Mobil Travel Guide to become Forbes Travel Guide
CHICAGO (AP) — Beginning in October, the Mobil Travel Guide brand will become the Forbes Travel Guide.
The change is the result of a new licensing agreement that transfers the brand as of Oct. 1 from ExxonMobil to Forbes Media.
Mobil's four- and five-star awards for hotels, restaurants and spas will become Forbes awards when the annual ratings results are announced in November.
Mobil's guidebooks will also be relaunched under the Forbes brand. Currently there are 45 books in the series, including 15 regional guides, six city guides and other titles covering national parks, golf, traveling with pets, and wineries.
Mobil has offered the ratings since 1958.
Forbes specializes in media coverage of business, wealth and luxury lifestyles, so partnering with Mobil's rating guides "was a natural fit," said Miguel Forbes, Forbes' president of television and licensing. He added that the partnership would "expand Forbes' presence in the consumer travel industry while upholding the credibility" of the ratings system.
In November, city guides will be published under the Forbes brand for Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Hong Kong/Macau.
In December, all 15 Mobil Regional Guides will be reissued as Forbes Regional Guides, with a new 16th addition to the series for Hawaii. The regional guides cover Canada, the coastal Southeast, the Mid-Atlantic, New England, the Northern and Southern Great Lakes, Florida, the Great Plains, New York, Northern and Southern California, the Northwest, the South, the Southwest and Texas.
The company plans to relaunch a multimedia Web site in the first half of 2010.
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Report: U.S. business travel down 15 percent this year
SHERMAN, Conn. (AP) — Corporate travel is expected to decline 15 percent this year, according to a new report from PhoCusWright, the travel industry research company.
In contrast, the total U.S. travel market is projected to decline only 11 percent in 2009, dipping below 2006 levels, PhoCusWright's "U.S. Corporate Travel Distribution." report said.
Historically, corporate travel has comprised about 40 percent of the total U.S. travel market, but that share is expected to shrink to 35 percent in 2010, the PhoCusWright report said.
"Current economic challenges and public scrutiny of travel and entertainment spending has placed corporate travel on the chopping block," said Susan Steinbrink, PhoCusWright's senior research and corporate market analyst.
She said not only will there be less corporate travel, but there will be "stricter policies and tougher policing when spending does occur."
On the plus side, she noted that the downturn will "positively affect innovation," in everything from optimizing value in travel to leveraging new technologies "from mobile to video conferencing."
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Discovery Channel launches adventure travel tour brand
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — Discovery Channel is launching a new brand of tours and trips called Discovery Adventures.
The brand will offer trips to destinations including Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, the Amazon, the Galapagos, India, Thailand, Cambodia, China, South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Alaska and the U.S. Southwest. Itineraries will range from cruises and safaris to exploring the ancient civilizations of the Incas, the Egyptians and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Tour themes will tie in with places featured on Discovery Channel programs like "Man V. Wild," "Out of Egypt," "Discovery Atlas," "Dirty Jobs" and "Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein." Participants will have opportunities to explore ruins and historic sites, as well as to do volunteer work in the destinations and experience local cultures.
Departures begin in December. The trips will run from three to 24 days and are being offered in partnership with the tour company G.A.P. Adventures.
Prices start at $2,000 per person, plus airfare, with the price covering lodging, breakfast and some other amenities. Groups will be small, just six to 15 people depending on the destination, with all trips suitable for families.
Details at http://www.discoveryadventures.com.
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Theater: Shaw Festival under way in Ontario
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ontario (AP) — The 2009 season of the Shaw Festival is under way in Ontario with productions by Noel Coward, Eugene O'Neill and Stephen Sondheim.
The theater season, which runs through Nov. 1, includes Coward's "Tonight at 8:30," a collection of 10 short plays, O'Neill's "A Moon for the Misbegotten," and Sondheim's "Sunday in the Park with George."
The heart of the festival revolves around works by George Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries. Shaw plays offered this season include "The Devil's Disciple" and "In Good King Charles's Golden Days."
Details on the productions and vacation packages for the area are at http://www.shawfest.com/.
The festival takes place at Niagara-on-the-Lake, about an hour from Buffalo, N.Y., and four hours from Cleveland.
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Reservations open Aug. 11 for Epcot Food & Wine events
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The 14th annual Epcot International Food & Wine Festival Festival runs for six weeks beginning Sept. 25 at Walt Disney World Resort, but booking for some of the most popular reservation-only events opens in August.
Reservations will be taken beginning at 7 a.m. Aug. 11 at 407-939-3378 for programs including Epcot wine schools, tequila tastings, French regional lunches, cheese seminars, and food and wine pairings among others.
For dates, more programs and other details, visit http://www.disneyworld.com/foodandwine.
