I have just heard good news from Antonio Marino and his family. BOCOG has backed down and are now allowing all five family members on the promised tour.

Antonio said:
“We are very happy because BOCOG has respected the rules and my family can travel complete with all 5 members. I am also thankful to BOCOG for this decision.”

So everything is back to how it should be and I can retract my claws.

I hope all the winning families, Chinese and “foreign”, have a wonderful trip – wish it was me!

Technorati Tags: travel, Olympic Family Tour Beijing

When I wrote last week that something about the “Olympic Families Tour Beijing” campaign smelt foul, I had no idea just how foul!

I learned this afternoon that the winning “foreign” families have now been told that only three members of their registered families get to go on the promised tour. For Vicente Antonio Marino, father of the top “foreign” family, this means the family will have to leave two of the five family members behind in Argentina.

In an email I received this afternoon from Vicente Antonio Marino, he explained that despite being allowed to enter and win the competition with his family of five, The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) is now telling him that only three of the five family members can participate in the China tour they have won.

The announced competition rules clearly stated that: “The participants must be families with at least three members” (source: The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games) – i.e. three or more family members.

Furthermore at least two (unclear about the “go Hong Kong” family) of the total five winning “foreign” families have more than three family members and were not only allowed to participate but also announced as winners less than two weeks ago.

So if now only three members per family are allowed on the tour, this will be a highly controversial change of rules after the competition has finished.

Such a grotesque change of rules that I have written BOCOG’s media and communication department asking for confirmation that this is all just a misunderstanding:

Sent to BOCOG’s media and communication department on 16 July 2007:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am the owner of the travel site The Travel Cooler (www.thecooler.info/travel) and have previously covered your Olympic Families Tour Beijing competition on my site.

I am very disappointed to have learned from one of your winning families that the number of family members allowed to participate in the tour has been reduced to 3. According to the winning family, they have received communication from the BOCOG event department stating the following:

“Taking the security issues and the limit of total participants into consideration, the member of each family should be equal or less than 3 people”.

This is, as you will be aware, in contradiction with the announced competition rules, which clearly stated that families wishing to participate should be of “at least 3 members”. The winning families with more than 3 family members were allowed to participate and declared as winners without any mention of such a change in rules.

It seems the only reasonable explanation must be that the communication is a mistake and that all members of the winning families will be allowed on the promised tour.
Please could you confirm that there has not been a change in rules to limit the number to 3 family members and that indeed all registered members of the winning families will of course be allowed on the tour?


Many thanks and in anticipation,
Anni Poulsen
www.thecooler.info/travel

Please help

If you own a website, a blog or in any way can help Vicente Antonio Marino’s family go on the tour they were promised, please do so by publishing the story on your site or by writing BOCOG asking them to reconsider (contact details can be found here: http://en.beijing2008.cn/bocog/contactus/index.shtml).

If you publish the story please leave a link to your article in the comment box below. This issue has now been resolved, see Good News for Olympic Family Tour Beijing.

Related Articles

Good News for Olympic Family Tour Beijing

“Olympic Families Tour Beijing” update

Win a tour of the Olympics 2008 host and co-host cities

Technorati Tags: travel, Beijing, Winning Olympic Family cheated

Briefly, please could you tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m a journalist and a college professor, and I’ve been blogging since 2002. I have many interests; while the blogs (Blog de Viajes and Zirma) are mostly focused on travel, as a journalist I work mainly in technology.

On the academic side, I am a Communication Sciences graduate and I teach at the same Faculty at Universidad de Buenos Aires. Also, I am finishing a master program on Science, Technology and Societe at Universidad de Quilmes.

How long have you lived in Buenos Aires?

Always

What do you like most about living in Buenos Aires?

The city is always busy, particularly at night. I love its libraries, its many bars, the possibility to stroll anywhere you want. And that, despite being a big and populated city, there’s always time to sit down and a have a cup of coffee or some beers.

Is there anything you do not like about living in Buenos Aires?

Public transportation is getting worse. The sidewalks are usually filthy, and some areas of the city are unattended while other areas can’t stop constructing big and expensive buildings. This distance is not casual, since the income distribution is worsening in Argentina, something that’s destroying the local middle class, the most dynamic sector of the economy.

Why should travellers visit Buenos Aires?

Buenos Aires has been a very expensive city for quite a while, but now it’s very accessible thanks to current exchange rates. Since we don’t know how long this situacion will hold, I’d recommend you plan your trip for not too long from now.

Of course, there are many places to know, a very active and long night (you’ll go to sleep at any time) and lots of people to talk to.

From Buenos Aires you can also go to other places of the country. Unfortunately, for a few months now, local airlines are charging higher fares to foreign, non-resident tourists, which in my opinion, are too high. I talked about it in my blog here >> (currently in spanish only).

What do you wish travellers would do when they visit Buenos Aires?

As with many other cities, the best thing to do is to take a walk. With a few exceptions, tours are not very helpful. The subway system provides a pretty good service, although somewhat complicated at peak hours, and it’s useful to head to many places around town.

Even at touristic spots, such as the downtown or La Boca, you’ll find interesting things. Or at the Mataderos Fair, where you can go by bus, easily. You can also walk around Palermo, filled with bars and restaurants of all kinds and traditions.

Puerto Madero is very “in” now, and it’s the current place of residence of the wealthiest of the city. You can walk along Avenida de Mayo and see the architecture of the area, and its “european” city illusion.

The train can take you to Tigre, a place really worth visiting. It’s possible to do rural tourism in Buenos Aires’ surroundings, but you have to select carefully where to go, so that it won’t just be asado (grilled meats and poultry), a couple of zambas and chacareras (local folk dances and music).

What do you wish travellers would stop doing when they visit Buenos Aires?

Take city tours, go to tango for export shows where the dancers perform something remotely familiar to the original dance, and only think of shopping. Buenos Aires is much more than tango, leather and meat. But even if that’s what you’re looking for, with a little searching, you can find interesting and original offers.

If a visitor had time to do or see only one thing in Buenos Aires, what should it be?

Surely, the city’s downtown is the most indicated. Avenida de Mayo is very interesting.

If a visitor had time for only one meal in Buenos Aires, which dish would you recommend?

It’s quite obvious, Argentinean meat is extraordinary, and it’s the main food. You have to try the tripes, specially the molleja, one of the most delicious things you can eat. Some people are hesitant about it, but they don’t know what they’re missing.

Do you have any other insider tips for visitors to Buenos Aires?

The Mataderos Fair is a good place to buy traditional products from the northern provinces of Argentina. Sunday is a great day to go to fairs, such as the one in San Telmo and the one at Plaza Francia. Or the Puerto de Frutos, in Tigre.

At night time, you can walk around Buenos Aires, particularly along Corrientes Avenue, where there’s always people strolling and eating pizza, which is absolutely delicious (you have to eat pizza!). Pasta too, particularly sorrentinos, a local creation that is the result of a long Italian tradition (about half of the local population is descendent of Italians who arrived to this country in the beginning of the 20th century).

Put your pin in our map

Our new View of a Local series consists of interviews with local people in various towns and cities in different countries.

The map below shows the places covered so far.

Use the zoom and directional buttons to navigate the map. Click on the red points to view more information and the satellite button for a satellite image.

For more information about how you can take part in our View of a Local series, please go to our View of a Local page >>

Technorati Tags: Buenos Aires, Argentina, travel