Obama signs the Travel Promotion Act, landmark legislation that establishes a multimillion-dollar, public-private partnership to promote the United States as a premier travel destination and better explain travel security policies to foreign travelers.
I think this might really be historic, but I do not really know how it is going to be perceived at the moment. Maybe not so well. Could this lead to the foundation of a US National Tourist Board?
Interesting news from GoSeeTell Network: US/CA tourism organizations that have a presence on Twitter has grown to over 300. More than 70 destination accounts have over 1,000 followers.
It is hard to keep the pace with all the new travel web sites out there. Here is an interesting article from NBC. So, if I forget the URLs of these travel web sites I can always come back to this post. I have too many favorites on my browser to find them when I need!
BusJunction.com
A web site that helps you to find the cheapest bus tickets (at least they claim so). Nice streamlined & simple homepage.
DealBase.com
Great for hotel deals in North America and the Caribbean
NextStop.com
A travel social networking site. It has a great way to organize content.
Voyji.com
I love this site. It is probably the best of the ones listed here (even though I cannot compare since they have different scope). However, I really do not like the URL. I forget the spelling all the time and when I search for it on Google I cannot find it.
BestTravelDeals.com
Great site for deals. I find it very strong for travel related activities.
At the conference, I was somewhat surprised with the optimism shown by most hoteliers. While economists and finance people see a full recovery in 2011, they affirm that we are already seeing some good signs of recovery and banks are starting lending again.
Another point that struck me – perhaps because I deal with the luxury travel market – was that most upscale CEOs have decried rate reductions. Nowadays, most properties are discounting like crazy, cutting personnel and increasing staff productivity by cross-training their employees. Corporate clients are in a position to negotiate rates and ask for more perks. However, lowering rates does not always work to boost demand and drives revenues down.
An interesting article about this can be fount at BTNonline.com.