I’ve often used the Net for planning my personal and business trips. Trips to Australia, Hawaii, Seattle and Las Vegas, to name a few, are a cinch to plan on the Net… If you know how to go about it. The main problem with the Internet these days is that people often are overwhelmed by information overload.
I’ve often used the Net for planning my personal and business trips. Trips to Australia, Hawaii, Seattle and Las Vegas, to name a few, are a cinch to plan on the Net… If you know how to go about it. The main problem with the Internet these days is that people often are overwhelmed by information overload.
Many destinations have many sites covering details on vacationing there and Hawaii is no exception. In fact, Hawaii, as a travel destination, is covered by numerous websites covering everything from activities to mountain biking, and snorkeling to luaus. So many sites and so little time.
Thought there are many activities, hotels and ways to get to Hawaii, they are limited and after a while you’ll discover that many sites on the various topics cover the same ground. This is both good and bad: Good, in that you have numerous choices to choose from for look and feel and price. Let’s face it, some sites are easier to navigate than others, while some also have better privacy statements and ease of contact. Also, competition generally keeps prices lower. The bad: Well, there’s just so many choices and one can easily become overwhelmed.
My suggestion here is not to try and visit every Hawaii travel website on the planet, but to check out a few and stick with those you feel at ease with regarding navigation, product, pricing and privacy. There are many excellent
Hawaii travel sites out there, so the first thing to do is to target how you want to get there, where you want to stay and what you actually plan to do once you are there. If you’re like most visitors to the Islands these days, you’ll arrive by air.
If you have frequent flyer accounts, you’ll likely choose one of those airlines, otherwise, leave this open until you have completed some rudimentary pricing. The quickest, but not always the cheapest, is to book a non-stop flight. Cruises from the Mainland are available, but are quite expensive and are generally round trip, round-island cruises, with little time actually on the Islands.
As for your planned activities, once your list is made, I would highly recommend checking out activity agents and when satisfied, book your day tours, dinner cruises and submarine tours, etc. in advance. Why? Well, depending on the season–high or low–some of the more popular activities can book out quickly, leaving you high and dry looking for alternatives. This leads me to: Do you really want to be spending your valuable vacation time calling around to book activities to fill your days with fun, culture and adventure. Also, reserving your activities allows for better insight on itinerary and what your trip to paradise is going to cost. Valuable, if you’re on a tight timetable or budget.
Where to stay… Well many areas have many styles of accommodation, from hotels to cozy bed and breakfasts, to condos to luxury resorts. Oahu’s noted for its tourist hotels and condos in Waikiki to luxury spa resorts. Maui, Kauai and Hawaii have their fair share of luxury resorts and bed and breakfasts.
Once you have your rough general itinerary, it’s now time to search using appropriate terms, such as “hawaii vacation,” “fun things to do in hawaii” and “hawaii airfare,” etc. Line up 3 to 5 good sites for each topic–some sites will cover them all–and then start clicking. Explore each site to sort out the better from the good and keep your eyes open for any travel, accommodation or activity options you may have missed when composing your itinerary. Add these items to your list and keep clicking.
After spending “quality” time with your long list, it’s now time to decide which one(s) you feel most at ease with. These are the ones you should use for planning and booking your vacation necessities. If unsure about a few, send off a question by email or phone. You can tell a lot about a company on how they respond, if they respond. Obviously, if some don’t respond or respond inappropriately, drop them from your list… You don’t need the aggravation.
Now, get serious about planning and booking your itinerary. If you have a problem offering your credit card via the Net, many agents can accept same via telephone. Personally, given the pre-planning above, I, have never had a problem and I’ve ordered thousands of dollars of stuff via the Internet with no problems whatsoever. Given my life in general, I doubt that this has anything to do with luck. Once done, you’ll have a great sense of accomplishment and very likely, a fantastic vacation in paradise. So, get clicking and planning and before you know it, you will have followed all your favorite links to Hawaii… Aloha!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dave Davis is a long-time freelance writer and editor who
loves to travel and learn about new destinations. His
favorite: Hawaii. Go to
http://www.TraveltoHawaiiReviewed.com to check out more
resources and information of vacationing in Hawaii.
Copyright 2005 D3 Communications, Inc. All rights
reserved.
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 doesnt 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 arent 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 youre 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.
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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 Tags: Airfare Sites
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