Food for Thought

September 4, 2008

My wife and I went out to dinner with my sister and her husband Friday night. Now I can’t tell you who my sister is because she keeps telling me if she ever sees her name in a blog she’ll kill me. So in an effort to stay alive I must bow to her wishes. But her husband’s name is Dick.

Anyway, while at the restaurant with Dick and what’s-her-name we got to talking as to how this restaurant could keep its prices down and still serve up such great meals. After all, every time we go food shopping either the price seems to have risen or — more often than many of us realize — the package has gotten smaller.

Food prices haven’t gone up only in North America. And there’s a few important things going on food-wise around the world that you should know about if you want to be a really savvy traveler. Or, at least, to be able to add something interesting to the conversation the next time someone says “I can’t believe milk is now $27.80 per gallon.”

Make That A Pepperoni to Go

If you really want to save money on food and like pizza you should have been in Naples, Italy last week. That’s when pizza chefs — the “Pizzaioli,” as they’re known locally — handed out 5,000 free pizzas to protest high commodity prices.

The “Pizzaioli,” say they staged the protest to defend the reputation of the traditional Neapolitan pie, the classic “Margherita” with mozzarella, tomato and basil which was invented in the 19th century in honor of a queen who liked fast food. The chefs say it is becoming too expensive and are demanding stricter price controls which will allow them to produce pizzas that are “the synthesis of quality and low cost.”  In fact, prices are increasing so much Italy’s biggest consumer group is launching a “bread strike” on September 18 following last year’s “pasta strike.”

And the price of a pizza in Naples these days?  Currently it ranges from $4.40 -$5.15 from a Pizzaioli to $5.85 - $11.50 at the bigger pizza “outlets.” And, by the way, that’s for one slice. You can see a Reuters video here.

And You’re Complaining About the Price of Pizza?

Yes, we’re all concerned with rising food prices but in Cambodia they have a real problem — the price of rat meat has quadrupled to nearly $1.28 from 31¢ last year. The reason for the run on rat is that with the country’s inflation rate, beef now costs about $5.13 a kg, putting it out of reach for poorer people.

Spicy field rats with garlic have become popular in Cambodia, and flooded areas of the lower Mekong Delta have caused the rodents to flee to higher ground, making it easier for villagers to catch them.

According to one agriculture official “there is also demand from Vietnamese living on the border with us,” and the country is exporting an estimated ton of live rats a day to Vietnam. Bon appetite.

This Is Catfish Airways Requesting Clearance…

Okay this isn’t quite about the price of food, but it does have to do with food. Sort of.

During Tropical Storm Fay airport officials in Melbourne, FL had to delay an approaching Delta flight due to….and this was reported by Fox and NBC…walking catfish on the runway. I told you there was a food tie-in.

These catfish — Clarias batrachus to Ichthyologists — are usually found in Southeast Asia but invaded Florida a few years back. It uses its pectoral fins to move around on land — back home they follow the food trail from pond to pond.

The crew that was dispatched to round them up also found two gopher turtles, an indigo snake and an alligator.

And Now Shoppers, a Special in Aisle 5…

And finally, it’s obvious that last year’s order by Chinese officials for supermarkets to control their special in-store promotions — following a stampede at a store in Chongqing that killed three and injured dozens — appears to be having the desired impact.

The proof? About two weeks ago in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, only a dozen or so retirees were injured — including a 58-year-old woman with several broken bones — in a rush to snag the daily special of eggs and cheap cooking oil.

Now that is real progress.

Jim Ferri

Tags: airline, consumers, economy

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An In-Your-Face Travel Issue for Obama and McCain

August 31, 2008

At last the U.S. travel industry -– or at least the Travel Industry Association (TIA) of America -– has begun to put some muscle behind all the industry rhetoric and whining of the past few years.

This isn’t to suggest that the TIA has just begun to flex its muscles -– it embarked on its campaign to bring about national change for the industry about two years ago.

But what it has done now is to get down and dirty and force travel issues onto the national political agenda, an in-your-face issue for the presidential aspirants. Whether you’re in the industry or not, you should be shouting “hallelujah”!

