No room to dream: Online vendors are freaking out after a Times Online report revealed internet searches for travel were down 42 percent after Christmas, when holiday-fattened bank accounts are traditionally emptied out for spring vacations.

Searches for travel to the US were one of the hardest hit segments of the British travel biz, as the pound falls against the dollar and Brits tighten their belts. The only segment that showed any improvement were searches for package holidays, but the interest didn't lead to a corresponding lift in bookings.

Online bookings were taking a hit back in October already, but the gap between booking a trip and not even looking for one is pretty enormous. So dear readers, are you still looking for travel online, even if you can't afford to go now?

Related Stories:
· Internet Travel Searches Drop 42 Percent [Times Online, via]
· Financial Fallout Travel: Online Booking Hurting, Too [Jaunted]
· Budget Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of an empty terminal at MAN: Jett Loe]]]> egw 2009-01-09T15:00:46-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/12/22/13325/158

Ho ho no! Blue 1--a Finnish budget airline affiliated to SAS Airlines and not to be confused with Romania's Blue Air French-based Blue Line--has made a bunch of British kids really blue this Christmas.

The airline should have carried 160 people in two small planes from Manchester to Santa's home in Finnish Lapland early on Saturday morning, but the passengers were then told there'd be a delay while Blue found a new aircraft. The bigger one they got was then deemed too big to land at Finland's Enontekio airport in bad weather and the whole trip was canceled.

Police had to be called to calm down the screaming children, and angry parents had to explain to their kids that they hadn't been good enough to meet Santa this year after all.

Related Stories:
· Police called after angry parents protest at cancellation of flight to see Santa in Lapland [Daily Mail UK]
· Fury as Santa Trip is Sleighed [SMH]
· Will the Real Santa Please Stand Up? [Jaunted]

[Photo: (stephan)] ]]> amandak 2008-12-23T09:00:37-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/10/6/9344/32300

Hey, remember a few weeks ago when you bought a British football team? No, you weren't drunk at the time, but when the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve board voted to bail out insurance giant AIG, it effectively bought a piece of Manchester United, the popular club AIG paid £56.5 million ($99 million) to sponsor in 2006. Finally, a reason for Americans to care about soccer!

But seriously: If you're in a footie-playing country, a game is a great way to experience life as a local. You may not recognize all the songs whistling past your ears towards the players (nor the colorful language) but you're in for a great game.

This month, Man U takes on West Brom and West Ham United at home and Everton away; British readers, any tips for Americans enjoying their first game ever?

Related Stories:
· US Government Announces AIG Bailout [CBC.ca]
· AIG Still Sponsoring Manchester United [Yorkblog]
· Manchester Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: tunis marsh]]]> egw 2008-10-06T11:30:39-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/6/12/152753/681

If you long for the glory days of festivals like Woodstock, where the mud seeps into your Converse sneakers and there are no VIP accommodations, Bonnaroo '08 is your bag: The tent-camping-centric, off-the-beaten-path concert weekend draws ever increasing star wattage this weekend in Manchester, Tennessee while still being its sweet hippie self.

We're definitely catching MGMT and Lez Zeppelin tonight, Chris Rock and The Swell Season (the musicians from "Once") tomorrow, Kanye "Almost Mr. M.I.A." West on Saturday and, if we haven't died from heat stroke by then, Aimee Mann on Sunday. Drink your water and wear sunscreen, people.

And remember, if you absolutely must live-blog your concert experience, check out the Fuse TV barn. They'll have cell phone charging stations and computers with web access so you can make your friends jealous without even leaving the fest!

Related Links
· Bonnaroo [Official Site]
· Summer Music Festivals: We Heart Bonnaroo [Jaunted]
· Bonnaroo coverage [Jaunted]
· A Travelpod for Bonnaroo? [HC]

[Photo from Bonnaroo '07: batesvillebreeze]]]> egw 2008-06-12T16:15:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/6/3/12363/58149

Bromley Mountain is having quite the political summer. Vermont's senior senator, Democrat Patrick Leahy, snuck a provision into a recent farm bill that would have had the federal government sell some national forest land to the ski resort in his state. But President Bush--or more likely one of his aides--caught the earmark; Bush specifically cited the proposed sale as one reason he vetoed the farm bill.

Congress didn't care for that, and they overrode the veto--only to find out that a paperwork mistake will force a re-vote on the entire thing. So Bush may have yet another chance to stick it to Leahy and Bromley Mountain.

In the meantime, the resort has plenty of summer activities on its current property. A three-track alpine slide is the main draw, but the zip line, "space bikes" and water slide also look pretty decent. If they ever get that extra land from the national forest, who knows what might be added... Maybe a statue of a senator?

Related Stories:
· Bromley Mountain [Official Site]
· Farm Bill Background [NC Mountain Times]
· President Bush's Message on Farm Bill Veto [Official Site]
· Ski Resorts in Summer coverage [Jaunted]]]> pbb 2008-06-03T12:45:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/5/20/172431/161

The fact that this made-from-surveillance-camera-footage music video came out of England shouldn't surprise us in the least. After all, the UK is where you'll find airports planning to implement facial-recognition technology.

But however creepy all these cameras are, it's still pretty cool. Maybe making videos with closed circuit cameras is the 21st century equivalent of waving to your friends back home via webcam?

Related Stories:
· The Most Clever Music Video of the Year (So Far) [WorldHum]
· Band Record CCTV Video [BBC]
· Dystopia Travel: British Airports Getting Face Scanners [Jaunted]
· Videos coverage [Jaunted]]]> pbb 2008-05-20T17:30:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/10/29/92220/821

A Jaunted reader points out that Skybus isn't the only airline with Boston lust. Turns out Manchester New Hampshire airport, MHT, which is a good 54 miles from Boston, now calls itself "Manchester Boston Regional Airport." Please.

We know with the Red Sox winning the World Series, the Patriots working on an undefeated season and the Celtics ready to return to glory, everybody wants to claim they live in Boston these days, but New Hampshire is not Boston. MHT might as well call itself "Manchester, NH--Manchester England Regional Airport".

That said, Manchester does offer a new high frequency bus service operates every two hours, 24-hours a day, seven days a week between MHT, the Anderson Regional Transportation Center in Woburn, MA and the Sullivan Square MBTA Subway Station. This service is free to all passengers. Very cool. So tell us this MHT: Why not just call yourself what you are, a small airport about an hour from Boston with excellent transportation options to and from the city, instead of going all Skybus on us and trying to convince noobs that Manchester is a suburb of Boston?

Related Stories:
· Skybus So Wants Portsmouth to be Boston [Jaunted]
· Skybus coverage [Jaunted]]]> markj 2007-10-29T09:26:28-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/