Home What's Book- Reference Software Overview Talk To Us Page New Store Desk Library
Today you will:
Some are, yes. But finding travel and tourism information isn't the cakewalk it might seem to be. And, on reflection, this may not be so hard to understand. The Internet was originally a collection of research sites, and putting details about local bed-and-breakfast establishments in FTP sites was quite naturally frowned upon. In all likelihood, there was a feeling that making this kind of information readily available would actually detract from the Internet's purpose, so it took a while for the resources to build up. Then there's the other major point: The Net is supposed to overcome the notion that people are actually located somewhere. Virtual worlds and all that.
When Marion Muirhead expressed an interest in locating travel information, I figured she'd spend 8 to 10 hours collecting archive after archive with details about places to visit, tourist traps, restaurants and theaters, prices of all kinds, customs and immigration assistance, and everything else associated with travel and tourism.
A few weeks later, she was clearly dissatisfied. There was no problem with the messages from other Internetters--one newsgroup and one mailing list had provided hundreds of travel anecdotes and words of advice--but the rest didn't seem to be falling into place. Gopher and FTP sites proved useful, but primarily for collecting travel stories from other Net users--valuable, to be sure, but still not enough for a strong collection.
A breakthrough of sorts came with access to the World Wide Web. While newsgroups, mailing lists, and Gopher/FTP sites provided travel stories, the Web offered travel details (and some stories as well), taking good advantage of the graphical capabilities. Virtual touring on the Web is addictive, informative, and more than a little entertaining. But after hours upon hours of WWW exploration, I'm about to concede that the travel stories from the other sources are every bit as--maybe even more--valuable. The Web lends itself to Fodor-like travel guide material, while the trials and tribulations of real travelers appear on the less glamorous newsgroups and mailing lists.
The Web's potential as a repository of travel and tourism information is enormous, but it hasn't even begun to be realized. When I can use the Web as my personal travel agent, making aircraft and hotel reservations and checking out local attractions, restaurants, theater, and shopping in a fully interactive way, then I'll know it's working. Until then, the Internet offers a good--but not superb--set of travel resources, and here we outline the best of them.
About the Contributor
Marion Muirhead is a doctoral candidate at the University of Waterloo, Canada.
She has plans to use the Internet for a variety of different purposes, travel
information being one of them. Here she recounts a journey of a different kind,
through the Internet to find material about travel locations.
I began with no particular destination in mind; I just wanted to find out what information was available on destinations all over the world. It seemed like a good idea to get as much specific information as possible before making a decision about where to go, and then I wanted to know exactly what to expect.
Chances are your travel agent won't give you the most honest evaluation of destinations or hotels, or give you warnings that might frighten you off, but people compiling travel archives or subscribing to mailing lists usually have no reason to lie (although they may embroider the truth a bit now and then). I like to know what I'm getting into before I leave--I've had some fairly arduous adventures in the world already! One of the wonderful things about the Net is that it tends to be devoid of commercial motives; knowledge and information exchange are the prime values here.
listserv@trearn.bitnetYour message should read
subscribe travel-l firstname lastnameWarning: As always, when subscribing to a mailing list, be sure to leave the subject line blank, and remember to erase your signature.
You will receive a message within a short while confirming your subscription. Every so often you are required to renew your subscription with the message
confirm travel-lYou will be prompted by an announcement sent to all subscribers when this is necessary; you will receive a message that can simply be forwarded back to the list without having to compose anything, if you prefer.
Note: Confirming a subscription isn't usual with mailing lists, but it's possible with an unusually high-volume list. If you join TRAVEL-L, or any other list with required confirmation, simply follow the instructions. One advantage of this procedure is that if you don't want to continue with the list but you forget how to unsubscribe, you'll be spared the necessity.
If you plan to be away from your computer for some time, you can sign off from the list to avoid being swamped by an accumulation of mail when you return. The message to send is
signoff travel-lYou can resubscribe whenever you want.
Tip: Again, with a high-volume list of this type, the signoff message can be invaluable. It's not unusual for TRAVEL-L to send 50 or more messages in a day.
If you should want, at some time, to send mail to all subscribers--if perhaps you had a request for specific information about some aspect of a destination--you can send an e-mail message to this address:
travel-l@trearn.bitnetIf you're after information about a specific travel location, TRAVEL-L maintains an archive of past discussions you can access. Send the message
index travel-lto listserv@trearn.bitnet.
