Travel firm launches jacko tours
His death last year was a seismic event that made headlines across the world. And as the first anniversary of his passing approaches, a travel firm has announced a tour package that will let fans visit the key locations of Michael Jackson's tumultuous life...
STA Travel is launching a ‘King Of Pop Pilgrimage' that takes in nine countries across five continents - including Brazil, Peru, Hungary, Bahrain, Australia, South Africa and Japan, as well as the USA - each featuring a city visited by the iconic pop star.
Would-be travellers will need to book plenty of time off work to enjoy the trip, however.
Part-time Jackson devotees can choose an edited version of the itinerary, which lasts for 35 days, and costs from £2,759. But true acolytes will need to set aside over a third of a year to complete the full journey - a 126-day odyssey that costs around £12,000.
"Referred to as the King Of Pop, Michael Jackson is recognised as one of the most successful entertainers of all time," says John Constable of STA Travel.
"His music and philanthropic actions took him around the world, and we want to celebrate this by offering our customers the opportunity to follow in his footsteps.
"Fans will be able to experience what made him tick.
Jackson died at his home in Los Angeles, aged 50, on June 25th last year. His death, after being administered a cocktail of sedative drugs, was initially declared a homicide (murder) case by the Los Angeles County Coroner, and remains shrouded in mystery.
Jackson's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray is currently facing an involuntary manslaughter charge relating to his former patient's death.
The tour takes in several more obvious locations that cropped up in Jackson's career, including Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, where the singer's name is enshrined in a star on the legendary Walk Of Fame, and Madison Square Garden in New York, where he performed alongside his siblings in a Jackson 5 Reunion concert in 2001.
More exotic ports of call include Rio De Janeiro in Brazil, where the video for Jackson's 1996 single They Don't Care About Us was filmed in the city's poverty-stricken favelas, and the Peruvian capital Lima, where Jackson stayed en route to shooting the video for 1995 worldwide hit Earth Song in the Amazon rainforest.
The itinerary also touches on Jackson's personal life, with the option to visit Australia, where the star married second wife Debbie Rowe, in Sydney, in 1996. Tourists get to stay at the Sheraton On The Park hotel, where the marriage ceremony took place.
But other locations are more obscure, such as Bahrain, where the by-then troubled musician fled in 2005 after being cleared of child-abuse charges in California.
Even further removed from the beaten track is Brunei, where the 'pilgrimage' calls at Jerudong Park Amphitheatre in Bandar Seri Begawan, the venue where Jackson staged a free concert in 1996, in honour of the Sultan Of Brunei's 50th birthday.
And surely only an absolute obsessive would be interested in a jaunt into Hungary, and the town of Szentendre, where the ‘King Of Pop' is commemorated in that most hallowed of forms - a life-size almond-paste statue at the Szabo Marzipan Museum.
Details of the tour are available at www.statravel.co.uk/kingofpop, or on 0871 2308512.
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk