The day's Travel headlines

A hotel marketed specifically toward gay travelers is opening in the heart of New York City. The hotel will be called THE OUT NYC. It's being touted as a "straight-friendly" gay boutique resort. It's set to open March 1 in the Times Square area.

Two artists have used wax from the thousands of candles that Czechs lit to mourn the death of President Vaclav Havel to create a large heart honoring him. Lukas Gavlovsky — whose 7-foot-tall (2 meter), multicolored art work went on display in Prague on Friday, says it is meant "to celebrate (Havel's) ideas, his greatness.

The U.S. State Department recommends Americans avoid travel to all or parts of 14 of 31 Mexican states in the widest travel advisory since Mexico stepped up its drug war in 2006. The state department advises against any nonessential travel to Chihuahua, Coahuila and Tamaulipas, all bordering the U.

A new exhibit about the 1980s is opening at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, featuring interpretations of icons like Ronald Reagan, Andy Warhol and Jesse Jackson, along with pieces that reflect on important issues from the decade: drug use, nuclear proliferation, AIDS and feminism.

A count who operates a zoological park on the grounds of his chateau outside Paris says some of his animals just can't take the cold this winter. Paul de la Panouse wasn't surprised to see his ostriches and giraffes prefer the indoors, given where they come from.

Italian officials say rough seas have increased movements of the crippled Costa Concordia and are thwarting the start of fuel removal a month after the cruise ship capsized off a Tuscan island. The national office overseeing search and anti-pollution operations said Friday that instruments registered increased and faster movements of the ship, which is resting on its side just outside Giglio island's port.

The National Park Service plans to remove an inscription from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington and replace it with a full quotation from the civil rights leader. Critics had said the paraphrase didn't accurately reflect King's words.

A new exhibit about the 1980s is opening at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, featuring interpretations of icons like Ronald Reagan, Andy Warhol and Jesse Jackson, along with pieces that reflect on important issues from the decade: drug use, nuclear proliferation, AIDS and feminism.

Federal environmental regulators have given final approval to a rule that bans cruise ships and large cargo vessels from releasing sewage into the ocean within three miles of California's coast. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that the new rule will strengthen existing state law which bans cruise ships from releasing a host of toxic pollutants into coastal waters.

Passengers on United Airlines Flight 531 from Chicago to Los Angeles didn't just get to travel with a world-famous celebrity, they had their picture taken with him. The affable celebrity was Oscar — as in the Academy Awards statuette — who rode in first class alongside film academy president Tom Sherak before making the rounds through the commercial flight to pose for photos.

Las Vegas saw a 2.5 percent increase in visitors in December compared with the same month a year ago in the latest sign that Nevada's devastated economy might finally be turning around. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported Thursday that nearly 3 million people visited in December.

Three family members attempting their first voyage across the Pacific in a sailboat were left adrift in rough seas hundreds of miles from land when their mast broke in high winds. Just when they thought they were being rescued, seven hours later, the swell from the arriving cargo ship capsized the smaller vessel, tossing the trio into the cold water.

Just shy of its 30th year, the French Quarter Festival has grown into one of the largest free music festivals in the country. When the four-day festival kicks off April 12, there will be more than 20 stages strewn throughout the historic French Quarter neighborhood in such places as historic Jackson Square, the open-air French Market and the grassy park along the Mississippi River.

Oscar had his own boarding pass — and a major entourage — as he boarded a commercial flight named in his honor from Chicago to Los Angeles on Thursday. Tom Sherak, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, carried Oscar through O'Hare International Airport, much to the astonishment of ticketed passengers who lined up for a chance to be photographed with the golden statuette.

Austin likes to call itself weird, but, really, it’s not any weirder than Georgia’s Athens, which is similarly laid-back, football-obsessed and imperiously proud of its music scene. Austin doesn’t have Athens’ Victorian architecture, of course.

Located between Jerusalem and Jericho, the Judean Desert provided an inspiration to thousands of hermits who lived here in the early Middle Ages. With its breathtaking, rugged beauty, it was the perfect setting for those searching spiritual fullness in the emptiness of the desert.

