San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system has had a very bad week. From August 11 to 15, it went from being a model for an efficient and responsible local transportation network to one that has been hacked and threatened with multiple civil-liberty lawsuits, and it faces an FCC investigation over public safety, among other things.

It began with a rumored protest planned for August 11 over the July 3 shooting of a man by transit police. The organizers of said protest were allegedly planning to co-ordinate their protests using mobile devices.

So BART decided to cut off cellphone service at some BART stations.

Per a BART-released statement on the wireless service interruption: “A civil disturbance during commute times at busy downtown San Francisco stations could lead to platform overcrowding and unsafe conditions for BART customers, employees and demonstrators. BART temporarily interrupted service at select BART stations as one of many tactics to ensure the safety of everyone on the platform.”

But that didn’t stop lawyers for the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation from threatening BART with lawsuits for illegally disrupting cellphone service. BART was publicly being compared to Hosni Mubarak for shutting down communications and social networks.

The hacker group Anonymous decided to weigh in and show its disapproval of BART’s strong-arm tactics by hacking the myBART.org website and leaking the names, passwords and personal data of more than 2,000 BART customers.

The kicker, however, was that the original rumored protest on August 11 never happened. But after all the controversy over the cellphone shutdown, BART did get a real three-hour protest on Monday, Aug. 15, 2011.

Protesters marched from the Civic Center BART Station to the Port of San Francisco building. BART had to shut down four stations for about an hour. This time, it did not disrupt cellphone service.

As the icing on BART’s week from hell, the FCC stepped in and is investigating what effect BART’s decision to shut down cellphone service might have had on public safety.

To add to BART’s pain, its own workers’ union pitched in with a call to the California Public Utilities Commission, BART’s regulator, to investigate software glitches, public and employee safety, and working conditions.

An Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU 1555) statement notes that in the past three months, BART’s computer system has crashed and station agents and transit operators have been repeatedly put at risk during security emergencies.

“We don’t have the solutions, but we definitely know something is wrong right now,” said Antonette Bryant, president and business agent, ATU 1555. “The people who run BART have lost our confidence and are putting rider and employee safety at risk. We need a thorough investigation by an outside, independent regulatory agency to find answers.”

It’s ironic that none of this would have happened if BART hadn’t tried to put rider and employee safety above the protesters’ rights.

Photo – mcmees24

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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spent their first overseas trip, from June 30 to July 10, 2011, in North America. The enormous interest in all things Will and Kate with 1,300 journalists following them around has brought the destinations they visited a windfall in free publicity.

Kate & Wills

But Will and Kate divided their time between Canada and California, so which “CA tourism” made the most of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?

For starters, the California Travel & Tourism Commission (CTTC) and VisitBritain teamed up to push the royals’ July 8 to 10 stay in Los Angeles as benefiting both California and Britain.

“We consider the Duke and Duchess’s visit a true hallmark, once-in-a-generation event that will benefit the state with a halo effect for years to come,” said Caroline Beteta, CTTC president & CEO. “Their visit also highlights the enduring positive relationship our state has enjoyed with U.K. travelers.”

Karen Clarkson, VisitBritain’s vice president for North America, explained the view from the other side of the pond. “Their popularity in the U.S. helps to keep the spotlight on Britain and showcase all of the exciting reasons why Americans should visit now,” said Clarkson. “The U.K. offers travelers choice, value and unforgettable experiences, rooted in our rich history, heritage, arts, culture and sporting traditions.”

The CTTC also launched a Royal Summer campaign which includes hotel packages inspired by Will and Kate’s visit. In a matching move, VisitBritain is offering “Royal Summer” travel tips on visitbritain.us for inbound U.S. travelers.

But while the CTTC and VisitBritain are busy patting each other on the back, Canada looks to be the destination that ends up with the biggest slice of the royal-tourism pie.

The Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) set the ball rolling with a dedicated website and an accredited video crew, editor and two bloggers following Will and Kate around and producing daily “Royal Tour” material for website visitors and the media.

The regional tourism bureaus in Canada, whether by design or luck, ended up with great footage of the royal couple attending their most popular events and destinations.

They arrived in Ottawa on June 30, which happened to be Canada Day. The royal couple joined hundreds of thousands celebrating in the capital with fireworks and a rock concert, and the downtown core around Parliament Hill turned into a huge street party with Ottawa hotels completely sold out.

On July4, they were in Charlottetown for dragon-boat racing on Prince Edward Island. Kathy Hambly, executive director of the greater Charlottetown Chamber of Commerce, said it was fantastic to have Prince Edward Island showcased by the international media—not to mention the fact that images of Will and Kate competing against each other in a dragon-boat race will be useful as promotional material.

Banff National Park came into the limelight when the royal couple made a last-minute decision to spend the night of July 6 at the secluded Skoki Lodge near Lake Louise, which quickly had a $4,800 bathtub specially installed for the royal couple. Travel Alberta CEO Bruce Okabe noted that the lodge got more publicity in one day than it had in the last 50 to 60 years.

Calgary hotels likewise enjoyed a nice bounce July 7 and 8 for the 2011 Calgary Stampede, with iconic pictures of Will and Kate donning white cowboy hats. Tourism Calgary CEO Randy Williams said the 10 gallon hats they wore helped put Calgary on the map.

Alberta’s biggest markets just happen to be the United Kingdom and the United States, where interest in the royal tour of Canada was peaking at the right time when the couple were in Alberta, just before their arrival in Los Angeles. All said and done, it was a very well-timed royal tour, and the concerned destination organizations made the most of it.

