TRAVEL ADVANCE (R)
Volume XVI, Number 99
Monday, May 22, 2006
NEW RULES PROPOSED FOR CRUISE-SHIP BALCONIES. Cruise ships would have to
remove all combustible items from balconies or install fire sprinklers and smoke
detectors under proposed rules embraced Friday by members of the International
Maritime Organization. The proposed rules also would require ships now being
built to have partitions between balconies that firefighters can easily open.
The plans--which were given their initial approval by the IMO's Maritime Safety
Committee in London--came in the wake of the deadly fire aboard the Star
Princess near Jamaica. The March 23 blaze began on a pri vate balcony and quickly
spread, killing one passenger and injuring 13 others. The proposal is supported
by the International Council of Cruise Lines in Arlington, Va. (Page 3C, Miami
Herald, 5/20)
PASSENGERS PROTEST CUT PORTS OF CALL. Passengers on board a Celebrity
Cruises vessel say they are dissatisfied with compensation offered by the cruise
line when mechanical problems forced them to skip two port calls. The Summit, a
2,000-passenger Celebrity Cruises ship, left Los Angeles on May 7 for a 15-night
cruise to Alaska. During ship maintenance in San Francisco, mechanics found
metal shavings in the oil system that services the bearings involved with one of
the Summit's two Mermaid propulsion systems. A delegation of four passengers,
who said they represented several hundred customers on board, told the Ketchikan
Daily News they were not informed about the mechanical problem and were not
given the option to disembark at San F rancisco. When the problem forced the line
to skip port calls in Seattle and Sitka, Alaska, passengers were offered
$200-per-stateroom shipboard credit. Passengers
who spoke in Ketchikan described that as inadequate. Celebrity also said it
would cancel the Summit's next Alaska cruise so the ship could be repaired in
Victoria, British Columbia. (AP; Anchorage Daily News)
CASINO WORKER HELD IN HOLLOWAY CASE. Dutch police are holding a suspect
on suspicion of murder in the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway.
Gerald Spong, the suspect's lawyer, said that his client, whose name w as not
disclosed, was suspected of "assisting in the murder, battery and kidnapping of
Natalee Holloway." Holloway was 18 when she went missing a year ago during a
high school graduation trip to the Dutch island of Aruba. Spong said the suspect
worked at the casino in the hotel where Holloway was staying. (Page 3A, USA
Today)
NWA SETS T ENTATIVE DEAL WITH RAMP WORKERS. Northwest Airlines and its
ramp workers reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract that, if
approved by a majority of the 5,600 employees, would render moot the airline's
request that a bankruptcy-court judge throw out the group's current contract.
The International Association of Machinists union didn't disclose the terms of
the new deal. The union said the details and the voting schedule are being
prepared, along with a separate strike-authorization ballot in case the
employees reject the contract and the judge ultimately annuls the current
agreement. If the tentative agreement is ratified, the nation's fourth-largest
airline will be close to its goal of paring its annual labor costs by $1.4
billion. (Page A7, Wall Street Journal, 5/20)
TRAVEL'S HIGH-ENERGY HEIRESS IN HIGH DEMAND. As one of the few female
leaders in the mostly male-dominated travel and tourism industry, Carlson Cos. CEO Marilyn Carlson Nelson is in high demand, says USA Today in a cover story in
its "Money" section. Industry conferences want Nelson to speak. Politicians at
every level seek her campaign support. Diplomats and world leaders want her help
in solving economic development and human-rights problems. Her influence
reflects the sprawling reach of her privately held business empire, which she
inherited from her father and owns jointly with her sister. Carlson Cos. brands
include Radisson Hotels, casual dining chain TGI Fridays, Regent Seven Seas
Cruises and travel agency Carlson Wagonlit Travel. (Page 1B, USA Today)
SLUMPING CANADIAN TOURISM TURNS TO GAELIC ROOTS. In the past few years,
Canada has been trying to revive its ailing tourism industry. U.S. leisure
visitors to Canada dropped almost 5% to 12.5 million from 2004 to 2005 as
tourist grappled with issues such as the strengthening Canadian dollar. But an
island of 147,000 in t he Canadian province of Nova Scotia has found a formula to
woo tourists--playing up its Scottish heritage. On Cape Breton Island, about 500
locals actively speak Gaelic in their homes and in the pubs. It's perhaps the
best way to get a taste for Scotland short of crossing the Atlantic. (Page P3,
Wall Street Journal, 5/20)
BABY BOOMERS PUSH RV OWNERSHIP TO NEW RECORD. Baby Boomers have pushed
the number of recreational vehicle owners to record levels, including some who
hit the road full time while continuing to pursue their careers. Baby Boomers
have money, a sense of wonderlust and enough technology to run an office or stay
in touch with family while on the road, said Rachael Parsons, spokeswoman for
the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association. Nearly 8 million households owned
at least one RV in 2005, according to a study by the University of Michigan
Survey Research Center. That's a 58% increase from 1980. About 384,400 RVs wer e
sold in 2005, according to RVIA. The typical RV owner is 35 to 54 years old,
owns a house, has an annual income of $68,000 and travels an average of 4,500
miles a year, according to the study. (AP; Seattle Post-Intelligencer.com)
TAMER SPACESHIP RIDE DEBUTS AT EPCOT. Mission: Space "lite" made its
debut Friday at
Walt Disney World in Orlando, complete with bold warnings urging
visitors to bypass the full-force version if they are concerned about certain
health conditions. The new version of the space simulator at Epcot eliminates
the centrifuge element of the attraction, lessening the G-forces on the body,
but still pitches riders forward and backward, shakes and combines audio and
video virtual-reality effects. Its opening comes less than six weeks after a
German tourists died after riding the attraction and less than a year after a
Pennsylvania boy died after riding it. (Orlando Sentinel.com/Business, 5/20)
ASTA MEMBERS APPROVE NEW GOVERNANCE PLAN. In a referendum completed last
week, members of the American Society of Travel Agents overwhelmingly approved a
new governance plan that will provide all domestic members with equal
representation and create a smaller, more agile bo ard while unifying ASTA's
leadership. The referendum passed by a vote of 704 to 112, with one abstention.
