Tours More Profitable Than Furs for Canada

Canada’s harp-seal viewing season--which begins in about a week and lasts through mid-March when the pups shed their white coats--is big business for Canada. In fact, according to a just-released study, as a tourist attraction the seals are making more money than they ever did as coats. Seal-watching earned Canada an estimated $1.2 million in 1992, according to the study conducted by Ontario researcher Duncan Campbell. (During peak income-producing years prior to 1983, sealing for pelts earned Canada’s Magdalen Islands an estimated $40,000 per year, according to David Lavigne, zoology professor at the University of Guelph, Ontario, and an expert on harp seals.) The new study, paid for by the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Massachusetts, found that of roughly 700 tourists visiting the seals in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence islands in 1992, only 10% were Canadians. The rest were from the United States, Japan, Britain, France, the Netherlands and Germany. Most go to the Magdalen Islands on wildlife tours that include nature lectures and sometimes outdoor activities such as cross-country skiing. Although there is no longer commercial hunting because the government has stopped issuing new commercial sealing licenses, it is still legal for local islanders to kill the harp seal pups, known as “whitecoats.” An estimated 50,000-60,000 pups are still hunted yearly.

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Travel Quiz: What two countries does the Tasman Sea separate?

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Warning Against Travel to Colombia: The U.S. State Department has issued a recommendation that U.S. citizens avoid travel to Colombia until further notice. A spate of bombings--more than a dozen during a two-week period in late January and early February--prompted the warning. Violence continues to affect a significant portion of the country and has recently increased in the cities of Medellin and Bogota, where most tourists and business travelers go. The U.S. Embassy in Bogata has declared the Zona Rosa area, the main shopping, dining and hotel area in Bogata, off-limits to U.S. government personnel. Also off-limits are night clubs, sporting events, all crowded public places and road travel outside the Bogota metropolitan area.

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New Vienna Flights: The first direct air service from LAX to Vienna, Austria, with a stopover in Munich, will start March 28. Ironically, the new 14-hour, 10-minute flight, a cooperation between Lufthansa and the Austrian airline Lauda Air, will take longer than the existing Lufthansa connecting flight, which requires a change of planes in Frankfurt. That trip takes 13 hours, 30 minutes; the new route involves a slower aircraft that sits on the ground in Munich a bit longer. A special introductory fare of $498 round trip to Vienna (or Munich), offered on the new direct service until May 31, may make up for the longer air time. After May 31, round-trip air fare will rise to $848. Fares on the Lufthansa connecting flight via Frankfurt currently start at $748.

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Smithsonian Installs Donation Boxes: Starting in late March, the Smithsonian Institution--which has been free to visitors since its first exhibition opened in about 1860--will install donation boxes in four of its 16 Washington, D.C., museums and at the National Zoo. Officials stress that the institution has no plans to charge admission and promise there will be no pressure for anyone to put money in the boxes. Unlike other museums that “suggest” donations of specific amounts, the Smithsonian’s boxes will be unmanned and not located near the doors of the museums. The institution, which includes the National Air and Space Museum, Museum of American Art, National Portrait Gallery and Anacostia Museum, all in Washington, has been hurt by the recession and has seen a decline in profits from its stores and membership programs, according to an official. Private donations have decreased, and federal funding has not kept pace with expenses.

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Offices Open in Slovakia: American Express has opened five new travel offices in the new country of Slovakia, formerly part of Czechoslovakia. They are located in Bratislava, the capital, as well as Piestany, Zilina, Poprad and Kosice. The offices offer American Express travel and financial services to visitors and bring the total number of American Express travel offices in former Eastern European states to 30. An office in Prague, the capital of the new Czech Republic, opened one year ago.

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A Step Back in Time: The introduction of Daylight Savings Time in Mexico, which was to have begun this year, has been postponed until the spring of 1994 to allow officials to work out problems with work hours and airline and school schedules. The time change, which is an effort to save energy, will probably start the first Sunday in April and last until the first Sunday in October, according to a government spokesman.

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Frequent Euroflyers: Two recent surveys of frequent-flying business travelers--one in Europe, the other in the United States--seem to show subtle differences in the way different nationalities approach business travel. Swiss, Scandinavian and British business people are the most likely to do additional work when they reach their hotel rooms--more than 80% work in their rooms--according to a survey by Frequent Flyer magazine. Meanwhile, 65% of their German colleagues typically will be found working out in hotel health clubs, while a similar number of business travelers from Mediterranean countries will be out on the town exploring and enjoying it. Another difference: More than 80% of frequent flyers from Scandinavian countries, Britain and Germany reported that travel adversely affects family life, while those from Switzerland and Mediterranean countries believe that frequent travel improves their lives. The surveys of more than 20,000 travelers questioned at major airports around the world were conducted by two magazines: Frequent Flyer in the United States and Business Traveller in Europe.

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Comparatively Speaking: Cost for a 20-stop, or about six-mile, ride by bus, streetcar or subway in Copenhagen: $2.46. In Toronto: 99 cents. In Hong Kong: 77 cents. In Nairobi: 20 cents. In Bombay: 9 cents. (Source: Union Bank of Switzerland.)

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Quiz Answer: Australia and New Zealand.