travel deficit, airline allinaces, El Al

This Week’s Take offers you a capsule summary of the high and low lights of TakeOffeh.com’s Daily Dispatches from the past seven days.

Travel Deficit: We’re Going, They’re Not Coming
It’s not just our government running a huge deficit these days – so is our travel industry. The so-called travel deficit – the difference between our tourism export (what Canadians spend on foreign travels) and our tourism import (what visitors spend here) – reached a record $3.5-billion in this last quarter. As reported by the Financial Post, from April to June, Canadians spent $7.5-billion outside the country, while visitors to Canada spent $4-billion. It’s the highest deficit since Statistics Canada began compiling information on the subject in 1972. The reasons are multiple: one major one is the decline in U.S. visitors, who seemed to prefer Canada when they didn’t need a passport and the greenback carried a lot more weight. Another factor is that Canadians have weathered the recession better than our American cousins (so far at least) and we’re feeling more confident about our finances. In June, for example, Canadian visitors to Mexico were up 107% from the year before. Canadians were a bright spot for oil spill-slammed Florida too: from April to June the Sunshine State welcomed over 10% more Canadians than the year before. The low prices offered by Canadian tour operators for holidays in the sun definitely can’t be underestimated either – a viciously competitive marketplace has held down pricing for years. If they ever rise to the levels paid by other nationalities, Canada’s travel deficit will likely fall rather quickly.

Spurned El Al Will Launch Its Own Airline Alliance
As discussed previously in this space, airline alliances are hugely important these days. They help extend a single airline’s reach through relatively seamless

connections. More than that, many alliance members share sales offices, maintenance, catering and IT facilities, operational staff and purchasing programs. These add up to cost savings that have become all but essential in a highly competitive marketplace. This is a problem for Israeli carrier El Al, which has been turned down for membership in all three of the major global alliances – Oneworld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam. Ostensibly at least, El Al has been rejected because of its stringent security measures, its policy of not flying on the Jewish Sabbath (Saturdays) and the fact that it does not fly to most Muslim countries, so lacks a Middle Eastern route network. While the turn-downs no doubt carry a bit of a sting, overcoming obstacles is practically a national sport in Israel, so the nation’s flag carrier is doing what comes naturally – starting its own alliance. As trade publication Travel Weekly recently reported, the new alliance will be called WE — short for ‘Western Eastern’ and indicative of the eventual scope planned for the grouping. So far, El Al has letters of intent from airlines in Russia, the Ukraine and Armenia, and it hope to 20 members by the end of next year. With progress to date in Eastern Europe, El Al hopes to target its next recruits from the rest of Europe and South America.

A Banner Month For Weird & Wacky Travel Stories

Goats in hotel rooms, underage kids jetting off to Dollywood, a mid-air pillow fight – there’s never a dull moment in the world of travel, and August brought more than its share of the wacky and weird, which we’re happy to share with you for your voyeuristic pleasure. The goat in the hotel room kicked off the month in style: two somewhat inebriated friends returned to their Leavenworth, Washington hotel room in the wee hours of the morning, only to find it occupied by a horned ruminant. At first it was considered a random prank, but it was later revealed there was a relationship between prankster and pranked.

Decency made the headlines in August too, with both genders involved and one that blurred the lines. In a Dubai shopping mall, a female British tourist was accosted by a local woman and browbeaten about her immodest attire. Not backing down, the tourist took off more clothes and strode through the mall in a bikini, resulting in an indecency charge, which was later dropped. Meanwhile, a couple of French seaside towns got tough with male visitors – often British and rarely sober – who stride topless in public, beer bellies a-bouncing. So far, however, there have been no reports of European countries attempting to ban the popular male Speedo-style bathing suits, often referred to by Australians as ‘budgie-smugglers,’ or more optimistically, as ‘banana-hammocks.’ Oh, and speaking of decency, the sight of a fellow airline passenger’s attire was so shocking that Mark Oaks just had to snap a photo. It shows a man who appears to be in his 60s, wearing a camouflage-patterned cropped tank top over matching camo hot pants. The outfit is finished off with thigh-high black stockings with lace tops and a choker necklace. Chacun à son goÅt? Not everyone thinks so.

Shortly after flight attendant Steven Slater made his grand escape to reality show heaven, a video came out that put the profession in a better light. A video recorded on a passenger’s mobile phone shows a Lufthansa attendant tossing pillows at economy class passengers, who throw them back, resulting in a full-on pillow fight at 20,000 feet. The outnumbered attendant took several hits before retreating to the safety of the galley, to the cheers and applause of passengers.

Not all of the wacky and weird travel stories this month necessarily qualify as funny. Like the story about three kids in Florida who had saved some money from babysitting and decided they wanted to visit Dollywood in Tennessee. The 15, 13 and 11-year-olds flew to Memphis without even having to show ID, then phoned home in a panic when they realized Dollywood was a long way away.

There’s no argument that the prize for gaffe of the month has to go to the British Airways pilot who hit a wrong button that triggered a computerized announcement telling passengers to prepare for what was euphemistically referred to as ‘an emergency landing on water.’ The erroneous message was quickly clarified, but we hope BA picked up the dry cleaning bills.

By: Bruce Parkinson
Bruce Parkinson is a travel industry journalist and regular contributor to Takeoffeh.com as well as sister company, OpenJaw.com

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