TRAVEL NEWS.

Have a nice stay, Malaysian style! This true story is from Ian Thomson, Britannia Airways cabin services manager at Manchester via the airline's house magazine Britannia Briefing. Upon landing at Kula Lumpur the following came over the broadcast system. "Ladies and gentlemen. It is illegal to bring drugs into, or be caught with drugs whilst in Malaysia. If you are found with them in your possession it will result in the death sentence. Have a nice stay in Malaysia".

Sir Richard Branson once again attempted to break another world record, this time the fastest crossing of the English Channel by an amphibious vehicle. Although this is a serious record attempt, the multimillionaire businessman always manages to bring a humorous side to the business. However, despite his success in the aviation industry, many business executives should take notice of a statement Sir Richard made some years ago. When questioned about the fastest way to make a million pounds he said... "Start with a billion pound and then build an airline!" In today's competitive market many of the executives behind new airline startups should perhaps take note!

Get set for more high-flying adventures when A&E Network premieres the second season of its hit real-life show AIRLINE. New episodes of the series, which showcase the thrills and spills behind-the-scenes of the nation's fourth largest airline, Southwest, will air every Monday on A&E at 10:00 pm ET/PT and 10:30 pm ET/PT beginning July 5, 2004.

According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce, 3.4 million international visitors traveled to the U.S. in April, representing a 28 percent increase over April 2003. This statistic shoes continued positive growth from the first quarter of 2004, which demonstrated a 12 percent increase over the same period in 2003. For April, Canadian visitation increased by 25 percent; Mexico, by 16 percent. Overseas arrivals increased 33 percent, and Asian visitation showed a 68 percent increase. U.K. visitation increased 19 percent, solidifying that country's position as the top overseas market. German visitation increased 20 percent.

Canada enjoyed a huge year-over-year increase in April 2004 over April 2003, posting a 21.9 percent hike, according to the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC). The April 2004 volume reached 1,133,000 trips. Overnight travel from the U.S. to Canada in April rose by 22.7 percent, representing 897,000 trips. The CTC attributes this increase to the number of U.S. travelers arriving both by car (20.8 percent) and other modes of transportation (26.1 percent). Despite the positive news, the CTC cautioned that the result is only the second positive monthly result recorded this year, and "cannot be considered a trend at this time."

Flight delays rise in April. The nation's largest airlines saw on-time arrival rates fall to 83 percent from 86.9 percent last April, according to the DOT monthly Air Travel Consumer Report. The best arrival rate, for the sixth month in a row, was by Hawaiian Airlines at 94.9 percent, followed by ATA at 87.6 percent and SkyWest at 87.1 percent. The worst performance was seen by America West at 76.9 percent. Complaints also rose to 556, a 16.8 percent increase. And airlines are still receiving a high number of complaints by passengers about the treatment of the disabled. There were 42 in April. The lowest rates of canceled flights were seen by JetBlue, which had a zero percent rate, followed by Continental at 0.2 percent and AirTran at 0.2 percent. The highest rates for canceled flights were from American Eagle, 1.9 percent.

The U.S. House has passed legislation that would extend by one year the October deadline for Visa Waiver Program countries to include biometric identifiers on passports. The bill was introduced by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee; a similar bill is now pending in the Senate. The Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), which has been working vigilantly for the delay, applauded the House's action, saying certain tourism trading partners are not ready to produce the passports. TIA President and CEO William Norman said on Monday, "Today's House vote shows that Chairman Sensenbrenner and the Administration are sensitive to travel industry concerns. We appreciate their actions." The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) also lauded the deadline. NBTA successfully lobbied that keeping in place the original October 2004 deadline requirement would hurt thousands of American businesses that depend on international travel and would be harmful to the American travel and tourism industry. The Association is now poised to tackle a similar measure before the Senate.

Travelers are spending more on summer vacations than they did over the winter, according to the new ASTA/Fodor's Summer Hot Spots Survey. Typical summer destinations, such as Orlando, Las Vegas, New York City, San Francisco and Honolulu, are seeing travelers returning, they said. "We've seen nothing but positive signs that travel is way up for this summer," said Tim Jarrell, publisher of Fodor's Travel Guides. Florida accounts for 29.2 percent of all responses. Internationally, London was the top destination followed by Rome, Cancun and Paris. He said travel is back to levels seen before summer 2001. The survey of travel agents found that 63.9 percent are finding that average spending is higher.

The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau (HVCB) has launched interactive maps online at www.meethawaii.com to help meeting and event planners who are researching and scheduling meetings in the islands. The site also provides information on pre and post-meeting activities in Hawaii. "Groups enjoy holding business meetings in the islands, but what they really want to do is experience Hawaii in their free time," says Michael Murray, CMP, CMM, CASE, director of sales for HVCB?s corporate meetings and incentives division. "These maps are user-friendly and help planners make the most of their clients' stay."

