Sea lions, matchsticks and railroads, oh my!

What do the following have in common?
- An underwater viewing area for seals and sea lions
- A matchstick model of Notre Dame Cathedral
- The "Building America" exhibit at the Union Pacific Railroad Museum

A) They are all in Iowa
B) They are all new for 2012
C) They are all worth a trip
D) All of the above

The correct answer: D - all of the above!

The Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines invested $1.3 million in a new pool for their seals and sea lions. New guest amentities include underwater viewing of the animals, signs and interpretive displays and a new overlook into the pond. Two giant shade structures, a deeper pool and a redesigned island used for demonstrations are just a few upgrades the animals enjoy. Later this spring, watch for two young harbor seals in the pool.

Iowa's matchstick master strikes again. Iowan Pat Acton has crafted his own version of Notre Dame Cathedral (complete with lights!) out of nearly 300,000 matchsticks. The model took more than 18 months to construct. Find it on display, along with other amazing creations modeled out of matchsticks, at Matchstick Marvels museum in Gladbrook.

The "Building America" exhibit at the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs will put visitors to work at the scene of the transcontinental railroad construction using video game technology. From entering a tunnel at Donner Summit to trying their hand at driving a spike, visitors see the 19th century feat of technology and engineering come to life like never before. The UP is the first museum to incorporate Kinect full-body gaming technology to create a truly immersive experience. Hundreds of artifacts, images and other railroad memorabilia are also on display.

How 'travel' can fill news gaps

A day at the Pensacola beach during the height of the oil spill

Tourism in the Gulf Coast is soaring, again, two years after the BP oil spill sent four million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This MSNBC article quotes a New Orleans CVB rep who says it takes emergency advertising dollars to battle misperception that the area is fully coated in oil. True I guess, but sad too.

During the height of the spill, I begged Lonely Planet to send me to report from the beach at Pensacola, Florida. And they did. Actually I appeared on MSNBC from the beach, noting how the beaches were still safe to swim in. The interviewer doubted my take, 'Yeah, but would you swim in it?' Actually, I said, I just had. As far as I know Lonely Planet was the only travel reps reporting on the actual scene of one of the country's biggest tourist destinations. I'm pretty proud of that.

We see this sort of thing all time time -- one-sided coverage where TV cameras that's entirely different from the picture that travelers bring back. And I think that's travel's great under-utilized asset -- filling gaps in news stories. Whether or not there are marketing budgets to push stories.