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(DiveTravelBusinessNews.com - Nov 30, 2009) -- UK Telegraph reporter Gill Charleton recently caused a stir in the travel world when he reported that the popular TripAdvisor website was promoting questionable tour operators. While the ground tour operators cited were located in Florence Italy, the story raises questions about unlicensed tour operators using trusted sites on the Internet to advertise their services. These ground operators lack basic public liability insurance and should something unfortunate happen, travelers using such tour operators are usually not covered under their own travel insurance.

The source of the problem lies with reviewers at the TripAdvisor.com website, and travelers in general, who are unaware that many guided ground tours are operating outside the law and without insurance. Many of these tours are picked up outside a hotel, the traveler pays cash and the company works from a cellphone, not a bricks and mortar operation. Travelers should check to see if a company is legitimate and has insurance before booking.

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(Dive Travel Business News - November 26, 2008 ) -- Airfare research site Airfarewatchdog.com has released the results of an online poll about a la carte pricing.

“A la carte” pricing — along with “unbundling,” — is the airline industry’s preferred terminology for the practice of separating, and charging for, services that were traditionally included in the price of a ticket. Here’s the operative chunk:

After asking more than 1,600 airfarewatchdog travelers how they would feel about flying under a new a-la-carte pricing structure that airlines such as American Airlines, Spirit and Air Canada are adopting, 67% voted that it was a big step backward. The new structure, which means that flyers get lower base fees but will pay extra for things like soda, pillows, seat selection, checked bags and meals is, according to airfarewatchdog founder George Hobica, “the new normal.” read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - November 21, 2008) -- The Maldives will begin to divert a portion of the country's billion-dollar annual tourist revenue into buying a new homeland - as an insurance policy against climate change that threatens to turn the 300,000 islanders into environmental refugees, the country's first democratically elected president has told the UK's Guardian. 

Mohamed Nasheed, who took power last week in the island's capital, Male, said the chain of 1,200 island and coral atolls dotted 500 miles from the tip of India is likely to disappear under the waves if the current pace of climate change continues to raise sea levels. 

The UN forecasts that the seas are likely to rise by up to 59cm by 2100, due to global warming. Most parts of the Maldives are just 1.5m above water. The president said even a "small rise" in sea levels would inundate large parts of the archipelago.  read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - Wednesday November 19, 2008) -- 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 »