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the IBIT Travel Digest 11.25.12

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The good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media

Strasbourg Christmas lights stand

Shopping for Christmas lights, Strasbourg, France | @copy;IBIT/G. Gross

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UNEASY MIDEAST
The so-called “Arab Spring” may have brought political change to North Africa and the Middle East, but it’s bringing little good cheer to the travel industry. The ongoing turmoil in that part of the world continues to make it — justly or unjustly — a no-go zone in the eyes of many travelers.

Travel Weekly reports that between now and next April, Norwegian Cruise Line is dropping Egypt from its 10- and 11-day cruises, scheduling port calls in Istanbul, Crete and Naples in its place.

And NCL came to that decision before Egypt’s new president got involved in brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and then tangled with his own nation’s judiciary over sweeping new powers he claimed…for himself.

Bottom line: Many of the countries now being avoided by travelers and travel companies alike may be perfectly safe to visit, but it may be a good while yet before the traveling public perceives them that way.

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AMTRAK RIDING HIGH
Anyone who tells you Americans don’t take trains hasn’t been to a train station lately. IBIT has and I can tell you, they’re busy.

Amtrak’s business year officially closed out on Sept. 30, and it closed on all high notes, starting with this one: 31.2 million passengers for fiscal 2012.

Two things make that number important. First, it’s the highest ridership for Amtrak since it came into being in 1971. Second, it’s the ninth year in a row that Amtrak has set a new ridership mark.

While you’re at it, smoke this over: Between 2000 and 2012, Amtrak ridership has risen by 49 percent.

You’ll find the rest of Amtrak’s glowing figures in the corporation’s press release here.

A lot of airline CEOs would kill for numbers like these. Then again, the misery that is present-day air travel in the United States is a big reason why more people are turning to trains in the first place.

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AND FINALLY
You know those customer-satisfaction surveys by J.D. Power & Associates, the ones that companies always tout in TV commercials to show how wonderful they are? Here’s one you won’t be seeing anytime soon, from anybody.

With hotel business picking up, J.D. Power decided to survey hotel guests. Those guests put the hotel industry on blast. Low-end, high-end, no one was spared:

“Satisfaction with check-in/check-out; food and beverage; hotel services; and hotel facilities are at new lows since the 2006 study and satisfaction with guest room has declined within one point of its lowest level in the past seven years.”

If I’m that guy at Motel 6 and I hear that, I’m leaving the light on because I can’t sleep. How did this happen?

Here’s a clue, courtesy of Travel Weekly’s Arnie Weissmann: Most of the top hotels in the country aren’t owned by real “hotel people” anymore.

They’re owned by private equity companies, which specialize in boosting profits by cutting costs — mainly by cutting staff and lowering service levels — before selling off the business to someone else.

That may be necessary when you’ve got hotels full of empty rooms at the height of a recession, but to keep doing it after your customers start coming back? Not smart, as J.D. Power vice-president Stuart Greif gently points out:

“Hoteliers need to get back to the fundamentals and improve the overall guest experience. Charging guests more and providing less is not a winning combination.”

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And now, here’s The Digest:

AIR
from Travel Weekly
Qatar Airways joins oneworld, the world’s number two airline alliance. QA joins Malaysia Airlines and SriLankan Airlines as members-elect. It’s a big deal for Asian air travel and a big boost for oneworld, but the announcement is overshadowed by the ongoing beef between American Airines and its pilots.

from Travel Weekly
The Middle East may still be too hot politically for some travelers, but that’s not stopping three major Persian Gulf airlines from building alliances with European carriers.

from Travel Weekly
Southwest Airlines will start flying this spring from Florida to Puerto Rico. Officially, it’s a simple takeover of existing service from AirTran, which Southwest bought. But as its first air service outside the continental United States, it’s a big step.

LAND
from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pickpockets in Spain, gypsy cabs in Rome and other avoidadable travel scams.

from Travel Weekly
JW Marriott opens the world’s tallest hotel in Dubai. How tall? About eight stories shorter than the Empire State Building in New York. Yep, that’s tall, all right.

from Independent Traveler.com
Lots of folks have tips on how best to travel with kids — but what about traveling with grandkids?

from NBC News
Honeymoons…with friends? Really? Yes, really.

SEA
from Cruise Critic
Cruising for grown-ups. Seven options for sailing without the kids.

from Travel Weekly
Norwegian Cruise Line is going all Grinch on Hawai’i. Seeing strong demand for its Hawaiian cruises, NCL is raising its Hawai’i cruise prices 10 percent starting Jan 1, 2013. Merry Christmas…

from Gadling
Travel insurance is one purchase a lot of cruise travelers try to do without. Don’t. But have a clear understanding of what travel insurance will and won’t do for you.

