Talking Travel: AA to Fly Dallas to Beijing; Philippines Travel Ban; Is China Attracting Foreign Tourists

It's always interesting writing about travel while on the edge of a major travel period. Well, if you didn't make any plans already, wait until October 4, the halfway point of the holiday, then you'll be able to go just about anywhere fairly easily in terms of ticket availability. You just may not be able to get back on October 7. Or October 8. And if you were thinking about going to Hong Kong, well, this may not be the best time.

There's certainly been some travel news since our last edition, which was over a week ago. Just as flights get delayed, so do columns, so apologies for that. American Airlines will begin flying from Dallas/Fort Worth in northern Texas starting in May 2015. That's quite a long time from now for an announcement like this, but it will reduce traveling distance for quite a lot of people in northern Texas and Oklahoma who would otherwise have to hop somewhere else first. American has a hub there, so it makes sense. United has been flying to Beijing from Houston for years, but of course, that's via Newark, New Jersey, which is not exactly a straight line towards China.

In case you didn't know, there's a travel ban in place for tour groups from China going to the Philippines. Although political tension over maritime borders could be blamed, China's Foreign Ministry said the ban was due to 13 PRC nationals having been killed in archipelago nation since January. The Philippines is a wonderful place for a holiday, but it's not the world's richest country, and sometimes things go wrong.

CNBC had a semi-interesting article the other day about whether China is doing enough to attract foreign tourism. China ranked 45th out of more than 100 countries surveyed (Switzerland was number one). We're not actually sure China cares. Although efforts like 72-hour visa-free travel for designated cities including Beijing, which has proven underwhelmingly popular, indicate some flexibility, the average person trying to get a tourist visa today has a number of hoops through which they are required to jump. For European and North American travelers, China is neither close nor inexpensive. Add "visa hassle" to that mix and it will continue to drop in the tourism competition rankings. 

For everyone heading out of town for the holiday, I wish you one road flat safe.

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