Summer vacations are coming up. Our family has been talking about a couple of trips this summer while the kids are out of school. The kids especially are very excited about this summer because of these trips.

We’ll be writing more about some of the choices we’ve made as we get closer to these trips. Our focus not only consists of family friendly activities, but how it impacts our environment and our carbon footprint. Some of the choices we’ve made are easy when it comes to the environment. Others however, may not have many “green” options at this time.

We’re pleased however that there’s still something we (and you) can do to reduce our carbon footprint this summer.

While we’re very excited about the promise of biofuels in the skies above – it’s industry wide application is still years away. In the meantime, there’s a very viable option available now that will help support renewable alternatives and reduce your carbon footprint no matter where you decide to vacation this summer.

We’ve known about Carbon offsets for some time. They’re investments in projects that reduce or avoid carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. The more we support companies that invests in these resources and technology, the quicker we’ll see an overall adoption of cleaner more sustainable alternatives.

For example, if you happen to be flying somewhere this summer you can purchase a carbon offset for your flight that’s designed to to balance out any emissions your trip will produce while traveling. The same can be done if you’re driving somewhere this summer too.

Purchasing an offset like this provides investments and change in the way power is made. It also helps reduce carbon emission. If you do a little research into Green Mountain, (the company that your investing in when you purchase these offsets), they’ve helped avoid more than 11.3 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions since 1997. That’s like taking 52 million cars off the road for a week – or 473 million households turning off their lights for a week – or 478 million trees would absorb in one year.

Every little bit helps and the more people actually know they can do something like this – the quicker we’ll all be able to enjoy clean – renewable energy that makes a difference. It’s simply the right thing to do.

The best part about it for us and some of the trips we have planned is that no matter how we decide to transport ourselves via land or air, we can do our part in supporting green alternatives.

For us – it’s going to make our summer vacations all that much more enjoyable.

We hope you’ll not only do – but promote the same.

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There has been much debate and confusion about the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative and requirements for Passports when traveling outside of the US. So much so, many of the trade magazines that I subscribe to (Agent at Home, Travel Weekly, and Vacation Agent) have dedicated entire articles to keep us informed in an effort to keep our clients informed about what’s going on. Confusion about the program’s deadlines caused panicked travelers to swamp passport offices, which quickly became overwhelmed by a volume of passport applications for which officials were unprepared. Eventually relenting to all the backlash from both business travelers and those that would have to cancel personal vacations, a proposal was adopted and passed to let U.S. residents and citizens arriving at airports from travel in Canada, Mexico, Bermuda or the Caribbean region re-enter the United States if they could show they had simply applied for passports.

Initially, the drop dead date was January 1st, 2007, but when both the cruise industry, and US Government realized that literally millions of Americans still did not possess the proper Passport for travel outside of the US, our current Administration postponed the date until today, October 1st, 2007. If you are planning a trip outside of the country past today via air travel, you need to have a passport in hand in order to get back into this country if traveling outside of the US.

I have to admit, what they feared was true due to many of our clients applying for and waiting anywhere from 6 to 9 weeks, sometimes even longer for their passports to be processed and in the hands of our clients. The US Department of State experienced a backlog of some 18 Million applications being processed over the last several months and times have been very stressful both for us as Agents, and our clients who were traveling abroad.

If you find yourself stuck without realizing that you need a passport or yours has not arrived due to the backlog with everyone else scrambling you can have your Passports Expedited for a nominal charge.

As a Travel Agent I know there are still some loopholes when traveling outside of the US via land and sea ports right now, but that will soon change and as your travel agent, you should have one anyway, so do yourself a favor, put this whole mess behind you and get a passport for yourself and your family so that when you do have a chance to travel outside of the US, you’re ready.

PS - If you're involved with YTB, sign up for our FREE Newsletter. As a Website Owner or Website Seller, we'll keep you up to date with all the latest news, acquisitions, and developments with YTB.

PPS - Subscribe to the Just Picture It Now RSS feed, (including e-mail) for all the latest posts and updates found right here!

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