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AFRICA
from the Ethiopian Press Agency via allAfrica.com
Addis Ababa starting to become a destination for conference travel.

from The Herald (Zimbabwe) via allAfrica.com
The justly famed Victoria Falls are starting to get some serious competition as a tourist attraction from the Mana Pools. Chinese tourists in particular just love this spot.

from allAfrica.com
Citizen of Vietnam caught in Mozambique with a half-dozen rhino horns in his possession. Wonder how to say “You in a heap ‘a trouble, boy!” in Vietnamese?

from Inform Africa
An African looks at our Thanksgiving tradition, and wonders why African-Americans find anything to celebrate.

AMERICAS
from Travel Weekly
If you’re used to paying $51 in airport fees when flying into and out of Antigua, get ready to go a little deeper into your wallet from now on.

from the Los Angeles Times
The Hotel Chimayo de Santa Fe in Santa Fe, NM walks a fine line between respecting an impoverished local culture and providing a successful escape for its visitors.

from USA Today
If you’ve been frightened away from Mexico over the last several years, you can at least think about returning now. The most recent State Department travelers warning about Mexico exempts most of that country’s traditional tourist destinations.

ASIA/PACIFIC
from the New York Times
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital city, is obsessed with good food. For a traveler, that could be a very good thing, indeed.

from the New York Times
A short but worthwhile visit in the city we used to know as Calcutta. Nowadays, it goes by Kolkata.

from The Guardian (London UK)
With a sleek new mountain eco-resort not far from Shanghai in Zhejiang province, China hopes to lure environmentally conscious tourists — and perhaps simultaneously clean up its international image as one of the world’s major polluters.

from France 24
Are the people of Singapore real-world Vulcans a la Star Trek, utterly lacking in emotions (as well as pointy ears)? A US Gallup poll says yes. Even worse, a fair number of Singaporeans seem to agree. It seems they’re too busy making a living to have a life.

EUROPE
from The Guardian (London UK)
A look at the town of Vicenza, one of northern Italy’s under-appreciated jewels, and the creation of one of its most famous architects. A UN World Heritage Site that still manages to slip below the tourist radar.

Edited by P.A.Rice

the SUNDAY TRAVEL DIGEST

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The good, the bad and the bizarre from some of the world’s best travel media

Artist's rendering of a bar aboard Allure of the Seas, which debuts in December | © new cruise ships

ALLURE OF THE SEAS
Remember when I told you how much folks love breaking in brand-new cruise ships? Royal Caribbean International is still six months away from launching Allure of the Seas, the second in its Oasis class of mega-sized cruise chips, but folks are already lining up cruises.

Among them is NABJ, the National Association of Black Journalists, which is putting together a cruise aboard Allure for late June 2011.

If you’re not familiar with the Oasis class or Royal Caribbean’s approach to cruising, here are a few basics:

  • Think BIG. As in up to 5,400 passengers in 2,700 cabins and 28 “loft suites” aboard a ship taller than a lot of the buildings in your town — even if your town is Manhattan.
  • A destination in itself. Almost every cabin aboard this mega-ship will come with a balcony. Many overlook the ocean. The rest overlook a central promenade running nearly the length of the ship and divided into seven “neighborhoods” — complete with restaurants, clubs, shops, parks and “street entertainers.” Who needs destinations?
  • Get fit, or have one.Separate pools, gyms, spas and other recreation for kids and adults. Massage suites. If it involves pampering of self, you’ll probably find it on this ship somewhere.

COMING TO AMERICA: AIRPORT BUM-RUSHING
Continental Airlines is experimenting in Houston with “self-boarding.” You scan your own boarding pass before heading down the jetway and boarding the plane. The Consumerist is one of the sites where you’ll find the 4-1-1.

Their motivation for doing this is clear enough. One less gate agent means one less person they have to pay. They’ve been doing things like this in Europe for awhile, especially low-cost carriers.

(On a Ryanair flight to Dublin from London Luton once, there were no boarding passes, no seat assignments, not even a boarding announcement. An airport worker simply slid open the door to the tarmac and everyone immediately got up and bum-rushed the aircraft.)

I call this “Devil-take-the-hindmost” seating. Hopefully, Continental’s version is a bit more refined.

THE BUCKET LIST — MY WAY
We all know what this is, that list we keep in our heads of all those things we want to do — or in the context of IBIT , all the places we want to go and see — before we “kick the bucket.”

Nothing wrong with having dreams and ambitions, but that expression is just a little too negative for me. So in an era when so many of us are re-directing our lives and re-thinking our careers, I think it’s time we re-imagined “the bucket list.”

My new and improved bucket list still compiles all my dream destinations. But there will be no kicking this bucket. I will just work at filling it, joyfully. I don’t expect to ever fill the thing, but if I’m around long enough to do that, I’ll just get a new bucket and start over.

Yeah, I think I like my bucket a whole lot better!

