Last week, the U.S. Travel Assocation ran the numbers and said that the government shutdown will cost the travel economy $1 billion a week.
As we head into the second week of shutdown, the organization has a ticker tape running to tally the ongoing losses. It’s not pretty.
Airports opt out of Department of Homeland Security ‘blame’ video
Air traffic controllers, TSA officers and Custom and Border Protection employees are required to show up for work at the nation’s airports, even though they’re not being paid during the government shutdown.
The current administration, via the Department of Homeland Security, has produced a propaganda video to be shown at airport security checkpoints featuring Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claiming that “Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, many of our operations are impacted and most of our TSA employees are working without pay.”
“We believe the Hatch Act clearly prohibits use of public assets for political purposes and messaging,” a PDX spokesperson told local news outlets, adding that, Oregon law states no public employee can promote or oppose any political committee, party, or affiliation. We believe consenting to playing this video on Port assets would violate Oregon law.”
Officials at the Port of Seattle, which operates SEA, said they won’t air the video due to its “political nature.”
We suspect there will be more airports that opt out of airing the video and and will add to the list.
[This is a slightly different version of a story we prepared for NBC News]
Cathy Balestriere was expecting “especially low” bookings last month at Crane’s Beach House, the boutique hotel she manages in Delray Beach, Florida. Instead, they jumped 12% from the year before.
“It feels like a miracle based on where we were sitting just a few weeks ago,” she said.
It’s not a miracle. It’s the weather.
The surge coincided with a sweltering mid-June heat wave across the Midwest and the Northeast, putting over 80 million people under heat alerts — the latest run of unseasonably extreme temperatures fueled by a global climate that is warming at a record pace.
Florida might not be the first destination that comes to mind for people looking to beat the heat, but it’s where some headed after their hometowns became just as sweltering.
This time of year, most guests at Crane’s are in-state or regional travelers, Balestriere said. But many of the last-minute bookings came from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas. Delray Beach has been hot, too, but visitors to the hotel “can at least enjoy the ocean breeze and access to the beach and refreshing pools,” she said.
It’s a similar story at the Lake Nona Wave Hotel in Orlando, where reservations soared 45% in the past three weeks compared with the year before, largely from the Northeast and Texas.
“We have had a couple of guests mention while they are checking in that the heat at home is unbearable,” sales and marketing director James Tattersall said.
“Snowbirds” typically head south to Florida and other balmier states in the winter and spring, creating a high season there when it’s frigid up north. But Crane’s Beach House now sees a growing opportunity in warmer months. It has already shifted its seasonal editorial calendar, Google ad strategy and newsletter messaging to capture more of the off-season demand, Balestriere said.
It’s part of a broader change that has been underway for years as tourist hot spots adapt to shifting demand tied to evolving seasonal weather.
While not every place is feeling an impact in the same way, or at all, “there is no question that we are seeing a growing preference for destinations with more comfortable summer temperatures alongside rising global temperatures,” said Jesse Neugarten, founder and CEO of Dollar Flight Club, a travel deal alert service.
From May to June, the platform had a 31% surge in flight bookings and interest from Northern cities like New York and Boston to destinations in Florida, he said, “where travelers are looking for relief from heat waves.”
Scorching weather at home is also pushing people toward cooler climes abroad. While hotel bookings in Italy — a longtime summer hot spot — are up a modest 3% since last year, “it’s Scandinavia that is having a moment,” researchers at the Virtuoso luxury travel network said in a recent report.
Bookings in the region have surged 25% since last year, with even steeper 49% and 47% increases in Iceland and Sweden, respectively. Even the Netherlands, where authorities have tried to reduce tourist volumes, is seeing 33% higher hotel demand this season, Virtuoso found.
Some parts of the continent are getting so hot during the summer that the typical high season is getting longer, said Rebecca Masri, founder and CEO of Little Emperors, a private members luxury hotel club.
“With the weather in southern Europe staying warm, booking trends are shifting to September, October and even November,” she said, as some hotels and resorts that usually close at the end of the summer extend their operations. “These months are becoming the new peak season.”
Consumers will increasingly see those shifts reflected in pricing, said Chris Lafakis, a director at Moody’s Analytics.
“You won’t have to be rich to vacation, but it’s going to be more expensive to travel to the more favorable destinations,” he said. “Those with the means to do so will be able to, and those that don’t will unfortunately not have as many options to fall back on.”
