The aviation industry is looking at scrapping seats on planes and making space for standing room only. Fliers in the “standing section” could be propped up by a padded backboard, held in place with a harness, the New York Times has reported.

Low-cost carriers like Southwest Airlines Co. and JetBlue Airways Corp. are seeing their cost advantage slipping as major carriers slim down into leaner, meaner operations, reports Reuters. The report, sharing opinion of experts, acknowledges that low-cost carriers still have the upper hand in the war for low-fare travelers but the cost gap between legacy carriers and low-cost rivals has narrowed. It says cost-cuts by major airlines such as AMR Corp.´s American Airlines and UAL Corp.´s United Airlines have leveled the industry playing field.

The Cruise Ship industry is battling a public image problem. Between an on-board fire, passengers dying on a shore excursion, a lawsuit about a passenger disappearing onboard, and congressional hearings about on-board crime, one of South Florida´s signature businesses may face trouble in 2006. The chairman and CEO of Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises says travel agents are concerned about the public´s image of the cruise industry.

The Caribbean´s tourism sector is at its best and the numbers the region´s hospitality industry has put on the board this winter season prove this assertion right. The region´s healthy pace of travel has been helped by increased airlift, new inventory, a strong family market and a pent-up urge for sun, sand and soft adventure, according to a sampling of tourism officials and hoteliers.

Budget airline flights have more than doubled over the past five years, with no-frills operators enjoying a huge increase in market share, according to figures from the travel information company OAG shared recently. As per the information available, in Europe, low-cost carriers are responsible for 24 percent more flights in April 2006 than a year ago. Globally, their flights have more than doubled to 300,000 compared with five years ago.

Save the Children Fiji has discovered that the more tourists come into the country, the greater the chances are of local children being sexually exploited. Fund chief executive Irshad Ali, when addressing the Society of Fiji Travel Associates on Friday, said although the continuously growing tourism industry was a significant achievement for Fijis economy, they found children were exploited in this sector.