Muscling in on Detroit or just reflecting changing times? Consider this: Michael Waltrip, Best Western’s NASCAR poster boy, will drive a heavily modified Toyota Camry in the February 2007 NEXTEL Cup race. It will mark Toyota’s entry into a field dominated by Detroit’s rapidly shrinking Big Three.

The Dodge Charger Waltrip is driving for Best Western and a host of other sponsors is only for this year. Waltrip and his team are already working on a modified Camry. How it will compete in a field so far limited to Midwest iron remains to be seen. But based on Toyota’s growing prominence on the global automotive front, it should do just fine.

“I’m running my team,” Waltrip told ESPN News. “Now, when we make a decision, obviously, we call our partners. But we are not receiving any direction from Toyota. They want to sell more cars. They want to sell more trucks. Toyota wants to come into the sport and blend into the landscape.”

Here’s a switch: a major sporting event that’s bad for tourism—in this case U.S. tourism. According to a story in today’s Miami Herald, tour operators, hoteliers and others in the Florida hospitality industry fear that the upcoming World Cup soccer finals will put a significant dent in tourism, especially in south Florida.

While barely registering in the U.S. psyche, the month-long World Cup is cause for worldwide mania. More than 300 million people, including a total of five people in America, will watch broadcasts of the matches. And that’s the problem: As long as England (or Brazil or Korea) stays in the competition, millions of Brits (or Brazilians or Koreans) will prefer to sit on their couches, drink beer and watch football instead of taking their summer vacations to the U.S. or other warm-weather spots. The effect, many believe, will be felt most acutely in south Florida, a favorite vacation spot for many Europeans and South Americans. Even Hawaii could be hurt if one or more Asian countries remain in the competition beyond the opening rounds.

On the other side of the coin, the Germany hospitality industry will benefit greatly from the Cup. More than 60 matches will be held in 12 German cities from June 9 to July 9. So far, fans from 72 countries have booked more than one million roomnights in German hotels.

The good news is that World Cup and futbol fever of this magnitude only happens every four years.

Count on Westin Hotels to be on the tip. Last fall, Starwood’s upscale flag instituted a progressive, healthful no-smoking policy at all its 124 properties. Now comes word that Westin will partner with music site emusic.com to develop a signature music program for its lobbies and for in-room entertainment.

“Emusicologist” Richard Gehr, who has written music criticism for national publications such as Rolling Stone, Spin and AARP: The Magazine, will help define the “global voice” of the Westin brand. The target is an “ambient, melodic, rhythmic and energizing feel” for soundtracks at Westin properties.

Emusic specializes in independent labels, suggesting Westin will draw from an inherently alternative musical pool. Whether it taps into major labels remains to be seen; the copyright issues might be too complex for it to venture there.

For now, it seems, the soundtracks Gehr will put together should smack of the global; he’s emusic’s world-beat/reggae columnist. No word on the delivery system, though emusic’s iPod-friendly site suggests guestroom downloading will be the MO.

Souvenirs? A natural. Westin should consider customized CDs for guests so they can conjure the Sensory Welcome program Westin is putting together at home.

Well, we can all breathe easier. The wise men and women of the Florida legislature concluded their fierce debate and voted recently to designate key lime pie as the Sunshine State’s official pie.

As I wrote in this space last month, the legislature had to choose between pecan (the choice from the northern reaches of the state) and key lime (the favorite in the south). Florida now joins Vermont as the only two states in the union to have a state pie. In Vermont, it’s apple.

Every struggle needs a hero, and in this case it’s State Sen. Larcenia Bullard (D-Miami), who co-sponsored the bill and apparently was a pit-bull advocate on behalf of key lime. For her efforts, the American Pie Council presented Sen. Bullard with the coveted American Pie Heritage Award.

Only in America.

Chicago has come into its own, culinarily speaking, in the past 10 years. Some of the country’s best restaurants and celebrity chefs call the Windy City home, producing creative and exciting cuisine.