Britain's Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt launched a major campaign on Thursday to attract an extra 4.6 million tourists to the U.K. through advertisements in 14 cities worldwide. VisitBritain, the main U.K. tourism association, said the goal of the campaign, dubbed "GREAT," is to maximize the tourism and business potential generated by Britain's hosting of the 2012 Olympics.

The U.S. Embassy in China is promising to streamline visa requests and hire more people to process applicants as part of President Barack Obama's push to boost tourism to the United States. The embassy said in a statement Thursday that it will expand its visa processing capacity by opening new facilities in Guangzhou and Shanghai and adding around 50 new consular officers across the country.

A new study suggests that while downtown Charleston must deal with the passengers, traffic and congestion from cruise ships, the city gets only a fraction of the surrounding region's economic benefit from South Carolina's year-round cruise industry.

An Italian real estate group is suing to keep residents of a tiny town south of the Grand Canyon from putting a stop to its plans for major development that include hotels, 3 million square feet of commercial space and hundreds of homes.

A northwest Georgia county has bought the garden where the late folk artist Howard Finster held court for tourists and art lovers from around the world. Chattooga County, where Paradise Garden has been based since Finster began building it in 1961, used donations and grant money to buy the small plot for $125,000, said Jordan Poole, executive director with the Paradise Garden Foundation.

France's leading pilots' union threatened Thursday to extend a strike that has canceled hundreds of flights worldwide and cost Air France tens of millions of euros (dollars). Passengers faced a fourth day of cancellations at French airports on Thursday because of the strike.

A northwestern Arizona tribe has voted to take over management of the Grand Canyon Skywalk from the Las Vegas developer who built it. David Jin partnered with the Hualapai Tribe to build the horseshoe-shaped glass bridge that juts out from the Grand Canyon on the reservation.

The city of Cedar Rapids boasts more than 1,000 downloads of its new custom-designed smartphone application in the first month and the acronym of CR App has turned out to be a rather effective marketing tool. City spokeswoman Cassie Willis told the Gazette (http://bit.

Flowers once attached to President Abraham Lincoln's coffin and ribbons from mourners have been paired with videos and interactive displays to explore his life in a new museum and education center at the theater where Lincoln was assassinated.

A U.S. lawyer for compensation-seeking survivors of the Costa Concordia capsizing said Wednesday he will push for changes in maritime laws and technology to make the cruise ship industry safer. John Arthur Eaves Jr. said that in about two weeks he will file lawsuits against Miami-based Carnival Corp.

A new generation of parades is hitting the streets of New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and they're throwing away old traditions of big, glitzy floats and celebrity kings and queens for smaller, greener and sometimes naughtier floats with a hipster sensibility.

A hand grenade in a passenger's carry-on bag has caused a temporary evacuation at the northern Kentucky airport. The Delta Air Lines terminal at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International was cleared for about 10 minutes Tuesday night after the device was found at about 7:30 during routine baggage screening.

A new passenger screening program to make check-in more convenient for certain travelers is being expanded to 28 more major U.S. airports, the government said Wednesday. There will be no cost to eligible passengers, who would no longer have to remove their shoes and belts before they board flights.

Descendants of famed abolitionist Harriet Tubman have unveiled a wax statue of the woman who led hundreds of slaves to freedom at The President's Gallery by Madame Tussauds in Washington. Tubman's great-great-great-grand-nephew Charles E.

Australia's Qantas Airways said Wednesday it was temporarily grounding one of its A380 superjumbos after discovering dozens of hairline cracks in its wings during a maintenance inspection. The Australian flagship carrier said the 36 small fissures posed no threat to safety, and that the cracks were different from the cracks that manufacturer Airbus found in metal brackets inside the wings of two jets last month.

The theater where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated is preparing to open a new museum and education center in downtown Washington to explore the 16th president's life and lasting legacy. The Ford's Theatre Center for Education and Leadership has been constructed in a building across from the famous theater and next door to the row house where Lincoln died.

Disney officials say a new area called Cars Land will open in June at Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim. The Orange County Register reports (http://bit.ly/wyzis5 ) the 12-acre area will conclude the park's $1 billion makeover project.

Air France canceled up to 40 percent of its long-distance flights Wednesday because of a strike by pilots and other personnel over their right to hold unannounced walkouts. The airline is recommending that passengers postpone any flights planned through Thursday night, when the strike is expected to end.

