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American Morning
Minding Your Business: Travel Costs Taking Off
Aired October 30, 2002 - 08:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: We do want to talk about tough times for travelers. Ever since 9/11, the travel industry has really been very hard hit, airlines, hotels, all of the rest. What is happening, though, is the travel industry has been trying to offset some of the decline in consumer traffic by trying to charge business customers more and more. There is a new survey out that shows that fares for business travelers are going up, up, up next year. Up, up and away, I guess we should say, right, Leon?
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: So to speak.
SERWER: Right. Business airfare is up and hotel rates, this is for corporate customers, car rentals, all up. We talked to someone about this, and they suggested that the gap between what vacation travelers are paying and what business travelers are paying has never been wider. What can happen there is that companies will start to cut back on that. It will choke off demand even further. So a very tenuous situation there.
HARRIS: Get to the other topic we talked about.
SERWER: Obesity, this is a really great story. McDonald's in France, a spokesman for the company over there put out an advertorial the other day suggesting that children in France should not eat at McDonald's as often as they do. You should probably avoid McDonald's, he says. Now this caused quite a stir over here from executives stateside with McDonald's. They're basically saying, what are you talking about telling people not to go to our restaurant? You must have lost your mind. But McDonald's has had an uneasy relationship with the French.
I think a couple of years ago, there was some window smashing, there was some controversy about mad cow.
And do you remember that movie "Pulp Fiction?"
HARRIS: Yes, I do.
SERWER: And the whole thing about quarter pounders with cheese, and the royal, Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta talking in the car, trying to explain it to each other. We got one right here, and I decided maybe these guys, Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, if you're not listening, I've got the ingredients for the royal cheese here. I going to read them very quickly, just a few of them here...
(SPEAKING IN FRENCH) SERWER: ... etcetera, etcetera,, etcetera. Anyway, you can just imagine, Leon, there are quite a few e-mails and faxes going back and forth from Oakbrook, Illinois, where McDonald's is headquartered, over to Paris. Get this straight.
HARRIS: Real quick, how many francs is one of those?
SERWER: We'll check on that. We'll have to get back to you on that one.
HARRIS: Andy Sewer, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 30, 2002 - 08:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: We do want to talk about tough times for travelers. Ever since 9/11, the travel industry has really been very hard hit, airlines, hotels, all of the rest. What is happening, though, is the travel industry has been trying to offset some of the decline in consumer traffic by trying to charge business customers more and more. There is a new survey out that shows that fares for business travelers are going up, up, up next year. Up, up and away, I guess we should say, right, Leon?
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: So to speak.
SERWER: Right. Business airfare is up and hotel rates, this is for corporate customers, car rentals, all up. We talked to someone about this, and they suggested that the gap between what vacation travelers are paying and what business travelers are paying has never been wider. What can happen there is that companies will start to cut back on that. It will choke off demand even further. So a very tenuous situation there.
HARRIS: Get to the other topic we talked about.
SERWER: Obesity, this is a really great story. McDonald's in France, a spokesman for the company over there put out an advertorial the other day suggesting that children in France should not eat at McDonald's as often as they do. You should probably avoid McDonald's, he says. Now this caused quite a stir over here from executives stateside with McDonald's. They're basically saying, what are you talking about telling people not to go to our restaurant? You must have lost your mind. But McDonald's has had an uneasy relationship with the French.
I think a couple of years ago, there was some window smashing, there was some controversy about mad cow.
And do you remember that movie "Pulp Fiction?"
HARRIS: Yes, I do.
SERWER: And the whole thing about quarter pounders with cheese, and the royal, Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta talking in the car, trying to explain it to each other. We got one right here, and I decided maybe these guys, Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, if you're not listening, I've got the ingredients for the royal cheese here. I going to read them very quickly, just a few of them here...
(SPEAKING IN FRENCH) SERWER: ... etcetera, etcetera,, etcetera. Anyway, you can just imagine, Leon, there are quite a few e-mails and faxes going back and forth from Oakbrook, Illinois, where McDonald's is headquartered, over to Paris. Get this straight.
HARRIS: Real quick, how many francs is one of those?
SERWER: We'll check on that. We'll have to get back to you on that one.
HARRIS: Andy Sewer, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
