Port of call: Detroit...Hotels look better on web than in person: no kidding!

Spotted a story the other day from the Guest Editor of the USA Today Cruise Log, talking about Detroit is spending $21.5 million on its port to try to get small cruise ships to stop.

This,of course, made ME stop. Cruise ships? Detroit? Um, I don't know, but personally when I think of cruise ships I think of the Caribbean or the Greek Islands.

Of course, most folks can't afford such luxuries. And, in truth, there are some great day cruises you can take all over the world. Plying the waters of Lake Muskoka on the Segwun is one of the great treats in Ontario, and my Dad and Mom used to do some wonderful river cruises on the Mississippi.

I read a story in a Canadian magazine the other day about the re-birth of small ship cruising in eastern Lake Ontario, down around Kingston and up to Montreal and Ottawa, I believe. So I guess it's not surprising to hear about cruise ships on Lake Erie.

There's talk of a Detroit-Windsor ferry, and I think that's not a bad idea, either. Travelling on a boat, even if it's just a short jaunt to the Toronto Islands, is a great way to get around that somehow makes you feel free.

The USA Today story said one of the first arrivals in Detroit's port will be Blount Small Ship Adventure's Grande Mariner, a 96-passenger ship that's slated to call in Detroit on a nine-night, roundtrip cruise from Toronto. (see photo at right, courtesy of Travel Week).

I should be embarrassed, but I have never heard of this cruise line. I did a little googling and found that Blount has a nine-day cruise this summer out of Toronto that goes down the Welland Canal, through Lake Erie, then past Detroit and Sarnia and up into Lake Huron. The cruise stops in Goderich, Ontario and folks also can disembark in Detroit to see the marvellous Henry Ford Museum.

The trip finishes in Midland and folks get transported back to Toronto. It's not cheap - $3,189 was the price I saw. But it sounds like a fun way to see our neck of the woods.

IDIOTS ARE EVERYWHERE

Spotted another USA Today item this morning about how some folks were upset that hotel websites make their properties look better than they really are.

Wow. What a breaking news story that is? I mean, who would've thunk it? Next thing you know, we'll find out that newspaper columnists don't look as good as their picture.

I mean, honestly, people. Haven't you ever looked at these web sites? Geez, if you find a night when there's a perfect full moon and you sweep up the trash and hire a good photographer you probably could make a dump on Kingston Road in Scarborough look like the Ritz. Well, maybe not the Ritz, but at least decent.

It's called buyer beware, folks. Do some research. And, hey, if the website suggests it's $50 for a four-star hotel in San Francisco, maybe there's something fishy.

 

 

 

An epic Canadian battle begins...and what's up with Air Canada wi-fi???

An incumbent with a rich history and tons of power. A couple relative newcomers making enormous, glitzy splashes of their own.

Yes, there's a war on in Canada. But I'm not talking about the coming federal election, I'm referring to the downtown Toronto hotel wars. It's a great time to be in the travel biz in this city, with all sorts of new attractions, including: the relatively new ROM, the AGO addition, the Bell Lightbox, Rob Ford's mayoralty. Even better is the astounding rise of new hotels: The Thompson, the new Le Germain at Maple Leaf Square in the burgeoning, new Bremner Blvd. neighborhood if you want to call it that, a new Holiday Inn with lots of perqs for guests rising out of an older hotel on Carlton St. Toss in the new Four Seasons that's set to come and you've got some great hotel watching on the way.

I'm getting a kick out of the suite wars, if you like; the war-within-a war. As Star Travel guy Adrian Brijbassi pointed out in our pages a few days ago, the new Ritz-Carlton downtown has a 2,500 square foot suite that goes for $6,000 a night.

"The suite features an elliptical machine, a second bathroom for visitors, a Bose sound system with MP3 dock, and an impeccably decorated study with an iPad and library collection that suitably carries a volume of 'The Best Poems in the English Language,'" our man wrote. "The suite’s evening turndown service includes the laying out of sea salt and a soothing bottle of specially made bath oil, displayed amid candle light. The walls and heated floor of the immense master bath resemble a museum hall. Its mirrors feature embedded HDTVs and the shelves are saturated with Bulgari bottles."

Pretty impressive. But The Donald is not about to be trumped. As biz reporter Tony Wong points out in today's Star, the new Trump Tower on Bay St. will have 261 rooms and suites, including a 4,000 square foot suite with 11-foot ceilings and in-room design by the Italian group Fendi. The cost? A mere $21,000 per night.

Yikes. I hope there's free Internet and a nice bathrobe. Hell, for that price, you ought to get a laptop and an entire wardrobe from Harry Rosen.

