{"id":1405,"date":"2012-10-07T11:52:58","date_gmt":"2012-10-07T18:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveltattler.com\/?p=1405"},"modified":"2012-10-07T11:52:58","modified_gmt":"2012-10-07T18:52:58","slug":"olympics-and-tourism-kirani-james-welcomes-you-to-grenada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/library\/1405\/olympics-and-tourism-kirani-james-welcomes-you-to-grenada","title":{"rendered":"OLYMPICS AND TOURISM: KIRANI JAMES WELCOMES YOU TO GRENADA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Olympic gold medalist Kirani James enjoys time at home in Grenada (Courtesy photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

While\u00a0Russia\u00a0and\u00a0Brazil\u00a0work hard to welcome, respectively, the next winter and summer Olympics, some destinations are already basking in the glory of the games. London, which hosted the summer games in August, already received more international visitors per year \u2013 30 million \u2013 than any other city. But the colorful opening and closing ceremonies, featuring the likes of Russell Crowe, Paul McCartney, 007, and Her Majesty herself, were essentially an infomercial for \u201cJolly Old.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The 2010 Winter Olympics were staged in Vancouver, where the city\u2019s 2.6 million residents were already living in the fastest growing region of\u00a0Canada\u00a0and welcoming skiers to the slopes at Whistler. \u201cThe 2010 Winter Olympic Games brought world-wide exposure to Whistler and helped to increase awareness,\u201d said Jennifer Tice, public relations manager at The Fairmont Chateau Whistler. \u201cOur resort benefited from the vast amount of media coverage both leading up to the games, during the games and afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

But destinations needn\u2019t host the Olympic Games in order to get on the map. The sportsmanship and performance of a nation\u2019s athletes can equate to general interest and tourism growth in a country. Every gymnast, swimmer, shot putter and runner is a potential ambassador. When the Lithuanian basketball team, for instance, managed to win the bronze medal at the\u00a0Barcelona\u00a0games in 1992, the newly independent country was reintroduced to the world, according to the new Marius Markevicius documentary \u201cThe Other Dream Team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could\u00a0Jamaica\u00a0have received any more publicity and curiosity than it did when the tropical nation actually debuted a bobsled team at the 1988 winter games in\u00a0Calgary? This stranger than fiction truth even resulted in a\u00a0Hollywood movie. Jamaican track star Usain Bolt, with his superhero last name, is regarded as the fastest man alive, and the sprinter\u2019s colorful victory dances and media appearances reinforce\u00a0Jamaica\u2019s cool running attitude.<\/p>\n

The last time most Americans thought of the Caribbean\u00a0island\u00a0of\u00a0Grenada, President Ronald Reagan was sending an invasion force to quell a military coup in 1983. But Olympic runner Kirani James changed all that in August at the\u00a0London\u00a0games when the 20-year-old became the first athlete from\u00a0Grenada\u00a0to win an Olympic gold medal. After crossing the finish line in the 400-meter race, James waited to salute his competitor, double-amputee Oscar Pistorius, and asked him to exchange bibs.<\/p>\n

“This highly publicized gesture has elicited such an emotional response from people around the world we have initiated a campaign- \u2018Celebration of Kirani: Celebration of Grenada\u2019 – to capitalize on the awareness built for\u00a0Grenadaas a result,\u201d said Dr. George Vincent,\u00a0Grenada\u2019s Minister of Tourism. Thousands in\u00a0Grenada\u00a0lined the streets to welcome James home. \u201cHis magnanimous and unpretentious spirit became reflective not just of his own personality, but that of all Grenadians as genuine, warm and friendly, thereby increasing the appeal of the island as a desirable vacation choice.”<\/p>\n

At www.GrenadaGrenadies.com<\/a>, James has listed his \u201c10 Top Spots on\u00a0Grenada,\u201d which is known as the \u201cSpice of the\u00a0Caribbean.\u201d Among his recommendations are Gouyave Fish Fridays, the two-mile white sand strand of Grand Anse Beach, a dip in the tropical Annadale waterfall, and a cocoa tour at the Belmont Estate.<\/p>\n

Beaches, delectable cuisine and spices, a tropical rainforest, diving, snorkeling, hiking, fishing and sailing are some of the island\u2019s natural, romantic and authentic offerings. Plus, in Olympic style, golden sunsets and bronze tans.<\/p>\n

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Michigan-based travel writer Michael Patrick Shiels may be contacted at\u00a0InviteYourself@aol.com<\/a> or via\u00a0www.TravelTattler.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While\u00a0Russia\u00a0and\u00a0Brazil\u00a0work hard to welcome, respectively, the next winter and summer Olympics, some destinations are already basking in the glory of… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":1406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3665],"tags":[594063,619969,620127,620271,695,619499,2014,619728,594061,594062],"class_list":["post-1405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-library","tag-gouyave-fish-fridays","tag-grand-anse-beach","tag-annadale","tag-belmont-estate","tag-olympics","tag-grenada","tag-caribbean","tag-kirani-james","tag-london-olympics","tag-2012-olympics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2012\/10\/KiraniGrenada.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1405"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1418,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions\/1418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}