Florida Keys

Special April Fool’s Day Travel Quiz

Published April 1, 2015 | By Clark Norton

The Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa — did she name all her daughters after herself?

The usual April 1 routine among publications is to write up some ridiculous story and try to convince readers that it’s true. Today I’m going to reverse that.

All of these 12 trivia items have appeared in some form on my blog over the past two years or so. Only one of them is false.

See if you can figure out which one is strictly for April Fool’s Day:

* You can fly to Mongolia from Beijing, China, in less than two hours.

* Some of the most coveted and prestigious student residences at the University of Virginia have no bathrooms.

* Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa had 16 children; her 11 daughters were all named Maria or Marie.

* The small South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu has made millions… Continue reading →

Posted in Baby boomer travel, Blogging, Cities, Countries, Cruises, Marketing | Tagged Aranui 5, Bavaria, beer, Beijing, Empress Maria Theresa, Florida Keys, Ithaca, Lion World Travel, Mongolia, Museum of Broken Relationships, Rip Van Winkle, Roanoke, Super 8 Motel, Tuvalu, University of Virginia, VisitBritain, Zagreb | Leave a comment

Ithaca’s “Don’t Come Here” Plea Was Long Planned

Published March 7, 2015 | By Clark Norton

Sailboat on Lake Cayuga. Photo from Ithaca CVB

Back in late February, we chronicled the saga of how Ithaca, New York, travel marketers won worldwide publicity by urging potential visitors to go to sunny Key West instead of coming to frigid Ithaca.

The brutal subzero winter temperatures and constant snows in upstate New York had just gotten to be too much, and the local Convention & Visitor’s Bureau website blared, “We surrender!” Visitors were urged to return in warmer weather to enjoy Ithaca’s waterfalls, wineries, gorges and cultural attractions.

After that story went viral, the seemingly counter-intuitive result was hundreds of thousands of VisitIthaca website hits and countless phone callers and online chatters wanting to know more about Ithaca — home to Cornell University and, indeed, a great place to visit when you aren’t in imminent danger of contracting frostbite. (I should point out, though, that for many… Continue reading →

Posted in Baby boomer travel, Cities, Marketing | Tagged Bruce Stoff, Finger Lakes, Florida Keys, Ithaca, Key West, New York, travel marketing, VisitIthaca | 2 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.