Every Tuesday, we'll be watching the euro and how its ongoing woes benefit the dollar-toting traveler.

The life of a currency trader must be a weary one: up and down, up and down, the euro is now off its late-summer climb and back down below $1.30, trading at $1.26. On the year, that puts it down more than 11 percent, a decent dent.

What's causing the latest sag? Last week, fears of global economic stagnation keep the safe-haven appeal of the dollar strong, but The Economist says that may not last through summer. And with a record-setting performance from the yen early this week, other currencies may be taking the greenback's place as the go-to for socking away under the world's mattress. The takeaway: jump on these double-digit dips while you still can.

Every Tuesday, we'll be watching the euro and how its ongoing woes benefit the dollar-toting traveler.

At last, flat is the new up. After weeks of a slow and steady climb for the euro, it's holding steady at $1.31, providing temporary relief for travelers on the Continent who booked travel plans back when the common currency was trading down at $1.20. At today's level, the euro is just eight percent off its value at the start of 2010—not much of a bargain at all, considering transatlantic airfares have been brutally expensive this season.

What's causing the measured climb? Slow economic recovery in the U.S. has been driving doubt about the dollar, while surprisingly resilient European banks have the euro looking like a safe bet. (Asian banks buying up European assets is helping drive the dollar down, too.)

So what's a traveler to do? The days of savings through exchange rates may have passed us by—but the days of cheaper, shoulder-season airfares across the pond are almost upon us. And not a moment too soon.

Every Tuesday, we'll be watching the euro and how its ongoing woes benefit the dollar-toting traveler.

Where once there was hope, now there's but dread. The euro has continued its climb, which started in June, and now sits above $1.30, off just eight percent from the start of the year. Seems like only yesterday pundits were predicting euro-dollar parity, doesn't it?

Now, says an expert quoted in Bloomberg:

The dollar is weak in general—it’s a continuation of the trend we’ve seen develop over the last two months.

Bleak stuff! Fortunately, shoulder season is creeping up, offering better deals in general to Europe, even if the exchange rates don't cooperate. Where to look? Aggregators like DealBase and Travelzoo are two places to start—and don't rule out newly affordable business-class airfare.

Every Tuesday, we'll be watching the euro and how its ongoing woes benefit the dollar-toting traveler.

Turns out we shouldn't have stressed: After much fretting over what European banks might reveal late last week, the results of their stress tests were mostly positive. That didn't cause the common currency to surge against the dollar, and we're still sitting at $1.30 per euro, flat since last week and down about nine percent from the start of the year.

Economic data in the U.S. continues to keep the dollar down, too. Nevertheless, deals continue to spread across Europe, at least according to our friends at Travelzoo, who report that the Continent will be awash in deals this fall thanks to softer demand. As for where the exchange rate is headed? It's anyone's guess.

Ad agencies these days! In their aim to grab your attention, too often they just end up angering a lot of people—and fail at being edgy or ground breaking.

Take Niagara Falls' new ad campaign. The catty ads, commissioned by the Niagara Parks Commission, take shots at Toronto by depicting it as a noisy, crime infested, urban prison that makes people question their mental well-being. In one ad, a jolly, yuppie, Canadian couple rolls their calm little eyes at city traffic before escaping to Niagara Falls to bike on a lovely car-free path. Freeing! The ad ends with the words "Shake Off the City" and a drawing of the Toronto skyline is shaken and turns into trees.

The city of Toronto took that as "shots fired" material. David Whitaker, CEO of Toronto Tourism, told The Globe and Mail, “there’s a big difference between a strategy that works and a strategy that gets attention, and smart marketers know the difference.” Whitaker added that insulting Torontonians, the market that ad campaign is aimed at, is "over-reaching, and raises a flag."

Joel Noden, the creative behind the advertising campaign, said it wasn't meant to slight Toronto and that he loves the city. Toronto and Niagara have now made up, but we wanted to take a look at other ad campaigns that left us wondering, Who the heck thought this was a good idea?!

READ MORE >>

A warning sign in Pensacola Beach, Florida
Photo: flickr/ starryeyedmind

Sure, the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico has been capped (for now), but numerous hotels and hotel booking sites continue to roll out guarantees to combat misconceptions that every beach on the Gulf Coast is awash in oil—and lure back skittish beach-goers.

