My Top 10 Destinations to Visit in the New Year

Hawaii made my list of top 10 destinations to visit in 2010. Where are you headed this year?

I recently wrote a blog on CheapOair entitled “Top 10 in ‘10: Destinations You Must Visit This Year.” Well the feedback to it has been great so far and I hope it gives many people out there some inspiration and ideas on where to venture off to over the next 12 months.

Some of the locations on my list include Krakow, Poland, which I recently visited and must say first hand is one of the new hot locations in all of Europe to check out. Many have dubbed it the “new Prague” since so many Europeans have decided to spend their money here and skip the overcrowded and super touristy Czech city.

With World Cup fever in the air, South Africa was a no brainer this year. Hopefully some of you out there can make it to Cape Town, Johannesburg and the other locations hosting games throughout June and July. I am extremely jealous of you lucky travelers that will be headed there, as South Africa looks like an amazing place to see some soccer…er football (have to be careful with that, my wife is European).

Galway, Ireland also made the list and is without a doubt one of the liveliest and yet underrated cities in Europe. If you plan to visit Dublin, be sure to squeeze in some time for Galway. It is only a 2-3 hour train ride away and well worth the trip.

The top 10 were chosen by a few factors including buzz, affordability and overall intrigue. To check out the full list, and to add your “must visit” destination of 2010, visit CheapOair and post a comment. Happy travels!

Tags: 2010, galway, hawaii, ireland, south africa, Travel

Who Visits America The Most?

Canadians still visit the United States way more than any other foreign country around the world.

Last week I wrote about how America was voted the “most liked” country in the world. So with so much love for the U.S. going around, one question must be asked. Has the world’s crush on Uncle Sam helped with the country’s tourism? In a word…kinda.

Year after year when the U.S. Commerce Department’s Office of Travel & Tourism (OTTI) releases their data of which countries have visited America the most, two destinations continuously top the list – #1 Canada and #2 Mexico. That really should not come as a surprise since both countries sandwich the U.S. and are more easily accessible than any other locations on the planet.

So who else is checking out the streets of New York, the Hollywood hills, and all points in between? Well coming in at #3 is the United Kingdom. Even with a decline of 16.9% in tourism through July 2009, the U.K. is still the most popular visitors from overseas.

Another country that visits often is #4 Japan, which also saw a major decline of 17.6% for year-to-year tourism traffic. Coming in at #5 was Germany, and yes just like the rest of the countries listed, Deutschland saw a 7.5% drop in tourists between July 2008 and 2009.

Now if you are wondering why so many people have halted hauling themselves to the U.S., it is quite simple – the economy. Due to a worldwide economic meltdown over the last year and a half, international tourism is down across the board sharply. Just like many Americans have skipped taking worldwide jaunts in favor of more domestic trips, so has the rest of the world apparently.

To help remedy the continuous decline of foreign visitors, Congress is considering a Travel Promotion Act. In it, anyone that shows up to the United States must pay an additional $10 fee. The money collected would be used to start a travel campaign in various countries around the world to boost interest in visiting the United States.

Currently the Commerce Department is not funding any ad campaigns to promote travel to the States. Yes you read that correctly…no marketing at all! The last time the U.S. was promoted was back in 2007, and even then it only received a measly $4-$9 million dollars. What a joke.

On a positive note, with the economy getting slightly…and I stress slightly better, tourism has picked up a bit and that is always a good thing for any country. Below is a list of the top 20 countries that visited the United States between January and July 2009, the amount of visitors, and how much tourism has decreased from the same time the previous year.

1. Canada (10, 108, 302 visitors) – 9% decline

2. Mexico (3,308,779) – 9.9% decline
   

3. United Kingdom (2,149,149) – 16.9% decline
   

4. Japan (1,564,441) – 17.6% decline
   

5. Germany (921,874) – 7.5% decline

6. France (694,340) – 1.1% decline

7. Brazil (469, 985) – a slight increase

8. South Korea (415,509) – 12% decline

9. Italy (379, 641) – 4% decline

10. Australia (376, 614) – 2.7% decline

The remaining 11-20 include: India, People’s Republic of China, Netherlands, Spain, Venezuela, Ireland, Colombia, Argentina, Switzerland, and Sweden.

Courtesy of Forbes Traveler.

