abete422( ./aezt,a0d 1

,althfifr abete422( ./aezt,a0d 1 -aevn-e-iy -I (1677 -1-4-4: ra /-ez-/, gym.. --izzet 74 ,V6ti 42, pa 7,-* Zeal girl& d'infizaze, 4eST wz, ,a-le ,ad/vill ,7.7„c, / P.033,WIMMINWAriazdf; EFTA01699268 CAom LtIvto Sac eNvIustoti N OM O To Arkwom TA,O1scldviq 70-.sk Fame, Raw:kJ (3umcuk 0 t_ vLAAA; ottairotis Eckciow 4-60\ AA, auedistivtg za,v14 33201 oc3; (W4AvIsti lvakvio_ NveLl tiu k)oz\v‘viicov) M53? To Likikovv, 0- ft" Cockm rP1tcose. \vmh\-ieritt nz hiettAiolkiffAi hMAA&RA- oz18.0,m, caLmob ickma Oasts \\A VCA5L koa-ouuktd aAkwa . Aiv): (\5\5) u SCA:A\ 1 VIAL VIVetiViS ‘4 oh me. G2 \v, SeipirQmibvv )c01`91 Sca' Koloaxvte vkov,cs akuct oti- oss lase ov) ries 50-5-1 k N4outal esteotatkme TuAt. Doo) 1 Aamks ouAck treicvas EFTA01699269 Bloomberg Eiosinessweek August 5. 2019 1 B U S N E S Edited by James E. Elks and Dirnitra Kessenides VICTORIA'S SECRET A modeling agency linked to Jeffrey Epstein is just one of the chain's worries Time isn't being kind to Victoria's Secret. The lingerie retailer has a problem with the past and a problem with the future-and that leaves the pres- ent in a muddle of controversy. Jeffrey Epstein is supposed to be history at the company—and at its parent, L Brands Inc., for that matter—but he's that skeleton that keeps rattling around the closet to remind everyone he was once an all-too-lively part of the business. Epstein had a two-decade-long reign as close confidant, financial the prosecution. Epstein now sits in a Manhat manager, and right hand to the corporation's chief jail awaiting trial—and perhaps more revelation executive officer, Leslie Wexner. He even had the salacious secrets. On July 23 he was found inju CEO's power of attorney at one time. in his cell and put on suicide watch. Although he wasn't an employee at Victoria's L Brands' efforts to distance itself from Epsi Secret, Epstein also influenced the way the lin- may not have been all that clean a break. Epstei one point had a $1 million investment in MC2 Mr Management, according to a sworn deposition I former company bookkeeper. MC2 is owned byk Luc Brunel, a Frenchman who's alleged in a civil I suit to have brought girls as young as 12 to the I for sexual purposes and provided them to Epsi and other friends. Brunel even visited Epstein w he was first imprisoned in 2008. Victoria's Se( continued to work with MO-represented mot after Wexner severed ties with Epstein. At least tt MO models walked in its 2015 fashion show,genie company operated, associating with the division's chief marketing officer, Ed Razek. In 2005, for example, Razek was a guest at Epstein's Manhattan mansion, welcomed by young women who said they were working as models for Epstein. Razek told fellow guest William Mook, head of Mok Industries LLC in Columbus, Ohio, that Victoria's Secret used Epstein models and that his girls were in "the major league," according to Mook. Epstein's relationship with Wexner and L Brands officially ended in 2007, a year and a half after the financier was charged with several counts of se misconduct in Florida. He pleaded guilty to charge and spent just 13 months in prison v work-release privileges. That penalty was wic derided as exceedingly lenient and, after sex I ficking charges against Epstein were resurrecte July, fresh outrage over the 2007 plea deal le( the resignation of U.S. Labor Secretary Alex Aco who'd been the U.S. attorney in Miami in charg EFTA01699270 ■ BUSINESS Bloomberg Busies*** August 5.2019 pI 3 I I 5 the agency's models were at auditions in 2017 and 2018. They've also posed for its catalogs and web- site. In a 2014 letter to Brunel, his business part- ner, MC2 President Jeff Fuller cited worries by Saks, Nordstrom, Macy's, and other clients about Brunel's friendship with Epstein. There was no mention of concern on the part of Victoria's Secret. MC2 didn't respond to a request for comment. A representative of L Brands declined to com- ment beyond statements already issued. L Brands has hired an external law firm to probe any ties between the company and Epstein. Epstein is the ghost of Victoria's Secret's past. But the company has more to worry about than history. Its business model is increasingly at odds with society's changing definition of beauty and the #MeToo movement, both of which have encour- aged a very different vision of how to portray women and their bodies. This isn't just an exercise in political correctness: Since 2015, Wexner's lin- gerie empire has lost $20 billion in market value, raising the question of whether a male-dominated company that trumpets women as lingerie-clad "angels" may be out of step with today's consumer. The chain's founder, Roy Raymond, came up with the idea of a women's lingerie store aimed at men after an unfulfilling experience at a depart- ment store buying his wife some lingerie in the 1970s. He felt there should be a place where men would be comfortable shopping for women's underwear. He opened the first Victoria's Secret in 1977. Wexner, already owner of retailers Limited, Lane Bryant, and Express, bought the company for Si million in 1982. Through savvy marketing under Wexner, the brand sold directly to women who wanted to look sexy in pushup bras and panties. As the brand grew, it still provided plenty of eye candy for men—especially in its glittery annual fash- ion show, which became a marketing coup and a much-anticipated event for the men who flocked to it. The first—staged at New York's Plaza Hotel in 1995, the same year real estate developer Donald Trump was forced to sell the legendary hostelry to avoid bankruptcy -included model Stephanie Seymour gliding down the catwalk. Models wore white and black bras and underwear, but not the large white angel wings that models in subse- quent shows would make famous. Over the years the extravaganza grew with more lights and pop stars. Supermodels such as Gisele Biindchen and Tyra Banks graced the stage. As such, it cast a sex- § infused spotlight on a utilitarian product our grand- mothers used to purchase from the Sears catalog. Plenty of clothing retailers have used sex to sell. American Apparel's