Motivated by the world´s concern regarding environment, the organizers of the 35th Brasilian Congress of Travel Agencies, BCTA 2007, invited Amazonas as the event’s host State, to be held in Rio de Janeiro between October 24th and 27th. The idea is to show how the tourist sector can play an important part in environmental conservation.

Santa Ana de Velasco, belonging to the San Ignacio de Velasco Municipality, 511 kilometers from the town of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, started being promoted as a new national and international tourist destination. With the slogan “Let yourself be captivated by the magic of Santa Ana de Velasco”, this locality forms part of the Chiquitania route, and still has a magnificent temple that was constructed in 1755 by Jesuit missionaries.

Argentina Airlines has redoubled its offer: It has added modern aircrafts to its fleet and it renewed a few others with a millionaire investment, with which the company will once again fly to destinations which it had put aside, flights to Europe will be reinforced and other routes will be added to the commercial flights. In the last term, the Argentina Airlines and Austral fleet increased from 60 to 77 aircrafts and more than US$ 100 million was invested in the recovery of aircrafts which were inoperative.

The Private Investment Promotion Agency signed an adjudication contract with Peruvian Tour Agency for the construction of a four-star resort facing the Paracas Bay, according to the hotel industry international standards.

As from March 1st, 2005 the new Tour “Total Nasca”, will be set up and will include flyovers to the Palpa Lines. Instead of flying over 30 minutes, tourists will have 50 minutes to appreciate the Nasca Lines and the Palpa Lines.

The inauguration of AeroRepublica’s international route between Bucaramanga and Panama, as from October is Proexport’s most recent step. This route seeks to become a new outlet to show Santander’s tourist potential in Central America, according to Maria Elvira Pombo, president of the organization.

The Honduras National Congress approved an investment of US$ 25 million for the construction, with private capital, of the new wharf for cruisers of Roatan, in the Bahia Islands.

In the last monthly report, the Minister of Tourism pointed out that Cuba obtained world recognition as the main destination of events in the last few years. Cuba is strongly marketed as main MICE destination (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions), thanks to its availability to host such events. The Minister stated that 300 conferences are actually hosted annually on the island, taking up a large number of convention centers. According to the International Congress and Conventions Association (ICCA), Cuba held sixth place at Latin American level and eight on the continent in this area, while La Habana held the fourth and fifth, respectively.

Sources from the Dominican Republic Office of Tourism informed that the Ministry of Tourism of the Dominican Republic invested more than € 65 million (aprox. US$ 87 million) in infrastructure works in the tourist area of the Dominican Republic. The investments have been mainly aimed at the restoring of the Long Beach, Playa Dorada and Cabarete beaches, which will turn the north coast into a more attractive destination for the millions of tourists that visit this region of the country annually.

Puerto Rican authorities promote an infrastructure expansion program for tourism, aimed at covering the sector’s growing requirements. By the end of June, 2008 the island will have achieved the aim of having 5.359 additional hotel rooms under construction. Until now 3.624 of the 5.000 rooms foreseen by the authorities are underway. The prospects for next year represent an investment close to US$ 1.300 million, added to the generating of 37 000 new jobs in the territory.

In a recent trip to Chile, among other things, to revisit Santiago, Puerto Mont and Puerto Varas – where I hadn’t gone more than 12 years ago – and I traveled to Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine for the first time. I also visited hotels, not only to see those hotels recently remodeled, but especially to know some of the new businesses.

I was especially impressed by two new hotels: the flamboyant Melia Patagonia, in Puerto Varas, and the brand new Remota, in Puerto Natales. READ MORE