You can use our stuff, but for goodness sake, don’t swipe it!

A couple of weeks ago we stumbled on a travel agent web site that had swiped two of our stories and was using them without giving us any credit. We were more peeved than angry, figuring that the folks who did it weren’t all that clear on how these things work. We didn’t yell at them or threaten anything, we simply told them what we’d tell anybody who wants to use our stuff: You can put our articles on your web site IF you’ll agree to do the following: 1. Don’t present it in some weird typeface like Restoration Foofdee Doofdee; 2.) clearly identify The Cultured Traveler or Cultural Travels as its source; 3.) provide a link to our web site; 4.) only use those articles that have been written by Patrick Totty (our in-house writer) or tour operators (their articles always have a number following the writer’s byline). If in doubt, contact Sheri Leigh. We’re very liberal about letting agents and tour operators use our stuff providing they do the above. As for the agency we described, they couldn’t be bothered to meet our conditions. Their loss.

The Internet tax man cometh, the only question is when

When the dot-com frenzy of the late 1990s was at full tilt, state governments, which history tells us are such sober spenders when they have a little mad money, went on a spree. Now that the bubble has burst and deficits are yawning, they’re looking at ways of taxing online spending. The Feds have been leery of supporting such taxes, reasoning that a California or Florida firm collecting taxes for the State of Ohio labors under an undue burden, which puts a crimp on interstate commerce. But it looks as though the states might combine to propose uniform federal legislation that would open the door to mandatory taxing and reporting of Internet sales. Don’t expect such legislation much before 2005.

Bad news for newspapers means good news for you

Newspapers nationwide are watching in horror as Gens X and Y, which number 130 million Americans, are increasingly dropping out of the habit of relying on newspapers as their primary source of information. For instance, a recent survey of 18-to-34-year-olds in the New York metro area showed that 94% of them depend on magazines for news, 92% on radio, 80% on the Internet and 79% on TV. Newspapers trailed distantly at 55%. Showing absolutely no understanding of either generation, newspapers have scrambled to dumb down their content, simplifying language, throwing in lots of sleaze, sex, music, fashion and lifestyle fluff – in all, doing a terrible imitation of their rival media. The lesson here is simple: Keep using newspapers to reach Baby Boomers, and keep plugging away at mastering the Internet in your marketing efforts. That’s where you’ll find tomorrow’s customers.

Phone numbers and Web addresses might soon be the same

Great ideas are always utterly simple once somebody offers them. Look at container ships: Hundreds of men used to labor for days loading and unloading cargo until somebody came up with the notion of stacking boxes with cranes. In communications, it used to be that telephones were immovable and a phone number could only reach one location. Nowadays, phone numbers are movable, including from phone to phone. What’s next? Try “ENUM” (electronic numbering system), an international protocol whereby each person would have a one-of-kind phone number to activate or access virtually any communications device – fax, e-mail, wireless, instant messaging, Internet and stationary phones. Clients could input your phone number to reach your web site and, conversely, you could contact any client anywhere on earth as long as he’s near a device that’s been programmed to receive his ENUM.

Consumers paying for online content: How could it affect you?

We’ve discussed here before whether consumers will want to pay for online content. Well, theory is quickly becoming reality: In 2002, consumers forked over $1.3 billion for online content, most of it (86%) for subscriptions. Of that figure, dating and personal services, financial/business information and entertainment/lifestyles were the three biggest categories, accounting for $822 million. One interesting category, “micro-payments,” is the one to keep your eye on. These are small sums -- $5 or less – that people pay to access information. While they grew 707% in 2002, they’re still less than 1% of online content sales. This will change: As portal sites like Cultural Travels amass more and more proprietary information and become more and more valuable to travelers’ research, you’ll see people gladly paying a nickel or dime to access them. People trust things that have a price more than they do ones that don’t.

Our April online newsletter will be all wet

And we mean that in the best possible way. April’s The Cultured Traveler will focus on ships, cruises, barge trips, and water-oriented places and activities. Our contributing writers will be covering sea trips to Alaska and Antarctica, learning how to sail on a two-masted schooner, and barging through France. We’ll also be covering Seattle’s raucous and wide-ranging annual Seafair, visit San Francisco’s Hyde Street Pier national maritime museum, discuss the marvelous biking and kayaking opportunities in Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Highlands National Park and take a look at the greatest canal on earth: China’s Grand Canal. Last one in is a. . . .

People are up in arms about spam – How not to be seen as one of the bad guys

Sixty-eight percent of U.S. workers who use e-mail, according to research firm Public Opinion Strategies, are ticked off about spam and support technological and legal fixes. In the meantime, experts warn that legitimate companies that rely on e-mail often sabotage themselves by inadvertently doing things that make their messages look like spam. These include failing to provide ways for recipients to opt out of receiving your e-mail, sending too much e-mail, sending from other companies’ lists (the people on them didn’t sign up for your message) and not clearly identifying yourself or your message’s content. A rule of thumb: Make your “To” and “Subject” lines work for you. Put your client’s name in the “To” box and clear description of your offer in the “Subject:” Thus: "John Doe, Africa Tour Special from ABC Travel."

Our monthly factoids:

• ·     Internet traffic is expected to double each year over the next five years. By 2008, the amount of information available to users will equal 64x all the printed information in the Library of Congress.
   

• ·     Forty percent of all Americans using broadband (cable or DSL as opposed to 56K modems) to access the Internet are in the 45-year-old+ age group – people in their prime earning years.
   

• ·     U.S. Internet users will reach 162 million by the end of this year, with twice as many households online as not. That figure is about 58% of the U.S. population.
   

• ·     We now have 338 stories in our articles database at The Cultured Traveler, and we’re growing that sum at the rate of 14 or 15 a month. Use us as an info source.

The Cultured Traveler Newsletter

Upcoming Issues: If your company specializes in any of the following themes and you'd like to be included in the issue please let us know.

To submit an article for any  issue, please review our Writer's Guidelines. Deadlines for articles is the 5th of the month prior to publication, but please let us know in advance so we can plan a space for you.

• April: Small Ship Cruising
• May: Off-Beat Hotels.
• June: Food and Wine