However, foodies across the country have to be scratching their heads in wonder over the city’s recent ban on the sale of that most refined and yet controversial goose liver delicacy, foie gras. (Foie gras is controversial among animal right’s advocates because of the method of its making—force feeding animals to enlarge the liver).

“This latest move by the city of Chicago belittles diners by telling them they’re not intelligent enough to make their own decisions,” says Michael Garbin, president of Chicago’s Professional Culinarians chapter of the American Culinary Federation and executive chef of the Union League Club of Chicago. “Chicago’s City Council has effectively trampled on one’s capability to decide where to dine by eliminating a choice.”

Adds John Draz, vice president of Windy City Professional Culinarians, “Will we soon see a ban on beef, veal or other poultry because animal-rights activists consider industrial livestock practices not to their liking? Recent initiatives such as Take a Pass on Chilean Sea Bass from the National Environmental Trust and Chefs Collaborative’s moratorium on swordfish are good examples of how the market and industry can be effective in changing dining habits without legislation.”

Here here. The negative news for local restaurants coincides with the recent release of data indicating Chicago’s convention business is heading south and west to other metropolitan cities. Such trivial attention by the local government to a personal choice can only hurt efforts to attract coveted business and leisure travel and dining dollars.

The first signs of overbuilding, a phenomenon the lodging industry hasn’t seen for many years, have surfaced in Dallas, where hoteliers are fretting that the city won’t be able to absorb a new wave of luxury hotels that will open in the next few years.

In a published report, one local consultant called the situation a potential “bloodbath.” That may be overstatement, but the fact is that as many as six new or repositioned luxury hotels, with 1,400 rooms, will enter the market by 2008. The W Dallas Victory and the Hotel Palomar open this summer. A Ritz-Carlton opens in ‘07, followed by the Hotel Joule a year later. A $28-million renovation of the landmark Stoneleigh Hotel will upgrade the property to luxury class. A Mandarin Oriental is also in the talking stages.

Compounding the worry is the market’s overall lackluster performance, even before the new hotels open. The city was one of the last to recover from the post-2001 funk, and until recently citywide occupancies have hovered in the low-60-percent range.

Despite the hand wringing, the situation isn’t are dire as it seems, or as many owners and GMs may believe. Assuming the economy remains steady, Dallas is a sure bet to recover from any temporary downturn the new hotels may bring. And typically new competition in a marketplace—no matter the segment—has the effect of cleansing the system of properties that are past their competitive prime. It also usually spurs the top sales teams in town to convert from order takers to tough marketers and negotiators.

You’ve got to hand it to the brains at Unite Here, the hotel union that plans to stick it to the industry this summer through a series of hard-nosed negotiations and possible strikes in as many as six North American cities.

Late last week, the union (through the New York Hotel Trades Council) agreed to resume talks with the owners of 100 properties in New York City to find an agreement on a new contract. As part of the deal to return to the bargaining table, the union and owners jointly agreed not to talk to the press during the ongoing negotiations. That’s a little bit like closing the barn door after the horses escape.

Just a few days earlier, the union released a scientific-sounding study outlining the pain and suffering hotel housekeepers supposedly suffer as part of their jobs. The study, conducted by a group of “occupational medicine experts” obviously in the back pocket of the union, was also presented at a government symposium to give it additional credence. It worked, as newspapers and other media outlets from coast to coast picked up the story. A feeble response by the hotel industry got very little coverage, so all the public will remember in a month or two as the unions do battle with the owners is that hotel workers have tough jobs and aren’t justly compensated for them. Public opinion is one of the most powerful weapons in labor negotiations, and Unite Here clearly won this battle.

Perhaps ironically, the current activism among the immigrant community, as demonstrated in yesterday’s nationwide marches and protests, may work against the unions should a predicted anti-immigrant backlash develop in the country. Perhaps the hotel industry will ultimately win that PR contest.

Either way, the owners in New York City are currently hamstrung from presenting their side of the issues to the public. The sharpies at Unite HERE beat them to it.