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 Travel & Outdoors | January 2007 
New Rules on Travel to Launch
 Alexa Aguilar - Northwest Herald
| | More than a quarter of Americans — about 72 million people — have a passport. |
Travelers seeking a last-minute getaway to the beaches of Nassau or Puerto Vallarta might be in for a surprise this month – for the first time, Americans can’t fly to these places without a passport.
Beginning Tuesday, American travelers will need a passport to fly to the Caribbean, Mexico or Canada. By Jan. 1, 2008, voyagers will need a passport to travel by land or sea to those countries.
In previous years, U.S. citizens traveling to those areas could go with driver’s licenses and birth certificates.
But after the attacks of Sept. 11, the government has been working to tighten the rules. The Sept. 11 Commission recommended the passport change, and Congress voted in 2004 to phase in the stricter rules.
“We started telling people last year to go ahead and get it,” Neelie Kruse, owner of Cary Travel Express, said about passports.
“We’ve been pro-passport all along. It’s easier. There’s no muss, no fuss.”
With the deadline looming, some travelers were in for a surprise this holiday. One local agent said a man tried to buy his wife a tropical vacation for Christmas, but had to shelve the plans when he discovered neither had passports.
“You now have to plan ahead,” said Bill Fishburne, owner of Getaway Travel in Crystal Lake.
The new rules were originally scheduled to take effect last year, but there were concerns the changes would hurt the tourism industry during the busy holiday travel season.
Kathy Baginski, a Kane County travel agent, said several Caribbean resorts are offering tourists special promotions to offset the $97 price of the passport, since the changes are taking hold during the prime travel season to warm spots. She has seen a slight decline in customers taking spontaneous getaway trips.
However, the new rules don’t apply to U.S. territories, so travelers can still go to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico without a passport.
More than a quarter of Americans — about 72 million people — have a passport. The State Department’s most recent annual figures show it issued a record 12 million passports, and anticipates issuing 16 million passports this year.
aaguilar@nwnewsgroup.com |
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