“Tripipedia: Sleek, stylish ... Motel 6? - San Jose Mercury News” plus 1 more

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Tripipedia: Sleek, stylish ... Motel 6? - San Jose Mercury News Posted: 21 Mar 2010 12:04 AM PDT Style on a budget Forget the five-star hotels. Ditto the sleek boutique inns. Motel 6 was just crowned the winner for best room design by Travel & Leisure magazine. Yes, Motel 6, as in "We'll leave the light on for you." Make that ambient lighting. The budget hotel rooms recently debuted their new "Phoenix" look. Highlights include faux-wood floors, pedestal beds, wood entertainment centers with flat-screen televisions and black granite countertops and walk-in showers in the bathrooms. As Travel & Leisure summed it up: "Bright color on the walls and lots of rounded-off corners and beveled edges make for a fresh, pop-modern look." Skinny on new exhibit The Museum of Modern Art in New York is going skin to skin. In an exhibit generating a lot of buzz, two nude performers stand inches apart in a doorway of the exhibit "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present" by the Yugoslavian-born Abramovic. Visitors then must decide if they are willing to walk between the naked performers to enter the exhibit. Abramovic is known for works of art that make people squeamish. Also on display are a nude performer lying under a skeleton and a nude woman on a bicycle seat. The exhibit runs through May 31. Details: www.moma.org. Waterfall wonders Although the Big Island checks in with the most, Maui leads the pack in the Top 10 Waterfalls of Hawaii as selected by the WorldofWaterfalls.com. 1. Waimoku Falls, Maui (pictured) 2. Akaka Falls, Big Island 3. Papalaua Falls, Molokai 4. Wailua Falls, Kauai 5. Umauma Falls, Big Island 6. Sacred Falls, Oahu 7. Rainbow Falls, Big Island 8. Moaula Falls, Molokai 9. Seven Sacred Pools, Maui 10. Hanakapiai Falls, Kauai Before you disembark Forget the create-your-own-towel-animal book from Carnival, Princess Reflections Souvenir video and Celebrity-exclusive water safe. For the sixth year running, the "Best Cruise Souvenir" award goes to the Torguga Rum Cakes, as selected by Porthole Cruise Magazine editors. The No. 1 export of the Cayman Islands, the rum cakes are sold in onboard gift shops of more than 100 cruise ships sailing the Caribbean. — Ann Tatko-Peterson Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

United Airlines open to mergers: CFO - Reuters Posted: 23 Feb 2010 07:39 AM PST NEW YORK (Reuters) - United Airlines (UAUA.O) is open to merging with U.S. or foreign carriers as the industry is "poised for consolidation," the airline's chief financial officer said on Tuesday. Deals "UAL has been supportive of consolidation for a long time," CFO Kathryn Mikells said at the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit in New York. "It is something we will continue to look at." Mikells declined to comment on whether United's parent company, UAL Inc, was in talks with other carriers, but added that the airline is seeking more alliances, especially in regions such as South America and Brazil. In 2008, sources told Reuters that United was in talks with Continental Airlines (CAL.N) and U.S. Airways (LCC.N) about a possible merger with either company. Mikells declined to comment on whether those talks had resumed. She said barriers preventing foreign airlines from entering the U.S. market were blocking global consolidation at a time when airlines needed scale. Current U.S. law restricts foreign ownership of U.S. airlines to 25 percent of voting stock. "Clearly, outside of the U.S., consolidation is underway," Mikells said. "Not being able to participate in that in a more material way just really positions the U.S. companies detrimentally relative to international carriers. "We are hopeful as we move into this recovery period ... that folks will focus again on the fact that we need to have the same ability to make changes in our industry as other industries clearly have," she said, referring to sectors such as autos and technology. INDUSTRY LOSSES The airline industry has lost $50 billion in the past 10 years, including $11 billion in 2009 alone, according to the International Air Transport Association. The trade group expects the industry to take at least three years to recover from the slump in demand caused by the recession. Mikells said United was seeking more alliances and was planning to eke out more cost savings from current partnerships, which typically focus on sharing revenue. "We are now focusing more on the cost side by co-locating at airports, sharing IT systems, doing joint investments in information technology," she said. When asked if the 2008 merger between Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) and Northwest Airlines had made the combined carrier a stronger competitor, Mikells said the market had spoken: Delta's current market capitalization is nearly $10 billion, about twice that of United and Continental Airlines combined. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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