he ASTA convention this week features
a good deal of destination training. Much of it relates to Hawaii,
the venue for the meeting. Tomorrow many of the agents will be
fanning out across the Hawaiian islands on educational trips. Six
islands (Oahu, Kauai, Maui, Hawaii, Molokai and Lanai) are hosting
groups of the delegates for the day.
But the familiarization isn't limited to instruction on the host
destination. A seminar on Cuba is scheduled today, even though
relatively few Americans can visit there legally as yet.
And the seminars included an intriguing session on plans in
Louisiana to commemorate a major event in American history.
Next year will mark the bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase
in 1803, when President Thomas Jefferson bought 828,000 square
miles of North American land from Napoleon Bonaparte at a cost of
about four cents an acre.
As a result of this greatest of real estate deals in U.S.
history, the United States secured not only the future state of
Louisiana but also all or part of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, North
Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, Minnesota,
Oklahoma, Colorado and Montana.
The Purchase transformed the U.S. from a fledgling country still
in its first generation to a major player on the world stage.
Louisiana will celebrate the bicentennial with a host of events
that will make the state an attractive destination for leisure
travelers over the next twelve months.
The festivities will include everything from special showings of
art from collections in France to the debut of an opera based on
the Louisiana Purchase and a three-day conference at which scholars
will discuss, in what is promised to be layman's terms, the
historical significance of the Purchase.
Tour operators will be putting together commissionable programs
in conjunction with the year-long celebration and a brochure for
travel agencies will be published before the end of 2002.
More information about this wide-ranging commemoration of the
Louisiana Purchase is available at www.louisianapurchase2003.com.