Third Airport Open to London Travelers

Air travelers heading to or from London no longer have to rely solely on either the crowded Heathrow or distant Gatwick airports. The British capital now has a third international airport--Stansted, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth on March 15.

The $760-million airport is about 30 miles north of the city, to which it is linked by express rail service. The journey on the new Stansted Express takes 40 to 45 minutes and costs $16 one way.

Stansted, praised by some in the British press as “an architectural masterpiece” but derided by others as a “white elephant,” is designed to handle up to 8 million passengers a year, but so far is relatively uncrowded.

The terminal’s four major carriers are Air UK, Air France, Ryanair and Proteus, which together offer service to such cities as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Bordeaux, Dublin and Munich, as well as a number of smaller cities and the isles of Jersey and Guernsey.

Florence, Nice, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf and several other major cities will be added in the coming months.

Travel Quiz: Which city has the most interstate highways passing either through it or near it? (Answer below.)

Berlin Blues: The fall of the Berlin Wall has had an unfortunate impact on tourism in what was once East Germany, according to a German tourism official.

Ernst Bernhauer, director of the German National Tourist Office in Italy, told Travel Agent magazine, which covers the travel industry, that tourism to that part of the country is suffering because of reunification.

“East Germany used to get most of its travelers from Eastern Bloc nations,” Bernhauer said, “but now with the West German mark as the official currency, our eastern neighbors can no longer afford to visit there. The services aren’t up to Western standards yet, so they’re really caught in a bind.”

Tibet: The largest exhibition of Tibetan art ever to go on display in the United States makes its debut at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on April 17.

Entitled “Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet,” the exhibit features 159 Tibetan religious paintings and sculptures gathered from museums and private collections worldwide.

As part of the exhibit, monks from the monastery of the Dalai Lama will create a seven-foot-wide mandala (a graphic symbol used as an aid in meditation) in colored sand at the museum. The creation, open to the public, is expected to take up to three weeks at the beginning of the exhibit, which runs through Aug. 18.

Fore! Golfers heading for Portugal this summer will be able to play on four new championship courses scheduled to open in the Algarve. The courses are at Carvoeiro, Vilamoura, Vila Sol and the Alto Vale Golf Club.

Quick Fact: There are 6,016 travel agencies in California.

Korean Tourism Increasing: South Korea, which attracted only 1 million foreign visitors in 1978, came close to welcoming 3 million in 1990. Figures released in March showed that 2.958 million persons visited the country last year, including 325,000 from the United States. Japanese visitors remain the largest single group, however, accounting for 1.4 million of South Korea’s tourists.

Korean tourism officials say the rapid growth in tourism is due to several factors, including “the improved image of Korea since the 1988 Olympics,” as well as successful promotional efforts overseas.

Scotland by Air: Starting next year, visitors to Scotland will be able to make greater use of Glasgow Airport, which is undergoing a $120-million expansion that will provide 70% more terminal space by the time the project is completed in late 1992.

The airport, which serves both Glasgow and Edinburgh, will be able to handle 6.5 million passengers annually. British Airways, American, Northwest and Air Canada all fly into the airport.

Dine Aboard: A luncheon is now offered aboard the Napa Valley Wine Train seven days a week, and the train this year also has added a wine-tasting car and a deli car with limited menu offerings.

Dinner aboard the train currently is available only Thursday through Sunday, but on May 1, the Wine Train will add dinner service on Wednesday evenings, followed a week later with dinner on Tuesday evenings, too. Brunch trains are featured each Saturday and Sunday morning.

One Billion Indians: Travelers to India this year may be interested to know that there are 160 million more Indians than there were a decade ago.

This was one of the findings in the latest Indian census, which also revealed that if the country’s growth rate continues at its present level, India’s population will surpass 1 billion by the end of the century.

The latest count shows that India has a population of 843,930,861.

A.R. Nanda, the nation’s census commissioner, said India’s population increased by 160,606,764 during the past decade, a growth rate of 23.5%. Nanda said the census also revealed that:

--Men outnumber women in the country by 31 million.

--The literacy rate is 52.11%, compared to 43.56% a decade ago.

--The capital of New Delhi grew to 8.38 million, an increase of nearly 3 million.

--The western city of Bombay, the financial center of the country, remained the largest metropolis at 12.57 million inhabitants, up nearly 3 million.

--The eastern metropolis of Calcutta grew to 10.86 million, an increase of about 1.7 million for the decade.

Quiz Answer: Chicago.