Given the Persian Gulf crisis, Northwest travelers are steering clear of the entire Middle East with some shying away from Europe as well.

Fear of Iraqi-backed terrorism is causing some travelers and travel agencies to look to alternate destinations or shun international travel altogether, say travel-industry specialists.

``Travel to Europe in general is down,'' said Lawrence Burdette, vice president of US Travel Systems, one of the largest travel companies in the country, which owns several Seattle-area travel agencies. ``People are thinking of alternate vacation areas.''

``Even if it (Europe) isn't a war zone, there are the repercussions of terrorism ,'' said Burdette. ``And travel to the Mideast has basically stopped.''

``We have seen people cancel trips to places such as Egypt and Turkey. And the Gulf crisis has definitely had an effect on travel to southern Europe,'' said Beverly Schukar, a regional representative of the American Society of Travel Agents and owner of a Burien travel agency.

``People know it's a long way (from the Gulf). But the word I'm hearing often is terrorists.''

That fear was reinforced in recent days when the U.S. State Department said it has evidence that Iraqi-backed terrorists are planning attacks around the world if war breaks out over Kuwait.

A department spokesman advised travelers to take all possible precautions, saying the Middle

East and Europe were the most likely target areas, but that the government knows of terrorist planning in Africa, Asia and Latin America as well.

Burdette and most travel specialists aren't yet able to put firm numbers on changes in travel patterns. The current U.S. recession, and slump in the value of the dollar, also can contribute to changing travel patterns.

``It's a waiting game to see what will happen, to see what trends will emerge,'' said Burdette, whose firm owns local agencies such as Doug Fox Travel and University Travel.

And officials of several airline offices in Seattle said they have not seen a spillover of cancellations on flights to Europe. Scandinavian Airline Systems (SAS) and British Airways both said bookings from Seattle to most European destinations remained strong.

However, some vacationers have already have changed their travel plans.

``People are going to Hawaii. Hawaii is always strong, but people are doing repeat trips to Hawaii when they probably would have gone somewhere else,'' said Schukar.

``One small group switched from Cairo to the Orient. Cruising has picked up. And I have people debating about whether to go on an Eastern Mediterranean cruise,'' said Schukar, who owns Treasure House Travel in Burien.

Doug Fox Travel is seeing a marked increase in interest in travel to Australia and New Zealand because of the Gulf crisis, said Derek Cond, director of sales for Doug Fox.

``I'm sure we'll also see a great interest in cruise vacations in the Caribbean, Alaska and the South Pacific,'' said Cond.

In recent days, the State Department has expanded its travel warnings, urging Americans to avoid an area stretching from Morocco to Pakistan, including Israel. Americans in the region were advised to consider leaving.

When such advisories are issued, travelers generally can obtain refunds from airlines even on supposedly non-refundable tickets.

``In most cases, if there's a travel advisory on an area, it relieves the individuals of any kind of restrictions,'' said Burdette, of US Travel Even if travelers still wanted to visit the Middle East, many major airlines have already canceled flights into the region, citing skyrocketing insurance costs and possible danger.

SAS, which flies from Seattle to Copenhagen with connections throughout Europe and the Middle East, has had some cancellations to Cairo and has ceased flights to Tel Aviv.

``Three tour groups from the Northwest to Cairo have canceled,'' said Leif Eie, director of SAS for the Pacific Northwest.

``For the future, we won't know until Jan. 15 or after,'' he said. But if there's a war, ``SAS won't fly to or over troubled areas in the Mideast.''

However, said Eie, SAS doesn't expect a shift of travelers from Mideast destinations to Europe.

``Most travelers to the Mideast are business travelers or special-purpose groups.'' Business travelers, or those with ethnic or religious ties to the region, likely would just stay home, said Eie.

For now, bookings to SAS's southern European destinations, including Italy, remain strong. And the Seattle to Copenhagen route remains one of the strongest in the SAS worldwide system, said Eie.

A spokesman for British Airways - which has three 747 flights from Seattle to London each week - declined to give specific numbers but said its January bookings to most of Europe are holding up well.

``Flights to Northeast Africa or anywhere near the Gulf show almost no business or pleasure travelers,'' he said. ``But so far, our forward bookings don't show any ripple effect in the way of cancellations to most of the rest of Europe.''

He said that when the crisis first arose in August, Seattle-London bookings for October and November flights dropped drastically. But by November, bookings were returning for early 1991 flights.

Unlike the 1980s, when problems in Eastern Europe and the Mideast caused travel in all of Europe to slow, this time ``people are more sophisticated.''

``Maybe Americans were poor on geography then,'' he said. ``If their destination was anywhere in the region of a problem, they'd cancel. Now, they're more sophisticated as to place; the shock effect is wearing off earlier or we're getting more used to it.''

For January flights booked in November, he said, people were careful to pick other spots rather than cancel altogether.

However, many agencies are considering promoting travel to alternate destinations.

``We'll be promoting travel within the U,S., travel to French Canada, cruise packages,'' said Jeff Iunker, director of marketing for Mutual Travel, which has 24 branches in Washington state.

``All our international sales are down. Our branch agencies say people are holding back to see what will happen in the Mideast,'' said Iunker.

``This may be a `Let's go U.S.A. year.' Our domestic bookings are already up substantially.''

On the corporate side, some major businesses in the Puget Sound have recommended against travel to Europe as well as the Gulf area, said Carl Jernquist, vice president and general manager of US Travel Systems and its subsidiary Doug Fox Travel in Seattle.

``Some of the corporate security people have said, don't go. There's a perception that there may be terrorist activities.''

While the Doug Fox agency has noted an increase in short-haul U.S. trips, Jernquist said it's difficult to say if that's because of the Mideast situation, the ailing U.S. economy or a combination.

Airports in southern Europe , such as Rome's Fiumicino Airport, have been vulnerable to terrorist attacks in the past decade, contributing to U.S. travelers' nervousness. As yet, said Burdette, there does not seem to be any trend in booking flights on non-U.S. carriers, a strategy some travelers used in the past when terrorist action was threatened against U.S. targets.

Airline-industry and government officials would not discuss what precautions were being take to protect air travelers, but an industry group, the International Air Transport Association, said security was being tightened to ``unprecedented levels.''

The Federal Aviation Administration tells U.S. airports what measures to take, but as of yesterdayafternoon, no additional security had been ordered at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, said Rachel Garson, an airport spokeswoman.

If hostilities occur in the Middle East, she said, extra security steps could be ordered, such as closer screening of passengers and allowing only ticketed passengers beyond security checkpoints.

Garson said Sea-Tac's experience with security for the Goodwill Games last summer left the airport well-equipped and its staff trained in tight security measures.

(Material from Times news services was also used in this report.)