Those plastic keycards we’re all used to are made with polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which releases a very toxic chemical called dioxin, and PVC is difficult to recycle, according to Greenpeace. Studies have linked dioxin to health problems and more and more reports are surfacing about its harmful effects. Keep your eyes peeled for the year-old invention, it may just be the key to a greener hotel stay.

Photo: courtesy of Cadmus/The Whitehall Group

Subscribe to this blog’s feed

But the images, created at least one thousand years ago, have been endangered in the last several years by dust kicked up by industrial traffic related to the development of natural gas nearby. Recently, a proposal to add 800 more natural gas wells to the project would increase the traffic fourfold and was met with concern by the National Trust, the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition, and other groups. The area has been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places, and the trust created this YouTube video to spread the word about the rock art’s plight:

While pursuing natural gas (the cleanest-burning fossil fuel) is a worthy cause, it shouldn’t come at the expense of a priceless collection of rock art. Canyon advocates hope that an alternate route can be agreed upon so that the integrity of this beautiful natural monument will be maintained.

Have you visited Nine Mile Canyon? What do you think?

Any talk of visiting Chicago in February may seem like a cruel joke to travelers, but the Windy City’s taking advantage of its chilly weather to present a public art project that wouldn’t be possible in, say, the Grenadines.

Canadian artist Gordon Halloran‘s “Paintings Below Zero” is the centerpiece of the Museum of Modern Ice in downtown’s Millenium Park through February 29.

The work is an impressive, 95-foot long, 12-foot-high sheet of ice that constantly changes shape and texture as it melts and refreezes. Known locally as “The Popsicle,” Paintings Below Zero was quite a feat to create. The Chicago Tribune reports:

His slabs of ice, which he and his crew created over a month at a Fulton Market cold-storage warehouse, where temperatures hovered around 4 degrees Fahrenheit, carry patterns created by experiments with pigments, crystal structure and embedded shards of different colors.

Halloran envisions the wall as a receding glacier, cracking into shards and melting into the ocean.

In addition to the Tribune’ s extensive photo and video coverage, the Museum of Modern Ice has a lot of resources for learning about the art from photo galleries

and a schedule of events. Also, check out their blog for inside information from the production crew about how they maintain the sculpture.

The project is based on a similar work originally commissioned for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy.

And if you’re there to see the art but need to keep moving to stay warm, rent a pair of skates and do a triple axel over Halloran’s painting, embedded underneath the McCormick Tribune Ice Rink.

Thanks for the tip, AreWeThereYet?!

Photos: Jennifer Wilkinson

Subscribe to this blog’s feed

A patchwork of color is popping up on historic barns all over the country, and the trend is a boon for rural tourism. Our friends at American Style report on the grassroots art movement of barn quilts:

Colorfully painted quilt squares have appeared on barns throughout eastern Kentucky, often representing traditional, local patterns. The local electric company even lends its equipment to mount the panels. State arts organizations are now working to organize the effort, in hopes of driving tourism to rural areas.

Barn quilts—colorful painted blocks eight feet square or larger—started in Ohio in 2001, reports Agriculture Online, and can now be found through Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, North Dakota, and North Carolina. Oh, and several counties in Iowa, too.

Many projects are sponsored by community groups like the Buffalo Gals Homemakers of Stamping Ground, Kentucky, and have generated local news coverage. Some, such as the Appalachian Quilt Trail sponsored by the Alliance for American Quilts, the Clinch-Powell Resource Conservation and Development Council, and the Kentucky Quilt Trails, are perfectly tailored for the tourist looking for a scenic Sunday drive. To see more quilt barns check out these Flickr photos or the quilted barns photo pool, also on Flickr.

America has been losing its historic agricultural buildings for decades, writes the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The number of farms has been slashed by two-thirds since the 1920s. “Literally millions of barns and other agricultural structures have lost their original reason for existing.”

Not only are these quilt squares lovely to look at and interpret, they are helping to preserve a piece of American heritage.

Photos: Top, tnserose; right Citizen110.

Subscribe to this blog’s feed

For five full minutes on January 31, 2008, a historic transit hub trafficked by more than half a million people each day became a hall of statues. Instead of looking at the cerulean and gold leaf ceiling or Tennessee marble floors, visitors to the station unwittingly became part of a grand social experiment.