Heckuva lot of fun to watch, isn't it? And, hey, since Adrian got to test out the Ritz I think it's only right that I get to bed down at the Trump Tower suite when it opens. Might even bring my own bottle of Henckell Trocken.

AIR CANADA WI-FI WOES?

I saw on Wednesday that United/Continental has plans for wi-fi on 200 planes, adding to the fleet of airlines that offer wi-fi. Virgin America, which sadly no longer flies to Toronto despite our remarkable hotel building, has had it for a couple years now, I think. Many airlines do.

Air Canada has been studying Internet for its planes since about the time of the Beatles' White Album but a spokesman on Wednesday said they're still examining their options. Geez, guys, can you BE any slower? Did you hire the folks in charge of scheduling workers at Pearson's Canadian customs booths at March break or something? You know, the guys who were SHOCKED to find thousands of Canadians returning from Cuba and Florida in the middle of the well-advertised school break? Or maybe you have secret plans for wi-fi that are stashed in a suitcase and you're still waiting for the bag to arrive on the conveyor belt at Pearson.

NEW ZEALAND FUN

Great night at Hemingway's in Toronto last night, where they were  donating 20 per cent of the take from dinner and drinks to the earthquake relief fund in Christchurch, New Zealand. I hadn't been to Hemingway's in a while and forgot how reasonably priced it is, especially for Yorkville. Very good pub-style food, as well.

Probably it's about time for someone to do something similar for the poor folks in Japan, if someone hasn't done so already....

 

 

Good time to book spring flights...Porn/tech groups jack up Vegas hotel prices

There's a very solid recovery in the Canadian airline business these days, with very nice numbers being posted in stock reports and other documents by Air Canada, WestJet and Porter.

The talk is that Canadians aren't going to get very many deals this summer because demand has rebounded and airlines don't feel the need to do deep discounts. So it might not be a bad time to think about a spring vacation, when flights could be cheaper than when the kids are out of school.

Air Canada sent out a note this morning advising of a 30 per cent off deal for Tango and Tango Plus fares for select North American flights, with flights available until June 26 (right about the time school ends). Flights have to be booked by Jan. 10, however, so you might need to get to work right away.

AC also has its worldwide sale still on, but the sale ENDS TODAY and is valid only for flights until April 20.

I checked out a fictional flight this morning on Air Canada and found a roundtrip Toronto to Los Angeles (see photo of Santa Monica beach) flight for April 22-29 for $473. Not rock bottom, but decent. And just fyi, late April is usually a nice time out in southern California.

PORN/TECH CONFERENCES MERGE TO DRIVE UP VEGAS PRICES

Wow. Make all the jokes you want, and I will, but it's pretty scary to see what's happening in Vegas this week. USA Today reports that a room at the Riviera hotel, near the convention centre, is going for $621, while next weekend, with the plumbers or just plain old visitors like you and me hanging about, it drops all the way down to $51.

The story is similar in other parts of town, with hotels that have been going for less than $100 suddenly demanding - and getting - $500 a night. But, then again, name two industries with as much oomph behind them as tech and porn, which pretty much go together when you think about how much sexual material is viewed on the web and all that.

Anyway, it's probably a bad day for booking a last-minute, weekend fling in Vegas. But if you love tech gear and want to check out the latest tablet that someone thinks will challenge the iPad, or if you enjoy gawking at women of a certain type (see photo of the porn convention at right) and if you have a friend who doesn't mind you sleeping on the couch, give it a shot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

More on the Mexico hotel explosion...Mexican authorities changing their tune?

I was a little suspicious of that swamp gas story.

When we got news yesterday of the hotel explosion near Playa del Carmen, south of Cancun in Mexico, I wrote in this space that it sounded a little strange. After all, hotels and other properties have been built near swamps or on former swamp land for years and we never hear of such explosions. It simply sounded odd to me when a state prosecutor and local officials blamed swamp gas.

I'm not saying this happened, but if I was a hotel operator I'd probably want to blame natural causes rather than anything operational. So perhaps the initial explanation was understandable. But today, according to recent reports in the Star, it appears it might have been another issue.

An authority for the federal Environmental and Natural Resources Secretariat (Semarnat) agency today said the problem likely was linked to an operational or maintenance issue at the hotel.

“I’m nearly 100 per cent sure that it was due to an operational problem in the hotel’s infrastructure, and not an accumulation of gas in underground caves,” said Gabriela Lima Laurents of Semarnat. “If that was the case, not only (the state of) Quintana Roo but the entire (Yucatan) peninsula would be in danger to explode or would have already blown."

