At this moment, around 1:10 p.m. EST on Dec. 4, 2009, The New York Times article, "Organizing the Chaos of Online Travel Tips," by Riva Richmond, is the #1 most e-mailed story on the newspaper's website.
The article, published a couple of days ago, is an overview of the array of travel-planning websites and tools at your disposal.
I take heart in the article's popularity despite the fact that perhaps readers of this type of piece might be the most prone to e-mailing it along to friends and cohorts. Ahem, fellow travelers?
But the popularity of the article tells me:
1. The travel-planning process is so funky and complex that hordes of people are interested in figuring out a way to navigate through the ordeal, and at the least there is ample opportunity for travel start-ups and established players to provide consumers with a simple assist.
2. Despite the economy's swoon, people are thinking of traveling.
Either way, there's hope.