Travel briefs

Sicily looks to burnish its image and attract more tourists

ROME -- Sicily's government, determined to quash the image of the island as a Mafia backwater with scant tourist appeal, is launching a major campaign next month to persuade travelers worldwide to come visit.

The island's government has hired international advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi to change the sunny island's image around the world, with a campaign based around the slogan: "Sicily leaves everything else in the shade."

The campaign will be "pretty modern and amusing, and will promote the idea that Sicily has evolved and grown, and is no longer the Sicily of the years immediately following the Second World War," says Francesco Taddeucci, a creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi in Rome.

The campaign aims to profit from a new Sicilian tourism plan to improve transportation, set up tourist ports along the coast, and launch an Internet site for visitors.

"We intend to give a new and different image to Sicily: a region that grows, works and produces," said Sicilian tourism official Francesco Cascio, according to the ANSA news agency.

The advertising campaign will cost $13 million, while the regional government is devoting about $500 million to the infrastructure improvements, ANSA said.

Cruise ship visitors to Hawaii up 50 percent through June

HONOLULU -- The number of visitors coming to Hawaii on cruise ships or for interisland cruises climbed 53.1 percent in the first half of this year over the same period last year, state officials say.

"The continued growth in cruise passengers to the islands is very encouraging, especially in light of the challenges the tourism industry has faced during the past year," said Seiji Naya, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

He said it is a sign of the resilience of the tourist industry and testimony to Hawaii's reputation as an attractive place to visit.

Twenty-three cruise ships carrying a total of 118,515 passengers made 67 trips around the islands from January through June this year, including interisland trips by the Hawaii-based Norwegian Star, the department said.

Nearly 97 percent of the cruise ship passengers were out-of-state visitors, with only 3,568 Hawaii residents taking cruises.

Most of the cruise ship passengers -- 56.2 percent -- are from the Eastern states, with 31.3 percent from the Western states, 5.8 percent from Canada and 2 percent from Europe, the department said.

More than half are repeat visitors.

The average cruise visitor to Hawaii during the first half of 2002 spent approximately $91 per person per day while on shore on tours, restaurants, entertainment, shopping and souvenirs.

By comparison, the average visitor to Hawaii spent $176 per day during the same six-month period last year.

--From wire reports