WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — You won't need a passport if you're going to the Junkanoo Summer Festival in Nassau, held Friday and Saturday nights through Aug. 8.

But if you're planning on seeing the traditional Junkanoo parade New Year's Eve, you're going to need one.

Starting Dec. 31, U.S. citizens will have to have a passport for all air and sea travel to or from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, the Bahamas and Bermuda.

And you will need a passport for all land border crossings starting Dec. 31, 2007, under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, whose goal is to strengthen border security and ease entry into the United States for U.S. citizens.

Previous deadline was postpooned

This is a change from the previous passport deadline of Dec. 31, 2005, for travel to and from the Americas, the Bahamas, the Caribbean and Bermuda. The Departments of State and Homeland Security announced the new date after deciding the previous deadline "would be problematic for travelers during the upcoming winter tourism season."

Caribbean tourism officials are pushing for an another extension of the deadline. Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, said that the region still would be at a disadvantage with the new passport deadline, and added that tourism officials have been meeting with senior U.S. officials in the Caribbean who have agreed to press the Caribbean's case in Washington, D.C.

Efforts made to get extend deadline again

"The pickup of new passports by U.S. citizens has been nowhere near the numbers that we would like to see," he said in a speech in New York during Caribbean Tourism Organization meetings last month.

"We recognize that we have an added problem which is that so many people have been so accustomed for so long to waking in the morning and deciding to go to the Caribbean because they didn't need a passport, that there has to be an extensive campaign to let a lot more people know about this new requirement," he said.

A lot of people without passports have been traveling frequently to the Bahamas and the Caribbean with only a birth certificate and driver license. But those days will soon be over.

Rush of applications expected

Don't delay. Government officials are expecting a huge rush of applications in the coming months, as travelers find out about the deadline.

Only about 20 percent of Americans have passports. And most cruisers — 65 percent — don't have passports but will need them for cruises that will return to the U.S. Dec. 31 or later.

With more than 10 million Americans taking cruise vacations each year, this means a lot of people will be needing passports.

"Under normal conditions, it takes about six weeks to obtain a passport, but who knows how long it will take if the demand surges later this year when people realize they need one," Bob Levinstein, CEO of CruiseCompete.com says. "Our travel agent-members booking trips for late December and next year are imploring their clients to obtain their passports now. Wait too long and they could be left on shore."

The deadlines will not affect travel between the United States and its territories — Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa.

For more information, visit the State Department's travel Web site www.travel. state.gov; or call the U.S. National Passport Information Center, (877) 487-2778 or (202) 647-5225; or (888) 874-7793 for customers with telecommunications devices for the hearing impaired. Or pick up forms at U.S. Post Office passport centers.

Costs: Age 16 and older: The fee is $97. The passport is valid for 10 years. Under age 16: The fee is $82. The passport is valid for 5 years. Passport renewal: The fee is $67.

Expedited service: Add $60 for each application. You should also send the application and old passport in overnight delivery and include a prepaid return overnight envelope and label.