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Mexico has 4 spots in top 10 travel list despite swine flu - AP

2009-09-24T21:10:00Z

MINNEAPOLIS — Mexico took four of the top 10 spots on a list of international destinations booked by agents, managers and agency owners from the Travel Leaders company (formerly Carlson Wagonlit Travel Associates).

The annual survey asked 452 Travel Leaders agents to name the top destinations for the fall, through Dec. 31, using actual booking data. The survey was conducted in late August.

Mexico ranked highly despite concerns about swine flu and drug-related crime that hurt travel there last spring. Cancun came in at No. 2 on the list, Riviera Maya as No. 3, cruises to Mexico were No. 7 and Playa del Carmen was No. 10.

London was not among the top 10 in last year's survey but it rebounded at No. 6 this year, most likely due to a stronger U.S. dollar.

Caribbean cruises were first on the list and Mediterranean cruises were fourth. Rome came in at No. 5, while Montego Bay, Jamaica, got the eighth slot, and Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic, was ninth.

Domestically, the top 10 destinations were, in order, Las Vegas, Orlando, New York City, Honolulu, Maui, Chicago, Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami. Travel Leaders attributed New York's No. 3 slot to attractive hotel rates in the Big Apple.

Despite Mexico remaining popular as a destination this fall, most agents reported that the country's bad news had negatively impacted their bookings.

On the H1N1 flu, 50 per cent said there was a very dire or significant impact, 37 per cent said it had some impact, and only 13 per cent said it had little or no impact.

On reports of violence, 24 per cent of the agents who responded said it had a dire or significant impact; 47 per cent said it had some impact; the rest said it had little or no impact

Top 10 Places To Visit Before You Die

2009-07-18T02:22:00Z

Top 10 Places To See Before You Die!

1.    Whitsundays - Queensland - Australia

       Nestled in north east Australia in Queensland lies a place we feel ranks number 1 on our top 10 most beautiful places on earth. This series of 74 islands know as the Whitsunday's host many backpackers and travelers alike. This gorgeous place boasts crystal clear water and tropic fish 3-5 feet long. Whitehaven beach, located on Whitsunday island is know as a top 10 best beach of the world. Book Here More Information Click here



2.    Rocky Mountains - British Columbia - Canada

       Located in British Columbia, Canada's western most province lies a breathtaking series of mountains know as the Canadian Rockies. These Beauties lie between 10000-15000 feet high and provide amazing views. These sights are a must see when in Canada and one can easily drive or take a train through them. Book Here More info Click Here!



3.    Grand Canyon - Arizona - USA

        Located in Arizona lies a mammoth canyon know as the Grand Canyon, The length and depth of this canyon boast 1.8 miles high and 277 miles respectively, bringing a breathtaking view unmatched by no other. As old as Six million years , this is a spectacle to see. For more Information Click Here! Book Here



4.    Great Wall of China - Republic of China

       Since the start of building in 5 BC, this 6400 km long wall is so long it can be viewed from space. Originally built to protect borders it has transformed the landscape as a world wonder and brought millions of visitors from around the world there to see it. Book Here For more information Click Here!



5.     Stonehenge - Amesbury - England

        A prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about 3.2 kilometers (2.0 mi) west of Amsebury . One of the most famous prehistoric sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a massive surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones. Book Here For more information Click Here!



6.     Pyramids- Egypt

        The most famous pyramids are the Egyptian pyramids — huge structures built of brick or stone, some of which are among the largest man-made constructions. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and the only one of the seven to survive into modern times. The Ancient Egyptians capped the peaks of their pyramids with gold and covered their faces with polished white limestone, though many of the stones used for the purpose have fallen or been removed for other structures. Book Here For More Info Click Here!



7.     Colosseum - Rome - Italy

        The Colosseum or Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheater (, Italian Anfiteatro Flavio or Colosseo), is an elliptical amphitheater in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire. It is one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and Roman engineering. Construction started between 70 and 72 AD under the emperor Vespasian and was completed in 80 AD under Titus. Book Here For more Information Click Here!



