Month: June 2021

It has, to use an understatement, been a very strange year for tourism.  Certainly International tourism has taken a severe hit from the global pandemic.  That applies to incoming visitation to the USA from overseas, as well as outbound tourism.  My contacts tell me that even the movement of leisure travelers within the country has been severely affected as I’m sure you’ve heard from news stories.  Although theme parks in Florida have reopened, it appears that the number of visitors has severely declined.

It’s not all bad news however, particularly for our area of the Northern Gulf Coast.  I’m honored to be a council member on one of the Tourist Development Councils here so can report on how the summer has progressed.

Without doubt the early part of the summer season – April and May – were not at all good as the area was on lock down.  Beaches, hotels, vacation rentals and restaurants opened in June and that was a lifeline for many of our hospitality companies and their employees. Although bars were closed again, many hospitality companies adapted well to the new situation.

Visitor numbers appear to have been high for the counties from Franklin all the way through to Escambia.  I understand that South Alabama have experienced similar results.  Some counties appear to have done better than others of course, but results show that hotels and vacation rentals have managed to maintain occupancy and importantly, have not had to discount.  The restaurants have also reported high occupancy in the tourist areas, although they have had to restrict numbers dining to adhere to social distancing.  My contacts in the activities sector who provide fishing trips, rental of watercraft, admissions to attractions etc., have reported a very good summer.  The fact that schools stayed out of session longer than normal has also extended the season.  

It appears that many tourists who would normally travel further afield have considered that the Northern Gulf Coast has been a convenient, economical and safe place to vacation.  The fact that our area is drivable from many areas of the South East has meant that something like 80% of the visitors have taken that option.

Bookings for the fall are also holding up pretty well although the convention and group business has been severely hit.  These latter sectors are vital for the industry, but there are signs that rebooking may be happening for 2021.

Of course it’s not all good news.  Many companies have suffered and that has resulted in layoffs and furloughs of employees, which is tragic on many levels. 

Having a year when few things are ‘normal’ in the hospitality and tourism business does allow time for a great deal of re-evaluation by both companies and the destination marketing organizations like the CVBs and tourist boards.  Indeed, it’s essential.  I know from personal experience that it has provided the impetus for changes to how to attract tourists, what sort of tourists are needed and what activities should be provided in the future.  The enforced ‘pause and evaluation’ will I think, allow for our local tourism to change tactics to improve matters for both our residents, visitors and the employees.  We may well see a change to the old patterns of visitation with an expansion of the seasons, tourists choosing to engage in more ecotourism, outdoor activities,  family friendly and family safe pastimes.

Let’s hope that there are silver linings to this particular cloud.

Travel has been an ever changing activity since the first ‘tourists’ started taking the Grand Tour around Europe in the 18th century. First, they went by horse drawn carriages but by the mid 1800s they were traveling on the newly laid railroads and that essentially continued through to World War 2. That event effectively brought tourism to a complete halt for around 7 years of course.  

Following WW2 the rise of the Road Trip here both in here in the USA and Europe had newly affluent families heading across country in their fashionable and finned automobiles. For the wealthy, the advent of the jet airliner like the Boeing 707 and DC-8 made intercontinental travel possible.  In Europe in particular, vacationers traded their train and car road trips for what were termed ‘package holidays’ where air travel and accommodation were sold at one low price enabling the boom in trips to the Mediterranean resorts.

The real game changer came in 1969 and 1970 which the launch of Boeing’s 747 Jumbo Jet.  This single aircraft was credited with democratizing air travel.  Its ability to carry upwards of 360 passenger vast distances brought down the cost of travel and allowed tourists to visit places they could have previously only dreamed of seeing.

Of course other, older aircraft continued to serve, but other events like the mid ‘70s oil crisis, economic concerns and various conflicts started to make some of the older and less efficient aircraft a liability for airlines.  The awful events of 9/11 and the subsequent drop in demand for air travel meant the end for many types of aircraft – Boeing 727s, 707s Lockheed L1011 TriStars and Douglas DC-10s for example.  But still the 747 remained with newer models still speeding carrying travelers on trunk routes around the world.

