In April, Valle Perdido Wine Resort will open its doors, offering the highest quality of services, just like its wines. The hotel has just been included in The Small Luxury Hotels of the World network.

The Boutique Hotel chain Ten Rivers & Ten Lakes incorporated a new establishment in Bariloche: The Cascada Hotel. This makes a total of three hotels in the Argentinian touristic city.

Gol signed an agreement with the hotel of Punta del Este to establish two weekly charter flights between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and the Uruguayan beach resort, with an investment of US$ 4 million. The flights will be offered until January 2009 and will be sold by the Hotel Conrad of Punta del Este. The commercial director for GOL informed that, as of June, the airline will establish charter flights from Brasil to Bariloche, Argentina.

Since last Saturday, the daily flight from Varig to Bogota has been operated with a Boeing 767, rather than the Boeing 737-800 used until now, with Executive Class.

With the presence of Argentina’s Minister of Tourism and the president of CENCOSUD, an Argentine tourism office was inaugurated in Santiago in order to promote Chilean visits to that country. The office is located in the “Alto Las Condes” commercial center, in the eastern sector of the Chilean capital, which receives more than 20 million people.

BTM will enable more than one million potential travelers to be represented by general managers, Human Resources, Marketing and Sales managers of more than 2,000 Chilean companies. This event will take place during the 11th, 12th and 13th of June in Casa Piedra situated in San Jose Escriva de Balaguer 5600, Vitacura Santiago, Chile. Information: www.btm2008.cl

With the beginning of AS operations, the strengthening of TAM, the probable resumption of LAB flights and the preparation of the state airline Boa, the air transportation system enters a new stage, marked by a climate of greater competency which aims to put an end to almost two years of dominium by AeroSur.

The hotel reservations for Holy Week reach 60% and approximately 14 thousand visitors are expected, informed Dircetur. The director of Tourism explained that the 17 hotels which are duly classified and categorized by Dircetur “are already fully booked.”

This company’s aircraft began to fly the Fort Lauderdale-Cartagena route. In the opinion of the Deputy Minister of Tourism, the fact that the new connection is with Cartagena “helps because it decentralizes the offer towards Bogota, which will suffer with the construction works of the Eldorado airport and because it will enable them to diversify the promotion of other destinations of the country abroad.”

Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) will open its fourth hotel in Venezuela in Maracaibo. The establishment, which will belong to the InterContinental brand, foresees its opening at the end of 2008.

Costa Rica managed to position itself in first place as the most competitive country with regard to touristic matters for the second consecutive year, as informed by the Minister of the sector. This is taking into account the results of the study carried out by the World Economic Forum, which evaluated 130 countries throughout the world, including six more than those considered in 2007.

In the Mexican Caribbean more rooms are being built than in Los Cabos and Vallarta together; these being the other fashionable Mexican destinations. The annual growth fluctuates between 8 and 10 thousand rooms yearly, according to statistical reports from the state Ministry of Tourism. Companies like Mandann Oriental, Maroma, The Ritz Carlton, Paraiso de la Bonita, Royal Hideaway, Tres Rios, Le Blanc, Aqua, and Coral Beach offer services for a market looking for exclusivity.

Varadero has received 42.6% of the tourists that have arrived on the island and has reached its highest occupancy numbers. In fact, during the second half of February, the touristic town registered a total of more than 29,000 foreign tourists accommodated in the city, bordering on 30,000.

The Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones, or Congress and Expositions Palace, in Torremolinos (Costa del Sol), Spain, will be the setting for the 3rd Fair of Latin American and European Tourism, Art and Culture from the 29th of May to the 1st of June, 2008. ‘EUROAL’ is organized by the precinct itself, together with the Town Hall of this municipality –a leader in Spanish tourism- and has the support of several Andalusian and international touristic institutions and entities, such as the World Tourism Organization. More…

El Calafate lays on the southern shore of Argentino Lake, 315 km away from Río Gallegos, capital city of the province of Santa Cruz, and 80 km away from the entrance to Los Glaciares National Park. Read more...