Friday, September 3, 2010
Mexico Bookings Strong As Ever
Mexican Tourist Board officials have announced that visitations to that country by air were 35% higher this June than in the same month a year ago.
This, if accurate, would be the clearest signal yet that the drug problems of last year are pretty much gone from the collective tourist mind.
We are already finding that it is still the most requested sunspot destination at Journeys/Renaissance Travel. My discussions with agents inform me that the subject does not even come up.
With the fall of Mexicana Airlines there might have been some concern, but additional service has been quickly bumped up from both the United States and Canada to Mexican destinations.
And the tourist board also points out that the countries largest transcontinental airline AeroMexico has also stepped in to buffer up routes that suddenly became abandoned because of the fall of Mexicana.
Why does Mexico continue to grow in spite of the occasional problem.
Price and convenience...along with a well developed tourist infrastructure.
While there certainly are a number of competing countries for the sun destination dollar, the resorts in Mexico tend to be well managed and kept up to date.
The workers are friendly and efficient for the most part.
We can get their reasonable quickly from most Canadian and US originating cities, and let's face it the Peso is a good buy with plenty of modern and traditional outlets to spend them at.
It will be another good year for Mexico. They, and we, only have to hope the hurricane season does not pick on them again as it has done in past years.
Labels: Mexico
posted by That Travel Guy @
6:07 AM
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If Hurricanes Would Final Learn the Alphabet, They Wouldn't Have to Repeat Them Every Year!
NOT A GOOD WEEKEND TO TRAVEL EAST
It is early in the season when we start planning our winter holidays.
And it is also the season that the weather people start applying names to each potential hurricane that is building itself up into a potential monster.
A long time ago it was decided that rather than numbering them each season they would apply a name based on a subsequent alphabet for each one.
It is only September and Earl is trying to decide just how bad of a Labour Day weekend they will give people living, and thinking of visiting the East Coast.
Airlines are already allowing flight changes without penalty.
Areas are calling for complete or partial evacuations.
Golf in the Carolina's this weekend perhaps should be called off. That trip you planned out of the Maritimes on a quaint lobster boat should perhaps be put on hold.
As the season progresses we will wonder if the beaches we are booking for a January visit will still be there if we see more alphabetically delivered names.
SO THE SOLUTION... IS HURRICANE SCHOOL!
Let's call natures hurricane makers together in June and July for a conference.
Clearly these controllers of bad weather are powerful, but not smart.
Let us teach them the alphabet, and have them repeat it silently to themselves. And give them challenges by spelling unique proper names that come from all over the universe.
After a few days of this, we simply inform them that for their diligence in learning we are giving them the rest of the season off.
They can relax for at least a year and blow up some gentle winds for the coastal regions of the world.
I am not only convinced this will work but I feel certain a Nobel Prize is in my future. I don't care about the money. It's just nice to contribute to world tourism.
Labels: General Commentary; Weather Delays
posted by That Travel Guy @
5:29 AM
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Monday, August 30, 2010
Even as One Goes Down, Say Hello To Another Huge Airline!
The best that Mexican can offer these days as they cut most if not all flights, is that they are going to try to get back in the air as soon as possible.
At a bargain price someone sooner or later may pick up the pieces, but creditors will not be anxious to partake in a fire sale easily.
Over the past few years we have seen more and more mergers, with the big Delta/Northwest one creating a major ripple in the aviation industry.
Now two airlines that few of us have ever flown, or necessarily even heard of outside the travel industry, are ready to take their vows of marriage.
Both airlines are big deals in their respective South American countries.
TAM Linhas Aeras is the Brazil airline that along with Chile's
LAN Airlines have carved big pieces of the Latin American aerial landscape with their individual subcompanies.
They will all be one soon, operating under the banner of LATAM Airlines Group, and would include LAN Airlines and its affiliates in Peru, Argentina and Ecuador; Lan Cargo and its affiliates; TAM S.A.; TAM Mercosur and all other holdings of LAN and TAM.
This is the way it is in the air carrier environment these days.
Is big better? Is it more profitable?
There does not seem to be any sign of that yet, but it is clear that some economies of scale should, sooner or later lead to better bottom line results.
Yet it is interesting to look at the number of smaller low cost carriers that seem to continue to show good results even in these challenging times.
Even if the big airlines should turn their profit pictures around, no one really expects that prices in an every increasing monopolistic style environment will benifit the consumer.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall...and nothing seems to have changed that in the traditional full schedule airline market.
so let's wish the new guys good luck...and hope for the best for the rest of us.
Labels: Airline Travel, Airlines
posted by That Travel Guy @
2:55 PM
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Saturday, August 28, 2010
Air security too intrusive? Try Flying Pasties!
Under the category of 'what will they think of next' this one was tough to see through.
Flying pasties! For a guy who spends half his life searching new travel products, this really came as a surprise to me.
For those whose modesty is such that they don't want anyone to see them naked, including the people behind those new complete body scanners being installed in airports around the world, American free enterprise has come up with a barebones solution.
From day one, many have never liked the fact that some stranger behind a screen somewhere can view 'all of me' each time they pass through an airport body scanner.
So when I heard there was some sort of protective device to stop the screeners from 'seeing everything' I had to find out what the hidden secret was behind this new product I kept reading about.
Well, welcome to the new world of travel in the 21st century. The solution for your ultimate modesty is a recently introduced product called Flying Pasties.
The creators of the product say air travellers can have adequate protection from intrusive full body scanners while not interfering with airline security.
The naked truth is that now you can protect your private areas from the intrusive eyes of those guys in the other room who, it has now been proven, have retained images they were bound not to store.
