An Invitation For Those Of You Who Live in Atlanta, Plus Some News Items

Atlanta (Photo by Jesse Budlong)

I'm writing this from LaGuardia Airport where I'm waiting to fly the only non-delayed plane this morning (yikes, I hope I didn't just jinx it). I'm headed to Atlanta, where I'll be appearing this Saturday at the Atlanta Travel and Adventure Show. I'll be speaking at 11:30 (on when to scrimp and when to splurge on travel) and at 2:30 (on travel trends). In between, the lovely and charming Samantha Brown of the Travel Channel will take the stage. And off the stage there will be adventures galore from rock climbing walls, to ziplines to a scuba diving tank. A final unusual touch: along with all of the travel sellers (cruise lines, tour operators, tourist boards) on the floor, there will also be a conference on "Faith Based Travel" taking place at the event.

Long story short: it should be a good time and I'd love to meet readers of this blog there!

We can discuss such interesting travel items as:

• The increase in holiday airfares.  They've been up, they've been down, surcharges have been eliminated and reinstated. What a crazy scene its been this year, but it all boils down to: if you don't book your air tickets soon, you're going to be paying a lot more than you should. Some experts are predicting an uptick of $5 for every day you procrastinate, starting next week.
• Cannibals eating tourists! Not surprisingly the government of French Polynesia is now denying that a German tourist who is missing was the last meal of the guide he hired. I don't want to say much more on the subject, though the article is quite interesting. 
• Airline's queasiness over new taxes results in unusual advertising:  It sounds like a story from The Onion, but its true. The Air Transport Association is giving out barf bags through its member airlines to protest new taxes on passengers and airlines to support airline security. The bags say in bold letters "Sick of Taxes?"with a large arrow pointing to the opening of the bag. Frankly, I think passengers and airlines should bear more of the burden of the security they're using (its a system that's worked well in Europe), but I gotta give the airline industry points for creativity.

That's it for now as my flight will be called in any minute.