Travelography #75: Flying Backward, Yotels, and Renting Cars by the Hour

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A proposed airline seat design (the Economy Freedom Seat) would turn the middle seats around to give economy passengers more elbow room. Yotels, or micro hotel rooms, are coming to London's two airports, for rent by the hour. And hourly car rentals are gradually growing in availability in some US cities.

Back to the future of seats on a plane?

Airport Check-in: London fliers can rest easy

More companies rent cars by the hour

Geography for Travelers

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Travelography #74: Daily Travel Dangers, South Pole Road Trip, and Kilomanjaro

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Traffic accidents are the top cause of death for American tourists abroad and both the US and UN are trying to make travelers aware of this issue. A group is organizing a world first road trip on an ice road to the South Pole. Global warming is melting Mt. Kilamanjaro's snow cap at a slower rate that scientists originally thought.

Travelers warned about traffic safety overseas

South Pole trip raises concern about commercializing Antarctica

Zero South Expedition to the South Pole

Research gives new light on Mount Kilimanjaro snows

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G4T #53: Ecotourism Concerns in Russia's Altay - with Kathleen Braden

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

Today's Geography for Travelers Podcast is a recording of a presentation made at April's Association of American Geographers Conference in San Francisco. Dr. Braden points out the pressures to develop ecotourism for economic purposes, challenges of corruption, and concern over policies of international organizations such as WWF. Below is the abstract from her paper as posted in the conference program.

(Length: 26min 33sec)

The Impact of Nature Tourism on Biodiversity Change in the Russian Federation
scheduled on Tuesday, 4/17/07 at 16:00 PM.

Author: Kathleen E. Braden, Ph.D. Geography - Seattle Pacific University

Abstract:
With more than twelve percent of the earth's land area, the Russian Federation's situation for species conservation will inevitably impact the biodiversity of the planet. Since the devolution of the Soviet state, biodiversity has been poorly maintained in Russia, with an increasing number of species under threat of extinction. The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, international environmental NGOs, the United Nations Development Programme, and the World Bank Global Environmental Facility have all earmarked the tourism sector to provide alternative incomes and alleviate some of the stress on biological resources. These plans are examined, particularly related to nature tourism, the Russian system of zapovedniki (reserves), the ability of the Russian state to attract foreign tourists, and the role of the wealthy tourist class emerging within the Russian elite.
Keywords: tourism, Russia, biodiversity, nature reserve

FYI - I state in the podcast that it is Tuesday, May 15th, which is when I planned to post this. Life got in the way, however, and so it is actually May 17th that this is going up.

Cheers, Alan
http://TravelGeography.info

Travelography #73: US Pow-Wow Border Troubles, and Airport Wifi Resource

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This year's Travel Industry Association's International Pow Wow in Los Angeles highlighted the problems that foreign visitors have in coming to the US, at the same time that the US government is trying to fix its problems. And I talk about a good source of information on wifi availability at airports -- mostly in the US, but also worldwide. (Geography for Travelers)

Visitors say U.S. is no vacation

Travelpost.com's Airport Wireless Internet Access Guide

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Travelography #72: Gender-based Travel and Vacations Growing in Popularity

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American Airlines, Iran and Afghanistan have all announced special efforts to market to female travelers. At the same time, "Mancations" (male bonding vacations) may becoming even more popular than female versions of the same.

UPDATE: Female versions of Mancations are called "Girlfriend Getaways" -- and there is even a new magazine with that title.

Here are links to today's stories:

Airline is first to tap women's travel market

Race on for first women’s only destination

Great getaways for guys - Active Travel Girlfriend Getaways

Geography for Travelers

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