Businesses in the eastern states are said to be head-hunting tourism graduates in
Ms Turner said SA tourism graduates were now being head-hunted by companies in
Chinese travel agencies are expecting the policies following the Sino-U.S. memorandum of understanding (MOU) on tourism to facilitate their business while being optimistic about the future market. Chinese will be able to travel to the United States in groups on tourist visas, according to the MOU signed on Tuesday. Currently, the United States issues only business visas to Chinese. “Everything will be in place only when we know how the MOU will be implemented,” said a manager with China International Travel Service (CITS), China’s biggest travel service, who refused to give her name. The CITS is preparing by contacting U.S. counterparts, she told Xinhua Wednesday, “Some U.S. travel agencies are coming to us as well.
”Most travel agencies interviewed plan to promote tours linking Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego and Hawaii, at an average cost of 25,000 yuan (3,351 U.S. dollars) per person. “Although very inviting, the U.S. tour will keep some potential travelers away because of the tight visa interview procedure and the comparatively high expense,” said Liu Yanwen, manager of U.S. section in China Travel Service (CTS), China’s second largest travel service. The European Union does not require visa interviews for tourists in groups. A tour covering 12 European countries costs about 16,000 yuan (2,162 U.S. dollars). The transport cost in Europe was also lower than that in the United States, Liu said. “Many Chinese people are curious about America as they are already familiar with it through Hollywood movies. So I am quite optimistic about the U.S. travel market,” she said.
Chinese will soon be able to travel to the United States on tourist visas, according to an agreement signed in Beijing yesterday. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the two countries to facilitate outbound tourist group travel grants the US Approved Destination Status (ADS) after years of negotiations, making it the 134th country on China’s list. Chinese travellers will be able to travel in groups as early as in spring. Currently, the US issues only business travel visas. The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) said the agreement would, apart from invigorating the tourism industry, provide a strong impetus to bilateral ties in such sectors as the economy, trade and culture.” The agreement will open a large and growing market for the US travel and tourism industry,” US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said yesterday. The US Department of Commerce forecast that the number of Chinese visitors would reach 579,000 annually by 2011, up from 320,000 last year.” We are very excited. We have been waiting for this day to come, and it came sooner than we thought,” said Jamie Y. Lee, chief representative of the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, the first city-level tourism office established in China. More US states and cities will likely open offices in China to promote tourism, she said. According to the MOU, one of the 14 agreements and memoranda signed during the 18th China-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, US destinations will get the green light to market themselves in China.
Romantic Victorian-styled bed and breakfasts stays, walks on the beach, hunting rarities in antiques shops. Skydiving and sailing, kayaking and surfing. Golf, golf and even more golf. Dining and wine-tasting and spa treatments. And then there are the sunsets. Whatever a visitor could want, it’s probably here for the asking. But whether they’re honeymoon getaways, family vacations or business travels, every one of those visits has at least one thing in common: that visitor had to get here somehow.
And these days, the likelihood is increasing that the tourist’s experience started with a flight. Tourism experts say most of the visitors who come to the Monterey region still arrive here by car. The bulk of them arrive in summer, on long weekends, on holidays, from the Bay Area, from Fresno and Sacramento, even Los Angeles. Mostly, they’re travelers on a road trip toward relief from the traffic, the smog, the heat, from work and housework and the humdrum of the everyday. Californians make up 85 percent of personal trips within the state, according to the California Travel and Tourism Commission, and of those, 75 percent are leisure travelers. Tourists to the Monterey Peninsula may have 1,001 ways to spend their time here.
Do you ever wonder what’s happening to air travel these days? I do. Often. Of course, I fly a lot, but even if you only take a few flights a year, there’s a good chance you’ll be taking one this upcoming holiday season. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably heard that one in every four flights was delayed during the first eight months of this year, according to. But that’s not all. Load factors are at an all-time high, baggage is being lost in record numbers, travelers are poorly dressed and people on the road just seem peeved.
The truth is that air travel woes are equal to, if not worse than, the years prior to 9/11. (That period of time is remembered as the worst for the industry’s problems.) According to the more planes are flying now than back then, so it’s not surprising these issues have come up again. What we fail to recognize is that the industry never solved these problems before, but merely skirted them when demand dropped through the floor in the wake of the terror attacks. That leaves the question: Is there anything we can do now to make the experience of air travel more palatable? In an attempt to find out, I asked travelers about their tolerance and expectations when it comes to air travel.
Air travelers heading to Thanksgiving destinations are being cautioned to use the same approach to flying as they would to preparing that holiday dinner - plan ahead and be patient. Given the overall increase in traffic at Sacramento International Airport throughout the year - traffic has been up about 5 percent - more travelers are anticipated to come through the airport next week and throughout the holiday travel season, said Karen Doron, spokeswoman for the Sacramento County Airport System.
