Travel Trends: “Good News — Bad News”— by Lakshman Ratnapala
San Francisco and the Bay Area received a dose of both good news and bad news last month (March, 2010). The good news is that President Obama has at last signed the Travel Promotion Act into law. With...
View ArticleTravel Trends: “Hot & Sweet Tours” by Lakshman Ratnapala
Culinary culture has been a major aspect of the tourism promotions of the West for decades, from Paris and Rome to New York and San Francisco. That culture is now being promoted vigorously in Asia...
View ArticleTravel Trends: “Period of Transition” by Lakshman Ratnapala
BATW International Consultant, Lakshman Ratnapala writes that tourism is in an year of transformation. —————————– I recall a former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Solomon Bandaranaike, expounding his...
View ArticleTravel Trends: “California Outlook”— by Lakshman Ratnapala
There is light at the end of the tunnel, according to Caroline Beteta, President & CEO of the California Travel & Tourism Commission (CTTC). Emerging from the darkness of 2009 when the State...
View ArticleTravel Trends: “Embracing Change”— by Lakshman Ratnapala
If the rate of change inside your organization is greater than or equal to the rate of change outside, you’re probably in good shape. If it’s slower, you’re toast. As the very nature of the travel and...
View ArticleTravel Trends: “A ‘Brand’ New World”— by Lakshman Ratnapala
Roger Brooks, CEO of Destination Development International, in a presentation to calTIA‘s 2010 tourism conference examined the primary ingredients of change and pointed to 10 things that need to be...
View ArticleTravel Trends: “Tourism Flexes Muscle” by Lakshman Ratnapala
The travel and tourism industry claims that as a major generator of foreign income and local jobs, it is a driver of national economies. Yet, it is generally shy of flexing its political muscle to...
View ArticleTravel Trends: Last Hurrah for a Hippie — by Lakshman Ratnapala
Just as jumbo jets transformed a pastime of the privileged few on cruiseliners into an age of mass tourism, it was the back-packing hippies who transformed tourism from a pastime of visiting places...
View ArticleTravel Trends: Tourism on the Up & Up — by Lakshman Ratnapala
International tourism is heralding the good news of a complete recovery from the decline suffered under the impact of the global economic crisis of the last two years. The reason for the current...
View ArticleTravel Trends: “Is Lunch a Culture?”— by Lakshman Ratnapala
Lunch in France has been listed by the United Nations as one of mankind’s most cherished cultural treasures, alongside the Peking opera and Spanish flamenco dancing. While many around the world raised...
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