Now, I'm going to put my suspicious journalist hat on again and make the following point. I have no idea what happened down there. But if you're a federal agency in a government somewhere, and you're worried about tourism in your country, the last thing you want is anyone thinking that a whole bunch of hotels could go "boom" at any moment. The best-case scenario would be that an explosion like this was simply human error and, thus, limited to one specific property. Like I say, I'm not judging anyone here. I'm simply pointing out that if the explosion at the Grand Princess Riviera Hotel was because of a problem at that hotel and that hotel only, it would make folks in Mexico tourism breathe a little bit easier. Don't you think?

That having been said, it sounds more plausible to me that there was a hotel malfunction than some issue with methane gas. I did, however, read a couple stories this morning about how scientists were suggesting that methane could be responsible, and they're a lot smarter than I am. Which leaves me rather perplexed and still very much of the opinion that we should all be diligent in researching and selecting vacations, and safety should be one of the criteria.

I''m not suggesting any particular country is at fault, but I'd probably feel better staying in a high-rise in a country where people are paid a decent wage and where there are firm standards for construction and maintenance of hotels and other tourist sites.

In the meantime, let's see how the investigations play out with the situation at hand....

FREE HOTEL ROOMS IF YOU GET FILMED IN BED?

I spotted a great item on the wires about how a Swedish porn king (didn't know they had any, but there you go) is touting the idea of building five-star hotels that people could stay in for free. It sounds too good to be true, and it is. The catch, however, is a wee bit unusual.

Berth Milton, who runs something called Private Media, says the rooms would be gratis only if guests agreed to have their sexual exploits broadcast on the web.

I dunno, Berth. There are a lot of people out there who would PAY to have their exploits broadcast on the web if you ask me. So I think you're, um, blowing an opportunity here to pad your pocketbook.

That issue aside, Milton isn't thinking small. He's talking about 100 properties and thinks each hotel could generate $43.8 million a year in subscriptions from folks watching at home. I can see one in Toronto, perhaps at, and you'll have to forgive me for this, Exhibition Place.

Milton says the hotels have to have a wide appeal, and here's a great quote.

"It has to be a hotel for non-swingers as well - not super-explicit where everybody's running around naked. That takes the style and class out of it."

God forbid we remove the class from such a stylistic, tasteful idea, Berth. Geez.

Milton says it's critical that the idea is, um, fully formed.

"The important thing is to go all the way - not halfway or a third of the way. Imagine how they were laughing at Steve Jobs and Bill Gates when they came up with their own ideas."

Good luck, Mr. Milton. The style gurus of the world are counting on you to do this right.

 

 

 

St. Lucia tourism riding high; new casino could do even more...Whistler changes

St. Lucia's tourism director was in town on Monday and we managed a few minutes over lunch.

"Canadian visits to St. Lucia are up 109 per cent" in the last year, Louis Lewis told me. "That's amazing at a time when many countries would be happy with a rise of nine per cent."

Yes, they would. Most of us would be happy with an increase of that size in our economic portfolios, too, but that's another story.

Lewis said they've made a concerted effort to boost tourism from North America and that U.S. visits were up 40 per cent so far this year compared with 2009; also a terrific number.

"We had a good winter, and summer outpaced winter for the first time," he said.

More flights - there are now four per day from Canada - have helped a lot. So has the boost given the country's website, stlucianow.ca, which earlier today was offering all-inclusive rooms for as little as $109 per night per person and was advertising fall deals of 60 per cent off.

As good as things are, Lewis said St. Lucia isn't standing still. A new casino north of Rodney Bay, on the northern part of the island, should open in December, the first casino on the island.

Casino City Times reports the casino will include 350 slot machines and 14 gaming tables and will be managed by Treasure Bay Corp. LLC of Biloxi, Mississippi. It's said to be about 15,000 square feet and will employ 300 full-time workers in St. Lucia.

I told Lewis about how I'd visited the country music bar in Castries, the Nashville Palace, when I was there and we chatted at length over lunch about his country's fascination with hurtin' tunes and how they don't like modern country music.

"There's a joke on the other islands that they can always tell who the St. Lucia workers are by turning off the Caribbean music at a club or bar at night and turning on a country-western song. If anyone dashes onto the floor for the country music, they're from St. Lucia."

Romance remains a huge part of the attraction of St. Lucia; not surprising when you see the beaches and forested highlands and the grand Pitons that dominate the skyline on the south end of the island.

