Throughout 2006, I've been watching and interpreting the marketing stats and studies that impact small businesses to give you tips on staying one step ahead. Now, with 2007 fast approaching, let's look at a roundup of the hottest trends, from changes taking place among consumer audiences through what to watch for in traditional and online marketing. According to MSNBC here's the info you need on the most important trends and how to make the most of them to increase sales and grow your business in the New Year.

A potential merger between US Airways Group and Delta Air Lines would force the combined airline to shed some overlapping services, says The Washington Post, but the sale of assets could open the door to low-cost competitors and spark a new fare war.

Experts say low-cost carriers such as Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways may view capacity cuts by a combined US Air and Delta as an opportunity to expand on the East Coast. US Air has said its proposed merger would cut capacity – the number of seats for sale – about 10%, a move that could involve selling assets, including airport gates.

Southwest has already expressed interest in any assets that may be sold. And experts predict other low-cost carriers would leap into a capacity vacuum as well. "The low-cost carriers are not going to stand back. If they see an opening, they are going to strike," said Terry Trippler, an airline expert at travel club www.myvacationpassport.com.

Fear, as the saying goes, is the greatest of motivators. And the travel industry suddenly is awash in fear about global warming. After all, it's hard to sell a ski vacation or a glacier cruise if it's so warm that all the snow and ice has melted says an article in USA Today.

So perhaps it should come as no surprise to find travel industry executives among the first in the business world to sound the alarm about global warming.

And they're taking action. A growing number are announcing plans to go "carbon-neutral," meaning they will offset their carbon emissions, which contribute to global warming, by purchasing credits for eco-friendly wind and solar power.

The latest announcement comes from Colorado-based Natural Habitat Adventures this week, which says it will go 100% carbon-neutral effective January 1. The company operates high-end wildlife trips to places such as Churchill, Manitoba, which is known for its polar bears.

"We felt the immediacy of climate issues," says founder Ben Bressler, who has watched helplessly as the polar bear-sustaining ice in Churchill has declined in recent years. Breeding grounds for harp seals also have dwindled, he says. "If we don't have polar bears or baby harp seals in Canada, we don't have a product."

Natural Habitat will partner with the non-profit MyClimate to finance alternative energy projects that offset carbon emissions from trip-related activities. Other tour companies, including REI Adventures, have similar plans.

But the biggest effort this year has come from the ski industry, which has seen business literally melting away as average temperatures have begun to rise.

In August, the nation's leading ski area operator, Vail Resorts, stunned the industry with the announcement that it would offset 100% of its carbon-based electric energy use by buying 152,000 megawatt hours a year of wind power elsewhere. The company says the new policy at its five resorts, including giant Vail and Breckenridge in Colorado, will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 211 million pounds a year, the equivalent of taking 18,000 cars off the road.

Political unrest and drug wars are having a serious impact on Mexico's $11.8 billion tourist industry, which in the first nine months of the year saw international visitors fall by nearly 4 million for the same period last year, according to the latest government figures.

TravelMole reports that most of Mexico's international visitors are Americans, but US State Department bulletin's recently have cautioned travelers to be aware of the rising level of brutal violence along Mexico's northern border. Another area of concern has been the once highly popular Oaxaca. The State Department last week expanded the scope of warnings, calling on Americans to "be alert to increased security concerns related to protest violence throughout Mexico."

The biggest decline in foreign visitors – more than 2.7 million – has been among day-trippers to northern Mexico, reported the Los Angeles Times.

But fear of violence isn't the only factor depressing the tourist trade. The major resorts of Cancun and the Riviera Maya spent the first part of 2006 rebuilding from Hurricane Wilma. That reduced the number of cruise passengers going ashore this year.

President Bush said Tuesday that he wants more countries in a program that allows foreigners to stay in the USA without visas, despite criticism that the move could open the door to terrorists says USA Today.

"We want people to come to our country," Bush said in Tallinn, Estonia, one of several European countries that have asked to be included in the visa-waiver program, in which 27 foreign countries now participate. "It's in our nation's interest that people be able to come and visit."

Bush said his administration aims to add more countries to the program, created to facilitate tourism and business travel 15 years before the 9/11 attacks increased fears of terrorism. He pledged to ensure that "those that want to continue to kill Americans aren't able to exploit the system."

