Frequently Asked Questions - Where to get online tourist information
         Version 4.9 October 16 , 1998
	  (c) Copyright 1995-97 Rick Bronson, use/distribute freely but
	  keep this copyright statement.  This FAQ may not be
	  distributed for financial gain or may not be included in
	  commercial collections or compilations without express
	  permission from the primary author and editor.

1. Purpose
   This is the FAQ for where and how to get online tourist information for a
given destination.  This FAQ is meant to address the many questions
posted to rec.travel of the form "Need info on such-and-such country,
state, county, or city".  My feeling is that a lot of net bandwidth
could be saved if a list existed that could point persons in need of
information to the source.  When contacting these organizations I
often find that the next best thing to toll-free is to use the FAX to
request information as many tourist bureau's are swamped with calls
and will have you on hold for some time.  Try to be specific in your
request.
  According to an April, 1993 survey done by the New York Times the
average time for mail delivery of tourist material requested from US
state tourist offices is 4 weeks from the time the request was mailed.
Most will mail you an acceptable magazine-style vacation guide and
perhaps an accommodations guide or other publication.

2. Format
  I.  Part One - Tourist Information Sources, by location

  The top level format is geographic:

Country
  State, Province, or Territory
    County or Parish
      City

  Inside of each geographic entity the format is alphabetic.

  place-of-interest[(location-of-office)]
  entry

    (location-of-office) is optional (as shown by the []) when it is in the
    same location as the place-of-interest.
  The entry format is:
    Name
    Address
    direct-dial-phone(s);toll-free-phone(s);fax-phone;email or http link

  As an example - the office for the department of tourism of London, England
  in New York, NY USA would be listed under England, London(USA,NY), its same
  office in Los Angeles would be listed under England, London(USA,CA).

England, London (USA, NY)
  London Tourism
  123456 Fifth Ave.
  New York, NY 10017
  ;+1-212-555-1212, 555-2345; 800-222-1212 (NY Only) 800-222-1213;
  FAX +1-212-555-1213;http://www.wwwebguides.com/london/tourist/web_guide

  NOTE: When a comma is used and no plus sign is on a number it is assumed
  to have the same prefix as the number before.  As an example in
  (+1-212-555-1212, 555-2345) the 555-2345 is really +1-212-555-2345.

3. Updates
  We ask for your help to keep this list current and complete.  For
send additions and corrections please visit http://www.efn.org/~rick, they will be
included in the next update of this FAQ.  Be sure to include the FAX
number of entries.

http://www.gksoft.com/govt/en/tourism.html is good for
government tourism organizations of foreign countries so is
http://www.towd.com/. Also
http://www.wtgonline.com/ has a pretty good
general info list by country.  Also
http://www.traveldiscounts.com/discount/usa/touroint.html has a good
list of international tourism offices, and
http://www.traveldiscounts.com/discount/usa/touroff.html is one for
USA and Canada.  Has some countries: http://www.planetware.com/free/cl.htm
For a list of Convention & Visitor Bureaus see
http://www.iacvb.org/
http://www.world-tourism.org is worth trying too.
Check out http://www.worldchambers.com/chambers.html for finding an
on-line chamber of commerce.
http://www.key-tourist-info.com/ has info on the UK, Canada, France,
Australia & New Zealand.
Another one to check out is Association of National Tourist Office
Representatives in the United Kingdom http://www.tourist-offices.org.uk.
  This FAQ is always available in http://www.efn.org/~rick/tour