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Bedouin gunmen intercepted a tourist minivan and snatched two female American tourists and their Egyptian guide at gunpoint Friday near St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula, the region's security chief said. The brazen daylight abduction along a busy highway was a new blow to Egypt's vital tourism industry, which has been heavily battered by the unrest following last year's uprising that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak.

LAKE BUENA VISTA — With a symbol of this swing state's crucial tourism industry as his backdrop, President Obama today declared that "America is open for business" and announced plans to make it easier for foreign tourists to visit the U.S. and pump money into the American economy. Obama announced that his administration is taking steps to increase international tourism, including processing more visas from China and Brazil.

The mittens are off! Verbal fists are flying in what is becoming tourism marketing fight of this century! Two states — boundaries formed millennia ago by natural forces and almost two centuries ago by politics — look a lot like the human hand in a mitten. Because of that, Wisconsin and Michigan were locked in mostly media-created hand-to-hand combat for the better part of a month over which looks more like the body part. The origins are pretty simple. Over the past year, the Wisconsin Department of Tourism has been using a campaign that stages various objects to look like...

Puerto Rico has been picked by Forbes magazine as one of the world’s top Christmas destination, winning recognition for a marathon and spirited holiday season marked by good food and drink and warm weather. “Who says you need scarves and snow to have a truly authentic Christmas?” Forbes reports. “Multi-colored lights look fantastic strung through palm trees, the coquito tastes a little like eggnog that’s mostly coconut, and a roasted, seasoned pork shoulder often muscles out turkey for center stage at a Puerto Rican Christmas table. The well-known New York-based business publication worked with travel experts at Lonely Planet and...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A soldier and his wife stopped a robbery on Tuesday night when the soldier pulled a gun on the assailants and fired, police said. The husband and wife had just been transferred from Fort Hood to Colorado Springs. They were taking a walk in their new neighborhood at 10 p.m. when they were approached by two masked assailants, police said. When the assailants ordered the soldier and his wife to the ground, the soldier told police he pulled out his handgun. The soldier told police the men started to run off, but when one of them...

Athens. It is believed that the tomb of Alexander the Great and the Ark of the Covenant have been found on the Greek Island of Thasos, announced Russian Grekomania.ru, which is information partner of the Greek Minister of Culture and Tourism.

Equality: The Girl Scouts of Colorado says it's working to support transgender children, their families and the volunteers who serve them I had no idea! Silly me...when I grew up I thought there were distinctions between boys and girls; but this isn't that. It's about "inclusiveness" for fear of being stigmatized with the dirty-word labels, sexist/bigoted/racist/xenophobic/homophobic: The Girl Scouts of Colorado has flip-flopped on a decision not to let a 7-year-old boy join their organization, now saying he is welcome even though he’s not a girl. Bobby Montoya plays with Barbie dolls and My Little Ponies. He’s a boy, but...

Born In The U.S.A.: Birth Tourists Get Instant U.S. Citizenship For Their Newborns Oct 28, 2011 By Anna Schecter A curious global industry has emerged that caters to wealthy foreign women willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars to give birth in the United States and get instant U.S. citizenship for their babies. The hefty price is worth it, according to these women, because it paves the way for easy access to American public schools, universities and jobs as the children get older and green cards for the whole family once the child turns 21. The women stay at...

Journeys to the edge: Tourism in Fukushima makes more sense now One windy city surviving on the cusp of Japan's nuclear frontier is ready and waiting for visitors By James A. Foley 27 October, 2011 Iwaki City is a cluster of exurban hamlets about 200 kilometers north and east of Tokyo, on the coastal Hamadori region of Fukushima Prefecture. A few years ago I rang for a taxi from my apartment in Iwaki to the train station in the middle of town. I forget where I was going, but I do recall with great clarity the conversation I had with...

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- President Barack Obama has a Sin City problem that won't go away. Obama is counting on Nevada's support for reelection next year. He easily won the Las Vegas Valley in 2008 and will probably win the largely Democratic, urban center again next year.

Angela Merkel has appealed to German politicians to approve Europe's rescue efforts ahead of a crucial vote that could torpedo the Brussels summit. The German Chancellor, who on Tuesday must secure the Bundestag's approval before European bail-out plans can proceed, briefed politicians on plans to increase the firepower of the European Finance Stability Facility (EFSF) from €440bn (£383bn) to more than €1 trillion. She assured them that Germany would not have to stump up more cash because financial engineering would be used to boost the bail-out fund. Even so, European leaders face a tense wait before the Brussels summit resumes...