Under the program, citizens from visa-waiver countries can travel to the USA for up to 90 days without a visa. To be eligible, countries must prove that only a small percentage of their citizens violate the terms of their visas and only a small percentage are rejected when they apply for them. Residents of waiver countries don't have to go through the time-consuming security interviews and checks required for those who must apply for visas.

Critics blasted Bush's plan as an expansion of a dangerous loophole in the nation's effort to secure its borders. Several terrorists – including shoe-bomber Richard Reid and 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui – boarded planes to the USA with passports from visa-waiver countries.

If you want to get people to talk about your brand, advertise on TV and the Internet and don't be in the household products category, according to a new study says BrandWeek. The report, a joint project between The Keller Fay Group and PR firm Manning Selvage & Lee, is based on conversations with 1,100 people between June and August.

The goal, said Ed Keller, CEO of Keller Fay, New Brunswick, N.J., was to quantify brand mentions in offline conversations. Keller has contended that more than 80% of conversations about brands happens offline. "What we're seeing here is reflections of everyday conversations," he said.

One of the most important findings, Keller said, is that 15% of the population consists of what he calls "conversation catalysts," or "influencers." People are characterized as such because they tend to recommend brands and products more often and, when they do, people listen. The study found that CCs mention brands 149 times a week versus 79 for the average population. CCs also tend to have more conversations per week: 184 versus 114.

Sean Gorman can plot a map of New York bars located in neighborhoods where single, college-educated women live. He can see how bad traffic is on different parts of the Capital Beltway and, if he wanted to, he could find out if killer bees are known to swarm near his Georgetown office.

Gorman's company, FortiusOne, collects hundreds of data sets and combines them with maps available online to create what are known as mash-ups -- a new breed of application formed by mixing data from different online sources reports The Washington Post.

In the year since Google, Microsoft and others made their mapping programs available for free, thousands of Web developers have used them as digital canvases to display information. Some of these online geographers are ready to take the next step and try to commercialize their work.

"There's a huge appetite to manipulate data in ways that are relevant to making everyday decisions," Gorman said. "This puts geographical analysis in the hands of people who have never had a way to use it before."

FortiusOne at first specialized in using maps to help government agencies improve security and prepare for emergencies. When Gorman saw how easy it was to visually represent data through maps, his team last month launched GeoIQ, a Web site that lets people manipulate Census data and local listings to create "heat" maps, color-coded displays similar to weather maps, of the entire nation or a single street.

Another local start-up, Spadac, is selling its mash-ups to retail companies that need to find new store sites or conduct targeted advertising campaigns. The McLean company created an algorithm that overlays demographic and real estate information on top of images from Google Maps to pinpoint potential business growth areas.

After years of yanking everything from pillows to free booze from planes, financially recovering U.S. airlines are starting to add back perks -- and even invest in new ones. But you'll have to be sitting in the front of the plane or flying internationally to get most of them.

According to The Wall Street Journal American Airlines recently added back silverware and hot cloth towels to its domestic first-class cabins, replacing the plastic utensils and disposable hand wipes that had become standard during tougher times. Delta Air Lines this fall reintroduced mid-flight snacks in coach on international routes and started handing out amenity kits with socks, eye masks and earplugs. Northwest Airlines last month started beefing up its snack service in first class on shorter domestic flights, where passengers had been getting pretzels and bags of mixed nuts. Now, flight attendants roam the aisles with baskets of fresh fruit, muffins and other snacks.

Meanwhile, in a change that will benefit some domestic coach travelers, Delta in September started adding on-demand digital television, movies and games at every seatback on select longer U.S. flights where it is competing aggressively for customer loyalty. Those flights include ones from Atlanta and New York to cities such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle and San Francisco.

Last year, officials with Brand Atlanta made headlines by unveiling a new city logo, creating an official Atlanta tagline and trying to get residents to sing along to an anthem penned by a local hit-making producer. In 2007, the group's work will not be as glamorous, but it has cleared one hurdle: funding.

According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Atlanta City Council earlier this month approved $8 million in "bridge" money to pay for Brand Atlanta's efforts in 2007. The money is part of a $14 million request Mayor Shirley Franklin made in May to tide Brand Atlanta over until it can find a permanent source of funding. The remaining $6 million will go toward the group's 2008 budget. The money will come from a combination of car rental and hotel-motel taxes.

Brand Atlanta is a public-private group Franklin started last year with the support of the business community. The group aims to build Atlanta's brand identity, which leaders deem crucial to making the city more attractive to businesses and tourists.

