Travel Blog
China Faces Pilot Shortage
by Michael Yessis | 09.10.07 | 8:59 AM ET
The country will need 9,000 pilots in the next few years to accommodate the rapid growth of its travel industry, and Reuters reports it will fall 2,000 short. Among the solutions: recruiting foreign pilots and more women. Says Gao Hongfeng, deputy head of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China: We are “very happy to see that many women are so enthusiastic about this industry and want to become part of it. Airlines have opened their doors to this, and the regulator has too.”
Related on World Hum:
* China to Become World’s Top Tourism Destination by 2014
Photo by http2007, via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzThe World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: From Singapore to Singapore Slings
by Michael Yessis | 09.07.07 | 3:57 PM ET
Octoberfest is on the horizon, so it fits that beer and cocktails are at the top of travelers’ minds this week. That, and getting where they need to go on a budget. Here’s the Zeitgeist:
Most Popular Travel Story
Iloho (current)
Budget Travel Costs for 94 Cities around the World
* Montreal, Canada (pictured) ranks No. 60 in the survey.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Telegraph UK (current)
Singapore: The City in a Suit
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
Extreme Cocktails Sizzle in Las Vegas
* Warning: Do not dip your fingers into the Warp Core Breach!
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (posted this week)
Got Airline Complaints? Join the (Very Large) Crowd.
Most Read Feature
World Hum (posted this week)
We Don’t (Really) Know Jack
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
How to Enjoy Oktoberfest Like a Local
* Read this before you try the weisswurst.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Hotels Combined
Southwest Airlines Veers Into Fashion Controversy—Again
by Jim Benning | 09.07.07 | 3:54 PM ET
The airline that once booted a passenger off a flight for wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words Meet the Fockers—it had pictures of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice— is making travel fashion headlines once again. Southwest Airlines apparently didn’t care for the skirt and top that 23-year-old college student and Hooters waitress Kyla Ebbert wore aboard a flight two months ago from San Diego to Tucson. Reported the San Diego Union-Tribune this week, Ebbert “had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon in Tucson, where temperatures had topped 106 all week. She arrived at Lindbergh Field [in San Diego] wearing a white denim miniskirt, high-heel sandals, and a turquoise summer sweater over a tank top over a bra.” The U-T has a photo of said outfit.
How Did We Love Jack Kerouac This Week?
by Jim Benning | 09.07.07 | 2:08 PM ET
Let us count the ways we paid tribute on the 50th anniversary of “On the Road”:
* Marking 50 Years of Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’
* Essay: The Distance Between Then and Now
* ‘On the Road’: The Original New York Times Review
* ‘On the Road’ Sites, Including a Mexico City Sanborns, Then and Now
* Essay: Kerouac! Kerouac! Kerouac!
* Will ‘On the Road’ Ever Be Made Into a Movie?
* Essay: We Don’t (Really) Know Jack
* How to Road Trip Like Kerouac (And Stay Out of Trouble)
* ‘On the Road’ at 50: Ferlinghetti, Kirn, Cassady Weigh In
* Q&A with John Leland: Sex, Art and Spirituality in ‘On the Road’
* Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’: 22 Great Links
And finally, lest we get completely carried away:
* Enough Already With the Kerouac!
Photo by Clearly Ambiguous via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Maps, Mumbles and Miss Teen South Carolina
by Michael Yessis | 09.07.07 | 12:46 PM ET
I don’t want to pile on Lauren Caitlin Upton, the Miss Teen USA pageant contestant from South Carolina who botched her answer to the question, “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?” As of this morning, the video of her awkward response has been viewed more than 13 million times at YouTube. Now, the Web site Maps for US has given her assertion that “some people out there in our nation don’t have maps” some additional infamy, parodying telethons and asking people to donate maps.
Enough Already With the Kerouac!
by Jim Benning | 09.07.07 | 12:31 PM ET
We’ve spent the week celebrating the 50th anniversary of “On the Road.” By now, some have had more than enough. Actually, some had already had enough 50 years ago when the novel debuted. Herewith, a sampling of what Kerouac naysayers have been saying:
Jack Shafer vs. New York Times Travel Coverage
by Julia Ross | 09.07.07 | 7:53 AM ET
Ouch. Slate’s media critic Jack Shafer took a swipe at conventional travel journalism yesterday, in a column that scolds the New York Times’s “Escapes” section for “lack of imagination” in running three stories on Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula this summer. Shafer uses the example to launch a broader plea for more bite in travel writing.