However, things were changing again. New designs of very efficient twin engined (as opposed to the four engines of the 747) lightweight aircraft started to appear.  The Boeing 777, a twin jet, can carry as many passengers as the 747 but at lower cost and on the same routes. Aircraft like the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 are even more efficient and can fly incredible distances.  Even more impressive is that they can fly from smaller cities direct to their destinations.  That means it’s no longer needed for you to fly from your local airport to a major hub to change to a bigger aircraft, and then do the same thing at the end of your journey. It also obviates the need for multiple stopovers on intercontinental journeys.  The airlines recognized this and started retiring their 747 Jumbo Jets.  US airlines stoped flying these across the country some years ago, but all US airlines retired their Intercontinental Jumbos over the past two years.

Overseas carriers planned on the whole to retire their passenger 747s by the mid 2020s.  Best laid schemes of ‘Mice and Men’ however and the COVID pandemic and the subsequent massive reduction in demand for air transport has changed things again.  Most airlines have retired their 747s (and Airbus A380s) immediately.  You’ll still be able to fly a Jumbo of course as Lufthansa, China Airlines, Korean Air Lines an a couple of others will keep newer 747s flying for a while (and of course Air Force One aircraft are 747s and will continue to be for probably 30 years!).

Air travel and international tourism will return eventually and you’ll have a whole new experience of flying on efficient, comfortable airliners from your local airport to many new destinations.  Start planning now!

In the meantime, how about a road trip?

It would be wonderful if I could give you the latest updates on local and world tourism but things move so quickly these days that there may well have been changes by the time I get to the end of the article!  Luckily I can share some good news about our local area.

The Northern Gulf Coast opened up to tourism a short while back and our faithful tourists lost no time in returning to our sugar white beaches.  That’s great news for the vacation rental, hotel and restaurant industry and for our local economy as a whole.  The folks renting pontoon boats, personal water craft and the fishing charterers have also benefited.  In fact arrivals in part of the area during May were higher than June 2019. This may in part be down to the pent up demand by people not being able to travel for a while. It could however be a continuation of what was seen last year. Then there was a move from traveling during June, July and August to visitors spreading their trips to the spring and fall. Perhaps and hopefully, this is a trend that will continue.  Certainly the hospitality industry is reporting very high booking levels for later in the summer.  The main benefit from this is spreading the visitors over a longer period allows for more year round employment.

There are also changes to how people are spending their vacation time here.  Yes, we have all seen images of crowded beaches, but reports from the authorities are that people are social distancing on beaches and in restaurants.  Our tourists are also engaging in activities that stress adventure and discovery, while keeping in their family groups. Again, diversification of tourist activity is a great boost.

Looking at things from a slightly different perspective, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to travel worldwide in the near future, which makes all of us habitual travelers sad.  One of the joys of traveling around the world is being able to experience local culture through food.  However I was thinking how to get my ‘international food fix’ in the current situation.  A small bit of research in my home town here on the Panhandle revealed a whole range of world wide cuisine available.

For example here in Fort Walton Beach and Destin we have a plethora of seafood restaurants serving locally sourced foods.  Their styles are varied from ‘you catch it – we’ll cook it’ to gourmet seafood.  Of course we have a great range of Mexican restaurants, each with their different styles. Italian, French, German, Thai, Japanese, Jamaican, Caribbean, Turkish, Mediterranean, Puerto Rican, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, Southwestern, Barbecue, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian and Honduran all jumped out from a quick search on Trip Advisor. There’s even a British food truck that travels around the area.  That’s just Fort Walton Beach!  Extend the search a bit further and you’ll come up with many more styles and cultures.  Virtually all these restaurants offer take out service as well as eat-in.  It does make you think that you can eat around the world without getting on a plane!

So, despite these ‘unusual’ times in which we live, it’s not all bad news.

What does a committed and passionate traveler do when they they can’t travel? Well, as I’ve admitted in previous editions of Conexión you plan your next trips of course.  In my case you also look back on past expeditions and seek inspiration from other peoples experiences.

I’ve been revisiting shows and documentaries about travel.  Through the TV, I have had the pleasure of going on numerous train rides around the world. There have been travel documentaries about train trips through South America, Africa, the Far East, Europe and here in North America. I managed to share rides on the Maharajah’s Express in India, the El Chepe Express in Mexico, The Rocky Mountaineer in Canada and numerous others.  In the past I’ve personally been lucky enough to travel on a number of scenic train trips including the Ghan across Australia and The Spirit of New Orleans from the Crescent City to Chicago here in the USA (humming the Arlo Guthrie song the whole way!). I have to confess to being a train travel junkie, and as much as I enjoy traveling by plane, I find journeys by rail much more of an adventure.