In its first year, Brand Atlanta raised $7 million – mostly from corporate donations, but also from a combination of city funds and marketing money from the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau. Donations of free TV, radio and newspaper advertising, office space, legal counseling and public relations work was worth an additional $6 million.

The second year of a branding movement can be the hardest because it's no longer about creating the foundation of the campaign but building on what has been started, marketing experts say. Results are analyzed, strategies are redefined and goals are more realistic.

"The question you are trying to answer is: How do you know something has happened?" said Tim Mescon, dean of the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University. "What is the evidence?"

W Hotels has confirmed that it plans to open its first hotel in Thailand says Hotel Travel News. W Retreat & Residences-Koh Samui will be the brand's third retreat in the world, following W Maldives which opened in September 2006 and W Vieques, scheduled to open in late 2007.

The newly built 70-villa W Retreat & Residences-Koh Samui will cater to upscale leisure travelers when it opens in late 2008. There will also be approximately 20 luxury residential villas on the grounds of the retreat that will be available for purchase.

In 2006, Africa will be for the second consecutive year the fastest-growing region in international tourist arrivals and UNWTO has supported the development of African tourism destinations as a means to contribute to the economic and social development reports Hotel Travel News.

"Africa as a whole is at the heart of the UNWTO's concerns", UNWTO Secretary-General Francesco Frangialli said during the opening of the 79th UNWTO Executive Council in Algiers. The development of African tourism relies not only on well-established destinations. Likewise, growth in emerging markets on the continent's tourism map make an important contribution, led by Algeria along with Botswana, Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal.

Algeria, for example, is now the fourth-ranking destination in Africa as it received nearly 1.5 million foreign visitors in 2005, growing 17% over the preceding year, according to UNWTO figures. As an oil-rich country, Algeria is an example for how tourism "can ensure the distribution of wealth throughout the society, promote the development of poor rural areas and create employment for young people and women who need it", Mr Frangialli added.

U.S. airlines employed about 11,000 fewer workers overall in September compared with the same month last year, but many airlines reported more full-time equivalent employees than in the year-ago period, according to a government tally published by Forbes.

U.S. airlines employed 403,000 workers in September compared with 414,000 last year, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics said.

For visitors who stay at Monterey County (California) motels after January 1, it's a 50-cent charge; for guests at full-service hotels, it's a buck.

But for the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau, those assessments are no small change: Monterey County's new tourism improvement district, says The Monterey Herald, they add up to an additional $2 million for destination marketing.

That means a more stable source of funding and the ability to represent Monterey County with a stronger voice in a competitive market, said Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau president and CEO John McMahon.

Participating municipalities include Monterey County and Carmel, Del Rey Oaks, Marina, Monterey, Salinas, Sand City, Seaside and Soledad. The TID calls for a contribution of funds from each municipality, as well as from each of its lodging properties. Motels and limited-service hotel properties pay half as much as full-service hotels.

Collection starts January 1 and is anticipated to generate an additional $2 million to be used exclusively for destination marketing, said McMahon. "The formation of our own TID has come at the perfect time," he said. "We will now have the resources to take advantage of the state's increased efforts to bring out-of-area visitors to California. Growth in Monterey County's tourism industry will not come from inside California, but from attracting our market share of these out-of-state visitors."

Children are going to take over the boardroom in a bid to show adults how to improve the hospitality industry from a youthful perspective.

The Three Cities Hospitality Group, with hotels across Southern Africa, has appointed a seven-member junior board to keep the senior board members on their toes says The Sunday Tribune of South Africa.

Dionne Collet, marketing manager for Three Cities, said, "We came up with this concept to find out what children want in terms of entertainment, hotels, lodges, comfort and food. We conducted a national search and we received 150 applications. From these applications we chose our ultimate seven and, surprisingly, most of them were from Durban.

"These youngsters will visit our hotels and lodges and criticise them and tell us how to improve. There will be three board meetings a year, all during school holidays. To make these children feel like real directors, they have been given their own business cards, cellphones and e-mail addresses.

"I think this is a brilliant idea and it is really great, because this is the first time something like this has been done in Africa," said Collet.

The children will be going for training in the hospitality industry and will be accompanied by their parents when they visit lodges and hotels and make their assessments.

The Hyatt hotel chain found so many of their business travelers were complaining of hand and arm discomfort that they have introduced a special "BlackBerry Balm" hand massage at most of their North American spas says ehotelier.

