Or as Antigua & Barbuda Tourism’s Director USA Derede Samuel Whitlock says, “Not just one child in a family should be wearing great shoes, but everybody has to be wearing great shoes.”

To that end, staff of the ministry is looking to share their marketing knowledge and get feedback from various stakeholders by holding small-group meetings. One of these took place on Saturday, when Samuel Whitlock and her colleague in the Canadian Tourism Office Erica Henry-Jackman met with a few small tour operators at the offices of Pirates of Antigua in Redcliffe Quay.

Attending the meeting were Veneta Burton, marketing director for Pirates, Elma Pigott Humphreys of Antigua Vacations Ltd, and Pia Baptiste of Tropical Adventures. They held a two-hour discussion that covered topics ranging from Internet presence to marketing to cruise lines.

Henry-Jackman took the lead on the Internet matters, showing the participants how to create a Quick Response (QR) code that allows those with smart phones to scan a code on a brochure or flyer in order to capture important information. Pirates’ Burton quickly created a code for her company’s brochure that contains all the information that appears on her business card.

Samuel Whitlock also familiarised the tour operators with the online A&B Buzz magazine, which is designed to show North American travel agents a variety of activities they can recommend to clients coming to Antigua & Barbuda.

She explained that each month they produce a 50-page publication filled with interesting stories created from ideas and trends she and her staff glean from poring over popular mass-market magazines. She invited the tour operators to take a look at the publication and let her know any ideas they may have for content related to their products that can be shared with travel agents.

The intimate setting of the discussion allowed the tour operators to air some concerns they had about the lack of co-ordination between the ministry’s offices and the people here on the ground in Antigua & Barbuda. For example, they said there is no good mechanism to let them know when there are large groups or VIP groups coming in for which they could provide services.

Both tourism representatives agreed that more co-ordination needs to be done. “We need contact people here in Antigua that can organise things when we have special groups coming in,” said Henry-Jackman. “We haven’t really utilised the people here as well as we should.”

Humphreys pointed out that in the case of Antigua Vacations, they always request that their guests on any of the island tours give feedback by completing a written questionnaire. She then tabulates the results, and has a database that could be shared with Tourism to give them some ‘real-time’ feedback from those who have actually experienced the island.

Another major topic was how the small tour operators can market to the cruise lines in order to have them selling their tours. Currently, there are no co-ordinated efforts, and each operator has to rely upon their own individual efforts such as attending the trade shows or directly contacting the cruise lines, which can be expensive undertakings with little results.

In the end, the interchange gave these three tour operators information on how to work more closely with the ministry’s North American offices, and gave the people in those offices insights into more resources to help them promote Antigua & Barbuda as a destination. All participants felt it was a few hours well spent.

Leisure tourism continues to be a large business in the U.S., with an estimated $520 billion generated annually. On top of that, the internet has now become the leading method of trip-planning, overtaking traditional areas such as travel agents and guides.  Smartsave plans to bring their experience and customer relations from the U.K. and Europe – where they offer discounts at restaurants, hotels and attractions such as Kew Gardens – to the country with the biggest leisure spend in the world.

Smartsave features an easy-to-use website displaying all the active offers in your chosen city – all the customer has to do is print off a coupon, and take it to the relevant attraction. Smartsave’s accessible interface has been designed for the web from the ground up, ensuring that it is not just an online version of a generic printed guide-book. This means that Smartsave can move quickly to update and add to their range of deals making sure visitors always have up to date information. But they don’t want to abandon traditional outlets completely, which include maps, corporate programmes, and targeted email marketing.

Another of Smartsave’s distinct features is their across-the-board discount level of 20%. They argue that keeping the discount consistent helps raise brand awareness for their consumers, but more importantly it gives their partner clients, such as Cadbury World, an option that many other discount websites don’t; with discounts at 20%, attractions can run offers that are sustainable in the long-term and moreover don’t devalue their brand like higher and aggressive “sales style” offers do. Furthermore, Smartsave get to deliver an easy to understand message to consumers: “if you see it on our website/map, its 20% off for up to 6 people”.

