Dollywood wins major theme park award

by Leigh Caldwell on

Dolly Parton visited Orlando, Florida, yesterday to accept the Applause Award on behalf of her theme park, Dollywood.

“I love my music, but when you get a chance to do things like this, where you serve so many people in a different way, it makes me proud of something that so many people can enjoy,” Parton said during the ceremony on the opening day of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Expo.

The Applause Award is bestowed every other year on one park deemed to exhibit overall excellence.

Dollywood was recognized for its originality, cleanliness, friendliness of the staff and family values.

“Of course, Walt Disney became successful because he had Mickey Mouse, who has two big ears. So, I figured I could be successful with Dollywood with my two big partners,” Parton said. She then glanced down at her famously large chest before pointing at Pete and Jack Herschend in the audience.

Parton partnered with their company, Herschend Family Entertainment, to open Dollywood in 1986 on the site of the former Silver Dollar City theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

KLM Airlines: When social media goes awry

by McLean Robbins on

Travel industry pros are encouraged time and time again to leverage the power of social media to connect with their client base. In fact, studies have proven that strategic use of social media chnnels via online channels can even mitigate negative feedback.

Unfortunately, the public and instantaneous nature of social media can also backfire, as it did recently in the case of Dutch airline KLM. In theory, the scrolling feed of a Twitter hashtag on their website was supposed to showcase a new viral promotion touting “how happiness spreads” and “little acts of kindness to suprise our passengers.” Not so much.

Tweeters using the hashtag #klmsuprise instead issued a series of damning tweets that ran live on the company’s website. Bitter Wallet has a screenshot of the feed, which was pulled from the site shortly after the negative feedback was discovered. It appears that Twitter may have yanked the feed as well – a search around 9 PM EST on Tuesday shows that “older Tweets are unavailable.”

What are your thoughts? Was it smart of the airline to remove the negative comments, or should they have tried to respond to the “haters” with a public statement via social channels? Could this Twitter Fail have even more negative reprecussions in the future for KLM?

[Image via Bitter Wallet]

Get inked: Tattoo artist in residence at The Marcel at Gramercy

by Melanie Nayer on

Who said luxury hotels can’t be a little edgy? Renowned LA-based tattoo artist to the stars, Mister Cartoon, is coming to New York City and will be inking New Yorkers as part of the “Tattoo Artist in Residence” series hosted by The Marcel at Gramercy.

Seat yourself in the artist’s chair through Nov. 24 and let Mister Cartoon ink you. The boutique hotel, located on the border of New York City’s Gramercy Park and Murray Hill neighborhoods, will feature a pop-up Ink Suite so you can get tattooed in private.

Not sure what you want? Consult some of his famous clients including various members of the New York Yankees, and celebrities such as Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, Eminem, Mena Suvari and Ryan Phillippe.

As part of his time at The Marcel, Mister Cartoon will unveil a one of a kind artwork to be displayed in the hotel lobby, in addition to acting as The Marcel at Gramercy’s “Tattoo Artist in Residence.”

Need some inspiration? Our own Mike Barish offers a list of travel-inspired tattoos and resident globe-trotter Aaron Hotfeider put together a list of travel tattoos you won’t regret when you’re old and wrinkly.

As an added bonus: Hotel guests will have the unique privilege of skipping the one-year waiting list to get “inked” by the master himself.

French and Mexican food put on UNESCO heritage list

by Sean McLachlan on

Good news for fine dining: Mexican and French cuisine have made it onto UNESCO’s list of Intangible World Heritage.

At a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, the UNESCO committee named several cultural practices as important for world heritage and in need of preservation, including Spanish flamenco and a dance called the huaconada performed by the Mito people in the Peruvian Andes.

The BBC report is only preliminary and there’s no news yet about whether the Spanish practice of making human towers that we reported on Monday has made it on the list.

So now you can tuck in to baguettes and burritos with the knowledge that you are preserving important world heritage. As we’ve reported, eating French cuisine the way the French do can keep you thin, and if Mexican food is more your style, check out the best Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles.

[Image courtesy user Styggiti via Gadling’s flickr pool]

SeaWorld to open new Shamu show next spring

by Leigh Caldwell on

Shamu will get a new show next spring at the SeaWorld parks in Orlando, San Antonio and San Diego.

The killer whale show will replace “Believe,” which debuted four years ago. There’s no word yet as to whether SeaWorld’s killer whale trainers will be in the water with the orcas in the new show.

The trainers have been out of the water since the February death of Dawn Brancheau at SeaWorld Orlando, forcing a hasty rework of “Believe,” a show which focuses on the interaction between killer whales and humans. I have seen the show twice since the rework, and the storyline just doesn’t work now, because the trainers were such a big part of it.

SeaWorld Parks President and CEO Jim Atchison told the Orlando Sentinel that the new show was in the works before Brancheau’s death, but the timetable for launching the new show has been accelerated. Atchison also said the safety review launched in February has influenced the new show’s development.

More details about the show are expected to be released in the next few weeks.

[Image credit: Flickr user Abi Skipp]
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