Stories discussed in this podcast from the Travelography Twitter Blog for the week of 9 June 2008:

Camera Karma: Find Your Lost Pics Here! http://tinyurl.com/6p4agn

India tourists stranded after group calls strike
http://tinyurl.com/6ds9q2

U.S. Tightens Rules for Foreign Travelers
http://tinyurl.com/4ntpzy

Mexico reimburses foreign tourists for sales tax expenditures
http://tinyurl.com/5gq7ty

Germans, Brits at War Again...Over Towels http://tinyurl.com/5ekobq

The Great Plains Restored and Ready for Eco-Tourists http://tinyurl.com/5ctqo4

THIS WEEK'S STORIES: 

China's Premier On-Line Travel Booking Site Launches in the U.S.: China's premier and fastest-growi.. http://tinyurl.com/58sppl about 22 hours ago

 

Tourism Authority of Thailand launches the amazing Experience Video Contest and the Thailand Portfo.. http://tinyurl.com/6rjn7u about 22 hours ago

 

Green Hotel Rating System Launched in Great Britain: The Green Start project aims to encourage a â€.. http://tinyurl.com/5wzdft 06:08 PM May 05, 2008

 

Iraq signs deals for 40 planes from Boeing: "Today, the process of developing economy has started,".. http://tinyurl.com/6kpmjk 06:08 PM May 05, 2008

 

Global Traffic Continues to Slow: The slowdown in the demand growth continues the sharp downward tr.. http://tinyurl.com/65warx 06:08 AM May 04, 2008

Airline torches woman's baggage: The airline reportedly issued Blewitt a "baggage irregularity rece.. http://tinyurl.com/5ocuds

THESE AND OTHER TRAVEL AND TOURISM STORIES CAN ALSO BE FOUND AT HTTP:/TWITTER/TRAVELOGRAPHY

LOOK FOR THE NEW TRAVELOGRAPHY PODCAST COMING IN JUNE 2008 

 

 

The first story today is about the trend for some large tourist cities on the east coast of the US to accept Euros in addition to dollars because of the many Europeans who are going shopping in the US. Reminds me of my recent trip to Cambodia, where they prefer dollars over the Cambodian Riel.

This is followed by a warning from the US State Dept that Americans (and anyone else) going to China for the Olympics (and in fact any other time) need to be aware that their hotel rooms, movements and conversations may all be bugged/monitored by Chinese authorities. So, when in China, smile -- you are on candid camera!

Also in China is a discussion of an increase in crimes againsts tourists, as Chinese theives seem to becom more emboldened.  Still on the crime topic, Thailand's tourist police will be issuing whistles to women in "risky spots" (which seems like just about everywhere, in an effort to reduce crime concers following a year of negative publicity over murders and rapes of tourists (mostly females) in Thailand.

A final tourism and crime story comes from Sicily, Italy where a new tourists guide to the Mafia has been published -- again in an effort to reduce tourists fears of visiting the island, and to help them spot Mafiosi on the streets of the city!

GET MORE TRAVELOGRAPHY TRAVEL AND TOURISM NEWS STORIES ON TWITTER at: http://twitter.com/Travelography

 Alan A. Lew

I cover two basic themes in today's podcast.

First, the latest news on international tourist arrivals to the US is almost as bad as the value of the US dollar.  While international ravel in the rest of the world has grown 28% since 2000, in the US it has declined 11%, which is a lost of about US$100 billion to the US economy.  So who do we blame for this situations?

The second topic starts in Greece, where a cruise ship ran aground near Athens last week causing the evacuation of the passengers and staff, though no serious injuries.  Staying in Greece, however, I then transition to a discussion of the impact of labor strikes these past few month on travel in Europe. 

Greek workers held a 3-hour strike last week and may hold a full-day stoppage on March 19th.  British Airways pilots voted to strike in late February, though they did not actually walk out. French taxi drivers brought Paris to a stand still earlier in Febraury.  And German and French  railway workers held strikes and snail-paced slow downs late last year.

Why does Europe have so many labor actions of the stort that directly impact international and domestict travelers?

All of this weeks stories come from the International Herlad Tribune.

 

 

 

 

Three stories from Singapore's Straits Times newspaper from last week:

Two hydrofoils full of tourists collided in fog between Hong Kong and Macau, sending many to the hospital.

India starts a campaign to protect foreign female tourists from sexual molesters -- mostly groping, which seems to be a major problem in that country.

 The US is still trying to gain back the international tourist arrivals that it received prior to 9/11.  To do this, an increasing number of states and cities are running advertisements for the first time in Europe.

These stories came from the local newspaper in Singapore.  I found the links above by searching online for similar stories.

 

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