Tourists

Is Mexico safe? That's the question that gets a lot of media attention. When six tourists from Spain were raped earlier this month in Acapulco, speculation began anew. But the tourism board in Cancun, 1,200 miles away and in a state for which the U.S. State Department has no advisory, wants the public to feel safe about visiting that region of the country, especially with the spring break vacation period looming. About 45,000 people visit during the spring travel season. “Last year Cancun welcomed almost 4 million visitors, and while none of our tourists were victims of violent crimes, we understand that safety is always a concern when traveling to a foreign country,” said Jesus Almagauer, chief executive of Cancun Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Palm Springs, already in the midst of a long-overdue makeover, is now scrapping an empty downtown shopping mall along once-fashionable Palm Canyon Drive, reopening some closed streets and preparing to showcase the start of its Downtown PS redevelopment. After losing its mid-century luster and enduring decades as a second-tier tourist destination, the desert city of nearly 46,000 is building again. Its target: to attract visitors to Palms Springs' burgeoning night life, art scene and retro-cool culture, supporters say. "There's been a changing of the guard," said commercial real estate broker Mark Spohn of Sperry Van Ness.

With more than 4 million people visiting Yosemite National Park last year ? and that number expected to increase this year ? it's no wonder lodging inside the park is snatched up quickly. "We typically sell out during the summer season," Delaware North Cos. spokeswoman Lisa Cesaro said of its Yosemite accommodations (Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, Curry Village and the housekeeping camp on the Merced River; the Wawona Hotel, and in the back country, Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, White Wolf Lodge and the High Sierra camps)

LAS VEGAS - A Nevada state audit of practices by Clark County cab drivers has given new meaning to the term “being taken for a ride” - to the tune of nearly $15 million. Under scrutiny was a practice known here as “long hauling,” in which drivers take an extended route by freeway to the Strip from McCarran International Airport, when local streets could cut both the time and the cost. The practice added an average of $10 to each fare. A report by the legislative auditor, released Monday, found that in 2012 cabbies running up the meter by taking the scenic route to and from the airport cost nearly 1.5 million fares an estimated $14.8 million . Auditors warned the Nevada Taxicab Authority to crack down on the practice, which accounted for 614, or 22.5%, of the 2,730 airport trips that auditors reviewed.

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.

MEXICO CITY -- Six Spanish tourists on vacation in Acapulco were raped by masked gunmen who burst into their lodgings in the middle of the night, roughed up their companions and made off with cash, laptops and other valuables, authorities said. The attack early Monday on what was in Mexico a long holiday weekend came as the one-time tourist mecca struggles to salvage its reputation. Acapulco, faded gem of Mexico's Pacific coast, has become one of the deadliest cities in the country as rival drug traffickers fight for control.

The true stars of Broadway are New York's tourists, says a new study. Their first sightseeing stop? The Internet. The Broadway League's 15th annual demographics report, released Monday, profiles the current habits of theatergoers, comparing it with seasons past, and then predicts future trends. The study, based on questionnaires distributed in the Big Apple, finds that 63.4% of Broadway ticket sales for the 2011-12 season went to tourists. This was up from 61.7% in the previous season.

The appetite for celebrity gossip and video clips seems to show no bounds. And apparently celebrities are happy to oblige those who collect and distribute this stuff. Consider the TMZ Hollywood Tour, a special celebrity tour that was launched last year by Starline Tours, Los Angeles' largest tour bus company, with the help of the celebrity-stalking website and television show TMZ. Starline launched the special tour with one bus and four daily tours. The response has been so strong that Starline added a second bus last September and plans to add two more by July.

1 Mexico Officials in Mexico City hope to lure skittish tourists with unusual bait: free health insurance. Under a new program, tourists who stay in participating hotels in the city are eligible for free coverage for emergency medical care, hospital stays, prescription drugs and ambulance services. The initiative, called the "Tourist Assistance Card," grew out of Mexico's recent H1N1 flu crisis, which sent tourism plunging nationwide as would-be travelers steered clear.

LAS VEGAS - A Nevada state audit of practices by Clark County cab drivers has given new meaning to the term “being taken for a ride” - to the tune of nearly $15 million. Under scrutiny was a practice known here as “long hauling,” in which drivers take an extended route by freeway to the Strip from McCarran International Airport, when local streets could cut both the time and the cost. The practice added an average of $10 to each fare. A report by the legislative auditor, released Monday, found that in 2012 cabbies running up the meter by taking the scenic route to and from the airport cost nearly 1.5 million fares an estimated $14.8 million . Auditors warned the Nevada Taxicab Authority to crack down on the practice, which accounted for 614, or 22.5%, of the 2,730 airport trips that auditors reviewed.