Luckily we’ve also been able to find re-runs of the late Anthony Bourdain’s series ‘A Cook’s Tour’. On the face of it Bourdain’s program’s were food and cooking shows, but in essence they are travelogues first and foremost. Apparently the later series ‘Parts Unknown’ are about to be re-run too, and I can’t wait. His ability to relate to locals wherever he traveled, with complete empathy was outstanding.

The third string of travel series I’ve been watching have featured behind the scenes coverage of famous hotels around the world. It’s great seeing what really happens to make sure your stay is memorable. Regrettably many of those hotels will remain outside my reach, but it doesn’t harm to dream does it?

All this makes me want to plan for upcoming trips when the current situation eventually changes for the better.  I hesitate to say ‘when things get back to normal’ as from a travel and tourism point of view, I think that those days have gone.  Traveling for pleasure has gone through many changes over the years following major world wide events. The consequences of this pandemic will leave their marks on our future trips, how we plan, travel and where we go.

When we do venture out I believe we will need friends in the business and I do see the traditional travel agent or travel advisor making a welcome comeback. We are going to need travel advisors who can provide personal support 24 hours a day. Knowledgeable people who know not only where, when and how to travel, but also know you. They also appear to have a direct connection to other professionals in the business, and that has to be a good thing in uncertain times.

So, start planning your future trips. Indulge in a little dreaming. Whatever you do, stay safe.

Last month I was suggesting that we should spend our time in isolation planning our future trips.  I stand by that as planning is as much of the journey as the trip itself.  Of course it’s also fun, so plan away!

As I type this there are signs that some countries and indeed some areas of the USA are beginning to make plans for coming out of the crisis.  The tourism industry is also starting its preparations. I know that many are counting the days when they get back to normal.  My feeling is however that the tourism, travel and hospitality world is not going to return to things as they were before the virus.

Airlines for example are suggesting that those carriers that survive (and many may not) will emerge as smaller, leaner and fitter organizations.  The aircraft types they will operate will be different. The older more fuel hungry airplanes will be retired. I think we will also see higher fares in the future as airlines strive to become profitable and more able to survive in the future.

Some of the world’s most popular tourist destinations that have previously experienced over-tourism will take this as an opportunity to ‘reset’ and limit the influx of visitors. Even locally here on the Northern Gulf Coast, we are seeing suggestions that the days of discount vacations, cheap condo rentals and crowds of vacationers may be a thing of the past. Destinations will be branding themselves as eco-friendly, out door activity centers and ‘premium’ areas. The aim will be to appeal to many visitors continuing desire (according to surveys) to stay away from crowds.

The accommodation sector is also preparing for changes. Hotels are already implementing even more strict cleanliness regimes and social separation. Companies like AirBnB are rapidly reinventing themselves for the future. That will almost certainly spread to the vacation rental and condominium side of the business.

Cruises? Well, I’m not predicting the end of the cruise industry and there is far too much invested in both existing and planned ships. Also people love cruising. However, there will be changes to how things are run. Going back to over-tourism, the cruise industry has been instrumental in delivering huge numbers of tourists to places like Venice.  I really see that such destinations are going to restrict the numbers in the future.  Not just from an over tourism point of view but also from an environmental viewpoint. Have you seen the photos of clear and clean canals in Venice? 

Tourism will continue and will grow. After all it’s in our human nature to explore and an experience. Tourism has survived many changes since the first Grand Tours of the 1700s, but each change has caused subtle (and not so subtle!) adaptations to how we travel. The next few years will be fascinating from a travel and tourism perspective. It will be here before you know it, so start planning. 

…and stay safe and healthy. 

You may wonder why Conexión is having a Let’s Talk Tourism column at the moment. Well, despite the confusing and worrying times we’re all living through at the moment, as the saying goes “This too will pass”.  As has always been the case, tourism will restart and we’ll all be getting out and about again.

That being said, now is a great time to start planning where you want to go when you’re able to to. It’s true that the best trips are normally planned many months or even years in advance, so this current period of staying-put is a good opportunity to research and plan.

