![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Travel Show
Jan. 22nd, 2018 04:35 pmI went to the Travel Show at the Convention Center on Saturday. Yes, the Women’s March was going on, but I have issues with crowds and prefer my political rallies to have clearer objectives than just pointing out that the president is a jerk.
Anyway, most of my purpose in going was collecting brochures and information. I was specifically looking for info on a couple of places. The American Samoa Tourist Office folks were not there, however, presumably due to the government shutdown. (That had the passport office booth and the customs info booth shut down, with explicit notices to that effect.) As for Ilha de Mocmbique, there was only one company with any indication that they had a clue. That same company also had a brochure re: Zakouma National Park in Chad, which sounds intriguing. There was also a company that does rail journeys, including one through Darjeeling and Bhutan.
A lot of the brochures I went home with are just for quick reference in planning independent trips. If I’m looking at info on a country I am not very familiar with, it can be helpful to look at what the package tours do to get a rough idea of what the major attractions are and how long people typically spend in different cities. That won’t, however, identify some of the out of the way places I tend to be interested in.
I did go to one of the presentations – an alleged travel matchmaking show. This was very disappointing, since it was pretty much an advertisement for large cruise ships and all-inclusive resorts. The only thing of even remote interest to me was a river cruise company. They had trouble getting their videos to work. And I suspect that the person doing the presentation has a neurological disorder as she only recognized hands raised on one side of the room. (There is a real disorder called hemispatial neglect with this symptom. It is, apparently, most often caused by a stroke. I thought of going over to her afterwards and asking her if she realized she ignored the entire left half of the room. But I decided I didn’t really care enough to bother.
I should also mention the concessions, which were also disappointing. Basically, there were Mexican food, paninis, smoothies, and Caribbean food. I went with the latter as having the most potential to be interesting. Alas, their vegetarian plate had the blandest chickpea stew and cabbage stew I’ve ever had. It was only slightly salvaged by the plantains. (There was also rice.) Oy.
Overall, the show was worthwhile for some of the info I collected. But I should probably have just skipped the presentation and had lunch somewhere outside the convention center after my info trolling.
Anyway, most of my purpose in going was collecting brochures and information. I was specifically looking for info on a couple of places. The American Samoa Tourist Office folks were not there, however, presumably due to the government shutdown. (That had the passport office booth and the customs info booth shut down, with explicit notices to that effect.) As for Ilha de Mocmbique, there was only one company with any indication that they had a clue. That same company also had a brochure re: Zakouma National Park in Chad, which sounds intriguing. There was also a company that does rail journeys, including one through Darjeeling and Bhutan.
A lot of the brochures I went home with are just for quick reference in planning independent trips. If I’m looking at info on a country I am not very familiar with, it can be helpful to look at what the package tours do to get a rough idea of what the major attractions are and how long people typically spend in different cities. That won’t, however, identify some of the out of the way places I tend to be interested in.
I did go to one of the presentations – an alleged travel matchmaking show. This was very disappointing, since it was pretty much an advertisement for large cruise ships and all-inclusive resorts. The only thing of even remote interest to me was a river cruise company. They had trouble getting their videos to work. And I suspect that the person doing the presentation has a neurological disorder as she only recognized hands raised on one side of the room. (There is a real disorder called hemispatial neglect with this symptom. It is, apparently, most often caused by a stroke. I thought of going over to her afterwards and asking her if she realized she ignored the entire left half of the room. But I decided I didn’t really care enough to bother.
I should also mention the concessions, which were also disappointing. Basically, there were Mexican food, paninis, smoothies, and Caribbean food. I went with the latter as having the most potential to be interesting. Alas, their vegetarian plate had the blandest chickpea stew and cabbage stew I’ve ever had. It was only slightly salvaged by the plantains. (There was also rice.) Oy.
Overall, the show was worthwhile for some of the info I collected. But I should probably have just skipped the presentation and had lunch somewhere outside the convention center after my info trolling.
