New stories posted on travelife.ca

The Panama Canal is a symbol of pride for Panamanians.

My goodness, it's been a busy travel period for me.

Arizona one week. Dallas the next. Then on to Malaysia and Panama.

Along the way, though, I came across some wonderful stories that I'm now able to share with you at www.travelife.ca

Just posted this morning are stories on:

- Panama's legendary canal, which connects two oceans and is the greatest contributor to Panama's economy. But the canal is more than just a waterway - it's a symbol of pride to the proud Panamanian people who proved to the world they can run the world's most important canal better than anyone else.

- Arizona's great golf courses, many of which are bunched together in Scottsdale, the desert retreat that is home to one of the greatest courses in the world - TPC Scottsdale, where normally staid golf fans turn into college football rowdies when PGA stars arrive at one hole.

- Malaysia's treasured island known as Langkawi, where the local mangrove is the lifeblood of this island of mountains and myths. A trip through the mangrove brought me up close to monkeys, snakes, the world's largest crabs and giant eagles. It's a Garden of Eden experience that ranks among my best travel thrills ever!

- Dallas' famed Sixth Floor Museum, formerly known as the city's infamous Book Depository Building from where Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal shots that killed president John F. Kennedy and ended one of the most promising political periods in American history. Looking through the Sixth Floor window from where the shots were fired was for me like looking back on my boyhood memories.

It's great sharing these stories with you - I hope you enjoy!

Europe too expensive for tourists

Great European cities are getting too
expensive for North Americans to visit.

Friends returning from Europe are all telling me the same thing - they're not going back!

Between the euro being so strong against North American currencies and the cost of everything - especially hotels and restaurants - being so high, they tell me Europe has priced itself out of their league.

And with the announcement this week that major carriers like Delta, KLM and Air France are cutting back on transatlantic flights - due to high fuel costs and empty seats - getting to Europe is going to cost much more thanks to the decrease in capacity.

Cash-strapped European countries, which have been closing up tourist offices in North America because they don't have the money to operate them, are facing stiff competition from the Asia/Pacific region, mainly China, where Canadian tour companies can offer great 2-for-1 deals (see http://www.toureast.com/ for examples) because costs of Asian hotels are so much lower and airline capacity continues to expand to that part of the world.

Europe has no one to blame but itself, of course. They thought they could keep raising prices and North Americans would keep coming. But, with the emergence of Asia, where most of the new hotels in the world are being built, and the aggressive marketing campaigns launched in Gulf Coast countries like Dubai, North Americans have been presented with lots of valued options that European countries like France, Italy and Great Britain just can't match.

This week the World Tourism Organization predicted China will soon replace France as the No. 1 travel destination in  the world - and I predict that in five years, three of the Top 5 spots on the organization's tourism rankings' list will be occupied by Asian countries.

North American travellers are looking for bargains - the continued increase in online travel bookings is proof of that - but Europe has none to offer.