• Florida fun outside the theme parks

  The amusement parks may be the main attraction in the Orlando area, but there's fun to be had outside the park as well. NBC's Kerry Sanders shows what central Florida has to offer, from crystal clear underground springs to the Kennedy Space Center's new ...

• Behind the scenes of Universal Orlando

  On any given day, tens of thousands of people will visit Universal Orlando's two theme parks, but few get to see the magic and mystery that make them come to life every day. The TODAY anchors get a unique look behind the scenes of the ...

• Consumer Reports ranks best and worst airlines

  If you're planning to spend some time high in the sky over the summer, Mandy Walker of Consumer Reports is here to help you know which airlines to book and which to ...

• Americans’ love affair with amusement parks

  The inspiration for modern amusement parks is said to have come from the Chicago World's Fair in 1893; Americans have been flocking to parks ever since. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports on why theme parks have become an American ...

• Striking workers protest Porter Airlines CEO’s speech at mayor’s breakfast

  Police talk to striking Porter Airlines workers outside Mayor Jim Watson’s breakfast. Porter Airlines CEO Robert Deluce spoke at the breakfast and the workers accused the mayor of taking sides in the ...

• IHT Special Dubai Hotels Struggle to Fill Jobs

  Dubai that is in academic association with the renowned cole Htelire de Lausanne and part of the Jumeirah Group, Samuel Moult is busy filing applications to work in one of Jumeirah's global hotels. He is hoping to get a placement in ...

• Party Hotels of Great Writers

  Whether they're on business or leisure, with the family or solo, almost all travelers consider a book (or a Kindle, whatever) a must-have while on a trip. But hotels are also a place where some of the world's literary greats got their inspiration.  We rounded up the hotels where famous authors have partied, waited arrest --even wrote. Check out nine spots where famous writers have ...

• Outrage Halts NYC Ghetto Tours

  A company that promised sightseer tours to the Bronx that included a New York City "ghetto" has stopped the bus rides under protest from an outraged neighborhood. Real Bronx Tours, which took mostly European tourists from Manhattan to see life in the South Bronx "from a safe distance," issued a statement this week saying it would immediately cease all tours there. Three ...

• Fashion Bully 11 Forced to Wear Thrift Shop Clothes

  The Utah woman who made headlines for forcing her stepdaughter to wear secondhand clothes as a punishment for bullying says she did it to teach the girl empathy. ';She needed to know how inappropriate she was behaving,'; Ally Olsen told ...

• Oklahoma businesses accused of fraud

  Investigators said they have uncovered evidence of businesses committing fraud by increasing prices in areas of Oklahoma devastated by tornadoes. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt told ABC News that 30 investigators began checking for fraud in the hours after the tornado hit. The investigators said they quickly found businesses violating the law, Pruitt said, including a grocery store ...

• Mike Burke founder of Windjammer Barefoot Cruises dies at 89

  MIAMI - Capt. Michael Burke sailed through life with his unending spirit and romantic outlook, touching the lives of many with his cruise empire, Windjammer Barefoot Cruises. His own journey came to and end Sunday, when the 89-year-old succumbed to pneumonia at his Miami Beach home. With his colorful character and grandiose disposition, Burke was an unforgettable personality for the legions of ...

• Top five off-peak destinations for summer 2013

  Summer is one of the busiest travel times of the year in a lot of places--with a few exceptions. It's low season in many tropical locales, winter-sports meccas, and destinations on the other side of the hemisphere. And low season, of course, equates to a high chance of money-saving travel deals. We compared peak and off-peak pricing in a variety of destinations to bring you the most ...

• Great American Bites Prime pork at Memphis Bar-B-Q Shop

  The appetizer at the Bar-B-Q shop includes polish sausage and BBQ bologna, both doused in the signature house sauce, plus cheese, crackers and hot ...

• Fewer plan to travel Memorial Day weekend

  Experts say it will cost more to rent a car or stay in a hotel over the holiday weekend Tens of millions of Americans are going to get away this Memorial Day weekend, but not as many as last year. According to the auto club AAA, 34.8 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home for the unofficial start of the summer travel season, a 0.9% dip from 2012.As usual, most will make their ...

• Turkish Airlines open flight to Lankaran

  Turkish Airlines plans to expand cooperation with Azerbaijan opening the Istanbul-Lankaran air flight. "We are negotiating with the Azerbaijani side on the opening of a flight to Lankaran. It will presumably open in summer of 2014", head of the company Temel Kotil told Azerbaijani journalists as part of the International Transport Forum in Leipzig. Lankaran will be the fourth ...

• Cleveland tourism agency recruiting volunteer city ambassadors

  Positively Cleveland wants to get more people in service-related jobs involved in promoting the city. Cleveland tourism group Positively Cleveland will train about 500 bartenders, taxi cab drivers and other people in service-related positions to become ambassadors of the city, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. The group outlined that plan and other visions for the city's future at its ...