(ModernAgent.com, Special to TA)
"DA VINCI" AS A BRAND: FROM SOUP TO NUTS. For the more than 100 million
readers around the world who enjoyed "The Da Vinci Code," marketers are betting
they might like the "Da Vinci" video game, or the "Da Vinci Code"
paint-by-number, or "The Da Vinci Fitness Code." a diet book based on the
Fibonacci sequence. With the movie opening this past weekend, "The Da Vinci
Code" has already spawned a mini-industry unto itself that encompasses video
games, cookbooks, walking tours of the Louvre, even pornography. And no matter
what happens to the movie, the merchandise and travel tied to the brand will
stay strong, some marketing experts said. (Moviegoers gave their blessing to the
film over the weekend, spending an estimated $77 million to see the Tom Hanks
religious thriller.) (Page B1, New York T imes, 5/20)
<<<<<<< News and Trends from the Sunday Papers >>>>>>>
AMERICANS should brace for a summer of miserable air travel, The New
York Times advised Sunday. Planes are expected to be packed fuller than at
anytime since World War II, when the airlines helped transport troops. Fares are
rising, service frills are disappearing. Logjams at airport security checkpoints
loom as the federal government strains to keep screener jobs filled. And the
usual violent summer storms are expected to send the air traffic control system
into chaos at times, with flight delays cascading across the country. (Sect. 1,
Page 1, New York Times)
*Allowing frequent flyers to bypass much of the airport security hassle
in exchange for giving up some personal information in advance has yet to
happen, four years after the idea was first proposed. The concept, first called
"trusted traveler," was popula r with some airlines, frequent flyers and
lawmakers. But now , the Transportation Security Administration is suggesting
that the benefits will range from slim to none, except perhaps for the
likelihood that the ling waiting to reach the checkpoint will be shorter. (Sect.
1, Page 22, New York Times)
WITH THE U.S. image abroad in the tank, one group is trying to do
something about it. Keith Reinhard, chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide, the big
ad agency, is seeking to mobilize U.S. businesses to improve America's standing.
Reinhard founded Business for Diplomatic Action, a New York-based nonprofit. BDA
has sponsored and distributed research about the problem, launched business and
educational initiatives, worked to increase foreign visitation to the U.S. and
created a "World Citizens Guide," now in editions for students and
businesspeople, aimed at making traveling Americans better ambassadors for the
U.S. BDA hopes to distribut e the guides through tour companies, airlines and
ultimately with every new passport issued by the U.S. State Department. (Los
Angeles Times.com /Travel)
WITH gas prices at nearly $3 a gallon and airfares going up, consumers
with the slightest interest in taking a cruise now have something to at least
cheer. In a rare move, Carnival Corp. said it was lowering fares by as much as
20% on Caribbean itineraries this summer, and they're not alone. Other cruise
lines have begun quietly reducing ticket prices in hopes of stimulating demand.
Cruise experts say the prices are the lowest they've seen in about three years.
(Page 1E, Miami Herald)
RESORTS and cruise lines have recently begun to realize that they have
to be a lot more sophisticated about how they reach out to teenagers (and thus
their parents) especially after years of misfires in which they treated all
children as equals. Now, rather suddenly, teenagers have become th e focus of a
barrage of targeted offerings, ranging from teenagers-only lounges on cruise
ships and resorts to special "acne attack" facials and stress-combating spa
treatments. The continuing upswing in family travel--36% of adults took at least
one vacation with children last year, compared with 26% in 2000, according to
Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell--suggests that it is important to keep
teenagers, a notoriously opinionated bunch known for influencing (and at times
ruining) their family's travel plans, at least reasonable happy. (Sect. 5, Page
3, New York Times)
TIPPING is a traveler's last resort for getting and rewarding good
treatment. But now, suppliers are toying with that sacred cow by imposing
mandatory gratuities and other charges. The result? Confusion and conflicts on
the front lines. Hotels, cruise ships and restaurants have become the venue for
such disputes, but tensions are highest at curbside chec k-in, where passengers
are locked in a struggle with skycaps over tips. United, American and other
airlines say a $2-per-bag curbside fee instituted last year is in lieu of a
gratuity, although passengers can still tip for excellent service. Baggage
handlers, on the other hand, complain that they "don't see a dime" of this fee
and sometimes campaign for tips, even though they're not supposed to mention the
"T" word to customers. Meanwhile, some passengers--fearing their luggage will
end up in Siberia--say they feel pressured to tip anyway.
(Los Angeles Times.com/Travel)
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