Recently, a friend alerted me that the Albuquerque Convention and Visitors Bureau has announced it has launched a redesigned Web site.

According to the news release:

The Albuquerque CVB website integrates several exciting technologies available on the Web today including RSS feeds, PDA Mobile content, online video integration and extensive behind-the-scene content management tools that enable the staff to make quick changes.  Many new features have been added to the site to improve the visitor trip planning experience as well as the usability and functionality of the site [...]

Having surfed it, I can attest it is an improvement to ABQ’s previous tourism site.  There’s a few things about it that bug me (such as the audio files that load automatically; there’s a reason YouTube videos don’t run unless you click the “play” button).

Route 66 isn’t featured on the site’s main page. But at least you can find it when you float your cursor over the “Uniquely Albuquerque” part of the menu. The Route 66 page of the site is here. The history page is compact and colorful. It also contains a perfunctory Route 66 Tour page, including a self-guided tour map (Acrobat file) that’s not well-detailed and leaves out east Albuquerque for some reason.

But where the site falls down on its job somewhat is in the dining and lodging portions.

Looking for barbecue restaurants on the Duke City’s Mother Road, I fully expected to see Mr. Powdrell’s terrific restaurant prominently displayed. But it’s not there at all. I couldn’t find the landmark Frontier in the restaurant listings, either. Nor the Route 66 Malt Shop. No Model Pharmacy. No Lindy’s Coffee Shop. That’s some seriously good eatin’ that tourists would potentially miss.

The lodging listings are somewhat better. The site contains scads of chain motels, but leaves out a few mom-and-pop motels along 66, such as the well-regarded El Don Motel.  But at least The Hotel Blue, Monterey Non-Smokers Motel and Silver Moon Lodge made the cut.

KFJX-TV reports on the grand opening of the new Route 66 Visitors Welcome Center in Carterville, Mo.

The building, in an old gas station, contains a souvenir shop, Wi-Fi Internet access and other amenities for those traveling on the Mother Road. The building also serves as Rod Harsh’s office for his video production business and Visit66.com site.

Harsh says studies indicate more than half of the people traveling Route 66 are from foreign countries, and he says this means cash for Carterville and Southwest Missouri.

“Route 66 tourism is now being recognized by communities that promote it as being important to the economy,” Harsh says. “You’re not going to get huge crowds, but you get people that want to stay at local hotels and eat when they travel.”

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram interviewed Rory Schepisi, owner of the new Boot Hill Saloon and Grill in Vega, Texas, about her experiences with the TV reality show, “The Next Food Network Star,” that debuts Sunday.

Schepisi grew up near New York City, but fell for Vega and a local cowboy while taping a CMT reality show, “Popularity Contest.” She eventually moved there and is days away from opening her new restaurant in Vega.

You’d think that Schepisi would welcome getting back to the Big Apple for the Food Network show’s taping, but not necessarily.

“I grew up right outside of the city and was always there,” says Schepisi, 31, during a phone interview. “But it was almost like ‘get me back to the country,’ because I became so accustomed to being out in the country, and now I was on the city streets again, and it almost sent me into a panic attack a couple of times.”

Schepisi also plugged her restaurant on Route 66.

She hopes to pull in Amarillo foodies and road-food hunters through advertising and word of mouth. And being on a national TV show can’t hurt.

“It’s going to entice people who are traveling who might have seen the show to say, ‘Hey, you know what? I remember Rory’s restaurant’s in Vega. Let’s get off and get on Route 66 and go check it out.’”

Schepisi’s MySpace site for the Food Network show is here.

UPDATE 6/3/07: The Record newspaper of New Jersey also has details about Schepisi and the Food Network’s show.

UPDATE 6/4/07: A review at AllYourTV.com described “The Next Food Network Star” as “one of the best reality shows on television.”