With Smartsave expanding its presence in the US markets, they hope to build an international brand focusing on becoming the “one stop shop” for trip planning. Smartsave also encompasses other verticals such as hotels, restaurants and theatre performances thereby providing discounts on many of the core parts in planning a family day out. “We think that too many of the other trip-planning sites keep things overly-localised. We’re all about creating a truly international tourism brand. Every year, international tourism in the US generates $130 billion, while Americans spend over $100 billion abroad. These numbers are hard to ignore. We want UK travelers to be thinking about Smartsave deals the moment their plane lands, and vice versa”, explains James Harrabin, Product and Marketing Manager.

Smartsave plans to cover a select group of US cities to begin with, some of the country’s biggest tourism destinations. Specifically, these are New York, California, Florida, and Las Vegas. Although Smartsave already offers a selection of discounts in the USA – in Florida, they have partnerships with the likes of the Miami Seaquarium and the Orange County Regional History Centre, and in New York, they have 20% discounts on offer from the Central Park Zoo and Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, amongst others.

“We are very excited to earn this recognition: it speaks volumes to our service, accommodations and location,” states John Porter, Managing Partner. The historic hotel is set to undergo an array of property improvements focused on the guest rooms, hallways, exterior painting and other areas with refinancing just completed by Redwood Capital Bank, a local community bank. A second plan of financing with Redwood Capital is currently being discussed for a new wing of the Inn to include an elevator, new public restrooms, enhanced meeting rooms and other improvements. This work is slated to begin in January 2013 and will round out several years of environmental planning and hotel design/development. The Redwoods, CA hotel will continue the afternoon tea and freshly baked scone service and in room Sherry night cap. “We have a tremendous amount of pride in our historic Inn; the remodel is just polishing the apple. We want to ensure we continue to exceed the expectations of our Guest not only in service but in product,” says Porter.

A historic and romantic full-service California hotel, the Benbow Inn offers a luxurious and charming environment. Located near the Avenue of the Giants, 70 miles south of Eureka, CA and only 6 miles north of Mendocino County, the Benbow Inn is a convenient backyard getaway in Northern California. With continuing improvements being made to the Redwood Highway (US Highway 101) guests can drive from Sonoma County in approximately 2 hours. “We offer complimentary bicycles for hotel guests and guests can enjoy the Lobby Great Room offering puzzles, great place to read, relax with our Fireplace as the center piece. Guests can enjoy free Wi-Fi, an award winning wine list, and wonderful cocktails,” boasts Porter.

From romantic lodging and exquisite fine dining at the world-class Tudor-style hotel, to family lodging and pool-side fun at the RV resort, to scenic golf in the 9-hole course, they have it all. Easy driving distance from Eureka and the San Francisco Bay Area, the Benbow Inn offers something for everyone seeking a romantic, beautiful and relaxing California Redwoods vacation. Amongst the abundance of services offered, the Benbow Inn is very proud of its North Coast Dining Zagat rated Restaurant. The famous Tudor- style dining room is an elegantly casual environment to savor your morning breakfast or exquisite dinner.

Celebrating the Benbow way, the Garberville hotel puts on an afternoon complimentary freshly baked scone and tea service. “We are excited for 2012, we have an array of events we are planning for the upcoming year and look forward to serving and exceeding the expectations of our guest.” states Porter.

ChicagoHotels.com offer a quick and easy online booking and review platform for booking hotel in Chicago. The traveler can search for hotels based on a landmark like airport, convention center or price. The search engine has the capability to reach all brands of hotels in Chicago from a one star to a five star luxury hotel. Before booking the hotel the travelers can review the comments from other consumers and also add their own review of the property. They can also write their review of the property.

After booking the search engine sends the itinerary to the traveler to show at the time of check in. The traveler has the option to cancel reservation 24 hours before arrival based on the terms and conditions at the time of booking.

There are many hotel booking sites but ChicagoHotels.com offers an easy convenient booking system that offers a wide variety of choices. Book online or call the toll free number to get personalized help.

The two tourists, who were released into army custody hours after their capture, were among a group of five people traveling from Saint Catherine’s monastery in central Sinai to the popular resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh when a vehicle carrying men with machine guns stopped their small bus, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

Local officials told the Associated Press the attackers were Bedouin tribesmen who resist government control and have been blamed for several Sinai attacks in recent months as tensions intensify between them and authorities they accuse of discrimination and of ignoring their plight.

Earlier this week, 25 Chinese workers traveling by company bus were freed less than 24 hours after being kidnapped by armed Bedouins. The tribesmen had demanded the release of relatives in prison for a 2004 bomb attack.