Causing scenes since 2001, the Improv Everywhere team may seem like mere pranksters. But their “missions” are also attempts to make people “stop to notice the world around them.” 

Anyone can sign up to particpate in one of their larger or more missions such as the annual No Pants! Subway Ride, by joining their mailing list.

Whether you’re participating in the mission or happen to be an innocent bystander, this can be a fantastic way to experience a city. Plus,

they’ve gone global, and local improv groups are sprouting up from Houston to Helsinki.

Subscribe to this blog’s feed

It’s cold as anything here in the nation’s capital and we’re dreaming of unspoiled Caribbean beaches, so we’d like to give a shout out to the Grenadines. While some sustainable-tourism panelists argued that cruise culture is taking its toll on the island chain, the Grenadines scored a decent 77 on our Destinations Rated: Islands survey, putting it in the top 20 best islands and tied with Dominica for the top Caribbean island.

So where are they and how soon can we get there?

The Grenadine chain includes 600 islands (many uninhabited) covering about 60 miles in the West Indies, namely St. Vincent, Bequia, Mustique, Canouan, Mayreau, and Union Island. In the north, the islands are part of the nation known as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, while southern islands such as Carriacou are incorporated into Grenada.

And now for the goods. Our sustainable tourism experts said:

Beautiful destination for yachting and high-end tourists. Water is scarce so resources must be carefully managed. Good environmental awareness among the local population, who guard their islands zealously. Yachting discharge into the ocean is a problem. Given their fragility, there is need for strict development controls. Otherwise, attractive, friendly people, and good quality of life.

Another panelist bemoaned the behavior exhibited by visitors, especially cruisers:

Visitors are not sensitive to their impact on the environment, especially marine. Many yachties do not see themselves as being ‘on

the destination, and is even truer of cruise ships, which boost arrival numbers while doing little for the islands’ economies.

Ouch! But, to end on a happier note, another expert added:

One of the last, best hopes of the Caribbean. Bequia is a gem and the Tobago Cays, though overrun with boats, remain the best place to snorkel in the region. The only inauthentic place is Mustique and the two private resort islands.

Ever been? What’s your take?

Photo: junksnowgirl via Flickr

The hotel is the only place in the city that collects used cooking oil. The ingenious process is good for the planet, saves thousands of dollars in fuel costs, and rids local companies of the headache of disposing of used oil, which they used to have to ship to the lower 48 states for removal, creating an added expense.

For nearly two years the hotel has collected about 200 gallons a week from McDonald’s and other restaurants and hotels in town. That added up to 10,000 gallons last year, Andy Krone, chief engineer at the Baranof, told IT. "It’s a good thing for the business community," said Krone. "It saves us money and its good for the environment." Most guests don’t even know that they’re being kept warm by the grease left in the fast food fryer.

Baranof’s Gold Room Restaurant, which also donates its oil, offers one of the more upscale experiences in town. It was dubbed the "only black tie restaurant in Juneau,” by one TripAdvisor

user:

The Gold Room has a delicious menu with nightly specials and something for every taste. My favorites are the Parmesan halibut, the duck with marionberry sauce and the portabello. Of course, you can’t go wrong with a steak. So, for being the only choice it is a good choice.

Hot tip: On your birthday the meal is free! They also have the cleanest public restrooms in Juneau.

The hotel is also taking other measures to reduce its impact and cut down on costs. They adjusted ventilation so as not to use as much heat and are in the process of changing over to CFL lightbulbs, said Krone. Overall, "Its actually a pretty simple thing to do."

Thanks Green Lodging News, for the tip.

Photo: Baranof Hotel courtesy of Holland America Line

Natchitoches, Louisiana is famous for its meat pies. It’s also where the movie Steel Magnolias was filmed.

We’ve been excited to see of a growing number of states promoting tourism through culinary trails. These tours offer a “taste” of each region’s recipes, and are quickly cropping up across the country.

In Indiana, a state where both Wonder Bread was born (in 1921) and Johnny Appleseed was known to roam, you can dine like a local on the Hoosier Pie Trail, one of several trails sponsored by the Indiana Foodways Alliance. Lancaster County in Pennsylvania Dutch Country has the Ale Trail and the Sweet n’ Salty Trail, among others, and Canandaigua, New York, jumped on the bandwagon with a tour of local wineries and farmer’s markets. Madison, Wisconsin, is planning eight culinary trails, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. And the International Culinary Tourism Association will hold a symposium

in New England this April, with the planning of regional and state food trails a major goal of the meeting. We could go on and on. And we will. Because frankly, this is exciting.