As airlines have added capacity, domestic and international airfares have fallen by double-digit percentages this July Fourth holiday week compared with last year’s, according to booking platform Hopper, despite record expected travel volumes. But while average hotel room rates in some cooler northern European countries have stabilized since last year’s surge, they’re climbing in popular areas — up 18% in Iceland and 47% in Norway, Virtuoso said.
Weather-driven shifts in travel patterns will create economic winners and losers, Lafakis said. “Probably 20% to 30% of the overall damage to the economy from the heat is because of less travel tourism,” he said. As seasonal temperatures soar, would-be visitors “may go somewhere else or choose not to go at all.”
Some industry experts aren’t so worried.
During hot weather, “travelers will usually change their behavior rather than cancel a trip,” said Tiffany Townsend, a spokesperson for New York City Tourism and Conventions. “They might visit more museums and indoor attractions or do more shopping” while it’s scorching outside and schedule outdoor activities early or late in the day.
Heather Dickie, 69, a Texas-based marketing consultant, said her travel itinerary is still in flux, but she said she needs a break from the heat. “If I can get out of Dallas,” where temperatures have already hit triple digits, “Alaska is sounding good,” she said.
But she’s more likely to head about 650 miles “up the road a bit” toward Taos, New Mexico, for the relative reprieve of highs in the mid-80s. “I have friends in that area,” she said, “and am looking at late July or August for a nice, cool getaway.”
[This is a slightly different version of a story we prepared first for NBC News; photo courtesy Louisville Tourism)
The Kentucky Derby, long known as “the most exciting two minutes in sports,” may be on its way to becoming some of the most expensive two minutes in sports.
Ticket prices for the iconic horse race have more than tripled over the past decade, from an average of $378 in 2014 to $1,254 this year on the resale market as of April 22, according to booking platfrom TicketSmarter.
That could reflect strong demand for the race’s 150th anniversary, but it’s also partly because Louisville’s Churchill Downs Racetrack has worked to lure spendier customers through its gates. The facility has shaken up its seating and poured $200 million into a renovation that debuts at this year’s Derby and upgrades such as “a new luxury equine-focused dining experience.”
“We’ve had pushback from locals about being priced out,” said Thomas Lambert, an economist who studies the equine industry at the University of Louisville’s College of Business, but he added that catering to high rollers tends to be good business across the gaming and hospitality industry.Not only are wealthier attendees more likely to gamble “a decent amount,” Lambert said, but “just to say that they have been to the Derby, they will pay extreme prices because of their disposable personal income.”
While the Downs sells one-day general admission infield tickets starting at $275, reserved seating can climb to four figures, with the most exclusive private suites going for $295,000 for multi-year bookings. Much of the reserved seating is now sold only as part of two-day all-inclusive passes for both the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Oaks, the sister race held the day before.
Benefits for businesses, at the track and off
So far, the premium push looks to be paying off. “Ticket sales, including throughout our new seating areas, have exceeded our expectations,” Churchill Downs CEO William Carstanjen told investors last week.
Outside the Downs, the annual flurry of business activity is chasing a less high-end Derby dollar that has been stretched by inflation.
(Courtesy Plehn’s Bakery)
Prices at Plehn’s Bakery, which turns 100 this year, are up about 5% since 2023, said co-owner Jennifer Brownlee, but there’s no premium charged during Derby Week, when business usually doubles.
“Our costs have gone up more than that, but we worry about taking too big of a jump because we’re not a necessity,” she said.
In addition to supplying the buns used by many local caterers, Plehn’s sells a slew of Derby-themed desserts — from cookies shaped like horse heads to cakes topped with little plastic horses.
In the central region of the South that includes Kentucky, inflation hit an annual rate of 4% in March, hotter than the 3.5% national average.
Wiltshire Pantry owner Susan Hershberg said price pressures in Louisville have been “brutal,” but she suspects the Downs’ expanded all-inclusive offerings have weighed on her business, too.While she used to field 400 to 500 boxed lunch orders each day during Derby Week, “this year I only have orders for several hundred boxes, and some people are taking them to Derby parties, not to the track,” she said.
Prices are staying put all the same. “The people who buy the boxed lunches are my regular customers,” Hershberg said, “and right now we’re eating the difference, because there’s only so much sticker-price shock people can handle.”
