Travel News

The NSW government has announced plans for mini-bus services to ease traffic congestion in Sydney, a move which the opposition calls pulling "another bunny from the hat".

Among a raft of ideas, embattled Premier Morris Iemma flagged introducing the services in Sydney, a plan that will be considered at a planned mobility summit in September.

The new service would allow for more flexible travel than conventional buses while taking cars off the road, he said.

"Making it easier for families to get around is the key priority at our mobility forum," the premier said.

The announcement, which has been labelled as a "distraction" by Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell, comes after a report in Fairfax papers that employers are being urged to introduce staggered working hours to combat congestion and crowded public transport.

Mr Iemma said the privately owned mini-buses could operate on a centralised booking system to allow people to move in and around the city without being restricted by timetables.

Details about where the service would operate and how many services would be provided are to be discussed at the forum, he said.

Other ideas the premier said he would take to the forum included restrictions on peak-hour container truck movements and making evening peak hour buses pre-paid services.

Mr O'Farrell said the Iemma government's announcement shows it has failed to provide commuters with the fundamentals of a public transport system.

"This is a government that's out of ideas and out of touch," Mr O'Farrell told reporters.

"Morris Iemma has simply tried to pull another bunny from the hat, but commuters know that it won't assist either their over-crowded buses or over-crowded trains."

Mr Iemma also faced further speculation over his leadership, with Deputy Premier John Watkins again asked if he would run for the top job.

"We've been through this in many forums in many places and there is many different ways of asking the question, but I'm certain the answer to that is no," Mr Watkins told reporters.

"My task is to be the deputy premier of NSW and that's what I'm absolutely committed to.

"I'm absolutely committed to Morris Iemma as premier of this state because he's the best person for the job.

"Morris has made very clear that he's there for the long haul, my job is to support him in that and I'm very proud and pleased to do so."

Source: au.news.yahoo.com

Labels: bus, Sydney

The European Commission has warned it may force US diplomats to apply for visas to travel within the European Union from next year

The commission's move is in retaliation for the US' failure to broaden visa-free travel to all EU member states.

Currently, 12 EU member states require a visa when travelling to the US and the commission said "no tangible progress" had been made to change this.

Most older EU states are already part of a visa-waiver programme.

"The commission will propose retaliatory measures eg temporary restoration of the visa requirement for US nationals holding diplomatic and service/official passports as from 1 January 2009 if no progress is achieved," the commission said in a statement.

Citizens of 11 of the 12 mostly ex-communist countries which joined the 27-member bloc in 2004 and 2007, as well as Greece, have to apply for visas before they are allowed to enter the US.

"It is unacceptable that nationals from some third countries can benefit from visa-free travel to the EU whilst some of our fellow EU citizens cannot travel visa-free to those countries," the EU's Justice and Security Commissioner Jacques Barrot said in a statement.

The US says that its policy has been to treat each country on a case-by-case basis and to lift or impose visa requirements according to security issues.

The lack of progress in talks on the matter between the EU and the US has led some countries - including Latvia and Estonia - to negotiate their own bilateral deals directly with Washington.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Labels: European Union, USA, visa

People who chafe at the cost of a passport or worry about carrying one to the beach soon will have a cheaper, easier option.

The government is on the cusp of releasing passport cards that fit in a wallet and cost half the price of a new passport. About 350,000 Americans have applied for the new card, the latest step toward ratcheting up border security.

People who apply now can expect a four-week wait for cards after the government mails them out to earlier applicants.

The U.S. State Department expects the number of applicants to swell to 4 million by June 1, 2009. That's when U.S. travelers cannot re-enter the country from Mexico, Canada or the Caribbean without a passport, a new passport card or an equivalent document.

Starting in January, travelers could no longer re-enter the country from Mexico or Canada by verbally declaring their U.S. citizenship. They must carry valid travel and identification documents, but a grace period remains in effect until next summer.

The changes stem from the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, one of a string of post-Sept. 11 security requirements. Gradually, the government has tightened travel ID procedures in an effort to better track who enters and leaves the country.

Ultimately, many millions of passport cards should be in circulation, helping day-trippers and frequent visitors who travel by land or sea. A regular passport is required for air travel.