This information created a significant media response when it was first found out. Since then, a tighter clampdown on the scanners has been promised, but many still wonder whether the process can be trusted completely.
In the future, body scanning equipment may be introduced to sports arenas and even large beverage establishments that have worked hard to keep weapons out of bars and nightclubs.
With that kind of growth for the body scanning industry, this product may have a future.
The pasties, designed for women or men, are available online at
www.flyingpasties.comIf size matters, and I am sure for many of my readers this is an immense concertn, so far as I can see, at the present time it is a one-size-fits-all product.
But who knows, increased demand may change that.
While we may not have flying pasties in stock yet, for every other travel product you may need, I hope you will check out
www.journeystravelgear.comLabels: Airline Travel, Airlines, Travel Products
posted by That Travel Guy @
6:31 AM
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Wednesday, August 25, 2010
US Travel to Cuba...Here's Where It's At!
There has been a lot of press lately about the Obama administration opening up the rules to allow more travel to Cuba.
The key word is more. What is currently under consideration has nothing to do with allowing Americans complete access to the beaches of Cuba in the same way Europeans and Canadians have.
All they are considering, and not without opposition, is creating an environment where sports groups, academics, researchers, plus humanitarian and cultural exchange groups could get in and out of the country without having to go through a bureaucratic maze.
Interestingly about 70,000 people are given permission to go to Cuba each year. They are legitamate journalists and people who have close relatives there who need to visit, either because of health or other legitamately deemed reasons.
It is estimated that if the policy were completely reversed, more than half a million US tourists would flood the beaches and historic sites of the country.
I suspect in the first 5-8 years it the numbers would even be greater than that, triggering a building boom of massive preportion.
It has always been strange to observers that Cuba has been forced to live in a time capsule as a result of US policy over events that took place half a century ago.
Yet other countries who dispise US policy...and actually hate Americans...which Cubans do not, are open to US citizens to freely visit.
Some of those, as pointed out by CNN are Tehran, Khartoum, and Pyongyang, fall in that category, and are far more recent than Cuba by far.
So in the meantime US tourists who wish to go to Cuba, and they number in the 1000's, will book through Canadian, Mexican, and European agencies for their taste of a Cuba Libre.
Labels: Cuba
posted by That Travel Guy @
8:15 AM
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Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Traveling? Don't Become a Traffic Fatality!
The young man who was kept in Cuba after a traffic accident certainly brought the issue to Canadian households.
He was not hurt but detained for weeks before he was set free to come back home.
The bigger issue goes to car rentals and general traffic mishaps.
It is a fact that more people are killed on vacations as a result of traffic incidents that anything else.
Where there are vehicles there are challenges away from home.
Some countries drivers think their car is a weapon.
In countries like England where they drive on the "wrong side", stepping onto streets without looking has caused many fatalities.
And even public transportation is not without its risks.
Some are simply a matter of fate, but others are preventable.
Signage alone, in a foreign language in a different style, can be confusing and lead to mishaps.
Even in Canada where we may think rules are the same, you don't want to be turning left on a blinking green light in Vancouver.
It is not the signal to safely proceed.
Renting a motorcycle in foreign countries, unless you are really experienced, is not likely a good idea. The same holds true for the scooters and even bicycles.
I saw it happen on a trip I took a number of years ago. We rented scooters with a group, and as luck would have it two young ladies lost control on a downhill curve and narrowly escaped serious injury.
The facts are there. So travel carefully and if you are going to rent a vehicle, or just plan to walk around aimlessly, be certain no one is aiming at you.
Labels: Car Rentals, foreign travel, Travel Tips
posted by That Travel Guy @
3:46 PM
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Monday, August 23, 2010
I Say Rethink the Rethink Alberta Campaign!
In my column which runs weekly in the Winnipeg Free Press, I responded to an issue that really bothered me.
After the BP oil spill in the Gulf, a coalition of groups opposed to the tar sands development in Alberta decided to protest by encourageing people NOT to visit Alberta. In other words rethink your decision to become an Alberta tourist.
After my column protesting the protest I received, as did the Winnipeg Free Press, comments about my tirade...suggesting somehow that as a travel agent I was acting purely in self interest.
What was not recognized is the fact that travel agents in Manitoba, or for that matter anywhere else in Canada, make little or no revenue from packages to Alberta.
Perhaps commissions off the occasional air fare but really, there is much more money in sending you to far off places.
I said I was appalled by the campaign. That mixing tourism and politics to me is abhorrent.
It is not about there issue. but their means of communicating and trying to create pressure that offends me.
very country has something we could protest against, and to do so is right and just. But to target an industry whose goals throughout its history is to promote peace through tourism takes the protest to an unrelated tangent.
Should we stop all tourism to Cuba because it is a Castro controlled regime?
Should we stop visiting and trading with China because it is a communist country, where protests like this would not even be allowed.
Should we stay away from countries because of the times corruption in their government has been unveiled?
Should we stop going to the sun destinations we support because the trickle down theory seems not to be working.
Individually we can make these decisions, but to create publicity through an unrelated industry that employs people doing the very opposite work, from which they are protesting, makes no sense.
Now this coalition of groups that has undertaken this campaign to another level...trying to convince US and Canadian travel agents to Rethink Alberta and stop sending visitors to that friendly and scenic province.
This is one writer who believes they should rethink their strategy.
In my column I committed to initiating my own protest by visiting the beautiful mountains of Alberta. I will try to get back to Banff and Lake Louise, and I will definitely spend time in that growing and progressive city of Edmonton, that is the capital of the province.
I did rething Alberta, And Alberta, here I come.
Labels: Canada travel
posted by That Travel Guy @
10:20 AM
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