Warning: Be sure to send this type of message to the listserv@trearn.bitnet address, and not to the mailing list at travell@trearn.bitnet. Some people get cranky about the volume of material from this mailing list, so remember: If you send this or any other maintenance message to all subscribers, you may become instantly disliked.
When you have decided what files you want, send the message
get travel-l log file_numberto receive files, replacing file_number with the correct numbers for the file.
For example, someone recently posted a message requesting suggestions as to what to see in New York. Someone else wrote back with all the usual tourist attractions and directions for the easiest way to get to them. At this point another subscriber, presumably someone from New York or at least very familiar with the city, asserted that the first respondent's suggestions were overly "touristy" and proceeded to list out-of-the-way places, including ethnic restaurants that were her favorites. The first respondent rejoined, commenting that the second respondent's suggestions were "the most Bohemian places he'd ever heard of." They flamed each other, but it really was perfectly instructive on the whole, despite the insults, for anyone interested in going to New York.
Usually the discussions are pretty amicable, but occasionally something untoward is suggested, someone reacts, and subscribers get sarcastic. If you don't find it entertaining or at least instructive, you can just tune in to a more sedate discussion. Often people just want to be helpful and share the useful things they've found. For example (with names and numbers altered for privacy's sake):
From: "Walcott P. Thompson" <WPTHOMPSO%CCVAX.BITNET@vm.hhh.de> Subject: Toll- free line, British Tourist Authority Comments: To: travel- l@trearn.bitnet To: Multiple recipients of list TRAVEL- L <TRAVEL- L%TREARN.BITNET@vm.gmd.de> This was in my Sunday paper yesterday. Thought it might be of interest. "The British Tourist Authority is introducing a new nationwide toll- free telephone number, (800) 462- 2748, for prospective travelers seeking information. There service, scheduled to begin tomorrow, (Monday April 4) will be available from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday. In Manhattan, callers should dial 555- 2200."TRAVEL-L is a hugely active list, with messages coming in constantly. You really have to keep up with it, or else deal with going through the hundreds of messages that will accumulate. This can take hours. Assuming your mail reader gives you a subject line for each message, you can delete any that don't interest you without having to read them. Or you can receive all the messages from TRAVEL-L under one heading with a subdirectory, so that your other mail messages don't get swallowed up in the deluge.
Tip: If you're serious about maintaining travel information, set up a series of appropriate folders in your mailer. I saved useful messages in my Pine mail folder (organized by country, area, or topic) using the s (save) command. You can do so with other mailers as well.
The Internet tends to cater to a wide range of lifestyles, so quite often information that would be hard to find elsewhere will be highlighted here.
Tip: On the TRAVEL-L mailing list, postings frequently appear detailing other sources of information. These may be other Internet sites, regular snail-mail lists and newsletters, or books and travel guides recommended by subscribers. Also, people may be advertising accommodations for rent at a travel destination. And, of course, there are always a number of discussions going on about things to see and do and places to stay and eat at various travel destinations by people who have spent time there. A lot of these people have traveled extensively and have good advice to give.
If you require any specific information, you can post a message to all or one of the list subscribers. People in the list suggest that very general questions should be avoided. Decide exactly what you need to know. You might want to e-mail someone who is active in the list and seems knowledgeable in your area of interest.
If you are new to the list, it is best to read messages for a few days to get a feel for appropriate topics. People get quite upset if they read something unrelated to the topic. Also, if you are looking for other sources of Internet information, it won't likely help to make a request here. Many subscribers have e-mail capabilities only, so they have no interest in Gopher, FTP, or WWW sites, and they even seem to resent those who do. They may be so blunt as to tell you to buy a book.
get rec.travelHere are a few sections from the advice of a seasoned traveler:
What to take when traveling abroad? There's an old saying that aptly applies: Take half as many clothes and twice as much money. lomotil for diarrhea anti- histamine dalmane or halcion to sleep on the plane combid spansules (prochlorperazine & isopropamide) for nausea & diarrheaA few other newsgroups you might want to try are travel.air and travel.marketplace. The rec.vacation group has information on cheap fares, meals, airline 1-800 numbers, frequent-flier deals, service records for various airlines, and instructions on how to complain effectively if you've had a bad flight. Some suggest that complaining doesn't help unless you suggest some remedy or compensation the airline could make for you. Mere complaining tends to be ignored.
