The whole point of this linkfest is to allow you to find the best travel advice and travelogues of the week and insight into the business of travel. Luckily enough, this week we have three fantastic pieces which do exactly that. Photo credit - nxtbook.com / California Travel & Tourism Commission

Tami Abdollah, LA Times staff writer, tells us about her quest to conquer Southern California, tackling snow, desert and ocean in the same day, starting from LA and  spending at least an hour in each climatic area.

A brief detour to Silver Springs, however, proved a bad idea. It was rocky, dirty, and precipitously icy. “What are you up to?” a chair-lift operator asked. “Skiing, hiking and surfing all in one day,” I said. “You know, living the California dream.” “The California dream? The California dream is snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing,” he said, whooping. “I did that.” I felt reaffirmed. Even with a snowfall of 124 inches, 100 inches more than last year, this was far from ideal skiing. But it was skiing. In March. In Southern California. - Ski, hike and surf: It’s all in a California day, Tami Abdollah, LA Times

She’s a nut, and this kind of nuttiness is exactly what travel is all about. You don’t have to go halfway across the world and climb Mount Everest, and as Tami shows, it can be done in your own neighbourhood, in a single day. Now maybe travel companies will start offering a ’One Day SoCal Tour’. Or we can call it the ‘Tami Tour’.

Next up is an article by Aaron Hotfelder, San Francisco Chronicle, which highlights the  benefits of researching destinations - Cities, countries, landmarks -  even if you have no interest, or visit plans, for any of these destinations.

For the longest time, for example, I had no interest in going to Russia. It seemed bleak and utterly unappealing. But then I began reading Russian authors, then their English-language newspapers, then I picked up the Cyrillic alphabet. Now, I’m a full-fledged Russophile, and can’t wait to get over there. What’s the lesson in all this? One word: research. I found Russia uninteresting because I didn’t know anything about it. After learning even a little of its history and culture, it was like new doors suddenly opened. So go ahead. Invest some time in making the world a bigger, more varied, more dynamic place. Look at that map on your wall, and find somewhere you’ve never been and never wanted to go– Uruguay, Tajikistan, El Salvador, wherever. - How researching destinations opens up doors, Aaron Hotfelder, San Francisco Chronicle

Joe Schoenmann and Jack Sheehan, Las Vegas Sun, build a case for branding cities across the U.S. as the ultimate destination for a specific business (like Aspen or South Lake Tahoe for ski resorts), following the Vegas model of bunching casinos and entertainment outlets as close to each other as possible, based on a Brookings Institution study.

“The concentration of casinos and entertainment facilities and their different manifestations defines Las Vegas,” said co-author Andrew Reamer, a fellow in Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program. Vegas as the Silicon Valley of entertainment or gambling? Reamer chuckles at the phrase but agrees. That concentration produces a more competitive Las Vegas — better entertainment, more visitor dollars, an ease of movement between jobs that allows workers to transfer from one place to another without needing to move their homes, and a simpler path to promotions and the higher salaries they bring. Employees in cluster businesses also tend to earn more money than their noncluster counterparts; a maid at a Strip resort often is paid more than one at a nongaming hotel. - Brookings Institution: Clustering similar businesses key to success, Joe Schoenmann and Jack Sheehan, Las Vegas Sun

All true, but easier said than done. Problem is, most cities don’t really have anything, or any business, which defines and brands the whole place with the same brush. Consider this - You want to brand San Francisco, or New York City, as a tourist destination for something specific. Can you name an activity, at a specific location within these cities, where you’ll find aforementioned activity in more quantity and quality than any other city in the U.S.? For a San Francisco vacation, only thing I can think of, off hand, is the chocolates at Ghirardelli Square. I very much, doubt, though, if San Fran wants to be branded as the chocolate city….As for an NYC holiday, maybe shopping on Fifth Ave is  definitive experience which you can’t find anywhere else in the U.S., but even that is no big deal, actually, because most people can’t afford these shops… Like I said, branding a city is easier said than done.

Posted on May 2nd, 2008 by PLing
Filed under: Travel News