Dollar drives foreigners to parks

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. - When Steve Meissner of Berlin bought a 1956 butter-yellow Cadillac online, he could have simply had it shipped from Arizona to Germany.

Instead, he flew to the U.S. with a buddy, hopped in the Caddy and began a road trip that included the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion national parks in Utah, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

"This is adventure. This is cruising," Meissner said recently as he shopped at a roadside stand on the popular south rim of the Grand Canyon. "Driving west with a '56 Cadillac - that's a dream."

Like an increasing number of foreign travelers to the U.S., Meissner couldn't resist taking advantage of the weak U.S. dollar and gas prices here.

"Our euro is so up, and gas is dirt cheap," said the 45-year-old wedding photographer, who shipped the car to Germany after his adventure. "We pay $8 a gallon in Germany, so we enjoy pumping gas at three bucks a gallon."

International visitors to the U.S. increased to more than 56.7 million people in 2007, an 11.1 percent increase over the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Visitors from Canada, Mexico, England, Japan and Germany top the list.

Although Grand Canyon National Park officials don't track visitors' nationalities, they say they've noticed a sharp increase in international tourists in the past year or so and estimate that they make up about 40 percent of all visitors to the giant gorge.

"Every other group is speaking a different language," Grand Canyon Superintendent Steve Martin said.

Martin said domestic visitation to the Grand Canyon is likely staying constant. Overall visitation to the Grand Canyon increased to more than 4.4 million tourists in 2007, a 3.1 percent increase from the previous year. That reflects a greater number of visitors going to national parks across the country. The national park system recorded more than 275 million tourists last year, a 1 percent increase over 2006.

The large, iconic national parks in the West, including the Grand Canyon, Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone and Yosemite, saw some of the largest increases.

Park Service spokesman Jeffrey Olson said it's difficult to explain the trends, but he suspects foreign travelers are boosting the numbers.

"If people overseas had postponed a trip to the United States for a couple years or so, the strong euro was probably a nice incentive to make that trip," he said.

Amtrak is offering free passage for children ages 2-15 on the Auto Train between Lorton, Va., near Washington, and Sanford, Fla. The nonstop train allows you to transport your car from the Mid-Atlantic region to Florida and back. Reservations can be made through June 6 for travel between June 1 and Sept. 30 in sleeping-car accommodations. The promotion allows two children to ride free with each full-fare paying adult. To use the offer, you must book at least seven days in advance. Some blackout dates and seat restrictions may apply. The Auto Train also carries motorcycles, trailers and small boats. Go to amtrak.com or call 800-872-7245 and use discount code H749.



An exhibition featuring more than 130 treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun and other ancient sites will begin a U.S. tour in November. The exhibit will run at the Atlanta Civic Center from November through May 22, 2009. It will then move to Indianapolis. Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs is the second National Geographic exhibition dedicated to the treasures of ancient Egyptian royalty. The first exhibition, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, was visited by nearly 4 million people from 2005 to 2007.



W is opening its first European hotel in Istanbul, Turkey. The chain has 17 hotels in the U.S. and four others outside the U.S. - in Montreal, Mexico City, the Maldives, and Seoul, South Korea. The Istanbul hotel is scheduled to open Tuesday with 134 guest rooms, including 26 suites, a spa and chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Spice Market restaurant. The hotel is in a historic building at the end of the Akaretler Row Houses in the Besiktas district, which date to the 1870s but have been newly redeveloped. The site is near the Bosphorus Strait and the trendy Nisantasi neighborhood.



The Top 10 city parks to visit in the West this spring, according to Sunset magazine:

1. Balboa Park, San Diego

2. William Land Park, Sacramento, Calif.

3. Carkeek Park, Seattle

4. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

5. South Mountain Park/Preserve, Phoenix

6. Central Park at Stapleton, Denver

7. Forest Park, Portland, Ore.

8. Albuquerque (N.M.) Biological Park

9. Griffith Park, Los Angeles

10. Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia

Lonely Planet / $24.99

China is an increasingly expensive travel destination. The good news is that if you avoid the tourist traps, Southwest China, at least, can be highly affordable. (On the other hand, say the authors, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong still require deep pockets.) The Chinese Southwest includes mountainous treks, diverse ethnic populations and the cuisine of Hunan and Sichuan. The book describes in detail the provinces of the Southwest: Guizhou, Guangxi and Yunnan. The latter includes the town of Shangri-la, said to be the fabled place of pop culture, so much written about and later filmed in the movie Lost Horizon. In addition, there are chapters on cruising the Yangtze and a short section on language.

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