Travel Calendar

Orlando, FL, April 16, 2012 –(PR.com)– Perspective Magazine announces that travel club membership company Travel To Go has increased its level of support by becoming a Gold Sponsor of the Third Annual Global Networking Expo, GNEX 2013 – The Global Meeting of Minds, scheduled for February 4-6, 2013 at the spectacular Beverly Wilshire – A Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

“We are extremely excited to once again participate at GNEX, while taking our support to the next level. Travel To Go continues to experience success from the relationships forged and insights gained at GNEX 2012. As the company and product line continues to expand, so does our participation and reach within the industry. We look forward to showcasing our innovative products and collaborating with fellow leaders within the vacation ownership industry at GNEX 2013,” said Jeanette Bunn, President, Travel To Go.

Travel To Go is a travel club membership and vacation services company offering membership packages to meet any budget along with enhancement and exit programs. Fully customizable kits, posters, websites, eMail and Social Media are offered as White Label products allowing distributors greater flexibility in designing a value proposition and brand identity. Travel To Go’s merchant accounts, escrow services, financing and point-of-sale instant credit offer customers more payment options, driving closing rates even higher. Online marketing tools to track tours, closing percentages and commissions provide ROI analysis to take sales to the next level.

Innovative networking events and business development opportunities are the foundation for GNEX 2013. The interactive panel discussions are designed for constructive, and sometimes controversial, debate while extended networking breaks, distinctive networking activities and a networking lounge area will be created to engage delegates in a manner unique to an industry conference.

The event will culminate with a Black-tie Gala Dinner befitting a Hollywood premier as the Perspective Magazine Awards, sponsored by Holiday Systems International, will be presented to winners across 40 categories spanning every sector of the industry.

“Travel To Go is the latest company to increase its support for GNEX after experiencing its benefits first-hand, moving from Silver to Gold-level sponsorship for 2013,” said Paul Mattimoe, President and CEO, Perspective International. “Jeanette Bunn and representatives from her company have attended every GNEX conference and we are very thankful for their commitment to our event.”

For more information and to find out how your company can become a sponsor of GNEX 2013, please visit http://perspectivemagazine.com/gnex.

Sponsors and supporters of GNEX 2013 to date include:
Dial an Exchange, Holiday Systems International, RCI, Travel To Go, Resort Television, Emirates Vacation Club, Merlin Software and Christel House International as Charity of Choice.

About Travel To Go
Since 1990, Travel To Go has been focused on learning about dream vacations and bringing them to life…for less. We arrange luxurious resort accommodations for the savvy vacationer worldwide at a fraction of the retail cost. We pride ourselves on professionalism and teamwork, with one goal in mind: exceeding expectations. Presently, Travel To Go services a loyal customer base approaching 50,000 members. This impressive mark can be credited to a team that prides itself on 5-Star service.

As a travel club membership and vacation services company, we’re licensed with all necessary agencies including the states of California, Florida, and Hawaii. We also maintain an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. Meeting all requirements and maintaining an excellent rating in customer service, Travel To Go keeps membership in the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, ARDA, and the Cooperative Association of Resort Exchangers (C.A.R.E.) where Jeanette Bunn, President of Travel To Go, currently serves as Vice President of C.A.R.E. In addition, Sky Travel, a division of Travel To Go, is an approved travel agency licensed by the Airline Reporting Corporation (A.R.C.), IATAN, and the CLIA.

About Perspective Magazine
Perspective Magazine is the leading independent, multi-media information provider for the shared ownership industry. The company publishes five regional brands covering North America, Latin America, Europe Middle East, South Africa, and Asia Pacific which are, combined, the most read independent trade publications globally for the vacation ownership industry.

For more information, please visit http://perspectivemagazine.com or email Steve Luba at steveluba(at)perspectivemagazine.com. For information on advertising and editorial opportunities visit http://perspectivemagazine.com/advertise.

Q: I’m a disabled traveler who makes hotel reservations about half a dozen times a year. I always reserve an accessible room, but recently it seems as if front-desk staff doesn’t know what that is. Two times in recent months, I’ve been put in rooms that didn’t have grab bars. One hotel told me none of the toilets in its accessible rooms had grab bars. Another clerk sent someone to check the bathroom before we went up, and he said there was a grab bar in the shower but not by the toilet. That grab bar was a towel bar. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect that I’ll be able to use the toilet in the room. What does the Americans With Disabilities Act mandate? And who trains hotel personnel?

