Featured on page 24 of this month's Wired UK: this great map from a project called 'Here and There' by designers Schulze & Webb.
May 2009 Archives
Very good conversation about ABTA and non-transactional companies on Alex's Musings on Travel Ecommerce.
He proposes that non-transactionals (from meta-search sites to Google) should be supported by ABTA in recognition of their growing role in how travel purchases are made.
A comment from chairmanship candidate John McEwan shows some sympathy for that view, but stops short of saying non-transactionals should be full members.
Update, 4pm May 27: Daniele Broccoli has also commented - like John, he is broadly interested in the idea but believes the matter needs more thought.
Other comments come from Kevin May (Travolution), Lee Hayhurst (TTG), and me.
Although Alex's post refers heavily to the ABTA chairmanship election, this goes way beyond who will head up the association's board.
Without wanting to sound like a cheap Hollywood trailer, at issue here are the boundaries of the travel industry. Who's in and who's out?
Do go and have a read.
In 2011, the world will see the release of Secret of the Unicorn, a new film featuring Herge's intolerable winsome, globetrotting boy reporter Tintin.
Metafilter's travel page links to a map of all the locations from the Belgian comic series - it may somewhat sacrifice usability for appearance, but it's an early reference point for anyone who wants to cash in on two upcoming blockbusters.
Blockbuster? Two? Yes, and back-to-back at that. Spielberg is at the helm for the first film, and Peter 'Lord of the Rings' Jackson is slated to direct a sequel. A third film, which the pair were set to co-direct, has been dropped (see comments).
Tintin isn't going to have the sheer scenic clout of Lord of the Rings, but it's a cold tourism marketer who hears 'Peter Jackson' without thinking of New Zealand's Tolkien-inspired payday.
Here's a head start for you: the first film will be an amalgamation of The Secret of the Unicorn and The Crab with the Golden Claws, books which according to the map feature:
- Brussels
- Antwerp
- Morocco (the fictional cities Afghar and Bagghar)
Post edited at 5pm, May 26 2009. I made corrections to details of the Tintin project - currently two films are planned, not three. Thanks to map creator Chris Tregenza.
Someone started a thread on our community site this morning questioning the lack of black leaders in the British travel industry.
I'm reproducing the post here - if you have comments I'd head over to travelhub and reply to the original.
Having spent 17 years in travel in both overseas and UK managerial roles I continue to be shocked and disappointed that given where we are in this country with race issues the travel industry does not set any example with its leaders from the black population. Nor is there anyone that I am aware of coming through the ranks.
Why is that?
(Travelhub members new and old: if you're a TW Blog reader, drop me a friend request...)
What's Wolfram Alpha? It's a spanking new 'computational knowledge engine' (stay with me) that aims to answer your search queries with real data, rather than just directing you to web pages as Google or Yahoo would.
The project is in its early stages, but some of the data that it covers is geographical - distances, populations, visitor numbers, that kind of thing.
Out of curiosity, I tried asking it a few off-the-cuff questions about travel and tourism.
The questions
How many tourists in Spain?
Returns a graph showing visitor numbers from 2003 - 2007. It shows 58m for 2006, which is right. I'm impressed.
How far is it from JFK to the Statue of Liberty?
Another success - Wolfram returns the distance in moments.
How many English speakers in Germany?
No direct answer, but I get a link to a table of the number of English speakers in about 50 countries. Not bad.
Kruger Park size
I get surname data for the surnames Kruger and Park.
Maybe I should be more specific...
Kruger National Park size
Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input.
This is a phrase I see much of as I move to business-focused questions...
When was Explore Worldwide founded?
Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input.
When was Virgin Holidays founded?
Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input.
When I try Virgin Atlantic, it offers me a link to its basic data for Virgin Atlantic.
This comprises carrier code, name and airline ID.
Hmm. Let's try one more company.
When was Thomas Cook founded?
I get data about the surnames Thomas and Cook in the US.
Verdict
It fares well initially. Then it stops faring well. Take this as an early mini-review for travel folks, and bear in mind that the amount of data WA has at its disposal will increase as the project progresses...
Want to get the measure of the Liberal, Labour and Tory politicians tasked with championing tourism?
