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The Rise of UK Theme Parks

 by: Robin Richmond

Since Blackpool Pleasure Beach opened the Pepsi Max Big One in 1994, UK rollercoaster construction and theme park competition in general has been gathering pace. New parks have been built across the country and established centres such as Thorpe Park and Aulton Tours have battled for supremacy. This was a scenario that was hard to conceive 15 years ago with the impending opening of EuroDisney (now Disney Resort Paris), as many thought the UK theme park industry would struggle to survive and thrill seekers would instead be enticed through the tunnel to one of America’s biggest brand names.

Unfortunately, for the Walt Disney Company this did not quiet materialise. The first sign of problems was when French locals started holding protests – due to concerns the park was going to damage and dilute the proud local culture. These protests partly led to crowds in the opening year falling drastically lower than predictions. EuroDisney also had to deal with the problems of an excess of under-populated hotels which had ran drastically over budget. This combined with high prices led to the closure of hotels during the winter months. By the start of 1994, EuroDisney was in serious financial difficulties and press speculation indicated that the park was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Meanwhile back in the UK the theme park industry was enjoying somewhat of a renaissance. 1994 was hailed as “The Year of the Rollercoaster” as new rides sprang up across the country. Drayton Manor opened its “Shockwave” ride along with Alton Tower’s who launched the famous “Nemesis”. At the same time Blackpool opened its 11th roller coaster, the Pepsi Max Big One, which for a short time was the tallest in the world…suddenly the UK found itself gripped in roller coaster fever which contrasted harshly with the negative press emanating from the outskirts of Paris.

Over the next ten years the UK continued to ride at the forefront of theme park technology…even out doing stateside industry giants such as Six Flags. Alton Towers - www.alton-towers.co.uk - ensured its park received world wide attention with the launching of the first ever vertical drop roller coaster, Oblivion in 1998 and the world’s first “flying roller coaster” with Air in 2002. Not to be outdone Fantasy Island near Skegness opened the tallest and fastest type of this ride in the world in the form of the 2002 Jubilee Odyssey and in 2002 Thorpe Park opened a record breaking ten inversion rollercoaster named Collosus.

By 2002 EuroDisney had now become Disney Resort Paris - http://www.disneylandparis.com. With the addition of more attractions and the re-branding of the entire theme park complex, to better appeal to European tastes, the Walt Disney Company finally announced their first annual profit for the park. Disney had at last found the right balance between implementing such a strong American brand on foreign soil without diluting the local culture. However, the time it had taken to find the balance ensured that Disney has not achieved the domination in the European market that many predicted.

At the present time the UK theme park market seems to be going from strength to strength with continued investment in their facilities. For example, Drayton Park have spent over £2 million in time for the new season upgrading their entry and ticketing facilities, while the ever inventive Alton Towers are launching their new ride ‘Spinball Whizzer’ which has the carriage as the focus of the ride rather than the actual track!

With the volume and popularity of parks increasing all the time in the UK, the demand for accommodation in surrounding areas has also expanded. Last year Alton Towers opened its second hotel, Splash Landings, which boasts an exciting all-weather water park, ‘Cariba Creek’. In addition to this companies such as UK short break specialists Superbreak.com – http://www.superbreak.com – have a number of excellent package deals with parks such as Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Aulton Towers and Legoland near Windsor which has over 50 interactive rides, live shows, building workshops.

Overall the future seems bright for the theme park industry across the UK and Europe as a whole. The slow progress of Disney Resort Paris has allowed other parks to get on an even footing and with continued investment in rides and general infrastructure competition should continue to be fierce between the major parks – which can only be good news for the consumer.

About The Author Robin Richmond http://www.bigmouthmedia.com robin.richmond@bigmouthmedia.com

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Home Travel Agent: Will I Be Able To Live On My Home-Based Travel Agent Salary?

 by: Tim Bruxvoort

Does travel to places like Fiji, Rome, Italy, Hong Kong, Bora Bora, Paris, London, and Australia sound like something you want to do? Would you like to stroll on secluded beaches, dine in quaint little restaurants, or wander around in ancient castles? If so, becoming a travel agent may be a good choice for you.

But can you really make decent money being a travel agent? Is there a future in it?