WHISTLER CHANGES

Things are heating up, or , rather, cooling down nicely in Whistler, host (in part) of some pretty famous sporting events a few months back. The Olympics are firmly in the rear-view mirror, but the first FIBT World Cup events take place Nov 25-27 during Whistler's opening weekend, with bobsleigh and skeleton slated for the Whistler Sliding Centre. It will be great to see Canadian medallist Jon Montgomery in action, with or without a post-race beer on the main streets of town. For more information, check out the link.

Whistler/Blackcomb also has an Early Booking Offer, where guests can book by November 15, 2010 and receive the best deal of the season and a price guarantee. Lock in at the current rates, and if the price drops for the equivalent package during the season, they’ll match it. Families can save even more, as kids 12 and under stay, ski, rent, and receive airport transfers for FREE. Early booking packages are available from just $86CAD per person per night

Amber Turnau of Whistler/Blackcomb tells me they're "really looking at leveraging the awareness built up from the games (both internationally in Germany and Australia) and at home here in Canada."

Turnau says that based on a study conducted by Tourism Whistler in partnership with Tourism British Columbia, awareness of Whistler increased significantly in the key overseas markets of United Kingdom, Germany and Australia. The study measured awareness of Whistler before and after the 2010 Winter Games (November 2009, January 2010 and March 2010). Increases by market:
              - United Kingdom - awareness increased from 32 per cent to 45 percent
              - Germany - awareness increased from 19 per cent to 42 per cent
              - Australia - awareness increased from 48 per cent to 62 per cent.

Guests this season can ski/ride where the Olympians raced on the Dave Murray Downhill and Women’s DH, she points out. Not me, but thanks anyway.

GOOGLE TV AND GOOGLE TRAVEL?

A fellow Star worker was just telling me how Google is going to be available on TV's, or some such. It probably is already and I just don't know it. I remarked to her that I also had heard Google was getting into the travel business, which kinda scares me in a way I can't even begin to explain.

We both agreed we're totally screwed with technology once our kids leave home, although I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get the toaster to work all right.

TRANSPORTATION WOES in TORONTO

So, last Friday I get off the subway at Lawrence Station, and for the second time in a few weeks, only one of the escalators at the north end - five flights worth - was working. And it was, for the second time in a few weeks, the DOWN escalator that hardly anyone uses at rush hour. My goodness, folks, is is THAT hard?

Then, yesterday, BOTH escalators at the north end were out of service in the evening. Today, I went in the south entrance and one of the four escalators wasn't working. Glad to see my hard-earned tax dollars are being well-spent, guys.

It's also been a strange few trips. On Monday morning, some poor fellow sat on the floor of my subway car and cried and repeatedly banged his head. Poor fellow. On the way home, some guy stopped a buddy and I and looked at our Blackberries and wondered if we worked for the Secret Service. Today, a young Anglo woman started hurling racial epithets at a young, black woman, who wasn't taking any lip and gave it right back to her until the TTC finally had to call the cops and hauled the Anglo woman away, thank goodness.

Phew. Of course, on Sunday I tried driving into work and got caught up in the Toronto Marathon madness. Yes, the road closures were in the paper but would it have hurt the city to tell drivers that the Gardiner ramps to Yonge and Bay Sts. would be closed BEFORE WE GOT THERE and then found out we had to go to SPADINA and then double back in city traffic, only to find a huge backup of cars trying to get off the eastbound Gardiner at Jarvis? Just a couple signs, guys? Honestly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rising travel stars: Oslo, Kiev, Havana, Mexico City and London Ontario????

Okay, those are cities you don't over see sharing the same headline. But a couple reports that floated across my desk recently showed that those are among the cities (there are more surprises below, so stay tuned) that have seen the highest increase in searches at cheapflights.ca, cheapflights.com and cheapflights.co.uk.

It sounds kinda weird, but here are the numbers.

In North America, Havana in the first part of this year saw its number of searches at cheapflights.ca go up by 92 per cent. Mexico City searches jumped 83 per cent, which was TIED WITH OUR OWN LONDON, home to the University of Western Ontario Mustangs. Next in the North America category was Deer Lake, Newfoundland with 74 per cent more searches this year than last, followed by Kelowna and Abbotsford B.C. at 70 percent, and a three-way tie between Toronto, Hamilton and Fredericton, New Brunswick, at 67 per cent.

A word of warning here is that these were searches for flights, not necessarily expressions of interest in flying to and staying in those destinations. London is a growing hub for southern Ontario, so perhaps some folks simply wanted to fly in or out of London. But it's also getting bigger by the day, and folks down there tell me there are fine hotels and restaurants, so perhaps some people were looking for an alternative to Toronto.