Sabre leads in finding low fares. Sabre finds more low fares more often for sales made in the U.S., than any other GDS, according to a study by Topaz International. The study, conducted independently and released by Sabre, said that using Sabre can save travelers between $44 and $90 a ticket. The study focused on 60 city-pairs with U.S. departures and trans-border travel. Sabre said that this is the third year in a row it has been found to find the lowest fares.

St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands was recently selected as one of America's cleanest beach destinations. The list, which appears in the June 2004 issue of Organic Style, noted St. John's Trunk Bay, Hawksnest Bay and Leinster Bay as being among the top eight beach destinations in the United States, singled out for their pristine shores and fresh clean air.

In a survey conducted by Travel + Leisure magazine and America Online's Travel Channel, Orlando was ranked first in five of seven categories, including Best Cities for Family Attractions, Cities with Ideal Hotels and Resorts for Families, Best Cities for Restaurants for All Ages, Best Cities for State-of-the-Art Playgrounds and Parks, and Top Cities for Up-to-the-Minute Fun for Teens. The online survey asked nearly 500,000 AOL members what they thought about family travel to 25 American cities.

Readers of Travel+Leisure magazine have recognized Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines as "Top Domestic Airline for Service" for 2004. The magazine's subscribers annually select the world's best services and places, and have named Midwest Airlines the top service provider both years this award has been given. Midwest Airlines topped the domestic airline category with a score of 79.90. Runners-up were:

* JetBlue Airways (78.57)

* Alaska Airlines (67.33)

* Southwest Airlines (66.89)

* Hawaiian Airlines (64.79).

A list of the winners in the hotel, cruise line and international airline categories can be found at http://www.travelandleisure.com and in the June issue of Travel+Leisure, now available on newsstands. Rankings are based on reader evaluations collected in the 2003 World's Best Awards Survey. For airlines, scores are indexed averages of evaluations for the characteristics "customer service" and "in-flight service." Scores were rounded to the nearest hundredth of a point.

The Travel Industry Association of America says the U.S. should be prepared for long lines, delays and gridlock this summer, when it expects leisure travel to rise by 3.2 percent from last summer. Suzanne Cook, TIA's senior vice president of research, says, "For the first time in years, the summer travel season will start off with a bang, and we expect it to stay strong through August." Consumers, however, are concerned with rising prices of travel. But Sandra Hughes, vice president of AAA Travel, believes rising fuel costs will not stop driving vacationers. AAA predicts a record number of Americans will travel for the Memorial Day holiday; its agents say they are seeing dramatic increases in travel interest for this spring.

According to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, record gasoline prices will not stop Americans from hitting the road this summer. The report predicts that the increase in domestic summer travel will create an increase of 5.3 percent in revenue per available room for hotels.

The airline industry's poor financial health could get even worse and, unless fuel prices fall or airfares rise, more furloughs and wage concessions are likely, according to testimony airline executives plan to present to Congress on June 3 2004. Chief executives from six airlines will offer members of a House transportation committee the latest snapshot of the industry's woes. They are expected to reiterate concerns about the high costs of security, taxes and war risk insurance, and emphasize the threat that rising fuel poses to the industry's nascent recovery. Gordon Bethune, the CEO of Continental Airlines and one of the executives testifying on Thursday, will describe the industry's financial condition as "perilous, and the skies are only getting darker," according to prepared testimony obtained by The Associated Press. "All-time high oil prices and the ever-increasing burden of government taxes and fees are killing the industry." "Unless fuel prices abate, or the revenue environment improves, we will have to furlough employees and seek wage and benefit concessions," Bethune warns. "We may also have to reduce our pension funding." The run-up in oil prices has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of additional jet fuel costs for several carriers in 2004. In light of this fact, the industry has routinely criticized the Bush administration's policy of filling the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve of oil at a time when each barrel costs nearly $40, saying that extra demand has helped keep fuel prices high.

Travelocity is embarking on its biggest cruise sale of the summer with cash-back offers, shipboard credits and cheaper prices during "Cruise Bonus Days." The promotion is for booking now through June 30 2004 and is valid for sailings from July 1 through March 31, 2005. Travelocity says bonuses include up to $200 in shipboard credits on Carnival, Holland America Line and Princess Cruises, up to $150 cash back on Celebrity, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean, and a $50 shipboard credit on Disney. For luxury offers, Crystal is offering $200 in shipboard credits plus $200 off, Radisson Seven Seas a $200 shipboard credit and Windstar an undetermined shipboard credit plus $200 off.

Vacation.com is teaming up with Hertz to offer member agents a chance to win a six-month Jaguar X-Type car rental for every qualified booking made between June 1 and July 31 2004. The promotion is part of the "Jags To Riches" agent incentive program. Vacation.com members will also earn Double Exactly Rewards on all qualifying rentals picked up and returned within the promotional window. In addition, Vacation.com agents can earn bonuses of up to $10 by selling Hertz Prestige Collection rentals, Hertz Local Edition rentals and Class F rentals. To qualify for promotional benefits, all rentals must be for at least three days and be picked up and returned within the June 1 to July 31 timeframe.