Patsy Cline Museum, Madame Tussauds open in Nashville

Patsy Cline Museum, Madame Tussauds open in Nashville

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

Two new attractions opening this month in Nashville will give fans a chance to get closer to some of their favorite country music icons.

The legendary vocalist Patsy Cline gets an overdue honor with a new museum blocks from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. And Madame Tussauds opens a new music-focused attraction near the Grand Ole Opry House, featuring lifelike figurines of Taylor Swift, Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan and many more.

Just in time for the spring and summer travel season, the attractions bring another new tourist draw to the city that has been regularly featured in lists of top U.S. destinations for travelers.

The attraction is the seventh Madame Tussauds in the United States, but the only one that is entirely focused on musicians. It isn’t just limited to country, but includes figures from pop, jazz, folk, rock and soul music.

The Patsy Cline Museum unveils more details about the “Walking After Midnight” singer, whose success was cut short when she died in a plane crash in 1963. It is the largest collection of items related to Cline, who was one of the first country artists to crossover to become a premiere torch singer.

Big summer for Disney parks

Disney theme parks have a big summer ahead of them with major new attractions opening May 27 based on two movies, one about the Marvel Comics superheroes from “Guardians of the Galaxy” and the other about the lush alien world of Pandora from the James Cameron film “Avatar.”

The Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission BREAKOUT! attraction opens at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, California.

Pandora — The World of Avatar is a 12-acre land opening at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

But the creative designer behind the attractions says you don’t need to know anything about either movie to enjoy them.

“This is not a revisitation of a plot line of a film you already saw,” said Disney Imagineer Joe Rohde at an event Monday in New York City previewing the attractions. “This is your opportunity to go to an amazing world and have adventures of your own. ... The story is about you.”

Motel 6 American Travel Study

To kick off its 55th anniversary year, Motel 6 surveyed Americans across the nation about their travel history and behaviors, where they have and haven’t been, where they would like to go, and what they would like to do – and the results revealed interesting trends and statistics for the travel and lodging industry.

The Motel 6 American Travel Study, in conjunction with Kelton Global, reveals that numerous Americans have yet to discover some of the best of what the United States has to offer:

Nearly half of Americans (48 percent) have only been to 10 states or less in their lifetime.

25 million Americans (10 percent) have never seen the ocean.

32 million Americans (13 percent) have never been to a major U.S. city (top 10 DMA).

Half of Americans (50 percent) have never visited the White House.

Geography quiz

Q. On which river is Victoria Falls located?

A. Zambezi River. The falls are on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Combined dispatches