Visit FITA @ www.fita.org and carlson wagonlit travel @ www.carlsonwagonlit.com

NEW TAXES FOR SOUTH-OF-THE-BORDER TRAVELERS.  The Mexican government recently imposed a new $15 fee to U.S. citizens who have traveled more than 15 miles within the U.S./Mexico border. This exempts Tijuana, but not most of the popular business travel destinations. Expect to see the fee on your airline ticket.

Y2K GOT YOU BUGGED?

WORRIED ABOUT TAKING A BUSINESS TRIP AROUND JANUARY 1^st ? The U.S. State Department has begun issuing traveler advisories for countries whose airports or aviation systems are not yet Y2K compliant. For information: click on http://travel.state.gov.

WORLDWIDE LOOK AT Y2K AVIATION PLANNING: The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) an affiliate of the United Nations, is working with regions and individual countries to prepare air traffic control systems for the new year. It reports that progress toward solving the Y2K problem varies widely around the world. Here is an overview/status report of the Year 2000 worldwide aviation-related computer planning (by region).

• In the North Atlantic, Y2K computer preparations are almost complete.
• In South America, international organizers are working to keep traffic flowing normally on the primary international routes. All of the South American countries have Y2K committees in place, which have inventoried equipment and systems.
• In Western and Central Africa, ICAO organizers are having trouble getting the year 2000 information from nations, which are still surveying services and equipment that may be affected by the date change.
• In Europe, airports and countries are making major progress toward compliance. Normal flight operations are anticipated.

Domestic airline officials have said that as the year 2000 approaches, they expect to have frequent updates, so they can make last-minute decisions on flight routes and destinations. A spokesman for the ICAO, Denis Chagon says, “The bottom line is that if a situation isn’t safe, the flight doesn’t take off.”

ROAD WARRIOR RESOURCES

THE VIRTUAL CONCIERGE on the web at ontheroad.com is a fabulous destination resource. Its database includes 500 restaurants, 6,500 business events (like trade shows and conferences), and performances in 10 North American cities and London - but it also acts as an electronic concierge, so you can secure restaurant reservations and snag tickets before you go. Unlike other web-based city guides, this one is designed for business travelers, with screens formatted to be printed out or put on a disk to take with you.

WANT YOUR FAVORITE DAILY NEWSPAPER delivered to your hotel room - even if you're far from home? PressPoint <www.presspoint.com> uses digital technology to download the newspaper you order, and print it out at a Xerox printing center in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. or London, and deliver it to your room. Sydney, Hong Kong and Tokyo will be up and running by the end of the year. Participating newspapers include the New York Times, Los Angles Times, the Times of London and the Toronto Globe & Mail.

ASK AWAY.Have a question - even an embarrassing one - about business travel and don't know whom to ask? Check out 1,000 Tips for Trips at <www.tips4trips.com>. You'll find out everything from clever ways to hide cash, whether you can catch a nasty microbe from a public telephone, how to survive a hotel fire or the best hotels to stay in for disabled travelers.

NEW TECHNOLOGY

A NEW PRODUCTIVITY TOOL FOR TRAVELERS is the new generation of digital recorders, whose speech recognition technology allows you to dictate e-mail messages, notes, and letters when you're away from your computer, then easily translate the audio files into text files. One product to consider: the Olympus DS-150, which weighs a mere 2 oz. and can store more than an hour's worth of messages. For info: www.olympusamerica.com,or call 800-347-4027.

A NEW WAY TO LIGHTEN UP is The Clik! PC Card drive, the latest computer gadget from Iomega Corp. It’s a small, lightweight removable storage drive that pops into the PC card slot and has room for 40 MB of files - 25 times as much data as a floppy disk can store. No more need to pack an external disk drive, computer cable and battery. For information: <www.iomega.com>.