ads of pouty-faced young women in suggestive poses often had the look of soft porn. And Abercrombie & Fitch's now-defunct "magalog," A&F Quarterly, was notorious for including nude models and racy content such as its 2003 discussion on the pleasures of group sex. But few retailers have fused themselves to the notion of sexiness more than Victoria's Secret, which has spent countless hours making sure the outside world gets that message. Wexner has never shown a lot of personal interest in the models for his brand, according to a former executive. That task falls to Razek, who's worked for Wexner since the 198os and is part of his inner circle. The 71-year-old marketing chief and his team decide which models earn angel wings. GQ has called him one of the most important people in the modeling industry. Between tapings of the 2011 fashion show, for instance, the Victoria's Secret angels would crowd around Razek as if he were a coach giving a locker room pep talk before the big game. In a speech that year to his accPmbled models, which included Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio, Razek said their job is the "most impossible job in the world, literally in the history of the world. In the history of the world, as of this show, only 165 women have ever been in this show," he said to the dozens of women present. "There have only been 140 pairs of wings in the entire history of this show. That means each of you, every one of you, because there are 7 billion people on the planet. Each of you is one in 45 million human beings. Let's start with that" But like fashion, times change. Abercrombie in late 2014 parted ways with longtime CEO Mike Jeffries, who once famously told Salon magazine that his chain refused to carry women's clothing larger than a size 10 "because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't mar- ket to anyone other than that:' The chain has also dropped its highly sexualized marketing. American Apparel founder Dov Charney was ousted in 2014 after allegations of sexual harassment, and the company later filed for bankruptcy. Likewise, fashion companies are increasingly embracing a broader definition of beauty. Younger designers such as Christian Siriano and Becca McCharen-Tran have added plus-size fashions and models to their shows. But Victoria's Secret hasn't strayed much from its uniformly tall, thin angels. Last November, Razek told Vogue that, after consid- eration, he'd decided not to use transgender models in his shows. "Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy," he said, sparking some outraged celebrities and customers to call for his resignation. Some in the industry say such tone-deafness ► • Victoria's Secret U.S. market share in women's urslerwear 36% az ze ze 2010 2018 • Victoria's Secret total selling square footage 72m 2018 64 2011 ao 5740 5860 Sales per s4 ft EFTA01699271 ■ BUSINESS Bloomberg BusInessweek August 5, 2019 ill may be a result of the 2016 departure of Victoria's Secret's longtime CEO, Sharen Jester Turney, who'd guided the brand for a decade while managing to convince many consumers that its celebration of the feminine body was a form of female empow- erment. Turney left because she didn't agree with the direction Wexner wanted to take the business, according to a person familiar with their conver- sations. "With her gone, the men really just took over," says one former executive. "And these were men who had one ideal of women, and it's not based in reality:' Jan Singer, who replaced Turney, left last year soon after Razek made comments some plus-size models and the transgender community found demeaning. Singer was replaced by a man, leaving L Brands with only two women among the 10 listed executive officers and brand leaders. At the urging of activist investor Barington Capital Group, L Brands this spring added two more women to its board. The failure to embrace changing norms about women and beauty may already be having an impact on Victoria's Secret's results. After rising steadily since 2010, sales fell to $7.4 billion in fis- cal 2017—the first drop in seven years—and edged slightly lower again last year. Sales at stores open for more than 12 months, a closely watched met- ric in retailing, also slipped in 2018, with operating income at the unit tumbling 45%, to $512.4 million. Those poor results have led L Brands to tighten its purse strings, resulting in the shuttering of dozens of underperforming locations. L Brands announced in February plans to dose about 53 Victoria's Secrets in North America this year, more than three times the 15 it's historically closed in an average year. "Given the decline in performance at Victoria's Secret, we have substantially pulled back on capital investment in that business," L Brands executives said in prepared commentary in May after reporting a further 5% drop in same-store sales in 2019's first quarter. Another notable change: In May, Victoria's Secret pulled its fashion show from network tele- vision after 23 years. Ratings bottomed out in 2018, with only 3.3 million viewers, down from the pre- vious all-time low of 5 million the year prior. The annual show is expected to move to streaming. There may be limits to just how much Victoria's Secret can change its messaging: American Engle Outfitters Ink's rival Aerie line has found a base of passionate customers who are younger and more diverse and are calling for brands to have body- inclusive messages. That's helped Aerie log 18 con- secutive quarters of double-digit same-store sales. One advantage is that Aerie doesn't have 40 years of branding to overcome. "There's been very interesting growth in consumers embracing this more holistic body-image view, but it's probably too far of a step away from what the DNA of Victoria's Secret is," says Alex Arnold, a managing direc- tor of the consumer practice at investment bank Odeon Capital Group LLC. "It would be a whole- sale repositioning of the company." -Kim Bhasin, Jordyn Holman, Sophie Alexander, and Anders Melin THE BOTTOM LINE Victoria's Secret long prospered by promoting its sexy lingerie. But changing norms