Luckily we have the internet to help us research and in many cases virtually visit places on our travel list.  There are tourist attractions, museums and cities that are offering virtual tours, so you can still get access to check them out.

Although airlines and other transport services may not be running at the moment, their websites are still operating and allowing us to get information and in many cases make advance reservations. The same applies to the tourism authorities around the country and around the world. 

You may know that I sit on one of our local Tourism Development Councils here on the Northern Gulf Coast.  I can assure you that as well as managing the current, ever changing (from day to day and hour to hour), situation we are also looking closely at how we recover when this is all over. This recovery is vital for the economic health of our citizens and economy, so we all take it very seriously.  It will also be vital for our own mental and physical recovery.

Here’s my challenge for you.  Look at the places you’ve visited in the past and list what you enjoyed and why.  Try and post on social media photos from your travels. This will make you feel good and sharing that with your friends and family will raise their spirits tools.

Back to the challenge and your list.  Having worked out what you really enjoyed about your travels in the past and start planning to visit new places in the coming months and years.

You’ll find that the tourism industry is still open for future business. There may even be great deals available. Just make sure that if you take advantage of any deals you don’t get into anything that you can’t cancel or amend. Possibly talk to a local travel agent as most of them are still open and more than happy to help you plan.

Let’s turn every situation into an opportunity. This is the ideal time to start work on your next trip of a lifetime.  You’ll be setting out before you know it.

We all know that our region gets a huge number of tourists. Nothing new there.  However it’s interesting to see some of the details.

The University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management  have recently released a report on the impact that the vacation rental industry has on the Florida economy.  Although the report only covers Florida it gives an indication of what is happening along the Northern Gulf Coast as a whole.

Of course many visitors stay in hotels and resorts which contribute to the employment figures and of course to bed taxes and sales taxes.  However we do have a very mature vacation rental sector. This include all the condos, houses and apartments. Something that we’re very used to along our piece of coast.

Families have been visiting the area for generations and staying often in the same property year after year. This sector also include the seasonal snowbirds. It appears that vacation rental customers tend to stay longer than those who go to hotels and resorts, with stays of 30 days or more.  They also spend more money, on average $1000 per person.

Traditionally renters dealt with the vacation rental companies, known as property management companies who handled virtually every part of the rental from reservations services to housekeeping, property maintenance and security.  In recent years we’ve seen this expand to VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner), companies like HomeAway and the current hot ticket – AirBnB.  This later concept started off as people who rented out a spare room in their home to today’s giant that rents everything from rooms to whole houses. It’s grown into a world wide phenomena.

The whole long term vacation rental industry in Florida provides more than 100,000 jobs.

According to the Rosen College’s report, what they call the ripple effect has a mighty contribution to our state’s economy.

In 2018, in the main tourism states, vacation rentals contributed $27.4 billion in sales.  That’s $16.6 billion in direct sales and an additional $10.8 billion in what are termed indirect spending.  That $16.6 billion of direct spending translates to 18.7% of the total opening of the Florida tourist industry.  That in turn amounts to nearly $46 million per day. This supports 115,000 jobs with one Jobe being created for every $144.181 spent. Apparently that’s 312 jobs statewide very day, 13 jobs every hour and one job every 5 minutes!

Just to add to the mind boggling statistics the people staying in vacation rentals in Florida during 2018 added up to 14,233,274 or 11.2% of the 127 million tourists who visited Florida in 2018.  These visitors spend $1.9 million every hour or nearly $32,000 per minute.

Impressive figures certainly and just shows how vital this sector is to our area.

It’s amazing how quickly things change isn’t it? Last month I wrote about the growth in tourism world wide and about trends in tourism here on the Northern Gulf Coast. Particularly I pointed out that Chinese tourism had grown from 47 million in 2009 to 166 million in 2019 and was on track for 400 million by the end of the decade. As I write this (in late January) the Coronavirus is having a major effect on Chinese and therefore world tourism. Flights are being canceled, borders closed and cities quarantined. By the time you read this I sincerely hope that the outbreak has been brought under control and that things start getting back to normal. However, it does highlight how something happening on one side of the planet can have an effect on worldwide tourism.

Last month I also talked about the changes to visitation here on Gulf Coast and how our peak tourism season has been shrinking. Well, during the past year much in depth research has been carried out on how, when and why people travel to our area. It’s part of a study to establish what we ought to be planning, tourism wise, not just for the next year but for five and ten years in the future.