In late January, a French tourist was killed and two others injured after a group of masked gunmen robbed a currency exchange shop and exchanged fire with security forces in Sharm El-Sheikh.

Also last month, Bedouin gunmen seized 50 German and British tourists whose bus accidentally crossed a roadblock they had set up as a protest against the governor of South Sinai. Those tourists, who were also on a trip to the monastery, were released a few hours later. And four armed men attacked a hotel in an Egyptian Red Sea resort popular with Israeli tourists before fleeing when police returned fire.

“The Bedouin are among the many marginalised groups in Egypt pressing for their rights since the revolution began last year,” Elijah Zarwan, a Cairo-based political analyst, told London’s Guardian.

“There’s long been a security vacuum in the Sinai and now on top of that you have a more generalised security vacuum throughout Egypt. It’s no wonder that the Bedouins, who are often well-armed, feel emboldened to press for their rights more forcefully.”

Egypt has faced a surge in crime since the uprising, which uprooted a police state that kept tight control over the population of 85 million. Protesters accuse the police and the military council that has assumed power of negligence.

On Friday, four people died and more than 1,500 were injured in Cairo and Suez as rock-throwing protesters fought riot police through clouds of tear gas near Egypt’s Interior Ministry. It was the second day of clashes triggered by Wednesday’s deaths of 74 people at a soccer match in the Mediterranean city of Port Said, in the country’s deadliest incident since the revolution.

And on Monday, three American democracy advocates barred by Egyptian authorities from leaving the country sought refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo as tensions between the two allied nations sharply escalated over a probe into foreign-funded organizations.

Tourism Minister Mounir Abdel-Nour said last month that the number of tourists who came to Egypt in 2011 dropped to 9.8 million from 14.7 million the previous year. Revenues for the year clocked in at $8.8 billion compared to $12.5 billion in 2010.

President Obama’s recent travel initiative will provide a much-needed boost to U.S. travel, but the work doesn’t end there. For the hotel industry to take advantage of this, its members must actively assert their presence on the increasingly competitive world stage, according to leaders from three travel associations.

“It’s important for us to make sure that we unite … because it’s important to our industry that we all got involved to make sure this Brand USA concept really works,” said Jim Evans, CEO of Brand USA, during the closing day at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit.

Brand USA, which was created as a result of President Obama signing the Travel Promotion Act in 2009, aims to promote the U.S. to visitors across the globe.

The organization’s official launch in November came not a moment too soon, Evans said. After a “lost decade” in which the U.S. travel industry’s share of worldwide travel dropped from 17% in 2000 to 12.4% in 2011, it’s more important than ever to get the U.S. back on the minds of consumers.

That’s a tall order, said David Scowsill, president and CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council. Emerging markets such as China and India will take the lion’s share of the growing travel market. Of the projected 2 billion middle-class consumers coming into the marketplace during the next 10 years, 1.5 billion are in China and India alone, he said.

“The U.S. is going to lose out on market share … and it’s going to get worse,” he said.

While Scowsill said President Obama’s announcement certainly is a step in the right direction, there’s still doubt as to where his plans will come to fruition.

“What worries me is this is a long time coming, and he may not be around by December,” he said of the pending presidential election in November. “… In my view, it’s just the first step, and there’s more hard work to go. If the administration changes, you’ve got a whole new re-education process with the new president.”

But Evans and Jim Abrahamson, who is the second vice chair for the U.S. Travel Association, maintained their optimistic outlook.

“We are very proud of this day, that (President Obama is) now focused on it,” said Abrahamson, who also is president and CEO of Interstate Hotels & Resorts. “He understand that this isn’t just a travel issue … this is an economic issue for the U.S. This is a job-creation program.’

Inbound travel to the U.S. contributed US$134 billion in U.S. exports to the country’s economy during 2010 alone.

If the administration holds true on its efforts to increase visa processing, expand the Visa Waiver Program and expand and make permanent the global entry program, among other initiatives, tourist spending could create 1.3 million jobs by 2020, Abrahamson said.

But to reach those numbers the industry has to work together, Evans said.

“It’s important for us now to unite and compete like we never have before. We have to sell America, not just the idea of America … but we have to sell the destination on all the possibilities that we offer business travelers, all the possibilities that we offer families and leisure travelers,” he said.

Evans called upon attendees and the hotel industry in general to contribute to Brand USA’s market fund or in-kind donations. He vowed, in turn, to keep transparency about donors return on investment.