Following are three examples of postings from the various newsgroups to give you an idea of what to expect. The last of these is fairly rare, an announcement of a World Wide Web site devoted to travel. You don't usually see postings informing you of other Internet sites, at least not on the travel newsgroups.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
We arranged a 1 week package that included r/t air from Riga, Latvia to
Larnaca, Cyprus, hotel transfers, and 7 nights in a 3 star hotel in Agia
Napa (or Ayia Napa). The hotel was $28.00 /night per person in a double
(so essentially $56.00 per night). The hotel (Napa Mermaid) was right
across the street from a beautiful white sand beach. There are also hostels
in the main areas that are around $10.00per night. We had no idea what to
expect so we booked a hotel ahead of time, but would do the hostel route next
time since so little time is spent indoors.
Since Cyprus is mainly Greek, it feels and looks much like Greece. It has
all the charm, but since it is so small you don't have to go far to get a
completely different "hit".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Could someone tell me more about the Eurail Youth Flexipass, I'd like to buy
the 5 travel days in 2 months pass. My specific questions:
1) do you need a youth i.d. card?
2) should we make reservations for the specific trains?
3) what kind of trains can we take?
At this late date, what is the cheapest (and available) fare I can get for
flying from Nashville to Paris (16 Sept) and returning via Madrid (4 Oct)?
Right now, I was quoted a price of $925.95.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
**The Avid Explorer** - A World Wide Web server providing a variety of
information on travel destinations around the world is now available. In
addition to providing convenient links to the wealth of travel information
on the Internet, The Avid Explorer presents specific and up-to-date
information of interest to special groups of travelers. Current areas under
development include *scuba* and *skiing/snowboarding*; other areas will be
developed based on user feedback. In addition, we offer the *Travel Bazaar*,
a growing forum where you may find information on a variety of travel
product and service providers.
The Avid Explorer also features the latest information on cruises, tours,
FIT's, and domestic vacation alternatives. Special value packages will be
presented and updated frequently. Our goal is to provide a fun place on the
Web for exploring the incredible diversity of travel options now available.
Connect with Mosaic or other graphical or character-based browser via:
URL = http://www.explore.com
Like the mailing lists, travel-oriented newsgroups abound with hints, tips, and
stories. For anyone trying to determine where to vacation or travel, they can
be invaluable.
CNS, an Internet provider in Colorado, has developed a strong Gopher site. Included are some very useful travel items. Type the command gopher cscns.com to connect. You can find lots of ski information here, on facilities, locations, rates, classes, addresses, and phone numbers, as well as other subjects. You can also access the electronic version of the CIA World Fact Book through CNS (through the item path Enter the CNS Gopher, then Reference - The CIA World Fact Book), and this will give you geographical information as well as cultural facts about different countries.
Cultural information can be extremely useful for planning a trip. A strong source of cultural information exists at ukoln.bath.ac.uk, through the following directory lists: BUBL Information Service/ BUBL Subject Tree: Links to Resources in Gopherspace and on BUBL/ 008 - Cultures and Civilizations.
From this Gopher you can access a range of cultural and ethnic information, including details on Israel, Scandinavia, Greece, and Romania. You can also find information on Edinburgh in this directory. There are also files on French, Polish, Indian, Native American, and Tibetan cultures.
While I was at the Bath Gopher, I decided it might be a good location for a Veronica search. The University of Cologne (Germany) is one option for this type of search; I used the keyword travel. The search took some time, resulting in a huge list with 200 items, plus a closing reference to about 6,000 additional items. However, this material was not organized hierarchically (or in any other way, for that matter). Some items were only very small blurbs on some book or a message from a discussion group. It took a great deal of browsing work to find out which items were worthwhile.
