The Travel Industry News - Editorial Archives

January 2007

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL...

... in the human breast .. and in the heart of the travel industry. 2007 bids us enter and take our chances with the rest of the world.

TIN enters its 26th year knowing little more .. it seems .. than in did back in 1981. I ran back through the last few January issues to get a feel of my past thinking, through the headlines.

1999 - ‘Centuries Come & Go .. I Guess .. ‘ : 2000 - ‘What Is History?’ ; 2001- ‘Here We Go Again’ ; 2002 - ‘Another Year’; 2003 - ‘ The Year Of Opportunity ‘; 2004- ‘Confusion.. Illusion .. Collusion?’ ; 2005 - ‘Resolve Not To Assume’ and last year ‘Oh Canada .. ‘.

I rarely make New Year Resolutions ( I tell my daughter that when you’re perfect .. you don’t need to! ) .. to which her answer is generally, “ then you had better make a lot”. The reason I don’t is, who needs an additional burden to start off any New Year with?

HOWEVER .. I have resolved to give Southwest Airlines one more chance ( the fact that they have never lost money since they began makes me realize I need to study their operation more carefully) ; I have resolved to try and avoid bankruptcy .. even if I could probably merge with someone else who was bankrupt and .. perhaps .. solve all my financial problems!! ; I have resolved to only print one monthly designation on TIN - this one is for ‘January’ ( the other system - Jan/Feb - was supposed to give me more flexibility .. it didn’t work!) and most important of all .. I will continue to believe in the future of Travel Agencies.

Things continue to hum on the Pacific Northwest travel scene. The CTO’s in Seattle and Portland are active, the Northwest Travel Professionals continue to eat & meet and APTA still sings the song of the ‘Wild’ in its promotion of Africa. I have heard that PATA is looking to expand its once ‘very active’ role here in the Northwest.

I attended the Christmas SKAL Club ( Toys for Tots) meeting last month at the newly renovated ‘Hotel Deca’ ( formerly the ‘University Tower Hotel’ ) in Seattle’s University District ... VERY NICE ... I was impressed with the decor, the changes and the food! Speaking of hotels, the brand new ‘Silver Cloud Hotel Stadium’ located next to Safeco Field and QWest Field opened December 28th 2006! I will have more info on both of these great properties in the next issue.

For those of you who have read TIN since ‘time began’, you know that I preach the need to market your product .. and that your ‘sign’ is an important part of telling your potential clients who and what you are. WELL ... Travel Concepts of Ocean Shores, who I mentioned recently won an award for sales to the Caribbean’s Sandals Resort, has taken their show on the road! You have to admit that our recent weather makes Dennis and Molly Sumption’s ‘Auto Billboard’ quite a welcome & thought provoking advertisement with swim suit clad beauty, white sand, blue ocean and .. I think that’s sunshine in that cloudless sky!

For those of you involved in the sale of Adventure/Active Travel packages, please note. If you include ‘skiing’ in your marketing, a recent interesting fact was published by the National Ski Association. Do not promote only to the ‘younger’ crowd ... one third of all skiers are 45 years of age or older.

REMEMBER ... effective Tuesday January 23, all passengers arriving in the USA by scheduled airline will be required to present a current passport as proof of citizenship .. this includes those arriving from Canada ... not yet applicable to those arriving by ships or other water borne transportation.

The future? I’d like to see a move away from the ‘Bigger is Better’ mentality, although what with Mega ships and soon Mega aircraft .. it doesn’t look good. HOWEVER .. if everything has to be bigger .. why not travel agency profits! HAPPY NEW YEAR.

David ( TIN MAN ) Bond

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