U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee on National Passport Month
by Jim Benning | 09.06.07 | 1:05 PM ET
Yesterday, for the second straight year, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution to make September National Passport Month. The idea, initiated by Lonely Planet a couple of years ago, seems like a no-brainer to us: to recognize and promote the value and rewards of international travel, which can only be accomplished with a little blue book. As we’ve noted often, only about a quarter of all U.S. citizens have passports—a share that is slowly rising. (No, the feds haven’t exactly made things easier this year.) Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) introduced the resolution and has been a key supporter of National Passport Month—see the Congressional Record for her remarks. I spoke with her by phone yesterday about the resolution’s chances of actually getting W’s signature this year.
Will Study Abroad Programs Get A Boost From New Legislation?
by Julia Ross | 09.06.07 | 12:03 PM ET
Years ago, a bad experience with a university counselor—who all but assured me credits earned while studying abroad wouldn’t transfer—led me to drop the idea of taking a semester in the UK, a decision I have long regretted. So I was encouraged to read in Time this week that a bill pending before the Senate would give a much-needed boost to study abroad programs, helping universities eliminate the financial and curricular barriers that many students face when considering a year in Beijing or Barcelona.
Where in the World Are You, Christy Quirk?
by World Hum | 09.06.07 | 11:11 AM ET
The subject of our latest nearly up-to-the-minute interview with a traveler somewhere in the world: Christy Quirk, a writer and consultant. Her response landed in our inbox this morning.
World Hum: Where in the world are you?
‘On the Road’ at 50: Ferlinghetti, Kirn, Cassady Weigh In
by Michael Yessis | 09.06.07 | 10:53 AM ET
Slate joins the 50th Anniversary celebration of “On the Road” this week with coverage that, among other things, addresses this question: How did Sal Paradise, the protagonist of “On the Road” and the No. 1 pick in our list of 10 Greatest Fictional Travelers, influence Ryan Bingham, the main character in Walter Kirn’s “Up in the Air” and our No. 9 greatest fictional traveler? In an e-mail conversation with Meghan O’Rourke, Kirn points to his personal absorption in Kerouac’s classic.
Will ‘On the Road’ Ever Be Made Into a Movie?
by Jim Benning | 09.05.07 | 4:39 PM ET
Exactly two years ago today, we noted that actor Billy Crudup had been cast to star in a movie version of “On the Road.” The producer would be Francis Ford Coppola, who has owned the movie rights for decades. It was to be directed by Walter Salles of “The Motorcycle Diaries” fame and production was to begin in 2006. So what happened? Where’s the film now? An Aug. 17 Cincinnati Enquirer piece claims production on a Salles-directed “On the Road” film is set to begin next year, and that the cast has not been announced. According to the paper, “Scouts for American Zoetrope, Coppola’s production company, have visited Cincinnati and photographed potential location sites for the movie.”
Got Airline Complaints? Join the (Very Large) Crowd.
by Michael Yessis | 09.05.07 | 3:04 PM ET
The U.S. Department of Transportation reported 1,455 complaints about U.S. airlines in July, the highest number it has received in seven years. From a USA Today story: “Airlines blame the high number of July complaints on bad weather, packed planes, airport congestion and an aging air-traffic control system.” Hmm, maybe U.S. airlines can try solving their problems this way.
Related on World Hum:
* Airline Columnist on Dirty Planes: ‘I’ve Got More Horror Stories Than Edgar Allan Poe’
Photo by Michael Yessis
‘On the Road’: The Original New York Times Review
by Michael Yessis | 09.05.07 | 10:42 AM ET
Dwight Garner, Paper Cuts blogger for the New York Times and senior editor of The New York Times Book Review, calls Gilbert Millstein’s Sept. 5, 1957 review of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” “probably the most famous book review in the history of this newspaper.” The book, Millstein wrote, “is the most beautifully executed, the clearest and the most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as ‘beat,’ and who’s principal avatar he is.” Kerouac saw the book review shortly after midnight that day, accompanied by Joyce Johnson. In a Vanity Fair piece that recalls that night, Johnson writes that Kerouac had a “weirdly flat response” to the review.
China Identifies 2,753 Menu Items For Name Changes
by Michael Yessis | 09.05.07 | 10:32 AM ET
The Chinese government advanced its campaign to rid the country of “Chinglish” in advance of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, highlighting 2,753 dishes and drinks—including the ever-popular “burnt lion’s head”—as “confusing, even ridiculous [English] translations.” The Chinglish Files has a link to the official government report.
