Once in a while you read about somebody
else's bright idea, and you give yourself a little dope-slap and
say, "Of course! Why didn't I think of that?"
We suspect that
some hotel developers were going through that routine in recent
days, after Barry Sternlicht rolled out his latest bright idea -- a
chain of ecofriendly hotels that will take "being green" to the
next level.
The concept seems
so right for the times as to be, in retrospect, inevitable: Hotels
in green buildings that incorporate all the latest active and
passive designs, technology and materials to minimize their impact
on the environment.
The chain, dubbed
"1," is to be positioned as a five-star chain, and its green
credentials will undoubtedly allow it to command a
premium.
But there's no
reason why the ultimate in greenness has to be associated
exclusively with the ultimate in luxury. Judging from what we've
seen in the hotel business over the 
last few years, there ought
to be enough ingenuity out there to bring greenness to the masses
who patronize midlevel and budget
brands, too.
Rocky
Follow-up stories are common in the media
and common at Travel Weekly. Sometimes a follow-up comes a week or
a month after the initial story, as new developments dictate.
Sometimes it's a year or two later, but rarely more than
that.
In today's issue we
may have set a record with a report that picks up a story line from
1977. That was the year we heard about a 10-year-old kid in
Virginia who was an amateur travel agent.
He didn't write
tickets or handle money, but he figured out schedules and fare
codes, planned itineraries, counseled clients and called the
airlines to confirm and reconfirm. On Nov. 14, 1977, we published
our report on the unique hobby of Gailen "Rocky" David, who wanted
to work for "the airlines."
We are pleased to
report that Rocky is alive and well and enjoying life as a purser
for American. More than that, we are pleased to see yet another
example of how people get passionate about this crazy business,
even at an early age. Sometimes, travel just gets its hooks into
people -- or maybe it's the other way around. If Rocky's story has
a moral, maybe it's this: "Don't let go."
Plan Your
Vacation Day
If
Expedia has its way, Oct. 23 will hereafter be known as "National
Plan Your Vacation Day." With the support of the Travel Industry
Association, the company is inviting the rest of the industry to
sign on, to help educate consumers about the importance of
vacations and the dangers of "vacation deprivation."
Where do we
sign?
We have long
believed that the travel industry doesn't do enough to sensitize
employers and employees throughout the economy about the need to
take vacation benefits seriously. American companies are, globally
speaking, a bit too stingy with vacation time, and American workers
are more willing than their overseas counterparts to leave unused
vacation time on the table.
We believe that's
bad for business, and not just the travel business. If you believe,
as we do, that travel is good for you, then passing up an
opportunity to take a vacation is just, well, bad.