More Japanese plan to go on vacation this summer than last year thanks to higher bonuses, travel agents and analysts say, underscoring a virtuous cycle of improvements in business profits, personal incomes and consumption. JTB Corp, Japan's biggest travel company, expects domestic travel during the peak holiday season that begins this weekend to rise 1.3 percent from last year. It expects overseas travel to rise by 0.4 percent. Dentsu Research, a market research affiliate of advertising giant Dentsu Inc., said workers living in Tokyo planned to spend an average 102,000 yen ($920) on vacations this summer compared with 95,000 yen last year. They also planned to take an average seven days of summer vacation, about a day more than last year, it said, based on a survey conducted last month. Toshihiro Nagahama, a senior economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, said the figures showed that the benefits of a recovery in corporate profits in the past few years were finally filtering through to households. "Consumers are finally earning enough to spend more time and money on holidays," he said. "Domestic demand will likely provide firm support to the economy going forward." He estimated the increased spending on transport and leisure facilities could boost July-September nominal gross domestic product (GDP) by more than 200 billion yen. Quarterly GDP in the same quarter last year totaled around 500 trillion yen....CNN

North and South Korea have agreed to open road and rail links through the border that divides the peninsula in October, Seoul's unification ministry said on Sunday, in a latest move to revive stalled cooperations. The agreement comes as the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States meet in Beijing to negotiate an end to Pyongyang's nuclear arms program. "North and South Korea have agreed to finish construction of two railways as soon as possible and formally open rail and road links in late October," Seoul's unification ministry said in a statement. The agreement also came after Seoul's Unification minister Chung Dong-young met North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang last month when Kim had proposed opening a west-coast railway line through the Demilitarized Zone border before a rail link on the other coast is finished. The west-coast line is all but finished and would help boost use of the Kaesong industrial park the South is building just over the border in the North, while the east-coast route is through more difficult terrain and needs more work. Seoul said it has agreed to offer construction materials and equipment to the North as well as technical support. The agreement is the latest result of the two countries' efforts to boost cooperation. North and South Korea also agreed on Wednesday to a shared fishing zone in a disputed sea off the peninsula's west coast after fishing talks in North Korea. A long-running dispute over the maritime border in the west sea has been the cause of clashes in past years that have killed or wounded scores of sailors on both sides. Last week, military officials from the two Koreas agreed to establish liaison offices for contact between their navies to avert armed conflict. The two Koreas are also set to play soccer in men's and women's East Asian events at three venues in South Korea between July 31 and August 7. The North and South remain technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in truce, not with a peace treaty...CNN

Britain's tourist industry was bracing itself for a significant drop in the numbers of overseas visitors in the wake of this month's bomb attacks on the capital's transport system. While Londoners reacted calmly to the the deadly July 7 bombings and Thursday's attempted attacks, there was a fall in holidays and flights to the UK purchased, according to media reports. With the industry worth £15 billion ($26 billion) a year, many financial analysts said they believed the attacks would put pressure on the Bank of England to cut interest rates next month. "The security issues have just got 500 percent greater," Jeremy Hodges, head of foreign exchange sales at Lloyds TSB bank, told Reuters. "It will reflect badly on the economy, on tourism, and you have got to suggest that we are going to cut (interest) rates." An umbrella group representing the major players in the industry said they believed there would be no significant downturn but were meeting Friday to discuss the second attack on the city's transport system in two weeks. "We don't expect this to result in a downturn in tourists to London," said Frances Tuke, spokeswoman for the Association of British Travel Agent, which is represented on the Travel Industry Emergency Response Group. "Following the July 7 incidents, there has been no noticeable reduction in visitors to London or in forward bookings," she told the Press Association. "From what we have heard, overseas visitors are being very defiant towards the terrorists, matching the mood of Londoners themselves. We expect this defiance to continue." Tuke said tourist chiefs were still predicting a record year for the number of overseas visits to the UK. She went on: "Life has to go on and people have to use the transport system. People always expect the Americans in particular to shy away after there have been incidents but we have not heard of any mass cancellations."...CNN

In the sprawling expanse of the nation's fourth largest city, you don't need a bank account the size of Houston native Beyonce's to have a good time. There's lots of Texas-sized fun to be had for less than $20. But before you go, there are two things to know: No. 1, rent a car -- it's the only logical way to navigate a metropolitan area that's larger than Rhode Island. And No. 2, pack your shorts to combat the 90-plus degree summer temperatures coupled with stifling humidity. Museums Museum choices abound here, and it's easy to jump from place to place within the city's Museum District, home to 15 museums within walking distance of one another. Drop in at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on Tuesdays after 2 p.m. when admission is free (it's still a bargain on other days, at $6 and $3.50 for kids 3-11). Check out the "Lord of the Rings" exhibit (up through August 28) that has 650 pieces of memorabilia from the movie, including costumes worn by the trilogy's main characters. Before you leave, drop in at the Cockerell Butterfly exhibit, a three-story glass-enclosed structure that houses more than 2,000 of the world's largest and most colorful butterflies. Watch rambunctious children morph into living statues as they stand motionless, hoping to entice one to land on them. But if you're looking for a reprieve from the sweltering humidity, move on, because the rainforest atmosphere inside can be just as bad. Baseball fans will love the "Baseball As America" exhibit featuring items from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum that runs through August 14 at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. See it on a Thursday when admission is free and you can marvel over a plethora of memorabilia that includes a section on Lone Star baseball stars. Finish your day at the Children's Museum of Houston which is free from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays. The fun-filled spot gives youngsters plenty of chances to learn while doing and no trip there is complete without a stop at the paint-your-own-face station on the way out....CNN

