"Longevity retreats" will also be big, says Travel + Leisure, such as the California WellBeing Institute and the Center for Life in Balance at Miraval, which will start to provide travelers with medical tests and health advice. "There will be a growing interest in destination health and wellness centers that aim to help extend lives," says Travel + Leisure.
Lonely Planet, which publishes travel guidebooks and produces www.lonelyplanet.com, predicts Macau, on the China coast, will become the new Las Vegas with "spectacular, over-the-top casinos rising amid surprisingly well-preserved colonial sites. The recent opening of the Wynn Macau and a new version of the Las Vegas Venetian Casino Resort scheduled to open this summer are just a few developments," reports Lonely Planet.
Kazakhstan, the setting of Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie, is getting lots of attention, says John Noble, one of Lonely Planet's authors, who says Cohen may have done the country a favor by misrepresenting it. "After all, millions who had never heard of Kazakhstan now have a notion of it that can only get better," he writes at www.lonelyplanet.com/journeys/feature/kazakhstan1106.cfm.
Noble says that for most travelers, Kazakhstan "is one of the world's last great unknowns. Hiking and climbing in the nearby mountains and visits to Islamic monuments in the south have traditionally been the chief attractions."
Its capital, Astana, offers "monumental 21st-century architecture," in contrast to the monotonous Soviet-era block buildings elsewhere in the country.
Noble says there are "excellent community ecotourism programs" in which travelers can stay with village families at affordable prices in places like Korgalzhyn, the world's most northerly flamingo habitat, and the southern mountain villages of Aksu-Zhabagly, Ugam and Lepsinsk, jumping-off points for pristine wilderness areas.
So, there you have it — a wide range of truly fascinating and diverse possibilities for 2007.
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