StrongEcho

Planning on traveling to Argentina?

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“When we think of Hvar – we think about the island of heather, sunshine and crickets, the island of lavender, sage and wine and the island of rosemary and secluded coves.

Attractive in the summer just as in the winter, with pleasant Mediterranean climate, rich vegetation of palms, aloes, pine trees, laurel, rosemary and lavender and peaceful coves and islets filled with a multitude of pleasant scents.

Hvar awaits you!”

“Just off the coast of Naples and Salerno, between Cape Miseno and Amalfi, a great rock soars like a dream lost in the cobalt blue sea that surrounds it. This Mediterranean jewel, yearned for and exalted in some of the world’s most famous lyric poetry, is the island of Capri. The intoxicating fragrance of flowers, delicate splashes of colour, recollections of a millennial past and a peaceful charm, shattered only by the shrill cry of seagulls, are just some of the magical qualities of this mythical isle. “

With little than 12,500 population, Capri Island  is considered one of the most exotic Islands in the word to travel to. Its existence has long history which has three eras – Classical, Middle and Modern eras.

The island is closed for public traveling for about seven months of the year. But you still can take a car to one of the Naples’ ports to get a boat to the island. For more information visit here.

The world’s largest fall, Niagara, is located in the border of Ontario, Canada, and New York State. Its height is 167 ft. Due to its geographic positioning and Goat Island located in the middle of Falls, Niagara Fall is separated into two sections: Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side, and American Falls, on the American side.

For most of us it seems like that there should be nothing else do except for enjoying the view of Niagara Falls. But we are wrong. Niagara has attractions, museums, wine trail, Eire Canal, parks and golf parks.

As I have addressed in my previous blog post (Is Traveling Hurt by the Current Economy?), traveling has become a luxury activity which is very expensive. But there are people from all over the world who will not give up their favorite hobby for any reason. I’ve also mentioned that there are a number of ways to reduce the cost of traveling to the minimum. One of the ways was to shop around and look for cheaper prices.

A decade ago, if you wanted to travel you would visit travel agencies who could provide you with various choices of airline tickets and hotel rooms’ prices from different suppliers. I am not making a mistake by talking in past tense about those travel agencies. Even though they still exist, rarely anybody uses their services. Today everything is done online: the same travel agency but without physical location. This “revolution” has changed the whole traveling industry. But is this good or bad for a regular traveler?

It seems like that online websites are making our jobs easier and less time consuming to buy an airline ticket and reserve a hotel. Have you ever tried to Google words like “Cheap traveling,” “Cheap hotels” or “Cheap flights”? Instantly you will get more than 9 million hits. Due to recent economic reasons which made cheaper traveling searches a profitable industry, a lot of new companies were created this past three to four years, trying to accommodate travelers with affordable hotels, airline tickets, and even car rentals. Most probably, you have seen commercials or at least heard of websites like Kayak, Expedia, Hotwire, and Orbitz. These companies’ competitive advantage over travel agencies is that their system is designed to track the price changes and availabilities of every flight offered by all major airline companies in the specific geographic location. And, since airline ticket prices are determined according to Yield Management process in order to maximize the profit, they change every second.

Nevertheless, have you ever experienced difficulty in making a decision about which website is the cheapest? Well, it can be an exhausting experience since every time your search gives you new price options. But there are companies who’ve made the next step and have consolidated all the possible cheap choices for the particular search parameters. Examples are smartertravel.com, priceline.com, cheaptickets.com, etc. This makes your job easier and more convenient since you can compare all your choices side by side. Moreover, Google has gone ever further by introducing new search engine for travelers: “Today, almost half of all airline tickets are sold online. But for many people, finding the right flight at the best price is a frustrating experience; pricing and availability change constantly, and even a simple two city itinerary involves literally thousands of different options. We’d like to make that search much easier…”

But is it really cheaper to book a flight online? Just recently I was planning on visiting my relatives in Europe. And I thought this is a great opportunity to check the validity of my hypothesis – cheap-flight search websites offer precisely the same or greater prices as the individual airline homepages. So not only I went to the nearest travel agency, and checked airline homepages, but also tried to find as many cheap-flight search engines as possible. I picked couple of flight routes from various airlines and different days. Then I matched and compared the prices from the travel agency, airline homepages, and cheap-flight search websites. The result was shocking. Not only the cheap-flight search websites didn’t provide cheaper alternative for my choices but, on the contrary, they were higher from the travel agency and airline homepages. The best scenario was that cheap-flight search websites matched the price exactly with those of other sources.  I have proved my hypothesis to be true in most cases.

