| Travel 72 Weeks 1-4 |
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Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory Find tourism offices for domestic as well as international destinations. |
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U.S. State Department Very important website. Find out about travel warnings and public announcements issued by the U.S. Government. Learn about how to apply for a U.S. Passport, documentation requirements, and more. www.travel.state.gov |
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Center for Disease Control Website for Center for Disease Control. Get recommendations on vaccinations and health advisories by country. www.cdc.gov |
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Time Zone Converter Use this handy website to figure out time differences around the world -- or check your own answers! www.timezoneconverter.com |
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Currency Converter Here's an easy, quick way to do those currency conversions! www.Xe.com |
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U.S. Customs Regulations Get detailed information on U.S. customs and immigration regulations. www.customs.gov |
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Worldwide Electrical Systems and Dialing codes Steve Kropla's Help for World Travelers -- includes a World Electrical Guide (help with getting plugged in), Worldwide phone guide, and International dialing codes. www.Kropla.com |
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Vocabularies in Foreign Languages It's always good to know a few words in the native language! www.travlang.com |
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International Association for Medical Assistance to Travelers Get a list of English-speaking doctors by country. www.iamat.org |
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Travel Health Online Unbiased health and safety information worldwide -- includes a list of Travel Health Clinics by state and city. www.tripprep.com |
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Information on Value Added Tax (VAT) For information on VAT and a convenient way for clients to obtain refunds for these taxes, go to this website. www.globalrefund.com |
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Travel Sense -- Destination information This Asta-sponsored website has a lot of great information on destinations. It lists the most popular tourist destinations, as rated by travel agents, and gives information on countless destinations worldwide. Go to "Hot Spots" for the "hot" destinations. www.travelsense.org/destinations/ |
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Destination videos from Travel Sense It always helps to "see" your destination. Check out these travel videos from Travel Sense. There are several on European cities as well as several on U.S. national parks. Enjoy! www.travelsense.org/travelguidevideos.cfm |
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Frommers Travel Guides Another popular guide book series for destinations around the world. |
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Lonely Planet Guide Book Series Many people like this travel guide book series. |
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Fodors Guidebooks A basic guide book series. |
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Global Distribution Systems -- explanation and history Check out this link to Wikipedia's excellent explanation of GDS's. It includes an easy-to-understand history and a chart of the four major GDS's -- which airlines created them, other companies who use them, and their market share. If you want excellent supplemental information on this topic, this is the place to get it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_reservations_system |
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Kayak travel search engine This is a travel search engine that will search several airlines for you, then return what it finds as the best fares. This is a good place to start to find out which airlines service your destination. You can also get a good idea of what is a good fare for your time frame. However, you should double-check the airline sites themselves for additional details and possibly lower fares. www.kayak.com |
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Sidestep Travel Search Engine Yet another travel search engine. Try them all to see which one you like best! www.sidestep.com |
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Mobissimo Travel Search Engine Another travel search engine which will search multiple airline sites for the best fare. www.mobissimo.com |
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Orbitz An online travel agency (booking site) jointly owned by several airlines. Find out which airlines created this site. www.orbitz.com |
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Travelocity One of the largest onine travel agencies in the world. Owned by SABRE holdings. www.travelocity.com |
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Expedia An online travel agency started by Microsoft. Take a look at the site and compare it with Travelocity. www.expedia.com |
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CENTRAM The Center for Travel Marketing is an education and training resource established at Los Medanos College, CA www.losmedanos.edu/centram/index.html |
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Travel Agent Magazine Online version of Travel Agent magazine, an interesting national trade periodical. While some online magazines contain only partial articles, Travel Agent online contains many complete articles. A very newsy online source of current information. Check it out! www.travelagentcentral.com |
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The Travel Institute Certification courses developed by them include the Destination Specialist course, the Certified Travel Associate (CTA) and the Certified Travel Counselor (CTC). The TAP Test is also created by them. www.thetravelinstitute.com |
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ASTA -- American Society of Travel Agents A well-known organization in the Travel Industry, ASTA is the "voice" of travel counselors in the U.S. The LMC Travel Department is a member of ASTA and enjoys the respect that such membership provides. Take a few moments to explore the ASTA website, and especially the scholarship opportunities that ASTA provides for travel students (look under "Education and Careers"). Our students have been scholarship recipients in the past, and it's definitely worth looking into. The scholarships are substantial, and many of you are eligible! www.astanet.org |
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Travel Weekly magazine Latest information of the travel industry. A well subscribed trade magazine. www.travelweekly.com |
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Official Travel Industry Directory You can use this website to look for travel industry suppliers by using various search criteria. |
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U.S. Tour Operators Association (USTOA) This is the website for USTOA, an organization which is highly respected for Tour Operators. Check it out to find a reputable tour supplier for a particular destination or interest. www.ustoa.com |
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Tour Companies This folder contains links to several different tour companies. These links will come in handy as you research various tours for the Discussion Board this week. |
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NTA: National Tour Association This website is like a portal to connect tour companies to travel professionals and to the traveling public. www.ntaonline.com |
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Specialty Travel Index This magazine is published twice a year, but you can get current information online about which tour company serves which destination and what types of activities. It does not endorse the tour company, so you need to make sure that the tour company is good before you use it. www.spectrav.com |
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Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) CLIA is an organization in the cruise industry. Almost all the cruise lines that Americans cruise on are members of CLIA. www.cruising.org |