BEIJING - Even as some travel destinations struggle to attract tourists, flocks of Chinese are expected to go overseas during the National Day holiday, according to the country's top tourism think tank. The China Tourism Academy, a research institute, forecasts that 2.2 million Chinese tourists will travel overseas during the weeklong holiday that starts on Oct 1. The number of outbound tourists is expected to increase by a double-digit percentage above what it was in the same period this past year, the academy said. And travelers during the holiday are expected to spend $950 each on average, or $2.1 billion...

HERAKLION, Greece—The first time he despaired of his debts, Vaggelis Petrakis drank a poisonous brew of beer and gasoline. A note he left didn't mention the financial woes of his fruit and vegetable business, of which his family was well aware. Instead, he left instructions for his children on how to look after his animals. "Put mother rabbit in a different place from the little rabbits," the note began. Then he had second thoughts and called his son, Stelios, who took him to a hospital. Mr. Petrakis survived that suicide attempt. But Greece's collapsing economy and the ruin of his...

Maybe the folks over at Pure Michigan need to give Kid Rock a call. According to today's Mining-Journal, folks can't get enough of the Pictured Rocks in Munising -- which were featured prominently in Rock's "Born Free" video last year. Mining-Journal: National Park Service statistics for Pictured Rocks showed August visitation up 43.47 percent over last year. Those figures followed a 31.79 percent increase in June and 14.81 percent increase in July. At the National Park Service-U.S. Forest Service Interagency Visitor Center in Munising, which services Pictured Rocks and the Hiawatha National Forest, it was so packed with visitors at...

North Korean Cruise Seeks Tourists, 8 to a Room By EDWARD WONG ABOARD THE MANGYONGBONG, off North Korea — It was billed as a cruise ship, but the creaking, nearly-40-year-old vessel that set sail from the remote North Korean town of Rajin had more of the trappings of a tramp steamer. With its cramped cabins, cut-rate cuisine and foul, water-deprived bathrooms, it was not about to compete anytime soon with Cunard or Carnival in the leisure industry. Then again, it does not have to. As North Korea’s latest venture into the tourism business, it need not concern itself with rivals....

The humane thing to do to a rabid dog is put it out of its misery. The humane thing to do to Greece is the same. Instead, officials in Germany, the EU, and IMF insist on putting Greece through another round of austerity measures inhumane torture in return for "one more" tranche of money. Disgustedly, but not at all unexpectedly IMF officials say Troika Expected To Approve Greek Loan Tranche This MonthGreece's creditors are expected to give the thumbs-up for the disbursement of the next tranche of its 2010 bailout pact later this month after the Greek government announced new taxes to cover...

Israeli tourist visits to Turkey has “dropped to near zero” in recent days, according to an executive at one of Israel’s largest travel agencies. Gilad Brovinsky, Deputy Head of Marketing for “Disenhaus Tours,” said Tuesday that “in recent months the number of Israeli tourists visiting Turkey was much lower than in previous years and most of them were Israeli Arabs. In recent days with the stories that we’re hearing in the news, it has fallen to zero and we are dealing with mass cancellations of vacations and flights to Turkey.”

The background: Mr. Suhail Din, India, demands of the inferior inhabitants of Stockholm, Sweden, to treat him like an Emperor on visit. The article: "UK native Suhail Din sparked a heated debate among The Local's readers with his reflections on why Swedes refused to talk to him and his family during a recent visit to Stockholm. Contributor Ruben Brunsveld examines why. Two weeks later the article has received more than 300 comments and has been shared on Facebook almost 600 times. So now that the dust has settled it is time for a more nuanced look at why this contribution...

Sunbathing in Alexandria may soon be a thing of the past, at least if some Egyptian Islamist politicians have their way. clearpxl Egypt's tourism industry has suffered a severe blow since the outburst of anti-regime demonstrations in January. But that did not stop the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, from demanding stricter regulations over what tourists can do and wear while visiting the country. The party is urging officials to ban skimpy swimwear and the consumption of alcohol on Egyptian street

Wracked by debt but blessed with abundant sunshine, Greece plans to develop some 20,000 hectares of solar power parks in a bid to export renewable energy to Germany, a report said on Saturday. Top-selling Ta Nea daily said the project, which has a tentative budget of 20 billion euros ($29 billion), could create 60,000 jobs at a time when Greece is battling a deep recession and record unemployment figures. Germany is looking for alternative energy sources after chancellor Angela Merkel's government decided to shut down all 17 of the country's nuclear reactors over 11 years, following the disaster at the...