Antonio Gazzellone, the municipal council member responsible for tourism, noting that alcohol may have been involved, said, "There were people camped out, and we weren't able to move them".
Ms. Shirley said she hoped future government efforts would concentrate on providing incentives for private space exploration, even space tourism, noting that the early aviation industry of private barnstormers expanded into a viable business only because the government gave it contracts to deliver mail.
On the other hand, proponents of medical tourism note its potential to cross-subsidize health care in the public sphere [ 36], though some of these agreements have been violated in practice [ 37].
TOURISM officials note that despite the high-tech trappings, the annual ritual of predicting color progression and "leaf drop" is hardly an exact science.
Still, French tourism officials note an increase in bookings this year for hotels and rental houses in the regions north of the Loire, like Brittany and Normandy.
"The MOU will see both parties provide hospitality training for current hosts, as well as potential hosts in rural and remote areas, to encourage the adoption of new digital technology for tourism," they note in a press release today.
Space-tourism ventures note that their vehicles are lighter and smaller and will fly in far less populated areas than commercial jets, which typically incur insurance costs of just a few thousand dollars per trip.
And a wealthy diaspora should be a big source of tourism and capital, notes Sanjay Puri, chairman of USINPAC, the main political lobby for Indian-Americans in Washington.Mr Puri points to plans for an infrastructure bond to be sold to members of the diaspora.
In his Bloomberg piece, Mark Whitehouse, who calls the dip "small" in comparison to the drop-off in tourism after 9/11, notes that the US dollar saw a two percent gain in value against European currencies, which makes US travel a tiny bit pricier.
The tourism industry, he noted, "is our answer to the old-time industries' declining".
