The N?s Chamber of Commerce, it is reported, is urgently looking for private finance as staff have been laid off and facilities closed to save money.The problem is not that people do not come to the Pont du Gard. In 2001 some 1.4 million visitors passed through, making it the second biggest tourist attraction in France (after the Eiffel Tower or the Mont-St-Michel, depending on who you believe). The bad news for the investors is rather that only 60,000 people paid the £8 or so to enter the Grande Expo instead of the 400,000 estimated in the business plan. Most, it seems, merely parked their cars, walked down to the river banks and spent a pleasant day eating a picnic, swimming in the Gardon and gazing up at the huge honey-coloured structure above them.Critics of the renovation plan can hardly conceal their glee. They talk scathingly of the "bunker" (the museum), claiming that it costs too much, is too worthy and is unlikely to compete with the thrill of seeing the aqueduct for real. Judging by the numbers of people swarming over the bridge and competing for space on the stony river banks, they seem to have a point. And reassuringly, that French penchant for danger and showing off has not been entirely banished.

Young men still leap from the lower tier or from the surrounding high rocks into the water, drawing applause from spectators.There is a picture of something suspiciously like the Pont du Gard on the new €5 note (although the Austrian designer has claimed it is not a specific building). The image both reinforces the aqueduct's iconic status and ironically reflects its current financial predicament. Fortunately, I can see nobody walking, or crawling, along its top.Travellers' GuideGetting there: James Ferguson flew with Ryanair (0871 246 0000, ) to N?s from London Stansted for £88.36 return.Accommodation: For hotels in N?s, ranging from budget to luxury, check out An alternative is the Hostellerie Le Castellas, (00 33 4 66 22 8 888, le-castellas avignon-et-provence ) in the nearby village of Collias, where canoes can be rented for trips along the Gardon Double rooms cost from €106.50 (£68) a night.. Petra is our oil, Jordanian tour guides are fond of saying as they introduce visitors to the ancient Arab Nabataean city that is Jordan's principal tourist attraction But Jordan's oil is drying up. Its tourism industry is facing collapse as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict scares off visitors to a country bordering the West Bank.

The Jordan Tourist Board is being forced into ever more creative thinking to keep the tourists coming, and last month flew over two dozen British Christians and Muslims to advertise a new series of tours around the country's main sites. They hope they have discovered a unique selling point in the idea of multi-faith pilgrimages that focus on the Christian and Islamic significance of the holy sites on the itinerary. They profess to have a higher purpose than mere holidays, aiming to promote understanding between Christians and Muslims and to counter heightened tensions after 11 September and renewed violence in Israel and the occupied territories.The pilgrimages will be led jointly by Christian and Muslim chaplains – each reading from the Bible will be accompanied by an excerpt from the Koran – and organisers hope that each group will work out for themselves how to reconcile potential cultural conflicts. To be really effective, and brave, a Jewish leader could have been included, but in the current climate it appears trying to promote harmony among Muslims, Jews and Christians within sight of some of the worst violence between Palestinians and Israelis was seen as a step too far.Pilgrimages begin at the recently excavated site of Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan where John the Baptist is thought to have baptised Jesus and where Elijah was said to have ascended into heaven.