Free Republic

6,000 tourists visit the White House Tourist Center every day. As the seat of the executive branch of the U.S. Federal Government, it is not hard to understand why 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is such a popular attraction. However, very few of those 6,000 tourists get to see the West Wing, but last month four lucky Alabamians took the tour of a lifetime through the nucleus of the President’s home. Riley Roby, the husband of Rep. Martha Roby, invited Donna Horne, Chairman of Pike County’s Republican Party; Elaine Ridenour, Secretary of the Alabama Republican Party; and Sue Neuwien, Second Congressional District...

You don't hear too many tourists coming to the United States to shoot firearms. But it is a fact according to the U.S. Travel/Trade, its in many of the wealthy Chinese tourists buckets of things to do in the U.S. In China, you cannot own a firearm, air rifle or even a toy gun. Having a toy gun can land you some jail time. Which obviously has created an odd tourism opportunity here. Enter Dickson Wong, who is a marksman with a deep interest in firearms. He arranges tours for groups of chinese tourists who are gun enthusiasts to travel...

BEIJING, China — Slapping import bans on products like mangoes, coal and salmon has long been China’s way of punishing countries that refuse to toe its political line. But Beijing has shown that it can also hurt others by cutting a lucrative Chinese export: tourists who normally flock to South Korea or Taiwan. China’s recent boycott of South Korea over a US anti-missile shield on the Korean peninsula signals a growing aggression in the way it flexes its economic muscles, analysts say. Beijing has banned Chinese tour groups from going to the South, hammering its tourist market and the duty-free...

Foreign refugees are continuing to flee the U.S. to Canada through the open, U.S.-Canadian Border. In a report by NBC News, foreign refugees are passing through the U.S. to Canada, specifically a small border town of less than 700 people known as Emerson. The vast majority of the refugees are of Somali descent who were originally placed in the U.S. Other refugees passing through the northern border are from Nigeria, Eritrea, and Djibouti. According to NBC, since January, more than 300 foreign refugees have crossed the U.S. border into Emerson.

President Trump's Religious Liberty executive order, like many of his orders, set out good general principles. The principles, e.g. "It shall be the policy of the executive branch to vigorously enforce Federal law's robust protections for religious freedom" are good. The actual legal authority is limited. It's a good start for a much broader program. The order largely takes on the Johnson Amendment. But as a practical matter, that needs to be repealed by Congress. And it should find its way to the agenda. President Trump can try to limit its enforcement, but as long as it's there, it's a...

<p>A flash of excitement about travel to Cuba after the country opened its borders to the U.S. in 2016 for the first time in decades may have lost some of its shine.</p> <p>Americans are less interested in travel to Cuba this year than they were in 2016, a survey from insurance provider Allianz Global Assistance found. Some 76% of the 1,514 respondents said they were not likely to plan a trip to Cuba in 2017 compared to 70% in 2016. Only 2% of those surveyed planned to visit Cuba in the next six months or by the end of 2017, the same as 2016 despite a projected increase in travelers from the country’s ministry of tourism. It also found that 60% of Americans said “would not like to travel to Cuba” compared to just 58% in 2016.</p>

In another move to free up domestic energy supplies, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday aimed at lifting the Obama administration’s offshore drilling restrictions.For decades, bad policies have blocked access to America’s abundance of domestic resources, yet America has still managed to be a global energy leader. Trump’s executive order, “Implementing an America-First Offshore Energy Strategy,” could unleash further success in the energy sector.The economic potential sitting just off America’s coasts is enormous. The Outer Continental Shelf is awash with natural resources, containing an estimated 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.Realizing...

Airlines all have their own uniforms for flight attendants, but those uniforms were never a reason customers choose to fly a particular airline…until now. VietJet, a regional airline in Vietnam, has its young flight attendants dress in corporate colored bikinis, and that marketing gimmick has helped the company’s CEO, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, become the country’s first self-made female billionaire. Bloomberg reports, “With the initial public offering of Vietnam’s only privately-owned airline, Thao is set to have a net worth exceeding $1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making her the country’s first woman billionaire.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1Ia1fLc8hw

One state may be getting wise to the fact that government-funded tourism promotion is a bad bet for taxpayers and do away with two state agencies tasked with economic development and tourism promotion. Recently, Florida House’s Careers and Competition subcommittee voted in favor of a bill that would end Visit Florida and Enterprise Florida. Those government entities are similar to the Pure Michigan advertising campaign and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, respectively. Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s Michael LaFaive, who co-authored a study last year examining the efficacy of state-funded tourism promotion, told the Naples Daily News that Florida doesn’t...