HONOLULU - He's known as the Woody Guthrie of Hawaiian music, a virtuoso ukulele player who's helped to introduce new generations to music that might otherwise be lost. But on the autumn morning I met up with Eddie Kamae, few people seemed to recognize the octogenarian wearing Levis and a blue work shirt. It was just after 9 a.m., and Eddie was eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream at the Wailana Coffee House in Waikiki. He had risen before sunrise to pray, read the paper and watch the sky lighten from the nearby apartment building where he and his wife, Myrna, have lived for nearly half a century.

Historical advocates in San Juan Capistrano argued that the jagged hills of southern Orange County were deep under water when dinosaurs first roamed the Earth. No land-roaming dinosaur - neither a T. rex , stegosaurus nor apatosaurus - would have come through unless lost at sea. Many things have changed since the water washed away: Missionaries built a majestic cathedral, settlers established what would become one of California's oldest neighborhoods and a thick cloud of swallows would flock back to their nests here each spring.

SHANGHAI -- A trip that has been marked by solemn meetings with Communist Party officials in dark suits took a decidedly different tack Friday as Gov. Jerry Brown helped launch a new ad campaign to attract Chinese tourists to California.  The glass ceilinged ballroom of the Ritz Carlton throbbed with a mashup of house music versions of famous Golden State songs like "California Dreamin" and "If You're Going to San Francisco. " Quick-cut images of iconic California locations radiated from a pair of large video screens amid blue strobe  lights that danced off the mirrored walls.  "This is a bit more glitzy than I'm used to," allowed the 75-year old governor.

Female tourists are avoiding India and canceling trips there after violent rapes made headlines around the world, according to a business association based in New Delhi. The number of tourists coming to India has fallen 25% since December, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India found in its recent survey of 1,200 tour operators around the country -- a trend that frustrates government plans to ramp up the number of tourists by 12% every year. Women are even more likely to steer clear of India: The flow of female travelers has plunged 35% as women from Britain, Canada and the United States scrap tours they had already booked, local businesses told the group.

Spending by international travelers visiting the U.S. remains on record pace, according to new federal statistics. International visitors spent $14.4 billion in January, an 11% increase from the same month in 2012, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Monday. Since the Great Recession, the travel and tourism industries have rebounded at a much faster pace than many other areas of the economy, according to government statistics. In 2012, spending by international visitors reached a record $168.1 billion, an increase of nearly 10% compared with the previous year, according to the Department of Commerce.

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.

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details. Michael Jackson and Simon Cowell are hot. Elvis Presley, Larry King and Christina Aguilera -- not so much. At least those are the sentiments of tourists who requested views of celebrity homes from StarLine Tours, the largest tour bus company in Los Angeles. Based on such requests, the tour company Friday released its top 10 list of most requested celebrity homes for 2011 and the Holmby Hills mansion where the King of Pop died in 2009 was the most requested stop, followed by the Beverly Hills estate of former"American Idol"judge Cowell.

A bright spot in the local economy -- tourism -- continues to generate big numbers for the region's beleaguered businesses. Tourists spent $16.4 billion in 2012, most of it on hotels and restaurants, according to a study commissioned by the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board. By comparison, the agency said, tourists spent $15.4 billion in 2011. Tourism last year also generated more than $2 billion in state and local taxes, the study said. The study, completed by Micronomics, an economics research and consulting firm from Los Angeles, also concluded that tourism helped support nearly 230,000 jobs last year.

Mexico ranked 10th among the world's most popular tourist destinations, according to the latest estimate by a United Nations agency. But the country's head of tourism said she fears Mexico might drop a couple of spots, falling out of the top 10 list. "We have indications that we may drop one or two places, but we're not sure because the figures aren't ours, they are from the World Tourism Organization," Mexico's Tourism Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu told the Associated Press Monday.

Just before sunrise, a hardy band of men and women gathered near a barley field in the remote San Luis Valley to await the dawn. Some fiddled with their cameras while others nervously scanned the cold, empty sky. As golden sunlight broke over the mountains, a distant trumpeting filled the air. Thousands of primeval-looking birds with long necks and dagger-like beaks appeared overhead. Their numbers were staggering, the noise deafening. As they spiraled raucously down onto the field, cameras fired from every direction.