Pennsylvania State University maintains a large archive that can be accessed through Gopher at genesis.ait.psu.edu. This leads to a Telnet site (you can also simply Telnet to psupen.psu.edu if you want to access it directly) that contains travel information, including advisories. Log in as PENPAGES (if you're in the U.S.) or WORLD (if you're anywhere else) and follow the prompts to the keyword search. Search for travel and choose L to list the files. Here's a sample of those available:
TRAVEL
33 documents found
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(L) List Titles (R) Reduce Selection (S) Search Again (?) Help
(E) Expand Selection (D) Display Options (@) Exit
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enter choice: <L>
List of Titles
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRAVEL
From: 26-APR-1994 To: 21-DEC-1988 TOTAL DOCUMENTS: 33
# TITLE DATE
1 Sources on Mexican Americans/ Chicanos (NLS3a) 26-APR-1994
2 Sources on Mexican Americans/ Chicanos (NLS3b) 26-APR-1994
3 Traveler's Tips 30-JAN-1994
4 What Does the Peace Corps Offer? 30-JAN-1994
5 American Express Billing Inquiries 15-DEC-1993
6 Club Discounts 15-DEC-1993
7 Contracted Travel Agencies 15-DEC-1993
8 Corporate Hotel Discounts 15-DEC-1993
9 Insurance Coverage 15-DEC-1993
10 Rental Car Discounts 15-DEC-1993
11 Research on Needs of Female Business Travelers 22-AUG-1993
12 Ideas for Better Living (July 1993) 12-JUL-1993
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(N) Next Titles (R) Reduce Selection (S) Search Again (?) Help
(P) Previous Titles (E) Expand Selection (D) Display Options (@) Exit
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
While the advisories are intended for American citizens, much of the information is
useful for other travelers. Information on most countries includes the
political situation, crime rate, and penalties for breaking laws, among other
things. The archive has a directory on Africa that includes information on
biking in Africa as well as African art.If you are interested in museums or botanical gardens, information can be found that includes exhibits, their locations, and hours, through the Internet. The Bishop Museum in Honolulu maintains a Gopher that can be accessed by this command:
gopher bishop.bishop.hawaii.orgOther Museum Information and Services contains information on exhibits, hours, admission prices, and other pertinent data at major museums around the world. You can browse the frog and toad collection at the Museum of Natural History at UGA, but it's not quite the same as being there. If you want to preview exhibits where you are headed, this is definitely one way to check them out.
Other link possibilities from this Gopher abound. If you have audio capabilities on your computer, you can enjoy whale sounds at the Museum of Paleontology in UC Berkeley in Sun Audio (.au) Format (see Day 2 for details on Internet audio), a directory in Remote Nature Exhibits. If you have graphics capability, you can download images of birds, plants, and environments, also from Remote Nature Exhibits file. A new spot for museum info can be found in Greece by Gopher. The address is
ithaki.servicenet.ariadne-t.gr.The directory includes Hellenic Civilization, with sculpture, painting, music, literature, and theater. At the time of writing, Some files were still unavailable. In fact, the Internet has no shortage of museum exhibits to visit, the only problem being that all such visits are virtual. Still, if you're interested in planning a trip with visits to museums, Gophers such as these can be an excellent starting point.
If you wish to search for books or articles on travel, you can Telnet to the Electronic Newsstand at gopher.internet.com and log in as enews. I searched travel travelogue and came up with articles and books that contained the keywords. I did find a magazine of interest, but it was not an electronic journal. Enews has samples of contents from magazines and subscription information. I found an ad for Today's Traveler Magazine, a magazine that focuses on travel as a learning experience rather than the bargain-hunter perspective of some mailing lists.
Here is an example of the files found at umanitoba in
/rec-travel/north_america/mexico/: -rw-r--r-- 1 1000 104 29 Feb 13 06:43 0 -rw-r--r-- 1 1000 104 1271 Apr 18 08:01 README.html -rw-r--r-- 1 1000 104 2167 Feb 13 06:57 baja-california -rw-r--r-- 1 1000 104 10384 Feb 13 06:59 cancun.misc -rw-r--r-- 1 1000 104 73216 Apr 17 07:19 cozumel.trip -rw-r--r-- 1 1000 104 10451 Feb 13 07:01 kailuum.trip.sopelak -rw-r--r-- 1 1000 104 13155 Feb 13 07:02 mazatlan.trip -rw-r--r-- 1 1000 104 892 Feb 20 20:34 mexico-faq -rw-r--r-- 1 1000 104 18624 Feb 13 07:05 oaxaca.trip.cislerAnother strong archive of travel and recreation information at MIT can be accessed by FTP at rtfm.mit.edu.
Once you are connected, type cd pub/usenet, and at the next prompt, type dir. This archive contains a file on travel "frequently asked questions," or FAQs. You also can find socio-cultural FAQs and files on vegetarian restaurants in various places in the world. This archive is organized conveniently for easy access to information.