The busiest day for air travel is the day before Thanksgiving, Doron said, but Friday and Sunday also are expected to be peak travel days.”Some of (the heavy traffic) does start tomorrow, with people taking the whole week of Thanksgiving off,” she said.Return travel days aren’t as heavy because air traffic isn’t as concentrated, Doron said.peak travel periods, extra measures will be in place to help manage vehicle traffic at the airport, including traffic cones and uniformed officers. Airport visitors are urged to watch for cones, officers and pedestrians as they approach the terminals.”We really want to remind everyone when they’re coming into the airport to drive carefully,” Doron said. “There is so much more traffic, so really pay attention to speed limit signs because there’s a lot of pedestrians.”
“The military will make available some of it’s airspace over the East Coast for civilian airspace this Thanksgiving,” Bush said this week. For five days, airspace not used for conventional traveling will be open to all from Maine to Florida. The decision is expected to impact large hubs like Atlanta and New York, but not so much in Charlotte.”Our real problems are the [Transportation Security Administration] and not being able to through people at the check points which can result in huge lines and the air traffic system that can’t handle the volume,” said Jerry Orr with Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.
AAA expects a record 39 million people will travel 50 miles or more in the next few weeks for holiday plans, so President George Bush has ordered several steps be taken to reduce air traffic congestion and long air travel delays.The FAA hopes to re-route airspace and try to use more direct routes for takeoffs and landings. Bush announced that there will be a holiday halt on non-essential maintenance projects so the FAA can be staffed and focused. To address the volume or congestion problems at places like Charlotte-Douglas, the Federal Aviation Administration is planning to cut back on non-essential flights, trying to make things more efficient.
President Bush announced several steps Thursday aimed at easing air travel congestion for the millions of holiday travelers who will head into the increasingly unfriendly skies next week, including the use of a “Thanksgiving express lane” for commercial airlines.It’s kind of a mess up there and at the airports, Bush said in a White House statement.”Airports are very crowded, travelers are being stranded and flights are delayed, sometimes with a full load of passengers sitting on the runway for hours,” Bush said after meeting with Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and acting Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bobby Sturgell.Bush’s moves include:Freeing up military airspace along the East Coast for use by commercial flights during the five-day Thanksgiving weekend and possibly at Christmas.
Declaring a moratorium on nonessential FAA projects during the holidays to allow agency personnel and equipment to concentrate on alleviating delays.Encouraging airlines to add staff, seats and planes to relieve holiday congestion. Bush said airlines have agreed to take the steps, including bringing in more ticket kiosks and rolling staircases.Bush also said the FAA will use its Web site to offer updates on flight delays.”We are determined not to let airline delays turn holiday cheer into runway gloom,” Peters said.The amount of airspace for planes flying in and out of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport won’t change, but holiday travelers with East Coast destinations could benefit from the increased airspace there, said Roland Herwig, spokesman for the FAA Southwest Region.Other elements of the plan and promised cooperation from the airline industry are not aimed at a specific region but are intended to improve flights for everyone, Herwig said. “It should affect Austin in an increased service to the traveling public.”
Visitors will be able to paddle the Styx (Purukaunui) River and learn about Ngai Tahu history in the South Island’s first tourist waka.Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples and Ngai Tahu kaiwhakahaere (chairman) Mark Solomon helped launch the new tourism venture at Clearwater yesterday.Te Kowhai seats up to 14 people, who will hear stories about the significance of the waka as they travel to Maori historical sites.Katoro Maori Tours manager Dave Brennan said tourists would also learn about traditional fishing techniques and harvesting.
“Tourists these days are looking for real experiences. They don’t just want to sit back and watch. They want to be actively involved,” he said.Brennan said he chose the Styx River because it was an old Ngai Tahu hunting and gathering site.”It is fitting that we’re using waka to bring our culture to our visitors from around the world because it was waka that brought Ngai Tahu to the South Island,” he said.Canterbury Tourism chief executive Christine Prince said she hoped New Zealanders would also take the opportunity to paddle the waka.
White contrails crisscrossing the sky over every major metropolis are a constant visual reminder of the fundamental role of airplanes in modern life.A world without air travel is inconceivable, but what might it be like in the future? Is the jumbo’s jumbo, the Airbus A380, a taste of bigger craft to come? And with energy sources in question, will we even be flying?Passenger travel is growing at a rate of three percent each year, with air-freight growing even faster.
Current projections estimate the number of people traveling by air — both in the US and abroad — will double or even triple by 2030 Meanwhile, fuel prices are hitting record highs, with analysts increasingly expecting oil to break the $100-a-barrel mark, while airplanes are branded as global warming enemy number one because of their habit of depositing CO2 emissions high in the atmosphere A legion of aeronautical researchers and designers around the world are seeking to keep up with future demand for air travel while reducing its environmental impact and increase its efficiency. But is it possible?Dr Juan Alonso, head of NASA’s Fundamental Aeronautics program certainly thinks so.Current research points to a dramatic re-design of airplanes which will not only accommodate higher volumes of air travel but will also be more environmentally friendly than today’s craft.”We have to come up with solutions in the aerospace world. A large part of these solutions come from introducing aircraft with new technologies,” explained Dr Alonso.