about women and beauty could put that growth at risk. Selling the Door-to-Door Rainforest • By acquiring Avon, Brazil's Natura plans to turn its army of direct salespeople into online influencers On a pleasant Tuesday in May, dozens of beauty influencers gathered at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx for a vegan lunch and a panel on sustainability in cosmetics. As they sipped pas- sion fruit caipirinhas, the young women snapped photos of lotions and soaps featuring exotic ingre- dients such as murumuru and priprioca. They're the types of products that made host Natura Cosmeticos SA a beauty giant in Brazil— and that the so-year-old company wants to bring to the rest of the world. With its agreement in May to buy Avon Products Inc., Natura is accelerating its global ambitions and betting its brand of natural, ethically sourced cosmetics will appeal to millen- nial and Generation 2 consumers who increasingly want sustainable goods. The company wants to attract social media enthusiasts such as Ava Lee a New Yorker who was at the Bronx event. "I love that all Natura Brasil products are clean and sustainable," says Lee— @glowwithava on Instagram—who often posts pho- tos of cosmetics for her almost 24,000 followers. "It's hard to come by products that smell this good and at the same time are very gentle on the skin and don't cause irritations: . Natura's $2 billion purchase of Avon—the very company it had long emulated with its door-to- door direct-selling model—will make it the world's fourth-biggest cosmetics company and among the largest focused on natural products. About 80% "In other markets, you see the movement of beauty going into wellness. In Brazil it started the other way around" EFTA01699272 ■ BUSINESS • Bloomberg Businessweek August s, 2019 , of its products are vegan. The challenge will be staying loyal to its sustainable roots as it rapidly grows. Executive Chairman Roberto de Oliveira Marques says the "value propositions that are the very essence of Natura" are appealing to consumers, particularly millennials, who look for "authenticity" in products and the companies that make them. Purpose-driven brands resonate more with young consumers, according to researcher Euromonitor International. About 60% of millennials responding to a lifestyle survey said they felt they could make a difference in the world through their choices and actions, compared with about 45% of baby boomers. Founded in 1969 as a store in Sao Paulo, Natura soon moved to direct sales, adding 2,000 consul- tants over the next decade. Novelties, such as offer- ing product refills in the 1980s and a line of soaps and creams that could be used by both new moms and babies in the 1990s, fed steady sales growth in a country obsessed with good looks. But though Brazilians are leaders in plastic surgery and popu- larized the infamous Brazilian wax, the national con- cept of beauty is more natural—think of model Gisele Bfindchen, with her signature loose hair. "Natura's broader portfolio, more focused on wellness as opposed to only beauty, puts it in a unique position to expand abroad;' says David Marcotte, a retail analyst with Rantar Consulting. "In other markets, you see the movement of beauty going into wellness. In Brazil it started the other way around. That's the grounding for their success!' Natura gets 30% of its revenue outside Brazil. The company began widening its scope in the past decade, buying a controlling stake in Australian lux- ury skin-care brand Aesop in 2013 and British soap maker the Body Shop in 2017. It's taken steps to bring its sustainable ethos to those brands. Natura brought the Body Shop's marketing back to the cruelty-free cause that jump-started the brand in the 19705. It's also taken the fair-trade model it uses to procure its ingredients from the Amazon and expanded it to the African communities that provide moringa oil to the Body Shop. At Aesop, packaging changes will reduce plastic consumption by 124 tons per year. It's unclear how much Natura will transform Avon, whose sales plunged by half over the past to years, to $5.25 billion, in fiscal 2018 amid com- petition from trendier brands. The company had given up on the U.S., selling the last of its stake in the American operations earlier this year, to focus on international markets. But it's still struggled to adapt to changing consumer tastes. The Avon acquisition will give the Brazilian com- pany access to 27 new markets—including in China and Eastern Europe—as well as greatly expand the direct-sales model, which Natura says it can modernize and diversify. Marques plans to turn the combined companies' army of 6 million direct sell- ers into social media sellers and influencers —who increasingly drive millennials' cosmetics purchases. Natura is also giving door-to-door associates pay- ment machines and helping them open web stores. "This powerful sales network that gets into consum- ers' homes already existed of line, and now it's con- verting itself into an online network," Marques says. That's in line with industry trends. Elton Morimitsu, a Euromonitor analyst, says several brands are "abandoning the use of influencers with millions of followers;' he says. "They're betting • Number of direct- sales associates Nature will have after Its purchase of Avon instead on microinfluencers with several thousands of followers, because the conversion rate into sales that the brand will have will be much higher!' Natura doesn't sell only through its consultants; it's made several brands available in drugstores, cut deals to sell others at big retailers, and opened 52 proprietary stores, mostly in Brazil, to showcase its goods. It also has its own virtual store and is using the network of Body Shop franchisees in Southeast Asia to open Natura locations there. It has opened two stores in the New York area, but has no plans to expand quickly in the U.S., Marques says. Until that changes, American consumers need to rely on online shopping and influencers such as Ana Kcira, whose @fashionstylefoodie on Instagram has about 45,000 followers. She posted a photo of herself