Travel Writers Gripes - PR Peeves - Hosting Horror

AN APOLOGY FOR ERRONEOUS AD

2007-03-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

To all our readers,

With all sense of responsibility, the staff, management and editors of eTurboNews apologizes for the error in yesterday's Rail Europe ad featuring France Wine Tour.

We are sorry that the subject for the eTurboNews Travel-Telegram broadcast read "France Whine Tour" instead of "France Wine Tour"....

Writers and PRs, check and recheck your work!

What's Your ASA?

2007-02-08T15:44:00.000-08:00

On a press visit to an east Coast state several writers and photogs were gathered for dinner. One writer, accompanied by his girl-friend photographer, had already caused some raised eyebrows and cleared throats by passing her off as his photographer. By the way she held the camera everyone knew this was not her line of work.

The lady in question evidently thought the dinner gathering was worth a shot or two so she began to line up a table shot from her chair across from me.

I asked, “What’s your ASA?”

“My what?”

“Your ASA? What are you shooting at?”, I asked nicely. Boyfriend was just shoveling in a wad of mashed potatoes.

“What do you mean, my ‘ASA?” she growled as she glared at me, evidently assuming ASA meant something not so nice.

A writer seating two chairs down closed the conversation:

“ I don’t think she knows her ASA from a hole in the ground!”

Boyfriend’s potatoes exploded across the table.

Several of us excused ourselves and headed, first to the men’s room to clean off the spuds; then repaired to the bar for a shot and some uncontrollable laughter.

Travel Writing Opens Doors

2007-02-08T15:43:00.000-08:00

Many years ago I was invited to the opening of a luxury resort in Southern Africa. They flew me to the resort in a private jet, and made a huge fuss of me at check in. I was ceremoniously presented with the keys to my suite and escorted to the shining new lift.

When I got to my floor, I followed the numbers to my room – 1407, 1409 – huh? No 1411. Where 1411 should have been was an empty door frame and three or four carpenters were scurrying around in the room. Obviously, they hadn’t yet hung the door.

Of course, the hotel was full for the opening, and I had to hang around reception for more than hour waiting for my room to be “finished”.

So, when you’re planning to invite journalists to an opening, make sure the property is actually read on time – or at least check that available rooms are give to travel writers before they’re allocated to staff!.

Dollar Stampede

2007-02-08T13:22:00.001-08:00

For nearly two weeks in July each year the city of Calgary turns Cowboy, with everyone dressing in Western clothes and feature many Western music bands throughout public places, even in the airport. The Calgary Stampede had become world famous and is one of the largest and most popular outdoor shows anywhere. When we visited there first in the mid 1990's it was the most fun event we had ever attended, with authentic rodeo performers, a petting zoo, midway rides and games, shows, and wonderful non-stop entertainment from early morning till midnight. And it was the best entertainment value anywhere. For a nominal price you could enjoy it all. But gone are those days!

We attended again in 2006 and couldn't have been more disappointed. Everything is overpriced, overbooked, over-crowded and an exercize in frustration and disappointment. The hotels automatically raise their prices a large percentage, and every property in town is booked nearly to capacity by early in the year.

But the rodeo itself is now just a handful of notables and the stadium has been expanded so far on both sides that even some of the most expensive seats are so far away you must watch the performers through binoculars or on the giant screens they have erected. And you have no roof, so you bake in the sun or get drenched if it rains. If you cannot afford the extremely high priced seats in front of the arena, or if they are alredy sold when you book, forget it!

Throughout the day at the fairgrounds we coped with crowds of nearly 200,000 people standing in lines for overpriced rides. Many rides and games refuse to honor the ticket that was supposed to grant entrance to nearly anything on the Midway. Food is overpriced, and at every turn someone wants more money. For a family of four for two nights and two days expect to drop several thousand dollars even for a mediocre hotel!

The best shows were the few free ones which were sponsored by much advertising. And the only truly authentic and not overpriced section at the Stampede Fairgrounds was the First Natons area where we saw authentic dances performed in colorful costumes and historic ways of life and survival explained. The tipis and dress were fascinating and we felt like honored guests in this beautiful area.

We had so looked forward to our return to the Stampede, but in our opinion it has become a commercialized money pit. It made us very sad and disappointed.

Shop Till We Drop

2007-02-08T13:19:00.000-08:00

I have to admit I have a thing about those “journalists” in the travel industry who use trips to Asia (especially) as shopping pilgrimages. I have been to many Asian destinations in groups which tend to be heavily weighed towards the XX chromosome, only to find that we are constantly dropping them off so that they can skip the group dinner and head out to the markets, the shopping malls and the sales. In Bangkok we were forced to wait every morning for our sleepy-head companions to rouse themselves after late nights of retail therapy, during which they barter and bargain their over-sized suitcases to the brim and then plead with the travelling airline representative for an additional baggage allowance. These trips are supposed to be about discovering new cultures and people and the many elements to each destination’s travel industry. What baffles me even more is that PR people not only allow this to happen, but also keep inviting these retail flunkies back for more (or in some cases jump in on the materialism band wagon). Moral of the story – ladies, if you really want to shop, stay a couple of extra days and don’t drag down the trip for the rest of us!

Another little nag of mine is “PR Tourist”, reps from airlines, NTOs etc who use the trips that THEY are supposed to be guiding, as a chance to visit family back home or to play the happy FIT traveller. I was recently in the UK and our airline rep took more photos and ran around more like a tourist than anyone else we encountered. Although he did not really hinder our progress, I must admit he did become the comic relief for the younger journalists. Moral of the story – have some professionalism and do the ticky-tour on your own time!

- Travel Editor