Spendthrift Shoestring

Central Lima (y Fútbol)

Apartment number.

Bar Cordano floor tiles.

Last night's Peru-Chile match. Lima went to bed disappointed last night.

Miraflores: Buildings and Canned Goods

Today was spent exploring Miraflores. Here are some images.

Miraflores modernism.

Canned fish at Vivanda Benavides.

Corner restaurant. Note churros takeaway window.

Lima: Miraflores

The view from Phil and Betsabé's apartment.

Lima!

Ahead: a week in Lima.

Why? 1. Cousin is living in Peru for several months. 2. Airfares are incredibly cheap ($410).

When economies tank, airfares go down. What's a travel writer on a limited budget to do?

Whither the Travel Agent Industry?

I'm no purist when it comes to travel. On four occasions, I've booked truly inexpensive flight/hotel packages that I very much doubt I could have assembled for less on my own. And though I prefer places that are off the beaten path, I appreciate mass tourism and enjoy some of the most heavily trafficked tourist destinations around.

But in all my years of travel I've only once used a travel agent—back in 1998, when I sought to obtain a visa to visit Russia while living far from the nearest Russian consulate. Outside of contexts in which visa procurement or itinerary development is extremely difficult to arrange without specialized guidance, I can't imagine why I'd ever rely on a travel agent.

In fact, there is less and less of a need for even inexperienced travelers to rely on travel agents. Guidebooks and online research will answer most questions that prospective travelers have, and it's easy to book and make reservations online without ever needing to rely on an intermediary.

I've been polling people over the last few months about travel agents, asking about past or continued reliance. The only people I've come across who use travel agents regularly are traveling with vastly larger budgets than mine, and they're visiting places with poor tourism infrastructures.

It's also not clear to me that it's financially worthwhile to enter the field. On Nevis in February I met a hotel manager who previously ran her own travel agency. She told me that she saw the writing on the wall years ago and fled to hospitality. She suggested that, given the sharp reduction in commissions commanded by travel agents, the only reason to become a travel agent was to obtain reduced airfares and hotel rates. Salaries aren't exactly massive, either. According to a 2006 Travel Institute survey, frontline travel agents in the United States make an average salary of $31,115, while agency managers average $43,130. (These numbers, I assume, are three years old.)

Even the key credentializing organizations within the global travel agent industry, like IATA, are losing their centrality. Mexican travel agencies, to offer one example, are rebelling against IATA. According to this article, written last month, there were 5200 IATA-accredited travel agencies in Mexico in 1994. In Mexico today, there are only 1500 travel agencies with IATA accreditation—and another 1300 operating without it.

Certainly, travel agents have a future in many fields. Adventure travel, business travel, group travel, and other types of specialized travel will continue to benefit from experts who have insider knowledge and can get various arrangements booked quickly. But for most travelers—at the very least, most travelers in countries with relatively few bureaucratic obstacles for tourists—travel agents increasingly seem as if they inhabit a parallel yet quite antiquated universe.

Random Round-Up: SkyEurope, Schengen, Lea's Lumpia, More

I've been out of town for a week and a half and on Friday I take off again, so I'm doing lots of catching up. Here are a few stories and objects that have caught my eye.

1. SkyEurope is in trouble. Has been for a while, but things are looking even more difficult for the airline just lately.

2. Swiss airports are prepared for full integration with Schengen, due on March 29. Meanwhile, the fact that Liechtenstein remains outside of the agreement is costing Switzerland millions of francs in border patrol costs.

3. My friend Lea Romingquet is an amazing cook. Right now she's making and delivering homemade lumpia in the San Francisco Bay Area to order. Run, don't walk, to her lumpia blog. There's contact information there.

4. These photos have me ready for spring.

Two from the Netherlands Antilles

My time on Saba and St. Maarten has put me in a Netherlands Antilles mood—and this despite the fact that the federation is on the brink of dissolution.

The two southern islands in the group have been up to noteworthy stuff.

Exhibit A. By the close of 2009, Bonaire expects to meet all of its energy needs in a sustainable manner, via a wind farm and a biodiesel power plant. This is an interesting, proactive move on the part of the small island, especially so in light of the geothermal project on Nevis, which is due to be completed in 2010. It will be interesting to see if other territories in the region follow the lead of Bonaire and Nevis. Caribbean legislators have already expressed interest in the Nevis initiative.

Exhibit B. Meanwhile, Curaçao is running an innovative and exciting competition, a Treasure Hunt set for August 2009. Ten finalists will participate in the hunt, and the winner will take home $500,000. Registrees also have the opportunity to win daily prizes by correctly answering posted questions. The contest is open to U.S. travelers. Try your luck at the tourist board's dedicated site.

Saba: Some Images

Saba was amazing, as always. It's such an idyllic place, atmospherically rich and quietly beautiful. After a week on a hot and dry little island, arriving in Windwardside felt like being dropped into a lush meadow. Here are some photos.

Windwardside.

More Windwardside.

View of cloud-shrouded Mount Scenery.

View of the Bottom.

Near the summit of Mount Scenery, the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Guadeloupe: Update

I meant to write a bit from Guadeloupe this past week but relaxation took over. I did manage to fight through my sweet languor to scribble out two posts for the EuroCheapo blog: one on the Caribbean's French, Dutch, and British overseas territories and the other on Terre-de-Haut, where Matt and I just spent six glorious nights. Here are a few glimpses of Terre-de-Haut toward sunset.

The bay from between houses.

The bay with Guadeloupe's Basse-Terre in the background.

We're on Saba now, where I'm researching a story. More to come.

Nevis in the New York Post

My look at Nevis on a budget is online at the New York Post. Check it out.