Well, this is embarassing…

May 14, 2011

Hello again,

I haven’t posted anything in the past several months since we’ve been setting up a new consumer website/blog/newsletter called “NeverStopTraveling,” which will be published weekly. It’s targeted at travelers 50+ but don’t let that deter you if you’re not quite in that demographic yet — it has plenty of good information for everyone.

The idea was to fold “The Trends” blog into the new site along with another newsletter I’ve been publishing.

“NeverStopTraveling” was launched last week. I was embarrassed to find out this morning, however, that although the newsletter subscribers had received the new publication, you and your fellow Trends reader had not. Please accept my apologies and be assured that your name has now been properly added to the NeverStopTraveling subscriber’s list.

If you’d like to see the first issue of NST (which I hope you will) please click here. You’ll notice that it contains some great information (ever wondered if, and how much, an airline is  required to pay you if you’re bumped?) as well as good photography and video.

The next issue, which you’ll receive  next Wednesday, has a story on renting a country (seriously) as well as the sequel to the bumping article — loopholes that some airlines use to not compensate you when bumped.

Again, please accept my apologies for the delay and the lack of communication over the past few months but we’re back on track once again.

Best regards,

Jim Ferri

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Caveat Emptor, Traveler

January 5, 2011

In travel, it pays to shop around.

For example, a few weeks ago I needed to overnight at Heathrow, something I hate to do since London hotel rooms now cost more than mortgages on medium-size American homes. But I knew to head for my computer since a hotel chain’s best rates are often found on its website. I went online and booked a Holiday Inn close to the airport.

When I arrived at the Inn I saw the quoted rate for the room — prominently displayed on the wall behind check-in, probably to demonstrate that everyone was being taken advantage of equally – was £239. Don’t bother with your calculator — that’s $411.

I had gotten the same room online for £46, saving approximately $332. Ah, the power of the keyboard.

But to get the best deal, or to avoid a bad one, you need to not only dig but also read the fine print.

A good “deal” promoted in a popular newsletter that arrived this morning is another example. It touted an eight-day trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia for $999. The price includes round-trip air (on Lufthansa, Finnair, or Aeroflot), hotel, daily breakfast and train travel between the two cities. You need to book by the end of March 2011 to get the low price, which is fair since airfares typically zoom up after that date.

All this for under a grand is a pretty good deal. Or is it?

Reading the small print I saw that one also needs to pay $595 in fuel surcharges, $185 for a visa, plus a departure tax and a security fee. City tours and cultural excursions (to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Kremlin in Moscow) were also extra. And the hotels are only tourist class or three-star, so most people may also want to consider an upgrade for an additional fee. And, of course, you also need to buy lunch and dinner everyday in two very expensive cities.

Since the proof is in the pudding or, in this case the borscht, this so-called deal isn’t really that good since the cost had tripled before I even left my computer screen.

Tour companies leaving key items out of the advertised cost is similar to the airlines quoting fares that don’t include taxes and other fees. Both are deceptive practices that should be illegal.

So much for living it up like Vladimir Putin for a few days.

Jim Ferri

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Humboldt’s New (Creative) High

December 28, 2010

I had a good laugh today after I watched a video attached to an email from Tony Smithers, the Executive Director of the Humboldt County Convention & Visitors Bureau in California. But before I get to that, a little background.

A couple of years ago I gave a keynote speech at a California Travel Industry Association (CalTIA) conference in Santa Rosa, CA (a good place to visit if you’re ever in the area north of San Francisco — and don’t miss the Charles Shultz Museum, for starters).

Anyway, since my talk was about how various destinations had successfully changed their image, at the end I asked the audience if they had any questions. One guy in the back of the room stood up – it was Tony Smithers, if you hadn’t already guessed — and explained that with so any marijuana plots planted out in the forests up north in Humboldt County, that all of the police raids had given the county a reputation as the “pot capital of the U.S.” And he wanted to know what they could do to combat the image. “Oh crud,” I thought, “of all the gin joints in all the world….”

But I know that when you’re in the tourism business and faced with something like that, it can quickly spiral out of control and become national news should the media misinterpret anything you say on the subject. So I made a suggestion — “make a joke of it,” I told the audience.

Fast forward to Universal Studios in Orlando last May. I bump into Tony and the subject of “not only the birds fly high in Humboldt” comes up once again. And I give him my same opinion. If people laugh at something, any criticism of it is really negated. Criticize something people remember as funny, and you only make them laugh again.

So back to the point. In my inbox this morning I found an email from Tony saying “Following our conversation in Orlando last May, I took your advice…”

To see how he handled the situation go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glm97au0b_Q or the website at www.hookedonhumboldt.org. It’s good to see someone creatively use a small budget to get some big results.

Okay, so maybe it won’t win an Academy Award. But as a new creative high for Northern Californian tourism, someone should surely nominate it for something.

Well done, Tony.

Jim Ferri

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