(Courtesy Pix Shoes Louisville)
Carol Hampton, who owns Pix Shoes Louisville, said her costs are up as well. She added that rival milliners buy her hats, fascinators and other accessories and sell them at a markup, but moving large volumes helps her keep prices down.
“People pick and choose what they want to do with their money,” Hampton said. “They want to look nice, they want to shine, and I help them do that. I just don’t rob them.”
She estimated 150 customers visited the 50-year-old downtown shop on Thursday alone and expects to sell over 8,000 pieces of fancy headgear by the end of the weekend.
The Derby is forecast to deliver a more than $405 million boost to the local economy, a Louisville Tourism spokesperson said. While that would be a jump from around $402 million in 2023, attendance at the race itself is still on a post-pandemic climb back toward its record of 170,000 in 2015, when that year’s eventual Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah, was running.More than 150,000 people are expected at the Downs this year, after a dozen horeses died following injuries around the 2023 Derby.
While investigators didn’t identify a single cause, the Louisville racetrack has stepped up its safety protocols amid heightened scrutiny of the sport’s practices.
Attendance at the other two legs of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore and the Belmont Stakes in Elmont, New York, also have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels (though Belmont Park lowered its capacity cap in 2022).Lambert, the economist, chalked up some of the Derby’s resilience to its distinctive fanfare: “The equestrian lifestyle, the Southern charms, the hats, the mint juleps, etc. — it’s all turned on dramatically to get the tourists here.”
And tourists need places to park. Like many of his neighbors who live down the street from the track, 39-year-old Daniel Harvey is offering parking on his property during Derby weekend.“It’s my fourth year doing this,” said Harvey, who’s been charging $40 on Friday and Saturday “It’s fairly easy work and an opportunity to make money.” He can fit about 11 cars on his property, which he advertised on Facebook Marketplace, with discounts for booking a spot early.
Aileen Nova Jackson, who will turn 89 in a few weeks and has lived in the neighborhood for 55 years, has been at it much longer than Harvey. She has room for about 15 cars and people who come back each year. She takes reservations and cash, but no credit cards or checks.
These days Jackson lets her son do the parking while she sits in a chair collecting money and chatting with guests. She is charging $80 for cars, $100 for SUVs and $300 for buses and RVs, adding that her prices have risen this year, citing inflation.“When I started it was $2 a car,” Jackson said.
After all these years, though, she’s never been to a Derby.
(This is a shortened version of a story we first wrote for NBC News)
This year’s post-pandemic travel boom is continuing into the holidays.
Nearly half (48%) of Americans plan to travel between Thanksgiving and mid-January, up from 31% last winter, a recent Deloitte survey found.
AAA expects 55.4 million travelers to venture at least 50 miles from home during the Thanksgiving period alone, a 2.3% increase from last year.
That means if you’re hitting the roads or the slopes this season, you’ll have lots of company. Here’s what to expect as you pack your bags for a winter getaway.
More affordable airfare
Airline ticket prices are falling even as more Americans intend to fly.
Deloitte found that 33% of holiday travelers plan to take a domestic flight, up from 29% last year. Despite the strong demand, airfares were more than 13% cheaper last month than at the same time a year ago, federal inflation data shows.
Smoother flights?
Airlines and aviation officials sound confident about handling the holiday crush. While major U.S. carriers — including American, Delta, and United — expect record passenger numbers this Thanksgiving, many are touting their readiness for the season.
Track records for flight cancellations and missing luggage have improved ahead of the holidays. About 1.7% of flights were canceled during the first eight months of this year. That’s much better than the 3.0% rate for the same eight-month period last year and 2.3% in the comparable stretch of 2019, the Department of Transportation reported.
And in August, the latest month with available data, the mishandled baggage rate dropped to 0.61% from 0.75% the month before.
A broader push to streamline and automate operations “will continue to help curb mishandling as we approach the holiday season,” said Nicole Hogg, head of baggage for SITA, an air transport IT company. But travel experts still suggest adding an AirTag or other digital tracking device to your luggage, especially during busy travel periods.
“Mother Nature will cause some number of cancellations, guaranteed,” said Scott Keyes, the founder of the airfare tracking site Going. But he noted that “cancellations caused by the airlines — the most galling for travelers — are at multiyear lows” and added that many carriers have bulked up on pilots, planes, and staff.
