Travel Trends of 2007 Extend Into 2008
(ARA) – As expected, the busy 2007 travel season ended with a flurry over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. According to AAA, an estimated 65 million Americans traveled 50 miles or more from home at the end of the year That’s in addition to the approximately 38 million who ventured out over Thanksgiving and the near record sum of travelers who weathered a real record number of flight delays to vacation during the summer.
It was indeed a roller coaster year for travelers, but millions endured the wild ride -- especially on long weekends -- which continue to be the most popular type of leisure travel according to a number of industry sources. So where did travelers go this year?
For long weekend travel, New York City was the most popular destination of 2007, followed by Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Denver, based on bookings on Orbitz.com. Rounding out the top 10 list were Atlanta, Las Vegas, Boston, San Francisco and Newark.
Orbitz’ list also included the top travel destinations for the year, based on its bookings, and found Chicago to be No. 1 for 2007. New York and Los Angeles were second and third respectively. Perhaps Chicago claimed the top spot for the second year in a row because it’s more centrally located and offers more affordable hotel options than its big city brethrens in New York and California. The rest of Orbitz’ list of top destinations for 2007 is comprised of Washington, D.C., Denver, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco and Orlando.
One final surprise from the year in travel, as Orbitz data shows the 4th of July topped Turkey Day as the busiest travel week of the year. The Index found Independence Day to be the busiest of the 52 weeks of the calendar year, measured Sunday through Saturday, followed by Memorial Day, Christmas, the last week of March (spring break) and Thanksgiving.
AAA also showed better than 2.5 million more passengers traveling over the July 4th holiday than Thanksgiving this year. If you’re looking for a quiet time to travel when things might be less hectic, try the first week of December. Not surprisingly, the first two weeks of December, sandwiched between Thanksgiving and Christmas, were the two slowest travel weeks of the year, Orbitz data showed.
So what should we expect when we ring in a new year of travel in 2008? If 2007 taught us anything, maybe it’s that we should expect the unexpected.
Courtesy of ARAcontent
If You Work so You Can Travel, Why Not Travel for Work?
(ARA) – Do you still dream of exploring the world? Maybe seeing other places excites you or learning about other cultures gives you a better understanding of yourself and your place in the world. If you’ve always wanted to travel more, make 2008 the year it happens by choosing a career that will take you there … and there are endless opportunities. You could teach English as a second language (ESL), join the Peace Corps, work on a cruise ship, be a travel writer or photographer, or choose a career that embraces a little of each of these.
“Tour directing is a great career for people who have a passion for travel and interacting with people,” comments Ted Bravos, cofounder of the International Tour Management Institute (ITMI), a state-certified school that since 1976 has trained individuals to become professional tour directors and guides. Bravos is active in the field that he teaches and just returned from leading a 3-week African Safari for the Smithsonian Institute. “It really is a job that presents endless opportunities for making a difference and creating incredible memories. It’s great for those who are truly young at heart and who want an adventure that lasts a lifetime.”
Tour directors have the option to work as little or as much as they please. Whatever fits your lifestyle, it can be a full, part-time or seasonal job. “You have the opportunity to work in a variety of destinations,” adds Bravos. “This might mean leading tours in a different country or in the city where you live. No matter where you’re located, you are goodwill ambassadors to visitors from around the world.”
Eric Kipp used to lead hiking groups in Hawaii and then entered the corporate world. He found himself always telling stories of his experiences during business meetings and decided that he should rediscover this passion. He now works as a tour director around his other passion, being a corporate life coach. He recently spent the summer leading groups in Alaska.
“There is no way to get to know a location better than leading a group,” says Kipp. “I led 16 groups over four months. I was able to explore national parks and build lasting relationships with other tour directors and my groups.”
Kipp’s dream for the future is to lead small groups on sailing vessels in the Caribbean. “I have the idea and the dream, and they (ITMI) gave me the tools to do it.”
Tour directing can be lucrative as well, paying $200 to $300 per day, plus all expenses. Many popular travel trends include student and youth travel, adventure travel, and intergenerational tours where children, parents and grandparents travel together.
ITMI prepares students in a 15-day intensive training program. Students learn about the tour and travel industry through practical “hands-on” experience in the field, including 5 days training aboard a deluxe motor-coach and an overnight fieldtrip where they actually perform the role of a tour director. The school also offers lifetime job placement assistance.
Chris Brown, an ITMI alumni and professional tour director spent 11 years in the corporate world and decided he didn’t want to spend the next 20 sitting behind a desk.
“What I like most about tour directing is that it really makes me feel alive. Whether it's getting all fired up about meeting a new group and making sure I deliver a fantastic experience for them or just being able to see new things on every trip -- no matter if I've been there before. When I bring a group to fly over the Grand Canyon or into Yosemite Valley or to a Broadway show in NYC, the tears and laughter abound! Who wouldn't like that?”
For information including articles and videos about what it’s like to be a tour director, visit www.ITMItourtraining.com, or to learn more call (800) 442-4864.
Courtesy of ARAcontent
The Easy Way to Plan a Spring Break Vacation
(ARA) - Spring Break will be here before you know it so now is the time to start planning that big trip. While some Americans still turn to travel agents to do trip planning, most are now doing it themselves online. According to a new report from the travel industry research group, PhoCusWright Inc, more than half of all U.S. travel will be booked online this year.
The Internet puts a wealth of travel information at your fingertips, but once you have all the information in hand, it can be a real challenge to stay organized. Well, now you can throw away that bulky manila folder filled with print-outs of all your flight, hotel, rental car, maps, directions, weather, and travel notes. There’s a free online service available from TripIt (www.tripit.com) that automatically organizes all your travel information into one master travel itinerary that you can share with the people who need to know -- no matter where you’ve booked the different parts of your trip.
Based in San Francisco and founded in October 2006, TripIt’s mission is to simplify the online travel experience. By automatically creating master itineraries with all your critical trip information, this unique online service helps do-it-yourself travelers organize their travel plans so that their trips go more smoothly. Better yet, TripIt enables friends, family and co-travelers to share travel details and work together to plan new trips.
“We came up with the idea for TripIt because we were frustrated do-it-yourself travelers ourselves and know firsthand that using the Internet to make travel plans and organize the details is time consuming and difficult,” says Gregg Brockway, TripIt’s president and co-founder. “TripIt can do a lot of the ‘dirty work’ of organizing travel. Our goal is for TripIt to be like a great personal assistant and take care of all the details so that travelers don’t have to.”
Here’s how TripIt works: A traveler simply forwards their travel confirmation e-mails -- TripIt will work with most any travel service -- and the TripIt “Itinerator” instantly incorporates them into their master itinerary. Then, TripIt puts that information to work on the traveler’s behalf by automatically anticipating basic needs to make the trip easier, such as adding daily weather reports, local maps and directions, helpful destination information and more by using information pulled from a variety of other popular websites. Travelers can then print out all their bookings neatly in a single document to take on their trip. The information is always available online, safe and secure.
Once the itinerary is created, TripIt helps solve the coordination and communication challenges of keeping in touch with the people who need to know about it. “With TripIt, it’s really simple to share travel plans and collaborate on new trips with friends, family and colleagues,” says Brockway.
To set up a free account with TripIt, visit www.tripit.com or just email any of your travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and a master itinerary will be waiting for you to make your Spring Break travel just a little easier this year.
Courtesy of ARA content