Going mobile: Travel’s eventual high-tech future
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) – Welcome to the airport terminal of the future.
There are self-service bag drops but no check-in desks. Your passage is seamless, punctuated behind the scenes only by discrete Near Field Communication (NFC) sensors.
Occasionally you stop to scan your NFC-enabled smartphone at a touch point. Your biometric information, picked up by automated surveillance cameras, will ensure there’s no need to queue up to see whether you pose a security threat.
This is where travel needs to be, say technologists who also insist that their wizardry, if employed universally, could solder together the jagged edges of the industry.
It may sound far-fetched, but automated systems that talk to handheld devices are in the trial stage: In Australia, Qantas has rolled out frequent flyer cards with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to streamline the luggage-tagging process; Japan Airlines (JAL) is deploying NFC-based mobile boarding passes later this year for domestic flights.
“Technology is joining the dots by giving passengers the opportunity to ‘automate’ their way through the airport touch points,” says Renaud Irminger, a director at air transport communications and IT solutions provider SITA.
But a report from global IT group Amadeus on how airlines, airports, ground transportation firms and hotels can be more collaborative, argues that there is no focus on the interfaces where travelers feel the pain.
Andrew Curry, a director of The Futures Company who helped research the Amadeus report, told Reuters that if nobody leads on this, nothing could happen for five or 10 years.
The report is available at bit.ly/wMix0V.
Recent SITA surveys have reported that of the top 50 airlines almost 80 percent are planning to deploy NFC technology by 2014, but only 27 percent of airports expect to implement the technology by then.
This could be because they are unsure if the investment is worthwhile. For mobile solutions to work internationally for example, agreement across multiple jurisdictions would need to overcome a jungle of data privacy and security regulations.
“If only 10 percent of customers use new technology, all the old systems must remain, meaning you’ve simply added another layer of complexity, not greater simplicity,” said Peter Morris, chief economist at aviation consultancy Ascend.
SITA projects 80 percent of travelers will use mobile check-in by 2018. Forced to bear the brunt of check-in responsibility, it is far from certain whether passengers will benefit from these airports of the future.
“We remain to be convinced about customer reaction, which should be measured by proper impartial surveys rather than simple assertions by self-interested purveyors of technology,” Morris told Reuters.
Paul Behan, head of passenger experience at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said a focus on mobile boarding neglects other aspects of traveler stress.
“The boarding process itself is not necessarily a major hassle for passengers; rather any frustration seems to come from the issue of trying to find all-important luggage space in the overhead bins.”
The benefits of new technology are certainly being enjoyed by the aviation industry. IATA’s “Simplifying the Business” program is, it has said, saving around $5.5 billion a year from the switch to e-ticketing, bar-coded boarding passes and self-service kiosks.
An ongoing baggage program replacing manual luggage systems will save an estimated $1.9 billion per year.
(Editing by Paul Casciato)
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Travel Postcard: 48 Hours in Dickensian London
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) – London in the 21st century is not all that different from the heaving Victorian metropolis forever preserved in the novels of English writer Charles Dickens, whose 200th birthday is next week.
Fans of Dickens can still walk the same streets of the city – whose population helped to inspire such characters as Oliver Twist, Ebenezer Scrooge and Bella Wilfer – visit the writer’s house and have a drink at some of his old watering holes.
Local correspondents help you to spend 48 hours enjoying some of the London haunts of one of the English language’s greatest writers.
FRIDAY
7 p.m. – Check into a London Hotel near Russell Square, a stone’s throw from the Doughty Street home where Dickens penned some of his greatest works.
8 p.m. – Ride on London’s Underground railway (known to locals as the “tube”) to a late-evening theatre showing in atmospheric Covent Garden, a bustling square even in Dickens’s day which he used to frequent after a day’s work at his office.
Dickens was a dramatist and became involved in amateur theatre from his days at Tavistock house, directing, acting and raising money for London’s needy.
10:30 p.m. – Covent Garden is a hive of activity at night, with numerous bars and clubs lining the cobbled squares and streets. Duck into The Marquis on Chandos Place, explore the upstairs dining area, discuss the writer’s works or watch passers-by in the now modernized Dickensian haunt.
