The Monocle Minute

Ordinary people, I have a message for you: please desist from booking a foreign holiday. To be blunt, you are cluttering up the world’s cities and beaches, and incensing some locals and a lot of newspaper journalists. While tourism is undoubtedly exacerbating numerous social issues, the reporting of the issue this summer has often been a mixture of naivety and extreme snobbery.

Take The New York Times. It recently ran a lengthy exposé on the plight of Barcelona, illustrated with Martin Parr-esque photography that would make anyone look bad. The writer described the scene on the famous Las Ramblas as “a mass of sweaty tourists” – she, of course, was no doubt all dry armpits and cool aloofness. Meanwhile, in the Sagrada Família church, she sees “crowds gape” at their surroundings. Of course, none of the hoi polloi here could be entranced or moved by what they see. No, that’s for a different class of traveller.

In the UK, The Guardian’s coverage has been at a similar pitch. A recent story pointed the finger at digital nomads for messing up life in Portugal (hold on, I thought the paper liked freedom of movement?) and quoted, without comment, one Florentine local as saying, “I hardly hear Italian spoken in the streets; one day it’s all French, then it’s all Spanish, then all Russian.” Gosh. What happens when the writer exits The Guardian offices in London and hears the languages of people from all over the world – would they find that potentially offensive? Meanwhile, other newspapers have called on people to travel off-season, stay longer, learn the language of their desired destination and even quiz hotel owners about where they source their food (apparently it should all be locally produced).

Look, in much of the world, people don’t get to choose when they vacation. They work like crazy all year just so they can have two weeks in the August sun doing nothing – certainly not undertaking an audit of their hotel’s food suppliers. While commentators might yearn for a revival of Victorian-style travel (genteel folk keen to visit churches only, please), the truth is that two weeks in a sunny resort, surrounded by lots of other people – even if they do occasionally perspire – can be fun. So let’s ditch the sneer.

Andrew Tuck is Monocle's editor in chief. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, will reportedly make his first official trip to Ankara as president on 4 September. There, he will meet his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is seeking to bolster relations with Cairo. The visit will be closely watched by Athens, which has long maintained strong ties with the El-Sisi government in order to protect its interests in the eastern Mediterranean. Greece is concerned that warmer relations between El-Sisi and Erdogan could weaken its own alliance with Egypt, undermine its energy-exploration ambitions and embolden Turkey when it comes to territorial disputes.

Egypt’s already struggling economy has suffered a significant loss of income as conflicts rage across the Middle East: its Suez Canal revenue has tumbled and tourism has also been badly hit. Accordingly, it’s looking for ways to ease tensions and restore stability. Erdogan hopes to entice El-Sisi with the promise of expanding bilateral trade and boosting regional security. This could turn into a bidding contest for the position of Egypt’s best friend.

Though most motorcycles still rely on petrol, the industry is undergoing a transition, thanks to entrepreneurs such as Simon Dabadie, founder and CEO of Dab Motors, a boutique electric-motorcycle brand based in Bayonne in southwest France. Dab Motors shifted gears to an electric concept in 2021. “I wanted to make something disruptive, not just a mobility instrument,” says Dabadie. “We forgot everything we know about bikes. The beauty of electric types is that you can start from scratch.”

High-profile collaborations with brands such as Burberry, as well as the company’s acquisition by Peugeot Motocycles last year, mean that Dab’s position at the top of a niche market is solid. The company is due to launch a limited-edition run of 400 bikes, the Dab 1A, made at Peugeot’s factory in Beaulieu Mandeure. Dabadie hopes that his creations will transform mobility in urban environments. “I would love to see our motorcycles in cities, solving the problem of noisy scooters and making people smile.”

A longer version of this article appears in Monocle’sSeptember issue, which features our annual survey of the world of transport.

Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta is known for creating culturally sensitive structures and its latest project, Čoarvemátta, is a spectacular example. The curvilinear building in the middle of Finnmarksvidda, Norway’s largest and northernmost plateau, has been designed as a new cultural and educational hub to promote the area’s Sámi heritage. The structure houses the Sámi national theatre, a high school and a reindeer-herding school.

Snøhetta worked to meld modern approaches with traditional vernacular architecture. The pine-clad building’s gentle curves, roof skylights and glue-laminated wooden structure all nod to the construction of Sámi reindeer-herding areas. “We wanted the building to be as close to nature as possible,” Bard Vaag Stangnes, senior architect at Snøhetta, tells The Monocle Minute. “We used materials such as wood and stone, and the design follows the shapes of the surrounding terrain.”

In the September print edition of Monocle magazine, we published an interview with Warja Borges about her brand Unique Aircraft which, due to a regrettable editorial oversight, contained misquotations of Ms Borges and incorrect information, namely the brand name and relevant project costs. This is the corrected interview.

Warja Borges holds an engineer’s degree in interior architecture. She worked at German studio Reiner Heim Aircraft Interior Design. In 2010 she founded Unique Aircraft. Working with major companies, Borges has designed all kinds of aircraft from smaller business jets to large Boeing/Airbus-type planes for private clients, governments and heads of state.

What is the typical budget range for the aircraft you work on?
Working on a business jet, clients’ requests are mostly refurbishments. Costs range from €500,000 to €2m, including the outfitting. My core business is one-of-a-kind interiors for large aircraft, planning the interior configuration from scratch. The range is huge, depending on the complexity of the interior, technical requirements and materials used. Starting at about €30m for narrow body, up to €200m for a wide-body aircraft. The main drivers for the budget are the technology and manpower.

What are the usual (and unusual) requests from clients?
A usual request for a Boeing/Airbus-type aircraft would be a main lounge area with a combination of seating and dining, ensuite master bedroom, galley and crew area, guest seating or bedroom and an additional lavatory. Sometimes we do get the request to implement some beloved items or features.

What is most important when designing an aircraft’s interior?
The basic is to know the certification regulations and limitations and engineering constraints. The focus is on the passengers, their comfort and needs. With this in mind, my approach is holistic, stimulating senses to create an overall and unique flying experience.
unique-aircraft.com

Life for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank is often stalked by violence, heightened by the events following 7 October. When US journalist Nathan Thrall decided to write about their experience, he wanted to unveil the sheer catastrophe that they live through daily. The Pulitzer Prize-winning book, ‘A Day in the Life of Abed Salama’, focuses on Abed whose son died in a bus crash in 2012, and the other individuals linked to the tragedy. Speaking to Georgina Godwin, Thrall shares the relationships he has with Salama and others, the reaction to their story and the Israel-Hamas war.