Travel Warning: Protect Yourself from Zika Virus

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a health travel alert for people traveling to or from countries and regions where Zika virus is spreading. The list includes:

Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Suriname, and Venezuela. 

There have been no reports of locally-transmitted cases within the United States, but infected travelers have returned to the U.S. from these regions.

Zika virus is primarily transmitted by mosquitoes. The resulting disease is usually mild and does not require hospitalization, but may cause birth defects in babies whose mothers were infected while pregnant. There is no vaccine to prevent or drugs to treat it, but if you have to travel to the affected regions, you can follow these recommendations to avoid mosquito bites that transmit Zika virus and other diseases.

Find more information on the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of Zika virus.

Travel Alerts and Warnings - What's the Difference?

The U.S. State Department is issuing travel warnings and travel alerts as concerns about U.S. citizens traveling abroad has increased. Review the guidance on what is a warning versus an alert as you make plans for traveling outside of the United States. Learn about the benefits of enrolling in the Smart Traveller Enrollment Program (STEP), including helping loved ones get in contact with you in the case of an emergency. For more on international travel issues, visit USA.gov.

A 13,235-Mile Road Trip for 70-Degree Weather Every Day

Say you’re a delicate individual who, like a wilt-prone poinsettia, doesn’t do well with temperature extremes. In fact, 69 degrees and below makes you shiver like a soaked kitten, and 71 and above makes you sweat so much you leave a shiny trail of floor-moisture.

Where would you have to run to in the U.S. to avoid these disagreeable temperatures … all year round?

All over the dang place, it turns out. Meteorologist Brian Brettschneider mapped the route that’s likely to keep a body exposed to daily high temperatures of 70 degrees, and it meanders for 13,000-plus miles from the southern tip of Texas up to Alaska and down again to San Diego.

More from CityLab

2014 Global Destination Cities Index

The impacts of travel on destination cities that receive visitors are very significant from the business, social, and cultural perspectives. International visitors’ spending constitute an increasingly important source of business revenue in a destination city, encompassing the hospitality, retail, transport, sports, and cultural industries, among many others. In many instances, it is a major economic engine for employment and income generation for the city in question. Along with the flow of visitors comes the flow of new ideas and experiences that benefits both the visitors and the destination cities, which are just as important as the flow of spending. As a result, the more connected a destination city is to other cities, the more vibrant and dynamic it becomes.

MasterCard’s Global Destination Cities Index, now in its fourth year, provides an annual ranking of 132 of the most important destination cities in the world. It generates estimates of the total number of international visitors to each of these cities each year, their cross-border spending in these cities, and breakdown of their numbers by feeder cities. The index is therefore a global map of how these 132 cities are connected and the business potential generated in each of them by the inflows of visitor spending.

World Travel Trends Report 2012/2013

From ITB Berlin:

The report covers the main trends in outbound travel demand for the first eight months of 2012 together with estimates for the full year and also contains ini- tial forecasts for 2013...

In addition, it focuses on various topics and market segments that were discussed at the Forum. These include the role of technology and social media, the challenges facing the cruise business, niche markets such as adventure travel and medical tourism, and the need for better accessibility for people with disabilities.

As the following sections make clear, the world travel industry again proved its resilience and ability to overcome crises this year. Despite many different negative factors, the travel and tourism industry is expected to reach a new all-time high in 2012. According to IPK’s World Travel Monitor, outbound (international) trips will increase by 4% in 2012, which is only slightly lower than last year’s 5% growth figure.

International Visitation in the United States

The Office of Travel & Tourism Industries has 2012 U.S. Travel and Tourism Statistics (Inbound) that identifies INTERNATIONAL visitors to US states and selected cities, and other data.

World's top destinations for 2011

(CNN) -- Where on Earth will you find yourself in 2011?

Here's wishing it's somewhere unforgettable -- and the time to plan your journey is now, as the New Year brings the customary yearning for a fresh start and the promise of new people and places.