8.     Antarctica

        Located at the south pole lies the massive Antarctica. This baron land hosts only research personnel from around the world, However, can be seen from the air easily and is know as absolutely breathtaking. A highly recommended trip by many people. A flight from Australia or New Zealand lasting 7=8 hours will take you low level around the boron landscape at some affordable prices. Click here for Flights For more information Click Here!



9.    Machu Picchu - Peru - South America

        Built around 1460, the lost city of Piccas lies on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru. This breathtaking city is hard to get to but worth the wait. One of the most awe inspiring places on earth. Click here for more information. Book Here



10.    The Kremlin - Red Square - Moscow- Russia

        Noted the most famous square in the world, Red Square hosts millions of visitors each year. People visit many sights in Moscow. One of these is Lenin's Mausoleum, where the embalmed body of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, is displayed. Nearby is the elaborate brightly-domed Saint Basil's Cathedral and also the palaces and cathedrals of the Kremlin. Book Here

Top 10 Beaches To Visit Before You Die!

2009-07-18T02:20:00Z

Top 10 Beaches To Visit Before You Die!

When you plan your next trip take into account this list of the most beautiful beaches of the world. The breathtaking views will amaze you and keep you wanting more. These beaches range from small to big and tourist havens to secluded. Enjoy!

1. Whitehaven Beach, Whitsundays, Australia

2. Ko Phi Phi Lei, Thailand

3. Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia

4. South Beach, Miami, USA

5. Lake Mckenzie Beach, Fraser Island, Australia

6. Copacabana Beach, Bolivia, South America

7. Porto Katsiki beach, Greece

8. Stanhope, Prince Edward Island, Canada

9. Cancun Beach, Cancun, Mexico

10. Blue Lagoon Beach,Yasawa Island, Fiji

Airline execs say industry outlook still grim

2009-06-07T23:26:00Z

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Demand for air travel could decline further despite signs of a more stable global economy, and prospects of a recovery this year look slim, industry executives said at a meeting of the world's airlines on Sunday.

Cargo demand may have stabilized, but a pick-up is unlikely until demand recovers in the United States, said the CEO of Korean Air (003490.KS), the world's top air cargo carrier.

"I think we have hit the bottom," Cho Yang Ho told Reuters.

European aircraft manufacturer Airbus (Paris:EAD.PA - News) said it was sticking to its 2009 sales target of 300 gross orders but that it would be more difficult to accomplish.

"It is more of a stretch now," Airbus Commercial Director John Leahy told Reuters.

"We see the market improving, and we have negotiations for orders ongoing."

International Lease Finance Corp (ILFC), the world's largest plane-leasing company, said it was negotiating for more planes with Airbus and Boeing Co (BA - News), but "at the right price."

The annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association began on a somber note, with last week's still unexplained crash of an Airbus A330-200 adding to the woes of an industry hurt by the financial crisis and volatile oil prices.

But several airline executives were quick to defend the plane.

"It's a safe plane, it's a good plane," said Chew Choon Seng, the chief executive of Singapore Airlines (SES:SIAL.SI - News), which has 16 A330-200s on order. "We should not jump to conclusions."

All 228 people on board the Air France (Paris:AIRF.PA - News) plane were killed when it crashed in the Atlantic Ocean, the world's worst air disaster since 2001.

Airline chiefs saw other concerns ahead, from rising unemployment to a surplus of plane capacity that could hurt profitability.

MAY GET WORSE

"I think it's probably going to get worse," Rob Fyfe, chief executive of Air New Zealand (NZSE:AIR.NZ - News), told Reuters on the sidelines of the meeting.

The bearish comments contrast with the more positive outlook from some global policymakers and economists about a global recovery in the wake of recent data such as the slowing pace of U.S. job losses.

Airlines have cut capacity and jobs in response to a slide in profits, and some have delayed or canceled orders for new aircraft from Boeing and Airbus.

