Sunday, October 21, 2007
Check in at airport
with phone bar code
GENEVA — Major airlines have agreed on a standard that will allow travelers to check in using a bar code sent to their cell phones, the International Air Transport Association said at a meeting in Geneva.
Passengers will register their cell phone number when buying a ticket and receive a bar code by text message, the group representing most commercial carriers said.
Check-in staff will scan the bar code directly from cell phones, doing away with the need for a boarding pass.
Alternatively, passengers can also received the code by e-mail and print it out.
IATA said the move will help the industry phase out paper tickets by 2010 and save over $500 million annually.
Tennessee reaches
out to Hispanic culture
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee’s tourism department began advertising in Spanish-language newspapers for the first time this year and plans to roll out a Spanish version of its Web site by the end of October.
“The idea is to be all inclusive,” said Phyllis Qualls-Brooks, a spokeswoman for the department. “We have multiple cultures — the census tells us that — and we know [Hispanic] culture is part of our potential market.”
The department is advertising in four Spanish-language newspapers in Tennessee and also in national magazines that are not part of the ethnic press.
The ads feature a Hispanic family on an outing to an aquarium.
Ramon Cisneros, president of the Tennessee Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said he applauds the efforts to attract Hispanic tourists to the state.
“It’s good for people to understand that not all Hispanics are below the poverty line,” he said.
Big plans in store
for Shipshewana, Ind.
SHIPSHEWANA, Ind. — Shipshewana officials have cut the ribbon on a new $35 million Town Center, auto museum and water park.
The project took eight years to plan. Town Board President Roger Yoder says the complex began as Eldon Hostetler’s dream of a museum to house his collection of Hudson automobiles. Hostetler donated land and a $5 million car collection.
Then Focus Hospitality put up $25 million for an indoor water park and resort called Splash Universe. Officials hope the water park will draw a younger crowd to thev area.
The park features water slides, a lazy river and an adventure area. The resort includes more than 150 themed guest rooms.
Plum Orchard mansion
set to reopen in Ga.
CUMBERLAND ISLAND, Ga. — After a $3 million, 18-month face-lift, the 22,000 square-foot Plum Orchard mansion built by the Carnegie family in 1898 is expected to reopen to the public, the Florida Times-Union reported.
Julie Meeks, the National Park Service’s acting superintendent for the island, told the paper that the mansion should be open later this fall.
The work included interior improvements as well as structural improvements such as replacing beams and installing a lift for wheelchairs.
The mansion’s basement will feature the old hand-cranked Koehler generator that supplied electricity to the mansion until the 1960s, a large wooden icebox, and a water-powered elevator.
Cumberland Island National Seashore, accessible by ferry from St. Marys, includes designated wilderness areas, undeveloped beaches, historic sites, cultural ruins, critical habitat and nesting areas.
For details, visit www.nps.gov/cuis.
Associated Press