Corporate spa director Kyra Johnson said guests began asking masseurs to spend more time on their hands and arms because of the growing popularity of PDA (personal digital assistant) devices like BlackBerrys and Treos.

The 30-minute massage, that costs about $30, begins with heat treatment and uses a "BlackBerry Balm." It "focuses on counteracting tension on various hand and arm muscles, specifically in the thumbs and overworked wrists," according to a Hyatt statement.

The American Physical Therapy Association recently recognized BlackBerry Thumb as an official work place malady -- a stress-related injury due to over-use of any PDA or smartphone.

Now where was this when I was in college? Royal Caribbean plans to launch a "floating university" next year, offering four-month-long, around-the-world educational trips for college students who want to spend a semester studying abroad.

According to USA Today, "The Scholar Ship," as it'll be called, will debut next September with a 16-week voyage starting in Athens that includes port calls from Lisbon to Sydney to Shanghai. The line says it has partnered with six international universities, including the University of California – Berkeley, to devise the program, which will operate as a subsidiary.

Royal Caribbean hasn't said what ship it'll use for the educational trips – it's in the process of leasing one – but the program is limited to 600 students per semester. It'll cost about $20,000 per student. Applications are available at http://www.thescholarship.com.

Need a hotel room in India? Better book early and bring big bucks says Associated Press. As the nation's economy booms, foreigners and newly affluent Indians are flocking to the country's big cities in unprecedented numbers – but are finding a shortage of places to stay.

"We had to scramble, we practically begged to get a room," said Danny Leiber, a Los Angeles businessman who had flown to New Delhi on short notice for a "big deal – we're talking multimillion dollars." Begging worked out well for Leiber – he'd scored a room at New Delhi's elegant Oberoi Hotel. The price: US$450 a night.

In particular, there's a shortage of mid-range hotels in places like Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi. Soaring urban land prices are making it expensive for hotel chains to expand – and when they do, they're building pricier hotels.

Much of the growth is due to business travelers, but tourist numbers are also up. Sheraton, Hilton and Holiday Inn are already here, and Four Seasons, Accor and Pan Pacific say they are coming – but not fast enough, it seems.

India "immediately needs another 100,000 rooms" – more than double the current amount – said Lalit Suri, the chairman and managing director of India's Bharat Hotels. He estimated that would require investment of up to US$17.4 billion.

"Big D" is a diverse metropolitan area that "has left behind stereotypes of big-haired women and rowdy cowboys – that is, unless you count sassy drag queens and strapping gay rodeo champs," according to a Web site operated by the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau.

"Our Secret is Out" proclaims the site, which features images of same-sex couples enjoying the local sights. "It's not about being politically correct, it's about being economically correct," said Phillip Jones, president and CEO of the tourism bureau, told USA Today. He said gay travelers spend an average of $100 more per day than other travelers and plan four to six trips a year.

In addition to leisure travelers, says TravelMole, the city is seeking to attract gay-oriented meetings, including a gay rodeo. About 20 gay-oriented meetings have come to the city since the promotion began two years ago, Jones said. About six events are scheduled over the next year, including a gay rodeo.

The United States company that bought Singapore's Raffles chain of hotels and resorts last year aims to treble the number of properties using the world-renowned brand name. Colony Capital says 'Raffles' has such strong name recognition among travelers that it wants to add another 20 global hospitality properties under the brand name.

The expansion, to be carried out over the next five years, comes a year after the private equity firm bought the chain's venerable 119-year-old flagship hotel, along with 40 sister hotels and resorts in a $1.7 billion deal.

'I think we should be looking to triple the number of properties under the Raffles brand,' Colony's chief executive (CEO) for Asia, Mr Grant Kelley, told reporters in Singapore says ehotelier. 'I think it's one of the world's greatest brands. It's got enormous recognition and I think in the next five years, that should be our target – another 20 properties around the world.'

Colony currently owns 10 hotels using the Raffles brand name. The expansion plans also extend to Raffles' sister Swissotel chain, he added.

Who says drinking beer won't get you anywhere? For those passionate for pilsners or crazy for crafts, your favorite pastime could earn you a fancy new title and a seat at the Board Room Table, suggests ehotelier.

In celebration of the simple pleasure of a perfectly poured glass of beer and the launch of its Best Brews program, Four Points by Sheraton hotels have officially kicked-off its Chief Beer Officer (CBO) executive search and began making room in the executive suite for its newest chief.