spraying Natura's pataua oil, a hair strengthener, on a friend's braid in Central Park—which generated almost 700 likes. —Fabiola Mourn, with riffanyKary THE BOTTOM UNE Natures natural, ethically sourced cosmetics have been a hit at home h Brazil. It's aiming for *Mar success globally. as younger consuners lean toward purpose-ddven brands 6m EFTA01699273 EFTA01699274 TRAVEL Bloomberg Pursuits August 5, 201 Felix Worn, chief of the Asmat village of Syuru; looked intimidating in his grass skirt and fur headdress, bird feathers protruding from the side. A necklace of sharp animal teeth stretched across his bare, muscular chest, and his nose held a large curled ring. This ornament was made of seashell, but in the past it could have been carved from human bone. Twelve miles off the sparsely populated south coast of the Indonesian province of West Papua, Worn sat, unsmiling, for the fust time on the deck of a cruise ship. The 120-passenger Coral Adventurer was on an inaugural voyage to West Papua, which encompasses most of western New Guinea and other nearby islands, and the ship's captain had invited Worn and a handful of other village elders onboard to calm any fears about intruding foreigners. He offered them a look around, hats with baseball logos, and tins of butter cookies to take home. "They want to have a peek at us and really want to see the ship;' says tour lecturer Kathryn Robinson, a retired anthropology professor at Australian National University whose research focus includes Indonesia. "If you say no, because that would make us feel uncomfortable, that doesn't work.... Hospitality is a big thing in Indonesia." The chief already understood it—the symbiotic relationship between locals and visitors. "We can keep our culture because people come to see it," he said through a translator, acknowl- edging the importance of the money the cruise line brings to his village. "We would be very happy to have more ships coin- . ingr As I walked away from our chat, the chief raised his chin, looked ahead at nothing, and let out a long rhythmic call. The Asmat people once were known as great warriors who used headhunting and cannibalism in their warfare, cultural rituals that ended for good about 60 year ago with the arrival of the Indonesian government. Photographer and art collector Michael Rockefeller, one of Nelson's five sons, may have been a victim of cannibalism after his boat overturned near an Asmat village in November 1964 according to the book Savage Harvest, by Carl Hoffman. His body was never found. The culture lives on in part through performance —which is how the government likes it, says Stuart Kirsch, a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan who specializes in the Pacific region. "When you're not there, they're wearing Rolling Stones T-shirts from the global used-clothing market, cutoff jeans, and worn-out flip-flops," Kirsch says. West Papua has an independence movement, he says, but "that's typically scripted out of the tourist narrative:' Add the navigational difficulties of swirling winds, shallow seas, shifting sands, and multiple reefs, and it's no wonder trav- elers seldom stop by. That our diesel-electric vessel was here, near the equator in the middle of hot nowhere, is a result of • the expanding market for expedition cruises. Such small-ship Asmat men from.the village of gyuru arrive . in canoesio oreat —and I Intimidate—visitors travel has drawn particular interest among baby boomers willing to pay fares that often top $1,000 a night for meaning- ful soft adventure experiences in hard-to-reach destinations. In this growing niche of the cruise market, 39 expedition ships are set to make their debut from now to 2024, accord- ing to Cruise Industry News. Big cruise companies are dipping their toes into the lucrative arena. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. acquired four expedition ships (as well as five ultraluxury ships) last year when it paid about $1 billion fora two-thirds stake in Silversea Cruises Ltd. "It probably increased their fleet capacity by 2% but increased their profit flow by 6%. The profit per ship is that much higher," says Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Brian Egger. Most of the new boats are polar-class vessels bound for popular cold places such as Antarctica, Iceland, Greenland, and the Canadian High Arctic. But other cruises are sticking to the tropics. As a result, some of the most isolated people on Earth are seeing more visitors. Wom's village of Syuru, with its rustic houses and board- walks crossing the swamp, will welcome four shiploads of cruisers this year, a number agreed upon by the government and tribal representatives. Timing is important in the expe- dition business: The May itinerary of our round-trip cruise from Darwin, Australia, was tweaked so we could beat a ship owned by French line Ponant SA by a day. We arrived early in the morning after two sea days churn- ing north from Darwin. Passengers boarded the ship's two hop-on, hop-off tenders and passed mangroves along a brack- ish river on our way to the village. As we approached, dug- out canoes from several clans emerged from shore. Athletic men and young boys paddled from a standing position, most in grass skirts, their faces and bodies covered with war paint, which assures the warriors their,ancestors will protect them. Men reached for the sides of our boats. Paddles thumped against wood in unison with war cries. "They are perform- ing themselves as violent people;' Robinson said. "They are i "It's like anywhere where people are performing their culture. It can be uncomfortable, but it can also promote mutual recognition" EFTA01699275 TRAVEL Bloomberg Pursuits August 5,2019 saying, 'This is who we are!" If they were trying to look scary, they succeeded with me, especially as the flotilla increased to dozens of canoes. Onshore, men performed a traditional ceremony to launch a new canoe. It was a frenzy of hip-swinging dancing, raised spears and shields, chanting, yelping, and drumming. Women in grass skirts, some topless, danced in support. Passengers stood on the edge of