TravelCLICK has announced an agreement to provide Amadeus with the ability to offer preferred placement to its hotel clients. The solution is called Amadeus Instant Preference. According to TravelCLICK, provider of e-commerce solutions for hotels, the solution will guarantee subscribing hotels prime position towards the top of the display of the travel distribution system.

The Mexican peso surged last week to approach its strongest level against the dollar in eighteen months. Later last week, it had reached 10.83 pesos to the dollar, down 10 centavos for the week, and down sharply from a high of 11.61 pesos set late last year.

TUI, the German tourism group, sold its rail freight business this week to a Franco-US private equity firm for an undisclosed figure that´s expected to be in the neighborhood of euros 500 million to euros 800 million ($614 million to $982 million). However, the deal sparked controversy in Germany over the alleged hidden involvement of SNCF, France´s state railway operator.

Citing the enormous benefit it will bring, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is recommending Grenada to directly link its agriculture industry to the tourism industry. Prakash Loungani, the mission chief for the team that recently conducted Article IV Consultation in Grenada, said there is plenty of room to strengthening the linkage between agriculture and tourism, which will remain the mainstay of the economy.

The US Hotel industry generated profits of $16.7 billion on room revenues of $86 billion and all-time high total revenues of $113.7 billion. Smith Travel Research (STR), the recognized leader in performance benchmarking for the US hotel industry, released the results of its 2005 HOST (Hotel Operating Statistics) study, based on yearend 2004 results.

Brazil´s economy grew far more slowly than expected in the first quarter, as rising interest rates soured consumer appetite and delayed investment. Gross domestic product grew by 0.3 percent against the previous quarter, according to the government statistics bureau (IBGE). That is the worst since the third quarter of 2003 and below the consensus forecast of 0.5 per cent. Agriculture was the only sector that grew.