And now, here’s this week’s Digest:

from the New York Times
Traveling abroad and can’t be without your cell phone? The bad news is that your phone probably won’t work outside the United States. The good news is: There are ways around that. Your phone does work internationally, but the bill is heart-stopping? There are ways around that, too.

from the Los Angeles Times
NCL has made a habit of breaking with cruise tradition, starting with their practice of letting you dine whenever — and sit with whomever — you like. They’re doing it again with their newest mega-ship, the Norwegian Epic — a ship actually tailored to single cruisers. Beverly Beyette has the lowdown.

AFRICA
from the PR Newswire
In South Africa, the post-World Cup buzz — or if you will, hype — continues, as tour organizers continue to tout its benefits — and there were plenty of those, some of which went beyond money.

from the Sunday Tribune (Nigeria)
A Florida firm is partnering up with Nigerian state government to design the Calabar Riviera Resort. Ever considered having your own African timeshare? Take a look at what they’re planning.

AMERICAS
from USA Today
If you have a yen for a road trip and an interest in Native American craftsmanship, New Mexico has a thread you can follow. Actually, many threads, woven by Native American weavers creating fiber art in the way their ancestors have done for centuries.

from USA Today
Would you live in a neighborhood called DUMBO? In Brooklyn, a lot of people do…and they love it.

from the BBC fast.track
French Guiana and Suriname are two former European colonies in South America — one French, the other Dutch. Today, descendants of slaves and slaveowners co-exist peacefully with the rest of their ethnically diverse populations. In Suriname, however, the descendants of escaped slaves still maintain many of the folkways of their African ancestors. VIDEO

ASIA/PACIFIC
from the Guardian (London, UK)
The ryokan, the serenely traditional and traditionally serene Japanese inn, is starting to pick up some 21st century touches. Is this a good or a bad thing?

EUROPE
from the New York Times
Going back to school could save you some money when traveling around an expensive country like Britain. Universities turns their student dorms into summer bed-and-breakfast lodging for travelers. The NYT’s Jennifer Conlin shows us how to take advantage.

from the Guardian (London, UK)
Did you catch any of this year’s Tour de France bicycle race? Think you’re tough enough to ride the course yourself? There’s a French event for amateur riders that will let you find out on a short portion of the course — on one of the toughest mountain climbs in the world. But you’d better be ready. The Pyrenees are no joke.

We be cruisin' 2

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The cruise industry was counting on more people getting into cruising before the recession. Soon, they’ll be just about begging for it. Bargain-hunting vacationers, take note.

The Big Island of Hawaii as seen from NCL Pride of Aloha

The Big Island of Hawaii as seen from NCL Pride of Aloha

Bad timing on the part of the cruise industry could mean good news for cruise travelers. They’ve painted themselves into something of a financial corner, and that could create a real buyers’ market for the consumer.

Having ridden a boom in interest — and profits — since the 1980s, the cruise industry went on a shipbuilding binge in the last several years, with each line trying to to make its vessels bigger, more sleek, more modern or more glitzy than the competition. Some of these ships will carry as few as 450 passengers (in almost obscene luxury), others as many as 7,500.

As a point of comparison, it was less than a decade ago that a cruise ship carrying 2,000 or so was considered gigantic. Five years from now, it might just be a single seating at dinner!

In 2008, seven cruise lines took delivery on eight new ships with capacity for nearly 23,000 passengers. This year, nine lines are due to bring 10 new ships on line with cabins for another 29,409 passengers. And between 2010 and 2012, 14 lines are due to bring 26 new ships on line with capacity for nearly 75,000 passengers.

(If you’re curious how many of these 44 floating resorts are being built in U.S. shipyards, the answer is: None. Have we forgotten how to build anything other than warships?)

Then came the recession. Uh oh!

Now, it’s possible that some of these ships may be canceled due to the becalmed global economy. But so far, it looks as if the vast majority of them eventually will be showing up at a dock within your reach.

Add all that to existing cruise ship capacity of about 190,000 passengers, and the picture becomes pretty clear. The cruise lines have a lot of berths to fill. If they’re going to pay for all that new construction — not to mention the expense of running all those new ships — they need to fill them every chance they get.

It’s true that some older ships may be taken out of service, but there really aren’t that many truly aged cruise ships left out there, which means most of that existing berthing space will still be in play when the new ships hit the water.

What does all this mean for you? A golden opportunity, that’s what! You’ll be able to shop for bargains — and believe me, with the competition among the cruise lines as fierce as it is, there definitely will be bargains to be had. Some high-end luxury lines like Crystal and Seabourn will likely keep their prices sky-high no matter what, but look for the rest to dangle attractive deals in front of consumers, especially the big outfits like Carnival, NCL and Royal Caribbean, which specialize in affordable cruises.

Some of these cruise lines, like Royal Caribbean in particular, have gone so expansion-happy since the ’80s that their fleets are beginning to rival the size of some navies.

So bide your time, put a little money away here and there, and be prepared to strike!