the ceremony, the action only some- what diluted by some of the villagers holding cellphones. They were taking pictures of us, as we were of them. And what a sight we were in our "adventure" wear, sun hats, and sunglasses, slathered in sunscreen and bug spray. I hadn't thought of myself as a cultural attraction, but locking eyes with a half-naked elderly woman, I realized we both were probing another world. I felt oin of place in this one. Cruisers pulled out rupiah to purchase Asmat art, which is sought by museums and collectors around the world. (Rockefeller was seeking pieces for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of primitive works when he disappeared.) The art traditionally tells the stories of ancestors, but when I picked up a figurine for about Us-some works went for quite a bit more—and asked about its symbolism, the shy artist said it was just something he imagined. Oswald Huma, a tour agent from the island of Savu, west of Timor, was hired by Coral Expeditions, based in Cairns, Australia, to help map out our "Warriors and Wildlife" itin- erary. He said the most common question the villagers ask is, "Why do these people come to see us?" He struggles with the answer, usually replying that travelers want to buy the wood carvings. He doesn't want to mention the attraction of a history of headhunting. Robinson says the interactions bring much-needed income. y. DONES1/9.-Mpik Sangliat Dol Iria;saps *sae' She's noticed that, since she first visited the Asmat a few years ago, conditions seem to have improved. "The way I see it, for these people who are miles away from any of the circuits of capital, tourism is helping them to realize that they do have something the world will buy, which is their culture," she says. "We might have anxieties about it. But all through Indonesia, people hope that tourism is going to bring income into these remote areas. These people are separate from the exigencies of the world. Pristine and untouched has also got its negatives!" The visits also provide the Asmat an opportunity to prac- tice their culture, Huma says. Elders traditionally teach youth the group's customs by performing ceremonies; paying cus- tomers are an excuse to do so. Kids also see the outside world and have an opportunity to practice English, "so they can go out and seek employment and send money home;' he says. "It's like anywhere where people are performing their cul- ture," says Kirsch, the Michigan professor. "It can be uncom- fortable, but it can also promote mutual recognition. The Asmat are well known for their art, and these encounters can stimulate appreciation for the artistic style!' Agats, a larger town we visited nearby, has imported goods for sale to locals. Among them are rice, which isn't a staple of the Asmat diet but has become popular, as well as electric motorbikes, tea, sugar, and cellphones. Given the spotty signal, the phones are mostly used as cameras and for playing music. Huma had spent months in his boat on the Arafura Sea south of West Papua, sometimes in rough seas, convincing leaders in remote villages to welcome the Coral Adventurer. He also arranged for English speakers to meet us at each of four stops. Many are teachers, and some traveled far for the jobs as guides. In the village of Sangliat Dcl, on Yamdena Island in the ► WEST PAPUA rT:\ Argun' & Ando metal,* akor ay V 4Triton Bay iii EFTA01699276 $ Bloomberg Pursuits August 5,2019 1 ,..."4231113027.a:&34 - Check out these other adventure cruises, priced per person, double occupancy. Antarctica on Quark Expeditions' Ultramarine Debuting in late 2020, Ouark's.Polar ship— complete with two • twth-engine choppers todrop you off for heal-skiing—will explore Antarctica Prices hot yet evell0510: quarkexpeditlehscom Arctic Spring on the National Geographic Endurance Sailings in April tv Don Undblad Expeditions 126-guest ship bring you to Nonvays Svalbard arthipaiago Just at the ight is starting to return and the polar bears are waking up. ti-day sailing (rein '$t1600. sveditionstom Galapagos on the Sliver Origin Purpose-built by %Iversea Cruises for tripi to the Gahipagos starting in July 2020. SiWer Origin will pro- vide a posh floating base camp for visiting Da reeffs finchesaexl blue-footed boobies., Seven-daysailings from $9459 avirseacon1Greenland and Iceland on the Scenic Eclipse This 'Discovery Yachtr debuting this summer for Australian-owned Scenic, has a sub- marine and two heli- copters for exploring glaciers and fiords, plus other toys.11-dey cruises Item $12,295; scenicusecom The Kimberley on the Coral Adventurer Red cliffs, ancient rock art, towering waterfalls, and salt- water crocodiles all turn up on April- through-September sails around Western Australia remote northern coast. l0-day onuses from $7.024 corelexpeditions.com 41 province °Maluku, the push.and pull of multiculture life was magnified. During a one-hour bus ride beforehand, our guide said, "Visitors are rare, ask destroys the daily life." We were met by an enthusiastic crowd of costumed women in embroidered white peasant blouses and sarongs. Some had arrived hours-earlier from nearby villages to greet us with a dance in which they waved scarves and small towels. They wel- comed us as "sons and daughters of the village." A smiling older woman grabbed my arm, and to the accom- paniment of druths and singing, the crowd danced past tin- roofed homes to a megalithic ceremonial stone boat in the village center. Shouting, shoving, even screaming ensued, and cruise passengers were hustled off to the side. Seating in the boat is based on status, but it can be con- tested. A man had taken a position someone else felt was his. Government officials moved the arguing men out of view so a smaller group could perform a planned ceremony honor- ing our ship "elders." The fight—with yelling and shoving—was the rawest experi- ence of our cruise. But for the locals, there was a price to be paid. A government official threatened to file a report, say- ing there would be consequences. Our ship withheld bags of school supplies, soccer balls, and clean sheets and towels for the health