The chairman and founder of India's Jet Airways (Bombay:JET.BO - News) said the airline may defer its orders for 10 Boeing 787 Dreamliners because of the economic crisis.

NareshGoyal told Reuters that no decision had been taken, but that it would depend on economic conditions.

But Deutsche Lufthansa's (XETRA:LHAG.DE - News) Chief Executive Wolfgang Mayrhuber said his airline, which has about $15.8 billion in orders for new aircraft, had no plans to delay or cancel any of them, although it was difficult to predict the outlook for the industry.

"We have very little visibility," he said.

More recently, outbreaks of the new H1N1 swine flu virus have added to the gloomy prospects for global air travel and tourism.

According to the World Health Organization, the new influenza strain has been found in 64 countries, and remains most prevalent in North America. WHO labs have confirmed nearly 19,000 infections.

(Additional reporting by Sara Webb and Jean Yoon; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

More bodies, debris found at Air France crash site

2009-06-06T19:50:00Z

Reporting from Paris -- Four more bodies along with debris were found Sunday near where an Air France jetliner with 228 people on board crashed into the Atlantic last week, according to reports from Brazilian and French military officials.

The Brazilian navy found three bodies floating in the ocean early Sunday, and spotted "hundreds" of objects from the June 1 crash, air force Col. Henry Munhoz told reporters.

In Paris, French military spokesman Christophe Prazuck said a French frigate recovered another body as well as several objects 45 miles from where the plane is believed to have crashed en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

Munhoz added there was "no doubt" the remains came from Air France Flight 447, but French officials said no confirmation could be made until an examination of the remains was completed.

On Saturday, Brazilian officials had reported recovering two other bodies, both male.

All 216 passengers and 12 crew members are believed to have perished.

Search boats were sent through unfavorable weather conditions to retrieve other bodies seen by Brazilian aircraft earlier Sunday in the area roughly 400 miles northwest of Brazil's Fernando de Noronha islands.

Dominique Bussereau, France's transportation secretary, said it was too early to determine how the Airbus A330 crashed, based on this weekend's findings.

"Disintegration in mid-flight, a shock or crash with the ocean's surface -- for the moment no indication permits" authorities to narrow down their investigation, he said on RTL radio, adding that even an improbable terrorist attack was still being considered.

Meanwhile, Air France said it was accelerating a recently launched program to replace devices on A330s that measure airspeed. The airline denied that it had not responded to a previous Airbus manufacturer recommendation to replace the devices, called pitot tubes.

"Without making any assumptions as to a possible link with the causes of the accident, Air France speeded up this program [to replace the airspeed detectors] and reminded its pilots of the current instructions issued by the manufacturer to cope with the loss of airspeed data," said a statement issued late Saturday.

French investigators said Saturday that Flight 447 emitted automatic messages indicating an "incoherence" in flight speed readings before the crash.

A malfunctioning airspeed sensor could possibly cause the computer controlling the plane to accelerate or decelerate in a potentially dangerous way, said Bussereau on RTL radio Sunday, while insisting that inconsistent speed readings "can't be the only reason for a crash."

In its statement, Air France said that refraining from following an Airbus recommendation made in September 2007 to replace pitot tubes was not viewed as a safety concern.

"A recommendation from the manufacturer gives the operator total freedom to apply the corresponding guidelines fully, partially or not at all," the statement said. "Should flight safety be concerned, the manufacturer, together with the authorities, issues a mandatory service bulletin followed by an airworthiness directive."

After the recommendation, the airline replaced the pitots on its Airbus A320 models because water occasionally leaked into the device on those planes, Air France confirmed. A replacement program "was not implemented on the A340/330s as no such incidents had been noted," it added.

The airline said that in May 2008 it noted "incidents involving a loss of airspeed data in flight" on the A340/330s and asked Airbus to help fix the problem, which once again concerned pitot tubes that froze for short periods at higher altitudes.

But Airbus told the airline its newer pitot models were "not designed to prevent such incidents which took place at cruise levels and reiterated the operational procedures well-known to the crews" for solving unreliable speed readings encountered on the A340 and A330 planes, according to Air France.