The government issued 18 million regular passports last year, and the number is steadily climbing.

The State Department is encouraging people to apply early for the cards, in part to avoid the kind of rush on documents that happened a year ago when the government required a passport for people flying into the United States from elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere.

Project manager Derwood Staeben said 200,000 people submitted comments and many complained about the cost and inconvenience of getting passports.

The new cards fit inside a wallet and, for first-time adult applicants, will cost $45, compared with $100 for a first-time traditional passport. For people who hold a passport or apply for one simultaneously, the card will cost an extra $20.

One concern for privacy advocates is that each passport card will contain an embedded radio transmitter chip. Known as RFID, the technology is controversial because critics fear that data from the chips could unknowingly be lifted by remote readers, in what's called "skimming."

Staeben said a skimmer would only get a meaningless ID number from the passport cards. The number allows customs agents to automatically pull up a passport file on a computer from government databases, but skimmers would not have access to the raw data. As an added precaution, travelers could cover their cards in a sleeve that blocks transmissions.

RFID chips have been embedded in every passport issued since August 2006. Staeben said security measures, including an embedded metal cage to block out skimmers, were featured in the newer passports to protect privacy and combat skimming.

Source: usatoday.com

Labels: passport, USA

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Westerners were getting too racy on the beaches of this Persian Gulf tourist haven, and a police crackdown on topless sunbathing, nudity and other indecent behavior has resulted in 79 arrests in recent days.

Undercover officers are strolling the sand while others stand guard in new watchtowers to enforce the social mores of this Muslim city-state, which is a booming business center that is attracting growing hordes of foreign tourists.

Authorities said they began the decency campaign after police detained a British man and a woman who were allegedly having sex on one of Dubai's sprawling beaches earlier this month.

Over the past two weeks, police have detained a total of 79 people whose behavior was "disturbing families enjoying the beach," Zuhair Haroun, a spokesman for Dubai's Criminal Investigation Department, said Monday.

First-time offenders may be issued a warning, but if caught twice, tourists could be referred to the public prosecutor for possible criminal charges, authorities said.

Thousands of European and Asian expatriates live and work in Dubai, where native Emiratis make up only about 20 percent of the estimated 1.2 million residents. Shopping malls and fast food restaurants have replaced traditional Arab houses, and English has overtaken Arabic as the emirate's lingua franca.

Many Emiratis and Arabs visiting from other Persian Gulf countries increasingly feel Dubai's ambition to become a cosmopolitan metropolis and tourist destination is overrunning their own traditions and contradict what they feel is culturally acceptable.

Unlike elsewhere in the conservative Persian Gulf, tourists in Dubai are often seen wearing skimpy bikinis on public beaches and walk the city's streets in shorts. Alcohol is freely available in hotel bars and restaurants in this regional businesses and entertainment hub.

While pursuing the police crackdown, Dubai has embarked on a public awareness campaign to remind its Western visitors and foreign residents that the city may have flashy hotels and glitzy skyscrapers but it also is a Muslim country with traditionally conservative values.

The city is installing signs warning tourists in Arabic, English and several other languages not to sunbathe topless or change clothes in public, said Abdullah Mohammed Rafia, an official with the Dubai Municipality whose office is overseeing the public awareness campaign.

Authorities are "taking action in response to numerous complaints" filed by people who visit the city's beaches, Rafia said. Complaints have ranged from families "offended by displays of nudity" to women sunbathers who say groups of men stare at them while at the beach.

The police campaign also will target people who harass beachgoers with acts "deemed offensive, immoral or disrespectful," including loitering and voyeurism, said Dubai's acting police chief, Maj. Gen. Khamis Mattar al-Mazeina.

Some tourists who were enjoying Dubai's simmering sun Monday said the new campaign left them confused about what is considered appropriate in Dubai.

"I understand that I have to respect the rules of the country," said John MacLean, a British tourist on holiday with his girlfriend. But, he added, "I am not sure if I can kiss her or touch her in public."

Source: news.yahoo.com

Labels: Dubai

PARIS - The Eiffel Tower, host to nearly 7 million visitors per year, is about to get a makeover, the goal to make their experience a happier one.