SATURDAY
10 a.m. – Start the day off at Borough Market (www.boroughmarket.org.uk) just up from the banks of the River Thames and across from London Bridge tube station. Searching through the food and other fare on offer to get a sense of the kind of neighborhood and type of market under the railway arches that the writer would have known well. Borough Market traces its roots back to the 11th century.
12 p.m. Go for lunch at the George Inn, a 17th century pub which earns a mention in “Little Dorrit” and is London’s last remaining galleried coaching inn. Dickens used to come here for coffee.
The George’s aged two-tiered balconies overlook a courtyard set aside for patrons to enjoy beer, ale, porter, stout and all other manner of drink as well as a hearty menu of pub food. This London treasure was rebuilt in 1676, after a fire destroyed the original. Shakespeare was another well-known regular. His rebuilt Globe Theatre is not far away.
1 p.m. – Go on a Dickens walk. There are any number of walking tour firms in London, which offer themed walks, including those for Charles Dickens. During the Christmas season London Walks (www.walks.com) offers a Christmas Carol tour, which explores the darker side of London and is led by a Victorian-dressed guide.
In February, the author of “Walking Dickensian London” Richard Jones will be giving guided walking tours. For details see: www.dickenslondontours.co.uk . Don’t forget to drop by Westminster Abbey, where Dickens is buried in Poet’s Corner alongside Tennyson, Samuel Johnson, Rudyard Kipling and others.
4:30 p.m. – By this stage the weary traveler might appreciate a drink at one of the many public houses associated with the writer, where Dickens would take respite from his lengthy walks about the city, spurred by insomnia.
One of the places where the sometimes entertainer, gentleman and theatrical personality drank and ate was at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. The pub, which was alluded to in a “Tale of Two Cities” is on Fleet Street, and is still a dark, cramped series of odd-shaped rooms, the walls thick with history and adorned with copies of Victorian-era paintings.
Other famous literary figures associated with the pub include Oliver Goldsmith, Mark Twain, Alfred Tennyson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton and Samuel Johnson.
5:30 p.m. – On the way to dinner, take in the sights and sounds of London, passing the Shard, the soon-to-be-completed tallest building in Europe, making the most of the photographic opportunities along London Bridge.
6:30 p.m. – Spend the evening at your leisure. Dickens was a man who worked and played hard. Take a trip to the theatre in the West End or its modern-day equivalent the cinema for a distraction from the quiet hum left by the day’s exploration.
SUNDAY
9 a.m. – Head straight for the Dickens museum at 48 Doughty Street, where the writer lived with his wife and where he wrote “Oliver Twist.” Get the abridged version of his life and upbringing from a short film.
Visitors can run their hands along the wooden crevices of the writer’s desk, used by Dickens when he was a reporter at the “Daily News,” explore the house, which he complained was crowded, and have a bite to eat in the museum cafe.
11 a.m. – Take a trip to the Old Curiosity Shop, which inspired the story of the same title, still exists and bills itself as “the oldest shop in London.” The 16th century building with a sloping tiled roof and its name writ large across the front is now home to an expensive shoe boutique.
1 p.m. – Visit the wharfs in Wapping and Limehouse, where ships in Victorian times used to unload spices, herbs, plants, wood and other goods from all over the world. The old wharf houses have since been converted from storage houses into offices and apartments, but retain the patina of their heritage The area contains a number of good places to stop off for lunch.
The Grapes pub, which was built in 1720 and described by Dickens in “Our Mutual Friend” is now owned by English actor Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in the “Lord Of The Rings” film trilogy. Charles Dickens knew this pub well, according to its description on www.pubs.com.
“As a child, he was made to stand on a table and sing to the customers. As an adult, he immortalized it as the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters pub in Our Mutual Friend. There are unsavory stories of watermen taking drunks from the pub, drowning them in the river, then selling their corpses for medical dissection.”
3 p.m. – After lunch take a boat across the churning waters of the River Thames, which still offers up the occasional dead body, from the Canary Wharf pier to Greenwich. This was one of Dickens’s favorite destinations for weekend excursions.
4 p.m. – Visit the Royal Observatory (www.rmg.co.uk), climb the hill for a breathtaking view of London, with a view of the Canary Wharf business estate, the domed O2 centre and the financial district known as the “City” of London.