Candidates should possess a bubbly personality, brew eloquence, and a rich knowledge of beer. The group's first ever CBO will be responsible to share his or her in-depth knowledge of the wide world of beer and help cultivate, curate and promote its new Best Brews offerings at brewery tours, beer festivals, and on bar stools across the country.

Four Points hotels encourages all who fulfill the above requirements to apply online and see if their favorite pastime earns them a seat at the Board Room table. To be eligible, all one needs is a love for beer, a thirst-hand knowledge of this glorious libation, an interest in perks that are as tasty as beer itself and be 21 years of age or older. No Lager Louts need apply.

InterContinental Hotels Group has created a new prototype design for its Crowne Plaza brand that will be designed to meet the demands of both guests and developers. Scheduled to make its debut in Milwaukee in the first quarter of 2008, the new Crowne Plaza prototype was developed by IHG in collaboration with Lane Hospitality, which will help build the first prototype.

The prototype’s design targets business travelers and, more specifically, flexible meeting space. For example, reports HotelBusiness, the lobby area and lounge will contain soft seating with adjacent hard surfaces, power sources and wireless high-speed Internet access to accommodate smaller, informal meetings.

In furthering Crowne Plaza’s goal of being “the place to meet,” the prototype’s meeting space will also feature natural light in all rooms, movable partitions or walls that create flexible space, multi-zone controllable lighting, ergonomic chairs, backlit projections screens and wireless HSIA.

Guestrooms will feature a design that replicates the residential style found in today’s homes and offer interactive flat-screen televisions with laptop plug-ins, ergonomic chairs, mobile workstations, task lighting, multiple power sources and wireless HSIA.

It took only hours for Donald Trump's luxury hotel-condominium project to sell out in Waikiki, as celebrities and investors from around the world spent $700 million (€544 million) for the more than 460 suites.

Sales contracts were signed and deposits put down on Thursday for all of the 464 hotel suites at the Trump International Hotel and Tower Waikiki Beach Walk, causing cancellation of a second day of sales on Friday, according to New York-based hotel developer The Trump Organization and Los Angeles-based developer Irongate.

The developers claim the more than $700 million (€544 million) in sales set a record for the amount of residential property, both in dollar and unit volume, sold in one development on a single day.

Gold Coast-based developer Sunland formalised an agreement with the House of Versace of Italy yesterday to roll out 15 super-luxury resorts around the world. It also announced, reports Hospitality Technology, a funds-management joint venture with acquisitive funds manager MFS Ltd to target the emerging markets in the Middle East.

Sunland signed what was described as a global rollout agreement with Gian Carlo Di Risio, managing director of Gianni Versace SpA in Milan. Sunland would choose the location and build the hotels, under the Palazzo Versace brand, which it says will be valued at around $1 billion each.

Sunland's managing director Sahba Abedian said Sunland brought the concept of a luxury hotel to the Italian design house in 1998, resulting in the first Palazzo Versace being built on the Gold Coast. Work on the second Palazzo Versace, in Dubai, is expected to begin in January, for completion in 2009. Mr Abedian said the third development would be in Asia, and that Singapore and China offered possibilities.

Mr Abedian said the global rollout of 15 hotels would take place over 30 years, and a new Palazzo Versace would be built every two years after 2009.

That's what the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority did in the face of sluggish long-term forecasts for out-of-town conventions and trade shows. "We have a strong economy and a motivated sales staff which helps tremendously," said Tim Newman, chief executive, adding the local events fill in some meeting holes.

Local events at the center since 2004 have increased from 152 to 252 in fiscal 2006. This year, the figure is expected to grow to 269 events says TravelMole.

Mr Newman told the Charlotte Business Journal that local bookings were sought only within a two-year period. Everything beyond that time frame has been targeted for national conventions and trade shows.

People looking to pick up a cheap holiday will be able to bid for a break afloat following a link up between Stelios Haji-Ioannou's easyCruise and internet auction site eBay. The deal between the two brands will allow customers to start bidding at just 1 pound or hit the "buy it now" price from 30 pounds per person for a two-night trip says ITPro.

"Our primary business has always come via our internet site, www.easyCruise.com, so to link with the world's online market place is obviously a perfect fit," said Haji-Ioannou, one of the pioneers of low cost transport, principally aviation.

EasyCruise currently offers trips on the French and Italian Rivieras and around Holland and Belgium. A Caribbean itinerary will be available in the next few weeks.

