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CS www.pantagraph.com THE PANTAGRAPH MONDAY. MAY 15, 2000 Americans flock to Europe to cash in on strong dollar PARIS AP) As the elevator begins its climb up the Eiffel Tower, the voices in one corner have a Texas twang. Nearby are a couple from New York and two women from San Francisco. Americans visiting Paris and Europe as a whole are hardly unusual. But as this year's tourist season gets under way, the old world is far cheaper for holders of U.S.

dollars, and more and more Americans are cashing in on European vacations. The European Travel Commission estimates that a record 12 million American tourists will visit Europe this year, spurred by a strong dollar and bargain airfares. That would top 1999's record 11.6 million. In the past, Americans have found some European countries more affordable than others, due to different currencies. Now, they're almost uniformly cheaper.

A depreciating euro the single currency for 11 European nations has shed roughly 25 percent of its value since its creation 16 months ago. While the euro doesn't go into circulation until 2002, local currencies are pegged to it. That means travelers exchanging dollars for currencies fixed to the euro can stuff their wallets with one-quarter more foreign cash. "Americans are getting most of Europe at the best prices we've seen in 12 years or more," said Einar Gustavsson, U.S. chairman of the New York-based European Travel Commission, which represents 29 European countries.

England, whose currency is not linked to the euro, is among the exceptions. One American woman who travels frequently called it the sale of the century. "We were just in Italy It was a gold mine," Susan Goodwill of San Francisco said while circling an observation deck at the Eiffel Tower. Treasures were found at design houses Chanel and Hermes, where the 54-year-old consultant said she paid the equivalent of $240 for a designer diary that costs $400 in San Francisco. "The jewelry at Cartier was a good deal too," Goodwill said.

A Munich hotel room that would have run $100 a night last year costs $78, at current exchange rates; a bottle of French burgundy that cost $30 a year ago now is $23, according to a study by the commission. At Rome's Piazza Navona, a cappuccino in an outdoor cafe overlooking Bernini's fountains can be sipped for about $2.80 (lire A year ago it would have cost $4.50. Dining at Paris' famed three-star Michelin restaurants, while still pricey, is more affordable. An 850-franc dinner for one at the ritzy Grand Vefour now tips the scales at $118, compared to $150 a year ago. Wine is extra.

New Yorker Lisa Polikov said she was stunned to find that gourmet Paris restaurants cost less than those in New York's trendy Soho district. That wasn't the only pleasant surprise during a recent four-day stay. "My girlfriend had told me: 'You are not going to find a hotel in Paris with your own bathroom for under said Polikov, a 30-year-old free-lance editor. She recommends the Latin quarter for "very clean" and affordable lodging. Americans aren't the only ones who will crowd Europe tourist spots.

At EuroDisney in Paris, a spokesman said that the dollar's strength is also expected to draw more European visitors, who would find U.S. Disney parks more expensive than before. But the surge in American tourists already has begun. While the high season hasn't yet started in several Scandinavian countries, the number of Americans staying in Stockholm hotels was up 10 percent in the first three months of the year, compared to the same period last year. At one of Stockholm's top attractions, the Vasa, a sunken warship museum, officials said the first wave of summer visitors arrived Wednesday on a cruise ship.

7 ilk rTSli AP American tourists Kirstyn Perkins, 23, left, and Whitny Perkins, 21, relaxed by a water fountain in the courtyard of the Louvre in Paris. Americans visiting Paris and Europe as a whole are hardly unusual. But this year, the old world is far cheaper for holders of U.S. dollars and more and more Americans are cashing in on European vacations. Spider-Man tries new Web tricks in attempt to stay popular plan is to put comic strips on the Web and jazz them up with interactive games.

One online game will let the player assume the role of Wolverine for an adventure in the Canadian wilderness. Hoping to attract as many eyeballs as possible to its ad-driven site, Marvel is plastering the Web address on its toy packaging and comic books, as well as placing links on studios' official movie sites. Marvel also plans to create Web-only comics, which may spawn new print versions, and to launch Internet multiplayer games based on Marvel superheroes. Meanwhile, Marvel wants to make its print characters more relevant to today's kids. For Spider-Man, that means turning back the clock on his alter ego, Peter Parker, who has been aging in the comic-book series.

