone’s list who actually know something about the world of travel. Not having the Grand Canyon on the list is like not have the Great Pyramids on the list of Ancient Wonders of the World. I feel sorry for the people who end of going to Iguazu Falls instead of Victoria Falls or Table Mountain instead of Everest.
For a more respectable list of 7 Natural Wonders check out – http://sevennaturalwonders.org/the-original.