To set your itinerary in motion, we sought out recommendations from three travel experts: Robert Reid, U.S. travel editor for Lonely Planet; Pauline Frommer, creator of Pauline Frommer's guidebooks; and Martin Rapp, senior vice president of leisure sales at Altour.

Here are nine of their top destinations for 2011:

1. New York

A huge tourist destination in any year, the city will be especially unforgettable as it marks the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks next year.

Visitors who have been flocking to ground zero are finally expected to get a chance to pay their respects to the victims at the National September 11 Memorial, which is scheduled to open in time for the anniversary.

"It's going to be a massive moment for New York," Reid said. "It feels like the healing begins."

Visitors also shouldn't miss the High Line, once an abandoned elevated railway track that's been turned into a popular park. It expands in the spring, to the delight of New Yorkers.

"It was like a secret garden in the middle of New York," Frommer said. "It's become a park that other urban centers are studying because it's brought new life, a new vitality into the area below it."

No wonder the Big Apple tops Lonely Planet's list of top 10 cities for 2011....

More at link above.

Canada 2009 Data Tables Now Available on the TINET Website

The U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Travel and Tourism Industries (OTTI) announces the posting of data tables containing travel characteristics of Canadian travelers visiting the United States in 2009. Tables show visitor volume for each characteristic across U.S. regions and states and are available for the following items:

Visitors and visitor-nights
Trip purpose
Spending Activities
Province of residence
Age and gender
Mode of transportation
Nights spent in each state
Accommodations
Quarter of visit

The data tables are made available through OTTI's annual purchase of the data from Statistics Canada, the statistical agency of the Canadian government. The tables are in PDF format, and add to the series trend beginning with 2004. Tables containing the 2010 travel year should be posted to the TINET website in November 2011. Additionally, annual reports in PDF format will be available in January 2011 for the travel years 2005 through 2009. These reports provide additional insights into this important market through graphics and narrative.

The data tables may be found HERE.

GSA Per Diem Rates

From Hill Library.org

If you’re wondering how much your next vacation or business trip might cost you – or you want to compare possible domestic locales by cost – have a look at the U.S. General Services Administration’s Per Diem Rates website.

The site was designed to show Federal employees the limits they have on spending each day for lodging, meals, and other incidental costs (local transportation, etc.). Typically the rates given reflect mid-range prices, not luxury or budget options.

While not designed for the non-Federal business traveler -- nor for the holiday traveler -- the figures on the site can at least be a start in setting a sample budget. Note that the rates given often vary by season, reflecting high-season and off-season price variations in certain locales (think Martha’s Vineyard, Colorado’s Rocky Mountains). Thanks to the Los Angeles Times for the tip!

The Road Less Traveled

The Road...Less Traveled: An Analysis of Vehicle Miles Traveled Trends in the U.S. from the Brookings Institute is "an analysis at the national, state, and metropolitan levels of changing driving patterns, measured by Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) primarily between 1991 and 2008, reveals that:

Driving, as measured by national VMT, began to plateau as far back as 2004 and dropped in 2007 for the first time since 1980. Per capita driving followed a similar pattern, with flat-lining growth after 2000 and falling rates since 2005. These recent declines in driving predated the steady hikes in gas prices during 2007 and 2008. Moreover, the recent drops in VMT (90 billion miles) and VMT per capita (388 miles) are the largest annualized drops since World War II."

Lodging, Rental Car and Meal Taxes on Travelers in the Top 50 U.S. Cities

From National Business Travel Association via Docuticket.

Travel Trends Among Baby Boomers

From the Hill Library:

The Sky's the Limit: Travel Trends Among the Baby Boom Generation from AARP (2-page PDF).

It's the Travel Season

Here are some sources of free travel data; it appears that the good stuff, you have to pay for:

US DOT -- Bureau of Transportation Statistics

US Office of
Travel and Tourism

Travel Industry Association

The champagne was Canadian

Since yesterday was Canada Day, I thought I'd show the characteristics of international travellers to and from Canada, especially because NYS ranks highly on both lists.