Before the coup, the number of British visitors was 13,184."There are still residual concerns with safety issues," Mr Whiting said. He dismissed those concerns as "crazy" and is confident the country will remain safe for tourists, even during August's election to replace the caretaker government. Although the FCO advises that there is "potential for further civil unrest", it adds that "most visits to Fiji are likely to be trouble-free".Which leaves the dilemma of whether it is politically sound to visit a country with such a shaky grasp of democracy. "There's no longer any call for a boycott," said Andy Carl, co-director of Conciliation Resources, a London-based charity working with pro-democracy groups in Fiji."The economy desperately needs tourists, but visitors should be aware that there are social upheavals going on and that Indo-Fijians are being scapegoated.". Stonehenge's supremacy as Britain's top neolithic site is under threat.
Its near-neighbour, Avebury, is now striving to emulate its rival with its Barn Gallery, a National Trust-run exhibition centre which opened last week. Stonehenge's supremacy as Britain's top neolithic site is under threat. Its near-neighbour, Avebury, is now striving to emulate its rival with its Barn Gallery, a National Trust-run exhibition centre which opened last week. Despite Avebury's historical importance it has never quite achieved the status of Stonehenge Organisers now want to put that right. The Avebury World Heritage area includes the world's biggest stone circle, the largest prehistoric mound in Europe, and Britain's longest barrow.Avebury's guardians, however, are worried at the same time about any further growth in tourist numbers. Richard Henderson, visitor services manager, said: "We have to strike a balance.
We don't want the extra numbers damaging what they've come to see."He is right to be cautious. It is tragic that the site failed to become one of the greatest tourist attractions. From the medieval villagers who smashed up giant sarsen stones to build their houses to the 17th-century Dr Troope, who stole the bones from West Kennet long barrow to grind up and sell as a quack medicine, it is humans who have spoiled the place through the ages.The new, £350,000 exhibition pulls no punches about how the site has been damaged by thoughtless destruction. The ultimate irony is that the barn housing the hi-tech displays was itself the cause of a piece of vandalism. The listed thatched structure was built 300 years ago by a farmer looking for somewhere to do his threshing. In the process he demolished prehistoric ramparts that included 55ft-high white chalk walls a quarter of a mile in radius and older than the Pyramids of Egypt.The A361 runs through the circle, ruining the symmetry and atmosphere. And the car-park is on the site of a 1,500-year-old Anglo-Saxon village.The new exhibition joins the existing museum of Alexander Keiller, a tycoon who made his money from marmalade but who, as a philanthropist, was responsible for highlighting the importance of the site.Among the flint arrowheads and bone tools at Barn Gallery is an unusual exhibit: ancient dog excrement, which the caption solemnly tells us "can survive for thousands of years in the right conditions, as here".The Barn Gallery and the Alexander Keiller Museum are open 10am-6pm, seven days a week until October, 10-4pm November to March Joint entry costs £3.50 Entry to the stones is free They will be open over the midsummer solstice..
