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Mark Footer
Editor, Travel
Mark Footer joined the Post in 1999, having been the magazine and book buyer for Tower Records in Hong Kong. He started on the business desk before moving, in 2006, to Post Magazine, of which he was editor until 2019. He took on a secondary role as travel editor in 2009.
Mark Footer joined the Post in 1999, having been the magazine and book buyer for Tower Records in Hong Kong. He started on the business desk before moving, in 2006, to Post Magazine, of which he was editor until 2019. He took on a secondary role as travel editor in 2009.
Areas of Expertise:
Current affairs, Asian history, travelLanguages Spoken:
English
Many popular spots worldwide are introducing tourist fees for the first time or raising those that already exist. We take a look at some.
Explore Asia’s rich heritage with city tours that offer a glimpse into the history and culture of these vibrant urban centres.
Asia has a deep well of riches when it comes to wellness resorts, from the Namia River Retreat, in Vietnam, to Shinta Mani Wild, in Cambodia.
Cable cars are becoming popular globally, offering sustainable urban transport alternatives – explore these thrilling rides in Asia.
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Stay in a courtyard house at Mandarin Oriental near Beijing’s Forbidden City, take a private onsen bath at the new Banyan Tree in Kyoto or enjoy dining on an elevated platform above grassland at Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort.
With temperatures exceeding 38 degrees Celsius from Thailand to Greece and too little being done to slow climate breakdown, holidaymakers are looking for cooler places to visit.
Authorities around Japan’s Mt Fuji are fighting back against tourists all after the same photos, who make residents’ lives hell. In the Philippines, it is travellers who must face the hell of its main airport.
How times have changed in ‘China’s Hawaii’, Hainan, where 30 years ago prostitutes were as indispensable as entrepreneurs for tourism development, the Post reported. Now ‘air sports’ are a big draw.
The death toll of Everest climbers continues to mount, with overcrowding near the summit of the world’s highest peak a contributory factor. Why are so many so eager to reach the top?
When an Instagram account posted a map on which Canggu had been renamed ‘New Moscow’, others jumped in with comments on the influx of Russians in Bali since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Destination dupes – places similar to others that are suffering from overtourism – might be the hot travel trend in 2024, but some of the suggestions are plain ridiculous.
With overseas visitors struggling to go cashless in China, mobile payment app providers have worked to make it easier for them, and the central bank has told businesses to still accept cash payments.
Hundreds of cancelled flights, huge queues for new ones, a lack of staff – Dubai airport was brought to its knees by flooding. Expect travel insurers to react by increasing prices and reducing cover.
According to one culture official, the New Cathedral of Coimbra, in Portugal, served as the model for Macau’s Church of St Paul – of which only the facade remains, following a fire in 1835.
A proposed Cambodian commune’s Irrawaddy dolphin festival aims to reflect the value of the animals while promoting conservation efforts – but its last one died two years ago.
Companies wary of blowing carbon targets if they send delegates down under, passengers paying for sustainable airline fuel, a lack of which could further reduce capacity – Antipodeans should be worried.
Luxury hotels vie to stand out from the pack through their art collections and programmes. Experts rate properties in Beijing, Hong Kong and Japan, but seem to agree two hotels are a cut above the rest.
The 10 most welcoming cities on Earth, according to Booking.com, include places from India to France, most of which you, like Destinations Known, have probably never been to.
Russian tourists are looking increasingly eastward and Thailand is excitedly wooing them, but with so many heading to Phuket, locals are not best pleased with the island’s transformation.
B Corp Certification signals companies that ‘walk the sustainability talk’ and Hong Kong has 25 of them – but only one hotel. Why aren’t more falling over themselves to get the big ‘B’?
Lunar New Year in China means getting together with family, and with 9 billion domestic trips expected, it seems everyone in the nation will be on the go during the holiday.
No, it’s not in Hong Kong – Asia’s longest escalator is in mainland China, but a new effort planned for Malaysia’s Batu Caves, packed with people this week for the Thaipusam festival, might come close.
It’s a badly kept secret that HBO’s hit whodunit series The White Lotus is heading to Thailand’s Koh Samui for season 3, which means murder, mayhem and, for the island’s Four Seasons, more visitors probably.
Where did Hongkongers visit in 2023? How many flights did they take? What were the most popular local attractions? Trip.com reveals its figures, noting a ‘significant revival’ of Hong Kong tourism.
Singapore’s Kusu (Tortoise) Island is now completely self-reliant in using solar power to produce its water and electricity, a report says, joining an all-too-small list of fully sustainable islands.
Thailand’s Songkran festival involves drenching others with buckets of water and water guns, and is a big tourist draw. A proposal to extend the three-day event to a month is getting a mixed reception.
Taylor Swift, Blackpink, Beyoncé and other performers whose fans drive concert tourism have the power to wake up millions of people to the risks of climate breakdown and need to be more vocal about it.
First Paris, then Seoul and now Hong Kong, reports of bedbug infestations in hotels and on public transport are spreading across the globe – but we suspect the media might just be overreacting.
Dutchman Bart van Genugten aims to explore and video all of Seoul’s 467 neighbourhoods in a YouTube travel guide to the South Korean capital that goes beyond the typical tourist material.