Why? Simply because in an economy that’s quickly spiraling downward, travel and tourism generates $700 billion in the U.S. and employs 7.5 million people. And that doesn’t even include the trickle-down effect.

The trickle-down effect impacts a lot of us. I remember when I was directing Air France’s public relations efforts a few years back and one of our enterprising pr managers did a quick evaluation of the real benefit of  Air France on the local market just around New York’s JFK. He followed the money, so to speak… people pay taxi drivers to get to the airport, delicatessens sell food to the mechanics who watch over the planes, the airline buys jet fuel, the list goes on and on.

And the bottom line was many, many millions of dollars -– and at that was at just one airport. Multiply a figure like that by all the airlines, cruise lines, hotels, restaurants and theme parks across America and we’re talking about some serious economic impact. It’s little wonder why tourism is considered by many to be the largest industry in the world.

But Washington, we have a problem, a big problem — we’re forcing ourselves out of the international tourism market. People don’t want to come here anymore because they are treated with great disrespect, almost as criminals, like just so much garage washing up on our shores.

One of my partners, an Emmy-award winning television producer and attorney who travels often, told me last week of his experience flying into Fort Lauderdale from Panama. He described the disrespect with which TSA and immigration treated foreign travelers when they entered America through the airport. Long lines, understaffed immigration facilities, confused and tired people huddled into a big mass…I won’t go into it all as I’m certain you’ve seen it yourself. “I was embarrassed to be there, watching what these people were forced to endure,” he told me later that day.

I’ve tried to be as understanding of TSA and immigration and all the craziness at our airports as anyone. But isn’t it time we started asking why the people running TSA and immigration don’t use a bit more common sense? Isn’t it time someone told them that they’re not just the guardians of the airport and our borders -– they’re also our ambassadors to the world, the first taste of America foreign travelers have?

We have to take security seriously, of course, but don’t put people through an ordeal that demeans and exhausts them and their families. What would it take to have few people walking around talking to incoming travelers, apologizing for the long waits and explaining the reasons for the delays?

I mean, wake up TSA — it’s Public Relations 101 -– people will endure a lot as long as they’re treated with respect and are kept updated on what is happening. Stop making foreign travelers feel as though they’re being shuffled off to a gulag, and instead welcome them as our guests.

I know that if I was reading an article like this that someone else had written, it would be about at this point I would think to myself “this guy is over-reacting a bit.” Unfortunately, I’m not.

If you haven’t seen the article “Travel to America? No thanks” in The Times of London last January you may want to read it by clicking the link. If you want a quick synopsis, here’s the opening two lines of the article…” We would like to apologise for a terrible omission in last Sunday’s feature “10 Steps to a Stress-Free Summer”. We forgot to include “Don’t go to the USA”. It goes downhill from there.

The word is out -– stay away from the USA. And it’s having a severe impact on the U.S. travel industry. And, unfortunately, the impact of all this is a lot worse than many of us had supposed. And don’t blame it all on 9/11 either.

Just look at some of the statistics TIA has dug up. For the period  2000 – 2007 long-haul travel from Spain increased 73% but only 43% to the US. The French increased their long-haul travel 30% to the rest of the world but it’s now -8% to the USA. In Brazil long-haul travel is up 67% but is -13% to the US. Might we be seeing a pattern here?

This is why the political muscle flexing by TIA — to protect the industry — is so important to you, to me and to our national pocketbook.

Just think what the impact of a loss of $110 billion dollars in tax revenue -– that’s the U.S. tax revenue generated by tourism -– would mean to your pocketbook. Makes some of those financial shenanigans of the housing crisis seem pretty paltry, doesn’t it? And what about the addition of a few million more people on the unemployment lines. Not so pretty either.

Here’s some interesting Internet surfing. Go to the TIA site www.poweroftravel.org and look at the maps and read the statistics about your state. And then jump over to TIA’s candidate report card to rate the presidential candidates on four points. At the time I’m writing this they have only produced a card for Obama but say McCain will receive a card as well.

