Travel Plan Information

What with the economy in the shape that it is in today, making a trip to one of your favorite destinations in the United States can be pretty expensive for Canadians and even more expensive to fly overseas to places in Asia or Europe. Canada has a lot to offer where vacation spots are concerned and so it would be a pretty good idea for Canadians to plan a trip to some other province in the country. One can opt for cheap travel insurance Canada to help meet with medical emergencies or lost or damaged baggage while traveling. There is quite a choice of cheap Canada travel insurance Canada so all you have to do is choose the one that would suit your needs best. The government of Canada is all the time promoting tourism whether it is for Canadians themselves, Americans, Asians or Europeans. There are so many places to choose from in Canada if you are looking for a vacation that is not only culturally interesting but exciting and relaxing as well. Each province of Canada has something to offer and even the Canadians are encouraged to visit as many places as possible. Only make sure that you opt for cheap Canada travel insurance Canada no matter if you laze on the lovely sandy beaches of New Brunswick, watch the awe-inspiring Rocky Mountains in Alberta, watch whales in British Columbia, hike along the unbelievable trails in Ontario, take in the gorgeous icebergs in Newfoundland or make the most of the stunning shoreline scenery of Nova Scotia. If you are leaving your home province to take a trip to another province, make sure you take care of a few things. The first thing you ought to do is take cheap travel insurance Canada which is vital in case you happen to get sick or meet with an accident while you are outside your home province as your provincial health plan will not cover all the medical bills. But if you take on additional cheap Canada travel insurance Canada it can take care of unforeseen expenses like if you need immediate medical attention or if your possessions are damaged or stolen and so on. But if you do not have cheap Canada travel insurance Canada then you may be needed to pay unexpected medical expenses and will not be compensated for flight cancellations or delays, or for luggage that might be damaged, lost or stolen. It is always a good practice to opt for cheap travel insurance Canada whenever you take a trip outside your province so that you are covered just about anywhere and everywhere that you go. Apart from all this, make sure you carry your passport with you when you travel. If you are taking along your family, make sure they all have theirs too as well as proper identification. Proper research about the place you are planning to visit will help make it an enjoyable trip.

 

VAIL, COLORADO AND WAITSFIELD, VERMONT…

With the expansion, the next edition of the map, which comes out in December 2010, will be called The Best of Vail and Beaver Creek Resort Maps.

“The Eagle River Valley map was extremely popular. Since the map came out in May 2008, we distributed more than 250,000 copies,” said Jessica Grentner, owner of the Vail and Beaver Creek Resort Map. “The popularity made it very obvious that there was a real demand in the area for this caliber of map. Hence the expansion to include Vail. ”

Resort Maps are colorful, hand-drawn maps of towns and cities, distributed free to area visitors at travel information and rest areas as well as at advertiser locations. Each map highlights local attractions and things to do, restaurants, accommodations, retail shops, real estate and other services. Each advertiser on the map is represented with a display ad on the perimeter of the map, including a color-coded grid locator and their actual building hand-drawn, highlighted and labeled, making them easy to locate.

In addition to the hard copy map, the Vail, Beaver Creek and Avon Resort Maps will be available in interactive form on Resort Maps’ revamped Web site resortmaps. com. The site also includes reviews of area attractions and businesses, including advertisers, courtesy of TripAdvisor. com. TripAdvisor is the world’s largest travel site.

“We’re extremely excited about the new map with the expanded coverage,” said Grentner, who started the Eagle River Valley Resort Maps back in 2007 and purchased the Summit County Resort Maps in 2008. “Earlier this summer the announcement of Vail being included in the territory resulted in more than 50 new map pick-up locations and that number is growing. ”

The initial distribution of the Vail and Beaver Creek map is set for December 2010, with 150,000 copies being printed. Advertising opportunities are still available. For more information, please contact Jessica Grentner at 970-688-4800or jessicag@resortmaps. com.

For more information on Resort Maps or to inquire about ownership of a Resort Maps franchise, please visit resortmpas. com or call 802-496-6277.

About Resort Maps

Headquartered in the Green Mountains of Vermont, Resort Maps has been creating and publishing advertising maps in the northeastern U. S. since 1986. In 1993, Resort Maps expanded its reach by creating a franchise model for distribution of its colorful, hand-drawn maps of resort towns and cities. Today, that network of franchises has grown to 100 Resort Maps in publication in the US and the UK, with several more in the process of being published. Nearly 20 million Resort Maps will be printed and distributed in 2010.

For more information on Resort Maps and/or the franchise opportunity, visit www. resortmaps. com or call 802-496-6277.

