Times Square in New York City will draw the most New Year's Eve revelers in the United States, says Priceline.com.

When the ball drops this New Year’s Eve, Times Square won’t just be the place to which most television stations across the country are tuned. It will also be the hottest travel destination for the holiday weekend, according to data from Priceline.com.

Times Square edged out last year’s No. 1, Las Vegas’ South Strip, on Priceline’s ranking, which it compiles using hotel booking requests from customers using its Name Your Own Price service. And with five of the top seven neighborhoods and 14 of the top 50, New York City is the clear favorite place to ring in the New Year. Las Vegas boasts six of the top 50 destinations.

Other U.S. cities whose hotel business will flourish this weekend include New Orleans (French Quarter No. 8, Downtown Area No. 11), Chicago (North Michigan Avenue/River North Area No. 15, Millennium Park/Loop/Grant Park Area No. 17) and San Francisco (Union Square West/Nob Hill No. 18, Financial District/Embarcadero No. 27).

In the Asia-Pacific region, a similar tally from Agoda.com puts Bangkok in the lead, with Singapore second and Hong Kong third. Only one of Agoda’s top 10, Seoul, at No. 4, is unquestionably located in East Asia. Kuala Lumpur, Phuket, Bali, Chiang Mai, Taipei and Macau round out the list. (The latter two, along with Hong Kong, are sometimes geographically included in Southeast Asia.)

Image: Wikimedia Commons

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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 Corporation for Travel Promotion (CTP), the United States’ first official leisure and business tourism marketing agency, is planning to work up some huge buzz at the U.S. Travel Association’s International Pow Wow (May 21 – 25, 2011) in San Francisco.

Jim Evans

As a prelude to the Pow Wow launch, CTP announced the hiring of Jim Evans as its first CEO. Evans has decades of experience (see bio) having led companies like Best Western International and Jenny Craig, and he also was senior vice president of marketing for Hyatt Hotels.

“Attracting more international travelers to the U.S. will benefit the industry and our country by creating jobs, growing exports and spurring economic growth,” said Evans. “I am proud and excited to serve the travel industry—and our country—in carrying out this important mission.”

Jim Evans is going to be formally introduced to the industry and media at Pow Wow. CTP also is scheduled to participate in Pow Wow’s May 23 luncheon, where a public service announcement (PSA) video by President Obama promoting travel will be shown for the first time.

The video has been produced by Disney and overseen by CTP vice chairman Caroline Beteta. CTP hopes its launch and the celebrity pull of the President will make the video go viral, not to mention the potential for generating buzz among the presence of thousands of delegates at Pow Wow.

Other possible announcements the CTP board could make at Pow Wow include a name and brand to be used for marketing the United States and its business-to-consumer (B2C) website, corporationfortravelpromotion.com, which hasn’t yet been unveiled. CTP previously indicated that it might license and use the U.S. Travel Association’s “Discover America” trademark, or use “Discover USA.”

While the Pow Wow events are as good as a launch, CTP’s actual outreach to consumers doesn’t begin until October 1, 2011, when funding for marketing purposes becomes available. The funding comes via cash and in-kind contributions from the private sector, with matching funds from the ESTA fee paid by foreign visitors from Visa Waiver countries.

At the last board meeting on April 13, CTP chairman Stephen J. Cloobeck said that as of March 2011, the U.S. federal government had collected $74 million in ESTA fees. Of this amount, $54 million will be made available to the CTP to match the private cash and in-kind contributions that have been made.

By October, when they actually get their hands on the cash that’s piling up, it will have gone up to more than $100 million. So it’s safe to say that the CTP’s first year of promoting and marketing the U.S. to international visitors is off to an impressive start.

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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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