– S. St. Laurent, Bakersfield, Calif.

A: If you read the Justice Department’s “2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design,” dated Sept. 15, and you’re not a detail person, you may be tempted to throw your hands into the air and screech, “Just do the right thing, for heaven’s sake.” Then you get a letter like St. Laurent’s and you understand that the mind-numbing detail is necessary and important. (For specifics, go to the standards at www.lat.ms/IhJkJt, and read Section 806 on “transient guest lodgings,” with references to sections 603-610, including 609, which addresses grab bars.)

Critics of the original Americans With Disabilities Act, signed into law in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush, have said the legislation was vague and some issues could be resolved only by litigation. The 2010 ADA standards provide a level of detail that the original law did not and cover some of the issues in making a hotel reservation.

“Until the 2010 standards became effective on March 15 of this year, the responsibility of a hotel to provide and guarantee reservations was somewhat clouded,” said Martin Orlick, a partner with Jeffers, Mangel, Butler Mitchell Global Hospitality Practice and the leader of the ADA compliance and litigation team. “There was no specific requirement that a reservation, once made, guaranteed the room you reserved would be made available.

“The current requirement, when someone books a specific type of room, is that room be ‘hard blocked’ and available,” Orlick said.

But how do you know you’re getting a room that will work for you? The hotel must list its accessible features, Orlick said. If grab bars are listed as a feature, the room is required to have them. One exception: condo hotels, because the units are individually owned and cannot fall under a hotelier’s umbrella.

Knowing the difference between a grab bar and a towel bar goes beyond a compliance issue, as St. Laurent suggested. But lodgings aren’t left in the wilderness when trying to comply. The American Hotel Lodging Assn. “provides training materials and tools that will help hotels,” said Kevin Maher, senior vice president of governmental affairs for the lodging association, which is based in Washington.

Hotel operators also know that making their properties accessible is good business. “I think probably a successful hotel operator is going to understand this is a growing demographic with the population aging and (with) advances in medical treatment and in mobility,” Maher said. “You are ahead of the curve if you have a property that meets these requirements.”

Because of employee turnover, it behooves a hotel to keep training in the fore. And it behooves the customer to ask and ask and ask again about accessibility features just to be sure. Should it be this way? No. But until the world understands – and this comes with knowledge and experience – some of the education process belongs to the customer. And then the customer can impress upon hoteliers that he or she will give business only to those places that go to the head of the class.

Have a travel dilemma? Write to travel@latimes.com. We regret we cannot answer every inquiry.

April 16, 2012


By: George Dooley


Travel Agent

Reflecting concerns with the economic impact of the ongoing General Services Administration (GSA) scandal, the U.S. Travel Association is asking for industry input and reports it is actively working with policymakers and the industry to contain the crisis.

The goal is to reinforce the perception that this is an issue of poor decision-making by the GSA during a Las Vegas conference and not a reflection on the value of government conferences or meetings. The association does not want a repeat of 2009 when private sector meetings were cancelled because of comments by federal policymakers.

In a letter to the industry Roger Dow, president and CEO of U.S. Travel asked the industry for input and promised to represent the industry as Congress probes the scandal.

“We are seeking as much information as possible from the industry, including meeting planners, so that we can better tell their story on Capitol Hill.”

Details of what U.S. Travel needs are provided in the letter Dow sent to the industry.
 
“As you know, the head of the General Services Administration was forced to resign following reports of excessive spending for a meeting near Las Vegas and the controversy has continued to receive ample attention on Capitol Hill and in the media. With this being an election year and with the highly partisan political climate in Washington, this story has the potential to lead to further attempts to cut travel for meetings and conferences and could pose serious consequences for our industry,” Dow said.

U.S. Travel noted that it quickly issued a statement arguing that the controversy is about poor decision-making, not the value of travel. “It is critical that we reinforce the value of legitimate business travel and government meetings to make sure that there is not a repeat of 2009 – when private sector meetings were cancelled because of comments by federal policymakers,” Dow said.

“These kinds of potential threats affect the entire industry. If the value of travel is questioned, it has residual impact on all travel. Let’s work together to ensure policymakers understand why travel matters and protect the travel community from unintended consequences as policymakers work to ensure a more responsible government,” Dow said.