Photo – VisitBritain

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Camp's Bay, Cape Town

TripAdvisor just released its annual list of the world’s best travel destinations, and neither New York or Paris makes one of the top three spots. Cape Town, South Africa takes the crown for its beaches, views, hiking trails and wildlife, as well as its historical significance: Visitors can tour Robben Island, the prison Nelson Mandela was held in for 27 years.

Sydney, Australia (number 11 last year) is in second place. The site notes the city’s broad appeal to “culture vultures, city slickers and beach bums,” along with its world-class shopping.

Coming in at No. 3 is Machu Picchu, the historic Incan limestone architectural wonder on a high plateau in Peru.

Paris, which did not make it into the top 25 last year, holds the No. 4 spot, while Rio de Janeiro (also new to the top 10) is at five.

The four U.S. cities that made the top 25 are New York City at six, Honolulu at 19, San Francisco at 23 and Las Vegas at 25.

With the exception of Machu Picchu, this year’s list reflects much more of an urban travel trend than last year’s rankings, whose top choices were weighted toward small European cities such as Monte Carlo, Salzburg, Lucerne, Heidelberg and Florence.

See the full list here.

Photo: neiladerney123 aka Neil Howard

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On Feb. 22, 2011, the owners of BlogWorld & New Media Expo—the large new media tradeshow and conference—announced that it has decided to move the event from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.

BlogWorld had been held in Las Vegas for the past five years and presented Sin City with an opportunity to market itself to the influencers who hold sway over large online audiences. In 2010, BlogWorld attendees had a combined monthly reach of more than 250 million people.

But this opportunity now goes to newly revitalized downtown Los Angeles and the $2.5 billion L.A. Live complex, which includes the Staples Center, Nokia Theatre, Grammy Museum, the gleaming 54-story tower of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, restaurants, theaters and other facilities—not to mention the adjacent Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC) which attracts 2.5 million visitors annually.

Staples Center and Nokia Theatre from the roof of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel

Blogworld is only the latest in a series of conventions and trade shows that have been drawn to the City of Angels by the power of L.A. Live. Last May, Microsoft announced that its 2011 Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) would be held in Los Angeles in July.

The event will bring in between 12,000 and 15,000 attendees from 120 countries, generating more than 50,000 hotel room nights and $45 million in attendee spending alone.

Mark Liberman, president of LA Inc., the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, acknowledged that L.A. Live was one of the factors that influenced Microsoft’s decision. “This meeting underscores LA’s new reputation as a vibrant destination by the meetings industry, sparked by the addition of the L.A. Live campus,’’ said Liberman.

One month after Microsoft’s announcement, it was the American Heart Association’s (AHA) turn. For the first time, the AHA would hold its national convention in Los Angeles. More than 28,000 delegates are expected to attend the four-day event in November 2012 that is expected to yield approximately 45,000 hotel room nights and generate an economic impact of $42 million.

On top of these big conventions, a host of local events have been moved to the LACC from other nearby venues, including the Los Angeles Film Festival, the Los Angeles Times Travel Show and ESPN’s X Games.

One That Got Away

Los Angeles hasn’t been able to win all its potential convention business, however. The biggest convention battle that Los Angeles waged was probably over Comic-Con International, and the main reason that it ultimately lost out was because San Diego “gave away the house” in an effort to retain the high-profile convention.

Comic-Con organizers had made it known publicly that they weren’t happy with the annual bedlam over hotel rooms and local transportation in San Diego, which has hosted Comic-Con for more than 40 years. Its board of directors had narrowed down the choices to Los Angeles and Anaheim and traveled to Los Angeles to tour its new downtown facilities.

LA Inc. senior vice president Michael Krouse sums up what they saw in the facilities that would be vital to a convention where the big draw is movie premieres.

“The Nokia Theater which is adjacent to the convention center seats 7,100 people. They could visualize what they could use it for,” said LA Inc. senior vice president Michael Krouse, in an interview with ComicBookResources.com. “Then we have Staples Center with 18,000 seats adjacent to the convention center. Oh! And we also have 2,100 seats in the [Club] NOKIA theater. Oh! And we also have an 18-screen theater complex with a 750-seat premier theater. So all of this in one complex and one condensed package. What I’m trying to illustrate is that you can see how all these elements blend together for them.”

Knowing they were about to lose the convention—which brings in 125,000 attendees and $163 million in economic impact—to Los Angeles, San Diego offered to use $500,000 in hotel taxes to pay for downtown shuttle service during the four-day Comic-Con, which convinced organizers to stay.

Next Big Convention Catch?

AEG—the company that owns L.A. Live—is now going after the big kahuna. It wants to bring the Super Bowl to Los Angeles with a $1 billion, 64,000-seat NFL stadium in the downtown area near the Staples Center.

To make way for the stadium, AEG wants to tear down and relocate a wing of the LACC. One of its marketing pitches is that it will attract new conventions to the city, drawn by the stadium, the upgraded convention center and possible new hotels nearby.

All these reasons are no doubt indicators of the vibrancy of L.A. Live that is helping Los Angeles land new conventions. But perhaps the biggest compliment came from the New York Times, which recently featured downtown Los Angeles in its weekly “36 Hours in …” column, celebrating the revival of this neighborhood and declaring the L.A. Live complex “largely responsible for this comeback.”

Photo – David Jones

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