Up Front With Martin B. Deutsch for 1990

December 1: IN DEFENSE OF DEREGULATION
The Up Front column in August was dedicated to a dissection of airline deregulation by Dr. Paul S. Dempsey and the undersigned. Not surprisingly, the U.S. airlines did not agree with Dempsey’s point of view. Consequently, we invited Robert J. Aaronson, president of the Air Transport Association, to reply.

November 1: MEMOS FROM THE NEW MOSCOW
In tandem with the changes under way in Soviet society, business travel to Moscow is holding its own. The majority of the 180,000 Americans who’ve visited the Soviet Union this year came on business. But leisure travel isn’t doing quite as well, says the brass at Intourist, the official Soviet tourism agency.

October 1: SAVORING THE SAVOY
With its unprepossessing exterior, the Savoy is an unlikely candidate to lead a hotel revolution in Moscow. It opened in 1914, just in time for the first World War, and was renamed the Berlin in 1956. (Why not East Berlin?) Since its rebirth in 1989, it is once again the Savoy. Owned 51 percent by Intourist, the official Russian travel company, and 49 percent by Finnair, the Savoy was the very first joint venture approved by the new market-conscious Soviet hierarchy. About 2,000 other such projects have gotten a green light since then.

September 1: TOP TEN ISSUES, 1980-1990
I lived the top ten issues of the decade on a day-to-day basis during the generally unlamented 1980s. If nothing else, the last ten years in business travel were hardly static. I suspect that the current decade will be at least as lively and dramatic.

August 1: A DECADE OF FLYING BLIND
In the last dozen years or so, I’ve often climbed the soapbox in these pages to carp about airline deregulation, an ongoing target that replaced the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) at the top of my hit list. Nothing much has happened since 1978 to change my apprehension about deregulation.

July 1: THE MIRACLE IN CENTRAL FLORIDA-II
After last month’s visit to Orlando with its healthy and broad-based economy, does anyone out there still think that this central Florida metropolis is a Mickey Mouse monopoly? Like Orlando, Mickey’s parent Disney is big, ambitious, and unlikely to rest on its laurels—now or at any time in the foreseeable future.

June 1: THE MIRACLE IN CENTRAL FLORIDA
Not long ago, there once sat Orlando, or central Florida, a lazy, rural spread catering to cattle and citrus, a complacent hostage to an occasional gibe about swamps and mosquitoes. But now, suddenly, Wham!, with only two sneaky quick decades to account for a miraculous transformation, we find a near-urban giant of a million residents.

May 1: THE CALORIE-CONSCIOUS TRAVELER
There is a constant danger for the frequent traveler, subtle but lurking just around the next meal or snack. Plain and simple, I refer to weight: pounds--even ounces--that can pounce into the frame of the unsuspecting wanderer, inflicting heavy damage both physically and emotionally. Caught unaware, we’ll eat five meals during a normal three-meal time frame, just because of the boredom of being in the air or at a hotel.

April 1: SAILING TO BYZANTIUM
I think that Turkey is the most underrated of the Mediterranean destinations, at least for American travelers. The British and other travel-smart Europeans have long been charmed by this exotic and affordable land that strategically straddles Asia and Europe.

March 1: BACK TO THE FUTURE: TOP TRAVEL ISSUES
Travel-related news, in the broadest sense, now occupies a preeminent position in our newspapers, as well as on television, and radio. What happens at the airlines, for example, is priority news. Travel has become an accepted ingredient of the day-to-day information flow that the communications media feeds to us.

February 1: AN 'EASY' PRIDE TO SWALLOW
I’ve developed a craving for a trip to the Mediterranean basin at least once a year. This addiction, which usually takes the shape of a seaborne voyage, raises some intriguing questions: Am I returning to an ancestral home? Am I somehow more at one with the cultures that evolved here? Is this annual hegira a form of ritualistic escape? Or have I just fallen for this fascinating and fantastic corner of the world?

January 1: WHEN TIME IS OUT OF JOINT
I don’t know about you, but jet lag is a real and ongoing problem in my life. Late last August, I flew from Newark, New Jersey, to Gatwick for a morning meeting in London, then on to Italy from Heathrow. I’d also worked nearly six hours on the previous (departure) day. Pillow to pillow, the elapsed time was thirty-four hours. Needless to say, I did not feel particularly rested or sharp during the London conference. My eyes felt gritty and hot; I would have given anything (almost) for a shower and a nap.

Copyright © 1980-2007 by Martin B. Deutsch. All rights reserved.