tourism

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America Tops Wish List for Foreign Tourists

Falling dollar helps US edge Australia as most likely destination

(Newser) - The plummeting dollar has tourists punching their tickets for the US, according to Lonely Planet’s latest rankings. America came out ahead in voting for the country travelers were most likely to visit next, Reuters reports, knocking Australia—tops since 2004—from its perch.

Loving Low Dollar, Europeans Come to Shop

Tourism is up 21% in April alone

(Newser) - The weak dollar is forcing Americans to shelve travel plans, but Europeans are flying over to score on stellar exchange rates. With the British pound worth $1.99 and the euro $1.58, tourists are coming to the US to shop: More than 15 million visited in the first 4...

No Stopping Gay Marriage's Mass. Appeal
 No Stopping
 Gay Marriage's
 Mass. Appeal 
Opinion

No Stopping Gay Marriage's Mass. Appeal

Equality has been uphill climb for homosexuals, but history's on their side

(Newser) - With Massachusetts legislators set to repeal a law ex-Gov. Mitt Romney hoped would prevent the state from becoming “the Las Vegas of same-sex marriage,” Gail Collins, in the New York Times, looks at the march toward equality. For one thing, with the economy the way it is, “...

'So Gay' Tourist Ad Stirs Flap in South Carolina

Negative reaction to posters could hurt tourism industry

(Newser) - "South Carolina is so gay," announce posters in the London Underground. Part of an advertising campaign targeting visitors to London's gay pride events, the posters have set off a backlash in South Carolina, drawing sharp criticism from senator David Thomas and resulting in the resignation of a state...

How to Take a Solar Eclipse Road Trip

Hit the right spot and see 93M miles into the distance

(Newser) - Thousands of people will trek to the hinterlands on August 1 just to stand in the dark for three minutes. The reason: a total solar eclipse is set to sweep over a path spanning from China to Canada. Wired clues would-be eclipse chasers in on ways to maximize each sunless...

US Tourists Shed 'Archie Bunker' Rep

French, Chinese, Indians now world's most ill-bred travelers

(Newser) - The pushy American traveler has met his match in the snooty, uncompromising Frenchman. The voyageur français ranks as one of the world’s most tactless tourists, bested only by Chinese and Indian travelers. Judging by their politeness, openness to foreign languages, and adversity to complaining, Japanese tourists were rated...

How to Vacation on a Dime
 How to Vacation on a Dime 
TRAVEL

How to Vacation on a Dime

Stretch your vacation dollar with these tips

(Newser) - With airline and entertainment prices rising, “free stuff isn’t just a bonus, it can be a vacation-saver,” writes Jeryl Brunner in Travel + Leisure, which offers 11 ways to beef up your trip on a budget.
  1. House-swapping: Cancel the hotel, and vacation in someone else’s home
...

Historic China-Taiwan Flights Take Off

Tourists visit old nationalist stronghold

(Newser) - Commercial flights between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan resumed today for the first time in 60 years, with simultaneous flights landing at  the Taipei and Shanghai airports, the BBC reports. China Southern Airline's chairman described the first flight to land in Taipei as "a sacred moment." The agreement...

Fires, Spiking Gas Aside, Calif. Tourism Still Sunny

Flocking foreigners capitalize on dollar

(Newser) - Near-continuous wildfires and soaring gas prices don’t seem to have made much of a dent in California’s tourism industry, the San Jose Mercury News reports. California's AAA reports only an 0.8% drop in Fourth of July domestic tourism, and a jump in visitors from abroad more than...

Bizarro Travel-Industry Jobs
 Bizarro Travel-Industry Jobs 
Travel

Bizarro Travel-Industry Jobs

Gigs that straddle the line between necessary and absurd

(Newser) - From Parisian sewer guides to a coconut safety engineer in St. Thomas, some travel industry jobs straddle the line between necessary and absurd. Travel and Leisure highlights some of the strangest.
  1. Tourism ambassador, Japan. Diplomacy never looked so soft and cuddly after Japan appointed elder statesfeline Hello Kitty for PR
...

Tough Visa Rules Threaten to Slash Olympic Tourism

Visitors vanish as China boosts security

(Newser) - Heightened visa restrictions in China have shrunk tourism ahead of the Beijing Olympics, the New York Times reports. Numbers of foreign visitors to Beijing fell 14% last month when government officials tightened the rules to bolster security.

World's Weirdest Festivals
 World's Weirdest Festivals 
TRAVEL

World's Weirdest Festivals

Oddball traditions say plenty about a culture

(Newser) - Forget museums and street markets. To truly understand a culture, travelers should take in its bizarre traditions. From fire walking to tomato hurling, Travel and Leisure looks at the world's most off-the-wall celebrations.
  • Lopburi Monkey Buffet in Thailand: Each November, Lopburi's residents lay out a feast to appease the city's
...

World's 10 Best Thrill Rides
 World's 10 Best Thrill Rides 
TRAVEL

World's 10 Best Thrill Rides

Rides featuring heart-stopping plunges and gravity-defying loops

(Newser) - For intense thrill-seekers blessed with strong stomachs, the Boston Globe offers this list of the 10 scariest rides on the planet:
  • Superman Ride of Steel, Six Flags New England, Agawam, Mass.: Speeds of more than 77 mph and a 221-foot drop into a tunnel.
  • X2, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia,
...

This Season's Hot Accessory: The Movie Tie-In

Sex and the City cottage industries look more like penthouses

(Newser) - For the innumerable entities cashing in on Sex and the City, the movie due out Friday is the tip of the multimillion-dollar iceberg, reports Forbes. New Line Cinema, which has tie-in deals with eight companies, compares the likely blockbuster to “the Super Bowl for women.” Other high-end beneficiaries...

Construction Oglers Get an Eyeful

Workers' whistles drive woman to bare all

(Newser) - Some wolfish construction workers got an eyeful of a sheep without clothing, the New Zealand Herald reports, when a female Israeli tourist apparently fed up with their whistling got naked as she used an ATM in downtown Kerikeri. "She gave the explanation that she had been pestered by New...

Hello, China: Meet Japan's New Envoy

Japan tabs pop icon to bring in visitors from China

(Newser) - Hello Kitty has been tapped as Japan’s cultural envoy to China, the AP reports. Japan’s ministry of tourism chose the über-popular icon to represent the country in its drive to attract 10 million annual visitors to the islands. Last year, tourists from China and Hong Kong made...

'Ghoulish Tourism' Develops in Amstetten

Incest dungeon site attracts out-of-towners

(Newser) - Tourists are flocking to Amstetten, Austria, and snapping pictures at the site where Josef Fritzl kept his daughter imprisoned as a sex slave for 23 years, the Telegraph reports. "It is bad enough that journalists and TV crews have beleaguered our town, but now there is this ghoulish tourism,...

Forget US Tourists: Hawaii Lures Euros

State escapes slowdown by casting net wider for visitors

(Newser) - Domestic tourism is slowing down in the US as economic worries mount, but Hawaii appears to be surfing a wave of diversification through the downturn, the Wall Street Journal reports. Numbers of visitors from Canada, Europe, and some East Asian countries are picking up and offsetting a drop in tourists...

Baltimore Ready for Broadway Moment

City takes advantage of native son's sleazy musicals

(Newser) - Known as a harbor city plagued by gang violence and urban decay, Baltimore is hoping for a Broadway-style makeover—courtesy of John Waters, native son and creator of Hairspray and Cry-Baby. His gleefully trashy films are the inspiration for two cleaned-up musicals now on Broadway, and Baltimore hopes their sparkle...

Time Slows on Easter Island
 Time Slows 
 on Easter Island 
Travel

Time Slows on Easter Island

Ancient culture thrives despite tourism surge

(Newser) - Tourists have left no stone unturned on Easter Island, flocking at rates of 50,000 a year to arguably the world’s most remote habitation. Five hours of flying over uninterrupted Pacific Ocean lands you on this mostly undeveloped volcanic rock with its haunting stone figures (moai), but today it...

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