July 2019 saw a decline in overall visitation here but those slightly fewer tourists actually spent more. Interestingly, the research is showing that the peak, summer season isn’t actually shrinking, it appears it’s starting earlier! Let me explain.  In the past we had a spring break season and an Easter season. Often these two seemed to merge together, depending on when Easter fell. There was then a break before tourism took off again around Memorial Day. Then a further pause until the schools broke. Well, it now appears that the ‘season’ is starting in April and running through till September. The numbers of visitors are more evenly spread than previously and it seems that June has taken over from July as being the time for highest occupancy.

Why is this? The first reason is that in the past visitors mostly came from the South East of the US, and for many destinations on the coast, Atlanta was the place many tourists called home.  Certainly for a good number of beach towns along the coast Atlanta is still vitally important. Those visitor families have been coming for years and a trip to the Gulf is a yearly tradition. Further west along the Gulf, inland Alabamians have headed for Gulf Shores and Orange Beach area. This hasn’t changed but we are now getting many more visitors from Texas. For some beach towns, Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston have become as big or bigger suppliers of summer tourists as the traditional cities. 

Low cost airlines are bringing folks from Chicago, Nashville, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Detroit, New York and other North East and Midwest cities. Visitors from these places take their vacations at different times than we do, which spreads the season.

This is great news as the extended season allows for less seasonal jobs in the hospitality industry and reduces crowds and traffic in the middle of the summer.

Another result of the research is that we are now able to track spending patterns of our tourists. This is done by looking at the use of credit cards in the area and tracking back where people originate. We can now see how much people spend and what they buy.  Interestingly we’re finding that many of the ‘new’ visitors are spending their cash on different activities than the traditional tourists. That’s great information for those people running dolphin tours, eco-friendly activities and more active pursuits like paddle boarding and scuba diving.

Overall, the more we know about our visitors, the better we can be at planning for the future. Research is everything and much better than jumping to conclusions based on one season’s data.  The studying of year-on-year trends allows us to plan long term, rather than just react to things that happen occasionally like bad weather, short term economic changes or indeed, problems that happen half a world away.

Happy New Year!  Well, actually Happy New Decade. As we start 2020 I got to thinking how much has changed from a tourism point of view in the past ten years.  It appears to have changed quite a lot.

One of the words (two words in fact!) that has been used a lot towards the end of the past decade is ‘over tourism’. Probably it’s been over used as a few people assume that any congregation of visitors is ‘over tourism’.  I don’t subscribe to that of course, however it’s true that we, ‘the human race’ are traveling more than ever.  Take just one nation – China.  In 2009, 47 million Chinese traveled overseas. According to the British Daily Telegraph newspaper the figure for 2019 is 166 million and predictions are that this will reach 400 million by the end of the 2020s.

It’s not just the Chinese of course, we’re all traveling more.  I visited New Orleans just before Christmas and was impressed by the sheer variety of nationalities visiting the city.  It’s great for local economies on the whole, but of course the numbers need managing to avoid getting too much of a good thing.  Some destinations are trying to ration access by charging day trippers, imposing limits on numbers or simply closing at certain times.

Here on the northern Gulf Coast we have traditionally had a peak summer season of about 100 days, but this in itself is changing.  The fact that school vacations are changing in both length and when they occur has reduced the summer peak to between 60 and 90 days. More importantly though is that tourism organizations along the coast are reporting drops in the numbers of people visiting the coast during those peak summer months. The good news though is that we are getting more visitors during spring, fall and winter, thereby spreading the visitation. Although figures for the summer were down (in one area) by 17%, the last year was up overall by 10%.  That’s good for the economy as it encourages more year round jobs and it’s less stress for the locals as there are fewer cars on the road in the summer months. We’re also getting visitors from new areas in the Midwest and Northeast.

What else has changed?  Back in 2009, had you heard of AirBnB?  In those days the company was renting out air beds in people’s spare bedrooms in city locations. Now the company is a rival to the established vacation rentals (as are VRBO – Vacation Rental by Owner, and HomeAway) and hotel chains.

