Technology | Online Travel Consultant Blog

Mar

Our Upcoming Itinerary

By oltravelblog · Comments (0)

Sample TripIt Presentation

The process of planning for our forthcoming round-the-world trip was not an easy one, since there were very many different issues that we needed to put into place to have a plan that would work and meet our needs.

We used a fantastic tool called TripIt (to be found at http://tripit.com) as an integral part of the planning process that we have used for the trip.

There is an earlier post about TripIt, and we decided to really give it a good workout while piecing together our itinerary.

Among the issues that we had to deal with were:

finding a suitable cruise to take us across the Atlantic Ocean from the Americas into Europe
linking in air travel options between Australia and the departure port for the cruise
Arranging suitable activities through Europe following the disembarkation from our cruise ship.
Linking all of this in to a fixed date of departure from Europe back home.

The final itinerary that we have developed with the assistance of the TripIt planning engine is:

Flights from Melbourne to LA and then from LA to Miami
6 days in Miami
Board Liberty Of The Seas for transatlantic crossing from Miami to Barcelona
Sightseeing in Barcelona, then Elipsos night train to Milan (Gran Classe)
Wake up in Milan, then travel by rail to Ljubljana, Slovenia
Explore Ljubljana then board train to Belgrade, Serbia
Explore Belgrade then travel to Budapest, Hungary
Budapest to Brastislava
Bratislava to Prague, with lunch in Vienna
Prague to Berlin
Berlin to Mainz
Day river cruise from Mainz to Bonn, thence rail to Dusseldorf
Fly from Dusseldorf across the channel to London
Board flight from Heathrow to Singapore
Spend a couple of nights in Singapore warming up from the European climate
Back home to Australia

During the coming days and weeks, we’ll be keeping this travelogue up to date with summaries of the adventures and observations that we make during this trip.

Categories : Destinations, Technology, Vacations

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Jan

Fantastic New Online Travel Itinerary Tool

By oltravelblog · Comments (0)

This is just a short message to alert you to a fantastic tool that we have discovered to assist you with your travel planning.

TripIt travel planning tool

TripIt (http://www.tripit.com) is a travel planning and support tool that offers great services and support for the traveler.

The founders of TripIt are frustrated travelers who have worked in both travel and technology for a long time.

They know firsthand (as we do) that using the Internet to make travel plans and organizing the details can be both difficult and time consuming – particularly when plans change at short notice.

The problem is getting worse as more people choose to make their own travel plans and as online travel options continue to proliferate.

With today’s myriad of travel sites, even the most experienced traveler has their hands full managing all the details of a typical trip.

Booking airline tickets, hotels, rental cars and restaurants leaves you with lots of separate pieces of paper. Throw in maps, directions, things to do, and weather and the chaos multiplies.

TripIt turns chaos into order by making it easy for anyone to:

Organize trip details into one master online itinerary — even if arrangements are booked at multiple travel sites
Automatically include maps, directions and weather in their master itinerary
Have the option to book restaurants, theatre tickets, activities and more right from within the online itinerary
Safely access travel plans online, share them, check-in for flights, or print an itinerary

Any traveler can create a free account with TripIt from the home page. Once the account has been set up, all that is needed to begin to create your itinerary is to simply forward travel confirmation emails to TripIt from the email address you used to set up your account.

We’ve begun to use this ourselves, and are blown away with how quickly and accurately the TripIt application is able to process our bookings and combine them into a fully detailed itinerary, but also to include travel directions, maps and weather detail for our destinations.

Categories : Business, Destinations, Technology

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May

Connemara’s Entrepreneurship And Natural Product – A Case Study

By oltravelblog · Comments (0)

Irish oyster shucking One of the things that we remember fondly of our visit to the Connemara is the fantastic seafood that we enjoyed during our stay. Amongst the things that we enjoyed were the local oysters and a really memorable whole salmon that we cooked on an outside barbeque.

Whilst looking up some news items about Connemara, I discovered an entry that I thought offered a very good example of the ways in which this part of Ireland is really grabbing hold of new opportunities, and applying innovation to build new markets.

Connemara Seafoods Ltd is just such a case in point. This Irish-owned family business, which processes shellfish products into value added products such as frozen mussels in a variety of sauces, recently won the 2006 Export Award of the Irish Exporters Association in the Seafood Exporter category.