It is a misunderstanding to think that if somebody advertises cheaper options, they are in fact cheaper. We simply need to remember that cheaper prices offering websites’ suppliers are the same airline companies which we are trying to avoid in order not to overpay for airfares.

It is worth taking time and shopping around, especially, if you are a price-sensitive customer. The good news is that cheaper-flight search websites are not the only way to cut you a good deal for traveling. Several bloggers offer different techniques:

• Book in advance: “The best way to find a cheap flight is by booking early. Do not wait until the last minute or else you will be charged “last minute” fees, which are normally exorbitant. The earlier you book the better. Try 10 weeks in advance if you can.”
• Travel midweek, in winter, at night:  Most people travel weekends, during summer, and avoid night flights. Always remember that Yield Management predicts the most anticipated behavior, so doing the opposite of what most people prefer will guarantee you cheaper prices.
• Call airline representatives: “Every day the airlines roll out ticket discounts and other special tools…call early in the morning shortly after midnight, since the ticketing system gets updated with the new rates for the day at this time… and it typically [works on] first come first serve basis.”
• Use online travel auction sites: These websites are for bidding on prices of hotel rooms and cruises. You can save up to 65% of a regular price. But you have to be careful and verify the legitimacy of the website, first. One of the famous ones is LuxuryLink.com.

The most famous spa in the world is Karlovy Vary located in the heart of Czech Republic surrounded by giant mountains. The city was built in 14^th century when the Emperor Charles IV discovered the thermal springs. Karlovy Vary has overcome many earthquakes and other natural disasters for many years. This is the reason that all the architectonic monuments present in the city do not represent ancient artifacts. They were mostly built during 18^th and 19^th centuries.

Balneological Karlovy Vary offers various treatments for patients who have digestive tract disorders, metabolic disorders, diabetes, neurological diseases, and even obesity. “The balneotherapy provided in Karlovy Vary comprises a number of curative procedures. Treatment exploits centuries-proven thermal baths and drinking cure as well as modern methods cryotherapy, floating, laser therapy, etc.” Except for curative procedures, Karlovy Vary  has number of sport facilities, such as horse race track,  tennis complex  and golf course built at the beginning of  the 20^th century .

Have you seen the movie called “Couples Retreat”? If yes, do you remember the place where all couples went for having fun? Yes, it is Bora Bora – the most beautiful lagoon in the world. It is located right in the middle of Pacific Ocean. Bora Bora consists of the number of French Polynesian islands. “Two towering peaks of sheer black rock [two ancient volcanoes] dominate the center of the island and make an impressive backdrop to an assortment of blue waters that will dazzle the eyes.” Except from being in a fully relax mode and being isolated from everyday trivial life and its problems, you can also surfing, jet skiing, windsurfing, kite surfing, snorkeling, diving and many other water sports. You can enjoy private lagoon tours, sunset cruises,  glass bottom boats sailings, parasailing, horseback riding, etc.

After watching “Couples Retreat” I can’t forget that scene of paradise, and Bora Bora is on the top of my traveling list.

Many people consider Christmas the best time to purchase a new car. But what can be better than just shopping at a car dealer? Travel directly to manufactory and buy the brand new Mercedes Benz right from the assembly line and visit famous Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. Museum building has futuristic shape with 16,500 square meters double-helix interior, which makes it one of the most unique museum-design layouts in the world.