Cheapflights.ca site editor Oonagh Shiel said in a press release that sites such as London, Deer Lake (a lovely part of Newfoundland, by the way) and Kelowna (a stunning part of B.C.) are making a recovery from the 2009 economic downtown and also have had successful promotional efforts and additional flights, which is what I suspected was part of the increased search numbers.

As for the bottom feeders, cheapflights.ca found that searches for some major American destinations were way down in the first part of 2010, suggesting folks were taking vacations within Canada. Clearwater, Florida searches were down a rather dramatic 24 per cent, while those for Detroit (gee, imagine that) were down 18 per cent and searches for Raleigh-Durham were down 17 per cent.

Traffic on the sister sites of cheapflights.com and cheapflights.co.uk also showed some interesting results. Searches in 2010 were up 149 per cent for Oslo, Norway (see photo at right) over the 2009 numbers, while searches for Kiev, Ukraine went up 142 per cent and searches for Budapest jumped 129 per cent. Tirana, Albania, for goodness sakes, went up 124 per cent. (In all seriousness, I've heard Albania can be pretty cool. Still a bit dodgy in terms of service, but a lovely coastline with a quarter of the crowds of nearby Croatia).

HOTWIRE CANADIAN HOTEL STUDY

Hotwire.com has issued its August hotel price survey for Canada. The company found that rates in Halifax dropped 15 per cent compared to August, 2009, with a 3.5 star property being available for just $84. Prices in Barrie dropped 12 per cent with a 3-star property going for $83, while prices in Oshawa-Whitby fell nine per cent. A three-star property in Oshawa-Whitby could be found for $72 this month, they said.

London, which I mentioned above as a hot search spot on cheapflights.ca, saw a 5 per cent drop in hotel rates in August, according to hotwire. The company said a 3.5 star property in London could be had for just $74, and that's pretty good.

MY KINGDOM FOR A FRIDGE

A study by J.D. Power and Associates and Homewood Suites by Hilton found that complimentary Internet (HOORAY) is the most important in-room amenity these days. Which makes sense in our plugged-in world, and in a world where more and more of us are working late into the evening.

In addition to talking about free Internet (DID I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR ON HOW I THINK HOTELS AROUND THE WORLD NEED TO MAKE THE INTERNET FREE?), a whopping 83 per cent of those surveyed said they often work in the evenings or on weekends, an increase of 11 per cent over figures in 2000. Which suggests Europeans are right; us folk in North America take work far too seriously.

Anyway, in addition to FREE INTERNET, the survey found folks really want an in-room kitchen, stocked with requested food. Of course, they're all working til midnight and have mortgages to pay to greedy banks and can't afford to eat out, so it makes sense they want a kitchen.

Respondents also said they could use a microwave, as chances are that even if they DO make a meal in their in-room kitchen the boss will call and demand an hour of their time while their spaghetti with Ragu sauce goes cold on the counter and congeals into a massive, cold mountain of glue.

I've never stayed in one of their properties, but Homewood folks say they've begun something called "Distinctly Homewood" enhancements, with a "30-day rotational menu which includes a daily, full hot breakfast and evening meal with drinks every Monday-Thursday." They say they also have  added better TV's in the rooms, as well as granite countertops, wood laminate flooring, better bedding and improved fitness equipment.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND TRAVEL - A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN...

I guess spending a little time on Facebook can be a good thing, after all. I don't use it much, although it's occasionally fun to check up on old friends. But there's an item today in USA Today that talks about how folks are finding money-saving deals on hotel facebook pages.

I went this morning to the pages for Canadian-based Fairmont and Delta and didn't see any immediately obvious discounts being offered up. But Barbara De Lollis at USA Today reports that "business-travel blogger Gary Leff believes it pays off nicely. Leff just nabbed a terrific deal at the InterContinental Montelucia Resort & Spa in Paradise Valley, Ariz. He found a $99 nightly rate by acting on the individual hotel's Facebook page promo - and if that wasn't cheap enough, the promo also gave him a $25 daily room credit.

Though the $99 promo rate gave him a room in the cheapest category, Leff - an elite-level loyalty member said the hotel gave him a far nicer Oasis Village Suite."

She also points out that the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville gives out 15 per cent discounts to folks who join their Facebook page.

I don't quite get it, but Loews Hotels Facebook page apparently details an offer of 38 per cent (huh?) discounts on wine either by the glass or the bottle, on Wednesday nights. I dunno maybe Wednesday's are traditionally slow for wine sales? Anyway, there clearly are deals out there, which means us old folks can't simply sit back and make fun of kids who spend so much time on Facebook. There clearly are advantages to be gained.

