During the Oceania Cruises road show stop in Los Angeles last week to talk about the Marina, the line's upcoming ship, Oceania CEO Frank Del Rio said the 220 agents in the room had done such strong sales on the Marina that they could have sold all the inventory in the ship's inaugural season by themselves. In fact, Del Rio said, one agency in the room had done $1.2 million of Marina sales during the first 12 hours the ship was on sale -- or about $100,000 an hour. Del Rio wouldn't reveal the name of the agency, but TC found out later it was America's Vacation Center.

TC sat in on a recent panel eventgiven by the American Tourism Society that featured destination management organizations and travel companies from Poland, Egypt, the Czech Republic, Turkey and China. The event had a lighthearted moment when moderator (and Travel Bound boss) Nico Zenner asked the audience, which included a group of high school students, what each of the countries meant to everyone. "Made in China!" and "Nancy Reagan White House!" were responses of what audience members thought about China. Someone murmured "Thanksgiving" in connection with Turkey. And while no one mentioned ancient ruins when Egypt came up, somehow the destination evoked the sentiment "value!"

Come to Peru to see Sacsayhuaman. Pisac. And Moray. Never heard of these places? Well, you will now. TC hears that following a deadly, five-day deluge at the end of January that took out the rail line to Machu Picchu, PromPeru is gearing up to promote alternate destinations in the Cusco region to try to lessen the blow to Peru's tourism market. While legislators are proposing a bill to construct two alternate roads to prevent this situation from happening in the future, the damage is done: Peru's main tourist attraction is essentially closed until the rail line is repaired, which could take up to eight weeks to complete.