The company was formed in 1997 as a spin-off from the family’s fresh shellfish firm. Ann-Marie Mulloy Gautier, co-founder of the company recently commented:

“The mussel industry in Ireland was growing and our market research showed consumer preferences were changing.People don’t necessarily have time to cook so we decided to establish a company that would add value to the existing shellfish products.”

Connemara Seafoods turnover has increased more than twenty-fold since the company was founded and it is continuing to increase substantially.One aspect of the business that really sets this company apart from many others is its strong reliance upon research and development to expand existing market opportunities and develop new ones.

“A core strategic activity is continuous research and development to improve current products, production and processes, to develop new products and innovative, advanced technological methods for processing our products.

“Ideas are generated from our customers, our industry partners, our own team and from research. The ideas are then input into the New Product Development (NPD) process where they are rigorously screened prior to selection for development approval.

“Following the approval process there is further screening and testing of the product internally initially and then in the market place through our customers before going through a final sign off subject to meeting strict criteria in regard to market potential and commerciality.

This emphasis on R&D is typical of many of the new industries developing in this region. You can find out more by visiting the company’s website.

Whilst you are visiting the Connemara region of Ireland, please make sure that you take the chance to enjoy some of the freshest, tastiest and purest seafood products in the world.

Submitted by John Kumm www.onlinetravelconsultant.com

Categories : Destinations, Technology

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May

Gobala Krishnan – A Fantastic Resource For Other Bloggers

By oltravelblog · Comments (0)

The template that has been used to develop this blog site has come from a very talented and knowledgeable gentleman by the name of Gobala Krishnan. Gobala is an expert with WordPress, an open source blogging application. With WordPress, bloggers can mount on their own web hosting service and have full control over their materials, contents and list of readers for their articles.

Gobala has developed a template that includes a great look and feel, but that can be easily modified to match the user’s own branding requirements. His template is different however in the clever way that he has linked it to Google’s Adwords program, thus allowing your blog to make money for you by publishing targeted advertising materials of likely relevance to readers of the articles.

If you are interested in setting up your own Internet Home Business, then I can highly recommend that you visit Gobala’s website.

Categories : Technology

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May

Ensure That You Can Get To The End!

By oltravelblog · Comments (0)

A number of airlines are now renting out portable video-on-demand units for coach class passengers so you can watch a movie while in the air.

Typical portable video unit This facility can help to pass the time, particularly on longer flights.

I would like to issue a word of warning however!

A common experience amongst passengers using these units is that they fail to reach the end of the movie before the cabin crew pass through the cabin explaining that it is time to re-configure the cabin for landing.

This can often happen up to 20 minutes before touchdown.

You should therefore do the following:

get hold of your video unit as soon as possible after takeoff
find out what movies are going to finish before the unit is likely to be taken away
if you pause the playback, keep in mind the impact on the finishing time of the movie.

If you follow these steps, you will be a lot less likely to suffer the frustration of not finding out “whodunit” by the end of the flight.

Submitted by John Kumm www.onlinetravelconsultant.com

Categories : Air, Technology, Vacations

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Apr

Brazilian Aircraft Exploit Niche Market Sector

By oltravelblog · Comments (0)

Embraer, the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, produces commercial, military, and corporate aircraft. Among all aircraft manufacturers, it currently has the third largest yearly delivery of commercial aircraft and the fourth largest workforce.

Embraer 190 jet aircraft

The company has evaluated market trends and determined that there is a significant niche market developing for aircraft that can accommodate between 70 and 110 passengers in comfort. It has actively targeted the niche, and developed its E-Jet range, a popular and fast spreading line of twin engine jet airliners.

Through innovative design processes and manufacturing techniques, Embraer has succeeded in maintaining an 89% commonality between its range of e-Jets, thus enabling significant economies. All aircraft use Honeywell Primus avionics and GE powerplants.

Many airlines around the world have ordered E-Jets, including JetBlue (US), Flybe (UK), US Airways, Air Canada, Virgin Blue (Australia), Paramount Airways (India), Aerorepublica (Columbia), Kenya Airways (Africa).

The combination of a 70-110 seat configuration and long range should see many more airlines embrace this manufacturer’s range over the next few years.

Submitted by John Kumm www.onlinetravelconsultant.com

Categories : Air, Technology

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Apr

A “Not To Be Missed” Experience In Shanghai

By oltravelblog · Comments (0)

Shanghai is located on the Yangtze River estuary. It is China’s largest industrial city and has an area of nearly 6,000 square kilometers, and a population of nearly 19 million.

