Travel News On 05/01/2008
Posted by The Traveling Tourist on
April 30, 2008
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Global tourism struggles to shrink environmental footprint
Citing green hotels, coconut oil fuel for airlines and even recyclable golf tees, executives in one of the world’s largest industries say they are urgently trying to shrink tourism’s oversized environmental footprint.
But with global travel projected to keep soaring, and those very leaders still eager to expand their own ventures, some doubt such efforts can significantly lessen global warming and other ecological woes.
“There are no simple solutions,” Anna Pollack, head of a British tourism consultancy, told a two-day conference which ended Wednesday. “Tourism is both a victim of and a contributor to climate change.”
More than 230 tourism executives, government officials and analysts attended the Pacific Asia Travel Association meeting in Bangkok, billed as the region’s first to seek practical solutions to climate change.
Pollack, CEO of DestiCorp, urged delegates to face the hard realities of tourism’s impact.
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Delta, Northwest to offer employees reciprocal travel rights
Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. try to woo regulators and shareholders to support their proposed combination, they are courting employees, too, with new travel privileges.
The companies said Tuesday that starting May 6 more than 100,000 employees and retirees of Atlanta-based Delta and Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest will get reciprocal access to both airlines’ route systems for free, standby travel.
Many airlines allow employees and their immediate family members free flights on their respective carrier provided there is a seat available. Some retirees also have such travel privileges.
Currently, if a Delta employee wanted to fly in the main cabin on a Northwest flight, he or she would have to pay a small fee, Delta spokeswoman Betsy Talton said.
With the new program, that employee would fly for free on Northwest, and vice versa, Talton said.
