Grand Canyon surpasses record

Grand Canyon surpasses record

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.

Grand Canyon National Park has surpassed its visitation record for the second year in a row.

The Arizona Daily Sun reports that the park announced last week that it had received its 6 millionth visitor, a 9 percent increase over the 5,520,736 visitors from 2015.

The park believes its traffic is up this year because the National Park Service is celebrating its centennial and has increased marketing for the event.

Last year was also record-breaking for the park: 2015 marked the first time more than 5 million people visited the park in a year.

The Grand Canyon hit the 4-million-visitor mark in 1992.

The 6 millionth visitors were the Johnson family from Las Vegas, who were at the Grand Canyon for the first time.

Vegas wants more flights from China

LAS VEGAS

Las Vegas tourism officials are looking to get more nonstop airline routes between China and Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Chinese demand for U.S. travel is increasing and Las Vegas tourism officials are hoping to draw as many of those travelers as possible to Las Vegas.

Getting more flights to McCarren International Airport is going to take some policy changes. The number of flights between the United States and first-tier Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou is limited by a treaty.

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO and President Rossi Ralenkotter says the authority, McCarran and the U.S. Travel Association have long been pushing for an Open Skies agreement that would eliminate travel caps.

Will calls be allowed on flights?

If airlines allow passengers to make in-flight cellphone calls, the carrier must notify passengers in advance, under a rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The rule, proposed last week, may be a moot question because the Department of Transportation is still considering a complete ban on airborne voice calls within, to or from the United States.

Still, the agency said that if such calls are allowed, airlines could prohibit them on all or some individual flights, and should notify passengers of the policy for their flight in advance.

The Federal Communications Commission currently prohibits cellphone calls on commercial flights.

Hitting the road for TSA PreCheck

The Transportation Security Administration acknowledges that security lines at the nation’s airports could be shorter and the agency could save money if more travelers were to sign up for an expedited screening program.

A private company hired to sign travelers for the program, TSA PreCheck, is trying to help out the cause by going mobile.

The company, Morphotrust, is employing two recreational vehicles to travel the country and sign up travelers at businesses, universities and other locations.

The first RV was launched on the East Coast in September, and the second RV, which will focus on the West Coast, debuted recently.

A schedule for the RV can be found at IdentoGo.com/rv.

Geography quiz

Q. What is the nickname for Alaska?

A. The Last Frontier. The 49th state, it’s our largest and most remote.

Combined dispatches