Visitors

For years, prospective applicants to the Johns Hopkins University have found the admissions office in a three-story building that also contains offices of the senior administration, general counsel and equal-opportunity program. There's a receptionist and lobby, but no real place to get oriented, no immediate way to sense Hopkins' rich traditions and heritage. And the '70s-era building, Garland Hall, doesn't make a particularly welcoming first impression. All that will change by mid-2007, when Hopkins opens a four-level Visitors Center that's designed to be a new front door to its Homewood campus in North Baltimore.

Current volunteers' news and needs:Baltimore Area Visitors Centers want information guides at both FTC downtown locations, 300 W. Pratt St. (across from Oriole Park at Camden Yards) and at the Harborplace Information Kiosk. Volunteers will greet visitors, help them plan activities, give directions, answer questions and pass out literature. Call (410) 659-7066.Friends of Crittenton, associated with the Florence Crittenton Services of Baltimore, Inc., a non-profit residential and non-residential service to adolescent girls, wants volunteers to help with recreational activities, act as Big Sisters, tutors, study-hall monitors and more.

Each year at this time, I like to let out-of-town visitors know about some of the neat things Baltimore has to offer, aside from our world-class humidity. First up is a brand-new attraction this summer: outdoor dining demolition derby. You know how in some cities, when you're at an outdoor cafe, there's not much to do but eat and chat with your dining companions and watch people go by? Well, we don't have that problem here. No, eating outdoors here can be pretty exciting. In fact, there's a chance that, just as you're reaching for a dinner roll, a car may jump the curb and plow into the restaurant and wipe out a few tables next to you. It's actually happened twice recently, at a restaurant in Federal Hill and a Starbucks in the suburbs.

A MEASURE of the nation's patriotic tremors since the terrorist attacks of September could be taken from the visitors' register and the cash register at the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House, where Mary Pickersgill made the anthem-inspiring flag that flew over Fort McHenry back in the day. Sally Johnston, director of the Flag House museum, has seen a surge in visitors and sales of flags since 9-11. In September and October, the museum counted 2,236 visitors, up from 1,472 in the same two-month period last year.

Ocean City's tourism season officially begins on Memorial Day, of course. But old-timers know summer really starts in earnest Fourth of July week. Will it boom or fizzle this year? Ask the meteorologists, for they may know best.On the 10-mile stretch of sand, which attracts more than 4 million visitors each summer, so much depends on the weather. And this, traditionally the biggest resort holiday of the season, is no exception, say town officials and business owners.Expectations run high for this week and for the rest of the season, based on strong tourist turnout so far -- about 250,000 to 260,000 visitors a week.

THANKFULLY, many Inner Harbor attractions enjoyed a successful summer this year, as stated in the Sept. 18 editorial, ''Extending the tourist season.'' The National Aquarium in Baltimore, among them, reeled in over 226,000 visitors this August -- our best ever.What is inaccurate in the editorial, however, is the assertion that Baltimore institutions are making little effort to woo local visitors, especially during off-peak periods. The aquarium and other attractions work very hard to provide affordable access for residents year-round.

Tourism officials want Annapolis day visitors to stay a night -- or two or three -- and are trying to make that as easy as possible.The Annapolis & Anne Arundel County Conference & Visitors Bureau has installed a new direct phone line at City Dock in Annapolis where tourists can make instant room reservations."

When Baltimore's leaders set out to redevelop the Inner Harbor in the 1960s, they never dreamed that the city might become a tourist destination. The waterfront promenade and Rash Field were intended for recreational use by area residents, not out-of-towners. Little thought was given to building hotels, because that would have required a belief that someone might actually want to stay in town overnight. There's no clearer indication of the city's low aspirations for tourism than the tiny facility that until recently served as Baltimore's visitors' center.

Much like visitors who gawk at fish in the National Aquarium, a delegation of Mozambique politicians came to Baltimore yesterday to observe the city's newest exhibit: the 1999 mayor's race.The eight African officials are guests of the National Democratic Institute, a Washington agency created to foster world democracy. The contingent, which included two elections commissioners, spent a day with three of Baltimore's leading mayoral candidates, getting a front-row seat to what has become a turbulent campaign involving 27 candidates.

TOKYO -- General Motors Corp., which has had trouble cracking the Japanese market, tried something new yesterday.It opened a glittery, temporary showroom in a busy section of Tokyo -- one of the first tangible byproducts of President Bush's controversial January trip, which was designed to sell cars and create "jobs, jobs, jobs" for American workers.But judging by reactions of visitors, GM cars still are going to be a hard sell in Japan. Among the barriers: price, size and quality."It looks really terrific," 26-year-old Kouzo Iwasaki said, wriggling into the seat of a white Camaro convertible with a sticker price of 4,500,000 yen, about $36,000.