Now Fido can enjoy the

Not long ago, I wrote about conflicts between passengers with pets in airline cabins and passengers with allergies. Today, I read about a new service that could help end the quandary of how to transport Fido without anyone suffering: A new pet-only airline.

While conventional airlines limit pets to under the seat (if they are small enough) or the cargo hold (if they are hardy enough to withstand extreme temperatures and other dangers and discomforts), Pet Airways has remodeled planes to accommodate pets right in the main cabin. Pet Airlways’ Web site has been periodically stretched beyond capacity by potential customers, showing that even in this economy, a great idea that solves a real problem can launch a travel industry start-up.

While it might seem strange for such a boutique service to debut during a recession — after all, doggie daycares and spas had their heyday in headier economic times — such a service could actually be a money saver. Without it, travelers who didn’t want larger dogs in cargo had to contemplate driving to their destination, which could certainly be more costly in time and money than Pet Airways’ starting fare of $149.

The only big drawback I can see is that owners can’t fly Pet Airways along with their pets, which could mean worries (although there is an attendant in the cabin) and, since the airline flies to smaller airports, an extra car trip to pick up the pet.

Despite the fact that Pet Airways seems to offer a nice solution to help both humans and pets fly comfortably, any mention of pets in the air seems dogged by controversy. On the LA Times’ Web site, the comments section of an article about Pet Airways degenerated into the same old battle over who is more important, pets or human passengers with allergies.

Photo by Paul Schultz, used via Creative Commons license.

I spend a lot of time everyday reading the travel industry tea leaves (press releases, blog posts, twitter feeds…), and there’s something funny going on the last month or so – people are talking about opportunities and ideas and product launches. When did the travel industry stop whining and pick itself up off the mat? All the roads lead back to Atlanta – where the U.S. Travel Association’s Travelcom ’09 was held from March 31- April 2.

Roger Dow at Travelcom

That doesn’t mean Roger Dow was handing out magic potion, but what the 40 or so high-profile speakers shared with the assembled delegates seems to have struck a chord. The speakers laid out clear and simple business practices which put them ahead of the competition and allowed them to cash in on untapped segments.

Here’s a brief round-up of the highlights of Travelcom ’09, including video interviews with CEOs present at the conference who talked to Elliott Ng, VP Marketing at Uptake.

First out of the gate was Forrester Research’s Henry Harteveldt, with a keynote entitled There’s No Room For Maybe. It was a call to action for the travel industry to overcome uncertainty and help consumers make more confident decisions and spend money on travel. The result? The Travelmuse Yaycations Calculator, which made a pretty big splash in the media.

I do believe that the Yaycations concept is a direct result of Harteveldt’s stirring call to action. And here’s the video interview with Travelmuse CEO Kevin Fliess while he was at Travelcom.

Another very well received speaker was Christine Petersen, CMO of TripAdvisor. She scored bigtime when she credited the Beatles as the role model for TripAdvisor’s strategy. TripAdvisor also won the Established Innovator Award at Travelcom. A lot of people present at the conference took their cues from TripAdvisor, and are working hard to re-tool their strategies in areas as diverse as meta-search, social media outreach and brand marketing, and international presence.

Tripit CEO Gregg Brockway, in this video interview, explains his vision for integration across systems and tying information together across travel providers, and shares his thoughts on the economy.

Dealbase CEO Sam Shank, who also founded TravelPost.com, outlined strategies for dealing with a challenging economy.

David Sifry, CEO/Founder of Offbeat Guides, served as the best role model for the travel industry’s new gung-ho spirit. In his video interview, he says “because he just started, his business has nowhere to go but up.” He calls this period of time the “new normal.”

This from the man who founded Technorati. Sifry’s Zen-like state of calm and sunny optimism about his foray into the cutthroat world of travel publishing, while in the middle of the biggest recession since the Great Depression, sets the tone for the travel industry. And the USTA and Travelcom organizers deserve credit for getting all these people together, so they could share their experience and vision, and help put the travel industry back on the right course.

