By Andrea Gesumaria, Donne Tempo Magazine
WOMAN ON THE MOVE
Newsweek reports that the average American traveler is now a 47 year old woman, according to the Adventure Travel Society. “It’s a woman’s world,” declares the news magazine.
Accoding to the article, women now make up fifty percent of the solo traveler market, and their journeys to foreign destination are often “spiritual,” as opposed to men, who crave “action” with their traveling.
Furthermore, “Girlfriend’s Getaways”- trips where women travel in groups with their female friends- have exploded in popularity. The number of women-only travel companies has increased 230 percent since 1993. The number of multigenerational women traveling together has increased as well,
FEEDING THE WORLD
SEE RELATED:
Forbes Magazine Online reports that ending bans on agricultural exports would cut global prices for some staple foods down by thirty percent, according to a food policy researcher in Brussels, Belgium.
In recent months, food prices worldwide have skyrocketed because of growing demand from developing nations and poor harvests. Countries such as China, Pakistan, and Argentina have banned grain imports to ease the price pressure on their own people. However, researcher Joachim von Braun of the International Food Policy Institute say that this measure is counterproductive because it fuels speculation that there will be a worldwide grain shortage and drives grain prices up even higher.
YOU SAY TOMATO, I SAY….
The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has reported that tomatoes may not be the culprit of the salmonella outbreak after all. The FDA said it will begin conducting research on other fresh produce commonly served with tomatoes.
The FDA has set up an emergency network of food laboratories across the nation in order to cope with the large amount of produce that it plans to test. While the FDA chief of food safety Dr. David Acheson admits that “tomatoes aren’t off the hook,” his team of researchers seeks to find the culprit behind the 869 reported cases of salmonella that have hit American consumers since April.
ONE IS THE LONLIEST NUMBER
It costs to fly single, according to writer Chris Elliot, Tribune Media Services for The Chron. In a recent article about travel discrimination, Christopher Elliott reports that single travelers oftentimes pay double the price of their coupled peers for the same accommodations.
Some of the complaints of single passengers included inflated prices for singles on cruise ships; cramped, dingy quarters for the same price as a double room; and an uncomfortable, discriminatory attitude that many single travelers say makes it “awkward” to travel alone.