6 p.m. – Dine in Greenwich, where pubs on offer close to the water include the Gipsy Moth, near the newly restored Cutty Sark, the world’s last tea clipper (ship) or The Trafalgar Tavern, which lies just beyond the picturesque National Maritime Museum and has a statue of Admiral Horatio Nelson outside, gazing out onto the Thames.
(Editing by Paul Casciato)
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Atlantic City, fallen on hard times, to get facelift
ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey |
ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey (Reuters) – Atlantic City, the once-thriving gambling capital of the east coast recently fallen on hard times, will get a facelift from a plan approved by a special authority including an overhaul of its famed boardwalk and news rides on the pier.
The Atlantic City market is the second-largest gambling center in the United States after Las Vegas but faces stiff competition from casinos in Pennsylvania, New York and New England.
The revitalization plan calls for a major overhaul of the boardwalk, including creation of an entertainment zone, new lighting, pavilions and art.
Some of the city’s major thoroughfares will get a new look such as along Atlantic Avenue, where an arts and boutique district is planned, and a new residential area along the water near the South Inlet.
Owners of the iconic Steel Pier are planning $100 million in improvements such as new amusement rides installed this year, according to authority chairman James Kehoe. He said the owners also plan to bring back the diving horse attraction, and re-create the once-famous Marine Ballroom.
Authority executive director John F. Palmieri estimated that the authority will get about $30 to $40 million a year in gambling revenues to pay for the public projects, and hopes to attract three to four times that amount in private investments.
“Our mission is to create a city where there is no off season,” said David Sheldon, a planner from The Jerde Partnership, who worked on the plan’s outline. “It is about a city that pulls you back in and makes you want to return again and again.”
The plan was approved unanimously by the board of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, which also gave preliminary approval to the Steel Pier project.
The state of New Jersey seized control of Atlantic City’s gaming district, and Governor Chris Christie has made the city’s revitalization a legislative priority.
Last year, Christie authorized $260 million of debt for infrastructure development to help pay for improvements in the area adjacent to the Revel Entertainment Group casino resort.
In a statement following the authority’s vote, Christie called the plan a road map to a comeback for Atlantic City.
“We are finally making meaningful progress to turn around the city, grow the economy and create sustainable jobs,” Christie said.
But some residents expressed concern that it would not do enough.
“Crime is a big issue here,” said restaurant owner Nick Dounoulis. He said visitors come to his restaurant and ask, “Where are the police?”
Atlantic City has a higher crime rate than the U.S. average, according to City-Data.com, which calculates an index of crime in U.S. cities.
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Jobless Roma dig coal at mine dump in icy Hungary winter
FARKASLYUK, Hungary |
FARKASLYUK, Hungary (Reuters) – For 20 years, Jozsef Bari used to drive his bulldozer out onto the spoil bank every day, leveling and smoothing the spoil from a nearby coal mine in this remote northeast corner of Hungary.
On Thursday he went there on foot, pushing a wheelbarrow, in search of coal. He rose early, dressed warmly and loaded the barrow with a pick-axe, a shovel and a tough sack.
As the winter sun rose above the horizon, he climbed the 30-metre high mound of spoil in the bone-chilling cold, his wheelbarrow bumping and squeaking on the frozen, snow-covered ground.
“Without this coal here, many people would freeze to death,” said Bari, a Roma and father of three. “This way, you dig from dawn to dusk, and if you’re lucky you can take home a wheelbarrow or two full of coal … It’s a miserable way to get by.”
Hidden in a dead-end valley in the mountains near the Slovakian border, the mine where Bari once worked closed down nearly 20 years ago, plunging most local residents – many of them Roma – into dire poverty and long-term unemployment.
In this region, as in the rest of Hungary, the dismantling of Communist-era heavy industry had the greatest impact on the local Roma: they were laid off by the thousand, and most of them were never able to find another steady job.
The government tightened unemployment regulations last year, cutting the available benefits and tying them to the little available public work, which often left the jobless even poorer than they had been.
Winters are especially tough, with many Roma foraging for anything flammable to burn in heaters and stoves.
Farkaslyuk residents are luckier than some because they can at least dig chunks of coal from the towering spoil bank, where significant amounts are left from generations of mining.
Recent temperatures of below minus 20 Celsius have forced dozens of men at a time to go digging among the spoil, some using little more than their bare hands.
The mayor of the village, Dezso Gabor, said he would prefer not to talk about the coal diggers because the area belonged to a private company, whose cooperation was necessary to continue talks about reopening the mine at some point in the future.
