NOTES

Compiled by NICHOLAS MALTEZOS
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
03-05-2000
NOTES
Compiled by NICHOLAS MALTEZOS
Date: 03-05-2000, Sunday
Section: TRAVEL
Edition: All Editions -- Sunday
Column: NOTES

A VEGAS TRIBUTE TO ELVIS

Rhinestone-studded gold lame suits, a 1975 lounge costume with an
embroidered peacock design, a purple Lincoln Mark IV, and other things
of the King are on display at the Elvis-A-Rama Museum, which recently
opened in Las Vegas. The 8,200-square-foot museum showcases about $3.5
million in Elvis Presley's belongings, including his first touring
limousine, handwritten song lyrics, his 1959 Army uniform, and movie
costumes. The museum's finale? The Viva Las Vegas Room, of course, with
Elvis impersonators performing three shows daily. The museum, at 3401
Industrial Road, is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Admission is $14.95.
(702) 309-7200.

SAFE VIEWING OF BEARS

Bears are drawn to the aptly named Fish Creek in Southeast Alaska to
feed on chum salmon, which in turn draws tourists. So the U.S. Forest
Service is planning to build a boardwalk and several viewing platforms
along Fish Creek near Hyder, in part to prevent a mauling. "It's become
quite an attraction. The bears can be seen right from the highway. It's
created a touchy and tense situation," said John Short, a landscape
architect with the Forest Service in Ketchikan who is designing the new
facility. Work is expected to begin in May at the spot 80 miles
northeast of Ketchikan on the Alaska-Canada border. The bears chow down
in Fish Creek from mid-July until late September. During summer, as
many as 600 people per day stop their cars, walk down to the banks, and
snap photos as the bears gorge on fish. The bears often cross Salmon
River Highway for a nap after eating. No one has been hurt so far, but
the current situation is unsafe for humans and for bears.

TRAVELING ON THE WEB

The correlation between Web surfers and travel is so strong the
Travel Industry Association of America recently said that almost all
Internet users are travelers. It cited a survey that found 93 percent of
the online population (91 million U.S. adults) took at least one trip
100 miles or more from home last year. Online travelers surged 190
percent from 1996 (29 million) to 1999 (85 million), and Internet travel
planning rose a staggering 1,500 percent over that period -- 54 percent
from 1998 to 1999, the association said. Nearly half of those who use
the Internet for trip planning are frequent travelers who made five or
more trips during the past year; almost half said they will travel the
information superhighway again en route to vacations and business trips.
But a large number are still only browsers. Only 32 percent actually
make their reservations online. Those who continue to book the
old-fashioned way (via phone or travel agent) cite security and service
issues. The association's statistics were gathered in a 1999 phone
survey conducted among a representative sample of 1,200 U.S. adults.

STATE DEPARTMENT TRAVEL WARNINGS
Afghanistan -- Albania -- Algeria -- Angola -- Bosnia-Herzegovina --
Burundi -- Central African Republic -- Colombia -- Congo -- Democratic
Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) -- Eritrea -- Ethiopia --
Guinea-Bissau -- Iran -- Iraq -- Lebanon -- Liberia -- Libya -- Nigeria
-- Pakistan -- Serbia-Montenegro -- Sierra Leone -- Somalia -- Sudan --
Tajikistan -- Yemen

Contacts:

The State Department's Citizen's Emergency Center, (202)
647-5225; recorded information as well as a fax service are offered.
Information is also accessible via its Web site,
http://travel.state.gov.

Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's
International Traveler's Hotline, (404) 332-4559; information is
available via fax. The centers' Web site is http://www.cdc.gov.

For flight safety data, visit the Federal Aviation
Administration Web site at http:/www.faa.gov.

Keywords: TRAVEL

Copyright 2000 Bergen Record Corp. All rights reserved.