• Kerala Tourism to kick off seaplane project by this month end

  Kerala News: The first seaplane aircraftfor Kerala has reached New Delhi for the mandatory clearances from the Customs and the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and is expected to arrive in Kochi, the base of the seaplane operations, later this ...

• Travel news Enjoy the new Shangri-La Bosphorus or a cool early summer in Tibet

  The Shangri-La Bosphorus has just opened in a converted 1930s tobacco warehouse on the European side of the Bosphorus in Istanbul. Its guestrooms range from 42- to 60-square-metres in size, most with river views; 17 suites have private terraces. Istanbul's Shangri-La has a Chi spa and a signature Chinese restaurant, Shang Palace, all of which will be familiar to Abu Dhabi's residents. ...

• Bronx ghetto tours stop amid residents outrage

  A young man runs under an elevated section of subway tracks in The Bronx borough of New York, Wednesday, May 22, 2013. A company that offered tourist treks to the Bronx "ghetto" has shut down under scathing criticism from neighborhood leaders offended by the tours that took mostly European and Australian tourists past food-pantry lines and "pickpocket" park. But other New ...

• Costa Concordia captain to stand trial in July

  The captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship which ran aground off Italy with the loss of 32 lives is to be tried on 9 July. Capt Francesco Schettino denies charges of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship. The ship foundered off the island of Giglio off Tuscany in January 2012 before tipping onto its ...

• Mexico Germany vow to promote tourism

  Mexico and Germany pledged on Wednesday to promote bilateral tourism, air connectivity and the flow of visitors, Mexico's Ministry of Tourism said in a ...

• Turtle tourism booming in Trinidad village

  UP CLOSE: In this May 2 photo, a tourist takes photographs of a leatherback turtle as it heads to the ocean after burying her eggs in the sand at daybreak on a narrow strip of beach in Grande Riviere, Trinidad. Officials with the US-based Sea Turtle Conservancy say Trinidad is now likely the world's leading tourist destination for people to see ...

• Indian Hotels to open a resort in Hainan

  Indian Hotels Co. Ltd, a unit of the Tata Group that runs the Taj Group of Hotels, said on Tuesday that it would build four hotels in China in the next two years, including the Taj Temple of Heaven in Beijing in 2014. It will also open a hotel on Hainan Island, a tourist destination in China, the company said in a statement. Chinese premier Li Keqiang is staying at Taj properties in New ...

• Arena International Aviation to train Chinese pilots for Hainan Airlines

  HUNDREDS of Chinese cadet pilots will amass crucial flight training in Port Macquarie to kickstart a ticket to the skies across the world. About 150 pilot cadets a year from China will train under the guidance of Port Macquarie-based Arena International Aviation in a step towards becoming pilots with Hainan Airlines. The relationship between Arena International Aviation and Hainan Airlines ...

• Thawatchai Arunyik named next governor of Tourism Authority of Thailand

  BANGKOK, Thailand - Thawatchai Arunyik, deputy governor for domestic marketing at the Tourism Authority of Thailand, has been selected as the TAT's next governor to replace Suraphon Svetasreni, whose contract with TAT will end on December 21. The decision to appoint Thawatchai to the top post at the state enterprise will not come as a surprise to the tourism industry, as he had been seen ...

• Hanoi considering tourism police to protect tourists from street vendors

  HANOI, Vietnam - The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism has been asked by its department in Ha Noi to establish a tourism police force dedicated to protecting visitors who are increasingly suffering from tourist scams in the capital. Cases are reported daily of foreign tourists being overcharged by taxi drivers and cheated by hotel employees. This has negatively affected the image of both ...

• Philippines eyeing to double its tourism receipts to $8 billion in 2016

  MANILA, Philippines - In line with heightened efforts to boost the country's tourism industry, the government is eyeing to double its tourism receipts to $8 billion in 2016, a tourism official said. Tourism Promotion Board chief operating officer Domingo Ramon Enerio III, in an interview with The STAR at the Puregold Sari-Sari Store Convention, said for this year alone, tourism receipts - ...

• Thailand tourism up from January to April

  International tourist arrivals to Thailand posted a growth of 19.04% during January to April this year, according to Ministry of Tourism and Sports' data. Released late last week, the ministry's research registered 8,841,730 trips to the country during the first 4 months, up from 7,427,772 visits during the same period last year. In April alone, there were 2,013,012 trips, up 19.38% ...

• Forum for 2013 Sanya Tourism held in Yalong Bay

  Jointly hosted by Sanya Tourism Development Commission and Sanya Tourism Association, the Forum for 2013 Sanya Tourism was held in Yalong Bay on May 16th. More than 120 hotel general managers, sales directors and other relevant people attended the meeting. The forum provides a platform for participants to exchange ideas and discuss the potential for the development of Sanya’s ...

• Memorial Day travel dip predicted as flier frustration mounts

  Travelers head out of Chicago along Interstate 90 May 27, 2005 in Des Plaines, Illinois. Travelers heading out for the Memorial Day weekend may be facing pain at the pump but that won't stop them from getting in their cars.They just won't be heading to the airport.On Wednesday, AAA released its annual Memorial Day forecast, estimating that 34.8 million Americans will travel more than ...