“The entire industry was snakebit from last year’s debacle,” Keyes said, “and airlines have adjusted their operations accordingly.”
Pricier hotel rooms
More holiday travelers plan to stay in hotels this holiday season instead of bunking with friends or family. Deloitte found that 56% plan to stay in hotels, a sharp jump from 35% in 2022.
Jan Freitag, director of hospitality analytics at the commercial real-estate research company CoStar, said this season’s strong travel numbers will likely nudge Christmastime room rates above last year’s levels. In the first full week of November, they were up 4% in the U.S. from the same week a year ago, averaging $156 per night, CoStar said.
Price-conscious Christmas travelers might want to “book early to lock in lower rates, shorten their trips or trade down to a different class of service,” said Freitag, or else take their chances with last-minute reservations. Inventories will be slimmer in the eleventh hour, but hotels may still cut prices on unsold rooms.
Last Thursday the State Department advised travelers from the U.S. to “exercise increased caution” worldwide because of the Israel-Hamas war, citing “the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests.”
The warning “means what it says,” said Jeffrey Price, an aviation security expert and professor of aviation and aerospace science at Metropolitan State University of Denver. “Don’t go to areas where they are actively capturing or killing U.S. citizens, and be careful when going to countries where you could be put in harm’s way simply by being there.”
But what about trips to Barcelona or Singapore or even just Baton Rouge? Here’s what to consider if you’ve got travel plans on the books or are making them now, given the conflict in the Middle East.
All-purpose safety precautions
In addition to telling U.S. travelers to reconsider travel to Israel and the West Bank and to avoid any travel to Gaza, federal officials also recommend staying especially alert in popular locations anywhere tourists gather globally.
They suggest following State Department accounts on social media for updates and joining the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program [STEP] to make it easier for the agency to get in touch with American travelers abroad in case of emergencies.
The State Department has alerts of various levels in effect for many countries because of conflict and other risk factors, but “worldwide caution” advisories are less common. The last one was issued in August 2022 after a U.S. drone strike killed a high-level Al Qaeda leader.
Some national security experts regard last week’s global alert “as one of the most urgent issued in light of the extremely high tensions throughout the Middle East,” said Howard Stoffer, a professor of international affairs at the University of New Haven and a former senior official in the State Department’s Foreign Service.
“This type of alert usually lasts a relatively short time,” he said, but the current one “may last for some period of time.”
What should you do?
If you’re planning upcoming travel, you can monitor the State Department’s travel advisories for any destinations on your itinerary both before and during your trip. The Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan think tank, also maintains an interactive Global Conflict Tracker that provides additional information for specific areas around the world.
Experts warn against slipping so deeply into vacation mode that you risk losing sight of potential shifts in the political or security situation on the ground.
“Be aware of your surroundings and be sure to cooperate with any increased security measures,” Price said.
Stoffer said, “Stay alert and listen to the news carefully when out there.” Otherwise, exercise the same good judgment you would under any other circumstances, like steering clear of major protests and making sure friends and family back home know where you are.
Air travel
Israeli flag carrier El Al Airlines is the only airline that continues to fly between the U.S. and Israel, although its website notes that “there may be a change in the departure times of some flights.”
Major U.S.-based airlines that previously offered regular service to Tel Aviv, including American, Delta,and United, have issued travel alerts for the Middle East and suspended all flights to Israel.
United has also issued a travel alert for its flights to Amman, Jordan, but service there is continuing.
The suspensions include direct flights out of major hubs such as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., as well as connecting flights on partner airlines, said Scott Keyes of the flight deal website Going.
With Delta having already extended the dates of its rebooking provisions, Keyes said, “It’s all but certain other U.S. airlines will extend their travel waivers for at least as long as the escalated hostilities continue.”
At airports and other transportation hubs, “travelers can expect to see a larger law enforcement and canine presence,” said Robert Langston, a spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration.
The TSA is operating at a “heightened level of security as a result of world events and the current threat environment,” he said. Officials there and at its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, will continue to monitor the situation and adjust their security measures as needed.
Security checkpoint lines at airports could get longer because of the increased measures, Price said, but “if things are getting out of hand, TSA can also speed up lines by reducing random checks.”