Green Travel is an ecology-oriented agency with an FTP site located at igc.apc.org/pub/green.travel. These are large text files (some are over half a megabyte) containing a wide range of travel and tourism items.
The Omni-Cultural Academic Resource (OCAR) archive contains a variety of interesting files, including photographs with captions, taken in Africa. This is an abbreviated list:
Following this index, I'm going to post Egypt 256-color pics
taken in my trip in Cairo, Luxor and Sharm el Shaykh in April.
Enjoy
Egypt03.jpg -
-
Evening in Street of Cairo, 799x556
Shopping after sunset is enjoyable in Cairo.
Egypt13.jpg -
-
Church of Al Muallaqa (Coptic), 521x800
One of the oldest Christian places in Egypt.
The Coptic Christianity came to Egypt in the
1st century AC.
Egypt14.jpg -
-
Dawn in Luxor, 700x482,
Luxor started 4000 years ago on the site of
ancient Thebes. Its excellent preservation of
historical sites makes it as the most
attractive center for tourists.
Egypt16.jpg -
-
The west bank of the Nile in Luxor, 800x504
It is the necropolis of the ancient Thebes
(present Luxor), including tombs for the Kings
and even ordinary workers. It seems a museum
of technology for construction, decoration and
concealment of tombs.
You can reach it by FTP at ftp.stolaf.edu. Or, you can access it by Gopher at
gopher.stolaf.edu, through the path Internet Resources, then St. Olaf Sponsored
Mailing Lists, then Omni-Cultural Academic Resource, and finally Going Places.
These locations (FTP and Gopher) offer files dealing with travel advice,
airline info, maps, slides, travel agent recommendations, travelogues, and
information on an info-line in Japan. OCAR also contains a file with addresses
of YMCAs in Asia and Australia. One file in the directory is called Share the
World, a program for adult cultural exchange. You can find people who live in
places you want to visit who share your interests, and then arrange to visit
one another.
When you access the site, you receive instructions for logging on. A sample opening session is displayed below:
Quelle langue desirez-vous ? | Which language do you want to use ? Votre choix ? (Francais/Anglais) | Your choice ? (French/English) Choix/Choice [Francais] : English Do you want to use the X Window System [No] : Choose a city among these ones: canada/montreal hong-kong/hong-kong canada/toronto nederland/amsterdam france/lille spain/madrid france/lyon united-kingdom/london france/marseille usa/boston france/paris usa/new-york france/toulouse usa/san-francisco germany/frankfurt usa/washington germany/muenchen Your choice [france/paris] : nederland/amsterdam The network includes all Amsterdam subway and train stations. Times are estimates for a "normal" day (outside off hours). Note: GVB = "Gemeentelijk Vervoerbedrijf Amsterdam" (Municipal Transport Company) NS = "Nederlandse Spoorwegen" (Dutch Railways) Source : From a september 1993 map supplied by Gerben Vos. All electronic data supplied by Gerben Vos. Departure station [no default answer] :For information on skiing in British Columbia, Telnet to CIAO.trail.BC.ca and log in as guest, then follow the menus to Health and Recreation.
Canadian Airlines operates a WWW site that promises departure information in the near future. At the time of writing, these features had yet to be implemented, but soon this site should enable you to type in your preferred days of departure and arrival in cities of your choice, and in return give you a response that enables you to choose flight times. The Canadian Airlines International WWW Page (see Figure 9.1) can be accessed at http://www.cdnair.ca/.
The page lists Weather/Leisure, Travel, and Accessories as options. I decided to choose the Weather/Leisure menu item.
Here, I found several weather information maps. The site also contained ski information from British Columbia and included current slope conditions. My favorite feature here was the scanned trail map files that showed mountains, trails, lifts, and chalets in relief (see Figure 9.2).
The address is http://www.wimsey.com/bcski.html, if you're interested in a ski trip to Whistler Mountain one day soon (and who isn't?).
Time for a site change. This time, I thought I would peruse The Singapore Online Guide (http://www.ncb.gov.sg/sog/sog.html) issued by Singapore's tourist board (see Figure 9.3).
These people have put together quite an extensive sampling of information, but because I didn't know what to expect, I decided to have a look at What to Expect in Singapore (see Figure 9.4).
Other selections include history, culture, etiquette, food, sight-seeing, and geographical details, to mention but a few. It's a pretty thorough guide and worth checking out if you're planning a trip to Singapore (or just want to do some traveling from your computer).
