In order to transform the South American Forest into a sustainable tourist destination, the member countries of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization announced in Quito (Ecuador) that they are preparing the project “2009: Destination Amazonia Year”. The coordinator of Infrastructure, Transport, Communication and Tourism of said organization pointed out that this initiative aims at promoting tourism in the region with a clear sustainable vision.

The travel specialized American magazine Travel + Leisure chose Buenos Aires as the second most desirable city to visit in the world according to its readers, who choose a total of ten cities annually.

The Brasilian government set measurements to relieve the traffic of the Congonhas airport, in Sao Paulo. Thus, the number of daily flights were reduced by 21% in a project that looks for eliminating stopovers in the terminal after the tragic accident of TAM.

The owners of Hotel Portillo are constructing a new hotel in the desert of Atacama. Tierra Atacama Hotel & Spa, located in San Pedro de Atacama, will open at the end of January 2008.

The Minister of Services, Public Works and Housing informed that Bolivia will enter into an open skies policy in the framework of a fair competition in the national air market through the creation of a new air company which will start operations on December 18.

Since last week, the technical norm about air security, issued by the Civil Aeronautic General Direction, which restricts the transport of liquids, aerosols and gels in hand luggage for international flights is in force. This measure will allow each passenger to transport the abovementioned products only if these are in containers inside a 20 x 20 cm single transparent plastic bag, with a capacity of 1 liter and with a hermetic seal.

Since last week, users have to pay more for the passenger departure tax. The new cost is US$ 40.80. For domestic departures, each user will pay US$ 7.60. This value will be included in air tickets.

Thanks to the implementation of electronic tickets in reservation systems of interline agreements, now it is possible for passengers of American Airlines, Aeromexico, Air Canada and Lan Group airlines who travel by connections served by the Colombian airline to obtain the Avianca e-ticket. Likewise, the e-ticket will be available for Avianca passengers who travel in these airlines.

More than US$ 10 million will be invested to construct a new cruise terminal close to Puerto Colon 2000 after the announcement of Royal Caribbean International about the operations it will develop in the Atlantic coast of the country. The investment is part of the actions promoted by the private sector to convert Panama into a “home port”, The new terminal will start to be constructed in October..

Copa Airlines entered into a code sharing agreement with Aeromexico. During the first stage, Copa will give its code to Aeromexico’s flights to other 17 cities, other than Mexico DF: Acapulco, Aguascalientes, Leon/Bajio, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Culiacan, Cancun, Guadalajara, Hermosillo, Merida, Monterrey, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Tijuana, Villahermosa and Ixtapa Zihuatanejo. On the other side, Aeromexico will provide its code to flights of Copa from Panama to Mexico DF, Cancun and Guadalajara.