According to Travel Troubleshooter Chris Elliott, the bad news about business travel gets worse when you consider it impacts everyone’s leisure travel. That’s because business travelers subsidize the discounted rates that leisure travelers pay. When they stop going places, leisure travelers have to make up the difference. “Either the price we pay for hotel rooms, rental cars and airline tickets — especially airline tickets — will have to go up, or we’re going to see some big names in the travel industry go down,” Elliot said.

Have you noticed prices going up when you are planning your vacations?

One of my favorite travel rituals is reading the International Herald Tribune. The other day I was flying home from Lisbon when I saw a story about how the travel industry is trying new approaches to get people to travel again. One approach is a 90 minute “movie” called “Caymen Went.” Produced by an advertising agency with the support of the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism, the film is apparently a promotional video wrapped in a loose story line.  The movie opened in three cities earlier this month to little fanfare and will be available on DVD this fall, with the hopes of stirring up interest for the winter travel season. While the idea of making a movie purely as an advertising vehicle struck me as a bit of a stretch, it did get me thinking about the role of actual movies in tourism. I lived in Salzburg, Austria and can tell you that its single biggest ambassador to America–beyond Mozart, beyond the Alps–is “The Sound of Music.” From Fellini’s films about Italy to Woody Allen’s love songs to Manhattan, movies sell places. Has a movie ever inspired you to go somewhere?