Finals are finished and the summer has already snuck up on me. After seriously take deep relaxation and catching up on sleep lost during finals week, its time to evaluate what I want to do this summer. I normally coast through summer with no defined goals and things to accomplish.

Sure everyone has the basics; like saving money, travel and to leave with memorable and fun times, maybe complete summer school. For many college students, the summer can be the perfect launch pad for the near future. With a surplus of free time, summer goals can help position yourself to reach and accomplish your big long term goals for the next couple years . I plan to use this summer to experiment in practicing lifestyle design, along with goals to making a better, newer, stronger version of myself. So here are a few of my goals to accomplish this summer….in no particular order.

• Build solid relationships with new people, and enhance present relationships
• Meditate 15 minutes each morning
• Thoroughly read and study 1 book a week – expand my library
• Find an ideal apartment/condo downtown or in midtown, near Sac State
• Experience Yosemite
• Watch David Beckham and the LA Galaxy play live
• Continue building my website
• Maintain work out regimen, 3 times a week
• Learn to play the acoustic guitar
• Practice and improve my Spanish
• Revamp and restart the Financial Fraternity
• Get published in a newspaper and magazine
• Find more mentors and meet new influential people
• Start savings for my 2010 South Africa trip for the World Cup
• Attend 3 seminars

Definitely take the time, preferably with a good friend or a goal buddy, and map out clearly defined goals to accomplish this summer. Goals do not have to be serious and all business; make goals to have fun and experience enjoyable times with good people. Become a better, faster, stronger version of yourself by making goals to have a kick-ass summer.

I will be posting my progress of certain goals throughout the summer. Chances are, I will be constantly adding more goals to the list as during my summer encounters.

Read an interesting article from the Harvard Business Review courtesy of my college. Focusing on trends on the business horizon, international travel is expected to double, from 800 million international visits in 2008 to 1.6 billion visits in the year 2020. Looking at the economics of this trend, there can be only so many people that can visit museums or enjoy a beach. The demand for traveling to popular destinations will create a scarcity of place, according to the article.

The article gives 3 probable market responses: First, as demand will skyrocket past supply, tourism relate costs will rise dramatically, from hotel rooms in world cities to even taxis and airplane availability. There will soon be scalpers not just for sporting events and concerts, but soon for airline tickets and passes to museums or parks. Government will also control demand by putting taxes on travel to destinations. One example is the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, as more and more people coming to visit, the trend is impacting the ecosystem, which is leading to talks of raising parks entrance fee or restricting visitors, which leads to second…. Wait lists.

Expect to be on wait list for months, even years, before you can travel to popular destinations. With these wait lists forming, leading to number three, you can expect the creation of new destinations, more like replications of the wait listed places. For example, China is currently developing islands like Macao to rival Hawaii. You see it here in America, with casinos popping up in major cities, or the Indian casinos here in California, drawing business away from Las Vegas.

As scarcity of popular travel destinations around the world grows, there will be tons of opportunity to profit from the ever growing demand. I found this particular trend very interesting, and I am going to try and discover trends similar to world travel in the future. For instance, like the summer Olympics in Beijing this summer, I am going to look at investment opportunities in South Africa for preparation of World Cup 2010, perhaps the biggest sporting event in the world.

Any opportunities that you recognize or can think of with this trend in mind?