The Wire: Golf's Only Daily Transaction Newsletter

The Gulf Shores Golf Association, with 10 signature golf courses, announces that Golfweek magazine has ranked GSGA member Kiva Dunes Golf & Beach Club in its America's Best Resort Courses rankings that appear in the December 2004 issue.

David Duval teamed with Special Olympian Kevin Erickson to defeat Champions Tour player Bob Duval, David's father, and Special Olympian Oliver Doherty 4-and-3 in a team best-ball tournament recently at the Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville, Fla. On Jan. 1, CBS Sports will air "A Tee Time Like No Other," which highlights the round, from 4-5 p.m. ET.

XCES Projects, an international property development consortium, announces plans for a €200 million integrated tourism project located on a 650-acre site near Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland.

Golfweek magazine will host Golfest Orlando presented by Chrysler, Jan. 15-16 at Orange County National Golf Center in Winter Garden, Fla.

Turf Diagnostics & Design, a soil testing and agronomic consulting company specializing in golf courses and sports fields, announces the move to a new state-of- the-art laboratory in Linwood, Kansas.

By Rich Steck and Judi Janofsky
wheretogonext.com

If you love books and you love travel, here's something that could make an ideal vacation: Bookstore Tourism.

It's a new travel niche that features interesting independent bookstores as destinations. The primary goal of this groundbreaking effort is to encourage booklovers around the country to organize day-trips and other kinds of literary outings to cities and towns with interesting, fun and unique bookstores that people in their own communities may not be able to visit regularly.

There are lots of reasons to visit and support independent bookstores:

· They're engaging, quiet and intimate with a diverse selection that isn't always mainstream.
· They provide personalized customer service by a knowledgeable staff.
· They serve as a public gathering place, attracting writers, educators, artists and others who have a professional interest in books.
· They create an atmosphere for personal enrichment and learning.

According to a recent National Endowment for the Arts report, for the first time in U.S. history, fewer than half of American adults read literature for pleasure. Bookstore Tourism could help reverse that alarming trend in a way that's fun, different and eminently rewarding for the reader and the bookseller alike.

There's a how-to guide out now that tells how to plan and enjoy this new travel concept: Bookstore Tourism: The Book Addict's Guide to Planning & Promoting Bookstore Road Trips for Bibliophiles & Other Bookshop Junkies.

The book's author, Larry Portzline, says "It doesn't matter if it's five friends in a minivan or 50 people on a bus. It's a lot of fun, it promotes reading and literacy, and it gives booklovers a chance to visit cities and towns with interesting, unique bookstores that they may not otherwise get to visit."

Portzline notes that individual communities with a concentration of bookshops or with a noteworthy literary history can also use Bookstore Tourism as an economic development tool. His book touches on dozens of ideas geared to putting independent bookstores back on the map, and putting books back into the hands of those who've dropped the reading habit.

Reading. What a great idea. Bookstores. What a charming source of ideas. Combined, they create a wonderful alternative to traditional destination touring.

Bookstore Tourism is available at bookstores for $10 or downloadable from www.BookstoreTourism.com. Take a look, then take a tour.

Reader's Forum
The 2004 golf year certainly had its share of memorable moments, but many eyes are now turning to the new year.

The Wire wants to know what you think will be the big stories or what you would like to see unfold in 2005.

Send comments to info@gpagolf.com with the subject line "2005." Only those responses that include first name, last initial and hometown will be considered. Send responses by 9 a.m. ET on Thursday, Dec. 30. Comments will be published in the Monday, Jan. 3 edition of The Wire.

Send your responses to info@gpagolf.com