Medical Tourism is not growing as fast as predicted

While this AP article by Tom Murphy (dated 22 Aug 09) emphasizes the lower cost of overseas medical treatment, one interesting bit of information noted that Medical Tourism is note growing as fast as predicted. Instead of 6 million folks travelling by 2010, it has been recalculated to be more like 1.6 million. Still a healthy number of tourists seeking more affordable health care, but I wonder if the medical tourist brokerage firms will suffer the dot.com death suffered earlier this decade. Time will tell. This would be a good research project for a grad student!

NEW ENGLAND - SAINT LAWRENCE VALLEY GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY

yep, the annual meeting is coming up in November 2009 at Salem State College. Check out the website for more details and consider visiting Salem (after Halloween, of course). See:
http://www.nestval.org/

It is a good conference and one where you will meet all the local geographers. Conference details are found here http://dgl.salemstate.edu/nestval/

News from the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries

I just posted some news from OTTI on RTS Listserv. You can subscribe to this news by visiting this website. http://tinet.ita.doc.gov/tinews/subscribe.html

(it is a tad slow this morning, perhaps from the news yesterday?)

August 18, 2009
Economic Downturn Continues to Weaken Tourism Industry
Accelerating Job Losses, Sharp Declines in Spending

Avoid the Caribbean during hurricane season.

whew, just missed the beginning of hurricane season, at least for the Atlantic. We are in the Turks and Caicos just two weeks ago. Some head down to feast on lobsters (starting 1 Aug), but we just enjoy the beach. Anyway, now is the time for all you recreation geographers to become amateur meteorologists. See http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ for help!

The Recollection Phase of the Recreation Experience

Ok, so now you are home, hopefully unpacked, and downloading all the pics and videos to you computer. You dump all the crappy ones (maybe). You know, the ones where you didn't wait for the camera to adjust temperature from the air conditioned room or car to the natural hot and humid air and this caused the lens to steam up. Darn.

Anyway, I am now starting to create a DVD of the photos and video from TCI. I have uploaded a few to my Facebook account, Panoramio (hoping for Google Earth acceptance) and email some to friends.

This is all part of the recollection phase of the recreation experience. I am reliving the experience through the photos, remembering the sights, sounds, smells, the heat, the taste of the great seafood consumed...you get the picture.

enjoy.

Tourism Up in Nicaragua!

Yes, it is true. According to Nica Times (www.nicatimes.org) tourism is up for this Central American country. "In the first five months of 2009, tourism in Nicaragua grew by 11 percent, even as most of the world experienced a downward trend". (See Nicatimes Friday 24-31 July 2009.

Could it be a more affordable destination? Could it become the next Costa Rica?

Here is some general information from the WTTC:
http://www.wttc.org/eng/Tourism_Research/Tourism_Economic_Research/Country_Reports/Nicaragua/

While 20 years old, here is a link for a open source book for your reading pleasure:
http://www.archive.org/details/PoliticalHospitalityAndTourismCubaAndNicaragua

the travel-from phase of the recreation experience

Yes, returning home after a vaca can be a bummer. Weather causes a lot of the headaches with storms in the winter and summer delaying flights or worse. Last night our connecting plane was late getting in and while I waited (and searched for the Starbucks) I came across the rebooking area of AA. There must of been 200 people trying to get a new flight home or to their destination. We were lucky and I was in my bed by 3:00 am.

I won't bring up the "almost" accident I had in a turn-a-bout in the Turks and Caicos. And to think I was becoming a pro driving on the left.

The pic is from Grace Bay, Provo.

Tourism is down in the Caribbean

From a small sample of conversations with residents and businesses in the Caribbean, tourism is down 10-30%. Even in the slow season, tourists are either staying home (staycations) or seeking more affordable travel options.

If you are in the market for a second home, sales are slow and prices are dropping to more reasonable prices.

Interesting note, while some flights are booked, others (namely the weekly runs and not the daily runs) may have plenty of seats available. And given that this is the hurricane season, try booking at the last minute to get some great deals. How about $1000 for six nights in a hotel and flight? I sometimes use lastminute.com for ideas.