Entrance to the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, plus "Eat to the Beat!" concerts, culinary exhibits, park attractions and other entertainment is included with regular Epcot admission.
Reservation-only festival events cost an additional from $35 to $375 (plus tax, gratuity included) per person, depending on the event.
Celebrity chefs scheduled to take part in the festival on designated dates include Jeff Henderson, Cat Cora, Warren Brown, Jamie and Bobby Deen, Alan Wong, Art Smith, Robert Irvine, Keegan Gerhard, Jacques Torres and Andrew Zimmern.
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New Web service connects hunters with locations in Texas
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A new free Web service aims to connect hunters with hunting opportunities posted by private landowners in Texas.
The Hunt Texas Online Connection was created by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. About 450 hunting opportunities are listed, many of them on ranches with game ranging from quail and turkey to deer and feral hogs. Hunters must register on the site to contact landowners; the two parties then make their own leasing arrangements.
The hunting opportunities are open to nonresidents as well as long as they have a Texas hunting license.
Details at http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/exptexas/programs/hunt-texas/.
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Summer: Time to check out ski resorts, but not for skiing
ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — Looking for a late summer destination? Consider visiting some of the resort towns best-known for winter skiing.
Many of the West's most popular ski destinations offer lots of warm-weather activities, with lodging up to 40 percent off what you'd pay in the winter. Things to do include fishing, golf, horseback riding, kayaking and whitewater rafting. Ski resorts also often use their equipment and slopes to offer scenic gondola rides, alpine slides and other adventures.
Some ski towns host summer concerts, competitions and festivals as well. The Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado is staging "Don Giovanni" Aug. 18, 20 and 22 among its 400 summer events, while Jackson Hole, Wyo., hosts a series of mountain bike races in August.
The travel-booking Web site Ski.com offers summer packages at a number of resorts in the West, including Lake Tahoe, Vail and Whistler. Some of the deals are available through September or October, and Ski.com can also help find discount airfare. Details at http://SummerMountainTravel.com or call 800-556-7547.
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1 in 5 Americans is a birdwatcher, gov't report says
WASHINGTON (AP) — One in every five Americans watches birds, according to a new report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service called "Birding in the United States: A Demographic and Economic Analysis."
The report claims that 48 million people birdwatch, remaining at a steady 20 percent of the U.S. population since 1996.
And while 88 percent of birders do their birdwatching from their backyards, 42 percent travel to indulge in their hobby.
By region, the report found that birdwatching was most popular in the South, with an estimated 33 percent of the population taking part in the activity. But birdwatching also varies by state. But the five individual states with the greatest birding participation rates were found to be Montana (40 percent), Maine (39 percent), Vermont (38 percent), Minnesota (33 percent) and Iowa (33 percent).
The report is an addendum to the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation. The survey is the eleventh in a series of surveys conducted about every five years that began in 1955. The survey is conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in partnership with state wildlife agencies and national conservation organizations.
A copy of the report can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/np4ldv.
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Outdoor adventures in and near Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Visitors to Philadelphia need not limit their interests to Ben Franklin and the Liberty Bell. There are a host of outdoor adventures as well, from kayaking and biking in the city to a zipline tree canopy tour nearby.
For urban kayaking, several day and nighttime trips leave from the Schuylkill Banks at Walnut Street, either north to the Philadelphia Museum of Art or south to Bartram's Garden. Also within city limits, you'll find Livezey Rock, 35 feet high and 60 feet long, on the eastern slope of the Wissahickon Valley.
A 28-mile bike trail will take you from the Philadelphia Museum of Art along the Schuylkill River to Valley Forge, or you can go mountain biking in the Wissahickon Valley Park portion of Fairmount Park, where the trails around Forbidden Drive are considered suitable for first-time mountain bikers.
In nearby Montgomery County, about 30 miles from Philly, Spring Mountain Adventures offers a series of zipline and rope challenges to sweep you through the treetops. And about 40 miles from the city, camping in French Creek State Park ranges from tent sites to cabins with private bathrooms and showers, and the park also has a self-guided orienteering trail.
Details at http://tinyurl.com/nnqu7w.
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Egyptian items on display at Chinqua Penn in NC
WENTWORTH, N.C. (AP) — Ancient and replica Egyptian pieces will be on display at Chinqua Penn Plantation, a 1920s-era mansion in Wentworth built by a North Carolina businessman and his wife.
Among the items on display through the month of August will be a reproduction of King Tut's famous golden throne chair that Thomas and Beatrice Penn commissioned while on a world tour in 1929. Also on display will be a 1600 B.C. bronze figure of the Egyptian deity Horus; a glazed earthenware necklace; and an ivory fail.
The 27-room English countryside mansion is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It's filled with furnishings from 30 countries and sits on 22 acres.
Details at http://www.chinquapenn.com/.
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Copyright 2009 AP Features
