| As Wall Street quakes, Silicon Valley yawns | | Posted Monday, March 12, 2007 3:14:03 PM by Blog57 Team | | A funny thing is happening in Silicon Valley. As white-knuckled investors fear the worst from the stock market's recent hiccups and the media trots out de rigeuer photos of bald Wall Street traders breaking out in a sweat, the next generation of entrepreneurs keeps quietly working on the next big thing in garages and dorm rooms. Silicon Valley is far different place than it was seven years ago when the dotcom bubble burst. You see, unlike the rip-roaring days of 2000 when countless twentysomething-ers and wannabe day traders bet heavily on rising stocks, Silicon Valley no longer needs Wall Street. .... | |
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| | | Get outta here | | Posted Friday, February 02, 2007 1:12:58 PM by Blog57 Team | | Reading week - five glorious school-free days that can be spent lazing around on a beach or hitting exotic nightclubs in faraway destinations. But let's be real; most students are on a tight budget and can't afford to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars. Yet, I'm sure many of us would jump at the chance to get away for a week if it was more affordable. Thankfully, long gone are the days vacations were expensive. Nowadays, it doesn't have to cost a fortune. And guess what! It's not too late to book your reading week vacation. You might even find a cheaper rate by booking last minute. Getting Started One of the first things to think about is how you want to book your trip. You can go through an agent, which is great if you can't devote the time to searching for your trip. But, it will end up costing you more money through the booking fees, and not all agents can find the best deal.... | |
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| | | Avoid paying inflated airfares | | Posted Wednesday, November 15, 2006 1:17:03 PM by Blog57 Team | | Being a contrarian traveler, that is, doing the opposite of what the majority of people are doing, is a smart way to save money on airfares. The theory in this being that while everybody is traveling one way, for example heading back home at the end of their winter vacations to Thailand, the planes going back to Thailand would be relatively empty. This creates an opportunity for the savvy traveler to take advantage of reduced airfares as airlines scramble to fill as many seats as possible. Unfortunately we are not all able to travel when we want and work commitments may dictate that we must take our holidays at the same time as everybody else. This is where the laws of supply and demand kick in and the airlines and hotels crank up their prices. But what if you really wanted or needed to travel at a time that was a peak travel time in your country? Do you just have to bite the bullet and pay the inflated prices? Fortunately there is a strategy which allows you to both travel to and return from popular destinations at the same peak times as everyone else, without having to pay pumped-up holiday fares.... | |
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| | | Tourism to rise slightly Post a Comment | | Posted Wednesday, November 15, 2006 3:16:34 AM by Blog57 Team | | The U.S. travel industry will nudge up slightly next year, as money worries and demands at the office make potential travelers think twice about hitting the road, a trade group predicts. Tourism isn't immune to the slowing economy, which keeps consumers clutching their wallets closer. That usually leads to fewer dollars to spend on beach getaways or other vacations. Domestic travel in the United States is expected to grow a modest 1 percent or 2 percent in 2007, according to the Travel Industry Association of America, which released its forecast Thursday. "We have seen a slowdown in travel growth and we expect that to continue," said Suzanne Cook, the association's senior vice president for research. "We expect to see slow growth in travel over the next year as the economy downshifts and consumers become even more cautious." Grand Strand tourism promoters, under pressure to bring more visitors here to fill the growing supply of lodging units, are hanging their hopes for growth in 2007 on a boosted advertising plan.... | |
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| | | Holiday Shopping Vacations that Make the Gift of Giving Even More Fun | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 3:44:15 AM by Blog57 Team | | Value travelers, deal seekers and shopaholics, start your engines! The biggest shopping day of the year is rapidly approaching and ads already are running with the must-have new toys, gadgets and gizmos. Beat the crowds and treat yourself to an early holiday gift by taking a shopping trip away from home this November! CheapTickets.com, a leading online travel agency that knows "the less you pay, the better it feels(SM)," today releases its holiday shopping edition of the CheapTickets Cheapometer. The CheapTickets Cheapometer is a monthly travel pricing guide that analyzes where vacationers can get the biggest travel value bang for their buck, here in the U.S. and abroad. The Cheapometer assesses and compares the cost of destination specific hotel rates, airfares and vacation packages vs.... | |
