Airport Security's New Measures

When I heard the words full body scanner, I immediately cringed. Even worse are the words full body pat down.

Unfortunately for many travelers these words are becoming a reality. At more and more major airports full body scanners are being installed. With these new scanners come a slew of problems. Passengers feel violated by the scanners, which expose the traveler. Even still a full body pat down might occur which now includes the search of private areas.

Needless to say...travelers are not all smiles.

A CNN employee Rosemary Fitzpatrick described her experience and said she almost cried. The embarrassment from the pat down brought her to tears and said she "felt helpless, felt violated and felt humiliated".

TSA is saying that the intensive pat downs are necessary to resolve any issues preliminary security might find. However, this might be too much.

Fitzpatrick's strip down is happening everywhere and people are not thrilled. The comment section on Fitzpatrick's story was filled. Readers lent their two cents and the issue has people split. Many readers agree with Fitzpatrick and think that the strip searches are incredibly debasing and for the most part unnecessary. Many comments said that the pat downs were a show put on by the TSA to make passengers feel safer. Other users said they would gladly handle some discomfort to ensure safety for all fliers.

Full body scanners are a mixed bag as well. The TSA has praised these machines, as “an excellent piece of technology that will significantly improve our detection capabilities” according to Gale Rossides the TSA’s acting administrator. The machine is said to have already found 60 “artfully concealed” prohibited items.However, not everyone is as convinced as the TSA is. A pilot for ExpressJet Airlines, Michael Roberts, recently refused the full body scan stating that it violated his fourth amendment. He and the TSA are currently engaged in a lawsuit over the incidence. Roberts said "Evidently my refusal to show them my whole naked body and my uncomfortableness with them putting their hands on me was a big deal”.

An image of what the scanner shows...a little to up close and personal

A main concern for many fliers is that while the scanner machines come set to not record or store images, they can easily be changed to do so. Another main issue is the threat of radiation the machine emits. Complaints have been heard wide and far throughout the Internet. Like the full body pat downs many believe the scanners are an intrusion of privacy and an ineffective way to detect threats.

Airport security is never a fun topic. However, threats occur and safety must come first. The battle between privacy and security has been an ongoing one and these measures are sure to be addressed in the future in a court of law. What do you think about these new measures?

Terrorism the Media and Tourism

Unfortunately, terrorism happens. This week I'll be looking at the effect terrorism has on tourism and how the media over-inflates and downplays the events. I picked Thailand to focus on since it has had both peaceful and turbulent times over the past few years.

Always a favorite vacation spot, political riots broke out in Thailand bringing forth a hail of panic from many countries chief among them, Britain. The UK went so far as to tell their citizens in April of 2010 to cease all non-essential travel. The travel organization Abta announced that in lieu of the UK's proclamation that travelers going to Thailand anyways would not be covered by travelers insurance.

A Telegraph article (A UK newspaper) said that the Foreign Office described the situation as “volatile and [the FO] recommends that British nationals in Thailand or planning to travel to the country check the travel advice on the embassy website regularly for details for further developments”

However, not everyone considers this situation as dangerous as the Brittish government does. CEO of travel site TravelFish, Stuart McDonald said the following in an interview with a UK based newspaper about the country’s reaction to the protests.

““It beggars belief that the (UK’s) FCO truly believes a blanket ban on ‘non-essential’ travel to Thailand is warranted. The vast majority of the country remains utterly unaffected by the disquiet in Bangkok. The move is completely irresponsible and actively damages both the UK’s outbound and Thailand’s inbound tourism industries. It may well also invalidate the travel insurance of tourists who are already there and travelling responsibly to safe places. The situation remains volatile, but as it stands this is an absolute over-reaction by the FCO.”

In addition a Lonely Planet discussion board showed many travelers didn’t think the situation was as dangerous as the media was making it out to be. Many users argued that if you stayed away from areas known for protest then you would be perfectly safe…and able to rake in on the excellent travel deals Thai hotels were offering.

Thailand tried to tell their side of the story in an interview with tradearabia.com. The director of tourism authority of Thailand, Pramoth Supyen, said visitors had nothing to fear due to “'Thainess' or the Thai way of life which is always warm and welcoming to visitors. Within Thailand there can sometimes be domestic disputes that over escalate and when they do they are always regrettable, but they are never directed at international guests intentionally by either side.” He also mentioned the initiative taken by the Thai government offering travelers insurance up to $10,000, in the absence of insurance offered by typical travel agencies.

All in all the media has blown up this controversy portraying Thailand as a country in turmoil dangerous to natives and foreigners alike. The situation is nowhere near this dire and as a result from the media’s fearmongering the Thai economy has been hit hard in its tourism sector. While countries do need to warn their citizens of possible hazards abroad, in my opinion the UK went completely overboard and directly harmed tourism when it was not necessary. Instances like this happen all the time, take the swine flue in Mexico, it is up to us to carefully analyze the situation and not depend entirely on the media. Who knows what they’ll be saying?

The Importance of Offering Breakfast

CNN Travel just released an article about hotels and their inclusion of free breakfast. Being an avid traveler and a very enthusiastic breakfast fan I was immediately drawn in.

