View of Istanbul from Bogazici Universitesi. Photo: Cemnaz (flickr)

I'll be waking up at 3:30 tomorrow morning to begin my journey from Portland, Oregon, to Istanbul, Turkey, where I'll be based for the next several months while I embark on a trip of a lifetime.

My move to Istanbul is for a short-term study abroad program at Bosphorus University's school of International Relations and Political Science. Though I have traveled to Istanbul before, living there will be a completely new experience. I'm excited to live in the city that boasts being in both Europe and Asia.

I'll be taking advantage of Istanbul's central location and taking several side trips as part of an independent study on post-Soviet economies. My itinerary is pretty diverse -- everywhere from Estonia to Georgia is on the list.

My trips to these places will have an academic focus at the core, but I plan to interviewing people I meet along the way to get the local take on the state of affairs -- which is the part I'm most excited to bring to the blog.

Right now I'm preparing for the 20-hour fight, so I'm jamming my favorite books and snacks into the little space I have left in my carry on... That and a pocket Turkish dictionary, since at the moment my Turkish language skills are still very basic. Now it's back to packing and preparing for the early morning wake-up...

Evallah, or goodbye for now!

Popular vacation destinations are ready to give tourists what they're looking for, all that's missing now are the tourists themselves. Photo: Marvin (PA) (flickr)

Ah, summer. A time of rest, relaxation, meticulously planned vacations ... and this year, less travel.

One June report by a UN body predicted tourism would decline by 4 to 6 percent this year — and that's before the H1N1 virus further dampened travel.

Tourism is down even in the U.S., where tourists spent more money than anywhere else in 2008. But the downturn is worse across the Atlantic, according to an August Reuters story.

On Spain's popular Costa del Sol, tourist traffic is "the worst I have ever seen it," drink seller Pedro Hervas tells The Telegraph. "There is no one on the beach. If you came here last year at this time you would not be able to get around, there would be so many cars and people."

Analysts cited in a Wall Street Journal story on the battered Mediterranean tourism industry conclude that nations have yet to see the real effects of the tourism slump on economic growth.

"We are seeing a multifaceted impact from the crisis on the tourism sector and there will be a variety of consequences," Marko Mrsnik told the Journal. "These include employment consequences, consequences on the creditworthiness of households and companies in the sector and their ability to pay their debts, and it will certainly have an impact on government revenues."

In Greece about 19,000 jobs have been lost, people in the industry told The Wall Street Journal, and economists predict the lack of tourism could cut more than a percentage point off economic growth this year. According to the same Journal article, in Italy private-sector estimates of tourism-related job losses are as high as 150,000.

Some sunlight, however, has seeped through the dreary forecasts. After Iceland's economic meltdown made their currency more affordable, tourism spiked, and has continued to grow through the summer. North African countries such as Morocco and Algeria have also welcomed more visitors. Some of them are undoubtedly vacationing on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea for a change — or rather, to save some change.