While the hotel industry is starting to recover from the recession, hotel spas are still lagging, a new study concludes.

Hotel spas had deeper declines in revenues and profits than actual hotels did in 2008 and 2009, according to the annual “Trends in the Hotel Spa Industry” survey by PKF Consulting USA (PKFC), which tracks the hotel industry.

While hotels began to see gains in the second quarter of 2010, hotel spas didn’t start showing signs of a rebound until last year.

“Because hotel spa services are often perceived as a luxury, the changes in hotel spa revenue since 2006 are not surprising,” Andrea Foster, vice president in the Boston office of PKFC and national director of spa consulting, said in a written statement.

The survey, which PKFC has been conducting since 2007, looked at the spa departments of 151 hotels across the USA.

Hotel spa profits declined by a whopping 27.4% in 2010. That was worse than the previous year, when there was a 13.9% decline.

On average, the hotel spas suffered a 10.5% decline in departmental revenue in 2010. Urban hotel spas fared slightly better with just a 1.2% drop, while resort hotel spas had a 13.6% drop.

“Urban hotel spas tend to supplement hotel guest demand with people from the local community,” Foster said. “The recession caused hotel spas to be more creative with their marketing initiatives, as well as source more customers from the local market.”

Small and large hotel spas experienced less of a decline in revenue in 2010, while medium-sized spas suffered the most. “The mid-sized spas are caught in between offering the intimate experience of a small operation, and the grand showcase facility frequently found in a large hotel or resort,” Foster said.

To deal with the drop in revenue, hotel spa managers reduced their expenses by 3.9% from 2009 to 2010. Most of that was done through cutting dollars spent on such expenses as decorations, laundry, health and beauty products, linen, and uniforms. Labor costs too were cut by 3.8%.

Still, PKFC expects spa revenue to grow in 2011 and beyond. “A greater share of household expenditures is being spent on ‘health and personal’ purchases, so as income levels start to rise (as forecast by Moody’s Analytics), so, too, will people’s budgets for health and wellness expenditures,” Foster said.

Although the airlines are mum on the reason for imposing the new surcharge, USA Today cites Rick Seaney, chief executive of FareCompare.com, who said it “is pretty clearly related” to the carbon offset. The EU set new emissions charges in place starting January 1 in order to reduce greenhouse effects of traffic through their air space. The new law requires airlines to buy allowances if they exceed the emissions caps. FareCompare.com says that other major international airlines such as Air France, British Airways, Air Canada, Lufthansa and KLM have also added the $6 surcharge. One Malaysian airline has said it will stop service to Europe because of the charge.

USA Today quoted Steve Lott, a spokesman for Airlines for America, the trade group representing major U.S. airlines, who defended the airlines by saying, “It defies logic and the experience of the airline industry to suggest that a tax that imposes costs on the airlines would in practice serve as a revenue-raiser for the industry.”  The report is drawing some controversy from industry experts who claim that the cost to the airlines will be more than the study assumes and also that the EU will be monitoring the airlines closely so that no profit would be possible.

In a memo to the airline’s managers, American says the changes “are related to normal business changes and aren’t specifically related to restructuring” of parent company AMR.

As for the route cuts, AA’s service to Burbank Bob Hope Airport will end Feb. 9. AA currently serves Burbank from its hub at Dallas/Fort Worth.

American says its service to New Delhi will end March 1. The airline currently flies to the Indian capital from its hub at Chicago O’Hare.

In the memo, AA says it’s dropping the New Delhi route based on “the historical financial performance of the route and its future outlook given the global economic climate and high oil prices … .”

“It is a little bit of a headache,” said Ocampo, a student who waited months to find out whether her tourist visa application would be approved.

More than a decade after the federal government strengthened travel requirements after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, foreign visitors say getting a temporary visa remains a daunting and sometimes insurmountable hurdle.

The tourism industry hopes to change that with a campaign to persuade Congress to overhaul the State Department’s tourist visa application process.

“After 9/11, we were all shaken and there was a real concern for security, and I still think that concern exists,” said Jim Evans, a former hotel chain CEO heading a national effort to promote foreign travel to the U.S.

At the same time, he said, the U.S. needs “to be more cognizant of the importance of every single traveler.”

Tourism leaders said the decline in foreign visitors over the past decade is costing American businesses and workers $859 billion in untapped revenue and at least half a million potential jobs at a time when the slowly recovering economy needs both.