Photo courtesy U.S. Travel Assocation – www.tia.org/

Ready to transport thousands of U.S. tourists?

The U.S. Travel Association has commended Pres. Obama for lifting restrictions on Cuban Americans’ family visits to Cuba. And why not? The news is expected to bring an uptick for at least in one tiny neighborhood of the travel industry — the charter companies that fly from Miami and New York to Cuba.

To be sure, Cuban Americans comprise only 0.5 percent of the U.S. population. It would be a much bigger boost for airlines and cruise lines if travel opens up for the other 99.5 percent. Will that happen? There is a bill in Congress that would do just that, but it’s uncertain if it will have enough votes to pass.

Time magazine says lifting the travel ban would be a good step toward engagement with Cuba. Others simply wonder if Cuba could handle an onslaught of curious (and demanding) American travelers.

That is a valid concern. A friend of mine once led a university-organized group of highly educated and well-off Americans on a tour of Cuba, and she came back exhausted by her clients’ unsatisfied demands. One group member was outraged that she could not be met at the plane by a wheelchair as she was in U.S. airports — never mind that after years of the U.S. embargo, medical supplies of all kind are in short supply on the island.

Then again, despite living in a Communist economy, Cubans are as entrepreneurial as anyone else, if not more so. Cuba allows its citizens to host tourists in their homes in exchange for rent and feed them in cozy home-based restaurants, where some of the best food on the island can be had. These small business people have already been providing a large part of the country’s tourism infrastructure, and this is a system that could quickly expand to meet demand.

If the travel ban is lifted for all Americans, it could be a great thing for Cuba, for adventurous Americans, and for the airlines that would bring them there. There would certainly be bumps in the road, especially when American high expectations collide with reality in a country where nearly everything is in short supply and customer service is a relic of the pre-Castro past.

Probably the best thing American companies organizing trips to a newly available Cuba could do is manage expectations. If travelers are made aware that they need to bring their own granola bars and that they probably won’t be able to buy a swimsuit larger than a size medium*, things should go more smoothly. And the best part is, as American tourism dollars flow in — and especially if the trade embargo were lifted along with the travel ban — the hardships that would bother Americans would quickly begin to ease.

* When we traveled to Cuba, my husband forgot his bathing suit and searched all over Havana for one that came in XL. We tried the gift shop of a fancy hotel, where the saleswoman looked him over and giggled, “You are very fat.” Not an insult in a country where getting dessert on a regular basis means you’ve really made it!

Photo by Matthaisschack, used via Creative Commons license.

When U.S. officials advised citizens against traveling to Mexico due to the swine flu outbreak there, it was another hard hit to the onetime vacation mecca to our south. (The first was the State Department warning about drug violence.) But it looks like the whole travel industry is getting hit too — shares of the major airlines and cruise lines fell hard.

Mexico season is winding down as the weather improves up here, but if this flu keeps spreading, will Europeans and Asians steer clear of the whole continent for the all-important summer travel season? America already sounds a lot less fun than it used to, what with our general malaise and whole regions (like Detroit) in decay. You know the risk-averse Japanese, at least, are not going to go on vacation anywhere the least bit germy.

Most of us would rather pack bathing suits than face masks on vacation.

For a prediction of how bad this flu could be for travel, just look at the SARS outbreak of 2003, where travel to Asia plummeted by as much as 80 percent.

At least it looks like the airlines are waiving those big change fees for the time being, allowing travelers to follow the advice to steer clear of Mexico. Whether would-be vacationers can get hotel refunds, however, is another story — even if they had trip insurance. According to the link above, many policies cover illness, but only if the traveler is actually sick. Not if they just don’t want to get sick.

Personally, the whole thing just makes me happier about my own modest summer vacation destination of rural Wisconsin. Even though it’s tough to escape contact with world travelers anywhere these days — even the rural community we frequent has dairy workers from Mexico who may well have just returned from a trip to visit family — getting a little more personal space and fresh air out in the country sounds better than ever right now.

Photo by hmerinomx, used via Creative Commons license.