Best New Jersey beaches, Central Europe racing, more

From The Associated Press
10:54 AM PST, February 13, 2008

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Best New Jersey beaches

Do you have fond memories of the Jersey shore?

Now you can vote for the best beaches in the state, whether it's Asbury Park, Atlantic City, Cape May, Wildwood, Sandy Hook, Seaside or any of the other 60 or so sand-and-surf destinations.

A coalition of environmental and tourism groups is sponsoring the poll to select the 10 best beaches in New Jersey.

Voting will run through the end of April online at http://www.njtoptenbeaches.org as well as in person at various tourism events.

You'll be asked to rate your favorite beach on accessibility, aesthetics, amenities, water quality and other factors.

The best beach in the state will be announced May 22 at Sandy Hook. Winning communities will receive signs announcing the honor.

Central Europe Rally

A new seven-stage rally race is coming to Europe.

The Central Europe Rally will be held in Hungary and Romania in April, with some 250 racers in three categories -- motorcycles, cars and trucks -- with all time trials to take place on closed military bases in Hungary. The April 26 finish will be in Balatonfured, a town on the northern tip of Lake Balaton, which is the largest freshwater lake in central Europe and a major Hungarian tourist attraction.

The European race will start in Budapest on April 20 and cover 1,860 miles, according to organizers at the Amaury Sports Organization, which also organizes the famed Dakar Rally.

The Dakar Rally was canceled this year due to terrorism threats along its traditional routes in North Africa. An adventure through the desert and other off-road landscapes, the race historically ran from Paris to the capital city of Senegal. In past years it had also originated in other European cities.

In 2009, the Dakar Rally will resume on a new continent -- South America. The route will start in Buenos Aires Jan. 2, run through Chile and finish up back in Argentina Jan. 18, according to the Amaury Sports Organization.

Schwarzenegger ads

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is heading a cast of California food and wine celebrities in a new tourism ad campaign.

The campaign focuses on a new Web site, Travel and Tourism Commission. The TV ad features a number of food and wine stars, including top chef Thomas Keller of The French Laundry restaurant in the Napa Valley and vintner Andrew Firestone, who also appeared on ABC's ``The Bachelor.'' The spot ends with a shot of Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, sitting at a restaurant overlooking the coast.

For more information, go to landofwineandfood.com.

Jamaica tourism

Jamaica plans to tap into the thriving market for religious-oriented tourism to invigorate the island's sagging economy, government officials and business leaders said.

A new convention center, to be built by 2009, will attract some of the millions of travelers who attend religious conferences outside of their home countries, said Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett. The global religious tourism market is an $18 billion-a-year industry with some 300 million travelers, according to the Colorado-based World Religious Travel Association.

Oceanarium renovation

The popular Oceanarium marine mammal exhibit at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium will be closed for several months starting in September to allow construction crews to update and renovate existing exhibits and create new ones.

Shedd spokesman Roger Germann said there are some animals living in the 170,000-square-foot facility that will be moved to other institutions while the Oceanarium is undergoing renovations.

The $43 million Oceanarium, with its dolphin and whale shows, turned around the aquarium's fortunes when it opened in 1991, making it one the city's most-visited cultural attractions.

The aquarium regularly attracts more than 2 million people a year, up from fewer than a million visitors before the Oceanarium's debut.

New coral reef exhibit

A new 2,400-gallon coral reef aquarium exhibit opened Feb. 2 to mark the one-year anniversary of the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center, an environmental center in the Florida Keys.

Developed by Mote Marine Laboratory, the reef tank contains fish and invertebrates indigenous to the Keys. It was designed to educate people about preserving the coral reef environment.

The aquarium is part of the Living Reef Exhibit, which also features tanks of hard and soft corals and information about Mote's coral nursery, where more than 22 species of corals are being grown to replenish reefs.

Anniversary events also included the presentation of the Coastal America Partnership Award, honoring the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary's coral protection and restoration program.

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