German and Italian are both spoken in this picturesque town surrounded by the ragged Dolomite mountains. Bolzano's most famous resident, called "Oetzi" by the locals, speaks neither. But he's forgiven. After all, he's been dead for at least 5,000 years. "Oetzi," also called the Iceman, is a withered little mummified man found protruding from a glacier in 1991 along Italy's mountainous border with Austria. Displayed in an igloo-like case of ice tiles, Oetzi is the star of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, where people from around the world line up to see him. They gaze at the artifacts found with Oetzi -- his longbow, a quiver of arrows, his bearskin hat and goatskin cloak, grass shoes and leather leggings -- and wonder what life was like in this rugged corner of the European continent all those centuries ago. Oetzi -- who was in the news again in June because researchers suspect the frozen mummy might have been contaminated by bacteria since its discovery -- is just one reason to visit the towering Dolomites. Are you a history buff? An aficionado of old churches and medieval frescoes? A mountain biker? A rock climber? A lover of wine? A skier? The Dolomites are for you. The French architect Le Corbusier was said to have called the alpine range the most beautiful architecture in the world. The sun's reflections off the Dolomites' shear-face cliffs are stunning -- lighting up the massive rock in multitudes of bright colors. A range of the Alps that reaches an elevation of more than 10,000 feet, the Dolomites are in northeastern Italy, just south of Austria. This is the crossroads of Italian and German-speaking culture, where Italian friendliness shakes hands with Teutonic neatness and order -- and where you can find tagliolini and schnitzel side-by-side on the same menu. Much of the Dolomites belonged to Austria until the end of World War I, when the German-speaking country was forced to give it up under the Treaty of St. Germain. Up until relatively recently the divisions between Italians and German-speakers here have been a source of friction. A separatist movement among German-speakers erupted into violence in the 1960s. A 1971 treaty between Italy and Austria helped overcome ill will....CNN

Vacationers heading to European capitals this summer for museums, culture and fine dining can squeeze in an afternoon at the beach without ever leaving the city. Stretches of sand are being trucked in to urban riverfronts to create the feeling of a lazy day at the shore, just a seashell's throw from the buildings, shops and busy streets of Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Budapest, Rome and Berlin. These sand-in-the-city installations are designed primarily for urbanites who don't have money or time for a summer holiday on the Riviera or the Baltic Sea. Several of them have been running for three or four summers now and have been a huge success, drawing thousands of city-dwellers to sit in the sun in their bathing suits and dig their toes in the sand. Bikini-clad sun worshippers and others have flocked to the Paris Plage, as the trucked-in sand along the Seine River is known in French, since it started in the summer of 2001. The Paris beach, scheduled to open again this year for a month beginning July 21, offers deck chairs, beach bars and concerts. The 2005 installation will have a Brazilian theme, complete with stretches of sand named Ipanema and Copacabana, lush greenery to conjure up visions of the Amazon, concerts of Brazilian music, a samba school and beach soccer. Refreshment stalls will serve up lime-infused caipirinha cocktails, and children's workshops will make carnival figures. In Rome, a stretch of beach called "Tiber Village" opened June 18 on the banks of the Tiber River. The beach, lying in the shadows of St. Peter's Basilica and Castel Sant'Angelo, is built with trucked-in sand and synthetic grass. Visitors have access to showers, swimming pools, deck chairs, bars and restaurants. It's scheduled to remain open until September 17 and was financed by the Battelli di Roma, a company running ferries along the Tiber. Manmade sandbars are installed in several locations along the Spree River in Berlin. The urban beaches are open already, for their fourth season, and will remain open through September. Palm trees, boardwalks, beach chairs and cocktails add to the illusion of a seaside in the city, and you can even take a dip in the Spree Bridge Bathing Ship, a heated pool located in the hull of a container ship in the river. The beaches typically stay busy until late in the evening. An urban beach scene in Belgium's capital city called the Brussels Spa will unfold for the third summer in a row from July 22 to August 21. Called Bruxelles les Bains in French and Brussel Bad in Dutch, the sandy stretch, decorated with palm trees, is located along the Quai des Peniches, not far from the city center. Last year, 700,000 visitors visited the beach to attend concerts, play beach volleyball or other sports, walk through a bamboo forest or visit scores of shops and restaurants....CNN

Take heart as you embark on your next summer road trip: There are ways to tone down the "are we there yet?" chorus coming from the back seat. Careful packing and planning can make getting there part of the fun. The main thing to remember about taking road trips with children is that it will take longer, said mother of two Pauline Frommer, of Frommer's travel guides. "The kids simply can't be in the car for eight hours straight, you can't just do a drive-through meal and only stop at gas stations," she said. "That's the way to really have a hellish vacation." CNN consulted Frommer and other child-friendly experts about making road trips more enjoyable for the whole family. Research in advance Researching your route ahead of time may yield a stop at a nice park or an attraction that could be fun for kids, Frommer said. She also urges families to steer away from the same old chain restaurants. "There's a terrific site called roadfood.com, and it lists the more authentic restaurants in the areas you're going to be going," Frommer said. "It lists the clam shacks and the barbeque joints and the really special diners along the road." Leave early or late Frommer encourages parents to depart on long road trips in the evening or early in the morning. "If you can leave early or late, you not only avoid traffic, hopefully the kids will be tired and take a little rest," she said. Make regular stops The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a stop about every two hours to give you and your children a break. Getting out of the car is also a good idea if a child is feeling carsick. "The best therapy for motion sickness is to stop traveling and walk around on terra firma for a bit," said Dr. Andy Spooner via e-mail. Spooner is the director of general pediatrics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. "If that's not possible, looking outside the vehicle can help," he said. Most pediatricians avoid using medications to prevent motion sickness in children unless they tend to experience extreme cases because the drugs are profoundly sedating, Spooner said....CNN