I know - you can barely bring yourself to look at an MP at the moment. But some readers may be interested in what Barbara Follett (Labour), Tobias Ellwood (Tory) and Don Foster (Liberal) are up to in Parliament.
If you do, here are some feeds to subscribe to. The Westminster appearances come straight from They Work For You, but to get voting records I had to screen-scrape Public Whip pages using Feed43.
I'll show you the method below so you can create a voting feed for any MP...
- Westminster appearances (Follett, Lab)
- Voting record (Follett, Lab)
- Westminster appearances (Ellwood, Con)
- Voting record (Ellwood, Con)
- Westminster appearances (Foster, Lib)
- Voting record (Foster, Lib)
Create your own MP voting feed
Preparation
Go to Feed43.com and sign up.
Go to Publicwhip.org.uk and find the MP you are interested in. Click 'All votes'. Copy the address of the page.
Create a new feed in Feed43.com, and fill in the fields as below...
Step 1: Address and Encoding
In the Address box, paste in the address of the voting page you found during preparation.
In the Encoding field, write 'HTML'.
Hit the Reload button.
Step 2: Define extraction rules
In the Global Search Pattern box, write: {%}.
In the Item (repeatable) Search Pattern box, paste the following: <tr class="{*}"><td class="commons">Commons</td><td>{*}</td><td><a href="{%}">{%}</a></td>{*}<td>{%}</td><td>{%}</td>{*}<td class="">{%}</td></tr>
Hit the Extract button. Some green text should appear telling you how many items have been found.
Step 3: Define output format
RSS feed properties will be filled in automatically. Leave them as they are and move on to the RSS item properties.
In Item Title Template box write: {%2}
In Item Link Template box write: {%1}
In Item Content Template box paste this: Party vote - {%4}. MP's status - <b>{%5}</b>. Read more at <a href="{%1}">{%2}</a> [Publicwhip.org.uk]
Now preview it, and rename it using the option at the bottom of the page (if you fancy). You're done.
For a few days I've been mulling over whether we can do a travel spin on the expenses row engulfing MPs.
No need. Along comes advenutre company Exodus with a great take on it: it has press-released a list of extraordinary expense claims made by its guides over 35 years of operation.
Topical, fun and does a great job of brand reinforcement - it positively screams 'spirit of adventure'.
Here are some highlights:
Nepal, 1999: Glossy receipt ($30.00) produced by high alpine Maoists for their 'protection' over trekking groups in the high Himalaya, signed, dated and stamped. (now framed at HQ) Paid.
Zimbabwe/Botswana border 1995: Pay off to border prison officer to release guide from jail (incarcerated because his engine number didn't match that on the yearly passage du carnet) $130, receipt written on back of prison library ticket. Paid
Uzbekistan 1993: To get trekking group to new starting point a helicopter pilot was located and paid ..... in vodka, bought draft in Moscow (500 Roubles) and put in two litre lemonade bottles. Simple supermarket receipt for vodka. And Lemonade. Vodka paid, lemonade declined.
Sri Lanka 2003 : £40 for new Nokia phone stolen by curious Langur monkey on Sigiriya Rock. Not to be confused with the Blue Monkeys stealing guide's camera at 3700metres on descent of Mt Kenya with her summit photos. Camera (£279.00, film £4.95 ASA100) and phone both paid.
Nepal 1978: Thatching, Pokhara. Three overlanders slept on the flattish roof of local villagers. Roof collapsed involving no hi jinks, it was claimed. New roof $28.00. Paid.
I'm allergic to The Apprentice, but TW colleagues tell me last night's attempts to rebrand Margate varied from 'ok' to 'cringeworthy'.
The Guardian's Apprentice live blog agrees: an attempt to pitch Margate as a family destination was 'crap' (it already is); an attempt to pitch it as a gay destination ('good idea') was let down by 'stupid posters'.
But it's all very topical. With Planet Recession in alignment with Good Weather and Weak Pound, we're expected to take more holidays in the UK this year, and attention is inevitably turning to seaside towns that were once the UK's tourism hotspots.
Just as inevitably, the attention comes in two broad forms: the nostalgic and the makeover...ic.
Shearings has gone for nostalgia: its new campaign is titled 'The Great British Summer', and the operator brought us some fish and chips when it came in to present it.