Twitter, of course, gets rightfully derided for the idiotic postings of people who can't decide between cinnamon-raisin and poppyseed bagels at the local deli. But you also can find great deals. Virgin America is quite keen on it, and recently gave away free flights to influential Twitterers who might help them spread their message about being the airline for cool people. Again, not like me.

Air Canada adds New Orleans/Harry Potter in Orlando/Europe's ugly people

Good news for the Louisiana tourism folks: Air Canada today said it will launch daily, non-stop service to new Orleans starting Oct. 30.

They'll only be flying Jazz CRJ's with 75 seats, but they say it still marks the only non-stop, daily service between the Big Easy and the Big Smoke. Flights depart Toronto at 9:50 a.m. and arrive at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (beats the heck out of Lester Pearson in Toronto for names, doncha think?) at noon; just in time for a drink! Flights out of New Orleans depart at 12:35 and get into Toronto at 4:20 p.m., just in time to hasten downtown for dinner on West Queen West. Which means it's good news both for Louisiana and for Toronto, of course.

"New Orleans was recently voted one of the top ten cities to visit in the U.S. and Canada by the well-respected Travel + Leisure magazine and there are also important business connections between New Orleans and Canada," said Ben Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer for Air Canada.

"There is a special relationship between Canadian travelers and New Orleans, making Canada our number one international market," said Stephen Perry, president and CEO of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau.

This marks the eighth Air Canada daily service expansion to the U.S. this year. Earlier, AC added Orange County (Santa Ana) and San Diego in California, plus Portland (Oregon), Memphis (Tennessee), Cincinnati (Ohio), Portland (Maine) and Syracuse. They've also added service to Athens and Barcelona this year and non-stops to Copenhagen.

WestJet a few days back, I'm reminded, said they'll start four-weekly flights from Toronto to New Orleans, and back, with an introductory fare of $139, so there should be plenty more Canadians heading down for beignets and crayfish.

On a related note, I see that the folks with the Mississippi Tourism Board are launching a major campaign to lure folks to the state, no doubt because of concerns that the oil spill is hurting travel. The television spot, “Wish You Were Here,” is the highlight of an aggressive, multi-platform, tourism campaign running in 15 regional markets, including Atlanta, Tampa-St. Petersburg and Memphis, with a media budget of $4.2 million.

Not sure they realize how important Canada is to their market, as I don't see any mention of the true north in the press release....

MAXIMUM MUGGLES AT HARRY POTTER PARK

Seems like the Harry Potter park at Universal in Orlando is going gangbusters. A story in the Orlando Sentinel says folks have been warned to avoid The Wizarding World of Harry Potter until late afternoon lest they spend too much time in line clogging up the place.

It's a nice boost, as attendance had slid 23 per cent over the previous five years, the paper said.

Park officials are scrambling to find the best way to keep crowds down, sometimes handing out tickets for people to line up later in the day.

OOPS - MY MILAN MISTAKE

I wrote in this space yesterday that I was quite surprised to see Milan named as the third most attractive city in Europe in a poll of tripadvisor users. I didn't see the fine print, so I apologize. The category wasn't most attractive city but city with the most attractive locals, which explains Milan finishing third behind Rome and Barcelona. Milan's a decent place to visit, but it would hardly be classified as one of the top three attractive cities in Europe.

I also had the label wrong for least attractive. I said the least attractive cities were Krakow, Birmingham and Gdansk, but those are actually the results for the least attractive locals. The hallowed buildings of those three cities should be relieved, but the men and women who live there probably feel a little insulted.

I noted Tuesday that the three dirtiest cities were listed as Athens, Istanbul and Rome. I didn't realize that London was named dirtiest city in the 2009 poll, so let's give them a round of applause for a good tidying-up job in the past year. London came third in the "safest city" category this year, finishing behind only Geneva and Zurich.

So, to recap, London was named #1 for worst cuisine (undeserved), #1 for most exciting (seems fair, although I'd pick Barcelona), #1 for best to get around, #3 for safest and #1 for most expensive. Quite the combination.

SOCIAL MEDIA TRAVEL

A recent poll by Travelocity found that more than half of all travelers share vacation information through social media. But nearly 30 per cent have either never thought about precautions or don't take any precautions when posting about their holidays.

"It's only natural to want to share your excitement about an upcoming trip on social media sites," said Travelocity senior editor Genevieve Shaw. "But it's probably safest to wait until you return to share the details of the trip."

Guess all those "Hey, we're packing up the kids and heading to New Brunswick but leaving the key under the mat" messages on Facebook aren't such a great idea.