Low cost airlines were certainly around in 2009, but there has been significant growth and there are now international low cost airlines too. The legacy airlines have countered with their basic economy fares, but one wonders how long this ‘race to the bottom’ will last.  The low cost airlines are struggling to make their economic model work and ‘basic fares’ are not doing the traditional airlines any favors.

I’ll bet few of us had iPhones and their competitors in 2009 as the brand was only introduced two years before.  However the ownership of smart phones has grown colossally over the past 10 years with something like 95% of 16-24 year olds now having a smart phone in their pocket. Not only does that bring a (good) camera to everyone, so that you can share your selfies, but has given rise to Instagram, Facebook and a raft of similar sites.  Tourists now base their decisions on where to travel on what they read on social media, YouTube and TripAdvisor.  Visitors to attractions, faced with lines or high entrance fees now ‘google’ on their phones to see if they can by cheaper entry tickets or gain faster access. I’ve even seen people park outside hotels and use their smartphones to see if they can get a better hotel rate at the last minute than they have already booked!

So much has changed and I think I’m only scratching the surface with those few examples.  What do you think will happen in the new decade?  Let me know. Send me an email at conexion@owenorganization.comJanuary

How many times have you heard people say that the journey is as important as the destination?  I looked to see if there were any relevant quotes but it appears that every notable person in history has said the same thing! Of course most were what we call these days ‘inspirational quotes’ and none appeared to the actual business of traveling. Being a tourist does imply that we’ve chosen a destination  and the journey is just a means of getting there.

Not that long ago going on vacation involved the whole process of planning, traveling and being at a destination and all of that was enjoyable.  These days there seems to be many obstacles to enjoying the journey. We’re inundated with adverts and suggestions about where to go and how to get there. Every suggestion is accompanied by confusing prices and rules. As a young travel agent this is what I really wanted to do – to help people plan their vacations. In those days only us in the business had access to the information and booking systems, now everyone can be a travel agent (well, that’s a massive oversimplification, but you get my drift). There’s fun to be had here with the planning. 

Then there’s the actual journey, whether that be by car, train, plane or boat. I agree that all these choices could involve less that fun times. Traffic snarls, late running and crowded trains not to mention the hassles of airport and cruise terminal security, cramped aircraft seats and the inevitable delays.  Why do we do it?

To be honest there is still fun to be had in the journey, let me offer some alternative approaches.

Our niece is currently planning her wedding and that involves the honeymoon. The happy couple want to have a vacation of lifetime of course and they seem to be having fun in researching not only the destination but how to get there. I confess that suggestions from the Aunt and Uncle (us!) is also giving us fun. There are more ways to get somewhere that just the obvious route and many include visiting places you’ve never even thought of going to.

If you’re taking a road trip to your vacation you can of course just follow the instructions of your GPS system. That will probably be the shortest route, and may even be the fastest, but there are alternatives. As a kid our family rapid trips always involved my father giving me a map and asking that I plan out a route avoiding main roads and looking for ‘interesting’ places en route. I confess to sometimes getting it totally wrong, but in most cases these were voyages of discovery. We found interesting small towns, historic sites and gorgeous scenery away from major highways. I leaned to map read too which helps these days when our GPS offers some illogical routes.

If you’re flying it’s true that airport security can be painful but there are apps that help avoid peak times, and a bit of research in advance can prepare you for what you can and cannot take with you.  Part of my enjoyment of the journey is being more prepared than some of my fellow travelers and seeing how easy it can be. The actual flight can also be less than pleasant. I can’t help with the kid behind you who keeps on kicking your seat or the seat mate who steals the armrest, but again you can do your research to select airlines with bigger seats or times when there are fewer other travelers. If all else fails, the time on the plane is ideal for catching up on reading, listening to music or podcasts, watching movies or simply ‘people watching’.  There’s an upside to nearly everything if you look for it.

I think that’s the essence of being a tourist, to be always looking for the positives in traveling. We should all be seeking out new experiences. The late Anthony Bourdain – famous chef, author, tv presenter and story teller – always found something good in the people he met, the food he tasted and the places he visited. We should look for that too.

To experience beautiful sunsets and sunrises, to see amazing vistas from the tops of mountains and to watch the ocean means having to get off your chair and travel. On the way you’ll meet wonderful people, eat great food and enjoy yourself. The journey should be at least as rewarding as the destination.

I hope you have a very happy Christmas and a journey filled New Year.