Visit Blackpool, by contrast, is trying to succeed where the Little Alans failed - and it has kicked off its makeover with an enjoyably tongue-in-cheek ad featuring an arty French girl who just loves the place.
If this seems improbable now (and it probably should) bear in mind that Blackpool has big plans for the future. Says the BBC:
A £220m regeneration scheme has just been given the go-ahead; sea defences, walkways and public areas are being refurbished and some accommodation in the town is being upgraded.
The major regeneration work is scheduled to begin in 2011, which is rather too late to catch current trends but nicely timed for the Olympics.
What price a British version of the oft-copied-never-bettered Best Job In The World campaign by the end of the year?
N.B. Thanks to Lee at Select World Travel's Destination Essentials blog, who gave me a ring to suggest a post about this.
TTA boss Simon Hargreaves said at the weekend that travel agents have an 'irrational' fear of the internet, which the recession has made worse.
Perhaps. Given that the internet has caused severe disruption to traditional business models, 'irrational' may be an unfair choice of word. 'Counterproductive' might be better.
Anyway: in the name of balance, here are a few examples of the trade not being afraid of the web.
- Here's a thread about XL refunds on Travel Rants. Two out of the first three comments are from travel agents (both Nick and Lee are regular TR commenters).
- Here's Murray Harrold, a self-confessed 'grumpy old travel agent', raving about Google Earth on a personal blog.
- Here's Matt Parsons' breakdown of travel companies on Twitter - many are agents.
...and here, by way of comparison, is some real irrational fear from Peter Preston in the Media Guardian, under the headline 'Web of destruction'.
Before there were computer disks to steal from the fees office, there was privacy, secrecy and supposed decency undisturbed. Before there was email, there was no Damian McBride hawking his poison from screen to screen.
...which is rather like blaming a brown envelope for the cash-for-questions scandals of the 90s. The internet is driven by people, and it won't do to blame it for their shortcomings.
The three examples above are a quick snapshot. Got more? Leave a comment...
Some RSS subscribers are probably seeing a feed that <p>looks <a href="like">this</a></p>.
Since feedburner adopted a Google Account login I haven't been able to get in and check what's going on.
This is just to say I'm aware of the problem, apologise for it and am working on it.
If I can't get it fixed by next week I'll probably post a new feed address.
I've read a couple of pieces that touch on this recently, so putting them into one post with a feature we ran late last year...
If you're seen any other good ones, drop them in the comments and I'll add to the post.
- Zimbabwe needs your tourist dollars [The Daily Traveler]
"I've never felt so good about spending money as I did in Zimbabwe, and never come home wanting so much to send everyone I know to the place I just visited." - Into the wild: a lifeline for the black rhinos of Zimbabwe [Times]
"If Zimbabwe does achieve sanity and stability again, the first and most important step towards balance, foreign exchange and international acceptability will be through the tourist trade. Tourists come to Zimbabwe -- or they used to -- to see wildlife."
...and one from Travel Weekly...
- Zimbabwe: Is it time for the travel industry to return?
"Two comments ring true. First, that refusing to visit hurts not Mugabe or his cronies, but the half a million people who used to be employed by the country's tourism industry. Secondly, that the real attraction of Zimbabwe is its people."
What happens when something is as spectacularly successful as Queensland Tourism's 'best job in the world' campaign - now won by Brit Ben Southall?
Other folks get in on the act, of course.
Jaunted has written about a new wine-focused contender, so here are three rivals to the BJitW crown:
- Where? California
- What? Write/blog/tweet about wine. Salary $10k a year, with house.
- Still available? Yes
- Where? Lizard Island, Australia
- What? Manage the resort - a serious hospitality job, this one. Voyages press released the position as 'the second best job in the world' following the Hamilton Island campaign's success.
- Still available? No
- Where? Fiji, South Pacific
- What? Acting as a 'social bridge' for a 'cross-cultural community tourism project' tied to an award-winning social network.
- Still available? No
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, though, they're all wrong. A CareerCast.com study found the best job in the world is... mathematician.
I doubt that.
Best role in the travel industry? I'd fancy being a buyer for an adventure tour operator. Lots of travelling, lots of interesting new product. At least, that's how I imagine it...