But, not all guarantees are created equal, so we've taken a look at which are the best, and what you should look for:

• The most generous hotel assurance policy and our favorite is Hilton Worldwide's "Beach Satisfaction Guarantee" that applies to dozens of hotels in the Gulf area. Unlike other policies, no official warning has to be issued if guest wants to depart early or cancel their entire reservation through July 31. In other words, if a guest wants to cancel or change a reservation, all fees will be waived and guests who depart early will receive refunds for any unused nights.
• InterContinental Hotel Group is offering a "No-Risk Beach Guarantee" at select hotels in the area. IHG will issue a full refund for prepaid reservations and waive early departure fees if you check-out before your schedule departure time. But IHG will only activate this if they receive official notice from government officials that shoreline is being negatively impacted.
• Marriott International created the "Marriott Beach Guarantee" at participating Marriott hotels in the area through Labor Day. Marriott will offer guests a hotel credit, valued at just 50 percent of the room rate, to guests for every day the beach is closed. Additionally, guests who book in advance can cancel prior to arrival and get a full refund if the beach is closed during their stay.
• If you book through Hotels.com, use coupon code OILFLEX at a select number of Florida hotels and you'll receive a full refund should the beaches be closed. Also, cancellation fees will also be waived. You'll need to book before Sept. 6 and travel before Sept. 30.
• Orbitz also has a similar policy called the "Open Beach Guarantee". If a government agency closes a beach within 20 miles of your hotel, Orbitz customers will be eligible for a full refund for unused hotel nights. This offer expires July 31.

The takeaway? Before you book your hotel on the Gulf Coast, do your research on specific cancellation policies and get all guarantees in writing—and make sure you know when the offer you're interested in ends.

Every Tuesday, we'll be watching the euro and how its ongoing woes benefit the dollar-toting traveler.

And here we thought the euro might dive to parity with the greenback. Instead, the euro just peaked a shade over $1.30, with traders cashing in on the rise before this week's scheduled release of "stress test" data on the European banking system.

The eight-week high has erased much of the gains the dollar has made through 2010, and travelers are now saving just 9.5 percent over what they would've spent at the start of the year. Not that we're wishing calamity on Europe, but we'd be more likely to extend our trips to the Continent if predictions about getting a euro for a buck actually came true.

Source: Miami Herald

After 86 days that saw nearly 200 MILLION gallons of oil gush into the U.S. waters, BP says it has capped its blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico.

But don't rejoice just yet, because this is only a "interim measure."

Coast Guard Commander Thad W. Allan said that BP must still complete the relief wells it is working on in order to seal the well for good, reports The New York Times.

Mr. Allen called it a “precursor” to containment, making it possible for the gushing crude to be captured through four different systems that together can keep up with the estimated rate of flow, which the government now puts at 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day. If all goes well, it may also be used to seal the well completely for brief periods.

“I don’t want to reverse the priorities here, because the priority was to contain and stop the flow of oil,” he said, “but the design of the cap itself, if we can withstand the pressures and the well bore stays intact, presents the opportunity to shut the well in, which will give us the ability to abandon the site in a hurricane, so it’s a two-for if we can do it.”

BP Vice President Kent Wells is "cautiously optimistic," reports The Miami Herald.

The company designed the beefier, more sophisticated "cap stack'' to capture most, and potentially all, of the estimated 35,000 to 60,000 barrels flowing into the Gulf daily. A leaky earlier design allowed BP to siphon off or burn some 20,000 barrels a day but also spewed a dark cloud on the ocean floor recorded by the unwavering eyes of cameras mounted to deep-diving robots.

If the new cap works, one option is to pump oil to as many as four collection ships with a capacity of up to 80,000 barrels a day—a plan that could be executed by month's end.

But if pressure tests show the well casing—the pipe that runs three miles below the ocean floor—is solid and can withstand the pressure, Wells said BP could potentially use the cap as a temporary cork until relief wells permanently plug or "shut in'' the gusher.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, for one, isn't ready to celebrate just yet, reports The Miami Herald. The governor said it was only natural to remain doubtful after gross under-estimations of the spill and earlier "top kill'' and "junk shot'' setbacks.

"I have hopes they get it done,'' Crist said. "I think we're all a bit skeptical.''

Us too. Keep your fingers crossed.

UPDATED:

As of this morning, pressure continues to rise in the cap that—at least for now—has stemmed the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. That's good because it means the well is not compromised and leaking elsewhere, according to NPR's Moring Edition.

While you're listening to NPR's excellent report, get a better picture of the magnitude of the engineering required to get this latest cap in place with these amazing photos from National Geographic.

