Ebola

Answers To Travel Health Quiz

Published July 28, 2015 | By Clark Norton

In our last post, we posed ten questions that might affect your health and well-being as a traveler. Here are the answers:

What are possible ways to counter jet lag?

1. The direction in which you fly may influence the severity of your jet lag. Other conditions being equal, which direction is most likely to produce bad jet lag?

Answer: B, West to east. When flying west to east, especially across America, you’re more likely to encounter darkness when you arrive, which helps disrupt the body’s “inner clock” (jet lag is caused by disorientation by crossing time zones, which exposure to light seems to ameliorate). Assuming no time zones are crossed, there’s technically no jet lag at all flying north-south or south-north, though you can still feel the ill effects of a long flight.

2. One good way to counter the effects of jet lag is to:

Answer: D… Continue reading →

Posted in Baby boomer travel, health, Travel Behavior, Travel safety | Tagged Ebola, jet lag, motion sickness, travel health, travel insurance, travel safety | 1 Comment

Some Travel-Related Perspective on the Ebola Scare

Published October 21, 2014 | By Clark Norton

A South African white rhino — endangered enough as it is. Photo by Dennis Cox / WorldViews.

According to recent reports, East African safari tour operators have suffered a 30-70 percent drop in bookings (including cancellations) in recent weeks due to the Ebola scare.

Southern Africa tour operators have been hurt somewhat less, but are nonetheless feeling the pinch.

Let’s put things in perspective.

Just because Ebola has tragically ravaged three West African countries — Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone — doesn’t mean it’s not safe to travel to East or Southern Africa, where the vast majority of wildlife safaris take place.

Here are some (perhaps surprising) facts:

London, Paris, Rome, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro are closer to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa than are East and Southern African safari centers like Nairobi, Kenya; Harare, Zimbabwe; and Johannesburg, South Africa.

Nairobi is about 3,300 miles from the outbreak,… Continue reading →

Posted in Baby boomer travel, Countries, Wildlife | Tagged African safaris, Ebola | 3 Comments

According to government and private surveys:

Leading-edge baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1955) and seniors account for four out of every five dollars spent on luxury travel today.
Roughly half the consumer spending money in the U.S.--more than $2 trillion--is in the hands of leading-edge baby boomers and seniors.
Baby boomers (born 1946-1964) travel more than any other age group.
When asked what they would most like to spend their money on, baby boomers answered “travel” more than any other category, including improving their health or finances.