Passport Scene Creating Caribbean Woe

Student travel trade organiztions and players have long lobbied for an alternative to passport-only travel between Canada and the US, predicting subsequent tourism industry economic difficulty and a drastic drop in cross-country student travel. As the fallout from new passport rules affecting air travelers to and from the Caribbean becomes clear, many island governments are lamenting a loss of tourists to US terrirtories in the Caribbean, like Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Hoping to nab a piece of the spring break pie, Bahamas tourism folks are offering to reimburse travelers the $97 cost of a US passport, and the Jamaican Tourist Board has positioned booths in some US train stations where US residents, fortified with free Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, can easily apply for passports; some Caribbean resorts are also touting deals to first time passport users, like Marriott's $100 hotel credits for new holders of US passports.

So what is the word on passports? Get the whole story, the entire story, and nuthin but the story:

• All About Passport Rules, Passport Rules Change and Legislation History

Learn about spring break spots you can visit in the Caribbean without a passport, too:

• Spring Break Without a Passport

_{Related: Spring Break Hot Spots 2007 | How to Get a Passport in a Hurry}