Cruises
A handful of cruise lines have made changes to scheduled sailings in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, said Aaron Saunders, a senior editor at Cruise Critic.
“The changes range from the cancellation of full sailing seasons to adjustments to itineraries that remove select ports,” he said.
Windstar Cruises, Royal Caribbean, and MSC are among the cruise lines that have pulled all their ships out of the region because of the conflict, Cruise Critic has reported, while Norwegian Cruise Line has informed passengers on a coming Rome-to-Athens cruise that stops in Israel will be skipped.
“Cruise lines have teams dedicated to monitoring the latest news and updates and reserve the right to adjust their plans as they see most fit,” Saunders said.
He encourages anyone with a cruise reservation to watch for emails from the operator for updates on specific sailings, as well as any compensation being offered for significantly affected ones. For those considering a cruise to the region, “we strongly recommend purchasing travel insurance,” Saunders added.
Travel Insurance
Many travel insurance policies already provide cancellation and interruption benefits in the event a terrorist attack affects a trip, according to published guidelines from the travel insurance comparison platform SquareMouth.
But in most cases, those benefits kick in only for policies purchased before the date of the attack, meaning such coverage would apply for the current conflict only on insurance taken out on or before Oct. 6.
Travelers with coming trips to Israel who have cancellation and interruption benefits may be reimbursed for 100% of their trip expenses if they need to cancel, SquareMouth noted. Travelers planning to visit Israel as part of trips may also be covered if they need to cut their itineraries short.
Ever check out of a hotel and notice a “transient occupancy tax” on your bill?
Unfortunately for your wallet, the Biden administration’s crackdown on “junk fees” won’t do anything about it.
But unlike some of the add-ons hoteliers and booking sites charge, this common type of tax doesn’t pad corporate margins, and the projects it funds are evolving in step with the post-pandemic tourist economy.
These levies — often known generically as “bed taxes,” though they go by many names — are imposed by state, county and local governments or tourism improvement districts.
They can drive up the cost of an overnight stay at hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, campgrounds, and short-term rentals like Airbnbs, sometimes by up to 20%.
The jurisdictions typically decide how to allocate the revenue these taxes pull in. Sometimes they supplement governments’ operating budgets; other times they’re used to finance tourism campaigns, build convention centers, support cultural programs, or hire beach lifeguards.
New Uses For Hotel Bed Taxes
But in Estes Park, Colorado, bed taxes are now subsidizing housing and childcare costs for local workers.
The mountain community, known as a base camp for adventures in Rocky Mountain National Park, voted for that move after a law Colorado enacted in March 2022 began allowing cities and counties to use hotel tax proceeds to cover housing and child care for the tourism-related workforce
In Estes Park, the decision came after advocates flagged a proliferation of second homes and short-term rentals that they said had strained affordability in the area.
Last November, the city raised its hotel bed tax to 5.5%, up from 2%, and earmarked funds from the increase — an estimated $5.3 million in 2023 — for the housing and child care initiatives, said Kara Franker, the CEO of Visit Estes Park, a local tourism group. That beefed-up bed tax now combines with town, county and state sales tax to add a cumulative 14.2% onto the cost of a nightly stay in the city, she said, helping to fund a range of public services alongside the new workforce-related initiatives.
According to Colorado tourism officials, at least 17 municipalities have imposed a new bed tax or modified an existing one over the past year, many of them putting the revenue toward new types of projects.
Similar moves are happening in tourism-heavy areas across the U.S., said John Lambeth, CEO of travel consultancy Civitas, reflecting a more expansive approach that is “more about stewardship of the destination and giving back to the community.”
Jack Johnson, chief advocacy officer for the travel industry group Destinations International, said the disruptions of the pandemic have motivated some communities to consider whether broader social and economic policies “can be tied to travel in tourism, either directly or indirectly, and therefore paid for out of the bed tax.”
Hotel taxes were first adopted in the U.S. by New York City in 1946, became commonplace nationally by the 1970s, and are what guests typically see itemized on their hotel bills today, said Elizabeth Strom, an associate professor at the University of South Florida’s school of public affairs. Public officials have long loved bed taxes because they generate easy-to-raise income from out-of-towners, not local voters.
“Every state either has such a tax at the state level or permits such a tax at the local level or both,” Strom said.