BUT THERE'S NO SHORTAGE OF MOOSE...OR BEER

Newfoundland (see photo at right of Cape Spear on a picture-perfect day) is doing well this summer in terms of tourism. Maybe too well, as there are reports of a shortage of rental cars.

"Some of the car dealerships are booked for the latter part of July and into the early days of August," Tourism Minister Terry French said Tuesday in an interview with Canadian Press. "We're not totally sold out yet. You may have to shop around. It may take you a little bit of time, but hopefully we can do our best."

I hate it when people speak in those kind of vague terms. "Hopefully we can do our best?" Of course, you'll do your best. "Hopefully, we'll buy some friggin' cars" is more like it, although that's still a misuse of the word "hopefully."

Anyway, it's like the TTC guy that comes on and says they hope to have service restored as soon as possible. No kidding. What would be more meaningful is to say "We hope to have serviced restored in five minutes." Or "We hope to have service restored in a half hour so you don't have to sit next to the guy that last showered when the Liberals were in power in Ottawa."

If you have no idea, just say, "We WILL have serviced restored as soon as possible."

Right?

A Blackberry fit for a queen...Honolulu #1...Google turns sights on travel. Hmm...

I got a charge out of the folks at Blackberry giving Queen Elizabeth a new device. Apparently it's a Blackberry Bold, and a sleek-looking white one.

Best of all? Apparently they only made her sign a two-year contract.

Bah-dah-boom.

HONOLULU LULU

USA Today has an item today about a contest that was done to name the top American destination. This being America, they did it like an NCAA basketball bracket, putting cities up against other cities in a winner-take-all format and letting the top cities advance to the next round of voting. The final eight, or elite eight to use the NCAA vernacular, were Washington D.C., the Grand Canyon, Charleston, San Francisco, New York, Santa Fe, Yellowstone National Park and Honolulu.

The Big Apple was ousted by D.C. in the next round of voting, while Honolulu dusted off San Francisco. The final four were D.C., Honolulu, Yellowstone and Charleston. It came down to Honolulu versus Yellowstone in the final, and the Hawaiian capital came in with a smashing, 77-22 per cent voting win. A landslide and a half.

I like Yellowstone a lot. But it's hard to compare geysers, lakes and bears with mai tai's, hula dancers,  sunsets and Waikiki Beach in my book. Yellowstone is better for nature, sure, but lots of folks don't know how close Honolulu is to some incredible natural areas. The north shore has small resorts and big waves, and there's tremendous hiking. The path up Diamond Head to watch the sunrise from the crater rim is one of the great experiences of my life, and it's an easy climb. I love the enthusiasm on the face of the girls I took a picture of just after the sun rose above the Pacific, lighting up Waikiki to the west.

I did the Diamond Head hike a year or so ago, and it was far more rewarding than my fog-filled view from top of Haleakala on Maui with my Dad one fateful morning many years ago. The park ranger at Haleakala, where hundreds of folks gather for what is said to be one of the top sunrises in the world, said it's only fogged in a few times a year. We picked the wrong day, but we did have a nice breakfast at the Pukalani golf course on our way back to our west Maui condo as I recall. Right, Dad?

The Hawaii folks pushed their cause with Honolulu fans on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites, said tourism spokesman Nathan Kam.

"As we monitored the online buzz, we felt we might have a bit of an edge over the Yellowstone community since the black bears, elk and bighorns don't seem to very active in social networking."

Good line.

GOOGLE GOES TRAVEL

I gotta admit I find this fascinating...and a little bit scary. But with Google having purchased ITA Software, a hugely influential company most of don't know, all sorts of folks who are smarter than me are trying to figure out what those crazy Californians have in mind.

A story on openjaw.com quoted an unnamed Canadian expert as saying it's "the biggest change in travel distribution since the birth of the Internet," which sounds pretty interesting.

A piece I spotted on travelmole.com said that "travel meta-search engines such as Kayak" are likely to be impacted more than sites such as Expedia or Priceline, where providers don't allow users to book directly.

But the impact will be lessened on sites such as Orbitz, Expedia and Priceline, where providers don’t allow users to book with them directly, analysts say. 

“It seems that meta-search, rather than bookings, would be easiest for Google,” said the Wall Street Journal.

I'd suggest that what Google really has in mind is world domination, but they already have that.

THAT'S A LOT OF MUFFINS

Great story out of Moscow says the Russian sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, paid for 97 breakfasts during a 20-night stay at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Vancouver while he was there for the Winter Olympics. His bill came to $4,500, which is high even for Vancouver.

What was this guy thinking? I mean, if you're trying to pad your expanses why not get a bunch of blank taxi chits like the rest of us (sorry boss, that's a joke). But, no, this guy charges for nearly five breakfasts every day on top of a suite that cost $1,400 a night.

