AAN Convention

This should be a HUGE weekend and a HUGE week. The American Acadamy of Neurologists are in town, and I have heard some numbers as high as 12,000 attendees and guests. We are offering $5 coupons at the 20 hotels where they are staying. (When you take a coupon, mark the number in the party - no need for 1 coupon per guest - and attach only the top part of the coupon to your accounting sheet.



Call or email us if you are available for more work this weekend, through next weekend.



We are also doing a big marketing push due to the arrival of our new brochures. Get used to the color goldenrod!

Seattle based novel .... and NYT's article about author

Yet another great Seattle-based novel written by a Seattle author: The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein. Its voice is of the dog, Enzo; its metaphorical theme is auto racing. The first trumps the second, as most people I know who have read and loved it are women (who HATE auto racing, generally). Read this review at Amazon and then buy the book or order it from the library!



You will recognize the settings in the book: Lakeview Cemetary, Capitol Hill, Madison Valley!



Update: New York Times article about the author, Garth Stein.

Quality Control and (Elk) Oversight

Bryan Dutt, as well as Duane Differding, has been working on detailing the coaches all winter long. Elk oversight keeps them on the straight and narrow.



It is a good reminder that with May 1st around the corner we should all increase our efforts to keep the coaches clean for the next driver and in good operating condition.

Famous Seattle Tour training

On April 16th Mark McCormick led this group on a training run for our new Famous Seattle tour. There are two other set dates for training: Tues., Apr. 28th (3 PM, Robb); and Sat. May 2 (10 AM, Mark). Sign up now! Check out the comments and photos left by the Meetup.com (Whim Tours in Seattle group) people who went with Robb on April, 19th.

Video: Why Tourism Matters

KCTS video from Southside Seattle's lobbying trip to Olympia. Our coach and our driver, Mark McCormick, are prominently featured.

First Two Weeks of May

Here is a taste of the MANY tours that are being offered as of May 1. Signups are on their way around!



BARRY BARR now; Jean Marc next.

	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
						May 1	May 2
Dispatch	LF	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP
MR						MM
BTam						BB	LF
9amCT
9:30FS						RS	MM
10amOC
10AM						LF
2d10
3rd10
1pmCT
2pmBT
3pmFS						LF
3pmOC
4pmCT

	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
	May 3	May 4	May 5	May 6	May 7	May 8	May 9
Dispatch	SP	LF	LF	LF	SP	SP	SP
MR						MM
BTam		BB			MM	BB
9amCT							JM
9:30FS	RS	MM		RS	RS		MM
10amOC			RS
10AM	MM	RS	BB	BB	BB	RS	RS
2d10
3rd10
1pmCT	LF
2pmBT
3pmFS
3pmOC
4pmCT

Twilight

Do you get questions about the Twilight vampire book, and the Olympic Peninsula? Read this article by Sunset magazine for some excellent perspective.

Hotel Max

A VIMBY (Video in My Backyard) of the Hotel Max. Interesting to get an inside view of this very hip, very artsy venue.

SkyCity

The Space Needle's SkyCity was the highest grossing restaurant in the city with over $15,000.000 in sales in 2008. The average bill for a meal was $54 with 277,448 meals served.

Best Practices: Timeliness

Mark explains the meaning of a 15 min. stop to guests at Pioneer Square.

The Impact of FAMOUS SEATTLE tour

Jeesh. Robb and Mark run a couple FAMOUS SEATTLE tours the past two weeks, and the book The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (set at the Panama Hotel) - which they mention - gets onto the NYT Best Sellers list for Fiction, No. 15.



Coincidence? I think NOT!