The newer breed of bed tax experiments, like those in Colorado, are being driven as much by windfalls from rebounding travel demand as by evolving civic attitudes.
Tourism revenues dipped sharply during the pandemic, but in 2023, hotel-generated state and local tax revenue — which includes bed taxes along with the other levies lodging operators contribute to government entities — is expected to reach $46.71 billion nationwide, up 13.6% from 2019, according to a study by the American Hotel and Lodging Association and Oxford Economics.
Bed taxes already account for nearly half of the hotel-generated taxes in the U.S., the AHLA said, and it expects bed taxes this year will likely exceed the $19 billion they generated in 2019.
In Florida, which has been hit by multiple hurricanes that affect beaches and islands, Broward, Collier, Lee and other counties are applying tourism revenues to rebuild and protect those travel assets, Johnson said. Bed taxes now contribute financing for dune restoration, shoreline stabilization, erosion control, and other coastal management activities, he said.
The shift has raised some concerns from the hospitality industry.
“In general, the more taxes states and cities levy on hotels, the more of a competitive disadvantage they create for local businesses, as potential hotel guests may seek out other destinations with lower tax burdens,” AHLA CEO Chip Rogers said.
As for the industry-imposed fees the Biden administration is scrutinizing, AHLA spokesperson Curt Cashour said that only 6% of hotels nationwide charge “a mandatory resort, destination or amenity fee, at an average of $26 per night,” adding that they “directly support hotel operations” like staff wages and benefits.
Cashour said the AHLA is continuing to work with authorities “to ensure that the same standards for fee display apply across the lodging booking ecosystem” so guests aren’t caught off guard.
Bed taxes may send extremely cost-conscious leisure and business travelers to lower-taxed destinations, Strom said, “but if you are a unique location, I don’t think an extra few dollars a night in taxes matters.”
“If people want to see the Space Needle,” she added, “they aren’t comparing the cost of rooms in Seattle to the cost of rooms in Portland.”
Some top tourist destinations say they aren’t worried about turning away tourists at the moment.
Hawaii, for example, is seeing a strong post-pandemic tourism recovery, even though its 13.3% state and county transient accommodation taxes combine with 4.5% excise taxes to add close to 18% to nightly hotel bills. State revenue forecasters expect Hawaii’s bed tax alone to bring in more than $785 million this year, up from $645 million last year.
Since drawing more tourists isn’t the main challenge, said Ilihia Gionson, a public affairs officer with the Hawaii Tourism Authority, the agency is using some of the funds it gets from hotel taxes to try to influence what types of visitors it attracts.
“The wheels were turning before the pandemic and accelerated during the pandemic,” he said. “We want visitors that align with our economic and community goals — who will shop at local businesses, eat in local restaurants, participate in ‘voluntourism’ and be mindful of their economic impact. So, it’s less about, ‘Come here,’ and more about, ‘Here’s who we are and what we’re about.’”
Keys for Trees
San Luis Obispo, along California’s Central Coast, is also earmarking some of its hotel tax income for projects that authorities hope will benefit the community.
Its existing transient occupancy tax supports the city’s general fund. But last year a new “Keys for Trees” program began setting aside some proceeds from the city’s tourism assessment tax — another government surcharge on hotel bills — to help plant 10,000 trees by 2035 as San Luis Obispo pursues its carbon neutral goals, said Tourism Manager Molly Cano.
The city’s business improvement district raised $1.6 million from this assessment pre-pandemic and $2.1 million in fiscal 2022, Cano said. Previously, all these funds were used to market San Luis Obispo to visitors. But now 1% of that revenue is steered toward the new program, with some $17,000 reserved for planting 35 trees this fiscal year.
“There’s no extra step to take,” Cano said, “and we think visitors will enjoy knowing that just by booking an overnight stay, they are helping to preserve the beauty of our community.”
And in July the US Department of Transporation issued a notice encouraging US airlines “to do everything in their power to ensure that children who are age 13 or younger are seated next to an accompanying adult with no additional charge.”
Airlines Beginning to Pay Attention
On Monday United Airlines announced a new plan to make it easier for parents and children under 12 years old to sit next to each other without paying an extra fee. That includes passengers who purchase Basic Economy Tickets,
The airline said the policy will extend to customers who purchase Basic Economy tickets. That category usually doesn’t allow seats to be assigned until boarding.