While the State Department has beefed up tourist services in recent years, reducing wait times significantly for would-be visitors will likely be a challenge as officials try to balance terrorist threats and illegal immigration with tight budgets that limit hiring.

“Security is job one for us,” said Edward Ramotowski, managing director of the department’s visa services. “The reason we have a visa system is to enforce the immigration laws of the United States.”

That said, the agency announced earlier this month that it would increase its staff in Brazil and China to speed up the process after seeing huge surges in visa applications from both countries during the 2011 fiscal year.

The State Department said in the Dec. 21 statement that while the agency “always puts security first, visitors to the United States make critical contributions to economic growth and job creation.”

Anti-immigration proponents argue travel to the U.S. is already too accessible and that allowing more visitors would put the nation at greater risk.

“Everybody would like to find a way to admit as many people as possible to visit here providing that they visit and then go home,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration group based in Washington, D.C.

“A lot of consular officers underestimate how much people want to come and live here,” she said.

Nearly 7.6 million nonimmigrant visas were issued in 2001, compared with fewer than 6.5 million in 2010. The number of visa applicants also dropped sharply after 2001. Those combined forces pushed the U.S. share of global travelers down to 12 percent last year, from 17 percent before 2001.

The proposed immigration overhaul has largely been driven by the U.S. Travel Association, the tourism industry’s lobbying giant, and has been endorsed by business titans such as the National Retail Federation, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Republicans and Democrats in Congress are backing the proposed changes through six bills in the House and Senate.

Geoff Freeman, the travel association’s chief operating officer, said the State Department should be required to keep visa interview wait times at a maximum of 10 days.

“Every day a person is waiting for that interview is a day a person cannot be here supporting the American economy,” he said.

For most foreigners, taking a last-minute business or leisure trip to New York, Los Angeles, Miami or other U.S. travel hubs would be nearly impossible. The average wait time for a visa interview in Rio de Janeiro, for example, was 87 days, according to the State Department.

The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan agency that audits federal programs, concluded that wait times are likely much longer than reported because some department employees artificially reduce the wait times by not scheduling interviews during high-demand periods.

The vast majority of visitors enter through the country’s visa waiver program, which allows travelers from 36 nations with good relationships with the U.S. to temporarily visit without a visa. Travel proponents want to add nations whose residents are unlikely to illegally move to the U.S., including Argentina, Brazil, Poland and Taiwan.

Tourists from the rest of the world, including India, China, Mexico and other nations with affluent travelers looking to use their passports, must obtain a nonimmigrant visa. The process can be expensive and time-consuming.

People living far from a visa processing center must arrange travel to the interview location, not knowing whether they will be approved. Roughly 78 percent of all tourist visas were approved so far in 2011.

Tourism proponents want the department to embrace videoconferencing as a way to interview more people quickly. The department has no plans to implement videoconferencing interviews because of safety and technological concerns, Ramotowski said.

In-person interviews weren’t the norm before 9/11, when consular officials had the authority to approve travelers based on an application alone. Since then, however, screenings have become more strenuous, with fingerprint checks and facial recognition screening of photographs.

The State Department has made moves to boost its tourist services in recent years, transferring employees from underworked offices to bustling embassies and consular posts. Many visa processing centers are also operating under extended hours.

Other proposed changes include granting more multi-entry visas and charging premium fees to tourists who want a visa right away, similar to the premium passport fee charged to Americans with last-minute passport requests. The tourism industry also wants more visa processing officers and to allow travelers to submit applications in their native language.

“We can’t afford to treat them in a way that gives them an impression that maybe they aren’t welcome,” said Rolf Lundberg, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s top lobbyist.

To help make the U.S. appear more welcoming, Congress approved last year a $200 million annual marketing campaign.

In Las Vegas, where travelers to the Strip have traditionally kept Nevada’s economy afloat, tourism and government leaders are desperate to keep businesses open and create jobs in a state with the nation’s highest unemployment rate.

“The industries affected by tourism are all behind it,” said Republican Rep. Joe Heck of southern Nevada, who has sponsored a bill in the House that would require shorter visa interview delays, among other measures. “We need the jobs.”

Ocampo, who spent her vacation shopping at upscale boutiques and visiting family in California, said she would be more eager to come back if she knew her business was wanted.

“Everyone wants to visit the Statue of Liberty and Disneyland,” she said.