Forget Hawaii, the Caribbean or the Far East. The hot new destination in travel and tourism this year is cyberspace.

Over the past month, Walt Disney Co., Six Flags Magic Mountain and the California Division of Tourism joined other newcomers in jumping aboard the Internet. Knott's Berry Farm and Sea World are set to unveil their World Wide Web sites in coming weeks, while MCA Inc. is working on a cyber version of Jurassic Park to coincide with the May opening of the attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood.

"It's the marketing wave of the future," said Bonnie Rabjohn, spokesperson for Magic Mountain, which recently went online with a Web page hyping Superman the Escape, a 100-mph thrill ride slated to open in late May. "This is a terrific way to reach out to [guests] and show them how the ride is being built."

Like modern-day '49ers, companies are rushing to stake claims in cyberspace, lured by its glittering potential as a marketing and merchandising bonanza. An estimated 37 million people--17% of the U.S and Canadian population age 16 and over--already have access to the Internet.

But industry watchers say getting wired isn't synonymous with getting rich. Anybody can set up shop on the infobahn. The hard part is getting people to pull over and take a look at what you've got--and a lot of commercial offerings are junk.

"Many of these sites are just digital press kits," said Jim Moloshok, senior vice president of Warner Bros. Online. "People don't come online to be marketed to. They want to be entertained."

To that end, big players such as Warner Bros. Inc., Disney and MCA are taking the technology to a new level. The media giants are luring visitors to their Web sites with sophisticated virtual entertainment, hoping consumers will follow up with real visits to their theme parks, films and merchandise counters.

Web surfers can download film clips from Muppet Treasure Island on the new Disney site, take a virtual ride on the Back to the Future attraction through MCA's online address or listen to old "Superman" radio serials on the Warner Brothers Web page.

The multimedia approach is light years beyond the primitive infomercials and online brochures slapped onto the Web by many companies. But it also signals a big-bucks transformation of a medium whose biggest commercial appeal thus far has been its low cost of entry.