According to the United States Department of Labor, “Industry consolidation and increasing use of the Internet to book travel will result in a decline in the employment of travel agents. The Internet increasingly allows people to access travel information from their personal computers, enabling them to research and plan their own trips, make their own reservations and travel arrangements, and purchase their own tickets.”

So as the need for travel agents declines, so too will their salaries. And salaries of travel agents are already low. The United States Department of Labor, says that the “Median annual earnings of travel agents were $26,630 in 2002. The middle 50 percent earned between $20,800 and $33,580. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $16,530, while the top 10 percent earned more than $41,660.”

So if you had years worth of experience the best you would do is around $40,000 U.S. a year, which is very well likely to decline. And more likely you would only be earning $25K or less as a travel agent. That’s not a very attractive salary for most people.

So if you become a travel agent you’ll have the benefits of huge discounts on travel, but you won’t likely be making money enough to afford to travel. In fact, you’ll barely have enough to cover living expenses.

So does that mean you should look for another more profitable occupation?

There is a solution so you can still become a travel agent. The best way is to become a travel agent is with one of the new travel-based network marketing organizations. You become a travel agent of one of these travel companies and you get all the benefits of being a travel agent.

You still make money on travel commissions, but you also make money by helping other people become their own travel agents. This enables you to make way more than you could as an ordinary travel agent. In fact, if you do it right, you can make as much in a month as many travel agents make in a year.

With the trend moving towards people making their own travel plans, you’re just helping them do what they are going to do anyway. Everyone wins! And you get to see the world in style!

About The Author Tim Bruxvoort is the Internet’s Foremost Home-Based Business and Success Coach who helps people create successful and profitable lives in their own home-based businesses. You can visit his website at www.homebasedriches.com. If you are interested in becoming a travel agent, go to www.times10travel.com for a free report. timbrux@homebasedriches.com

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Travelers with Disabilities: The Untapped Market

 by: Craig Kennedy

When most people think about accommodating people with disabilities in their business they get a scared feeling in their gut and their mind scrambles to search for that all-important date when the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) went into effect. It doesn’t have to be that way! When business owners open their eyes and start to realize that there are literally billions of dollars to be made in the accessible travel market, I believe we will start to remove the fear associated with the ADA.

There are currently more than 50 million people with disabilities in the United States and 180 million worldwide, representing the single largest untapped tourist market in the world. According to a recent Harris Poll conducted in conjunction with the Open Doors Organization and the Travel Industry Association of America, the 50 million people with disabilities in our country have a combined income of more than $175 billion. In 2002, these people took 32 million trips and spent more than $13.6 billion on travel ($4.2 billion on hotels, $3.3 billion on airfare, $2.7 billion on food and beverage, and $3.4 billion on retail, transportation, and other activities). This study suggested that these travelers would double their spending if some minor amenities were made available. Meet and greet programs at airports, preferred seating on airplanes, hotel rooms closer to amenities, and employees who go out of their way to accommodate guests with disabilities topped the list.

The current trends in adaptive travel show most of these travelers taking advantage of destinations that they know are already accessible such as cruise ships, Florida, and Las Vegas. The visitors bureaus and businesses at these destinations that have gone to great lengths to ensure their visitors that there will not be any accessibility issues during their stay. From personal experience and years of traveling in a wheelchair, I can guarantee that these locations have built and will continue to build strong relationships with travelers with disabilities. This group is a very loyal one, who will often return to the same city, hotel, or activity provider year after year if they have a good experience. If everyone were to catch on to this we would see growth in the tourism industry like we have never seen!

With this in mind, it is a wonder that more business owners have not taken steps to make their accommodations more accessible and even start marketing to these travelers. If the staggering numbers listed above aren’t proof enough, the U.S. Census Bureau recently stated that nearly 16.5% of all people with disabilities in the U.S. leave their home two days per week or less. That constitutes nearly 11 million people that are not traveling at all. Also keep in mind that there are millions of people in their golden years that are looking for accessible travel accommodations. Many of these people use canes or walkers, travel with oxygen tanks, or have other mobility impairments, and are not included in disability statistics.