United says a new seat map feature that finds available adjacent seats at the time of booking makes this new policy possible. The seat map program will first review all available free Economy seats and then opens complimentary upgrades to available Preferred seats if needed, according to United.
Big news for families! Now when you make a reservation that includes children under 12 and there aren't enough open seats next to each other, select adjacent Preferred seats will automatically become available at no charge. https://t.co/PkGBtlm0xbpic.twitter.com/kw76GpBqus
Other airlines may follow suit by adjusting their policies to follow United’s lead.
For now, Delta Air Lines’ website says the carrier “strives to seat family members together upon request” and urges passengers who can’t find seats together to contact Reservations for help.
American Airlines’ website says”if you’re unable to choose seats, don’t want to pay for seats, or chose a Basic Economy fare, our system will detect that you’re a family traveling. The system will search for seats together automatically before the day of departure. We’ll try our best to keep you together, but if seats are limited, we’ll assign seats so children under 15 are next to at least 1 adult.”
Alaska Airlines’ site states that “if are unable to obtain seat assignments together for your family, we will make every effort to seat at least one adult with any young child (age 13 and under) from the same party.”
Like other carriers, JetBlue’s statement on family seating urges families to book early. But says “if seats together are not available, please let our airport gate crewmembers know when you arrive at the airport. They will do their best to find a seating solution. We cannot guarantee that seats together will always be available.”
If you’re a serious traveler, you likely love maps.
And if you love maps, you’ll love the maps in a new book from the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England that celebrates the art of atlases with a look inside the museum’s collection of maps, globes, and map-related ephemera.
Celestial globe, unknown maker, first half of the 17th century
The book draws on the museum’s collection of more than 40,000 maps, charts, globes, and atlases, including a sixteenth-century map of the world replacing the face of a jester, a nineteenth-century inflatable globe, and a twentieth-century waterproof map that saved lives during the Second World War.
Fool’s Head World Map, by unknown artist, around 1590 Inflatable Globe, George Pocock, 1830
The oldest object in the book is a manuscript map of Mesopotamia by Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Farisi al-Istakhri, dated before 1282. Mountain ranges are illustrated in a deep red with floral and geometric patterns, while the rivers Tigris and Euphrates flow across the page in a majestic blue.
Islandia, Abraham Ortelius and Anders Vedel, 1585
The most recent object is a football globe made for Mark Wallinger’s First World War centenary artwork, One World by Mark Wallinger. This 2018 football is a photographic representation of the Earth as seen from satellite imagery. This globe was commissioned to mark the centenary of the First World War, commemorating the ‘Christmas Day ceasefires’ that took place on the Western Front in 1914.
One World, Mark Wallinger, 2018
Rather than approach the collection chronologically, A is for Atlas draws on the collection in twenty-six themes, including ‘commemoration’, ‘manuscript’, ‘sea monsters’ and ‘treasure’.
The book also shows the results of an investigation into a nineteenth-century globe. An endoscope was fed through a hole in a Newton & Son terrestrial table globe from 1842, offering Dr Barford an unusual view – the inside of a globe. The investigation revealed proof pages from various books of the Bible lining the inside and supporting the papier-mâché hemispheres.
All photos courtesy National Maritime Museum, England
Icy snow is covering our town. So we spent the holiday weekend just dreaming of places we want to go and making a list of new and old favorite sights we want to see in the new year.
When the book by Eric Dregni first showed up at our house, we thought the “impossible” in the title meant the book was all about historic roadside attractions and quirky destinations across the United States we’d never get to see.
But now that we look closer, we see that the long-gone spots mentioned here simply offer context for all the corny, quirky, and unique places that are still around.
Like the Big Duck in Flanders, NY. The World’s Largest Buffalo Monument in Jamestown, North Dakota. The Cardiff Giant in Cooperstown, NY, And many places across the country where you can spot statues of dinosaurs, muffler men, and Paul Bunyans
Here’s a look inside the book, which includes infographic maps, themed roundups, and some wonderful photographs taken by the late architectural critic and photographer John Margolies.
We checked to see if some of our favorite attractions in Washington were included and were pleased to the Zillah’s Teapot Dome Gas Station and Seattle’s Hat ‘n’ Boots included. (These photos are not from the book).
