National Parks Pass - Another Way to Stretch a Dollar

The financial crisis, the housing crisis and the jobs crisis have made things very tough over the last 18 months for many families. Most people have to figure out how to do more, with less income, while still dealing with general instability. That said, life does not stop; people still have to find something to do to fill their weekends and vacations. The trick is figuring out something that will not break the bank, in addition to finding inexpensive ways to travel or lodge. My suggestion; visit the National Parks and Monuments of the United States. That is exactly what I did with my family over Spring Break this year.

We decided to take a week and visit the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion Canyon; called the Canyon Loop by some, as you can visit all three by driving in a big circle. While doing our research we discovered that the entrance fee for all of the parks was about $25 per vehicle. Doing some quick Math, we figured out that we could spend another $5 ($80 total) and get an annual pass for all 462 National Parks and Monuments in the country. Not only was this a no-brainer, for this one week trip, it really makes sense for everyone to do. Consider this; many of us live within an hour of at least 1 National Park or Monument.

With 52 weekends in a year, traveling an hour or two is nothing when trying to entertain the kids, or impress a person you just started dating. Now add, at least, 2 weeks of vacation and a number of national holidays each year, and most of us have the chance to drive the few hours it would take to reach far more than 3 parks or monuments in a year. When you consider dinner and a movie is going to run you at least $40, an annual pass to see some of the most amazing things on the planet for $80 is a drop in the bucket.

We started our trip at the Grand Canyon, looped up to Bryce for two days, and came back to finish in Zion. We flew to Las Vegas where we rented a van to start the first leg of our trip and spent the next week driving the Canyon Loop to all three parks. During the 7 days and 15 hours of driving, we came within an hour of 7 additional National Parks and Monuments that our annual pass would have gotten us access to. Take a look at Google Maps the next time you are planning a vacation, I am sure your route will take you within a stone’s throw of a few parks yourself.

The America the Beautiful National Park Pass is very easy to obtain. You can order it on-line at this link: http://store.usgs.gov/pass/index.html. Or, to make sure you squeeze every day out of your pass, you can pick one up at the entrance of the first park you visit. In addition to the America the Beautiful Pass, there is also a great deal for seniors. For just $10, seniors (age 62 and older) can obtain the America the Beautiful Senior Pass. This is a lifetime pass for all National Parks and Monuments. My father in law has this pass and uses it often.

What does the pass get you? In addition to covering the park entrance, there are a number of additional benefits the pass offers. Some of these benefits include Ranger Walks, Special Park Shows, Park Museums and access to park trams and busses which we used in Zion. The Pass is good for 3 adults (related or not) in areas that require a per person fee, and will get 2 motorcycles into the park of your choice. The pass gains you access to federal lands run by the following agencies:

• Bureau of Land Management http://www.blm.gov
• Bureau of Reclamation http://www.usbr.gov
• Fish & Wildlife Service http://www.fws.gov
• USDA Forest Service http://www.fs.fed.us
• National Park Service http://www.nps.gov
• Federal Recreation lands http://www.recreation.gov
• National Atlas (lands maps) http://www.nationalatlas.gov/printable.html#fedlands

Not only is the National Parks pass a great deal for individuals and families, it is a great way to chip in and help keep these parks open for continued enjoyment. These rough economic times that are affecting each of us are also affecting these beautiful parks. We cannot trust our politicians to keep these places open during rough times. However, the purchase of a National Parks Pass by a few of us can help to guarantee continued enjoyment of these beautiful places for all of us. Personally, I plan on using my annual pass to visit Pinnacles National Park and Yosemite before my year ends. I really hope you will consider one also.

Darrin Underwood
Contributor
Sherpa Travel Exchange

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$3 Diet Cokes and Volcanoes... and Government Regulation

The recent, and largely unpronounceable, Icelandic volcano eruption got me thinking about just how wacky the airline business has become. True, commercial airlines have perhaps the most unattractive business model of them all. I mean, you have to contend with airplanes that cost millions of dollars a month to lease, fluctuating fuel prices, huge labor costs, unions, disgruntled employees, and a customer base that's almost always in a hurry. That's a recipe for unhappy customers. Why anyone would want to start a commercial airline is beyond me (I'm looking at you Jet Blue).  The risk vs. reward just isn't there.


Maybe their backwards business model makes it hard for the airlines to find clear thinking business analysts. Case in point, the $3 Diet Coke. Most of us can remember a time when the flight attendants passed out bags of pretzels and peanuts as if they were in endless supply. We didn't question the generosity because deep down we all knew that we were paying for those peanuts and 8 ounce beverages.  We should have seen the writing on the wall when we were asked to pay to stay warm ($7 blankets!). But no, they just had to push us to the brink of exasperation.


Well, that happened to me on a recent Delta flight to Atlanta where I was prompted for $3 for my Diet Coke. I hadn't flown on Delta for quite some time.  Being from California, I generally fly Southwest everywhere, where your 8 oz. beverage is included in the cost of your flight. I couldn't believe I was being asked to pay for a Diet Coke. It just didn't make sense.  So, I got to thinking about how a big business that, presumably, employs lots of smart people could make such a dumb decision as to charge their passengers for a beverage when most other airlines don't charge.


