The World Tourism Organization (WTO) will dispatch a mission to the Dominican Republic in an effort to boost up joint development projects on the Haitian border.
The Dominican Tourism Department informed in a press release the WTO delegation will stay in the country for 11 days to sketch out a master plan for the nation´s southwest region that involves businesspeople and governmental officials from both countries.
At least some 2,500 rooms in houses and condos that lodge tourists all year round in Mexico´s Playa del Carmen are being accused of tax evasion and of seriously damaging the finances of licensed establishments that do comply with the 2 percent lodging tax levied on them, Jose Acevedo Peña, general manager of the Mayan Riviera Hotel Association, denounced this week.
For his part, Lenin Amero Betancourt, president of the Playa del Carmen Small Hotel Association, indicated those lodging houses and condos resort to the Internet and means of their own for advertisement, yet they benefit from the high-peak travel season because they pay no taxes at all.
The seaquake that hit South East Asia in late December has cost French travel operators as many as €85 million with more than fifty percent of would-be travelers calling off trips to the region, the organization that groups France´s travel agencies and tour operators, CETO, reported this week.
CETO execs, who recently sat down in Paris with governmental officials linked to the travel industry, said the biggest dent so far is in the January reservations to travel destinations on the Maldives Islands and in Sri Lanka, with similarly high levels of booking cancellations between February and April.
John Q. Hammons Hotels’ board of directors agreed to grant limited exclusivity to the Barcelo Crestline Corp. through Jan. 31 to negotiate on a proposed merger between the two companies, the Travel Weekly magazine has reported.
In October, Barcelo Crestline Corp., the parent of Crestline Hotels & Resorts, announced its intention to acquire John Q. Hammons Hotels, an independent developer, owner and manager of 60 hotels and resorts, for 64 million US dollars in cash.
Through its "Take 5" fare sale program, JetBlue Airways is celebrating its Fifth Anniversary with a new fare policy that puts select Caribbean and other routes on sale with discount rates when booked at www.jetblue.com, the company announced.
From New York´s JFK to the Caribbean, JetBlue´s sale fares start from $75 each way to San Juan and Aguadilla, Puerto Rico and to Santiago and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and from $95 each way to Nassau, The Bahamas.
For 2005, Miami area hoteliers are ratcheting up revenue forecasts and pricing plans further as they move into the high tourism season beginning today, after 2004 marked the end of post-9/11 room rate discounts that sapped profits, according to the Tribune Business News.
A growing economy, strong European currencies, improving consumer confidence and an extra year of distance from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have generated rosy predictions for hotel performance both in South Florida and across the country, the Miami Herald reports.