Washington’s Japanese cherry trees are expected to be at peak bloom between March 14-17, the National Park Service announced Wednesday.

Paris and the surrounding region lost 1.5 million tourists on 2016 as visitors, especially from the Far East, stay away due to ongoing terror fears. According to the Comité Regional du Tourisme, the Paris Ile-de-France region also lost 1.3 billion euros in tourist income, while the number of nights spent by foreign visitors in the region’s hotels also fell by 10.8 per cent. Some sights in particular “have suffered deeply from the lack of tourists and cancellations by school groups”, the committee says, including the Arc de triomphe which saw a 24 per cent drop in visitors. The Louvre museum,...

Tourism in the greater Paris region Île-de-France has been hit hard by terror fears, the latest figures show. But it’s turning around. “In total, in 2016, hotel owners in Île-de-France welcomed 1.5 million fewer French and international tourists compared to 2015,” the Regional Tourism Committee reported on Tuesday. While the average number of tourists visiting the region has only decreased by 0.8 percent, the drop was particularly sharp among some countries more than others. There were 21.5 percent fewer Chinese tourists setting down their suitcases in the Paris region, and 41.2 percent fewer tourists from Japan checking in to hotels...

The president gets to live there, but the White House actually belongs to the American people and starting March 7, they can start to take tours for the first time during Donald Trump's presidency. First lady Melania Trump said in a statement Tuesday she's looking forward to welcoming visitors. "I am excited to reopen the White House to the hundreds of thousands of visitors who come each year. The White House is a remarkable and historic site and we are excited to share its beauty and history. I am committed to the restoration and preservation of our Nation's most recognizable...

If you believe that 'strangers are simply friends you haven't met yet', you could be making a lot more if you stay at some Marriott hotels in the near future. The largest hotel chain in the world is planning to make communal rooms in some of its hotels that will be shared by between six and 16 guests. The idea, which is still in the design stage, would be rolled out in 23 Element hotels which is the chain's eco-conscious, extended stay brand....

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — The tiny European nation of Slovenia is undergoing a tourism boom partly because it is the native country of U.S. first lady Melania Trump. The national Statistics Bureau said Tuesday that the number of overnight stays in Slovenia by American tourists has jumped by 10 percent in 2016 when compared to 2015. Nearly 4 million foreign tourists visited the country of 2 million in 2016, up by about 10 percent....

In order to better inform Americans about the impact illegal aliens are having on crime rates in sanctuary cities, President Donald Trump today ordered the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to publish a weekly list of crimes committed by illegals. In an executive order titled “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” Trump directed Secretary John Kelly to be transparent with citizens. “To better inform the public regarding the public safety threats associated with sanctuary jurisdictions, the Secretary shall utilize the Declined Detainer Outcome Report or its equivalent and, on a weekly basis, make public...

Tourists from China are avoiding France amid surging violence and crime, a Chinese tourism expert has said, reporting that customers are turning to Russia as a safer destination. President of the Chinese Association of Travel Agencies in France, Jean-François Zhou, said “increasingly violent” thefts and assaults are turning France into “one of the worst destinations for foreign tourists”.

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/florida/universal-hiring-1700-workers-for-volcano-bay/384779760

MOUNT AIRY, N.C. — From a perch on Main Street, the hometown of actor Andy Griffith looks this day like it was plucked right out of the television show that bears his name. And it was. Residents and tourists from farflung states mill along the thoroughfare, past the quaint low-slung shops made of Mount Airy's famous white granite and named, like Floyd's City Barber Shop, for references in "The Andy Griffith Show," the folksy comedy set in the idyllic fictional small town of Mayberry that first aired in 1960. And yet even as this city of about 10,000 nestled in...

November 1, 2016 Mr. David Lorenz Michigan Economic Development Corporation 300 North Washington Square Lansing, MI 48913 Ms. Deanna Richeson President/CEO Michigan Lodging and Tourism Association 2175 Commons Parkway Okemos, MI 48864 Dear Mr. Lorenz and Ms. Richeson: I am writing to extend to you both an invitation to publicly debate Michael Hicks and myself in Lansing on the question of the efficacy of the state’s Pure Michigan tourism advertising program. The Mackinac Center will host the event at a luncheon or dinner and live-stream it on the internet. If this is agreeable I’m sure we can find a mutually...