New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced plans to redesign its Fifth Avenue plaza. The renovation calls for new fountains which will be repositioned closer to the museum's entrance. The four-block-long outdoor plaza will get new shade trees and seasonal plantings.

A ski resort, two cemeteries and a university dormitory are among the properties being added to the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places. Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford, which started in 1935 as the Belknap Mountains Recreation Area, was the largest Works Progress Administration project in the state.

You're not much of a skier, and jouncing through the woods on a roaring snowmobile isn't your idea of fun either. Is there any other reason to take a winter trip to Michigan's cold, snowy Upper Peninsula? Actually, there are many. The lightly populated U.

Disposable plastic water bottles soon won't be sold at the Grand Canyon. The National Park Service announced Monday that it has approved a plan to eliminate the sale of the bottles within 30 days. They make up about 20 percent of the park's waste and 30 percent of recyclables.

Consumers seem not to care whether the airline they fly is under bankruptcy protection. Passengers flew more miles on American Airlines last month than they did in January 2011 despite the company's well-publicized bankruptcy status.

Big Bend National Park officials has been designated as an "International Dark Sky Park" and one of ten places in the world certified to have especially dark night skies favored for stargazing. A statement Monday from the International Dark-Sky Association says Big Bend has the darkest measured skies in the lower 48 states and is the largest park in the world with the designation.

A health ministry official in St. Maarten says that more than two dozen cruise passengers were sick as the vessel docked in the Caribbean island. Maria Henry of the Collective Preventive Services says the Celebrity Silhouette disclosed the cases of gastroenteritis or stomach flu in its mandatory health declaration prior to arrival.

A bill to speed the nation's switch from radar to an air traffic control system based on GPS technology, and to open U.S. skies to unmanned drone flights within four years, received final congressional approval Monday. The bill passed the Senate 75-20, despite labor opposition to a deal cut between the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House on rules governing union organizing elections at airlines and railroads.

A record number of visitors came to Singapore last year as new casinos lured gamblers, the tourism authority said Tuesday. Visitor arrivals rose to 13.2 million, up 13 percent from 2010, the Tourism Board said in a statement. About 2.6 million Indonesians visited Singapore last year, followed by tourists from China, Malaysia and Australia.

Hundreds of flights in France were cancelled on Tuesday, including 40 percent out of Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport, as unions ratcheted up pressure on day two of a strike over labor rights. Air France forecast that it could guarantee just 50 percent of long-distance flights Tuesday, after running 85 percent of them on Monday.

Hundreds of flights in France were cancelled on Tuesday, including 40 percent out of Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport, as unions ratcheted up pressure on day two of a strike over labor rights. Air France forecast that it could guarantee just 50 percent of long-distance flights Tuesday, after running 85 percent of them on Monday.

Good news for budget-minded travelers: There's no proof that flying economy-class increases your chances of dangerous blood clots, according to new guidelines from medical specialists. Travelers' blood clots have been nicknamed "economy class syndrome" but the new advice suggests this is a misnomer.

An Italian court has refused to lift an order of house arrest for Francesco Schettino, the captain of Costa Concordia cruise ship that ran aground off a Tuscan island last month. A court in Florence, in issuing its decision Tuesday, rejected a request from prosecutors to revoke house arrest and jail Schettino, and another from Schettino himself to be freed.

Officials at Atlanta's airport say international passenger traffic for last year set a new record. Authorities say year-end statistics from 2011 show that international passengers increased by nearly 8 percent from the previous year, from 9.

A new study from the Delaware Tourism Department shows the $2.1 billion industry has become a top economic driver for the state. The study by D.K. Shifflet and Associates and Vantage Strategy shows tourism employs 39,000 people and attracts 7 million visitors annually to Delaware.

It's a matter of perspective. From aboard a 12-deck cruise liner, the sight of St. Mark's Square, the Doge's Palace and Bridge of Sighs gliding past from a cabin balcony is a breathtaking thrill. But against the backdrop of Venice's storied canals and Byzantine architecture, these floating condominiums present a jarring sight, out of scale and sync with the surroundings.