This message was brought to the Hill through meetings with representatives from each committee holding hearings this week, including Chairman Darrell Issa, Chairman John Mica, Chairman Jeff Denham, Ranking Member Eleanor Holmes Norton and Ranking Member Cummings, U.S. Travel said.

“Leaders on Capitol Hill were receptive to the message and reinforced that the issue was about government waste and poor decision-making – not the value of government conferences or meetings. We have reached out to the Society of Government Travel Professionals and the Society of Government Meeting Planners and will be coordinating with the myriad associations involved with meetings and event planning to amplify the industry’s message to policymakers,” Dow said.

U.S. Travel’s summary of events to date:

Capitol Hill Reaction
    •    U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has requested that 23 federal agencies report on their meetings and conferences held dating back to 2005.
    •    Rep. Issa wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder requesting documentation for meetings and conferences: “As families around the country are having to spend less to make ends meet, the federal government must follow suit. The American people have an expectation that the federal government is not using their tax dollars to pay for lavish conferences or to fund the salaries of event planners.”
    •    U.S. Rep. John Mica, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said GSA officials spent a week in Hawaii for a one-hour ribbon-cutting ceremony, and issued a press release expressing concern about the Las Vegas conference and one held in Palm Springs. “The Las Vegas conference was the tip of the iceberg. GSA has been spreading the taxpayers’ wealth, providing luxurious junkets not only for high-level executives but for its interns as well.”
    •    U.S. Rep. Jeff Denham, chairman of the Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management Subcommittee:
“As we continue to learn of GSA’s extreme misuse of funds, now adding ‘opulent’ intern retreats to our taxpayers’ tabs, there must be serious action taken for this type of blatant waste of tax dollars by the General Services Administration.”

    •    Three Congressional hearings are scheduled for this week that will examine this controversy:
    ◦    House Oversight and Government Reform Committee; Monday, April 16;
    ◦    House Transportation Infrastructure Committee; Tuesday, April 17; and
    ◦    Senate Energy and Public Works Committee; Wednesday, April 18.

U.S. Travel’s  response included:
    •    U.S. Travel issued a statement calling for a measured response and reminding policymakers the issue is not about the value of travel.
    •    During the past week, meetings were held with members’ staff to encourage them to focus on government waste and poor decision-making, while at the same time asking members to reinforce the importance of government travel.
    •    U.S. Travel said it will coordinate with others in the industry to work with Congress to ensure that adequate oversight and ethical standards are in place for federal travel. “This is the only way that federal travel will continue,” Dow wrote.
      
“So far we have been successful; the debate has stayed focused on government waste. Travel is not being attacked as unneeded or frivolous. That said, expect federal agencies to be cautious. This is an election year where government spending will be a major issue. So this will be all about politics, politics, politics,” Dow said.

U.S. Travel urged companies to provide information, including:
    •    Has a federal agency cancelled a conference or meeting at your hotel, convention center or destination?
    •    Do you have a positive story about federal conference or meeting that stayed within the guidelines?
    •    Have you hosted a federal conference or meeting that provided value to the taxpayer – i.e. on issues of safety, national security, or government efficiency?

Relevant information should be sent to Erik Hansen, U.S. Travel’s director of domestic policy.

Visit www.ustravel.com

Related Links :

Congress to Probe GSA Travel Spending

GSA Scandal Could Impact Travel

Submitted by James Pham / UGC

Impala, Chobe, Botswana

James Pham spotted this beautiful impala while on a safari in Botswana’s Chobe National Park.

Pham told TODAY.com that he took the picture at 6 a.m. on an early-morning game drive. “It was the birthing time of year, so tons of impala and springbok babies were around, testing out their spindly new legs, bounding and leaping,” he said.

Still, it wasn’t easy to capture them on camera. “Taking photos of animals is frustratingly challenging because they never seem to do what you want or expect them to do,” he said. “This shot turned out perfect because the impala looked at me dead on.”

Pham writes about his travels and posts photos on his website fly, Icarus, fly.

If you have photos you’d like to share, submit them for a chance to be featured in our reader photo gallery.

In the meantime, be sure to check out this week’s It’s a Snap gallery and vote for your favorite photo.

More photos:

• Crater Lake in winter
• Famous Victoria Falls
• Snorkeling in the Bahamas

In November Twigmore, a New York City start-up launched a Facebook-based social travel service into a crowded field — helping people plan trips by turning to their friends. One of the site’s key features was the ability for people to reach out to friends of friends around the world to get on-the-ground tips from locals.

But after a recent update that included the release of a global friend map, the company realized its fortunes didn’t lie in simply spurring on more travel. Why? Because as much as people like to travel, they only do it a few times a year — and that’s not enough to support a business.

Now, the company is pivoting away from pure social travel to more of an international friend-finding service as it builds off the success of the friend map, which has become Twigmore’s most popular feature. Co-founder and CEO Stephen Smyth told me the service grew 220 percent after the map launched in March, with users responding well to the idea of finding a global friend — not just for travel but for all kinds of uses. He said it’s helping people discover pen pals, conduct language exchanges or find business opportunities as well.

Not enough travel

“People simple don’t travel enough and one of the common pieces of feedback was that they loved the (Twigmore) concept but they didn’t have a trip coming up,” Smyth said. “We decided we needed to create a core functionality that didn’t focus on the creation and management of trips. That’s why we hit on helping people generate a friend map and using that to explore their world. They can use that without having to actually travel.”

The friend map highlights where friends are around the world, as well as friends of friends who are on the Twigmore service. Users can message a person and become friends via Facebook. Twigmore — which gets its name from the Gaelic “twig”, to learn or understand — has 4.5 million profiles in its system through its connection of friends of friends. Facebook has the ability to search for friends by city, but most people don’t know about the feature, said Smyth. He added that social travel services are having to adapt to the fact that travel planning is not an everyday activity.

Other services are adjusting in different ways. Trippy and Wanderfly seem to be pursuing a Pinterest for travel approach with more of a graphic, picture-based look that let people get ideas about where to travel to. Gtrot, meanwhile, is shifting to more of local discovery with a Pinterest-style look as well. Gtrot’s co-founder Zachary Smith told TechCrunch earlier this month that almost half of its users were already turning to Gtrot to plan local outings.

“Local discovery as a space makes a lot more sense than some travel specific application that you can only use a couple of times a year,” he said.

New features to keep users coming back

It’s still too early to tell which approach will work. But the fact that so many social travel apps are changing direction seems to bolster Smyth’s point that there is not enough regular travel to power a social travel service. The key will be in what other features and tools these services can provide for users that keeps them coming back on a regular basis.

Twigmore, for its part, is betting that people want to branch more internationally and are interested in finding friends around the world. While that might not sound that interesting to many users, Smyth said younger demographics are more open to finding new friends abroad.

Twigmore, which is backed by $275,000 in angel funding, is still tiny, with only about 10,000 installations of its Facebook app. But if it can grow with its new friend-finding direction, it will further the argument that social travel services will need to expand to survive.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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LOS ALTOS, CA–(Marketwire – Apr 16, 2012) – TripInsurance.com (www.TripInsurance.com), the most trusted online resource to help travelers find the trip coverage they need at savings of 40% or more, today announced that LeaderSail (www.leadersail.org), a leadership development program that trains JROTC cadets at sea, has signed TripInsurance.com as the Preferred Provider for travel insurance for students participating in their programs.

Now in its fourth year, LeaderSail takes young men and women from JROTC programs around the country to the British Virgin Islands on one-week and two-week training voyages. The shipboard seamanship training is structured to build character and promote leadership skills in the cadets, but enrollees are required to carry some form of travel insurance, including travel medical coverage before they sail.

“When we decided to move our on-board training to the British Virgin Islands, we discovered that the insurance coverage that most students carried had exclusions that prevented coverage in case of emergency in the West Indies,” explains Wayne Walker, Program Director for LeaderSail. “Although we have never had a problem, we know accidents can happen. That’s why we require all our cadets to carry travel insurance in case of a medical emergency. We have found that TripInsurance.com offers the best rates and has the best customer service for our needs, and if students can’t provide their own insurance we know that TripInsurance.com will offer the coverage they need.”

According to Walker, TripInsurance.com was able to tailor its insurance packages to meet LeaderSail’s unique requirements, and make it easy for cadets to sign up for the insurance they need. The program requires that participants carry at least $25,000 in travel medical coverage and $250,000 coverage for medical evacuation. In addition to the medical travel insurance the program requires, TripInsurance.com also offers trip cancellation policies and other kinds of travel insurance that can prove extremely valuable to cadets who may be delayed in transit to meet the ship or in case of some other routine travel problem. And Walker says he has peace of mind knowing that he can reach an insurance representative by telephone at any time.