Peter Hobday, the chairman of Global Economic Forum which took place at World Travel Market 2008, in November 13^th, said, “As a global economy, we are currently facing a critical moment, looking at the headline news – energy prices are rising, there are fears of a global recession, stock markets continue to suffer – this all feeds on investor pessimism and the credit crunch has encouraged bankers to proceed with caution with investing in anything risky. Anyone in the travel industry – airlines, hotels, resorts, tour operators and the supplier interests that rely on them – is at some kind of tipping point. Now is the time when only the fittest survive…”

We all agree that current global economic state affects domestic and international traveling. Tourism, being a major part of an economic growth, raises a concern whether its trend will grow or not. And this becomes a reason why a number of forums have been held past five to six years to address this issue and find possible solutions. But before we can impose a solution, the cause of the problem needs to be analyzed.

In 2000, 26 million visitors from overseas and 25 million visitors from Canada and Mexico traveled to the US spending about $75 billion.   Between 2002 and 2005, the traveling pattern declined dramatically, especially for oversees traveling, equaling 18 million yearly. But, fortunately, in 2008, the statistical data had a promising future for the US traveling to pick up its usual speed: 25 million oversees visitors and 33 million Canadian and Mexican visitors. Also, the US Department of Commerce predicts that traveling to the United States will increase by 9 percent by the end of 2010, followed by average of 7.5 percent annual increase by 2015.

But, it is the end of 2010, and still a lot of travelers struggle to raise money or have other security concerns which prevent them from traveling. Some travelers raise money for traveling by investing in banks, just like the blogger, Ara Saragian, does. But, because of the economy today, they are no longer able to accumulate enough interest to cover their traveling expenses. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs this past four years, and, now, they cannot take care of their survival needs, not to talk about luxurious traveling.

Others are worried about terrorists’ attacks. I am, personally, very much anxious and alerted to travel to countries that might be potentially dangerous for my life. When I visited Russia in 2004, it had already experience two tragic terrorist attacks – the Beslan school’s attack in 2004 and Nord-Ost siege in 2002. Some other minor disturbances had also been recorded in metro stations, which I had to take regularly due to bad traffic on the streets. The fear of becoming a victim emptied the traffic in metro stations which normally is very hectic, especially, during pick hours. My traveling turned out to be a torture instead of relaxation, and Russia was the last country I wanted to go for traveling.  The same philosophy works in European, Asian, Australian, Canadian, and many other travelers’ minds after 9/11.

The prediction of The Department of Commerce regarding the increasing percentage of travelers in 2010 can be true, after all. So-called the fittest survivors, who cannot or doesn’t want to give up traveling, will find ways to raise money, adapt to a situation, and find various solutions to continue their traveling careers. Most of them will cut down their spending: “But in terms of pleasure travel, I find myself scaling back a bit, choosing local spots over things further afield, jealously guarding my frequent flier miles and trying to take advantage of incentives that local and international airlines are spinning.” Choosing cheap hotels, dining in cheaper restaurants, buying cheaper clothes and presents/souvenirs is a way of saving money during the traveling. As a result, these businesses that provide luxurious vacations and are very expensive are getting hurt a lot..

Some travelers choose local rather than oversees destinations: “To make my holiday pounds go further, I’ve readjusted my sites to include more local destinations.” They are also engaged in couchsurfing: travelers can take their cars instead of plains, stay at relatives’ houses instead of hotels, and be back to work earlier (and not to be in danger of losing it) instead of quitting a job.

On the other extreme, you have travelers who are not affected by economy. An example is Matt Kepnes who has both advertising and internet business which provides traveling information. As he justifies, “while some of my advertising revenue is down, the internet is still pretty well insulated from the overall crash…” They also claim that with the economy slowdown, the fair and hotel prices got cheaper because of the head-to-head competition of attracting more customers. This is a perfect time for price-sensitive travelers, like Steve James, to fulfill his long-distance traveling dreams: “So curiously the recession has seen me travel more, making a flurry of week-long trips into Europe that I wouldn’t have otherwise made.”

After all, a long, painful recession, which the US has been experiencing for three years, left everyone exhausted. Traveling is one of the best ways to clear the head and make decisions regarding how to continue to live.