Gone Astray: Russell Johnson » Travel Biz

Augmented Reality: The Future of the Travel Guide

Russell Johnson — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:29:36 +0000

Augmented Reality has been around for a couple of years but it is finally showing some sign of growth. I am playing around with Layar for Android.

Check Out This Video Demo

Trazzle Dazzle

Russell Johnson — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 18:55:37 +0000

Novel concept that web site Trazzler actually pays travel writers: $500 for a group of stories about a destination. Created by the same people who did weekend getaway site 71 miles, it is VC funded. How sustainable it is without outside bucks, however, I can’t tell by looking by the site itself. Is it advertising? Don’t see it. Trazzler seems to be a hotel deal site, a click through destination for its social media feeds with only skimpy evidence that objective travel writing lies beneath. There is no disclosure whether or not the hotels are paying for ad space, offering comp rooms, or what. Trazzler says the phone numbers listed link directly to the properties, but part of the deal seems to be vouchers sold through Trazzler for which the site takes a commission. Is there a business model in enlisting one-off hotels? Will this expand internationally to the big chains…and will it be in their budgets?

Maybe the web site is only intended to be an e-commerce click through (websites are soooo last season) . Interestingly, Trazzler publishes its APIs (nerd jargon for computer code to link its content to other sites) publicly, stories are republished by Slate , they actually own addresses like twitter.com/california and they blog at least one story a day. They are all over the social networking map.

Trazzle is a good idea thrown up against the information/social Wall, but will it stick?

Tweaky Travel Trends

Russell Johnson — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:00:23 +0000

It is like the Eurovision Awards that gave rise to Abba. Every year I look forward to learning what tweaky travel trend the research firm Euromonitor comes up with. Each November at World Travel Mart in London it issues a report that usually defines some off-the-wall reason people step forth into this wonderful weird world. A couple of years ago it was “Debauchery Travel” and a certain demographic labeled “debaucherist,” for whom travel is a moveable frat party. This year, for North Americans, it is…sound the kazoo: Deprivation Holidays, the notion that torturing oneself can be a good thing. For Asians it is just as weird, but more on that later.

from The Connected Traveler

Sustainable Tourism: Video Demo of our Intro to Travel and Tourism Course

Russell Johnson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:14:19 +0000

Take a look at a demo (with a short piece on sustainable tourism) of our new edition of “Travel and Tourism: Opening Doors for Your Future,” an interactive course that introduces the Travel and Tourism industry as a serious career path to high school or entry-level college students, people who are about to enter the workforce or those who may be seeking a new career. We have added a Library/Personal Edition on DVD and a Flash video-based e-Learning Edition that can be found online at http://learntravelandtourism.com. The course is both educational and motivational, loaded with timely information about how vast and important the travel industry is, its history, sustainable tourism, future trends, its various sectors and how they work together, and the wide variety of career opportunities it offers.
It is the successor to the “World of Many Faces” video/workbook that my good friend Renton De Alwis put together in 1994, which was used in universities, schools and companies around the world and still is in many libraries

Giving Wings to Grandma: An Interview With Joe Sutter, The Father of the Boeing 747

Russell Johnson — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:30:33 +0000

Airlines come and go. But one airplane, put in service in 1970 by Pan Am and designed and built by Boeing is still flying, still being manufactured and, like Swiss Cheese or a Brooks Brothers suit, still looks the same. It is that ubiquitous, bulbous Cyrano of the skies, the Boeing 747. This week we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the plane’s maiden flight. Joe Sutter, called the “Father of the 747″, led a team of 4,500 (his number) engineers in designing what has been called “the old ladies’ airplane” because not even granny is afraid to fly in it. This is an interview we did with Sutter a few years ago in Hong Kong.