There's a hidden corner of the City by the Bay where rusted cranes used to build WWII battleships loom over dilapidated artist studios, where working-class fishermen bob up against first-class ocean liners docked for repair. Residents of San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood overlook the rough-and-tumble Pier 70 waterfront and bask in the smell of fresh fish, the cacophony of fog horns and Canadian geese, the jumble of Victorian cottages tucked between corrugated barns and industrial brick icons of the late 1800s.

The annual camellia garden stroll is planned Feb. 26 from 1-4 p.m. at the LSU AgCenter's Hammond Research Station. Sponsored by the AgCenter and Tangipahoa Master Gardeners, the open house affords plant lovers a chance to walk among more than 500 Camellia japonicas and sasanquas planted from the late 1930s to the early 1950s, said Sandra Benjamin, LSU AgCenter county agent.

Federal biologists say a strip mine at the backdoor to Utah's storybook Bryce Canyon National Park will wipe out the southernmost population of sage grouse, even as their agency resists a broader effort to protect the bird across the West.

Dubai's famed indoor ski slope is about to get some Gulf competition. Saudi developers say they plan a "snow village" inside a new mall in Riyadh. A statement on company websites Monday says the latest snow-in-the-desert attraction will be part of an entertainment area in the mall, which is scheduled to be opened later this year in the Saudi capital.

In a vineyard in Moravia, the Arctic chill striking Europe at least has some people jumping with joy. Winemakers in southeast Czech Republic, waiting for a dip in temperatures during an unusually warm winter, finally got the deep chill they needed to harvest grapes for the most prestigious part of their business — ice wine.

China announced Monday it will prohibit its airlines from paying European Union charges on carbon emissions, ratcheting up a global dispute over the cost of combatting climate change. The charges are aimed at curbing emissions of climate-changing gases but governments including China, the United States and Russia oppose them.

In a vineyard in Moravia, the Arctic chill striking Europe at least has some people jumping with joy. Winemakers in southeast Czech Republic, waiting for a dip in temperatures during an unusually warm winter, finally got the deep chill they needed to harvest grapes for the most prestigious part of their business — ice wine.

Air France and other airlines have so far limited the damage on Monday from a strike by aviation industry workers by canceling or rescheduling at least 100 flights in advance, Paris aviation officials said. The strike led by labor unions representing pilots, cabin and ground crews and others didn't draw a large walkout, according to early signs, the Paris airports authority ADP said.

Colonial Williamsburg says its paid admission for the historic area fell in 2011 in what it called a challenging year. The area recorded 670,500 paid general admission tickets in 2011, down about 2 percent from the 686,000 the year before.

Tony Danza is Broadway-bound, starring in a musical based on the movie "Honeymoon in Vegas." Producers said Monday that the former "Taxi" star will play a Vegas wiseguy in the show, which makes its debut in November in Toronto. It is then headed to Broadway in the spring of 2013.

A third U.S.-based cruise ship with an outbreak of stomach illness has sailed again after being decontaminated in South Florida. The vessel Ruby Princess sailed Sunday from Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades. It was one of three cruise ships that docked in Florida and Louisiana over the weekend with outbreaks of norovirus.

A cruise ship that reported an outbreak of a stomach virus is ready to sail from South Florida with new passengers. Princess Cruise Lines says 92 passengers and 13 crew members aboard the Ruby Princess were affected by Norovirus. It causes vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain.

They might be considered the newest attractions in South Carolina's $14 billion tourism industry: linebackers in Carolina garnet and wide receivers in Clemson orange. Building on the success of the football teams at the University of South Carolina and Clemson University, the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism targeted promotional messages last fall to ACC and SEC fans in five nearby states within relatively easy driving distance.

Bedouin tribesmen abducted two female American tourists and their Egyptian guide at gunpoint Friday but released them several hours later after negotiations with tribal leaders in the Sinai Peninsula, the region's security chief said.

Lesa France Kennedy strode through the Art Deco-inspired lobby, past rows of blinking slots machines and spinning roulette wheels, her eyes trying to take in the homage to old Hollywood. The chief executive of International Speedway Corp.

Indianapolis' chowder and fried clams didn't measure up to the storied fare that has spoiled John and Cheryl Younghans in their native New England. Fellow New England Patriots fan Bob Ritchie drove to the Hoosier State from Massachusetts and when he arrived was floored by the flatness.

The Obama administration has more than doubled, to about 21,000 names, its secret list of suspected terrorists who are banned from flying to or within the United States, including about 500 Americans, the Associated Press has learned. The government lowered the bar for being added to the list, even as it says it's closer than ever to defeating al-Qaida.

Stressed out by flying? Travelers in Northern California can now find their inner calm in the Yoga Room at San Francisco International Airport. The quiet, dimly lit studio officially opened last week in a former storage room just past the security checkpoint at SFO's Terminal 2.

A new exhibition set to open at Atlanta's High Museum of Art showcases the work of Bill Traylor, who was born into slavery in Alabama and became a highly respected self-taught artist after he began drawing while sitting on the sidewalks of Montgomery as an old man.

One of the 20th century's most famous performers who spent his childhood in Appleton will be the subject of an exhibit at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. The show about magician and escape artist Harry Houdini will examine his life, legend and cultural influence.

As his kidnappers took him in a speeding boat toward a notorious militant stronghold in the southern Philippines, Ivan Sarenas decided that he would die if he didn't try to escape. When he saw some fishermen, he took his chance, diving deep and hoping his armed captors wouldn't shoot.

A Transportation Security Administration agent stole $5,000 in cash from a passenger's jacket as he was going through security at John F. Kennedy International Airport, authorities said Thursday, the latest in a string of thefts that has embarrassed the agency.

In the chaotic evacuation of the Costa Concordia, passengers and crew abandoned almost everything on board the cruise ship: jewels, cash, champagne, antiques, 19th century Bohemian crystal glassware, thousands of art objects including 300-year-old woodblock prints by a Japanese master.

I'm at the wheel of a Buick Park Avenue, driving about 30 mph on a snowy surface, when a sharp curve looms ahead. I tap the brake and steer leftward entering the turn. But something goes wrong. The car skids to the right and — WHOMP — slams into a snowbank, where it's stuck fast.

A Transportation Security Administration agent stole $5,000 in cash from a passenger's jacket as he was going through security at John F. Kennedy International Airport, authorities said Thursday, the latest in a string of thefts that has embarrassed the agency.

The latest scavenger hunt takes you underwater. Geocaching started as a hobby more than a decade ago on land but it's slowly becoming popular with scuba enthusiasts around the world looking for new underwater adventures. "People are adding this on as an extension to their own hobby," said Jeremy Irish, CEO and co-founder of Geocaching.

American Airlines is expected to slash about 2,100 jobs at its maintenance facility in Tulsa under a bankruptcy reorganization plan released by its parent company, a spokesman for the airline said Wednesday. The Tulsa Maintenance Base, where mechanics overhaul several types of aircrafts and jet engines, currently employs about 6,800 workers, spokesman Tim Smith said.

The parent of American Airlines wants to eliminate about 13,000 jobs — 15 percent of its workforce — as the nation's third-biggest airline remakes itself under bankruptcy protection. The company proposes to end its traditional pension plans, a move strongly opposed by the airline's unions and the U.

The Turks and Caicos Islands has won a $9.29 million judgment against a former U.S. billionaire and timber magnate who founded an ultra-exclusive resort in the Montana Rockies, officials announced Wednesday. The British Caribbean territory's Supreme Court ruled that Tim Blixseth, founder of the Yellowstone Club, helped conceal the true value of his Turks and Caicos retreat called Emerald Cay and underpaid a stamp duty tax on the acquisition deal.

A dazzling Boardwalk pulsating with light, music, recreation and entertainment, surrounded by pedestrian-friendly enclaves away from the casinos is the vision of Atlantic City's future adopted Wednesday by a state agency tasked with turning around the struggling seaside resort.

The eastern Caribbean may soon have an inter-island ferry system. A British investment company says it plans to lease a "wave-piercing" catamaran to Barbados-based Fast Caribbean Ltd., which hopes to transport people and goods between Barbados, Grenada, St.

The Transportation Security Administration says an airline employee has caused a security breach that briefly closed a terminal at Newark Liberty International Airport. Spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein says a worker going through security screening exited the checkpoint before completing the process at 11 a.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed kicked off the construction of the city's $94 million streetcar project, which they say will be a catalyst for jobs and economic development and a boon for the downtown tourism district.