Another nice WWW site for travel is Costa Travel (http://mmink.cts.com/costatravel.html). Costa Travel has information on travel discounts, flight bargains, reservations, coupons, and rebates. Through Costa's For Information and Reservations item, I accessed a tour of New Zealand (see Figure 9.5).
From the Travel and Tourist Information item, I chose the first option, An Illustrated Tour of the Country, which produced a map of New Zealand (see Figure 9.6).
By clicking the island of your choice, you start a guided tour complete with photographs, history, places to see, and information about the area.
Another interesting stop on my Web travel was the GNN Travelers' Center (see Figure 9.7). This site is among the best sources of travel information on the Web, and it can be accessed at http://nearnet.gnn.com/gnn/meta/travel/index.html.
The main menu includes direct links to featured articles and information as well as a subdirectory including Editor's Notes, Notes for the Road, Internet Resources, and the Travelers' Marketplace. The Travelers' Marketplace (which is called Travel Marketplace once you reach it) offers only a few choices, but one of them, Travelers' Tales Books, features some intriguing and informative reading (see Figure 9.8).
The Marketplace includes ads for travel books that show the cover and give a sample of the writing, including Thailand Guides and a Bangkok city guide, Lonely Planet Publications, and Travelers' Tales. In addition, an interactive forum in which you will be able to chat with travel authorities is planned for GNN.
One of the best features in the Travelers' Center is Internet Resources (see Figure 9.9). From here you can access a range of travel-related sites, but before doing anything else be absolutely sure to click Net Travel - Using the Internet to Prepare for a Trip. It's excellent supplementary reading for this chapter.
There was more to discover, though, so I pressed on. Clicking this page's Things to do item led me to a number of links to a variety of pages. One was for skydiving, and I was tempted. But sun, sand, and surf still beckoned, so I clicked the entry for SurfNet. The result was Figure 9.10.
This resource (Figure 9.10 shows only a small portion of the page) gives you current water temperatures, wave heights, and other surf information for different locations including California and, of course, Hawaii. You can call up surf reports from different areas of the world and see if it might be worth your while to leave the computer, jump in the car, and cruise down to the beach. Also featured is a .GIF of the Wave of the Day, something worth checking if you're deciding which beach to visit. Among the more interesting demonstrations of the WWW is the Surf Windows item, which is a live video feed of the surf from Carlsbad, California.
Warning: As this page shows, you must set up your WWW browser properly to view the videos. Because these files are in Microsoft Video for Windows (VFW) format, that means pointing the .AVI extension in your MOSAIC.INI or CELLO.INI file to MPLAYER.EXE, which will display VFW files. This is outlined in the link Setup Mosaic to watch surf videos, which you should follow. Note, however, that you can substitute Cello for Mosaic if you use Cello instead. See Day 2 for a more extensive discussion of WWW videos.
The same menu that provided access to SurfNet also has other interesting and useful items--for example, interactive currency conversion, airline information, and weather reports. There are options for all kinds of different tastes, including a list of restaurants in Boston, and climbing and skiing information sources. I wanted to check out restaurants in Boston and found that the file focused on moderately priced fare, brew pubs, and places to drink cider, interestingly enough.
Some of these ideas should help get you into travel on the Web. You will, no doubt, find other resources that fit your interests as you surf around with your browser. The web is expanding rapidly, so more exciting sites are on the horizon!
If you have a particular interest that leads you to travel--let's say, art and architecture, for instance--you might want to focus your search for information that way. Perform searches on art exhibits and note the locations where the most interesting art can be found. This approach should narrow down the destinations you have to read up on in the mailing lists and archives.
However you approach your search for travel information, you are sure to discover much more than you anticipated on the Internet. It's a great trip in itself!
By clicking one of the inset sections, you call up a more detailed map of that region. Figure 9.12, for instance, shows the detail map of Europe.
Nor is this the end of the interactive map chain. Several of the sites in the Virtual Tourist display lead to other clickable maps, such as the UK map displayed in Figure 9.13.
Warning: When using a clickable (interactive) map, be sure to check the map's key before making your choice. Some of the locations point to WWW sites (including other maps), while others lead to Gophers or even text files. Furthermore, don't expect most sites to be travel-oriented. The vast majority of these links are to universities or governmental institutions, not to travel destinations. Still, some of the educational sites offer links to sites dealing with the local area and to other informative sites within the same country.
