Travel News

New Orleans boom: Three bowl games

AP - Fri Dec 21, 11:20 AM ET

NEW ORLEANS - The estimate, by University of New Orleans economist Janet F. Speyrer, envisions hotels and restaurants, Bourbon Street clubs and French Quarter shops packed with visitors.

AP Travel News

  • Florida Atlantic football fans Ashtin Newman, left, and Alex Acosta pick out T-shirts as they get ready for Friday's New Orleans Bowl football game between Memphis and Florida Atlantic, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007, in New Orleans. By the time LSU or Ohio State is crowned national champion in the Superdome, nearly $500 million will have been injected into the New Orleans economy by a triple dose of bowl games, according to an estimate by University of New Orleans economist Janet F. Speyrer. (AP Photo/Cheryl Gerber)
    New Orleans boom: Three bowl games AP - Fri Dec 21, 11:20 AM ET

    NEW ORLEANS - The estimate, by University of New Orleans economist Janet F. Speyrer, envisions hotels and restaurants, Bourbon Street clubs and French Quarter shops packed with visitors.

  • 60-year-old man sues child over skiing AP - Fri Dec 21, 10:55 AM ET

    VAIL, Colo. - A 60-year-old man is taking an 8-year-old boy and his dad to court, claiming the boy caused a ski-slope collision that left the older man with a shoulder injury.

  • Bill would delay Canada passport rule AP - Fri Dec 21, 10:50 AM ET

    MONTPELIER, Vt. - Passports won't be necessary for Americans and Canadians entering the United States by land until mid-2009 — a year later than planned — if a budget bill passed Thursday by Congress gets the approval of President Bush.

  • Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Officer Juan Morales rolls a stack of trays from one area of the security screening to another at the Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles in this Jan. 10, 2007 file photo. Your hand santizer makes it through the security checkpoint in one airport, but it's confiscated in another. You wait in long lines to get screened because only two out of six lanes are open. And occasionally you receive an all-too-intimate patdown. These are among the frustrations and inconveniences that turn up in the complaint files at the Transportation Security Administration, which has become for many Americans the most prominent — and hated — face of the federal government.  (AP Photo/Ann Johansson, File)
    U.S. airport security agency unpopular AP - Fri Dec 21, 10:48 AM ET

    WASHINGTON - Hand sanitizer makes it through security in one airport, then it's confiscated at another. Screening lines back up because only two of six lanes are open. And then there's the occasional all-too-intimate patdown.

  • Controller error cited again in Illinois AP - Fri Dec 21, 10:44 AM ET

    CHICAGO - Another error by controllers at an air traffic center put planes too close to each other over central Illinois, but they were never in danger of colliding, the Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday.

AP Travel Features

  • A sight seeing bus with tourist drives past the Apollo and turns at the the intersection known as African Square in the New York neighborhood of Harlem on Oct. 18, 2007. Harlem is the historic capital of black American culture, but like many New York neighborhoods, it is rapidly changing and old-timers worry that redevelopment will wipe out mom-and-pop stores and affordable housing, along with the area's distinct character.  (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
    Finding the real Harlem amid change AP - Fri Dec 21, 10:59 AM ET

    NEW YORK - Harlem is the historic capital of black American culture, but like many New York neighborhoods, it is rapidly changing.

  • Jennifer Damm, left, along with her husband, Chris, buckle their children Chloe and Sylvie in a ski fitted chariot, before they begin to ski the trails at Lapham Peak in the Kettle Moraine State Forest, Saturday December 8, 2007 in Delafield, Wis. Access and exercise are reasons many people take up the family friendly activity of cross country skiing over downhill skiing, which is often more costly and crowded. (AP Photo/ Ron Kuenstler)
    Upper Midwest a cross-country ski haven AP - Thu Dec 20, 9:57 AM ET

    DELAFIELD, Wis. - If you can walk, you can cross-country ski, enthusiasts of the activity often say.

  • Thanksgiving travelers wait to board a flight at Des Moines International Airport, November 21, 2007. President Bush on Monday advocated a market-based approach for managing airline congestion and said the government would again clear military air space in the eastern United States to ease flight delays during holiday travel. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
    Travelers may stay closer to home in '08 AP - Tue Dec 18, 3:14 PM ET

    NEW YORK - Travel in 2007 was marked by high gas prices, new passport rules, record lows for the dollar, and record-high air travel.

  • This undated photo provided by the Namibia Tourism Board shows zebras in Namibia's Etosha National Park. (AP Photo/Ute von Ludwiger)
    Namibia: Wildlife and sand dunes AP - Mon Dec 17, 3:19 PM ET

    ETOSHA, Namibia - Two prides of lions stretched luxuriously in the midday sun, casting an occasional lazy glance at crowds of zebras, impalas and giraffes waiting anxiously for a turn to quench their thirst at the water hole.

  • A skier races down the hill at Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, Alaska during the U.S. Alpine Championships in this March 29, 2007 file photo. (AP Photo/Al Grillo, File)
    Alaska's Alyeska tries to lure skiers AP - Mon Dec 17, 3:12 PM ET

    GIRDWOOD, Alaska - As alpine enthusiasts contemplate how they'll be breaking in their equipment this season, the managers at Alaska's only ski resort hope powder-lovers will bypass the classic slopes of Whistler, Deer Valley and Aspen and head to the far north.

AP Travel Columns

  • How to save old frequent-flier miles AP - Tue Dec 18, 3:05 PM ET

    Q: My frequent-flier accounts have been inactive for too long, and my miles are going to go down the drain. What's an inexpensive last-minute save?

  • Caribbean musical festivals this winter AP - Mon Dec 17, 2:51 PM ET

    If cold weather and snow-covered streets are not enough to get you to the Caribbean, tell yourself it's a cultural opportunity and go for one of the region's winter music festivals.

  • Put this on your party calendar for 2008 AP - Mon Dec 17, 2:47 PM ET

    NEW YORK - The new year always starts with celebrations around the world, and Outside magazine's January issue offers a list of events to keep you partying through 2008. Here are a few of them.

  • New Year's Eve: Midnight happenings AP - Tue Dec 11, 2:41 PM ET

    NEW YORK - A glittering ball in Times Square is not the only thing that drops at midnight on New Year's Eve.

  • Skiing in Whistler, British Columbia AP - Mon Dec 10, 2:53 PM ET

    You haven't made your ski reservations yet? Whistler's Web site boasted that it already had a 47-inch base in the first week of December. And it's just one of the ski areas piling up snow in the mountains of British Columbia.