SOFT sand beaches and brilliant hibiscus still hold the same allure they've always had, but this year there's been a little cloud between U.S. travelers and paradise.
New regulations that went into effect in January made passports mandatory for air travel to Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean and Bermuda.
Suddenly, U.S. travelers were in a mad scramble for the document, which created such a backlog of applications (now estimated at just under 3 million) that the federal government has eased the requirement to have the actual passport in hand until Sept. 30. But you still need to prove you have applied. (To see where to get this proof, go to www.travel.state.gov and click on "Click Here for Proof of Passport Application." Note that the site says it is taking seven to 10 days for a passport application to be tracked online and that it's no longer possible to track it by the locater number.)
And if you have applied, that means you've sent in the fees, which means a couple and two kids applying for first-time passports and requesting expedited service are going to be out about $600.
To ease the financial sting, destinations affected by the travel initiative are offering specials that, in effect, cover passport costs.
"We looked ahead and said this could shut our business off if we were not proactive," said Fred Lounsberry, chief executive of Nassau/Paradise Island Promotion Board in the Bahamas, which estimates it paid for 14,000 U.S. passports before its promotion ended.
Destinations that cater to families also have worried about the effect of the new rules.
"A passport was something you did not have to think about," said Vernice Walkine, director general of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism. "Now you do. Even if the parents have passports, the kids do not. For resorts like the Atlantis, families are their bread and butter."
Tourism to the Bahamas in the last six years has been as strong in June, July and August as it historically has been in February, March and April, Walkine said. The islands couldn't risk losing that business.
To help the 2 million Americans who previously traveled to the Caribbean every year without a passport and the 4 million who went to Mexico or Canada, destinations and resorts came up with a way to deal with the expense U.S. travelers would incur. Among them:
