Word: hotels
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From China to the Caribbean, Thailand to Tanzania, workers in the travel industry can relate to Qian's frustration. Whether it's check-in staff at airports, hotel porters, taxi drivers or restaurateurs, millions of people who rely on tourism for their living are feeling the icy chill of the worldwide recession. Between 2004 and 2007, global tourism boomed, with an average growth of 3.6% a year. But as consumers tightened purse strings and canceled vacations in the second half of 2008, tourism's contribution to the world economy grew by just 1%, the industry's worst performance since...
...Canary Islands, where tourism represents upwards of 60% of the local economy, the municipal tourism board recently began a series of seminars to help tourism workers cast off their perceived grumpiness; course materials advise cabbies to "ensure your taxis smell nice and don't drive too fast" and remind hotel staff that, "a smile costs nothing and is the most effective welcome...
...sense of urgency is most pronounced in the developing world, where a job in tourism can mean the difference between poverty and prosperity. In Kenya, a single employee at a hotel or restaurant supports four other people with their salary, according to Gerson Misumi, managing director of Tamarind Management, a restaurant and resort firm in Kenya and South Africa. "There's a chain of services that depend on our industry." Lipman of the UNWTO agrees. "Tourism is a good development agent because poor countries don't have to manufacture it," he says. Developing nations already have their product - nature, culture...
...Local activists were so angry about that one that they put an initiative on the ballot in Souter's hometown to seize his home and replace it with an inn to be called the Lost Liberty Hotel. It was voted down, so the old farmhouse will still be there waiting for him when Souter leaves Washington - still a loner, still a mystery in some ways, but a man we know much more about now than we did when he first arrived...
...1970s, growing from 45 resorts encompassing about 1,200 units in 1975 to 1,660 resorts holding 194,000 units in 2008. And just when the industry doesn't need it, a new wave of inventory is expected in the next few quarters as distressed condo and hotel owners start converting their properties into time-share units...