clinic, similar to gifts we'd delivered to other villages. The donations to'Sangliat Dol returned with us. "We don't know when we left the village if they would fight over a soc- cer ball," Huma said. "We don't want a bad thing to happen." No one on the Coral Adventurer, not even the cap- tain, had sailed the West Papua itinerary before, a route designed to mimic a portion. of Dutch explorer Abel Tasman's lenders ferry pastengers to isolated beaches along the coast voyage roughly 375 years ago. Coral Expeditions, a 35-year- old company owned since 2O14 by Kallang Capital Holdings Pte. of Singapore, is known more for its cruises of Australia ICirnberley region and the Great Barrier Reef. When you commit to an expedition cruise to a remote locale, you can expect long days at sea getting there. Wi-Fi connections are sporadic, and there's no satellite TV. Lectures are the main shipboard activity. A marine biologist prepared us for the world's largest fish, whale sharks—who apparently didn't get the memo about our arrival. We looked for them without success in Triton Bay in the southwest corner of West Papua. The passengers, mostly Australians over-6o, relaxed onboard in modern cabins and lounge areas accented with African wood and Italian marble. Hot water flowed from showers, cappuccinos from coffee machines. Dinner was a three-course affair, with Australian wines. It was sticky and hot when we explored the tidy dirt streets of the Muslim village of Arguni (population 227), in the Fakfak regional district. Women, their heads covered, and their grandchildren offered warm but cautious smiles. Most of the village's adults were as far away as Bali and Jakarta for work or study. Although it was Ramadan, women had risen early to prepare fish dishes and cakes made of tapioca. "You are not tourists anymore, but part of our family;' King Hanafi Paus Paus told the crowd. Later, in his small house, where the front room is furnished with plastic patio chairs and the walls are decorated with photographs of his forbears, the king said tourism is improving. Another ship had arrived five months ago. Ships have a "good effect," he said through a translator. "It protects the history, plus we get money. People leave for work, and now work comes to us." The king's two sons are in high school in the town of Fakfak about 3O miles away. He goes there in his boat, then uses a car he keeps in town to get around. In all the villages, locals attempted a few words of English, and there was a warmth and sincerity to our encounters —even if most amounted to us staring at them and them staring at us. Ngilngof village, on Kai Kecil Island, provided the welcome that felt most linked with the outside world: Women in bright purplejackets and long gold skirts danced with delicate hand movements as a ritual leader in black raised a coconut, invok- ing ancestral protection for the island's natural resources. Meanwhile, on a 3-mile-long beach with soft, white sand, plas- tic chairs were s'et up under a tent you could rent for the after- noon. Snack bars sold cold beers and Diet Cokes. 0 EFTA01699277 EFTA01699278 BIKES Bloomberg Pursuits July 29, 2019 0 n Valentine's Day, Sharry Billings posted a photograph on Instagram. Below the image of herself, her hair a red-caramel and her smile open, she wrote: "I love you so much I wanna squeeze you!" The object of her affection? "All the motorcycles I have owned and will own in the future," she explained. Alongside the photo of her astride a Harley-Davidson, she wrote that bikes "have changed my life, healed my soul, and brought me more love and friendships than I could have ever imagined r Billings goes.by @sistermotherl3 on Instagram, but the main account she oversees is @thelitaslosangeles. The Litas is a group she joined three years ago as a way to connect with other women riders in her city. She's co-led the L.A. branch for two years. When she joined, it provided her with much- needed healing and Camaraderie after her kids grew up and she got divorced. Billings had ridden as a teenager and into her 20s but took a hiatus later. "It was always in my heart," she says. But when she was married with young children, "I thought it was a little too dangerous?' ' After the breakup in 2015, she found herself longing for escape. And adventure. "My prayer at the time was, 'God, I don't want to date: These men are not happening," Billings says, laughing. "The first thing that came to 'my heart was the motorcycle I wanted. It was a Harley." night pizza runs, say, or weekend coffee meetups—and they take periodic excursions to women-only destination events such as the Wild Gypsy Tour, which is organizing a festival in Sturgis, S.D., in August, and the Dream Roll in Ashland, Ore. The biggest crowd follows Babes Ride Out, a series of events founded by Anya Violet and Ashmore Ellis in 2013. It started with so women riders who gathered to camp out in Borrego Springs, Calif. They built fires, pitched tents, drank beer, and played games on Harleys, Husqvamas, and Hondas while soaking in nature and one another's company. These groups are tapping into an undercurrent of the motorcycle industry. As sales have faltered, dropping more than 4o% from 2008 to 2010, then recovering somewhat by 2014 but never to previous levels, manufacturers including Harley-Davidson Inc. and BMW Motorrad have struggled to create appeal beyond their core demographic of older white men. Their efforts include offering electric and less-expensive motorbikes and introducing exciting conceptual prototypes. Female riders offer enthusiasm and youth, and, yes, they're spending money that brands crave. The number of women who own motorcycles has almost doubled since 2010, according to a 2018 study by the Motorcycle Industry Council. Today, 19% of owners are women, up from 10% in 2009 and 8% in the late 19905. And the number of female riders gets higher as you go younger: 22% of Generation X While the industry on the whole dropped 40% from 2008 to 2010, the amount of women who own motorcycles has almost doubled She bought the bike, took the ride. Then she joined the Litas. "I'm