United will launch a daily non-stop flight between Washington, D.C. and Honolulu in June — raising to three the number of regularly scheduled direct air connections between Hawaii and the East Coast, the airline announced Tuesday. The airline, which was formed out of a merger between United and Continental, will use Boeing 767-400 planes on the route serving Washington/Dulles International Airport.

Gunmen in the restive southern Philippines abducted Swiss and Dutch tourists and a Filipino bird photographer Wednesday and took the trio away by boat, authorities said. They were the latest kidnap victims in an impoverished region infested with al-Qaida-linked militants and criminal gangs that often seek ransom for their foreign hostages.

Prince Harry will combine sports, military exercises and meetings with school children and locals on his first-ever trip as an official representative of Queen Elizabeth II, palace officials said Wednesday. His destinations sound pleasant, at least to Brits freezing in the February cold.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has a plan that's designed to save $1.3 million in administrative costs and attract 50 million visitors to the city each year by 2020. Emanuel on Wednesday announced plans to consolidate the current Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau with the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture.

Puerto Rico plans to build a hotel and a planetarium as part of a $50 million project to attract more visitors to the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, officials said Tuesday. It is the first major announcement from the new managing consortium for the Arecibo Observatory, which fought budget cuts last year that could have forced its closure.

Tourism and travel are the focus of a scheduled visit to Richmond by the secretary of the interior and the chief of the National Park Service. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and the park director, Jon Jarvis, are scheduled to lead a town hall meeting Wednesday on how to increase travel and tourism in Virginia.

The International Air Transport Association says passenger demand grew 5.9 percent last year but lagged behind capacity increases. The group, which represents some 240 major airlines, says the airlines increased their available seats by 6.3 percent meaning average loads declined slightly in 2011.

An agreement on a bill to provide operating authority for the Federal Aviation Administration over the next four years and to boost the agency's air traffic modernization effort was reached Tuesday by House and Senate negotiators, culminating a five-year struggle that included a partial shutdown of the agency.

Political rivals slammed each other Tuesday over $1.9 million in wads of cash found stuffed into a state official's luggage at a central Mexico airport. The find inflamed already rampant speculation about whether organized crime or illegal campaign money will influence the July 1 presidential election.

The federal pension-insurance agency filed $91 million in liens against American Airlines property in a bid to pressure the company to save its retirement plans instead of dumping the obligations on the agency. The agency said Tuesday it was forced to file liens when American, which filed for bankruptcy protection in November, paid only $6.

People are already joking it's a good thing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation isn't charging admission for its new visitor center, which showcases Bill Gates' multibillion-dollar philanthropy, not his computers. But most people don't know what to expect from the glass-clad public space in front of the new headquarters of the world's largest charitable foundation.

A mountaintop Jesus statue can stay at a ski resort in the western U.S. state of Montana — for now. The religious statue, which has been on federal land since 1955, was allowed to remain in place for at least 10 more years after the U.

United will launch a daily non-stop flight between Washington, D.C. and Honolulu in June — raising to three the number of regularly scheduled direct air connections between Hawaii and the East Coast, the airline announced Tuesday. The airline, which was formed out of a merger between United and Continental, will use Boeing 767-400 planes on the route serving Washington/Dulles International Airport.

People are already joking it's a good thing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation isn't charging admission for its new visitor center, which showcases Bill Gates' multibillion-dollar philanthropy, not his computers. But most people don't know what to expect from the glass-clad public space in front of the new headquarters of the world's largest charitable foundation.

The frightful images of a sinking Italian cruise ship have scared off some cruise passengers, at least temporarily, during the industry's peak booking season. Travel agents — who book more than two-thirds of cruise passengers worldwide — have been nervously watching bookings ever since the Costa Concordia, which is owned by Carnival Corp, ran aground on Jan.

Friends have taught Larry Sherlock two main things about Atlantic City: Bally's, the Taj Mahal and the Borgata give out nice comps. And, don't venture out onto Pacific or Atlantic avenues, especially at night. The retiree and his wife love Atlantic City enough to make the seven-hour drive from Hampton, Va.

The agency that owns the New York City area's major airports says it is considering improvements to terminals at LaGuardia and Newark Liberty. Tuesday was the deadline for contractors to send proposals to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to replace La Guardia's Central Terminal.