Tourist

Despite past assurances that tourists are safe in their country, Mexican tourism officials are again faced with trying to explain away another report of crime against foreign visitors. The latest incident took place in the resort town of Acapulco, where six Spanish tourists on vacation were raped Sunday by masked gunmen. Unlike many crimes involving drug violence in the country's interior states, the rapes took place near the beach, where the tourists were renting bungalows near four-star hotels.

CAIRO - A bomb blast ripped through a bus packed with tourists Sunday, killing at least four people near Egypt's border with Israel, security officials said, in an attack that threatened to damage the tourist economies of both countries. Three South Korean tourists and the Egyptian bus driver were killed, according to a statement from Egypt's Interior Ministry. No one has claimed responsibility, but several Israeli security experts said the location of the attack suggests it was directed at least in part at Israel.

A 600-year-old statue residing in a museum in Florence, Italy, has one fewer finger on its right hand thanks to an American tourist who came in contact with the artwork and broke off a digit. The tourist, whose name has not been reported, allegedly broke off the right pinky finger of the statue while attempting to measure it. The incident is thought to have been an accident, but officials in Italy questioned the American and are weighing what action to take. Reports have described the tourist as a 55-year-old man from Missouri.  PHOTOS: Hollywood stars on stage The statue, which is thought to depict the Virgin Mary, dates from either the 14th or 15th century.

States and many U.S. territories have tourism offices to help visitors. When requesting travel literature, be as specific as possible. Alabama:  Alabama Tourism Department, 401 Adams Ave., Suite 126, P.O. Box 4927,  Montgomery , AL 36103; (800) 252-2262 or (334) 242-4169, http://www.alabama.travel . Alaska:  Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, 550 W. 7th Ave., Suite 1770, Anchorage, AK 99501-3569; (800) 862-5275, http://www.travelalaska.com . American Samoa:  American Samoa Visitors Bureau, P.O. Box 4240, Pago Pago, AS 96799; (684)

PETRA, Jordan--After four days of difficult Middle East diplomacy, President Obama headed home Saturday after playing tourist at the elaborate ruins of Petra, an ancient city carved from sheer rock faces of surrounding mountains. The remains of monasteries, burial tombs and baths from the Nabatean civilization more than 2,000 years ago are the pride of Jordan, Obama's final stop in the region. The archaeological park attracts half a million visitors a year, and Obama, dressed in khaki slacks and a Navy windbreaker, seemed as awestruck as any other tourist.

Peek.com , a new site that helps tourists find and book activities, has added Los Angeles in its latest expansion. The site is trying to do for tourist activities what Expedia.com does for booking flights and hotels. The site went live in parts of California and Hawaii in October, but it added results for Los Angeles this week. Users traveling to Los Angeles or residents who are simply looking for something to do can go to the site and search for nightlife, sightseeing tours, restaurants, or arts and culture activities.

As Christine Darlene Calderon strolled down Hollywood's Walk of Fame with her coworker just after sunset Tuesday, an amusing cardboard sign caught her eye. She pulled out her cellphone to snap a picture of men displaying signs asking for money with four-letter insults and a smiley face. Moments later, according to a law enforcement sources, one of the men demanded that she pay $1 for the pictures. When she refused, police say, two of the men allegedly pinned Calderon's coworker against a wall.

The Los Angeles Police Department plans to increase patrols in the Hollywood tourist district after the fatal stabbing of a woman earlier this week by a transient, Chief Charlie Beck said Friday. In an interview with The Times, Beck said he had discussed the situation along Hollywood Boulevard with incoming Mayor Eric Garcetti and incoming City Atty. Mike Feuer. In addition to adding more undercover officers and horse-mounted patrols, Beck said there has been some discussion about how to better deal with the aggressive panhandling along the boulevard.

On Monday evening, the summer crowds were thick on the Venice boardwalk. Up at Dudley Avenue, near the northern end of the bustling oceanfront strip, a crowd gathered for a vigil to honor the victims of Saturday's car rampage that injured 16 people and took the life of Italian newlywed Alice Gruppioni . The vigil would begin with 30 seconds of silence, then the crowd would move a block south to the spot where Gruppioni was hit....

When the doors of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas open to the public today, it will mark the launch of what is expected to be among the top five tourist spots in the Texas city. "It's a beautiful museum on a beautiful campus," Phillip J. Jones, head of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau , said Tuesday. He said he expects 300,000 to 400,000 travelers will be drawn to the center at Southern Methodist University . But it's not the only new tourism generator in town.

