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The New York Times Travel Show is primarily a marketing vehicle for travel bureaux and large travel companies. Niches are represented by high-end tour operators. The attraction for me is the seminars from travel personalities. Given commercial considerations, there are a lot of fluff seminars by representatives of companies. I skip those. It is amazing how dull a travel bureau can make a destination. There are also travel media personalities and I enjoy seeing what they are like in person, at least those who do not stick to canned presenations. Lastly, a few practical seminars slip in. The travel show was a month ago, I have carried my notes around the world for a month and want finally to type this up.
My highlight is Arthur and Pauline Frommer. As with the year prior, they gave one talk on industry developments and one on destinations.
Mr. Frommer is a delight of info and quips. He has special dislike for mega cruise ships with no place to quietly read, “middle aged men hurtling themselves into water chutes.” He sees the cruise lines as run by “avaricious executives hell bent on converting cruise ships in amusement parks,” and wonders, “why is it even necessary for these ships to go to sea?” See his blog post for further.
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@milesforfamily – any particular cruise line you favor?
I really like Holland America. It’s geared toward older traveler, so not quite as tacky as Carnival. It appeals to more “refined” crowd, but the price is still reasonable. Not to confuse “refined” with “stuck up.” 🙂 Last time we went, they actually had a group that played violins! Honestly, I like cruising because you can do your own thing. We usually get a balcony and just sit there away from everyone.
I would have loved to attend this event, especially the session with Arthur Frommer. As far as his attitude towards mega cruise ships, I agree and disagree. Yes, they are artificial, packaged and very unclassy.
However, they are also affordable and perfect for families. If you ever have kids, you’ll understand. Entertaining them is a challenge and those huge ship behemoths are great! Plus, you see several ports without packing and unpacking, another plus.
Wow, the Indian Rupee is now 60 to the dollar? It was around 50 a few years ago and I thought that was cheap. Another country where the USD is strong at the moment is South Africa. It’s currently 10.5 ZAR to 1 USD whereas just a year ago it was 8.8. I agree with you on this RTC. I went to the NY Times Travel show last year and felt most of the ‘destinations’ were more like travel pitches. The best part for me at the time was going to the Points Guy’s presentation on cc stuff. I didn’t… Read more »
@Joey – yeah, last time I was in India for pleasure it was 43 to 1. At 60 it is tremendous value, which is partly why I took advantage of a friend’s welcoming home to spend several weeks there now. Even most domestic flights are under $100 which given the limited award options, means I can jet around rather than always dealing with the slow trains.
I was not aware South Africa has appreciated like that. Good time to go.
Since when is Japan cheap. When we were in Japan ten years ago, the Yen was trading at 120 yen to the dollar. Now it’s roughly 101 to the dollar. The dollar is worth less today vs in 2003. Japan is expensive.
You want cheap, go to Thailand.
@dahmmer53 – I should have made clear that he meant these countries are relatively cheap compared to what they have been in recent years. The fx rate in Japan was much better a decade ago, but worse for us more recently. With the Japanese economy sluggish prices have been stagnant for some time, so when I was there last November after several years away I did not feel the sting as much as past trips. For those who really want to see Japan this is a decent time.
Greenberg was an asshole and half the stuff he talked about was either somewhat or completely wrong.
@Paul – I was most perplexed by the lengthy repositioning flight thing, he’s going to have all these people calling for repositioning flights when I assume they are quite rare.