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Welcome to The Genre Traveler! Please sign up using the form to the right so that you'll get all the latest updates to the site. You also might want to sign up for the RSS feed, which you can do via email or your favorite RSS Reader. I am sad to say that another genre-travel attraction looks like it's biting the dust. Erik Yates of ThemeParkInsider.com reported Wednesday that Skull Kingdom*, a year-round haunted attraction on Orlando's International Drive has closed its doors, "seemingly for good."

"And what's even more," he wrote, "it seems that the property will be demolished and its props, costumes and other properties auctioned off."

It seems to me that I've reported several genre-travel-attraction closings since I launched this blog, most within the past year. It saddens me. Some might say it is because tourism overall is dropping, what with 9/11, rising gas prices, yada, yada, yada. And they might be right. But, I also think it's a case of genre travelers not knowing about the attractions that cater to them.

In part, that's why I started The Genre Traveler. I want this to be the liaison that links genre travelers (whether they know that's what they are or not) to genre-travel events, locations and attractions (whether they know that's what they are or not).

"I loved Skull Kingdom," Yates wrote, "it was a great place to get a haunt, though in recent years it was lacking due to falling off attendance.... And it's a shame to see what's going in the place of Skull Kingdom.....condos. Like the need for those outweighs everything else."

I call on all genre travelers to unite against this plight! Support your local genre attractions. And if they don't live up to their potential -- voice your displeasure. Many of these attractions are the fruit of someone's love for science fiction, fantasy or horror. When the attraction closes, it's the loss of a dream. Sometimes, however, maintaining that dream can be tiring and the attraction can loose its umph. If you let these owners know that you love their work and that you think things are slipping, then maybe you'll end up saying just the thing they need to hear to get their spirit going again and improve the attraction.

Tourism -- whether it be genre-related or otherwise -- is a two-way street, a dialogue. It only succeeds when both the tourist and the tourist-attractor (for the lack of a better term) work together to create the best experience. Money may be an outcome or by-product, but it is the experience that is the motivator.

What do you think?

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* Skull Kingdom was mentioned in the January 2006 issue of The Genre Traveler.

Now there's a place to store all your travel dreams online. It's called Suitcase and is brought to you by Concierge.com, the online presence of Conde Nast Traveler.

This handy online tool "lets you collect all the trip information you need – hotels, restaurants, museums, articles, transportation details – and save it all in one place." Pretty cool, huh?

Of course, in order to use this tool you have to be a registered Concierge Member. Registration requires you to give Concierge.com your e-mail address, state/province, country and zip/postal code.

For more information, visit suitcase.concierge.com.

I'm in the process of moving The Genre Traveler's blog from Bravenet to Blogger. This will give me much more flexibility, as well as get rid of those annoying pop-ups that the other service has. Please forgive the slow down of posting while this process moves forward.

Until all the posts are moved over, you can find the archives at thegenretraveler.braveblog.com.

The state of Georgia (U.S.) just won my admiration. On Thursday, the Associated Press reported, the Georgia Board of Education voted to uphold a local school board's decision to leave Harry Potter books on library shelves, despite a mother's objections that they promoted witchcraft.

Laura Mallory, mother of three children who attend elementary school in Gwinnett County, had worked more than a year to ban the Harry Potter books from the schools. She claimed that the series tried to train children in witchcraft.

School officials fought back, saying that these books were good tools to encourage children to read and that banning all books with references to witchcraft would have to include such classics as Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the fairytale Cinderella.

It seems to me that a book of obvious fantasy couldn’t instruct anyone in witchcraft. If Ms. Mallory truly believes that the witchcraft portrayed in the Harry Potter books is real, then I’ve very sad for her and anyone who agrees with her. Is the state of education today so bad that people can not tell the difference between fantasy and reality?

Anyway, since 2000, the popular Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling have been challenged 115 times. According to the American Library Association, this makes them the most challenged texts of the 21st century. In addition, they’ve become one of the most popular books to be embraced by youth, causing many children who might not have discovered the joys of reading or the delight of genre fiction to become avid readers. In my book (forgive the pun), this makes them a boon to society, not a bane.

Some Gwinnet County Genre-Friendly Attractions

Six Flags Over Georgia
www.sixflags.com
Home of Gotham City Crime Wave, Superman Ultimate Flight, Batman the Ride, Monster Plantation, Santa Maria (a pirate-themed ride) and more.

Atlanta Horror Fest
www.atlantahorrorfest.com
The first one was held this year. I wonder what 2007 will be like?

DragonCon
www.dragoncon.org
America's largest, multi-media, popular arts convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film.

Mythic Journeys
www.mythicjourneys.org
A conference and performance festival focused on the mythic imagination.

Sci Fi Summer Con
sfscon.tripod.com
A big con focused on science fiction.

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The San Francisco Film Society will celebrate of the 50th anniversary of the San Francisco International Film Festival next year. This makes it the first film festival from Alaska to Argentina to reach the half-century mark, according to a press release.

One of the highlights of the festival will be the awarding of the one-time-only award named after festival founder Irving "Bud" Levin. This year, the award will go to George Lucas, creator of the Star Wars films.

What: San Francisco Film Festival
Where: San Francisco, Berkeley and the Peninsula (Calif.)
When: April 26 to May 10, 2007
For More Info:
www.sfiff.org/festival/index.html
history.sffs.org/index.php

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In Other News:

Since I'm talking about genre directors being presented with awards. Earlier this month, Steven Spielberg was one of several honored at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. He received an award for lifetime achievement in the performing arts. If you'd like to see it, the evening gala will be broadcast on CBS on Dec. 26 at 9 p.m. ET.