And then let’s start pressuring Washington to stop trying to kill the goose that’s laying the golden eggs. And get some smiling meeters and greeters out there at the airports to give a warm welcome to our guests.

Or, at least, thank them for enduring a screening system that has gone so awry.

Jim Ferri

Tags: airline, consumers, tourism, travel industry

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Yet Another Conspiracy Against Frequent Fliers

August 26, 2008

I think I’ve caused a problem. An international problem, in fact. And I’m awaiting a knock on my door, courtesy of the FAA, FBI and the Canadian Mounties.

You’ve heard, no doubt, how the airlines are trying to both make extra money — charging for food, baggage, etc. — and save money in order to turn a profit. To save weight and use less fuel they don’t totally fill their fuel tanks any longer. They only fill the water reservoirs tor the lavatories only partially now. They’ve taken out the galleys on some planes. Tossed the magazines.

Back in May I tried to help the airlines when I wrote the blog “Urgent!!! Please Help the Airlines!” In it I suggested several things the airlines could do to help themselves out of the financial mess they’re currently in. One of the suggestions I made was to get rid of radar “since it’s probably expensive to buy and more expensive to maintain.”

It’s now apparent that someone at Jazz airlines, Air Canada’s regional affiliate, must have read that blog and brought it to the attention of management. After studying it for three months it appears they’ve come to the conclusion that there probably are some things they’ve overlooked in their cost-cutting frenzy.

Now before I go any further we all need to relax as I send a message to management at Jazz: “I WAS ONLY KIDDING!  IT WAS A JOKE, A BIT OF SATIRE.” Hey, you’re not really supposed to take everything so seriously.

For the rest of use — especially if you fly Jazz a lot — sit down and ponder this: in an effort to cut the weight on their planes, Jazz is ditching the life jackets. All is not lost, however, since they’re keeping the radar.

According to a report in The Toronto Star the weight of each jacket is about one pound so this should save about 75 pounds per plane, or roughly one-fifth of the weight of the guy who sat next to me on a flight to Las Vegas recently.

Now, Jazz didn’t decide to jettison the life jackets because they don’t fly over water. They still fly over the Great Lakes and part of the Atlantic on their routes from places such as Boston northward. They’re getting rid of them because they’ve readjusted their East Coast routes to bring them within 50 miles of land.

According to the Star, “the 50-nautical-mile boundary is an international standard, developed as engine reliability improved. It is the distance from which an aircraft can reach shore even if an engine fails.” Well that’s certainly comforting. How dumb of me not to understand how quickly you can turn a jet into a glider.

But wait a moment…I’ve just read another article and I see I’m in the clear. There will be no knock on my door today. In fact, it’s now more likely I’ll be getting congratulations instead.

I now know the real reason for Jazz getting rid of the life vests! They say it’s to decrease the plane’s weight — I say, no way!

Look at this bit of detective work by yours truly. Did you know that a life vest from the Titanic fetched $68,500 at auction at Christie’s in New York on June 25? That’s probably right about the same time Jazz’s board was considering whether or not to keep the radar. I can just see the light bulb going off in someone’s head at that meeting….. “Wait a minute - let’s keep the radar and sell the life vests. If we only make one-tenth of the Titanic price that’s still a half-million dollars per plane.”

“So what,” you say? Well, just look at this other critical piece of evidence — the owner of the vest that Christie’s sold is not only Canadian, but is also from Nova Scotia – the very province where all those Jazz flights will now be within 50 miles of land. Ah-ha, our smoking gun!

Obviously, someone thinks all we frequent fliers must be pretty stupid. It just goes to show how important it is to read the newspapers so you’re able to see when these big corporations try to put one over on you.

But what really still confuses me is why the airlines keep urging us to keep the restrooms neat and clean for the next passenger, and now want us to think about sticking our faces into something 10,000 other people have been sitting on.

Oh yeah, that’s why they provide air sickness bags.

Jim Ferri

Tags: airline, business travel, consumers

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