As a result, and after tests performed this year "suggesting" the new pitots might be "a valuable improvement to reduce the incidence" of pitot icing, Air France said that on April 27 it began replacing the older pitots on all Airbus models without waiting for Airbus to complete an in-service evaluation of the problem.

Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath said he could not comment on the manufacturer's response to Air France's request to improve the pitots on its Airbus A340/330s because information regarding Flight 447 could be communicated only to French investigators.

Schaffrath did note that "it is absolutely not proven that [a problem with airspeed reading] led to the accident."

He added that on Thursday night Airbus issued a reminder to pilots of its aircraft on the procedure for handling "inconsistencies in the speeds measured," which Schaffrath termed a common and minor problem.

When asked if a malfunctioning pitot would result in an irregular speed reading, Schaffrath said he could not comment, but cautioned against jumping to conclusions.

"It is a long way from the measuring device to the cockpit," he said.

Lauter is a special correspondent.

Air France Jet Carrying 228 Vanishes Over Atlantic Ocean

2009-06-06T19:19:00Z

AP Undated photo taken at Houston's George Bush International Airport shows the Air France Airbus 330-200, the same model that plunged into the Atlantic midway through a trip from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

Undated photo taken at Houston's George Bush International Airport shows the Air France Airbus 330-200, the same model that plunged into the Atlantic midway through a trip from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

DEVELOPING: The first bodies of passengers of the doomed Air France flight that plummeted into the sea have been found, Brazil's air force said Saturday.

The Brazilian military said search crews scanning the Atlantic Ocean located two male bodies of passengers aboard Flight 447 — which crashed midway through a trip from Rio de Janeiro to Paris before dawn Monday morning.

Click here for photos.

Air force spokesman Col. Jorge Amaral said searchers also recovered a leather briefcase with an Air France ticket for the flight inside of it.

"It was confirmed with Air France that the ticket number corresponds to a passenger on the flight," he told The Associated Press.

Amaral said the bodies were recovered Saturday morning and were picked up roughly 400 miles northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil's northern coast.

All 228 passengers and crew perished in the accident, which is believed to have occurred when the Airbus 330's systems failed during a violent storm about four hours into the flight. There were no survivors, officials said.

Earlier Saturday, the French accident investigation agency said that Air France had ignored a recommendation to change airspeed-detecting instruments on Flight 447 before the plane crashed in turbulent weather.

France's BEA concluded that the doomed plane received inconsistent airspeed readings by different instruments as it struggled in a massive thunderstorm.

Airbus had recommended to all its airline customers that they replace speed-measuring instruments known as Pitot tubes on the A330, the model that crashed, said Paul-Louis Arslanian, the head of the agency.

Investigators have been relying on 24 messages the plane sent automatically during the last minutes of the flight to try to locate the wreckage.

Video

Missing Jet

Photo Essays

Air France Jet Missing

Without the aircraft's black box recorders, aviation officials have had little information to help them determine what caused the crash.

Earlier in the week, French investigators said debris reported to have been from Flight 447 was in fact not from the crashed Air France plane, despite Brazil's assertion that it was.

In Brazil, visibility and weather conditions improved Saturday in the area searchers are focusing on but debris earlier spotted on the ocean's surface may have sunk by now.

"Debris doesn't indefinitely float, and when it sinks we will not have the means of finding them," Air Force Brig. Gen. Ramon Cardoso told reporters late Friday.

Cardoso has insisted that the debris spotted — an airplane seat, a slick of kerosene and other pieces — was from the plane. But he confirmed that Brazilian searchers had yet to recovered any of the material.

He said searchers did not pursue the reports of debris — the first sighting was reported on Tuesday — because priority was given to the hunt for survivors or the remains of victims.

Meanwhile, a German government-owned satellite spotted debris in the Atlantic on Wednesday, a German Aerospace Center spokesman said, but he added it was unclear whether the material came from the plane.

This is a developing story. Please refresh page for updates.

The Associated Press contributed to this report