Its directors unveiled a $267 million, 10 year plan Wednesday to upgrade the monument for the 21st century.

The last time the Tour Eiffel, as it's known in French, underwent something similar was a generation ago, in the early 1980s, when the focus was on increasing the number of visitors, then about 3 million.

"Year after year, we have put a lot of energy and pride into announcing new records," said Jean-Bernard Bros, president of SETE, the company that manages the city-owned tower.

Now the goal is changing.

"Today, above all, we want visitors to leave with rich memories, with more time spent on the tower, less waiting in line, less pushing around."

When the Eiffel Tower was designed by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 World's Fair, it was meant to welcome only about 500,000 visitors, said Bros. Today, even with added elevators, lines can last up to an hour or two during high season.

To address the long waits, a new system - tested on tour groups since the beginning of the year - will allow visitors to reserve half-hour time slots online.

Other changes are designed to get sightseers to open their wallets a little wider while there.

While the Eiffel Tower is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world, visitors spend on average only $5.50, on top of the $11.80 for tickets, the management company said.

"We are far from the average of big tourist sites," said Bros.

The plan calls for creating bigger shops and redesigning the first-floor restaurant to increase capacity and lower prices.

Not all of the changes cater to tourists from far afield. More exhibits, attractions and nightlife will seek to woo Parisians, who currently make up only 2 percent of the tower's visitors.

"The Eiffel Tower's problem for Parisians is that it's right at home," Bros said. Nicolas Lefebvre, SETE's general director, added: "The argument of seeing Paris from the Eiffel Tower is insufficient for them. They need content."

Disabled visitors will finally get improved access, and the tower's energy consumption should be reduced by less sparkling at night - the tower currently sparkles 10 minutes per hour, but will cut down to five in the fall.

Also, the two original elevators - using hydraulic systems designed by Gustave Eiffel - will undergo construction, one after the other with the first starting in the fall, posing new challenges for the management as they try to cut down on lines. The Eiffel Tower remains open 365 days a year.

Source: news.yahoo.com

Labels: eiffel tower

A U.S. Senate committee on Thursday approved legislation that would undo tougher travel restrictions to Cuba imposed by the Bush administration in 2004, but Republican opposition could stop the measure.

The change approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee would allow Cuban-Americans to travel to Cuba once a year to visit relatives. It would also allow them to spend more money there, about $160 a day.

The current restrictions allow limited family travel from the U.S. to Cuba -- trips lasting a maximum of 14 days once every three years. Daily spending is limited to $50.

If approved, the change would put U.S. travel policy to Cuba back to where it was before the restrictions were introduced by President George W. Bush in 2004.

The restrictions, aimed at reducing income obtained by Cuba's communist state from the visits, excluded aunts, uncles and first cousins from family travel to the Caribbean island.

Under the bill approved by the committee, Cuban-Americans could seek emergency visits and more relatives would qualify for the trips.

Similar legislation was approved last month by a House panel.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat pushing to loosen the travel restrictions, cited problems encountered by a U.S. soldier who served in Iraq. Upon returning to the United States, the soldier wanted to visit his sick child in Cuba but was denied the emergency visit.

"That kind of perversion is nonsense," Dorgan said.

Democrats are attaching the policy change to a fiscal 2009 spending bill for the Treasury Department and other agencies that might not be completed by Congress until early next year.

The Senate measure, like the House bill, also would loosen agricultural trade restrictions to Cuba imposed by the Bush administration.

It would lift a requirement that forces Cuban importers to prepay all shipments, instead of the more usual arrangement other countries enjoy in which payment is made when the commodities are delivered.

Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, warned the committee that the Bush administration is "quite concerned" about the Cuba policy changes in the bill.

He added that unnamed senators likely would put a hold on the legislation, because of the changes to Cuba policy, blocking its consideration by the full Senate.

Source: uk.reuters.com

Labels: Cuba, travel ban, USA

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Despite the weak U.S. dollar, a boom in international travel around the world hasn't translated into an explosion of foreign tourists to the United States.