This got me thinking about Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). A frequent flyer, such as myself, can be extremely valuable to an airline. Hence, all the frequent flyer/rewards programs.  Let's just say that my CLV is $500k to an airline like Delta. Just how many $3 Diet Cokes do you need to sell to replace me as a lifetime customer? I'll tell you.  You need to sell at least 166,666 Diet Cokes to replace ONE customer who has defected to another airline due to this violation of my perceived rights to a beverage.  That's right, you need to sell almost 200,000 Diet Cokes to replace *one* customer. This doesn't even take into account the costs associated with procuring the Diet Coke from their supplier and the labor costs associated with transporting and delivering the Diet Coke to my cramped airline seat. When you account for those costs, Delta might need to sell more than 400k Diet Cokes to replace me as a customer.


When I asked a Delta representative for an explanation, he made the classy move (sic) of essentially blaming the customers for this change.  In so many words he said that the price sensitivity of airline travelers and the high competition makes every dollar on the quoted fare price to be critically important. There's got to be a better way to streamline costs without having to nickle and dime passengers who expect a beverage to be included in their fare cost.  RyanAir in Europe is completely transparent about their pricing model.  You pay for everything and you might even be bombarded with advertising on the plane.  In exchange, you can buy tickets from Dublin to Rome for less than $50.  That seems like a more customer friendly model.


With all the talk here in America about "big government" and the perils of market regulation, I can't help but thinking that the romanticism of flying died after airlines were deregulated and allowed to run each other out of business. Maybe regulated markets are so bad after all.  That is, as long as I get my Diet Coke at no additional cost...


Russ


Russ Hearl
CEO & Co-Founder
Sherpa Travel Exchange, LLC
601 Van Ness Ave, Suite E-208
San Francisco, CA 94102

www.staysherpa.com

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The "Social Rush": How Twitter and Facebook change social travel (Part 1 of 3)

By Russ Hearl, CEO and Co-Founder, Sherpa Travel Exchange, http://www.staysherpa.com/

This is the first post in a three part series on the intersection of travel and social networking.

Is it just me or does it seem like everyone and their brother is claiming to be a social media "expert"?  Just because one uses Facebook or Twitter doesn't make that person an expert.  Individuals and businesses are rapidly trying to figure out how to "leverage" the power of the social networks.  Candidly, this means they are trying to figure out how to market and sell you stuff now that they know a whole lot more about you than they could have ever known prior to you providing such wonderful information about your likes/dislikes and general whereabouts.  

Like the California Gold Rush, there's now what I call a "Social Rush" of enterprising intermediaries attempting to stake their claim in the social travel landscape. It's been said that very few of the gold crazed 49ers became rich from their prospecting efforts.  Rather, the entrepreneurs that provided the implements with which to search for gold (such as pix axes, shovels, hotels and food) were the ones to actually strike it rich and set the stage for a dramatically altered economic landscape.

A similar phenomena is playing out in the social travel space (By my definition, social travel is the intersection of community and travel).  Fortunately for us travelers there are dozens, if not hundreds, of businesses being started at this moment that seek to provide the foundation and value added services needed to increase the availability of supply while driving down prices. In the end, the real winners will be the travelers who benefit from a greater variety of travel accommodations and destination services at a far lower cost.  The burgeoning social travel movement will make travel generally more affordable around the world and will enable greater numbers of people to explore this amazing planet.

Let's first discuss the democratization of markets and how social travel will democratize established institutions:

The efficiency and productivity gains brought by the internet touched almost every corner of our post-industrial society. Unfettered and free access to information has proven to be the great equalizer that has broken down bureaucratic silos and even the most militaristic of institutional hierarchies.  It would be hard to argue against the fact that the internet has squashed outdated business models and reduced barriers to entry; thereby allowing enterprising people to reach huge audiences through the distribution power of the internet. 

YouTube offers the most visible example of the democratization of markets.  YouTube wasn't the first user-generated video site, but it quickly became the most widely used because it gave video content providers an open platform for distribution. Before long, anyone with a camera could broadcast their video and quickly build a massive audience.

"Deal of the day" sites also built massive audiences in unbelievably short periods of time.  Groupon, for example, started in late 2008 and is rumored to have more than 2 million members receiving deals of the day via email.  This $100 million business was built virtually overnight through crowdsourcing.  Zynga is another great example of a business that was built entirely on the backs of the social networks.  Their inescapable and addictive FarmVille and MafiaWars game are a ubiquitous reminder of just how rapidly a business can scale an audience when they leverage an open platform distribution technology like Facebook or Twitter. There's never been a point in history where the "little guy" had so much power to democratize markets and build a significant following.

Social travel has manifested itself in community-oriented sites like Couchsurfing, GlobalFreeloaders and Tripping.com to name a few.  These sites offer hosts and travelers an opportunity to engage in a cultural/hospitality exchange for little to no money.  I've used all three sites and think they're really great, but they risk falling victim to the same problems that beset computing giants such as DEC and Sun: Proprietary standards and walled-garden technologies lead people to search for ways to break down those walls. 

This is where the massive distribution power and reach of sites like Facebook and Twitter have the opportunity to transcend mere content syndication used by most social travel sites in the name of 'viral marketing.' Simply offering apps via the social networks to enable travelers to book a flight or find a couch to crash on is not enough and really only supports a quasi-walled garden approach to serving a massive market for travel services. Ultimately, I believe stand-alone social travel networks will be usurped by more organic, open communities that are accessible from all corners of the internet, rather than via a destination site.

Part two of this three part series on social travel will discuss how innovative entrepreneurs are building organic social networks as a way to dramatically increase the size of the social travel distribution pipe.

Russ Hearl

CEO & Co-Founder

Sherpa Travel Exchange, LLC

601 Van Ness Ave, Suite E-208

San Francisco, CA 94102

russ.hearl@staysherpa.com

http://www.staysherpa.com/

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