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Want a sign that the economy is doing fine? Look no further than the hotel industry. First flagged by Bill McBride at Calculated Risk, in April all of the major metrics measuring the hotel industry hit all-time highs.Via Jan Freitag at HotelNewsNow:April had the highest occupancy ever (66.8%) and the highest room demand (99.4 million rooms) ever.This pushed annualized occupancy (measured as a 12-month moving average) up to 65%.What does this mean? All key performance indicators (rooms available, rooms sold, revenue, average daily rate, occupancy and revenue per available room) are still at all-time highs.The broader economic takeaway is simple:...

Regular readers of my column know that after tax season is over my wife and I take off for a while and typically travel the world. We do not do tours or cruises as we want to be in amongst the locals to touch and feel what is going on wherever we are visiting. This year our trip was to Spain and Croatia with short stops in Milan and London. We also spent some time in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. We started in Spain, a wonderful country we had not visited since 1987. There are many areas to visit...

Washington - Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and other former presidents who earn lucrative speaking fees and draw other income would no longer be able to count on taxpayer dollars to pay for their post-White House office space and staff under a bill in the House. On a voice vote, the House Oversight panel backed a measure Tuesday to limit taxpayer dollars for expenses, including travel, incurred by ex-presidents who earn more than $400,000 a year. U.S. taxpayers paid a total of $3.5 million last year in pensions and benefits to the four living former presidents, including $1.3 million for...

The number of Chinese tourists eager to travel the world has risen dramatically over the last few years, and Beijing International Airport is launching the world's biggest terminal to cope with the substantial increase. Opening in 2018, the gigantic Terminal 1 will cover 700,000 square metres, and is set to handle 45million passengers a year. Renown British-Iraqi architect, Zaha Hadid, has collaborated with airport developers ADPI to create a six-tier concept which aims to decrease customer walking distances, and increase connectivity.

Dave Ramsey always says the phrase "Live like no one else so you can live like No One Else" on his show. And anyone who listens knows it's about eating "beans and rice and rice and beans" and till you overcome the debt lifestyle. But what's not talked about is the other side - where you've made it and are living "Like No One else". What's that like and what kind of thinking happens on that side of the fence? Having just come back from Two Weeks in Oahu, I was thinking about it. How did I get to this...

You can now "trek" Mount Everest from the comfort of your sofa, as Google Maps launches new Street Views of the Khumbu valleys in Nepal. While you might not be able to get to the summit, you can explore many of the trails and towns in the region. The area is home to the Sherpa community with many acting as guides and porters on Mount Everest. "I guided the Google Maps team through my home region to collect Street View imagery," says Apa Sherpa in a blog.

Taxpayers paid for President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama to fly separately Thursday to Los Angeles, where they appeared on separate TV talk shows on the same day. Mr. Obama flew on Air Force One, which costs about $228,000 per hour of flight time, to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday night in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Mrs. Obama flew on a different plane Thursday across country to Burbank, California, to tape an appearance on Ellen Degeneres’ show. That show will be broadcast on Monday. White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz told reporters Friday that the president and...

If you’ve ever wanted to sleep with a giant lizard — and let’s face it, you only live once — one Japanese hotel has just the thing with its soon-to-be opened Godzilla Room. Hotel Gracery in Tokyo’s buzzing Shinjuku entertainment district offers the chance to catch some shuteye under the watchful gaze of a man-sized atomic mutant as he stomps on a miniature version of Tokyo in the corner of your room. For those extra-unsettling dreams, a giant Godzilla hand, complete with razor-like claws, looms over the twin beds to ensure you get maximum value from the ¥39,800 a night...

Planning a 4 day trip to New Orleans. Tourism Suggestions please?

TSA Demands Internal Passport for Domestic Travel By: Wendy McElroy | Tue, Feb 10, 2015 Share Print Email Precedents exist for requiring citizens to produce special ID for domestic travel; they include Nazi Germany, apartheid South Africa and Russia (both Imperial and Soviet).Over the Christmas season, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) quietly announced that America was walking down that path. By 2016, all domestic air travel will require either a traditional passport or a federally-compliant ID card called "Real ID." State driver's licenses will no longer allow Americans access to domestic flights, as they do now. Real ID will constitute...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Illinois residents might not be able to use their driver's licenses at airports starting in 2016. The Daily Herald reports the licenses don't meet requirements set by the 2005 Real ID Act that were meant to increase security. Illinois doesn't require a birth certificate to get a driver's license, which Illinois Secretary of State spokesman Henry Haupt said is one of the law's mandates. Haupt said state legislators would have to approve funding for changes to driver's license requirements. He said he's not sure how much it would cost, but the Secretary of State's office previously estimated...

Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney each finished second in their party’s primaries when they ran for president in 2008, but they took dramatically different routes to arrive at the same result — literally, in a way. A deeper look into the candidates’ campaign expenditures reveals that Clinton spent more than nine times as much as Romney did on private jets during the 2008 race. An analysis of public documents by National Review Online shows that Clinton took more than $19.2 million worth of private flights during the primaries before dropping out when then-senator Barack Obama finally built an insurmountable lead....

Dubai airport has soared ahead of London's Heathrow, riding a boom in long-haul flights between Asia and the West to become the world's top international travel hub, it said Tuesday. Traffic at the airport increased 6.1 percent last year to 70.47 million passengers, Dubai Airports said, adding that it expected a further surge in traveller numbers in 2015. Dubai International is home to Emirates, the Middle East's largest carrier, which along with Abu Dhabi's Etihad and Qatar Airways has seized a significant portion of travel between the West, Asia and Australasia.

The travel company Expedia conducted a poll asking fliers to name the most annoying types of airplane passengers. Jimmy was going to just read the list, but he thought it would be more interesting if the great Sir Patrick Stewart acted it out.

Dubai leapfrogged Heathrow to become the world's busiest airport for international passengers in 2014, the head of the Gulf hub said on Monday. Dubai International airport dealt with about 71m international passengers in 2014, according to chief executive Paul Griffiths, surpassing the 68.1 million that passed through Heathrow. "Heathrow is losing a lot of traffic to Dubai because we're able to cater for the connections that Heathrow no longer has the capacity to service," said Mr Griffiths, referring to how the UK's largest airport is operating at near full capacity on its two runways.

A study prepared by University College, London says severe restrictions on the use of fossil fuels are needed to prevent a forecast 2º centigrade increase in temperature over the next 100 years. Lead researcher Dr Christophe McGlade asserted that “decreasing the global consumption of fossil fuels is both essential and attainable. Humans can survive without these polluting commodities. In colder climates people can wear more layers of warmer clothing. We can drastically reduce the amount of combustion used to keep warm.” “In warmer climates people can let their own bodies’ sweat evaporation process keep them cool,” McGlade pointed out. “I...

San Francisco to Los Angeles in 35 minutes flat—that was the dream of the Hyperloop. Back in 2013, Elon Musk introduced the world to this dream a 60 page white paper. The paper caused a stir. The idea—a levitating, solar-power supersonic train—was both pure geek porn and a transportation revolution in the making. It definitely captured people’s imagination. But would it ever get made—now that was the question. Musk himself said he was too busy to take on the project, but if other people wanted in on the cause, well, that was just fine with him. As it turns out,...

Saudi Arabia's national airline is allegedly planning to separate male and female passengers on its flights, in accordance to strict rules enforced by the Gulf kingdom. Gulf media report that Saudia will keep men and women segregated onboard, unless they are close relatives. The move follows a spate of complaints from male fliers unwilling to allow other males to sit next to their wives and other female family members.

Government employees can enjoy luxurious overseas business trips on the taxpayer’s dime thanks to generous foreign per diem rates established by the State Department. Per diem rates include the cost of lodging, meals and incidental expenses that the government is willing to give civilian federal employees for their official foreign travel. The rates are meant to cover lodging at “adequate, suitable and moderately-priced facilities” and meals at “facilities typically used by employees at that location,” according to the State Department's office of allowances. All federal employees traveling to foreign countries on official business can get reimbursements from the government at...

Miami businessman Gino Bertuccio is one of the world’s luckiest flyers – and one of the most thoughtful as well. The 52-year-old became the first person to fly in Etihad Airways’ £14,000 ‘penthouse in the sky’ at the weekend, and he shared the one-of-a-kind experience with friends and strangers. While flying from London's Heathrow Airport to Abu Dhabi Mr Bertuccio opened the three-room private suite to first-class passengers, who were in an adjacent cabin, and invited a traveller from economy into the exclusive cabin, which boasts the world’s first in-flight butler.