After its restaurant scene made an impressive, post-Katrina comeback, Louisiana is planning a culinary trail, reports CNN. “We’re having a ball with it,” J. Gary Ellis told IT. An ICTA board member and president of Compass Marketing, Ellis was one of the architects of the Louisiana trails program. The food tours will include “culinary assets from all over the state,” from five-star restaurants to roadside po’boy stands, says Ellis.

Louisiana will partner with Foodtrekker.com, a new site sponsored by the ICTA that’s currently in Beta and will launch officially in March.

And it’s not just tourism boards that are offering resources for foodie travelers: SustainableTable.org’s Eat Well Guided Tour Across America

visited farms, markets, and restaurants that “serve local, in-season, sustainably-produced food all across the country.” Highlights include the delectable-sounding Pie Across America project.

Sure, as with any fad, some of the trails might be the result of hollow marketing spin, plugging only the restaurants that can pay to be listed. But we have a feeling that many of them will highlight under-the-radar places like Cricket’s Tavern off I-69 in the Northwest Indiana town of Auburn. Here, pork shanks are served up in an 1890 saloon with tin ceilings and a down home atmosphere. Probably not the kind of place you might find on your own. If organized with care and attention to regional heritage, these culinary trails could lead to authentic travel experiences that give visitors a true flavor of local life. Stay tuned.   

Photo: The Louisiana Office of Tourism

It’s no longer just Cat Stevens “dreaming about the world as one.” IT recently came across an organization with a mission “based on a vision of the world’s largest industry, travel and tourism – becoming the world’s first global peace industry; and the belief that every traveler is potentially an ‘Ambassador for Peace’.”

Founded more than 20 years, ago, the Vermont-based International Institute For Peace Through Tourism does a great job of encapsulating all that travel is and can be, when done thoughtfully and with an eye toward spreading goodwill.

For inspiration, they’ve written the Credo of the Peaceful Traveler. You can also book trips through their tour company, World Peace Travel, whose offerings include a tour of the Kingdom of Bhutan, visiting the Muscat Festival in Oman, or the Abrahamic Faith Tour of holy sites in Israel and Jordan.

The institute also sponsors conferences, gives awards, and recognizes charities such as Just a Drop and Airline Ambassadors.

We’ve long known that travel is big business, and it’s nice to see an organization that sees it as much, much more.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of the Most Endangered Places of 2007, is a surprising amalgam of old and new, from historic motels along Route 66 to a racecourse in Florida. Here are just a few of the threatened sites and some ideas on what travelers and concerned citizens can do to offset the damage.

Many of the historic structures in Missouri’s sprawling Mark Twain National Forest are being threatened by a new development plan that puts little emphasis on historic preservation. The 1.5 million-acre forest was first planted by men from President Roosevelt’s Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps.

The industrial waterfront in Brooklyn, New York, home to the city’s shipping heritage, is also at risk. “Historic dockyards and factories are being demolished by developers anxious to cash in on the area’s newly hip status,” writes the Trust on its site.

A shortage of funds and staff limit the visitor services at The Minidoka Internment Camp, a national monument in Hunt, Idaho. The site is a stark reminder of the more than 120,000 Japanese Americans who were forced into labor camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and includes a rock garden made by the internees. Another problem is the proposed industrial farm nearby that would have tremendous environmental consequences on the surrounding area, as this primer from the Trust details.

To aid in the preservation of these and other sites around the country, the National Trust is asking for contributions, but there are also other ways to help. Passport in Time, a volunteer project of the USDA Forest Service, is a great way for people to get involved in conservation projects around the country (varying from two days to two weeks or more). Help landscape a national forest, work with archaeologists, gather oral histories, and more.

If your interest is in small cities and towns, get involved with the Main Street Center to revitalize a commercial district, or if you’re a country bumpkin, check out activities in rural areas such as the BARN AGAIN! program. And for some good news, turn to the growing list of success stories about places where cultural heritage tourism is alive and well.

Photo: Terminal Market in Greenpoint, Brooklyn after a devastating fire. Credit: Giles Ashford

Subscribe to this blog’s feed