NBC's Today show also had a good report on the spill and what we can and cannot expect from this cap.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The brief, unattributed quote from the scruffy young man on his boat really brought home what it must be like to sit mostly helpless while your livelihood is snuffed out and each day is more destructive to the Gulf.

"It's finally an end to a groundhog day of waking up and it being the same and oil still spilling."

Every Tuesday, we'll be watching the euro and how its ongoing woes benefit the dollar-toting traveler.

Sorry, Greece. This week it's Portugal with the depressing debt situation, with Moody's downgrading the Iberian nation's paper on growing fears of default. And while the news did help the dollar, the euro still costs $1.27, up more than four percent over the past month.

Maybe those predictions of dollar-euro parity were a bit premature? Could be, but we're watching for the results of a series of "stress tests" scheduled to be released July 23. Bad news there, and cheap business-class seats to Europe will look even better.

Every Tuesday, we'll be watching the euro and how its ongoing woes benefit the dollar-toting traveler.

After a month of little movement, the euro rose swiftly this past week, thanks to disappointing news about the rate of domestic economic recovery—a reversal of roles for Europe and the U.S., as the former has been waking up to its own disappointing economic headlines for months. With prices cresting at $1.26, the euro hit a six-week high against the dollar, though it's still substantially cheaper than it was at the start of the year.

But the slight uptick may not hold: Exchange rate analysts are going so far as to predict dollar-euro parity sometime in 2011 after a long, slow decline that will increasingly favor American travelers abroad. Announcements out of a meeting of top European bankers on Thursday will likely be what starts—or halts—those predicted declines. Fingers crossed!

Google’s quest for global domination continued Thursday with the acquisition of the travel-search company ITA Software for a cool $700 million, a purchase that could have a big impact in the crowded online travel marketplace.

ITA organizes flight information like prices and the availability of seats and is used by major airlines and online travel agencies like Orbitz and Kayak. Google said they will create new tools that will let consumers comparison shop for airfares and direct users to airlines and other travel agencies websites. But, Google added, they will not sell tickets directly to customers.

In a conference call yesterday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said “it’s unlikely that anything we do will look like anything available today.” Schmidt added that it’s too early to create a business model.

At first glance, this might seem like just another acquisition by ever-growing Google, interesting only to software nerds. But a deeper look shows that the move could have wide-ranging effects.

For starters, ITA has little name recognition among the general public and is used primarily by travel insiders—but with the Google brand behind it, that could change. Take a look at previous purchases like GrandCentral and Earth View, which are now both popular internet services, Google Voice and Google Earth, respectively.

Secondly, observers question if travel services Kayak and Bing can compete against the new Google-ITA service. Kayak is looking into an IPO and investors could be wary if they see a new super-site looming in the horizon, because, as The Next Web asks, if you search “cheap flights” in Google, whose data do you think will come up, Google's or another fare aggregator's?

Lastly, government officials are sure to examine closely how Google strong-armed, according to the Boston Globe, the purchase of ITA. The Globe continues writing that Microsoft and other search website companies formed a consortium to buy ITA, but Google got there first. 

Competitors, like Expedia and the European online travel company Amadeus, wanted to keep ITA independent thus not endangering their already existing services. But Google says in a press release since they don't currently compete in the online travel marketplace, the deal “will not change existing market shares.”

Maybe so. But with the addition of Google’s recent foray into mashing-up hotel prices and Google Maps, the purchase of ITA could be the next big step in creating a one-stop place for all things travel.

New York City's (in)famous JFK airport
Photo: flickr / as737700

I got a good chuckle watching the local New York City news outlets' coverage of the reopening of John F. Kennedy International Airport's runway 13R-31L, known as the Bay Runway.

The 14,572-foot-long runway along Jamaica Bay that handles one-third of JFK's traffic had been shuttered since March 1 so that it could be resurfaced and widened to accommodate the new generation of wide-body aircraft—the A380, Dreamliner 787, and even the space shuttle. By getting the Bay Runway operational on Monday, the $348-million project officially wrapped up three days ahead of schedule and $28 million bucks under budget.

And boy did everybody who could take credit for the feat take credit for the feat. Check out the back slapping in the local Fox 5 report:




Why all the back slapping? As Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Executive Director Christopher O. Ward explained in The New York Times story covering the reopening: "The public cynicism for the capacity of an agency like the Port Authority to build on time, or on budget, is pretty high."

Indeed.