With millions of people in need of accessible travel options, and with our Baby Boomers (almost 25% of our population) starting to reach retirement age as well now is the time to start thinking about improving marketing efforts to include people with disabilities and about better overall accessibility in general. By educating business owners on the benefits of marketing to people with disabilities and educating travel agents who are fighting a losing battle with the internet, we can begin to focus on this new target market.

If you want to take advantage of the rapidly growing adaptive travel market, get started now! I recommend hiring an expert to get your business rated and start removing barriers to access as soon as possible. Think about accessibility anytime you’re planning a remodel or addition. These improvements will benefit everyone, not just people with disabilities. For those of you who have already taken steps to improve accessibility, start bragging about it.

Craig P. Kennedy, Steamboat Springs, Colorado,

CK Consulting: Setting Standards for Accessibility

http://www.CKConsultingonline.com

* Please visit our Web site to take a FREE accessibility quiz to find out if you are on the right track.

About The Author Craig Kennedy is a published adaptive travel author, accessibility consultant, and motivational speaker with almost ten years of adaptive travel experience and more than 15 years of tourism and service industry expertise. He specializes in resort business growth and customer attraction through better overall accessibility, education, and marketing, and works with businesses who wish to become leaders in accessible travel and accommodation. Copyright Craig P. Kennedy 2005 craig@accessanything.net

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Tags: 00, 2002, 3, a, accessibility issues, accessible travel, act, agent, americans with disabilities, americans with disabilities act, b, bu, business, car, conjunctivitis, craig kennedy, cruise, cruise ships, current trends, customer, e, ears, ece, erica, etti, expe, fear, gol, gold, good, great lengths, guarantees, guests with disabilities, harris poll, i, important date, incomes, Industrial, isa, iz, ki, le, lt, milli, nbsp, nda, ni, nin, of america, open doors, order, out, plan, plane, red sea, relationships, retail transportation, s, Search, sh, step, tc, time, tourist market, travel industry, travel industry association, travel industry association of america, travel s, travelers, united states, untapped market, visitor, visitors bureaus, wit, with disabilities, wt, ya, ze

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Service Fees, Domestic Flights And The Nuggets Of Gold The Travel Industry Doesn’t Want You To Know About

 by: Naman Budheo

If you’ve been shopping for cheap flights online, you have encountered hundreds if not thousands of sites selling airfares. These sites are made of Mega Online agencies, Airlines, Online Airfares Specialists, Traditional Brick and Mortar (B&M) Travel agencies. This presents a huge pool of resources to wade to find cheap domestic flights.

What Is the Best Way To Find and Buy a Cheap Domestic Flight? First it is helpful to understand how the market for domestic fares works. After decades of offering travel agents a standard commission of at least 10%, many of the larger airline carriers in North America stopped paying base commissions to travel agents, beginning in March 2002. The elimination of commissions for domestic flights is important because travel agencies now needed to find a source of revenue to earn from the sale of domestic flights. Service fees have become the new source of revenue for travel agencies since commissions were eliminated.

Since 1998, the number of agencies charging service fees has increased from 64 percent to more than 99 percent of agencies, today. Typically, agencies charge fees for all airline-related services from as low as tens of dollars to hundreds of dollars. Therefore, finding the cheapest domestic flights is directly related to finding the cheapest services fees.

Now that I understand how the market for domestic fares and service fees work how do I find the cheapest flights? In theory, the best fare for any domestic flight should be available directly from the airline, if you knew exactly what to ask for. If you fly often enough, and value your time cheaply enough to make it worth investing your time in learning to make your own reservations, and searching each airline site since they do not sell any competitors fares. Airline web sites have the lowest service fees (sometimes no service fee). If you know exactly what you want, and are sure there are no alternatives this is a cheapest way to buy a domestic flight. However, there are problems with this method. If you have any questions, make a mistake in your reservation, need to make a change to a reservation or cancel a reservation, you are completely on your own. Airline customer service departments can take hours to get through for any problems you may encounter.

Online travel agencies offer you a search of all the airline possibilities with a low service fee. Unlike searching the airline sites, online travel agencies can search all airlines in one search so you do not have to go to each airline site one by one. However, do to commission cuts online sites may charge a small service fee which increases the cost of the domestic flight. It is an individual decision as to whether the service fee offsets the advantages of booking with a travel agency rather than the airline directly. “Bricks and Mortar” travel agencies offer you a search of all the airline possibilities as well but with higher service fee. The reason for the higher fee is that booking over the telephone or in person creates a higher cost for the travel agency. This higher cost must be offset with higher services fees.

