Travel Industry Articles

(Dive Travel Business News - April 25, 2011) -- Despite predictions that the demise of the travel profession is all but arrived, travel professionals are experiencing an unprecedented come-back.  With natural disasters causing flight cancellations, revolutions putting tourist destinations off limits, and airline and rental car agencies confounding travelers with increasingly complex fees, vacations are becoming increasingly difficult to plan and execute.  On top of this, the Internet generates so much information that it has managed to confuse consumers trying to plan their own vacations.

A recent article in The Washington Post touts consumers are increasingly turning to travel professionals to handle their travel needs. Travelers are on information overload when it comes to planning their own trips. A study by Forrester Research found that the number of leisure travelers who enjoyed using the Web to plan and book their vacations dropped from 53 percent in 2007 to 47 percent in 2010. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - December 6, 2010) --The application deadline for the World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) 2011 Tourism for Tomorrow Awards is fast approaching.  The WTTC invites tourism businesses and destinations worldwide to enter in one of the four categories: Global Tourism Business, Conservation, Community Benefit and Destination Stewardship, showcasing best practice in sustainable tourism.

WTTC's foremost awards, which include an international panel of expert judges and a rigorous on-site evaluation process, recognize and celebrate these advances in sustainable best practices. Finalists and winners will receive worldwide exposure, setting the standard for sustainable practices and projects.

Winners and Finalists will be publicly recognized during a special ceremony at the 11th Global Travel & Tourism Summit , held from 17-19 May 2011 in Las Vegas, USA, in the presence of government and industry leaders. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - November 14, 2010) -- This month Reef & Rainforest is relocating its business headquarters to Portland, Oregon. The relocation to Oregon supports the adventure travel  company’s plan for growth in the scuba travel market.

(Dive Travel Business News - Sept 8, 2010) -- Earlier this summer, the U.S. Government raised U.S. passport fees substantially, increasing the cost for US citizens traveling abroad. This fall, the focus will be on inbound travel with the new U.S. Travel Promotion Act:  This Act, which goes into effect next week on Wednesday, September 15, calls for a $14 fee to be levied on travelers from 36 nations who enter the U.S.

The 36 nations are those that fall under the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, which allows visits to the U.S. of up to 90 days without the necessity of a seeking a visa (for non-work related travel).

Travelers from Visa Waiver Program countries will pay the $14 when they register online for U.S. travel through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization. Of the $14 fee, $10 will go toward tourism marketing and $4 will cover the operating costs of registering the travelers for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - June 30, 2010) -- In a vote of 25 to 20, the U.S. House Agriculture Committee approved the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act.  This is the first hurdle towards lifting the ban on US travel to Cuba, in a measure that also eases restrictions on the sale of American commodities there.  The Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act must still get through another House committee and pass the full House. Then the Senate would have to pass its own version of the bill before it could be signed by the president.

Before the final vote, the Agriculture Committee rejected several amendments that would have eliminated the travel ban reversal or delayed its enactment. Opponents of the bill argue that while export restrictions should be eased, lifting the travel ban would benefit only the Communist government led by Fidel and Raúl Castro. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - June 9, 2010) -- Just months after the US Department of Transportation  (DOT) dealt with lengthy on-ground flight delays with new tarmac rules,  DOT Secretary Ray LaHood has released a new round of consumer-friendly airline rules. If adopted, this newest set of airline regulations would:

• Force smaller airports and international air carriers to adopt contingency plans for lengthy tarmac delays;
• Make airlines give passenger more information on delays;
• Foreign airlines would become subject to the same ground delay data reporting and disclosure rules as U.S. carriers;
• Establish of minimum standards for carriers’ customer service plans and extend the customer service plan requirements to cover foreign carriers;
• Change airline policies on denied boarding compensation, also known as involuntary bumping, to increase minimum compensation, add inflation adjustment, and offer more information to passengers about the policies

(Dive Travel Business News - April 28, 2010) -- Mexico’s state tourism ministers have announced new measures for the country’s tourism sector, including the creating of a new tourism police unit in each state within the next 30 days. In 90 days, each state tourism minster must present urban development plans with an emphasis on the tourism sector and each state’s convention and visitors’ office must create a “Tourism Observatory,” which would essentially be a guide to the state’s tourism offerings. read more »

(June 3, 2009 - DTN) - Travel Agent Central - 

Regardless of destination, purpose, or price range, every traveler has the same goal for their trip: they want it to be perfect. Oftentimes, however, despite the best effort of a travel agent to plan and prepare the ideal itinerary, something unexpected happens. If the result of this unintended event is personal injury or property damage to the client, he or she will look for someone to blame. Suddenly, the travel agent becomes a convenient target for litigation and the friendly client turns into an angry claimant. Although the law recognizes the responsibility of an agent to a client under the proper circumstances, the law also recognizes the right of the agent to disclaim certain liability. read more »

(May 22, 2009 - DTN) - Travel Weekly - This month, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration officially rolled out the first public phase of its Secure Flight program, which requires domestic airlines to start collecting more precise passenger name identification information.