very grateful to have found my heart again," Billings says. Founded in Utah byJessica Haggett half a decade ago, the Litas have expanded to include hundreds of branches around the world (Litas Denver, Litas Lisbon, Litas Rome?, with members ranging from twentysomething singles to 6o-and 70-year-old retirees with EA-maids. They take regular rides, often along wild back roads, including the Pine Mountain Ridge route near Ojai, Calif., that Billings took with 32 other riders one Saturday in July. It's about riding with your own style and pace but surrounded by like-minded friends. "If you're learning to ride, you're going to kill yourself rid- ing with men—they ride like bats out of hell!" Billings says. "And women—I'm generalizing here—tend to be more careful. We are mothers, we are sisters, we feel obligated to stay alive." The Litas are singular but not uncommon. All across California, Oregon, and Utah, from Texas to New York, women- only motorcycle groups and riding events are springing up like wildflowers. They go by names such as the Miss-Fires (Brooldyn, N.Y.), the Chrome Divas (Austin), and Leather and Lace (Daytona Beach, Fla.). They do regular rides: Tuesday riders are women, and 26% of millennial riders are women. What's more, the average woman who owns a motorcycle spends $574 annually on maintenance, parts, service, and accessories, while the average man who rides spends $497. "We are riding a ton," says Joy Lewis, who started when she was 12. "I have a friend who put 20,000 miles on her bike in one year." Lewis's father, an Alaskan crab fisherman who owned a Harley, got her hooked. 'e spend a lot of money on our gear and our bikes, and a lot of things to go with them. I think that's starting to be appreciated?' Andy Jefferson, a spokesman for Husqvarna, says one of the brand's priorities must be to provide support for wom- en's motorcycling. "We were like everyone else—going after a piece of the pie;' he says. "But everyone was looking at men, and there are all these other people-women-that nobody even really talks about in conversations about how to sell more bikes" The brand lacks figures for how many of its own- ers are women but is "working to change thatflefferson says. "That's part of the problem:' • . Husqvarna honed in on women riders five years ago when it started sponsoring Babes in the Dirt, an offshoot of Babes Ride Out that's more focused on off-road and dirt-bike riding. EFTA01699279 COLOR ADO MO NTAIN HAT COMPANY - Last year the company spent $50,000 to $60,000 in support of the three-day rally, lending 27 motorcycles and nine staff- ers to service the bikes and teach. "We counted between So and too girls out there (trying out] Husqvarnas; he says. "The number is nor huge by any means, but those are too people we didn't have before. It alio jumps down to their brothers and sisters and kids. We never would lave got these people without doing this!' But more important, "we want to get you to ride a motor- cycle," Jefferson adds. "If you ride with Babes and have fun • and go buy another brand, great. We just want people riding' At BMW Motoriad, which on July I named Trudy Hardy vice president for the Americas, the company is sponsor- ing women-only events including the Sisters' Centennial Motorcycle Ride. It's also covering travel expenses and appearance fees for brand reps such as Elspeth Beard, an architect who was the first British woman to ride her motorcycle around the *odd. The brand also sends pro racer Jocelia Snow and Erin Sills, who holds a 242 mph land speed record, to-attend events at local dealerships. Harley-Davidson has expanded its retail line in recent years to include a host of riding jackets; helmets, boots, and gloves size.d ancl styled for women. It's perhaps the most critical field of growth for the n6-year-old Wisconsin brand, which has seen sales steadily decline since 2014. The average age of a Harley owner is so. The average price of one is $15,800—more than tunny mifiennials will spend on a car, let alone a motorcycle. "Even just in the last five years the conversation has shifted," says motorcycle aficionado Lewis. "I'm sitting here in leather Kevlar paths as we speak, about to go into a Rkiterilsuilor winftudYrire9)ri 1,101401n .Soeica4 kneWiti Oyissi Tour meeting. Not only are companies making cute technical stuff thatyou could wear to work—rather than some weird leather pants with pink embroidery all over the butt that you'd never wear—they're making things we can actually. user Attendees at events for Babes Ride Out (or BRO, the ironic abbreviation they've adopted) come to America from as far away as Sweden and South America.-Some have rid- den since they could walk; some can't operate a bike at all, preferring always to be a passenger and imbibe the inspi- rational atpxosphere. There's always plenty of denim and leather on-site—but the hipster kind, not the leather-daddy look. Local shops give clastes on basic bike maintenance. Some women get tattoos to commemorate the experience. "People camp, and there are trailers, toO," Lewis says. "The idea is that you grab coffee and breakfast, and then during the day everyone is out tiding. And then all the stuff happens in the evenings with bands.or karaoke and show rated"—feats of throttle control. • Earlier this year, a g6-year-old woman joined them at camp; she'd first ridden cross-county on her motorcy- cle TS years ago: Last summer the annual California desert meetup SAW 1,700 women ride in Yucca Valley; 500 attended an East Coast campout in- the Catslail Mountains in New York; 700 attended the most recent Babes in the Dirt in Lebec, Calif. "Maybe people think that women who ride are pretty tough and badass, which it probably true, but all in all, women riders come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and lifestyles, so any label that you wantto.give them does not really work," co-founder Violet says, tan honestly say that there is no 'type' ...andwe like it that way!" 0 Ti EFTA01699280 Bloomberg Bustnessweek -Puy 15.2019 4 E C 0 N M C S Edited by Style 101Ingsworth When Mother Earth Gives You A Building Permit • AMLO's