travel briefs. 8c

Survey rates Enterprise tops among customers

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. -- In a tough year for rental car companies, Enterprise Rent-A-Car found competitive pricing to be a key in satisfying customers, according to a recent survey by the marketing firm J.D. Power and Associates.

Enterprise ranked highest in overall satisfaction among customers, followed by Hertz, in the random sample of 3,400 customers who picked up or dropped off their rental cars at or near airports. National and Avis also finished above the industry average.

Hertz got high marks for the rental car itself and for the reservation process, while National excelled in the return process.

Among business rental car customers, Hertz's advantages in the pickup process, the reservation process and the rental car itself were eclipsed by Enterprise's dominance in rates and value.

Work begins on Dead Sea tourism project

AMMAN, Jordan -- Construction of a $4.2 million tourist center overlooking the Dead Sea -- the lowest point in the world -- has begun.

Fuad Aghabi, a Jordanian Tourism Ministry official, says the Dead Sea Panorama project, funded by a loan from Japan's Bank for International Cooperation, will be built among hills some 1,650 feet above the sea. .

The project will include a museum, exhibition halls, meeting rooms and a hilltop lookout taking in the Dead Sea, the Jordan Valley and the occupied West Bank.

--From wire reports