That, of course, means that travel agents, GDSs, online travel companies and myriad other links in the distribution chain must fall into compliance, though when and how are not really clear.

The TSA says it needs the precise names of passengers to expedite checking travel documents for security screening measures. At the moment, though, it’s all something of a fire drill. There’s no need to worry if names fail to match up exactly on various travel documents, because the TSA isn’t actually checking yet — and it won’t be checking for a while, though no one is really sure how long a while might be. read more »

(May 27, 2009 - DTN) - Immigration officials in the U.S. detained a man from Singapore after cancer medication caused his fingerprints to disappear, an oncologist says.

Cancer patients who are being treated with the commonly used drug, capecitabine, should carry a doctor's letter highlighting the side-effect when travelling to the U.S., oncologist Dr. Eng-Huat Tan of the National Cancer Centre said in a letter published Wednesday in the journal Annals of Oncology.

Foreign visitors to the U.S. are asked to provide fingerprints at the airport, and the images are matched with lists of valid visa holders and suspected criminals.

Capecitabine is used to treat cancers in the head and neck, breast, stomach and colorectum. One of its side-effects can be hand-foot syndrome: chronic inflammation of the palms or soles of the feet, ulcers or blisters that lead to temporary loss of fingerprints.

The patient, a 62-year-old man, had head and neck cancer that had spread but was responding to chemotherapy. He was prescribed capecitabine to prevent the cancer from recurring. read more »

(Wednesday November 19, 2008 - CNN) -- This holiday season, it's still shoes off and liquids out at airport security, but changes may be on the way to part of this routine, and agents will be watching much more than the contents of your carry-on.

In the coming months, the government expects to revisit its rule for the amount of liquids that may be brought aboard planes, while boosting the number of behavior detection officers deployed at checkpoints across the country.

More than 2,000 are already on the job, and the program is growing every day, said Christopher White, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration.

"What the officers are looking for are physiological signs that cannot be manipulated that indicate stress, fear or deception," White said. "We find bad people everyday with behavior detection officers."

The specially trained agents, who work in teams, establish a baseline of behavior and then search for people who rise above that level, he added. read more »

(April 15, 2008 - DTB) -- Orbitz has added live specialists for specific destinations, such as the Hawaiian Islands and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, and has plans to add specialists for several more hot spots. Orbitz said the specialists have spent time and completed training about their specific destinations. As travelers browse vacation packages in the specific markets on Orbitz.com, a message appears asking if they would like to speak with a live specialist.

A note from DTB: Take a tip from Orbitz, and work with people who know their stuff. While working with travel wholesalers who “sell the world”, be aware that the ones who know their dive destination stuff are a rarity. That’s why we encourage using a Dive Travel Wholesaler to book destinations you know little about.

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(May 12, 2008 - DTN) -- Travelstar, Inc. unveiled a new Group Leader Program to allow travelers to create their own social networks. For an annual fee of $100, group leaders receive their own version of the Travelstar.com social networking site, complete with a viral marketing system to build their unique network.

The site is designed to help Travelstar members attract new members, fostering exponential growth, according to William Alverson, Travelstar’s chairman and CEO. It offers users financial and travel rewards. By using the member invite and event planning tools, Travelstar.com group leaders have the opportunity to earn free vacations and lifetime commissions from the people who join their network. The company also plans to offer an advertising revenue model to its network creators in 2009. For more information, visit www.travelstar.com.

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(May 26, 2008 - USA Today) -- Veteran business traveler Kevin Cuddihy knew he was in for a steep fare as he shopped online for a same-day-return weekday trip recently between Charlotte and Philadelphia.

But $1,420 for a coach ticket?

“I expected to pay more, but not that much,” says the cable company executive from Mooresville, N.C. “I’ve not paid that kind of money anytime this year.”

Clicking further on US Airways’ website, he discovered that the fare would come down to $580 if he stayed in Philadelphia Saturday night.

He opted for the cheaper fare, reluctantly.

Once the bane of business travelers’ existence, the Saturday-night-stay rule and other stringent minimum-stay requirements are making a comeback after several years of relative dormancy. read more »

October 28, 2008 (ASTA.org) -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued its Final Rule on Secure Flight. This rule shifts pre-departure watch list matching responsibilities from individual airlines to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which is one of the key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission.  By bringing watch list matching responsibilities in-house, TSA hopes to reduce misidentifications when a traveler's name is similar to one found on a watch list.

Travel Professionals providing air travel arrangements for their clients will have to collect Secure Flight Information from each prospective air traveler. If this information is not provided, a boarding pass cannot be printed.
There are four mandatory facts to collect:

(1) full name as it appears on the government issued ID they plan to use at the airport security checkpoint
(2) date of birth
(3) gender
(4) Redress Number (if the person has one)* read more »

November 14, 2008 -- The European Commission (EC) has updated its list, effective Nov. 14, 2008, of airlines that are banned from flying into the EU due to safety concerns. read more »