“LeaderSail has a unique insurance need that we can easily accommodate through our carrier network,” said Dan Skilken, President and CEO of TripInsurance.com. “And by making us a Preferred Provider, we can offer customized insurance packages at incredible rates that their cadets won’t be able to match elsewhere. This relationship allows us to work closely to create custom programs so everyone wins.”

About LeaderSail

LeaderSail is a leadership development program structured around sail training and marine exploration. The program was developed by JROTC instructors and tailored for cadets from all services — Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy. The program offers the adventure of a lifetime with hands-on leadership and seamanship training in the British Virgin Islands.

The LeaderSail program is open to teenagers participating in the JROTC program. For more information, visit www.leadersail.org.

About TripInsurance.com

TripInsurance.com is the online resource for comprehensive, comprehensible, and affordable travel insurance. Most travelers really don’t understand the details and benefits of travel insurance, and buy based on recommendations from their travel agent or a third party. TripInsurance.com simplifies buying travel insurance by providing comparison shopping online for the best coverage at the lowest prices. TripInsurance.com is committed to making insurance terms easy to understand, providing the best available coverage categorized by customers’ specific needs, and allowing travelers to buy direct from leading underwriters to achieve savings of 40% or more. The company is fully licensed for Property and Casualty, Life, and Accident and Health insurance in all 50 states, and the staff are fully trained and licensed insurance professionals.

For more information, visit www.tripinsurance.com.

Q: I’m a disabled traveler who makes hotel reservations about half a dozen times a year. I always reserve an accessible room, but recently it seems as if front-desk staff doesn’t know what that is. Two times in recent months, I’ve been put in rooms that didn’t have grab bars. One hotel told me none of the toilets in its accessible rooms had grab bars. Another clerk sent someone to check the bathroom before we went up, and he said there was a grab bar in the shower but not by the toilet. That grab bar was a towel bar. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect that I’ll be able to use the toilet in the room. What does the Americans With Disabilities Act mandate? And who trains hotel personnel?

– S. St. Laurent, Bakersfield, Calif.

A: If you read the Justice Department’s “2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design,” dated Sept. 15, and you’re not a detail person, you may be tempted to throw your hands into the air and screech, “Just do the right thing, for heaven’s sake.” Then you get a letter like St. Laurent’s and you understand that the mind-numbing detail is necessary and important. (For specifics, go to the standards at www.lat.ms/IhJkJt, and read Section 806 on “transient guest lodgings,” with references to sections 603-610, including 609, which addresses grab bars.)

Critics of the original Americans With Disabilities Act, signed into law in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush, have said the legislation was vague and some issues could be resolved only by litigation. The 2010 ADA standards provide a level of detail that the original law did not and cover some of the issues in making a hotel reservation.

“Until the 2010 standards became effective on March 15 of this year, the responsibility of a hotel to provide and guarantee reservations was somewhat clouded,” said Martin Orlick, a partner with Jeffers, Mangel, Butler Mitchell Global Hospitality Practice and the leader of the ADA compliance and litigation team. “There was no specific requirement that a reservation, once made, guaranteed the room you reserved would be made available.

“The current requirement, when someone books a specific type of room, is that room be ‘hard blocked’ and available,” Orlick said.

But how do you know you’re getting a room that will work for you? The hotel must list its accessible features, Orlick said. If grab bars are listed as a feature, the room is required to have them. One exception: condo hotels, because the units are individually owned and cannot fall under a hotelier’s umbrella.

Knowing the difference between a grab bar and a towel bar goes beyond a compliance issue, as St. Laurent suggested. But lodgings aren’t left in the wilderness when trying to comply. The American Hotel Lodging Assn. “provides training materials and tools that will help hotels,” said Kevin Maher, senior vice president of governmental affairs for the lodging association, which is based in Washington.

Hotel operators also know that making their properties accessible is good business. “I think probably a successful hotel operator is going to understand this is a growing demographic with the population aging and (with) advances in medical treatment and in mobility,” Maher said. “You are ahead of the curve if you have a property that meets these requirements.”

Because of employee turnover, it behooves a hotel to keep training in the fore. And it behooves the customer to ask and ask and ask again about accessibility features just to be sure. Should it be this way? No. But until the world understands – and this comes with knowledge and experience – some of the education process belongs to the customer. And then the customer can impress upon hoteliers that he or she will give business only to those places that go to the head of the class.

Have a travel dilemma? Write to travel@latimes.com. We regret we cannot answer every inquiry.