Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Notes From the Global Travel & Tourism Summit
by Michael Yessis | 04.20.06 | 2:27 PM ET
Last week in Washington DC, travel ministers, travel company CEOs and other industry bigwigs gathered for a three-day Global Travel & Tourism Summit, an event that, if my Google searches are any indication, didn’t get much coverage from major media outlets. That’s not just a shame. It’s practically unconscionable. The travel industry is central to the economies of so many countries around the world, and here in the United States, the number of incoming visitors is at its lowest rate since 1992. According to a story on Hotelmarketing.com about the summit, the U.S. market share for international travel has decreased 35 percent, which has cost the country’s economy $286 billion. Yes, that’s billion.
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Yahoo! BuzzBon Jovi Comes to Aid of New Jersey Tourism
by Michael Yessis | 04.20.06 | 1:23 PM ET
Where would oft-bashed New Jersey be without its homegrown rock stars? I can’t think of any state that gains more from its association from musicians, namely Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi. The latter has donated its latest hit song, “Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” to New Jersey’s latest tourism campaign.
Study Travel Writing in Paris
by Jim Benning | 04.19.06 | 1:06 PM ET
Rolf Potts will teach his annual creative writing workshop in July at the Paris American Academy. According to the course description, “Since the Paris setting is ripe for place-based narrative, travel writing will be a central aspect of this workshop—but students will also be encouraged to explore the art of memoir, as well as the ins and outs of literary journalism.”
The 2006 Pulitzer Prizes: And the Travel-Writing Winner Is…
by Jim Benning | 04.18.06 | 5:57 PM ET
Oh, wait. Whoops. Our mistake. There is no Pulitzer travel category. Just another reminder of how low the regard is for travel writing in the American newspaper biz. It’s too bad, too, because the travel section is where most Americans are likely to first encounter published travel writing. On a brighter note, congratulations to the winners announced yesterday, including our friends at the San Diego Union-Tribune, who single-handedly uncovered the misdeeds of one very crooked congressman.
Freedom of the Seas: The New Biggest Cruise Ship
by Michael Yessis | 04.18.06 | 11:45 AM ET
The former biggest cruise ship, the Queen Mary 2, is six meters longer, but Royal Caribbean’s new 4,375-passenger capacity Freedom of the Seas is 15 meters wider, reports the BBC. As we mentioned a few months ago, this is the one with the FlowRider “surfing pool” on board, and it’s creating a stir in Hamburg on the eve of its maiden transatlantic voyage. Waiting in the wings to become the next new biggest ship, though, is a $1 billion cruise liner, which Royal Caribbean hopes will make its debut in 2009. After that, I imagine we’ll welcome the $2 billion cruise ship, a Delaware-sized vessel with a 32 screen multiplex, 17 Starbucks coffee outlets and a NASCAR oval.
‘Airport’: An Animated Short Created Entirely With Transportation Symbol Signs
by Michael Yessis | 04.17.06 | 12:14 PM ET
Iain Anderson used the universal transportation icons—the neckless representations of men and women with the perfectly round heads, airplanes and other symbols—to create a clever animated short film, Airport. The symbols are in the public domain, and Anderson used them to tell the story of a guy who takes a trip. It’s fun, even if you have to watch the animated little guy wait in line at immigration. Via Boing Boing.
RV Industry on ‘RV’ the Movie: Show Us the Money!
by Jim Benning | 04.14.06 | 4:14 PM ET
Yup. Coming to theaters later this month is the movie “RV,” in which a father played by Robin Williams takes the family on a road trip to Colorado in a big, lane-spanning recreational vehicle. Could be funny, could be awful. But the RV industry is understandably delighted.
Movie Review: ‘Mountain Patrol: Kekexili’
by Ben Keene | 04.14.06 | 2:33 PM ET
The menacing howl of the wind across a barren plateau 13,000 feet above sea level. The sharp cry of vultures circling over the carcasses of hundreds of chiru (Tibetan antelope) slaughtered for their downy fur. The crackle of flames leaping from a rusty Land Rover abandoned by suspected poachers. These are the sounds of Mountain Patrol: Kekexili, the latest dramatic release from National Geographic World Films, which opens in select theaters this weekend. I was invited to an advance screening Wednesday and was both entertained and educated.
Los Angeles Times Pulls Plug on Travel Blog
by Jim Benning | 04.14.06 | 1:14 PM ET
Air Passengers May Be Responsible for Mumps Outbreak
by Michael Yessis | 04.14.06 | 1:00 PM ET
Two travelers who flew on nine different flights on Northwest Airlines and American Airlines during late March and early April may be responsible for a mumps outbreak in the Midwest, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Health authorities are asking those who flew on the flights to see a doctor if they begin showing signs of the disease. A Reuters report has all the details about which flights were affected and what symptoms to look for.
Think All McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets in the World Are Created Equal?
by Jim Benning | 04.13.06 | 10:52 PM ET
In our About Us section, we celebrate travel in the Age of Globalization, noting, “A visit to a McDonald’s in Shanghai is still nothing like a visit to a McDonald’s in Durban or Auckland or Newark.” We were thinking in cultural terms, but it turns out the same is true when it comes to nutrition, too. According to an AP story in the San Diego Union-Tribune, a study of KFC and McDonald’s restaurants around the globe found that the same menu items—including McDonald’s chicken nuggets and KFC hot wings—varied widely in artery-clogging trans fat content from country to country, and even from city to city. It turns out, for example, that hot wings-and-fries in New York had far less trans fats than in Poland and Hungary, and that a chicken nuggets combo in New York City had far more trans fats than the same combo in Denmark, Spain and Russia. Researchers blame the different kinds of oils used.
2006 Webby Award Nominees Announced
by Michael Yessis | 04.13.06 | 12:36 PM ET
Webby Awards are given in dozens of categories, two that are of direct interest here: travel and tourism. As with the ongoing traveler vs. tourist debate, I’m not quite sure of the difference between the two categories, and I’m not sure the Webby nominators are either. For instance, coolcapitals.com, one of the nominees in the travel category, is credited to, um, the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions. Nominees were announced Tuesday. They are:
Phaic Tan: It’s No Vietnam
by Michael Yessis | 04.12.06 | 7:57 AM ET
The U.S. edition of the Southeast Asia guidebook parody Phaic Tan: Sunstroke on a Shoestring came out recently, and yesterday I got my hands on a copy. It’s hilarious all the way down to the blurbs about contributors (“Jenny Ronalds is a freelance travel writer with a special interest in Southeast Asia who, over the years, has contributed to Travel & Leisure, Globe Trotter and International Gourmet. None have ever been published and we kind of felt sorry for her.”). It’s also so dead on in its aping of guidebook style and convention that I almost started believing Phaic Tan was a real place. It’s easy to do. How easy? Take our Vietnam vs. Phaic Tan quiz and find out.
Captain Cook Tops Wanderlust’s List of Greatest Travelers of All Time
by Michael Yessis | 04.11.06 | 2:02 PM ET
Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang finished second in the poll. Sir Richard Burton, Ibn Battuta and Christopher Columbus round out the top five. Wanderlust’s editors surveyed a bunch of famous and semi-famous modern travelers—Bill Bryson, Michael Palin, John Gimlette and Susan Spano among them—who nominated their favorites. The magazine hasn’t posted the story online, but The Independent did, complete with quotes from the nominators.
“Lust in Translation”
by Jim Benning | 04.10.06 | 11:51 AM ET
My latest travel essay, about a sexy phone call I received in a hotel room in Xian, China, appeared in Sunday’s Washington Post. It’ll be coming to the pages of World Hum soon.