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia - Maxim Lugovoi stands in the town square, dressed in a Lightning McQueen costume and holding a palette of colorful face paints. At 22, his job during these Olympics is to engage spectators, paint their home country's flag on their cheeks and make them feel welcome. "German? Austrian? Swiss?" he asks the rare passerby in English. "Come, come, come. I help you. I make you happy for this big day. " FRAMEWORK: View the best images from the Sochi Olympics Lugovoi pitches his face-painting services as if his very livelihood depends upon it - and in many ways it does.

Friday is the first day of Chinese New Year, a multi-day celebration marked by money-stuffed red envelopes, dragon imagery and, in the Southland, a flood of tourists from Asia. For the first time, many local shopping centers are greeting the surge in potential customers with fanfare and parades dedicated to the Year of the Horse, festooning their courtyards with paper lanterns and hiring experts in traditional Chinese arts. The hullabaloo over the holiday - also known as the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year - is a calculated move at many of those retail properties, designed to attract the region's vast and growing Asian presence into stores after a lackluster year for retail sales.

NEW DELHI -- A 51-year-old Danish tourist who was lost and asking for directions was gang-raped and beaten up at knifepoint near the main railway station in the bustling heart of India's capital, police said Wednesday. It was the latest such incident to be reported in India, where a series of high-profile sexual assaults against Indian women and foreigners alike over the last year have scarred the country's reputation as a tourist destination and confounded authorities' efforts to stop the crimes.

MAKENA STATE PARK, Hawaii - After a record year of attacks across the Hawaii archipelago, sharks were not far from Colin Dececco's mind as the sun went down on the long white strip of sand here on a recent Sunday evening. He and his daughter had had a close encounter with a reef shark while swimming around the rocky cove at the north end of Makena's Big Beach that morning. Now, watching a spear fisherman haul in his catch as they strolled by the same spot at sunset, they heard a splash at the edge of his net. It was an 8-foot tiger shark, one of the most aggressive shark species in Hawaii's waters and the likely culprit for many of the 14 attacks in 2013, eight of which occurred around Maui, near Makena's beaches and elsewhere.

The U.S. and Iran may have miles to go in their negotiations over curtailing Iran's nuclear ambitions, but the ease in hostility has already produced a boomlet in American travel to Iran. Three U.S.-based tour operators say they've seen a surge of bookings and questions about Iran in recent months. They've also heard encouragement from Iranian government officials, who met in New York with several U.S. tour operators during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's visit to the city in September.

Detroiters may despise the ruins that surround them, but the hundreds - if not thousands - of tourists who come to see the derelict buildings say the experience helps them understand the Motor City. There are hundreds of buildings to explore: Jesse Welter, the photographer and urban explorer featured in a Los Angeles Times story , calls the city "an amusement park. " Cindy Lindow has gone on 22 tours with Welter. She lives in St. Clair, about 50 miles north of Detroit, but grew up in the city and has some nostalgia for the way it used to be. Her uncle was a priest in a church she has toured.

Smart Destinations , which offers sightseeing passes in several destinations, this week launched its "Go Select" pass in Los Angeles . Both visitors and locals can save money with the pass when they visit two or more attractions in the Southern California area. The deal:  Go Select lets you choose your own attraction itinerary or opt for  preselected themed packages with titles such as "Kid Friendly" and "Hollywood Stars. " After purchase, you receive an email with a QR code (similar to a bar code but it also works with smart phones)

Japanese millionaire Daisuke Enomoto spent $21 million to become a space tourist but accuses the company that was supposed make it happen of brushing him aside with little more than "sorry, no refunds." A federal judge in Alexandria heard arguments in Enomoto's lawsuit against Space Adventures, which made its name brokering deals with the Russian space agency to put half a dozen "space tourists" in orbit for $20 million or more. Space Adventures wants the lawsuit thrown out, saying Enomoto was disqualified in 2006 because of a chronic kidney-stone condition.

DETROIT - He'd heard stories of ruin and blight, but that didn't prepare Oliver Kearney for what he saw: Prostitutes roaming the streets at 8 a.m., rubble-strewn parking lots overrun with weeds, buildings taken over by bright pink graffiti, the message scrawled on blackboards in deserted schools: "I will not write in vacant buildings. " He took 2,000 photographs his first day. "No other American city has seen decline on this scale," Kearney said. "It's really a once-in-a-lifetime thing you're going to see. " And he saw it all on a tour.