Travel updates

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

Fire up your mouse before hitting the road

Despite gasoline prices topping $2 a gallon in some areas, millions of travelers will still head off on a driving vacation in gas-thirsty SUVs and vans.

"The cost of fuel does weigh on consumers' minds, but rising prices by themselves don't cause them to cancel trips," said Geoff Sundstrom of AAA.

If you're among those who won't let steep gas prices keep you from hitting the open road, you'll find a plethora of online resources aimed at easing the journey, from route planning to downloadable bingo cards. A sampling:

• AAA's Fuel Cost Calculator, www.fuelcostcalculator.com. The motorist organization's site displays daily regional averages and lets drivers in about 50 metropolitan areas estimate gas costs by plugging in a starting city, destination city and vehicle make, year and model.

• Roadtrip America (www.roadtripamerica.com). Launched a decade ago by a couple who hit the road when their home was destroyed in a California wildfire, this all-purpose site provides extensive links, book reviews and everything from funny road signs to road recipes.

• Roadfood.com (www.roadfood.com). Highlights "non-franchised, sleeves-up food" across the United States, including a database of reviews, and photos by readers and food writers Michael and Jane Stern. Features a lively discussion board, but maps are limited to paid subscribers.

Finding hearts in San Francisco

The singer Tony Bennett croons about leaving his heart in San Francisco. But now you can find city streets decorated with 5-foot-tall fiberglass hearts painted by local artists.

The hearts make San Francisco the latest city to display themed sculptures outdoors. Chicago had cows, Seattle had pigs and San Jose had sharks. But San Francisco isn't associated with any particular animal, so organizers chose hearts.
 
Union Square and the Civic Center were chosen as locations for the first batch of hearts, with more due to be put up around town throughout the summer. Artists receive $1,000 apiece for their efforts. The hearts will be auctioned in the fall to benefit San Francisco General Hospital.

Tourism grows despite terrorism, war

The global travel and tourism industry should grow by nearly 6 percent this year, showing it has bounced back from the effects of terrorism, war and the SARS epidemic, industry experts predicted at a World Travel and Tourism Council conference last week.

"Travelers will travel even when they know there is a risk of terrorism, as long as they feel that countries they are traveling to are on top of it and trying to minimize the risks," said chairman Vincent Wolfington at the meeting in the Arabian Peninsula nation of Qatar. "The trend we have seen since 9-11 is that with each incidence of terrorism, the rebound and the resilience of the economy has been quicker."

Delegates from Turkey and Spain confirmed his point, saying their economies had taken only weeks to recover from recent terror attacks. Nearly 200 people died in train bombings in Madrid, Spain, in March; suicide bombings killed 62 people in Istanbul, Turkey, in November.

While countries such as Spain and Turkey have the resources to recover quickly, poorer nations such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Morocco have not bounced back as fast from terrorist attacks.

The United States was a frequent target of criticism at the conference for failing to invest in tourist promotion.

Douglas Baker, deputy assistant secretary for tourism at the U.S. Department of Commerce, said he had virtually no promotion budget to attract foreign travelers.

"The U.S. has historically never promoted itself as a tourist destination," Baker said. He added that the Congress had allocated about $15 million to promotion, but later redirected the money to other priorities.

Combating SARS in China

More cases of SARS were confirmed in China last week in a small outbreak linked to a disease laboratory in Beijing.

Nine SARS cases, including one death, had been reported as of midweek, but the World Health Organization was not recommending any travel restrictions. However, Chinese authorities have placed hundreds of people in isolation for observation and were screening some travelers.

The highly contagious Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which resembles a deadly flu, first emerged in southern China in late 2002. Major outbreaks last spring caused travel restrictions last year in China and Toronto, Canada.

— Seattle Times staff and news services