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Editor's Note:Donald D. Groff welcomes questions of general and not-so-general interest. Send questions and comments to TravelAdvisor. A selection of them will be answered each week in this space. He cannot reply personally.
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August 12, 1999 |
Visiting the locations of movie settings has become a serious niche in the travel business. In Iowa, Madison County's annual bridge festival took on a new life after "The Bridges of Madison County" became a hit, and the baseball field from "A Field of Dreams" also remains one of that state's major attractions. More recently, Tunisia has tried to capitalize on the desert scenes filmed there for the "The Phantom Menace," the latest "Star Wars" movie. A good guide to U.S. locations is the book "Shot on This Site" by William Gordon (Citadel Press, 1995). Its state-by-state chapters provide a guide to hundreds of films and their on-site shooting locations around the country, as well as TV locations and other points of interest. Other movie-location books are "Hollywood East: Florida's Fabulous Flicks" (Tribune Publishing, 1992) by James Ponti and "Hollywood Goes on Location: A Guide to Famous Movie & TV Sites" (Pomegranate Press, 1988) by Leon Smith. Movie-setting guides often can be obtained from tourism offices in movie-rich areas. The British Tourist Authority has an extensive brochure covering movie settings in the United Kingdom. Even Moab, Utah, has a brochure directing visitors to locations for numerous westerns and movies such as "Thelma and Louise." Is it true that trip insurance doesn't protect you if a travel agency or tour company that you've given money to goes out of business? Don't count on trip insurance bailing you out if your tour company or travel agency runs into financial trouble and closes. Trip insurance protects you if something goes wrong and you can't make the trip for some reason -- but it doesn't cover a customer's losses caused by a travel agency or tour company going out of business. If you're truly worried about the solvency of an agency or tour company you're considering using, get a new agency. If you simply want to be cautious, there are several things you can do.
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