Laura Del Rosso is a journalist who specializes in travel industry trends and business issues of hotels, destinations, cruise lines, travel technology companies, meeting planners, travel agencies and tour operators.

She was San Francisco-based bureau chief for Travel Weekly, a leading travel industry newsmagazine, for 16 years, and has been a full-time freelance journalist since 2003.

Laura is contributing editor for Travel Weekly and writes regularly for Travel Professional, a bimonthly magazine for the travel industry.

Her first book, Great Escapes: Northern California, about day trips and weekend getaways within a four-hour drive of the San Francisco Bay Area, was recently published by Countryman Press/Norton. It is available in bookstores, including Amazon.com. As a companion to the book, she's blogging about her travels in Northern California.