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Cruise Critic Another source of cruise line and cruise ship reviews. www.cruisecritic.com |
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Cruise Reviews Reviews about cruise lines and ships. Goldmine of information and comments. But remember, these are individuals who are posting their reviews -- you have to take it with a grain of salt! www.cruisereviews.com |
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Porthole Magazine Magazine with some cruise information online. Also includes links to most cruise line websites. You can subscribe to get the WHOLE scoop! www.porthole.com |
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Port Reviews Reviews about ports of call around the world! www.portreviews.com |
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Trip Advisor A source of supposedly "unbiased" reports on hotels. People who have stayed at the hotels post their comments and ratings on this site. If a lot of the comments say the same thing, then you can probably rely on the information. It's an interesting read, and you can sometimes glean some "inside" information. www.tripadvisor.com |
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Hotel and Travel Index Hotel and Travel Index is one of the references used by travel professionals to locate hotels. It will categorize the hotel and give you factual information about the hotel such as number of rooms, etc. www.hotelandtravelindex.com |
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Hotels.com An Internet site that is well advertised and well-known and used by the public. So we should know it too! www.hotel.com |
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Hotel search site This site, which was highly recommended by a student, searches multiple hotel sites and returns side-by-side comparisons, providing links to booking sites. www.travelaxe.com |
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Leading Hotels of the World This exclusive collection of hotels are some of the most luxurious in the world. This site also provides links to related Websites such as "Leading Spas of the World". www.lhw.com |
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Small Luxury Hotels of the World This organization represents the luxurious, yet independent (non-chain) hotels in the world. www.slh.com |
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Bed and Breakfast Online The web is an excellent way to research B&B's around the world. It is also an easy way for them to get the word out for the B&B. www.bbonline.com |
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Star Service Star Service is an excellent resources for reviews on hotels. Hotels are selected by Star to be reviewed. The Web version is by subscription only. Take a look at it and read their sample reviews and keep it in mind for the future. www.starserviceonline.com |
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Utell A leading and very large hotel representative company. It has a travel agent section too, and pays commissions to travel agencies. It is hardly known by the public. www.utell.com |
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Rail Europe Your source for information on rail travel in Europe. Get point-to-point fares as well as information about rail passes and specialty trains. www.raileurope.com |
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Amtrak Amtrak's website. Look at routes, schedules, and fares. Get information on train service and stations. www.amtrak.com |
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VIA Rail Website (Canada) Find out about routes and fares for Canada's VIA Rail. www.viarail.ca |
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BritRail BritRail's website. Get information about Britain's rail system and rail passes. www.britrail.com |
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Auto Europe Major international car broker. You can also book air and hotels through Auto Europe. Auto Europe is a very reliable supplier. www.autoeurope.com |
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Europe by Car Another international car broker. www.europebycar.com |
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Grayline Tours A very popular tour operator offering a variety of city tours and overnights. Check out Grayline's website to see their tour destinations. www.grayline.com |
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Carey International Chauffered limo service which is widely available. www.ecarey.com |
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Domestic airport and city codes Get airport and city codes for the U.S. here. www.airportcitycodes.com |
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World Airport Codes Get airport codes for locations within and outside of the U.S. here. www.world-airport-codes.com |
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IATA Website for IATA -- the governing body that creates regulations for international air transport. www.iata.org |
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IATAN The website for IATAN -- a non-profit organization that appoints travel agencies and travel agents on behalf of its customer airlines. www.iatan.org |
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Transportation Security Administration (TSA) www.tsa.gov Link to the TSA website. Gives Travel tips for air travel as well as information on Threat levels and prohibited items. |
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Aviation Reference Desk Excellent source of information for anything aviation-related, including airline codes. www.refdesk.com/flying.html |
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Airfare Watchdog Website This is an interesting website with lots of handy information. You can click on various articles, such as "Top 50 Airfares" or "Top Ten Tips to Snag Low Airfares". You can see the official airline routes of almost any airline. There is also a link to www.bookingbuddy.com, which is yet another search engine you can use to compare fares. There are also message boards and blogs. Check it out! www.airfarewatchdog.com |
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News.Airwise.com Website for airline related news. http://news.airwise.com |
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U.S. Air Consolidators Association Organization for U.S. Air Consolidators who meet stringent rules. www.usaca.com |
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JAXFAX Travel Marketing Magazine Check out this travel trade magazine. There is information on airfares, discount air fares, destinations, etc. You can subscribe as a consumer as well. www.jaxfax.com |
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VAX Vacation Access Booking engine that can be used to book packaged vacations. VAX Vacation Access recently launched an air-only booking system offering easy-to-use graphical interfaces. In addition, VAX Vacation Access also has a cruise booking engine. You must have a password to get into the actual system, but you can check out some of its features. |
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Farelogix Inc. (Non-GDS booking engine) Check out this alternative to GDS's. According to their publicity material, Farelogix technology "dynamically aggregrates content from virtually any travel data source including all four major Global Distribution systems (GDS), direct travel supplier connections, private/corporate fares, Internet fares, and consolidators.... the FLX Platform enables comparative shopping across sources." Is this the wave of the future? What do you think? |
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Conde Nast Traveler A good travel magazine read by the general public. Know what your clients are reading! The August, 2007, edition features 130 top travel specialists! |
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Expert Flyer website This website will give lots of information, including reviews of hotels. Most input is from business travelers, so many of the hotels tend to be upscale and appropriate for the business traveler. This is a subscription service, but you can try it out by subscribing month to month at a reasonable rate. www.expertflyer.com |