The company, electronics manufacturer Elco, has so far turned a blind eye to the low-key diggers. Elco Chief Executive Jozsef Illes did not return Reuters’ calls seeking his comments.
A SINGLE PICK-AXE
At this time of year, those venturing onto the spoil bank must start by breaking through at least 30 cms (one foot) of frozen earth, then sift through huge amounts of sandy soil before, if at all, they hit coal.
A young Roma named Tamas Putnoki popped his head out of a hole in the ground when he heard Bari approach.
“This yours?” he asked, referring to the 6-foot deep pit that Bari had started a few days earlier.
“No, go ahead,” Bari said, gesturing further along the edge of the earthen wall, which dropped off at a steep angle, following the original line of the spoil bank’s sloping side.
“We don’t have our own patch,” he said. “We dig where we can, and then when we’re done and someone else comes along, we often just say, go for it.”
Putnoki bent down into the hole again. He held a worn pick-axe the size of his forearm, in hands covered by a pair of cotton gloves tattered almost beyond recognition.
“As you dig deeper, it’s not as cold as it is up here,” he said. “You have to suffer your way through here to get to the coal. But I’m only here for a little while now, just to have something to warm us up at home.”
Once someone sets out for the pits he has no time to look for work elsewhere and he must choose: either sell some of his coal to buy food, or be warmer but hungrier.
On Thursday, fewer locals were digging than usual despite the stubborn cold, which kept the temperature around minus 15 Celsius even in the sun.
The monthly unemployment payments arrived at the town hall and were handed out from 9 a.m.
Those who got their money went straight to the grocery store, loaded up with basic supplies and headed home to feed their families. Then, by the afternoon, many were back on the spoil bank.
“Some people have said that people here, especially Gypsies, don’t want to work,” said Lajos Harkaly, an unemployed Roma who digs coal frequently. “Look, we do this here by hand, and it’s work that in mines they have machines to do.
“If we do this, every day, just to have something to burn, do you think we would ever reject real, paying work?”
(Reporting by Marton Dunai; Editing by Tim Pearce)
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Wanted: Retirees to live in Ecuador for a month free
NEW YORK |
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Interested in adventure and exploring new places? An international magazine is looking for volunteers to spend a month in Cuenca, Ecuador to test its potential as a retirement destination.
Applicants must be near retirement age, from the United States or Canada and be willing to relax, explore, shop, try local restaurants, maybe take a Spanish class, and report on their experience during an all-expense paid month in the Latin American country.
“We’re not giving away a free vacation,” said Jennifer Stevens, the executive editor of International Living magazine, which launched the competition.
“The idea is we will find a candidate who is already thinking about living overseas, is excited about the prospect. We are looking for someone who is adventurous and eager to try something new,” she added in an interview.
The winner of the competition, who will be announced on May 30th, will receive round-trip air fare for two, a furnished apartment and $1,500 in living expenses, according to an ad posted on InternationalLiving.com.
The magazine said the competition gives it the opportunity to show readers the benefits of retiring abroad.
Ecuador, Panama and Mexico, in that order, were the top destinations in the magazine’s Retirement Index 2012, which assessed a country’s retirement potential based on property prices, special benefits, cost of living, assimilation, entertainment, health infrastructure, healthcare and climate.
Malaysia, Colombia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Spain, Thailand and Honduras rounded out the top 10 destinations in the index.
InternationalLiving.com estimates that a couple can live in Cuenca for as little as $915 per month after rent.
It is the first competition of its kind for the magazine, which is expecting thousands of applicants. If it is successful, Stevens said she is open to repeating the opportunity.
“I’m hoping we can get tens of thousands of people interested,” she said.
The contest is limited to Americans and Canadians because they make up the bulk of the magazine’s readership.
People interested in entering the competition, either solo or as a couple, should post a video no longer than three minutes to YouTube saying why they would want to spend their golden years abroad, as well as a month in Ecuador.
The competition closes on March 15. Magazine staff will select a shortlist of 20 applicants which will be posted on its website where people can cast votes online. But the ultimate decision will be made by the magazine staff.
“Anyone can vote,” Stevens said.
No writing experience is necessary but if the magazine publishes the winner’s report, they will be paid its normal freelance rate.
(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
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