Having started out as an endearing 15-year-old nearly four decades ago, Peter Parker had gradually morphed, in at least one series, into a 30-something married man with a daughter and a prosthetic leg. "If you've been reading these for 40 years, you're really enjoying this rich, complex storyline," said Bill Jemas, Marvel's president for publishing, new media and consumer products. "But if you haven't, you're saying, 'Who the heck are all these characters and why do I care about In an alternative comic-book series com ing out in October, Peter is once again an adolescent and the plot takes place in the Internet age: Instead of snapping pictures for the Daily Bugle newspaper, Peter is 1 now the Webmaster and digital photogra- pher for dailybugle.com. Peter's foster caretaker, Aunt May, is getting a makeover as well. When Spider- i Man made his debut in 1962, she was a lov- ing caregiver who fretted about what time Peter got home and how much dinner he i ate.

Now, Peter's Spider-oddities (inexplic- able muscle twitches, sporadically sticky hands) have her so worried that she wants i to find him a support group. Cuneo also hopes to expand one lucra- tive part of the business: licensing. Cur- i rently, three-quarters of Marvel's revenue comes from toy sales, 13 percent from pub- lishing and only 10 percent from licensing. But licensing, he notes, contributes 35 per- cent of cashflow. Over the next 10 years, Cuneo expects li- censing to grow to more than 50 percent of cash flow, publishing to decline to 10 per-; cent from 15 percent, and toys to decline to about 40 percent.

In April alone, the company announced licensing deals with 4Kids Entertainment I a New York entertainment to market Marvel characters in Europe and" with nutrition company TrimFast Group' Inc. to make Spider-Man vitamins. Icahn, leading bondholders who felt they would be hurt by Perelman's proposed rescue plan, eventually gained control. Today, Perelman owns no shares and Icahn's stake is less than 5 percent, Marvel says. Icahn has signed an agreement that essentially says he won't try to take over Marvel at least not until October 2002 when the accord expires.

Icahn didn't return calls for comment. The company, whose predecessor Marvel Entertainment Group was acquired by toy maker Toy P.iz Inc. as part of the bankruptcy reorganization and then given its current name, has continued to post losses. In 1999, it was $33.8 million in the red on revenue of $319.6 million. Marvel's stock has bounced between $5 and $10 for most of the year.

Movie and television deals now in the works should bring Marvel a cut of their revenue, Cuneo said. The company itself is producing a TV show based on the X-Men characters that will start airing this fall. (Cuneo says the $64.8 million in cash that the company had at the end of last year will help finance the show.) That's a first for Marvel, which typically has sold off rights to its TV shows. To go after the computer-game set, Marvel is launching an interactive X-Men feature on marvel.com this summer. A Spider-Man counterpart will follow in fall.

The By The Wall Street Journal In this episode, Spider-Man's only chance for survival is to leap right off the page. And he's not the only one who needs saving. His fellow superheros in the vast collection of Marvel Enterprises Inc. do, too. Video games and the Internet are posing a bigger threat to Spider-Man and his brethren than archenemies Green Goblin and Kingpin.

The simple paper medium of comic books just isn't cutting it in the age of video's flashy special-effects, explosive audio and interactive action. Comic-book sales are down and Marvel executives acknowledge that kids just don't read them as much anymore. That's why Marvel is summoning the X-Men, Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Iron Man for a mission: Escape from the perilous print situation and break into new electronic venues with flashier digital graphics. "Our characters are more popular than ever," said Peter Cuneo, chief executive of Marvel, whose stable of characters numbers in the thousands. "The challenge now is really up to us to execute and build value." Central to Marvel's comeback plan are at least five live-action movies based on Marvel heroes.

The first, "X-Men: The Movie," opens July 14 and packs the star power of Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier, and Halle Berry, Anna Paquin and supermodel Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as the genetic mutants with super powers. Although Marvel won't get a cut of ticket sales (except for a Spider-Man feature due late next year), the company hopes the films will help reignite interest in Marvel characters and lift sales of toy tie-ins, particularly among teen and preteen boys, the traditional audience of comic books. "All of the merchandising and promotional activities we're doing with our characters are bound to have a tremendous impact," said Cuneo, a veteran of consumer-products companies such as Black Decker Corp. and Remington Products Co. Cuneo said Marvel will only get a cut of the Spider-Man movie's ticket sales because the other film deals were made by past Marvel CEOs who sold the rights to the characters for cash.

Marvel, whose comic heroes burst on the scene in 1939, has been wrestling with a host of internal financial demons for years. The company spent the last part of the 1990s mired in bankruptcy proceedings while investors Ronald Perelman and Carl Icahn battled for control. In the face of shrinking comics sales, losses grew to $464.4 million by the end of 1996, when the company filed for Chapter 11 protection. PANTAGRAPH 2 mrara Inlu rO Robert Liming of Colfax did! I sold my boat to the third caller out of the 27 calls I got. I can't do without The Pantograph.

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