Explanations range from post-9/11 security headaches and lower airfares elsewhere to poor marketing by the U.S. Whatever the cause, travel industry experts say the U.S. is missing an opportunity to make up for the shortfall in domestic tourism caused by high fuel prices.

At Heli USA Airways, one of several operators that whisk visitors on aerial tours of the Las Vegas Strip and nearby Grand Canyon, vice president of marketing and sales John Power said the faltering U.S. economy and competition from other countries are crimping business.

"Right now, there's some other worldwide destinations that are taking some of the marketplace," said Power.

According to the U.N. World Tourism Organization, the United States had 51 million international visitors in 2000, more than 7 percent of the 682 million international arrivals worldwide. But as international arrivals worldwide jumped to 846 million in 2006, the U.S. saw roughly the same number of visitors as it used to - dropping its share to 6 percent.

The U.S. share of international tourism dollars has slipped too, though the U.S. still drew more money than any other single country in 2006 and more than it did in 2000. From 16 percent of the market in 2000, or $82.4 billion, the U.S. took in 12 percent of the $733 billion worldwide tourism market, or $86 billion in 2006.

Major destinations such as Los Angeles, Orlando, San Francisco, Miami, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Boston all saw 20 percent to 34 percent fewer travelers in 2006 compared with 2000. Of the top 10 cities, only New York saw more visitors in 2006 than in 2000, with a 9 percent increase to 6.2 million arrivals, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

Nearly 26 million people traveled to the United States from overseas in 2000. But that dropped drastically after 9/11, according to data from the U.S. Commerce Department's Office of Travel & Tourism Industries. The number bottomed out in 2003 with 18 million overseas visitors, and with 24 million last year still had not returned to previous levels. The figures do not include visitors from Canada and Mexico, whose numbers are up substantially from 2000 but who tend to spend less than other international travelers to the U.S.

Part of the problem is the perception of frosty U.S. attitudes toward foreigners starting at customs, said Roger Dow, president of the Travel Industry Association. That and other factors make it difficult to attract more overseas travelers.

The U.S. should decode its complex entry rules and boost staffing at customs checkpoints, Dow and others said.

"The perception is in spades that we're less welcoming" than other countries, he said.

Vivian Dapal of EuroUSA, a travel agency that caters to groups from Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and Theresa Belpusi, who promotes Washington, D.C., with Destination DC, said American airports are particularly confusing.

"I don't think that people are questioning that we're trying to get our arms around security," Belpusi said. But she said the government should communicate better with "the people that are probably affected the most" - the tourists.

Frequent U.S. visitor George Somerville, of Glasgow, Scotland, said international flights are generally cheaper to places other than the United States.

"In the last 12 months, destinations my colleagues have traveled to include China twice, Singapore, India and Thailand," he said. "Much of that is to do with the price of flights - Air Asia, Emirates and Singapore airlines are doing great deals from the U.K."

Somerville, 40, called customs here a "daunting prospect" that requires fingerprints and retinal scans.

Some in the travel industry also blame how the U.S. markets itself abroad.

Paula Bohaty, a group travel manager for the Nebraska Division of Travel & Tourism, said the industry would benefit from marketing smaller destinations that foreign travelers aren't familiar with and from pitching experiences foreign travelers find novel - like working on a farm.

Top destination cities are spending millions to promote themselves abroad and often compete with one another for foreign visitors, meaning less-obvious destinations with smaller marketing budgets have trouble being heard.

The industry is pushing a bill that would impose a fee on overseas travelers - to be matched by the industry, for about $200 million in all - to fund marketing to foreign visitors and communication of U.S. visa rules. Dow said other countries already do the same.

"It's public diplomacy on the cheap," he said.

The bill has been referred to a House subcommittee and is awaiting a vote in the Senate.

Meantime, Power said his Las Vegas tour company would continue pushing for foreign travelers, but he called on all players to step up.

"Whose customers are they really? Is it the airline, is it the hotel they stay at, is it the sightseeing operator that they go to do an experience with, is it the car rental company?" Power asked. "Ultimately, they're everybody's, and everybody's got to be on the same page."

Source: news.google.com

Labels: tourism, USA