7 Days; 7 Travel Stories

1. Online Squawk

"The influence of social networking and community services is growing significantly for online travel," says Douglas Quinby, senior director of research at PhoCusWright. "Seeking information and looking for perspective--like-minded experience and judgments--are currently trumping the straightforward hunt for the best price. Services that facilitate a purchasing decision by aggregating or filtering content make [online travel information] relevant to the user."

Online travel companies, including Travelocity and Expedia are now some of the oldest Internet brands. But they're buffing up how they serve vacationers by acquiring social networking sites that focus on travel. Travelocity's parent company, Sabre Holdings, acquired social travel site IgoUgo in 2005. The following year, IgoUgo--which hosts user-generated reviews of travel destinations and hotels, photos and maps--was folded into Travelocity.

Despite their efforts, some experts say online travel agencies have a long way to go. "The industry is sadly lacking in innovation to make the shopping experience better," says Forrester Research analyst Henry Harteveldt. "A big reason is the back-end that travel sellers rely on. It's going to take two to three years to make the necessary changes. It's a multimillion dollar capital expenditure, and it will take hours of planning and [software] coding." Forbes

Vacationing alone and want some company? These sites to the rescue: http://www.intrepidtravel.com/, http://www.absolutetravel.com/, www.fairmont.com/santamonica, http://www.adventurewomen.com/, http://www.countrywalkers.com/, http://www.cstn.org/ (Solo Travel Network), http://www.backroads.com/, http://www.tauck.com/, http://www.soloholidays.co.uk/, http://www.hfholidays.co.uk/. NY Times

Gluten free zone…Introducing http://www.glutenfreetravelsite.com/, the first website focused on helping people with Celiac – and others following gluten-free diets. Locate hotels, resorts, and restaurants around the world that accommodate their special diets. Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disorder that compromises the body’s ability to digest gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley.

2. Flowers For Algernon

Travel + Leisure magazine’s list of the world's top 10 botanical gardens.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn, New York. Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Western Cape, South Africa. Kyoto, Japan (country estate on the outskirts of this city.Jardin Botanique de Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Reid's Palace, Madeira, Portugal.. Claude Monet Foundation at Giverny, Normandy, France. Seychelles National Botanical Gardens, Seychelles. Biltmore Estate, Asheville, North Carolina.Tohono Chul Park, Tucson, Arizona. Andromeda Botanical Gardens, St. Joseph, Barbados.

3. On the Wings of Butterflies

The monarch butterfly is famous for its annual migration to the mountains of central Mexico. But the creature's lifespan can be a matter of weeks, so the ones that fly south in the fall are not the ones that come back in the spring. So how do they know where to go? In 2002, Queen's University researcher Barrie Frost found that monarchs use an internal clock and the sun to tell them. Now, he and Jeremy McNeil, an entomologist at the University of Western Ontario, are investigating how they know when to stop. “They use the same sites, year after year,” says Dr. McNeil, an expert in the reproductive strategies of migrating insects, and they may smell their way. Butterflies eat milkweed, which contains noxious compounds and may give their waste a distinctive and long-lasting odor to guide the way, he explains. Globe and Mail

4. Rent Me’s

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported a record percentage of new second home buyers – 25 percent – have purchased vacation homes with the intent to rent them out to vacationers, nearly doubling the number from just two years ago (14 percent in 2005). Of those owners who intend to rent, 70 percent will rely on the Internet to advertise their vacation homes to travelers.

Earlier this month, travel expert Arthur Frommer called the growing trend of renting vacation homes and apartments “a giant movement,” citing affordability when compared to hotels as the reason. Industry analysts predict U.S. hotel prices will rise 5 to 8 percent this year. The study also revealed that more than half of the new vacation owners who did not plan to rent out their homes would consider doing so in the future. This is consistent with HomeAway research indicating homeowners begin to rent two to three years into owning because they don’t use their home as often as they had planned. http://www.homeaway.com/

5. The Schengen Zone

With the addition of Malta and eight other countries – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic – some 400 million people can now travel by plane passport-free within 24 European countries. Several eastern European cities such as Warsaw, Prague and Budapest used the opportunity to modernize their airports and build new terminals. Switzerland, which is not a member of the EU, will join the Zone by November pay about $11 million for the privilege. Bulgaria and Romania, which joined the EU on January 1st last year, are preparing to be included in the Schengen zone in 2011.

6. Top 5 Medical Tourism Destinations

The Medical tourism industry anticipates a great deal of growth in the coming years, from a 2004 estimate of $40 billion to $100 billion by 2012. Experts believe that medical tourism will have a positive impact on the economies of destination countries and benefit skilled and unskilled trades alike. Savings are typically 40 percent to 70 percent.
NuWire’s Top 5 Medical Tourism Destinations based on quality and affordability of care as well as receptiveness to foreign investment: Panama, Brazil, Malaysia, Costa Rica, India. ETN/nuwireinvestor.com

7. The Friendly Skies

The load factor (average seat occupancy) on the world’s airlines declined 0.6 percent in February from a year earlier to 73.3 percent. That’s the largest drop since a 0.9-point decrease in December of 2004.

Flybe, a low-fare European airline, paid 172 people to fly back and forth across England and the Irish Sea to help it meet a target for passenger numbers at Norwich airport. Flybe was narrowly falling short of a target to deliver at least 15,000 passengers on the Dublin-Norwich route in the 12 months ending on Monday, which meant it would have to forego a 280,000 pound ($550,000) rebate from the airport. After the airport rejected a request for a partial rebate for almost hitting the target, Flybe hired 172 temps for 30-40 pounds each, plus a free bar and in-flight entertainment. Reuters/Yahoo

British Airways canceled 50 flights at London Heathrow airport’s on the sith day of its opening. That figure represents 13 percent of BA flights at the airport. Cancellations caused by snags in the $8.5 billion terminal’s computerized baggage system total more than 300 since it opened on March 27. BA has called in FedEx to help reunite passengers with about 20,000 delayed bags. Bloomberg

Election Year Extra

Travel is a $740 billion industry and this is a presidential election year. So what’s to get your dandruff up? Record air travel delays and cancellations. Soaring fuel costs. Traffic congestion on roadways. New, confusing and expensive passport and transit rules. Declining value of the dollar. Amtrak funding. In a poll conducted ahead of the primaries in South Carolina and Florida -- two states where travel is critical to the economy -- nearly two-thirds of prospective voters said they don't believe the 2008 presidential candidates have adequately addressed a travel system that is increasingly viewed as "flawed and frustrating."

"There's still a long way to go, and we trust these issues will arise on their agenda," says Roger Dow, president of the Travel Industry Association. "Candidates have yet to realize what the public is demanding of them." Tribune Media Services

Rich’s Weekend Reader is published by AndTyler222 Communications. All rights reserved. Information from various sources and mostly rewritten. andtyler222@verizon.net http://www.itinarod.com/