The U.K. and Ireland are nice places, to be sure, but we have more exotic fish to fry (or whatever the metaphor is). So let's head eastward from the enchanted isle and get a smattering of what else is available.
First stop, Paris. Oh, why not? There are other Web sites scattered throughout France, but it's spring as I'm writing this, and Paris and spring form an irresistible cliché.
Figure 9.14 shows a home page for Paris, including a link to some virtual tours. One such tour leads to a historical walk through the city, including an informative and colorful view of Paris's historic river, the Seine.
Skipping an unbelievably large portion of the world, we arrive in Australia. Australia has a number of worthwhile Internet sites to visit, but an excellent starting point is the home page at http://life.anu.edu.au:80/education/australia.html (see Figure 9.15), which offers a variety of travel, government, and education links.
A link to a wildlife and parks page leads us to another link, this time to Tasmania. Having always been fascinated by this island state (and what Bugs Bunny fan hasn't?), it's only natural that I would want to travel there, even if only virtually.
And, yes, I have to admit I couldn't resist. There's a link here to Tasmanian mammals, which I clicked to reveal Figure 9.17.
Here, on the Net, is proof that the Tasmanian devil exists. He's not quite as flashy as the TV star, but still worth a trip to see. Maybe even for real some day.
Last stop, Japan. While the Japanese have only begun building their presence on the Internet, it's clear from their earliest efforts that when the construction begins in earnest it's going to be little short of spectacular. We visited Japan briefly on Day 1, and we'll do so again on Day 11, but here is a source of information particularly valuable to anyone wishing to visit the islands.
Figure 9.18 is part of the growing Japan information section of Stanford University's Japanese WWW initiative. From here are several obvious links to Japanese travel and tourism.
The Japan Travel Companion link takes us to Figure 9.19 (residing, as the URL address shows, on a computer in Japan itself), which not only gives us travel information, but also promises details on how to travel cheaply. Since we've all probably heard that Japan is an extremely expensive country to visit, this will surely be of interest.
Is the World Wide Web the best Internet site for travel information? In one way, yes, because it points to practically all other resources. In another way, however, the Web seems to be establishing itself as a source for appealing but undetailed information, along the lines of a published travel guide or (perhaps at best) an encyclopedia entry.
After more common Web access is available, however, this will likely change, if the history of Internet usage is any indication. Before long, we should see travel journals and collections of travel stories (both the wonderful and the horrific) make their way in numbers onto the Web, counterbalancing the tame multimedia efforts so far established. In addition, we'll start to see in-depth guided tours that will enable you to learn about these places in much greater detail.
A very tiny percentage of us will visit more than 10 percent of the nations of the world, so multimedia traveling via the Web can, if it's done right, make a big difference in our appreciation of other lands--as long as it becomes a technology for virtual travel, not just virtual tourism.
A Probably. In the works as of this writing is a "secure" version of NCSA Mosaic, designed expressly so that organizations can accept such items as credit card information over the WWW (right now, the Net is too open for this to be completely safe). Once that's in place, you'll begin to see a range of commercial sites that will let you place orders. Combined with the Web's forms capabilities (which Mosaic now offers and which Cello will offer in its next release), there's no reason whatsoever that you won't be able to access tour and travel information, figure out via a series of multimedia presentations where you want to go, then make transportation and accommodation arrangements by filling in the appropriate forms. Of course, it will likely be a long while before the less traveled parts of the world make their debut this way, so if you're interested in unusual locations, you may not find the Net of as much use, except through newsgroups and mailing lists.
Q Will the degree of detail about individual locations improve significantly?
A Yes, I definitely think so. There's every reason in the world for individual towns and cities (and countries, for that matter) to provide extensive information over the Internet, through both Gopher and Web sites. Cities are in competition for tourism dollars, but they're also fiercely competitive about corporate relocations. As corporations and other organizations move onto the Net, they'll want to use it as a research tool for this kind of information. What could be more immediately attractive, from the standpoint of a technologically savvy corporation, than to see an equally savvy community demonstrating itself in multimedia fashion on the World Wide Web? If you're currently working for a town or city, think about starting the process.
Home What's Book- Reference Software Overview Talk To Us Page New Store Desk Library
© 1995, Macmillan Publishing USA, a Simon and Schuster Company.