Las Vegas and Spiritual Tourism?

Like most people, I rarely like to admit my faults but I must confess I am immensely behind in reading my plethora of travel industry publications. Seriously, as much as I love the industry you would think I would devour each one as soon as it arrived on my doorstep. Unfortunately, not so much and I'm blaming the holidays.

So I just finished Travel Weekly dated November 9, 2009 and there was a very interesting article urging Las Vegas to consider the financial impact of catering to the spiritual tourism market. Hmmm, I must say that's an interesting proposition.

Given the economic conditions of 2009, I understand that industries will try anything to make money. But honestly, I can't exactly see my grandmother's church group hitting Sin City. I'm almost positive that her church friends are probably praying for all the sins of those of us that hit that town on a regular basis.

Royal Caribbean's Decision to Continue stops in Haiti

Kudos to Royal Caribbean for being proactive in trying to assist with the recovery in Haiti. RCCL's CEO has come under fire during the last week for his decision to allow the fleet to continue calling on the port of Labadee, Haiti which is the company's private island. His reasoning is because the ships will assist with economic recovery and relief efforts by bringing much needed supplies to the island. While I applaud the companies efforts to aid Haiti, I'm just not sure how my clients or I would feel about the port call.

The CEO says the company is offering the ability to combine a vacation with relief efforts in the plagued nation. However, I didn't see them adjusting the shore trips to reflect any type of volunteerism or relief work in the area. The countries of Haiti and Dominican Republic are great vacation destinations, as is a Royal Caribbean cruise, and ones that I recommend on a daily basis. I would just be a bit reserved to actually send a vacationing client to a country that is struggling with this enormous natural disaster. Its definitely a hard line to walk to balance the need for aid with the idea that bringing wealthy vacationers to the island in hopes of boosting the economy... Would that be a kick in the face of the Haitian people?

Why not instead, offer the ships for use in the recovery efforts? Every client I know would gladly postpone their vacation knowing that RCCL was donating their ships to get supplies, volunteers and aid workers to Haiti. From a PR standpoint, I can't think of a better way to promote such a immense cultural volunteerism program for the company without any negative criticism that the company still wants its private destination to make money.

Unlimited Private Events with Palace Resorts

Whether its a family reunion, destination wedding or corporate meeting, Palace Resorts is offering several amazing promotions throughout 2010. There is the Palace Passports Promotion, Kids Free promotion and based on the number of rooms blocked you can get free unlimited private functions.

The Passport Promotion is valid on all bookings whether through a travel agency or a wholesaler and includes great discounts like: 30% off one round of golf with round trip transportation, 25% discount on Spa Treatments, a Buy One Get One Free Jungle Tour and a Buy One Get One Free Swim with the Dolphins. Vallarta Palace is offering unlimited tours per person and Riviera Nayarit is offering $15 off car rentals.

The Kids Free is a summer promotion valid for travel between June 1 - August 31, 2010. It does require a minimum 3 night stay and applies to children under age 12.

And lastly, one of the promos I'm most excited about is the group amenity offering. Book 10 paid rooms for 3 nights and you will receive a complimentary cocktail party. Book 20 paid rooms for 3 nights and you will receive an upgraded event instead of the cocktail party. But if you book 25 rooms with a minimum of 3 nights, you receive unlimited private functions.

The Palace resorts are a terrific all inclusive set of properties throughout the Cancun, Riviera Maya and Puerto Vallarta areas. I would recommend all of the properties!

Loving Southwest

Before you ask, yes I am touting my new found love interest: Southwest Airlines. I had the pleasure of flying Southwest from Denver to Vegas roundtrip this week for an industry grand opening event at City Center. My entire experience was terrific from curbside checkin to the gate agents, flight attendents and the pilot's continual updates on the Chargers playoff game, I couldn't have asked for more. Not to mention, its free to check your bags and there is no change fee. Granted I do still hate the cattle call lineup prior to boarding as well as the panic attack that strikes because I forgot to check in 24 hours prior to departure...please don't let me be in group C. But honestly, all can be forgiven after yesterday. The standard Southwest plane holds 133 passengers. Yesterday we had 148 passengers trying to get on the flight from Vegas to Denver. I'm guessing everyone did as bad at the tables as I did and were all trying to make a fast dash away from Sin City. But the gate agent handled it with calm and ease, offering a free roundtrip ticket, a $100 voucher and the reimbursement of your oneway ticket to Denver. And he even the mad dash to his counter didn't rattle him.

Airlines, Airlines, Airlines

Well, I was going to start off with my usual bemoaning of the airlines because we are only 13 days into the New Year and they have already announced increased fees. However, we also got some exciting news to report as well!

Southwest and United Airlines are offering a two for one sale for Colorado Customers. The United deal is this: 1) Tickets must be purchased by Feb 15th for travel by March 5th, 2) Travel must originate and end in Colorado and 3) It must be booked in a certain class of service meaning it may not be the cheapest flight out there. For Southwest you must purchase a Business Select fare in order for the two-fer promotion to be used.

In other good news, JetBlue has been offering a fantastic New Year promotion with $29one way fares. If you want to go somewhere, hurry up because you must book by 11:59pm tonight.

Ok,so now for the not so good news...both Continental and Delta have announced increased baggage fees. If you check in online 24 hours prior to your flight on their websites you can pay for your checked baggage in advance and it will be a discounted fee. And while Frontier did lower their change fee, it was conveniently offset by an increased baggage fee.