According to the article, I’m not alone.

Seventy percent of leisure travelers think included breakfast is extremely important and 65 percent of business travelers think the same. Unfortunately this trend is only open to some sections of the market. These free breakfasts are really only offered on mid level hotels, the more you pay it seems the less you get. Upscale hotels have restaurants in them, but to eat at them you must pay. Only four percent of luxury hotels offer this free hot breakfast, which seems a bit backwards.

The hot breakfast trend has developed from competing chains trying to outdo one another. Hotels offer a new item to draw in customers so the other hotels start carrying it, be it hot waffles, eggs or custom made omelets. For example, Embassy Suites has marketed their custom made omletes so strongly that it has become "such a powerful part of the brand" according to Scott Smith a former Embassy Suites employee and professor at the University of Central Florida's Rosen College of Hospitality Management. Customers have come to really appreciate these breakfasts; it can often be the deciding factor between one hotel and a comparable one. With decisions forming based on breakfast, it’s a cheaper way for hotels to draw in guests after all its easier to make somebody an omelet then drop room prices.

Having traveled around a lot, I would have to agree that complimentary breakfast is pretty important. When traveling the last thing you want to do is wake up in the morning in a strange place and have to search around for food. While the food search has gotten easier with location based phone applications, those don’t always work when abroad and you never know exactly what you’ll get. I was a notoriously picky eater as a child and knowing that my cereal and eggs would be the same at the hotel as they were at home was not only reassuring to me, but a life saver for my parents.

The bottom line is that the development of breakfast in the hotel industry has hit full force in mid value hotels but luxury hotels are still holding out and patrons will have to look elsewhere for a relaxing morning bite.

World Events and their Host Cities - The Good, the Bad, and the Undecided

In the aftermath of the Austin City Limits Festival blogs and articles have been popping up everywhere discussing the benefits and the downfalls to hosting the 3 day music festival. This got me thinking on a larger scale about the countries that host world events like the Olympics and the pros and cons they receive.

Research proves that nobody is really sure. Some host cities like Barcelona, Atlanta, and Beijing have experienced super success from their time as a host. Others like Montreal and Athens have suffered from the aftermath of the events.

The Chicago Tribune did an article on the impact of the Olympic Games on Atlanta. According to the Tribune, the city had virtually no debt after the games and brought in millions to the city over the next decade. The games launched a rebuilding of the downtown center revitalizing the city for years to come. The Olympic complexes were able to be reused the stadium going to the Atlanta Braves and other Olympic villages and buildings going to Georgia Tech.

A Google Earth View of the Olympic Complexes in Atlanta

The Montreal Olympics on the other hand showed the negative side of hosting the games. The city was left with a billion dollar debt that took city taxpayers 30 years to repay. In a New York Times blog Professor of Economics Andrew Zimbalist talks about the long term costs of the Olympics on their host cities. He explained while Athens broke mostly even from the games the long term upkeep of the structures are costing the city. The venues weren't able to be easily reused like they were in Atlanta and for the most part sit neglected.

However, most cities report positive effects from the games. Beijing benefitted tremendously from the games as they allowed for the push needed to revitalize the city and the infrastructure. A CNN travel article I read yesterday talked about the hot new nightlife in Beijing. Having visited Beijing in 2007 and not seeing anything, nightlife wise, to write home about I read further. Above a long list of hot new bars, restaurants and hotels was the claim that the Olympics pushed Beijing into a new world light.

Certainly they gave Beijing the push to give their infrastructure a much needed makeover but they went further than that. The 2008 Olympics opened up China to the world and made it more accessible to foreigners and natives alike.

Even South Africa is experiencing growing infrastructure after hosting the World Cup this past summer. Delta has added flights to it’s Africa route citing growing economic expansion as its reason.

While some of the games can be the downfall of the host city, most have had pleasant experiences. Despite the hard fate of Athens and Montreal cities continue to fight for the right to host the games, and that’s not something I see changing any time soon.

Specialty Resorts - Are they so special?

Maybe blondes do have more fun. Lithuanian firm Oliali seems to think so as they are planning a resort that is employed only by blonde women. Both real and fake blondes will be working as employees at this envisioned resort in the Maldives.

As strange as this seems, many travel destinations work on gimmicks. The ice hotel in Canada, sand castle resort in England and underwater rooms in Fiji are all examples. The destination is no longer enough to draw people; a gimmick must be employed to keep them. The declining economy plays its own part but perhaps the world has become to small for us. No longer amused by playing on the beaches we must live underwater to be amazed now. The spread of photography, the Internet and TV (namely the Discovery and Travel Channels) have already shown us what we will see on our vacations and do on our vacations. To be truly unique we must do something unexpected and stay somewhere truly amazing.

While the new developments in resorts worldwide have pushed new engineering to the limits and provide new sights and sounds to see, they quickly become outdated. Look at the giant Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. Once the premier place to go (and staring in an Olsen Twin movie) they are now offering family specials and bargain rates to attract customers. All of the money, planning and ecological destruction was for 10 years of popularity, then the begining of the slow crawl to irrelevance.

The world is special enough without gimmicks. Let’s just enjoy it how it is, with all the hair colors, not just blondes.