Aruba was bustling one day last week with three cruise ships in port, stores jammed with shoppers and the beach at the Marriott filled with sunworshipers. In fact, the hotel was completely booked. Tourism officials attending the Marriott announcement of a new Ritz-Carlton, to open in 2012, were beaming. "I love all this green stuff," one said, surveying the activity in the downtown area. Green, TC asked? "Money," he said. "These visitors represent a lot of greenbacks coming to the island." Another official said he preferred the white stuff. Again, TC was confused. "Snow," the official clarified. "The white stuff is snow. That's what's brought all the green stuff here this week."
There was no snow day for Royal Caribbean International's business development managers this month. Despite schools being closed and flights halted from nearby airports, TC got hold of a photo of a Royal Caribbean sales rep, Kelly Corbett, paying a visit to the Cruise Outlet in Hamden, Conn. Royal Caribbean's sales boss, Vicki Freed, explained that the cruise line is "just like the postal service: rain, snow or shine, we are out there calling on our travel agent partners."
Oceania Cruises' straight-talking chairman, Frank Del Rio, has never been shy about his irritation about cruise brands that he feels copy Oceania's innovations. One way that Del Rio keeps himself from being a cruise-ship copycat is that he never sails on them. TC hears that Del Rio doesn't go on rival cruise ship brands -- only the ones he presides over, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas.
The owner of a hostel in Peru's Sacred Valley (where TC once stayed) wrote in an email that the raging Urubamba River rose 12 feet during last month's flooding. The rain, flood and mudslides demolished 10 miles of the railroad tracks to Machu Picchu (and set off a two-month repair schedule). The source also told TC that hundreds of workers employed by the tourism industry are out of work until the track is repaired, and that the village at the base of Machu Picchu, Aguas Calientes, is a virtual ghost town.