Resort Maps franchises serve cities and towns in California (Carmel, Monterey), Colorado (Boulder, Breckenridge, Cherry Creek, Colorado Springs, Denver, Vail & Beaver Creek, Estes Park, Fort Collins, Summit County), Delaware (Bethany Beach, Rehoboth Beach), Florida (Boca Raton, Clearwater Beach and Gulf Beaches, Cocoa Beach, Daytona Beach, Delray Beach, Key West, Melbourne, New Smyrna Beach, St. Augustine, Tarpon Springs), Georgia (Savannah/Tybee Island), Maine (Bar Harbor/Acadia, Boothbay region, Camden-Rockland, Kennebunkport, Kittery, Portland, York-Ogunquit), Maryland (Annapolis, Eastern Shore, Ocean City, Solomons Island, St. Mary’s County), Massachusetts (Berkshires, Brewster/Harwich/Dennis, Chatham-Orleans, Eastham-Wellfleet, Falmouth, Hyannis-Yarmouth, Martha’s Vineyard, Newburyport, Plymouth, Sturbridge, Worcester), Michigan (Northern Michigan/Petoskey/Harbor Springs; Traverse City), New Hampshire (Franconia/Notch Region, Hampton Beach, Hanover/Lebanon , Keene, Lakes Region, Mount Washington Valley, Portsmouth), New Jersey (Barnegat Bay, Cape May, Hoboken/Jersey City, Hunterdon, Lambertville , Long Beach Island, New Brunswick, Ocean Grove, Point Pleasant, Princeton, Sandy Hook), New York (The North Fork, Lake George , Lake Placid, Saratoga Springs, The Hamptons,), North Carolina (Asheville, Brunswick County, Hendersonville , Outer Banks, Salisbury and Rowan County, Sandhills, Wilmington,), Pennsylvania (Bucks County, Chestnut Hill, Delaware River Valley, Gettysburg, Lehigh Valley, The Main Line), Rhode Island (Newport, Providence), South Carolina (Charleston, Hilton Head, Myrtle Beach), Tennessee (Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge), Texas (North Texas, including Fort Worth), Vermont (Addison County/Brandon, Barre/Montpelier, Burlington, Killington/Rutland, Mad River Valley, Manchester, Mount Snow, Okemo, Smugglers’ Notch, Stowe, Waterbury/Richmond, Woodstock/Quechee) and Virginia (Northern Neck & Middle Peninsula) —as well as towns and cities in England (Chicester, Lewes), Puerto Rico (San Juan, Vieques, Culebra) and Costa Rica (Escazu-Santa Ana).

 

The Information Age dawned with the internet, the reason the sun is still shinning on this age is the inception of Search Engines. We are now, all of us in their debt or held hostage for our access to information.  

Looking for information in years past meant a trip to the library, looking in card catalogues, periodical indexes, etc. The information was arranged alphabetically, giving no more or less importance to minor or major works or sources. Today, the search engines have the difficult task of trying to organize and prioritize a much larger pool of pertinent information to help the researcher. In order to do this they have had to adopt certain criteria for choosing which material or web sites to present first for a given search query. The systems and criteria are having profoundly negative impacts on small businesses. The travel industry is a good case in point as even in the remotest “inbound” locations (travel destinations) throughout the world the internet and ability to create a web site are available. The same can be said for the other side of the coin. “Outbound” services (travel agencies) with the help of the internet allow an agency for example in Japan to be able to send American tourists to Europe. There in lies the problem.

In order to be “found” easily on the internet, a company or web site must come up on the first one or two pages of search engine results for a search query. People generally don’t have the time or willingness to search much further. The search engine companies necessarily need to choose criteria for their “ranking” of results in order to be of the most service to their clients. They must also battle companies who try to manipulate the criteria in order to raise the ranking of a web site undeserving of a higher ranking. There is an entire industry devoted to doing just that. It is called “Search Engine Optimization” or SEO. There job, often costing tens of thousands of dollars is to manipulate the search engines rankings. There is a war going on between people who want to buy their way into preferred rankings and the search engines who are trying their best to deliver fair and accurate search results. The criteria and tactics of search engines have been evolving, but four basic criteria seem to be surviving.

Compelling content, traffic, links from legitimate related websites and dynamics and age of a web site.

Large international travel agencies and dot com travel sites appear at the top of search result rankings because they receive a large quantity of traffic and their large marketing budgets allow them to use “pay per click” advertisements which appear at the sides of search results to enhance the traffic still further. These companies sell travel to every corner of the globe and receive traffic for people looking to go to every corner of the globe, unlike a locally owned web site which would receive traffic only for people interested in their one particular location.

The net effect of search engines criteria for ranking websites on local travel companies, the inhabitants of travel destinations throughout the world is to bury their company’s web sites near the bottom of search results, making them basically un-findable. Not being able to draw customers directly to their business they are often forced to work for the large international agencies whose web site is available on the first couple of pages of a search result or pay dot com travel sites for the ability to be seen. If the inhabitants of a destination are working for an international travel agency they are providing their services for a huge discount to their actual world value. If they are paying a Dot Com travel site their net earnings are also discounted.

Every day another international travel agency announces “their” new tour of some precious travel destination. These agencies make money marketing destinations throughout the world, but share none of the responsibility for the impact their clients will have or for the care of the immediate environment, nor do they pay taxes on the profits they make to the government which has the responsibility for the care of that destination. It would be as if someone offered tours of your neighborhood, promoted it on the web, made money from these tours, but had no responsibility for the maintenance of your streets, nor care about the impact tour buses would have on the general quality of life in your neighborhood.

There was a time before the existence and world wide use of the internet when these travel agencies provided a valuable service to their clients. They were accountable for their client’s experience and could offer the same level of service and accountability to destinations throughout the world. This provided a sense of security for the traveler. Now, the value of that “homogenized” service is debatable. With the rise of many popular travel review websites, anyone anywhere in the world can know before they go into whose hands they are intrusting their vacation (www. cometogalapagos. com) 

Dot com travel sites are essentially new age telemarketers and present an opportunity to large international travel agencies where they can pay for a preferred location within those sites. Small local companies can not afford the fees for preferred placements within dot com travel sites which occupy many of the first results for a search engine query regarding travel and again, just as international travel agencies make money marketing destinations throughout the world, they share none of the responsibility for the impact their clients will have or for the care of the immediate environment, nor do they pay taxes on the revenues they earn marketing a specific destination to the government of that destination.

Part 2- A Case Study of San Cristobal, Galapagos

 

Part 3- Solutions for both travelers and local governments