I am always amazed about the coolhunting qualities of the Finns. I am currently teaching our annual virtual COIN/Coolhunting seminar at Helsinki University of Technology and as happened to me the previous three times, the cool trends being set here just blow me away. It starts with well-known things like the Finns’ ubiquitous use of mobile technologies. Nokia communicators are everywhere. They are used as browsers in the restaurant, to call up Google and resolve the burning question of which is the oldest church in Finland. To find the restaurant …

E-Site Marketing president and IAOC member Felix Laboy tells me the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) for the first time is inviting bloggers to their press conference and networking cocktail reception, on Thursday, Feb. 9 at the Marriott Marquis in New York City.
Ministers and Directors of Tourism from the Caribbean will be addressing “What's New and Hot in the Caribbean.”  Each representative will have a few moments to discuss the their plans for 2006, followed by a Q & A session.  Following the press conference, bloggers are invited to join …

The travel industry has traditionally embraced new online technologies early on due to the fact that what they sell lends itself extremely well to online presentation and distribution. Online travel continues to be one of the top categories in terms of e-commerce with an estimated market of $54 billion in 2004. What we will look at today is some early application of RSS in travel and some statistics related to these implementations.

Destination Hotels & Resorts, one of the largest operators of independent hotels and condominium resorts in the United States (www.destinationhotels.com), recently hosted a media panel of writers who provided insight and information into travel trends in today’s hospitality market. One panelist mentioned that our company “is the wave of the future.” She was referring to the fact that Destination offers a unique collection of independent hotels that are unlike standard branded hotel chains; characteristics that meet the needs of today’s active Baby Boomer and Generation X travelers.

It's hard to imagine travel planning without the Internet these days. Can you believe Travelocity has been online since March 12, 1996? Three reasons we feel that Travelocity and other online agencies are the preferred place for millions to make their travel arrangements are:

If this is your first day joining the travel blog this week, you are in good company. Even the White House has seen the importance of blogging and this week accepted the first blogger into the White House press room! (See article from CNN) .
Today’s topics will be on Internet marketing and what is in store for the travel industry.

This is the last of today's conversations with Rudy Maxa. If you have questions or comments for Rudy, you can leave them here, and we'll try to hunt him down in India to get answers.

This is Part 2 of our Q&A with Travel writer/host Rudy Maxa.
Do you see travel blogs becoming a major influencer in how and where people travel? Are travel blogs impacting your work as a travel writer?

Rudy Maxa is on a plane this morning from Orlando to St. Paul and from there heads off to India for a National Geographic Traveler assignment. So we're doing today's discussion with Rudy as a four-part Q&A. In part one, we talk to Rudy about how he got started as a travel writer and onair commentator and his early days as an online travel personality.

Recently it seems that you can’t pick up a magazine, watch a news show or browse a website without seeing reference to a Blog or its accompanying technology – RSS.