The Travel Industry Association of America came out with their most recent report on American travel expenditures. In 2005 (Yeah, seems a year late to me too) American travelers spent $654 Billion here and abroad, and the total amount of economic activity related to traveling is $1.3 trillion. That’s a pretty decent chunk of change. The report has some pretty interesting statistics that are fun to know. (more…)

You are probably not aware, but the online travel agency giants (Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc.) are in a bit of a struggle with, really, the hand that feeds them. San Jose’s MercuryNews.com has an article about the quiet struggle for market share that online travel agencies are having with (more…)

As I was mulling around on the internet after returning from my short time away (reason for infrequent posting, sorry) I ran across an interesting travel discussion on Slashdot fueled by the following question.

“I’m planning to spend a year backpacking around the world and the hardest question I have to answer is: What technology do I take with me? Aside from the obvious (digital camera, ipod, et. al.) what technological devices would you you take? Specifically, I wonder if I should bring my nice and shiny MacBook Pro. I can think of lots of uses for it (offloading pix, updating weblog, email, etc.), but I’m worried it will be lost or stolen along the way. Does anyone have experience with travel while toting technology?”

So should travelers Backpack around with a Laptop?

The (more…)

The following is a paid review:

Eurobookings.com is a European hotel reservations site that includes hotels over most of Europe, including the major destinations like Paris, France, Amsterdam, and London.

They seem like a pretty solid online booking service, with a plethora of European hotel options. The site is very clean, not overloaded with graphics, and simple to navigate. It’s also got every feature needed to book a hotel room: Reviews, ratings, popularity, hotels near by, map, photos, descriptions, currency converter and language options. Like I said, everything.

But now for what you really want to know about: Price. Eurobookings prides themselves on being cheaper than hotels.co.uk. Well, I put that to a quick test by comparing prices for Hotel Concorde La Fayette in Paris, France. After a few conversions, Eurobookings definitely was cheaper. Here are links to the prices compared:

• Hotels.com Concorde La Fayette
• Eurobookings Concorde La Fayette

One notable aspect, unlike booking hotels online at Expedia or Hotels.com, is that Eurobookings does not require you to pay for your hotel room upfront at your checkout. Instead, you pay once you stay there, so you keep your money in pocket. Definitely cool. Here’s the text from the website:

Flexible payment
We request no payments in advance and will not charge your credit card. Your credit card is only required to guarantee your booking. Therefore you can keep your money in your pocket until you pay for your stay at the hotel by all the usual forms of payment.

No surprises
The reservation service of Eurobookings is free of charge. So therefore no additional fees are added to the room price, nor will we be charging you a cancellation fee.

So drawbacks? Well, when simply booking hotels, there are none. If you’re looking to book travel packages, however, you will need to use other booking services, since Eurobookings doesn’t offer flights or car hires. Also, if they offered hostel bookings, the service would be that much better.

But Eurobookings is a solid online booking website that caters to any travelers looking to get a good hotel rate across the pond.

India Railways is taking on the same battle that its buddies in Europe are: defeat the budget airlines. Last week Europe I posted how Europe rail travel is positioning itself for a comeback with its new high speed rail expansions.

Well, Indian Railways is gearing up for a similar battle, but with an even more aggressive plan to win over budget travelers. And…it sounds like a good one.

The plan actually began in 1998, and targets the very thrifty budget travelers and backpackers, as well as the premium / high class travelers.There 4 tier plan includes:

1. Four High Speed Railroad links - They are testing some real fast ones that could cut travel time very nicely.

2. 100 Budget Hotels on unused land owned by the railway - In a public-private partnership, Indian Railways will lease land to private developers to create a 100 budget hotels along the rail routes. This ensures that travelers will not be required to stray too far away from the lines to find a cheap place to stay. Win-win for budget travelers and the government.

3. A campaign to increase cleanliness of travel - Good. Many people often picture railways to be crusty and dirty, and they probably have a good reason to do so. A public campaign will mandate cleanliness, giving travelers confidence.

4. Reservation and Fare changes - These changes are suppose to be pretty drastic compared to how Indian Railways previously operated. They will employ many new computer booking kiosks, smart cards, and better phone information and reservation systems. For the fare changes, fares are expected to be reduced a little bit, which is always good.

So this shows the railways haven’t been ignoring their loss in market share to the budget airlines over the past few years. If this continues it can only help the cause of the budget backpacking traveler. Sweet…The original story is from the Bangkok post, but the site is down at the moment.