According to the entity Buenos Aires Turismo, this year will close with a record number of tourists that arrived in the city of Buenos Aires to spend at least a week, accommodated in four and five-star hotels, enjoying the gastronomy, shopping, football and tango. Some 2 300 000 foreigners arrived (200 000 more than in 2006) that spent US$ 517 per day. When the summer season will have concluded, nearly 99 ships, with more than 140 000 tourists will have arrived.

The government announced a tourist development project in Punta del Chileno, in the Parada 42 of Punta del Este, which includes a pier with mooring for yachts, a five-star hotel with private casino and a 200 000 m2 real-estate project, with a total investment of US$ 300 million during eight years.

Ocean Air associated itself with Paraguayan and foreign businessmen to form Ocean Air Paraguay. In 2008, it will cover routes from Asuncion to the Pacific, Caracas and Bogota and will have connections with Avianca.

On March 15th, Air Comet will begin to fly between Fortaleza, capital of Ceara and Madrid, twice a week; from then on, it will have four weekly flights. The service will be carried out by an A310-300 for 236 passengers.

Air Comet Chile has two additional routes: Temuco and Balmaceda, with which the competitiveness in the region will increase as well as the possibility of more tourists having access to it.

President Evo Morales inaugurated an eight-wagon train that will link the city of El Alto with the town of Guaqui, on the shores of the Lake Titicaca. The train’s route will go through neighboring Viacha and the pre-Columbian archaeological complex of Tiahuanaco before arriving in Guaqui, 91 kilometers East of La Paz, where there is a steam-locomotive reparation workshop.

The citadel of Machpicchu received an average of 1 300 tourists daily after being declared a new wonder of the world last July. Said amount had not been registered for several years, which consolidates the Inca citadel as one of the tourism references in Peru.

In 2007, Colombia beat records in the entrance of foreign tourists to the country, thanks to the advances in matters of open skies and improvement of infrastructure, and the promotion campaigns and country marketing, among others.

The sales of tourist residences will set a historic record this year, with 15 000 housing facilities and US$ 5 000 million, according to official statistics.

Pan American World Airways Dominicana (PAWA Dominicana) announced that in January it will begin with commercial flights towards the United States, becoming the first company with Dominican capital to fly to North American territory, after the Federal Agency of Aviation (FAA) renewed the country’s permit to fly to that country, after a 14-year suspension.

Air Canada inaugurated its flights towards Los Cayos to the Northeast of the province of Villa Clara, through the International Airport Abel Santamaria, of Santa Clara, which operate in the tourist high season. The airline will transport 240 tourists weekly with flights on Thursday and Sunday from Toronto and Montreal, respectively, until the end of the winter season in April of next year.

When we think about the Inca Trail, the “traditional” Inca trail, we picture amazing sceneries, a great amount of winding up and down hills, endless slopes through beautiful mountains, the possibility of seeing diverse flora and fauna as we pass through different ecosystems related to the many altitudes along the path, passing through the typical Andean scenery and reaching the tropical forest. Read more...