passion project is a 900-mile train to connect bead resorts and colonial-era towns One day last December, Mexican President Andrt Manuel Lopez Obrador donned a beaded necklac and bowed his head reverently before a fire pit, t ask Mother Earth for permission to build a railroa through the heart of Mayan territory. The line, which will stretch 1,460 kilometer (goo miles) across five Mexican states, may cart more than 8,000 passengers a day. It will serve som of the country's most popular tourist destination: including seaside resorts Cancfm and Tulum, Mend and other colonial-era towns, and archaeologic sites like Chichen Itza. For AMLO, as Mexico's lead( is widely known, the Mayan Train is something c a passion project. Critics call it an expensive folly. Rusty railways dating to the iggos cover les than half of the proposed route, but they'll have t be completely overhauled to handle modern rol ing stock. That's the easy part. To lay track alon the rest of the route, construction crews will hay to cut through miles of rainforest, home to jaguar: which are endangered in Mexico, and pumas. The most difficult part of the undertaking ma be finding investors to finance the project's cost as much as 160 billion pesos (about $7.9 billion AMLO's government hasn't specified how it cam up with that number, nor has it commissioned study to prove there will be sufficient passenger an cargo volume to make the line commercially viabli The agency in charge of the endeavor, Fonatur, ha described the Mayan Train as a "social" projec whose main goal is boosting the economy of th Yucatan Peninsula by way of hotel construction an tourism. "What we're looking for is for the town along the train's routes to be profitable, and tha goes beyond how many tourists use the train;' say Aaron Rosado, the Yucatan liaison at Fonatur, th national fund for tourism promotion. The mediai household income across the five states is half tha of the capital, Mexico City. Chiapas, one of the state on the route, is the country's poorest, according t. statistics agency Inegi. "It would be a huge mistake to plan this poorly, says Alexandra Zapata, adjunct director at Mexico' Competitiveness Institute, IMCO, a think tank tha studies the impact of policy on the Mexican econ omy. "There's a profound difference between bei Ling on regional development and ending up witl an abandoned ghost project because it cost 10 time more than what was originally thought:' EFTA01699281 ■ ECONOMICS Bloomberg Bus,nessweek Juty 15.2019 Fonatur opened bidding for engineering work on the Mayan Train in May. The tender elicited enough questions from interested yet confused par- ties to fill a 253-page document. The session sched- uled to respond to those queries had to be delayed a month to allow Fonatur enough time to come up with answers. "Look, I'm not against the train," says Eduardo Ramirez, president of the Mexican Chamber of the Construction Industry. "But they need to prove this is economically feasible and that it won't be a burden for future administrations. We can't keep absorbing governments' mistakes—it's always the Mexican people who end up paying." Fonatur chief Rogelio Jimenez Pons told Bloomberg in February that "a group of too of Lopez Obrador's closest friends" has funded stud- ies that contain traffic projections, but his agency "can't share them just yet." The Mayan Train's current estimates put its per-kilometer cost at $5.2 million, on par with France's Valence-Marseille route, the sixth-lowest among 22 lines worldwide that IMCO studied. "It's not clear how they got to that number," Zapata says. "But what is clear is that international expe- rience shows these projects—even when they're perfectly planned—tend to end up costing as much as 130% more." The only other passenger train that's being built in Mexico will connect the capital to the nearby industrial town of Toluca. Started under former President Enrique Pefia Nieto, it's been beset by problems, including lacking the right of way in some parts. The line was supposed to be up and AMLO's Mayan Train Project o Station • Cabkraut Biosphere Rosen. / Existing rainy &Alfa Maim ns.ircArcega Palenpue Tenosatstecl .Cancun Maus Izemel Vagadolid Puerto Morelos Chkhon0O-CL Playa del Carmen Itza cowl Tulum (./ Guatemala Ci Rape Carnikt Puerto ......... ') I Caribbean sea t00 running in early 2018, but today there's still no start date in sight and costs are running 92% over budget. Its price tag has grown to $66 million per kilometer, IMCO says, making it the third-most-expensive line in its study. "You'd think the Mexican government would learn from this, but apparently they're head- ing in the same direction;' Zapata says. Pefia Nieto's administration also studied the idea of building a train in the southeast. It would have been about five times smaller, but ultimately the administration shelved the project when oil prices fell and the federal budget took a hit. AMLO's government is looking to fund 90% of the Mayan Train through a so-called Fibra-a hybrid of a master limited partnership and a real estate investment trust. This is the same vehicle that was I used to fund part of the $13 billion cost of building a new airport for Mexico City, a project the presi- dent canceled late last year, triggering a sell-off in Mexican bonds, stocks, and the peso. Environmentalists have voiced concerns about the impact a project this size will have on the region's fragile ecosystem. The proposed route is home to an estimated 800 to 1,200 jaguars, an already endangered species, according to Panthera, a New York-based nonprofit focused on the conser- vation of wildcats. To allow the animals to roam freely, the govern- ment is considering building large overpasses along sections of the track, likely modeled on those built in Canada's Banff National Park for grizzly bears, beavers, and other big mammals. It's unclear if the current budget for the Mayan Train includes money for any overpasses; the Canadian structures cost as much as $2 million each, according to Mircea Hidalgo, a member of Panthera Mexico's scientific 10-AMLO (standing center) a