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Hello and welcome to Mental Floss. I'm Erin McCarthy. In today's episode presented by
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Discover It Miles Card, we're going to talk about tourism, from why people are disappointed
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in Paris to what the heck LAX means. Grab your camera and let's get started
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The first stop on our itinerary is the latest from the United Nations World Tourism Organization
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the agency that promotes responsible and sustainable tourism. In September 2018, the agency released their annual tourism highlights report
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and the findings revealed a lot about our wanderlust. First of all, we're on the go more than we have been in years
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International tourism is up 6.8%, which is the biggest one-year jump in almost a decade
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But we don't always go very far. Four out of five tourists tend to travel within their own region, which is called
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wait for it, intra-regional tourism. When it comes to spending money, Chinese travelers are making those tourist dollars, or tourist
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yuan as it were, rain. Collectively they spend $258 billion annually. Coming in an extremely distant second are tourists from the United States who spend $135 billion
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And finally, the top tourist destinations are pretty much what you would expect
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France, Spain, the US, China, Italy, Mexico, etc. But the fastest growing destinations, defined by the percentage of increase in visitors
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is a little more surprising. Egypt, Togo, San Marino, Vietnam, Georgia, the country, not the state, Palestine, New
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Way, Nepal, Israel, and Northern Mariana Islands. All this talk of faraway lands has us dreaming of our next trip
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We are here with some tips on how to plan that dream vacation without breaking the bank
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Use these tips and tricks to help you save money on your next adventure, brought to you
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by Discover. Set a price alert on your flight for the dates you're hoping to travel so that when a great deal happens, you won't miss it
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When you're researching flights, make sure you do so on a couple of different devices
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A Canadian investigation found that sometimes the price was the lowest in the private window sometimes in the regular window and sometimes it was even different checking on your phone So it pays to shop around even if that just on different devices
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When you're finally ready to book your airfare, some experts suggest doing so on the weekend
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which can save you 19%. Pack everything in your carry-on. It can be tempting to bring half of your closet with you when you go on vacation, but try to avoid temptation
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Depending on the airline and your destination, checking a bag can involve fees, which can
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add up. Instead, pack smart by rolling your clothes, setting aside that extra pair of shoes, and
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investing in some packing cubes. Some experts recommend the 5-4-3-2-1 packing rule, in which you bring 5 tops, 4 bottoms
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3 accessories, 2 shoes, one pair practical, the other nicer, and 1 swimsuit, while others
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suggest packing 2 pairs of pants for every 5 days. Another benefit of bringing just a carry-on bag
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There's less of a chance you'll lose your luggage. Bring some travel-friendly snacks, like granola bars, with you
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That way you can avoid buying food on the plane or when you're out seeing the sights
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Once you've reached your destination, find a local grocery store and grab some ready-made
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food so you can have one meal a day in your hotel room. A little thing like that will save you big bucks
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And if your hotel offers free breakfast, eat it. Hold off on buying your souvenirs until the end of the trip
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That way you'll have had a chance to check out a number of stores and compare prices so you can get the best deal
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Of course, if the thing you have your eye on is super rare, you should pick it up when you see it
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Choose a credit card that will reward you while you're vacationing. Whether you're shopping for clothes or groceries
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or picking up the tab for dinner, using your Discover It Miles card
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will earn you 1.5 miles for every dollar spent on purchases. And those rewards never expire
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Plus, at the end of your first year, Discover will match all the miles
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you've earned automatically, which you can put towards another awesome vacation. Visit discover.com backslash travel to learn more
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Gather round kids and let me tell you a tale of a magical flying machine that can transport
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passengers from New York to London in less than 3 hours That futuristic plane actually existed and it entered commercial service more than 40 years ago in 1976 The Concorde supersonic jet provided speedy transatlantic trips to anyone who could afford
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the cost of a round-trip ticket. However, because of the price, $12,000 on average, trips were typically reserved for
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high-ranking business people, celebrities, and other deep-pocketed individuals. In fact, the steep price is part of what killed the Concorde in 2003
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So the big question, the technology exists, will we ever see supersonic travel again
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The answer is probably. Supersonic travel is being developed as we speak, and it will even be an improvement on the Concorde
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They've been in development for years, with one company even planning test flights later this year
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What can we expect? Well, the new supersonic jets will carry passengers at a speed of up to 1.4 times the speed of sound
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That's 60% faster than your everyday aircraft travels. And some are hoping they'll be even faster
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It's projected to save 2.5 hours off of a flight from NYC to London
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And more than 5 hours off of trips from the West Coast to Singapore or Sydney
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The price is more affordable these days, but at $5,000 per round-trip ticket
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supersonic travel still isn't going to be the transportation of the people. Back when air travel first became a thing
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pilots referred to airports by the city's two-letter weather station code. But as cities grew, and as air travel grew, airports became available in towns without
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weather stations. To solve the problem, airports began moving to three letter codes
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Some existing airports simply adapted their two letter codes by tacking on another random letter
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San Francisco added an O to become SFO. X marked the spot in the case of Los Angeles' LAX and Portland, Oregon's PDX
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Years later, when Dubai couldn't have DUB because Dublin had already claimed that acronym
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they stuck the X in the middle to become DXB. Unfortunately, the X phenomenon also affected Sioux City, Iowa, which wound up with the code S-U-X
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Though they've appealed it, it would appear that Sioux City eventually decided to embrace
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the PG code with some tongue marketing There are also codes that seem to make no sense at all but many of those have a story to tell Take ORD for Chicago O Airport for example Before it was named after a World War II
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pilot and Medal of Honor recipient in 1949, that bustling hub was known as Orchard Field Airport
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And another one of the busiest airports in the U.S., Orlando International Airport, doesn't go by OIA
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it goes by MCO as a nod to its previous life as McCoy Air Force Base, which was also named after a pilot
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Have you ever been excited to check out a new and exotic destination, only to be completely
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disappointed by the reality? Maybe the crowds were overbearing, the atmosphere didn't meet your expectations, or the culture
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shock was too much? If so, you've experienced just a small taste of Paris Syndrome
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First diagnosed in 1986, Paris Syndrome is a very real condition that afflicts a small
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number of tourists. Almost exclusively Japanese tourists. And when we say a small number of
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travelers are affected, we're talking small. The City of Lights gets about 6 million Japanese
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visitors annually, 20 of whom end up being diagnosed with Parasyndrome. Those who suffer
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from severe symptoms of the disorder report feeling dizziness, sweating, hallucinations, and even feelings of persecution. When the episode is over, the victims are often so traumatized
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that they never want to travel again. The Japanese embassy set up a 24-hour hotline
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for people who believe they may be experiencing Paris syndrome. And occasionally, the tourists who call are so afflicted
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the embassy sends them home, escorted by a doctor or nurse to ensure their safety
