Travel Safe USB ™
Tips for Traveling Abroad
Thursday, June 14, 2007, 04:31 PM
If you are traveling abroad here are the top 10 tips you need to make your trip easier:
Make sure you have a signed, valid passport and visas, if required. Also, before you go, fill in the emergency information page of your passport!
Read the Consular Information Sheets (and Public Announcements or Travel Warnings, if applicable) for the countries you plan to visit.
Familiarize yourself with local laws and customs of the countries to which you are traveling. Remember, the U.S. Constitution does not follow you! While in a foreign country, you are subject to its laws.
Make 2 copies of your passport identification page. This will facilitate replacement if your passport is lost or stolen. Leave one copy at home with friends or relatives. Carry the other with you in a separate place from your passport.
Leave a copy of your itinerary with family or friends at home so that you can be contacted in case of an emergency.
Do not leave your luggage unattended in public areas. Do not accept packages from strangers.
Prior to your departure, you should register with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate through the State Department’s travel registration website . Registration will make your presence and whereabouts known in case it is necessary to contact you in an emergency. In accordance with the Privacy Act, information on your welfare and whereabouts may not be released without your express authorization. Remember to leave a detailed itinerary and the numbers or copies of your passport or other citizenship documents with a friend or relative in the United States.
To avoid being a target of crime, try not to wear conspicuous clothing and expensive jewelry and do not carry excessive amounts of money or unnecessary credit cards.
In order to avoid violating local laws, deal only with authorized agents when you exchange money or purchase art or antiques.
If you get into trouble, contact the nearest U.S. embassy.
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America preps for expected influx of Chinese tourists
Thursday, June 14, 2007, 04:23 PM
SAMANTHA GROSS; The Associated Press Published: June 3rd, 2007 01:00 AM
NEW YORK – Standing atop the Empire State Building and looking out on the expanse of glinting skyscrapers and miniature yellow taxicabs, Lili Ma had no doubt that New York was the place to be on her vacation from China.
“Everybody needs to bite the Big Apple,” the 36-year-old said with a smile.
Mass tourism advertising for New York – and the U.S. as a whole – is still forbidden in Ma’s native China. But everyone knows about this place, she said. Her friends all watch “Sex and the City.” Even her mother has heard of California and New York.
That name recognition, coupled with a growing interest in tourism among Chinese, who have seen their incomes rise while travel restrictions have lessened, could bring a fortune to hotels, tour companies and attractions around the U.S.
The number of Chinese who travel outside their homeland each year is expected to nearly triple to 100 million people by 2020, and American cities and businesses are positioning themselves to profit from what they hope will be a tourist boom. They are establishing offices in China and lobbying the government to ease restrictions on travel to the U.S.
“In the next 10 years, it will probably dwarf any overseas market we may have, with the potential to dwarf all overseas markets combined,” said Bruce Bommarito, vice president of international market development for the Travel Industry Association.
While the number of Chinese visitors has been increasing, they certainly haven’t been overrunning American tourist attractions. Just 320,000 Chinese – 1.5 percent of all overseas visitors – traveled to the U.S. in 2006. Of the Chinese who left the mainland, fewer than 1 in 100 headed to the U.S., according to American and Chinese authorities.
But many American entrepreneurs believe that number could soon explode.
Noel Irwin Hentschel, CEO of tour operator AmericanTours International, said China will be her company’s top business focus in the coming decades. Speaking by phone from China, where she now spends half her time, she predicted that by 2009, Chinese tourists will account for one-tenth of the roughly 1 million customers her company ferries around the U.S. each year.
Rising disposable income – now averaging $4,500 a year in cities like Beijing – has made travel an increasingly attainable luxury and one that is often viewed as a status symbol.
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC is planning to open six hotels in China in coming years, out of 19 it plans worldwide. Executives hope the expansion will help establish Ritz-Carlton as a high-status brand among the Chinese, said Vice President of Public Relations Vivian Deuschl. They are attractive customers both for their sheer numbers and their spending habits, she said.
Gambling also is popular among Chinese visitors, and Las Vegas has been working hard to cash in on their desire to find a seat at the blackjack and baccarat tables. Another favorite is dining in Chinese restaurants and visiting the nearest Chinatown, in part to see how Chinese-Americans live, Hentschel said.
Including money lost at the tables in Las Vegas and elsewhere, Chinese travelers on average spend about $5,800 per visit – more than residents of any other nation except India, says the U.S. Department of Commerce.
And city and state tourism offices have increasingly been stepping into the mix, often sidestepping restrictions placed on the U.S. by negotiating directly with the Chinese government.
In 2004, Nevada – with the state’s Commission on Tourism then under the direction of Bommarito – became the first non-nation to win approval from the Chinese government to open a tourism office there and advertise directly to the Chinese public.
Los Angeles, San Francisco and Hawaii have since reached their own deals with China, gaining permission to open offices or hire representatives. New York hopes to follow suit.
Associated Press writer Walker Li contributed to this report from Beijing.
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