Online travel agencies provide the best value solution. They allow you to search all flight possibilities that airline sites can not offer. Many have very low service fees because bookings are made online so that greatly reduces the agencies costs. Finally, they can still offer you customer service for changes or questions you may have encountered so that you are not on your own.

About The Author Naman Budheo is a travel specialist at Flight Network (www.flightnetwork.com), which offers amazing deals on domestic and international flights. naman@farematrix.com

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Ostomy Supplies and Products

 by: Julian Markov

Finding the right ostomy system is crucial for your health, confidence and product wear-time. You can spend months in research and still remain uncertain about the choices you made. Ostomy Software offers a trusted solution you can rely on. It helps you find the most suitable ostomy products by taking into consideration your stoma size and shape, type of ostomy, personal needs, preferences and body features.

Ostomy Software by JDBS brings years of experience and knowledge and fills an existing gap in the ostomy care world. Its powerful engine searches thousands of ostomy products to find the system that best suits your needs. Ostomy Software shows comparable products between different manufacturers! It gives product numbers and pictures to help the users place their orders or request samples.

Ostomy Software performs 5 major tasks:

- Finds One or Two-piece Ostomy Systems

- Finds comparable products between different manufacturers

- Finds different types of pouches to fit a particular flange

- Searches for products by product numbers/codes

- Provides exhaustive product and feature knowledge

1. Ostomy Software will help you make an intelligent choice.

• It is often the case that, after surgery, new ostomates are given only a few products from the hospital to keep them going until they find a supplier. These are usually products from only one particular manufacturer and from only one product line. They are “general products”, designed to fit vast majority of patients and not suited to patient’s type of ostomy, body shape, skin sensitivity and preference. Many new ostomates are left with the impression that, this is the only choice they have. The products hospitals give away are often products given to them by sales representatives and usually represent one single brand.

• There are literally thousands of ostomy products on the market. Most of the retailers selling ostomy supplies do not specialize in ostomy and often have little or no information on various manufacturers, product lines, features etc.

Ostomy Software is here to fill this gap! In an easy and accurate manner it provides the user with profound product knowledge and opportunity to test a large variety of products from various manufacturers and product lines. Ostomy products can vary in brand, type, shape, size, colour, material, opening, filtering and body attachment system. Ostomy Software explores all of these options and lets you choose the unique products to best suit your personal preferences.

2. Ostomy Software lets you choose your appliances from the convenience of your own home.

If you feel uneasy discussing your personal needs or problems with a pharmacist, home health care professional or a customer service representative, Ostomy Software is the perfect tool for you. It will save you time, money, energy and potentially embarrassing moments.

3. Ostomy Software has a powerful engine designed to do the entire research and matching work for you. It is extremely easy to use.

Ostomy software will ask you questions before determining the correct product(s). It will then give you the manufacturer’s product code(s) and show a picture of the product(s). This way you can simply call your retailer, give the product number and either ask for samples or place an order. Ostomy Software can be easily used even by people with little computer skills.

4. Ostomy Software gives you the option to choose from among the many product lines offered by Hollister, ConvaTec and Coloplast.

Every manufacturer has different product lines designed to better respond to differences in body shape, age, skin sensitivity, individual taste, etc. In many cases patients are familiar with only one of the manufacturer’s product lines and are unaware of the choices they have.

5. Ostomy Software has a built-in “smart matching system” which finds for you comparable products from among different manufacturers.

If you currently use or intend to use the products of one manufacturer, the software will suggest and give you the product numbers for comparable products from other manufacturers, which you might want to try as well. This way you can call your retailer and ask for samples.

6. Ostomy Software will keep you up to date with the latest on the market.

We offer to all our customers regular software updates and upgrades. This way we keep you current with the latest products, product trends and developments.

About The Author Julian Markov has worked in the medical industry for 7 years. His knowledge is mainly focused in the ostomy and wound care fields. View their website at: http://www.ostomysoftware.com. julian.markov@ostomysoftware.com

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