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| | | Value vacations with a Latin flair | | Posted Wednesday, November 08, 2006 3:19:02 PM by Blog57 Team | | Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, has been called the Paris of South America because of its wide boulevards and extensive subway system. But Nick Guarino is still astonished by the meal he enjoyed there last November. Dinner for two (he had filet mignon and his wife, Charlotte, had lamb chops), including a bottle of Argentine merlot, cost $24. Why so cheap? The dollar enjoys a one-to-three exchange rate with the Argentine peso. With airfare, seven nights at the small but elegant Aspen Towers, daily tango classes, taxes and breakfasts, the couple paid about $3,500 for the trip. And the bargains they found in Argentine stores made them feel as if they were saving, not spending. Charlotte brought home a custom-made leather jacket for $260 ? about one-fourth the price she would have paid in New York.... | |
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| | | Missing fun at work? | | Posted Sunday, November 05, 2006 11:19:26 AM by Blog57 Team | | Vancouver's sizzling economy may be burning those most expected to reap the rewards, but only 21 per cent of the region's entrepreneurs say their businesses are successful and they are having fun. Most are overwhelmed with 94 per cent working some or all weekends, and only 13 per cent saying their vacation time is completely free from work, a survey shows. Almost half say they are challenged to reach revenue goals and more than one-third say finding top talent is a struggle. Top-earning dead celebrities Best-paid young celebrities More business news headlines Small Biz Centre: Be your own boss! "When only 21 per cent of entrepreneurs are having fun in what everyone considers a hot economy, there is something tremendously wrong," said business coach Kevin Lawrence who surveyed more than 100 Greater Vancouver entrepreneurs and business leaders.... | |
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| | | Cleric falls from grace (into the hotel pool) | | Posted Thursday, November 02, 2006 3:20:37 PM by Blog57 Team | | FETHIYE, Turkey - Turkish daily newspapers are on the whole written, edited and produced by a liberal intelligentsia who are secular in their thinking. They are very similar to their Western counterparts and gladly indulge themselves when the opportunity presents itself to expose religious figures in flagrante. Recently, they were handed a doozy of a story when one of the former best friends of Cuppeli Ahmet Hoca (translates as "Robed Teacher Ahmet") decided to reveal a few family secrets. Cuppeli Ahmet Hoca is one of the leading religious figures at the Ismailaga mosque and community center in Fatih, Istanbul. The mosque is a well-known focus for radical Islamic thought and Ahmet is one of its chief preachers. This is not the first time he has been in the headlines.... | |
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| | | So long to Texas | | Posted Saturday, October 28, 2006 1:47:58 PM by Blog57 Team | | And so it ends. We went shopping yesterday in San Marcos, the county seat, a college town of about 40,000. We went to Best Buy and a few other places and had lunch at Appleby's. It was almost like being in the real world. That was the only thing we had really planned for the whole trip, which is about right for a one-week vacation. I've been on those week's off in which everybody has a list of something to do or somewhere to go, and, I swear, it's a lot more exhausting than a week of work. Today we've got the Alamo, sandwiched in between the trendy stores of the Riverwalk and a jaunt across the border for something really cheap! Maybe it's because I'm older, or because I've just had enough of giving famous places the quick once-over, but I'm at the point where I think vacations should encompass more being than doing.... | |
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| | | Hawaiian island-hopping for less than a luau | | Posted Thursday, October 26, 2006 3:36:42 PM by Blog57 Team | | Just in time for winter travelers seeking sunshine, the fiercest battle in the U.S. airline industry is playing out in the usually peaceful Hawaiian islands, where ticket prices have been slashed to $39 one-way. Brash Mesa Airlines, a Phoenix-based regional airline, has started inter-island flying with a new subsidiary called "go!," kicking sand in the face of longtime incumbents Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines and, at least at one time, plotting to drive Aloha out of business. That's according to a federal judge's reading of an internal email written by Mesa's chief financial officer saying of Aloha, "We definitely don't want to wait for them to die, rather we should be the ones who give them the last push." The airline business has long been a cut-throat, nasty industry with carriers hardly shy about trying to drive each other out of markets, if not out of business.... | |
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