Tags: argentina, australia, brazil, canada, colombia, france, germany, india, ireland, italy, japan, mexico, netherlands, People's Republic of China, south korea, spain, sweden, switzerland, united kingdom, united states of america, Venezuela

Saturday Travel Shot: Tipperary, Ireland

The Rock of Cashel, also known as Cashel of the Kings and St. Patrick's Rock in Tipperary, Ireland. I spent an entire summer in this area of Ireland back in the early 90s.

Tags: cashel of the kings, europe, ireland, rock of cashel, st. patrick's rock, tipperary

The tripwolf.com Weekly Round-Up For September 21-25

Each Friday I will be featuring the top travel stories that appeared on tripwolf.com’s blog this past week. If you are indeed hungry for travel, be sure to check out tripwolf.com.

A journey through Jamaica is just one of the featured articles this week at tripwolf.com!

• Yo mon! Be sure to check out part 2 of tripwolf member Colinstlouis’ trek through Jamaica. Missed part 1? No worries just click here.
• Confused on what the phrase “sustainable travel” really means? Want to be a true blue…er green eco-tourist? Adena from tripwolf sits down with Gregor from GlobalBasecamps.com about how you can travel often and leave a smaller carbon footprint in the process.
• All you Americans preparing for a trip to the Emerald Isle might want to click here for a fun Irish-English mini survival guide. As the luck of the Irish would have it, I have my grandmother handy to translate for me when I hit up Dublin, Galway, Belfast, and the rest of Ireland.
• Love yoga? Really love cruises? Want to win a free trip to Fiji? Please click here now and enter another great tripwolf contest!
• Plus much more, so check out tripwolf’s blog and stay hungry for travel.

Tags: belfast, dublin, eco-tourism, england, fiji, galway, ireland, jamaica, sustainable travel, tripwolf, tripwolf.com

Airlines News – The Good, The Bad, And Of Course The Ugly

To say that the airline industry is going through some tough times would be one hell of an understatement. With various airlines reporting their second quarter earnings today, while others implemented new fees and cut service, I thought it would be helpful to get you up to date with what is going on with some of your favorite (or least favorite) airlines.

With fewer people flying these days due to the poor economy and analyst predicting an extremely weak fall travel season, airlines are preparing for the worst. When airlines do bad, three things usually happen – new fees, service cuts and layoffs.

• Continental Airlines: The fourth-largest U.S. carrier, reported a $213 million second-quarter loss and will wind up cutting 1,700 more jobs and increase some fees due to a decrease in customer demand.
• Southwest Airlines: The largest low-fare carrier, reported a $53 million second-quarter earning, which is way down from last year’s $321 million. Southwest had an 83 percent drop in second-quarter profit and stated that 1,400 workers have accepted a buyout to leave the company.
• United Airlines: The Chicago based airline announced earnings of $28 million. That was largely due to fuel hedge gains and various other smart moves made by the carrier. However, the airline will cut international travel by an extra 7 percent for the last four months of 2009.
• Delta: The Atlanta based airline announced it will start charging a $5 surcharge for bags checked at the airport. This will go into effect August 4 and applies to tickets purchased after July 15. Delta currently charges $15 for the first bag checked and $25 for the second bag. So starting August 4 you will now shell out $20 and $30 respectively. Fees for bags checked online will remain the same according to Delta.
• Republic Airways: The little that could has shocked many airline insiders with acquisition of Frontier Airlines for $108.8 million(pending a federal bankruptcy judge’s approval). It was just last month that Republic bought Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines. (Courtesy of USA Today)
• All of the bad airlines news is not just happening in the United States. Just a few days ago many numerous carriers raised fuel surcharges. Lufthansa, Thai Airways, India’s Jet Airways, and airlines in Taiwan cited higher costs, less than stellar revenue, and poor demand as the main reasons they needed to raise fees.
• RyanAir: The Dublin based low-cost carrier announced plans to cut back on 40 percent of its planes at Stansted airport in London. Of course the outspoken CEO of RyanAir Michael O’Leary is not blaming the recession on the drastic decision to chop 15 percent of its fleet this winter, but instead says it is the British Government and the take-off/landing fees that the BAA charges airlines. The cutbacks at Stansted come on the heels of the cheapo planes plans to freeze additional services at eight other UK airport bases. RyanAir even drastically slashed service at it’s home base of Dublin, as well as its other major Irish airport Shannon.

Tags: airline, atlanta, chicago, continental airlines, delta, dublin, frontier airlines, ireland, midwest airlines, republic airways, ryanair, united airlines