The Old Gray Lady also points out that one of the biggest accomplishments of the project is that most travelers flying in and out of JFK "did not really notice that the biggest runway there had been closed for four months of repairs."

About 24 percent of departing flights at the airport were delayed in March, up from 16 percent a year earlier, according to data from the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics. But in April, only 16 percent of flights were delayed, down from 21 percent a year ago.

Um, yeah, but what the story doesn't mention is that those statistics still put JFK at the bottom of the bucket as far as on-time performance for major U.S. airports is concerned. In April, the latest month for which Bureau of Transportation data is available, JFK ranked 26 of 29 for on-time arrivals and 24 of 29 for on-time departures. Should flyers take solace in the fact that Newark International Airport ranks lower in both categories?

Most of the news coverage also misses a tidbit reported by NYCaviation.com: Airlines extended their reduced winter schedules through June to prevent back-ups. The airport will see over 650 takeoffs daily once summer schedules commence...TODAY.

This all reeks of diminished expectations. Travelers didn't notice the runway was down because they expect delays at JFK. On-time completion of a major Port Authority project is a success because the public expects such work to be both delayed and over budget.

The Port Authority estimates that improvements in the Bay Runway's design will reduce flight delays by 10,500 hours a year. Save the back slapping for when those reductions are realized and JFK cracks the top 20 U.S. airports for on-time performance.

Every Tuesday, we'll be watching the euro and how its ongoing woes benefit the dollar-toting traveler.

As world leaders gathered to talk economic shop in Toronto, the euro remained steady at $1.23 and currency watchers kept a close eye on China and its newly variable renminbi. Over the past month, the euro's barely budged, save a fluctuation early in June, and it remains a much better bargain than it had been at the start of 2010, off nearly 15 percent year-to-date.

Doubts about the long-term economic recovery of Europe continue to keep the euro down, but forecasters are fuzzy today on predicting further declines. Among the deals out there for dollar-spending tourists include surprisingly affordable private yacht charters in Greece and villa rentals throughout the Eurozone.

General Stanley McChrystal's favorite Parisian bar brings Ireland to the second.
Photo: Google

Travel affects everything, and today American history was changed by the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull and the grounded flights it caused. Today General Stanley McChrystal was ousted as top war commander in Afghanistan, the result of his flight being grounded, forcing him into a long and winding road trip with a reporter from Rolling Stone... and proving once again how a side-tracked trip can change the world.

But this isn’t the first time a side-tracked trip has changed the world, as this slideshow proves.

Every Tuesday, we'll be watching the euro and how its ongoing woes benefit the dollar-toting traveler.

The biggest currency news of the past week came not from Europe but from China, where officials announced that they'd let the renminbi float on world markets. The news initially pushed the euro slightly higher before gains were given back, keeping the currency more or less flat compared to last week. The euro is trading today at $1.23.

The head of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, has been talking up further regulatory measures, but it's not clear yet what effect they may have on exchange rates. Meanwhile, good values are still on offer throughout Europe.

President Barack Obama and Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolf, left, inspect a tar ball as they look at the effect the BP oil spill is having on Fourchon Beach in Port Fourchon, La., May 28, 2010.
Photo: Chuck Kennedy

Much of the news following President Obama’s Oval Office address last night revolves around his attempt to “shift the arc” of the oil debate to connect the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico with the push for clean energy.

That’s welcome news to the Tom Friedmans of the world. And as our Clive Irving points out, the travel industry is poised to be at the forefront of a clean energy revolution with new technologies like algae-based fuels.

But of an even more immediate nature is what Obama’s plan will do to revive the gulf-states’ tourism economies in the near term—this all-important summer season.

To compensate those who have been “harmed as a result of [BP’s] recklessness,” Obama proposed creating a fund administered by a third party. But what will constitute harm worthy of compensation remains nebulous.

The President focused his anecdotes of loss on the fishing industry—and rightfully so: Louisiana is the largest seafood producer in the lower 48 states with sales approaching $1.8 billion. If you’ve had a good po’boy—even outside of Louisiana—you’ve probably supported the gulf’s fishing industry.

But tourism is an important economic engine too, one that sells po’boys and one that has the potential to employ many more workers than the currently crippled extraction industries in the gulf. That southern hospitality will also endear travelers to communities and ecosystems that will need a lot of love in the months and years ahead. Funds from the BP escrow account should be distributed to affected tourism-related businesses large and small to ensure that the industry doesn’t sink while the nation focuses on cleaning up the oil floating in the Gulf of Mexico.