Despite a $180 million international advertising campaign featuring Lara Bingle's infamous "where the bloody hell are you'' line, arrivals have been underwhelming this year and industry groups say NSW is the worst affected.

According to The Daily Telegraph, arrivals from the UK – where regulators created a supposed publicity bonanza for Australia by initially banning the Bingle ads – have fallen sharply. According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics measure, 5% fewer visitors arrived from the UK in August compared to the same time last year.

Other key markets were also down dramatically, including Japan, which supplied 10.9% fewer short-term arrivals, and New Zealand which was down 5.6%.

Most tourists polled were positive but many also identified a strain of pretentiousness among Sydneysiders. The chamber is so concerned about the slump it has formed an industry taskforce to overhaul Sydney's flagging brand.

Managing director Patricia Forsythe said Sydney may have been "resting on its laurels'' for too long. "We're certainly very aware that other cities in the Asia Pacific region are doing a very good job in terms of marketing, and maybe Sydney has taken a bit for granted,'' Ms Forsythe said.

In a program mainly aimed at busy executives on the go, Sofitel's 11 North American hotels are now offering gourmet food – served fast-food style.

Within 10 to 15 minutes of ordering in the hotel's restaurant, a unique four-course meal is served, with each course on a separate quadrant of specially designed plates. The service is available seven days a week for $18-$28 per person says TravelMole.

About 40% of corporates do not know how much they spend each year on meetings, Todd Kramer, Carlson Wagonlit Travel's vp events EMEA, has said, according to BusinessTravelEurope.

Speaking at the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) forum in Amsterdam, Mr Kramer said spend on Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) could be as much as 25%-40% of a company's total T&E budget. He said MICE spend was around 1% of a company's revenue. For Fortune 500 companies, this could be between $30m-$80m a year.

Mr Kramer quoted one global electronic company which spent $2bn a year, 2% of its revenue while a major pharmaceutical company spent $80m, 1.1% of its revenue.

He said the MICE market was fragmented and difficult to measure accurately. But it was a market worth $325bn globally and $120bn in Europe. It was also one that was growing with a 9% increase in events in Europe in 2006.

Mr Kramer said many corporates did not have a meetings and events policy, there were no standards and no data on spend. It was also an emotional subject with a "high sensitivity" over ownership of events. These could be booked by PAs, secretaries, marketing, HR or sales people. Very often, spend was spread over different budgets.

Trains in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New England saw double-digit jumps in ridership reports USA Today. Routes in the West saw the smallest increases, and trains in the Louisiana area had drops because of Hurricane Katrina.

Amtrak, which serves a daily average of 69,000 riders on 300 trains, saw total ridership increase just over 1% in fiscal year 2006, which ended September 30. "We believe that some of the security concerns, people having some difficulty with flying, have sent some people to the train," says Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Romero. "Gas prices probably also had an impact."

Ridership on the Acela/Metroliner, the busiest trains of all running from Washington, D.C., to Boston, grew by 8.8%. The line had 2,668,174 riders in 2006, or 589 more passengers a day. The greatest growth rates occurred among the 23 short-distance routes where states contribute money to Amtrak and dictate routes.

Ridership on long routes dropped 1.3% mostly because of "less-than-acceptable on-time performance," Romero said. Worst was the Sunset Limited, from Orlando to Los Angeles, with a 36% drop after damages from Katrina and Rita.

Reuters reports that a Chinese airline has calculated that it takes a liter of fuel to flush the toilet at 30,000 feet and is urging passengers to go to the bathroom before they board.

As Chinese airlines come under increasing pressure to cut fuel expenditures, China Southern's latest strategy is to encourage passengers "to spend their pennies before boarding the aircraft", Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.

"The energy used in one flush is enough for an economical car to run at least 10 kilometers," Captain Liu Zhiyuan, who flies regularly between Hangzhou and Beijing, was quoted as saying.

Citing a survey by the company's logistics department, Liu said carrying one kilogram of items such as blankets and pillows by air for one hour uses 0.2 kg of fuel. "This means the blankets and pillows on board the aircraft eat up 60 tons of fuel every day. If each seat is loaded with three 450-gram magazines, another 60 tons will be consumed," Liu explained.

Another cost-saving technique will keep 47 million yuan (3 million pounds) a year in the airline's coffers, Xinhua said. "The company has asked logistics staff to fill the water tank only 60% full."