News, Tips & Bargains : Where’s Hot, Where’s Not

Britain and Boston are booming; Jamaica and the Grand Canyon are not, and Hawaii tourism appears to be on the rise.

In Boston, hoteliers are expecting their best summer in eight years--and their busiest August ever--thanks to the World Cup, several conventions and a surge in international travelers.

Tourists are also flooding Britain, where authorities say they could top 20 million visitors for the first time.

However, second-quarter tourist arrivals in Jamaica dropped 8.5% from last year, according to figures released in July, and hoteliers blamed a recent spate of crimes against visitors.

And visitation at the Grand Canyon has been down this year--7% in May, from 1993, and 12% in June--and so far National Park Service warnings about mega-crowds have not panned out. Hotel bookings in the area are also down.

A total of 538,880 visitors went to Hawaii in June, 6.6% more than in June, 1993. It was the fifth consecutive month of “modest but steady growth” in tourism, according to the Hawaii Visitors Bureau.