Take Mississippi, not traditionally viewed as hot destination. Still, tourism accounted for 110,000 jobs in 2009, the fifth largest industry by employment in Mississippi, according to the state's fiscal year 2009 Travel and Tourism Economic Contribution Report. Last year visitors spent $5.6 billion and the state collected another $407 million in targeted tourism taxes.

Underscoring the delicate nature a tourism economy, a new study out of the University of Southern Mississippi projects that a five percent drop in tourism for the summer months will lead to $120 million in lost revenues for the state’s three coastal counties. And even though Mississippi beaches remain oil-free, it’s not difficult to imagine that tourism might dip more than five percent this summer, adding devastation to the devastation.

While touring Mississippi beaches on Monday, Obama bought a lemon-lime snow cone from a local vendor. Will that guy get a payout from BP? If the snow-cone vendor runs out of cash because business is down, will they buy his flavoring syrup?

The President assigned Navy Secretary and former-Mississippi Governor Ray Mabus the job of making long-term recommendations for restoring the entire gulf region. For the sake of the long-term he should act in the short-term and shore up the one industry in the region with the established power to be positively transformative: Travel.

Every Tuesday, we'll be watching the euro and how its ongoing woes benefit the dollar-toting traveler.

Reports today have European bankers feeling a bit more positive than last week, when the common currency dipped to $1.19. Now trading a few cents higher, at $1.22, it's still providing travelers who earn dollars big savings over what they would've spent at the beginning of 2010, when the euro cost $1.44.

Tempering the news of recovery, though, was an announcement by Moody's that government debt in Greece has now reached "junk" status. But if that remains the only bad news out of Europe this coming week, MarketWatch reports, the euro may continue to creep ever so slightly higher.

Every Tuesday, we'll be watching the euro and how its ongoing woes benefit the dollar-toting traveler.

The European currency posted a tiny gain this morning, but it's still near a four-year low that makes travel to the continent more affordable than it's been since 2006. With the euro trading now at a shade above $1.19, your dollar goes almost 20 percent further than it would have six months ago.

Interestingly, Hungary is also a deal for dollar spenders now, even though it's not part of the Eurozone. A debt crisis there is dragging down the global economy and causing its currency to crater. Three months ago, a dollar bought just 195 forints; today, your same buck will get 238. Meanwhile Estonia is set to join the member states as of January 1, 2011, though it's anyone's guess as to where the euro will be by then.

Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem
Photo: vv / Flickr.com

While protests against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza raged everywhere from Istanbul to Anaheim this week, I was at the sleek new convention center in Bethlehem (in Palestine) enjoying a leisurely lunch of rice, lamb, and watermelon with Laila Asfoura, the Palestinian owner of Laila Tours & Travel.

We were among the 1,500 or so attendees at the Palestine Investment Conference, organized in part by Tony Blair whose mission as the representative of the Quartet on the Middle East is to bolster the Palestinian economy in order to foster peace in the region. And tourism to the West Bank’s many sacred and historic sites, Palestinian President Abbas told a packed auditorium of diplomats, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, a few reporters, and a whole lot of security guards, stands to be the cornerstone of that new prosperity.

Laila, for one, is hoping to expand her business to include bus tours of Bethlehem; she already runs high-end Christian tours throughout the country, but, incredibly, there are no city tours of one of the world’s most famous cities. Zahi Khouri, a Palestinian-American financier who built the graceful Intercontinental Jacir Palace Hotel in Bethlehem, proposed tearing down the 26-foot security fence that separates Bethlehem from Jerusalem and putting up a 1,000-room hotel.

“It’ll be a challenge,” he conceded, “But let’s do it, even if it’s with an Israeli partner.” The good news for both Laila and Khouri is that business is up in Bethlehem-after a dismal few years where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict decimated the tourism industry in the area, nearly two million visitors traveled to Christ’s birthplace last year. The bad news is that the raid on the flotilla in Gaza earlier this week threatens to undo all those gains by once again scaring off tourists. (Already, a Princess cruise ship scheduled to dock in a port near Jerusalem yesterday sailed straight on to Egypt out of concern that the flotilla raid would spark more violence in Israel).

But according to Ian Smith, the Quartet's business and tourism advisor, travelers needn't worry: Other than Gaza, Smith says, the region is remarkably safe. “The Palestinian Authority is going for statehood. It has a real stake in offering Israel security.”