Buy Bonus LTD, a London-based firm, announced it intends to pour some $100 million into a tourist compound in the province of Samana, some 142 miles northeast of Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital. The group´s execs pointed out this will be a 1,000-room hotel compound exclusively designed for couples that will cover nearly 99 acres of land.

The Mexican travel industry snared 9,679,000 million foreign visitors in 2004, some 220,000 more tourists than the previous year for a solid 14 percent increase. In a case-by-case breakdown made by the country´s Tourism Department, ground border checkpoints logged little more than 8 million foreign trippers, up 9.4 percent from 2003, while 10.2 million nationals drove in and out of Mexico in the course of the entire year for an 11.2 percent upturn.

The Puerto Rican leisure industry closed 2004 with a bang after averaging 78.9 percent hotel occupancy, up nearly three percentage points from the year before. The Puerto Rico Hotel & Tourism Association (PRHTA) said the final tally for the island nation´s economy peaked $4.9 billion, up a walloping 42 percent from 2003. The local hospitality sector now accounts for 6.6 percent of the gross national product.

The number of foreign visitors that traveled to Chile in 2004 spent $1.2 billion in all. According to a recent report released by the South American nation´s National Tourism Service (SERNATUR), the country welcomed 1.8 million trippers from overseas all through last year. The local tourist sector also snapped up 10 percent more revenues in 2004 than the year before, when it came in for 1.1 million sunbathers.

US Airways got a boost in its effort to survive when the federal Air Transportation Stabilization Board (ATSB) agreed January 13 to let the airline extend its use of cash proceeds from its federally guaranteed loan through June 30. US Airways has been operating with the use of ATSB cash collateral since its second Chapter 11 filing Sept. 12 of last year, but that agreement was due to expire Jan. 15.

The Cuba Division of Havana Club International (HCI) closed 2004 with excellent outcomes that underscore the company´s leading position in the local and world markets with more than 35 percent of the share. In an HCI press released obtained by Caribbean News Digital, the joint venture´s front office indicates total sales tallied more than 514,000 cases in 2004, up 3 percent from the year before.