Today’s Shanghai has embraced the forces of business and design and rewritten its rule book shaping a fresh multi-cultural metropolis with both modern and traditional Chinese features.

The Bund is a riverfront area within the former Shanghai International Settlement, in the eastern part of Huangpu District. The Bund usually refers to the buildings and wharves on this section of the road, as well as some adjacent areas. It is arguably one of the most famous tourist destinations in Shanghai.

Shanghai is the hotspot of modern China, buzzing with the concept of ‘lifestyle revolution’, showcased in art, architecture, dining and contemporary urban living.

You must not miss an airport transfer on Shanghai’s flashy new Maglev, the world’s fastest train, which has been tested at speeds up to 500 km/h. The futuristic magnetic levitation system may yet redefine travel everywhere. The thrill of low flying is amazing. The Maglev isn’t about getting from point A to to point B. Rather, it’s the ride, a glorious glide, from the past to the future.

The Shanghai subway is one of the youngest in the world and might well become the most rapidly expanding. The first line opened in 1995 and the first section of the second line followed only four years later. You will find that travel on this service is clean, fresh and well run. A truly great way to travel around the city.

Above all, the rule for Shanghai is to lay low during, or altogether avoid the Chinese New Year; the city grinds to a halt and public transport is flooded. The rest of winter offers good hotel discounts and few tourists.

Submitted by Barbara Walsh-Kumm www.onlinetravelconsultant.com

Categories : Air, Destinations, Rail, Technology

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Sep

An end to our opportunity to forget about work problems while flying?

By oltravelblog · Comments (1)

A recent announcement may send shudders through many business travelers who are able to relax during flights and let others worry about the day-to-day hassles of the workplace.

The Australian flag carrier, Qantas Airways has released a story saying that it will introduce new technology in about four months to let passengers do e-mail, text messaging and cell phone calling. The three-month trial will be done on Australian domestic routes using Boeing 767s.

“Qantas will be one of the first carriers in the world to offer this service,” said Senior Executive Vice President Wally Mariani.

I guess it won’t be long before we’ll need to field all kinds of new problems whilst attempting to “sit back, relax and enjoy the flight”

Submitted by John Kumm www.onlinetravelconsultant.com

Categories : Air, Business, Technology

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Aug

New linkage between Google and British Airways

By oltravelblog · Comments (0)

British Airways and Google have recently announced a novel collaboration designed to make holiday preparation even easier by launching a new interactive service through the ba.com website.

To celebrate its ‘World Offers’ fare sale, which launched on August 31, the airline will feature Google Earth satellite technology on ba.com, allowing travelers to zoom in on their destination of choice when evaluating excellent discounts available on flights and hotels.

British Airways has created special ‘layers’ of information for Google Earth to enable ba.com visitors to see popular tourist hot-spots and their proximity to their chosen hotel – the ultimate planning tool for holidaymakers, so they can organize their itinerary before they arrive.

Jayne O’Brien, head of brands and marketing communications at British Airways, said: ” …this has the added customer benefit of allowing them to familiarise themselves with the local area, hotels and amenities through Google Earth. ….”

Obi Felton, Head of Consumer Marketing at Google, said: “We hope holiday-makers have fun with this specially created tool. ….”

I believe that this announcement represents a novel combination of two different technologies which can combine to enhance the advantages of online services available for travelers wishing to plan itineraries and trips themselves. I’m sure that we will hear a lot more of this form of technology in the months to come.

Submitted by John Kumm www.onlinetravelconsultant.com

Categories : Air, Destinations, Technology, Vacations

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Aug

Laptop computer battery confusion

By oltravelblog · Comments (0)

In the midst of a major recall of many Dell and Apple laptop computers following issues with overheating batteries causing fires in computers, a number of airlines are currently banning passengers from carrying on-board laptop computers with batteries fitted.

They claim that they are worried that should passengers plug the computer into an on-board power source, then a fire may break out whilst in flight.

It seems that the issue may be limited to only Dell and Apple computers, but you should check with your airline to ensure that you don’t get caught out at the check-in gate should you need to send the battery with your checked luggage.

Submitted by John Kumm www.onlinetravelconsultant.com

Categories : Air, Business, Technology

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