He spent an average of $46 for breakfast! I've seen plenty of hotels that charge $25 for a buffet or $15 for bacon and eggs, but 46 dollar breakfasts five times a day is pretty impressive.

One can only imagine his mini-bar tab.

Gay Pride Parade New York; a time as had by all...Linda Barnard in Iceland!

OTTAWA (BUT MOSTLY NEW YORK, REALLY) – Don’t ask me why I’m filing from Ottawa when I should be at the Toronto Star Amateur Golf tournament media day. But it has something to do with terrible weather in Toronto and two aborted landings at the Island Airport Sunday night. That’s nobody’s fault. But the situation was horribly handled by Porter Airlines, so I’ll do more on that later today if and when I get a chance.

In more colourful news, I’m happy to say I’m no longer a Gay Pride parade virgin.

I’ve always meant to check out the Pride parade in Toronto; I just never got around to it. (For information on the parade and pride week in general, which has already begun here in T.O., check out The Star's special Pride Week section) But Sunday it was Pride Day in New York, and my travel bloggers conference had a lunch break from noon to 1:30. The parade route came down Fifth Ave. and turned at 13th St., just a block from where our conference was held at NYU.

So instead of sitting down to pizza or a salad or a sandwich, I grabbed a steamed hot dog (Toronto’s are better) and a bottle of water and found a shady spot to watch the parade. It took about 40 minutes for the motorcyclists to show up to kick things off, but it was pretty fun.

There were a couple hundred motorbikes, mostly looking pretty menacing with colourfully garbed folks on top. One older guy and a guy with a shaved head riding on the back stopped for a mid street smooch, while a woman of a certain age with breasts of a certain size rode past bare-breasted. That was the only nudity I saw in about a half-hour of parade watching. Maybe I missed it, but it seemed pretty tame compared to the stories I’ve heard in Toronto.

I enjoyed the running commentary from a guy with a p.a. system near Washington Square. When a bunch of guys came by tossing lavender flags in the air in unison, he yelled out, “Hey, it’s the flaggots. Hi, flaggots!”
It was all in good fun, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves on a hot but just-shy-of-sultry day in Manhattan.

One question: Are so many “floats” in the Toronto parade sponsored? The New York version had Kiehl’s body products and something called Green Chimneys, as well as Delta. The Delta folks had a banner that ready “Fly Out to the World, " which was clever.

I wanted to get a cab back to my hotel in lower Manhattan but they were impossible to find so I hopped on the number six train. I forgot that some stations in New York are only for northbound service and others for southbound, so visitors often end up wandering about trying to find the right station. And I don’t think they’re marked nearly well enough; not as well as Toronto from the outside, and certainly not as good as London or Paris in terms of overall routing information I don’t think. At least the air conditioning worked, but I walked a half mile to get from one line to another in the heat of the underground maze on Saturday, then found the three-storey escalator was busted.

Anyway, it’s always great to get into the energy of New York City, and this weekend was no exception. I topped it off with a great pizza at Harry’s Italian on Gold Street, across from the Gild Hall hotel by Thompson. Great, Napoli-style pizza with a thin crust (a touch too burned, however), a tasty mozzarella, fresh basil leaves and a lovely tomato sauce.

 

TBEX BLOGGERS CONFERENCE

Thanks to the folks who put on a great Travel Bloggers Exchange 2010 conference in New York City on the weekend. Lots of good speakers, even if I didn't fully understand all the jargon.

It was the second gathering of travel bloggers from (mostly) North America, and they'll do it again next June in...Vancouver.

 

Vancouver and B.C. tourism folks were sponsors of this year's event in NYC, as was the Canadian Tourism Commission. They gave out bagels and coffee on the street Sunday morning, which was a nice touch.

 

“We're interested in what bloggers have to say,” said Amber Sessions of Vancovuer tourism. “And, yes, we kind of like to be cutting edge.”

 

There were tons of Canadians in the audience this weekend, by the way, including regular Star contributor Heather Greenwood Davis, as well as the enormously respected Evelyn Hannon, who has a web site for women travellers called journeywoman.com.

 

Too bad Toronto didn't get involved for TBEX 2011. But Toronto is hosting the CTC's Go Media event in August; bringing together media from all over to learn about Canadian destinations.

 

LINDA BARNARD IN ICELAND

Star entertainment reporter and mad gal about town Linda Barnard is flitting about Iceland in fine style, avoiding volcanoes and trying her best to get into a bit of trouble. Here's a link to her latest blog...

http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-509864.html