• TSAs small-knife policy sparks bipartisan outrage

  1 hour ago At a time when the partisan divide in Congress grows ever wider, it seems there's one thing legislators can agree on: They're dead-set against TSA's temporarily postponed plan to let passengers carry small knives on board airplanes.On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of 145 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to the TSA commending them for delaying the ...

• Tourism boom takes a breather in April

  South Florida’s booming hotel market hit a lull in April, but stay tuned. The latest hotel numbers from Smith Travel Research mostly showed modest growth in the revenue South Florida hotels generated from their rooms, a big change from the double-digit growth seen during the high season of 2013. But with April a notoriously fickle month — spring vacation bookings tend to shift year ...

• Temple Hotels buys hotel in Sherwood Park for $15.15 million

  WINNIPEG - Temple Hotels Inc. (TSX:TPH) said Wednesday it has signed a deal to buy the Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites in Sherwood Park, Alta., for $15.15 million. The four-storey hotel has 90 rooms, including 69 standard rooms and 21 suites. The company said the purchase will be financed by the assumption of a first mortgage loan of $10.5 million and the balance in cash. The mortgage ...

• Cruise industry announces passenger bill of rights

  NEW YORK - The cruise industry said Wednesday that it's adopting a passenger bill of rights that guarantees the "safety, comfort and care" of guests.The bill of rights promises, among other things, full refunds for trips that are canceled due to mechanical failure, and a backup power source on every ship to keep emergency systems running in the event of a main generator ...

• And the best and worst airlines in America are...

  Spirit Airlines came in last place in a Consumer Reports ranking of America's best airlines. These days when most airlines are turning people off with their excessive fees and crowded flights, Virgin America is getting some of the highest customer satisfaction scores any airline has seen in years. According to ...

• Best Worst Airlines of 2013 Ranked by Consumer Reports

  Consumer Reports has shed some light on the variations of the flying experience that can be found on different airlines. The publication has ranked U.S. airlines from best to worst in its latest issue of Consumer Reports magazine. The rankings are based on a survey of 16,000 people conducted in February. The survey included questions about comfort, baggage handling, check-in service, fees, and ...

• Airlines urged to improve punctuality

  /enpproperty--> Chinese airlines haunted by poor punctuality will be forced to reduce flight and operating times, the top civil aviation watchdog said. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) will request that airlines with a flight delay occurrence rate higher than the industry average reduce the number of flights and shorten their operating time, Xia Xinghua, deputy director of ...

• National President of Skal meets with Thailand Director of Bhutans Tourism Council

  BANGKOK, Thailand - Seen recently in Bangkok were Karma Lotey, Director of Bhutan's Tourism Council, President of the Association of Bhutan Tour Operators (ABTO) and CEO of Yangphel Travel, visiting friend Andrew Wood, National President of Skal International Thailand. Karma and Andrew discussed many topics during his visit to Andrew's home including the setting up of a Skal Club in ...

• Tourism leaders from Dubai and Seychelles meet

  Helal Saeed Almarri, the Director General of Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), the principal authority responsible for strengthening Dubai's positioning as a world-leading tourism destination and commercial hub, met Minister Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture, when the Minister was in Dubai on a working visit a week and ...

• Qantas Airlines To Offer In-Flight Books

  Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required. DAVID GREENE, HOST: And our last word in business on this Wednesday is: Mile High Book Club. LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: We're talking about an in-flight library offered by the Australian airline Qantas. GREENE: They will still have movies on the plane, that right, ...

• 10 ways to spend Memorial Day weekend in Las Vegas

  The unofficial start to summer is one of Las Vegas' most action-packed weekends. For Memorial Day, the city ups the celebration with plenty of live entertainment, banging beats from world-famous DJs and parties hosted by A-list celebrities. Here are some top picks for Memorial Day weekend in Vegas:Let the Clubs BeginThere's a slew ...

• Delta Airlines wants to stop Ex-Im bank help on big jets

  BA.N ), and would be willing to forgo such support for its own purchases of smaller jets if all such subsidies were eliminated, the chief executive said on ...

• Paula Deen Museum in the Works

  Image credit: Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images Cork, Ireland, already has the butter museum.  But Albany, Ga., might soon have the next-best thing: The Paula Deen Museum. The Albany Herald reported that the love-her-or-love-to-hate-her Southern chef’s  museum would be housed in her childhood home. The venture has been led by B.J. Fletcher, an Albany businesswoman, and Deen’s ...

• Virgin America getstop marks from Consumer Reports

  The first Virgin America flight lands in San Francisco, California in this file photo taken August 8, 2007. In an era where fliers complain air travel can feel like riding a city bus in the sky, Virgin America soared above the competition in Consumer Reports' airline rankings released ...

• Emiratis encouraged to enrol in tourism camp

  Abu Dhabi: Young Emiratis aged between 15 and 17 are being encouraged to enrol in a three-week programme which will give them a better understanding of the tourism ...

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