
Vacation deprivation: Americans let days off evaporate The 2009 Vacation Deprivation Survey showed that 34 percent of American employees let vacation days go unused last year. The average was three days, and that's in a nation with one of the world's lowest levels of vacation to begin with. Nearly 20 percent of respondents reported they had canceled or postponed vacation plans because of work, and the number who said they were taking extended, two-week vacations fell to 10 percent from 14 percent in 2008. Expedia.com commissioned the survey. National Folk Festival heading south to Music City USA The National Folk Festival, America's longest-running traditional arts event, will call Music City USA home for three years starting in 2011. Nashville beat out 40 other cities to host the three-day extravaganza of music, dance, crafts, regional food, storytelling and folk-life demonstrations. The festival, a project of the National Council for the Traditional Arts, will mark its 75th anniversary in its first year in Nashville. Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, who fully appreciates the impact of the expected annual attendance of 80,000, summed things up nicely by noting, "You can never have too much free music and live music in Music City." Grand Ole Opry member Emmylou Harris helped announce the festival’s shift from Butte, Mont., to the Southeast. A piece of Arkansas in your pocket Start checking your pocket change for the first in a new series of quarters honoring America's national parks – starting this month with Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. The plan for the U.S. Mint's "America the Beautiful Quarters Program" calls for 56 coins, one for each state, plus the District of Columbia and five territories. The program will go through 2021 – five new quarters per year. The rest of the first batch will recognize Yellowstone in Wyoming, the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Mount Hood in Oregon and Yosemite in California. TripAdivsor editors name Top 10 movie-location hotels Two hotels in the Southeast appear on a list of 10 popular hotels whose fame comes in part from appearing in movies. Editors at TripAdvisor recommend checking out the Mountain Lake Hotel in Pembroke, Va., where the spirits of Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey from "Dirty Dancing" are alive and well (there even are multiple "Dirty Dancing" themed weekends through the year) and the Fountainebleau Miami Beach, whose credits include "The Bodyguard," "Scarface" and "Goldfinger." In the footsteps of Christopher Columbus – a new port in Honduras Look for Southeastern cruise ports to include a new Caribbean stop by 2012. It's Trujillo, Honduras, in a development called the Banana Coast Landing. It's just 45 miles south of Roatan, a site already familiar to Caribbean divers, and will be the first major cruise port on the Honduran mainland. If you're one of the first cruise passengers to step ashore at Banana Coast Landing, you’ll be following in the footsteps of Christopher Columbus, who landed there in 1502 on his fourth and final trip to the New World.	April 2010 Atlanta again on top in airport bragging rights Almost nobody in the Southeast has to guess twice about which American airport is the busiest. Of course, it’s Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International. Totals for 2009 are just out: 41.7 million enplaned passengers last year. The bad side of the story is that 2009 saw 1.4 million passengers fewer than 2008. What may surprise you is the separation between Atlanta and the "we try harder" O'Hare International in Chicago. Click here for that tidbit, plus the name of the airline most active in Atlanta. Formerly free Smithsonian guide redesigned with price tag, coupons Marketers, take note of this move from the Smithsonian Institution. The official visitor guide, goSmithsonian, used to be free but now costs $2. To counter possible sticker shock, the publishers inserted $40 worth of coupons. The tactic is an interesting one in this day of trying to balance operational expense and customer satisfaction. The guide includes descriptions, exhibit highlights and floor plans for all museums. Each museum still offers a free floor plan. STS News STS Marketing College Travel & Tourism Education July 25-30, Dahlonega, Ga. Register today Contact STS 404.364.9847 sts@southeasttourism.org www.southeasttourism.org
Southeast Tourism Society Corporate Partners

Vacation deprivation: Americans let days off evaporate

The 2009 Vacation Deprivation Survey showed that 34 percent of American employees let vacation days go unused last year. The average was three days, and that's in a nation with one of the world's lowest levels of vacation to begin with. Nearly 20 percent of respondents reported they had canceled or postponed vacation plans because of work, and the number who said they were taking extended, two-week vacations fell to 10 percent from 14 percent in 2008. Expedia.com commissioned the survey.

National Folk Festival heading south to Music City USA

The National Folk Festival, America's longest-running traditional arts event, will call Music City USA home for three years starting in 2011.

Nashville beat out 40 other cities to host the three-day extravaganza of music, dance, crafts, regional food, storytelling and folk-life demonstrations. The festival, a project of the National Council for the Traditional Arts, will mark its 75th anniversary in its first year in Nashville.

Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, who fully appreciates the impact of the expected annual attendance of 80,000, summed things up nicely by noting, "You can never have too much free music and live music in Music City." Grand Ole Opry member Emmylou Harris helped announce the festival’s shift from Butte, Mont., to the Southeast.

A piece of Arkansas in your pocket

Start checking your pocket change for the first in a new series of quarters honoring America's national parks – starting this month with Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas.

The plan for the U.S. Mint's "America the Beautiful Quarters Program" calls for 56 coins, one for each state, plus the District of Columbia and five territories. The program will go through 2021 – five new quarters per year.

The rest of the first batch will recognize Yellowstone in Wyoming, the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Mount Hood in Oregon and Yosemite in California.

TripAdivsor editors name
Top 10 movie-location hotels

Two hotels in the Southeast appear on a list of 10 popular hotels whose fame comes in part from appearing in movies.

Editors at TripAdvisor recommend checking out the Mountain Lake Hotel in Pembroke, Va., where the spirits of Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey from "Dirty Dancing" are alive and well (there even are multiple "Dirty Dancing" themed weekends through the year) and the Fountainebleau Miami Beach, whose credits include "The Bodyguard," "Scarface" and "Goldfinger."

In the footsteps of Christopher Columbus – a new port in Honduras

Look for Southeastern cruise ports to include a new Caribbean stop by 2012. It's Trujillo, Honduras, in a development called the Banana Coast Landing. It's just 45 miles south of Roatan, a site already familiar to Caribbean divers, and will be the first major cruise port on the Honduran mainland.

If you're one of the first cruise passengers to step ashore at Banana Coast Landing, you’ll be following in the footsteps of Christopher Columbus, who landed there in 1502 on his fourth and final trip to the New World.

April 2010

Atlanta again on top
in airport bragging rights

Almost nobody in the Southeast has to guess twice about which American airport is the busiest. Of course, it’s Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International. Totals for 2009 are just out: 41.7 million enplaned passengers last year. The bad side of the story is that 2009 saw 1.4 million passengers fewer than 2008. What may surprise you is the separation between Atlanta and the "we try harder" O'Hare International in Chicago. Click here for that tidbit, plus the name of the airline most active in Atlanta.

Formerly free Smithsonian guide redesigned with price tag, coupons

Marketers, take note of this move from the Smithsonian Institution. The official visitor guide, goSmithsonian, used to be free but now costs $2. To counter possible sticker shock, the publishers inserted $40 worth of coupons.

The tactic is an interesting one in this day of trying to balance operational expense and customer satisfaction. The guide includes descriptions, exhibit highlights and floor plans for all museums. Each museum still offers a free floor plan.

STS News

STS Marketing College
Travel & Tourism Education
July 25-30, Dahlonega, Ga.
Register today

Contact STS

404.364.9847
sts@southeasttourism.org
www.southeasttourism.org

Southeast Tourism Society Corporate Partners

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