The number of tourists who visited Mexico from January through October this year peaked 16.5 million, up 10.8 percent from the same period of time in 2003, while revenues have climbed 21.6 percent to nearly $8.8 billion. In the light of these figures, Mexico’s tourism officials are still in hope of reaching new milestones of $9.3 billion worth of profits and roughly 19 million travelers by the end of the year.

Costa Rica’s leisure industry is girding for heftier numbers next year despite a 5.6 percent slide in projected investment that will total $49.7 million, Tourism Minister Rodrigo Castro said this week. In 2003, the country snared $52.1 million in overall investment cash flow. Mr. Castro warned that unless investment growth speeds up in the near future, the gap between hotel room offer and demand will continue widening at a frenzied pace.

Regardless of a recent upturn as far as passengers and cargo volumes worldwide are concerned, the globe’s top airlines will lose more than $4.8 billion in 2004, the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) informed this week. IATA Director Giovanni Bisignani said that regardless of “a negative economic environment and heightened uncertainty about fluctuating oil prices, the international air traffic has been climbing steadily over the past ten months.”

Club Mediterranée, the French company, lost €44 million this year, yet that was €50 million shy of the €94 million it blew in 2003. Now the enterprise is apparently sneaking out of the red-number column for the first time in two years. The company’s sales went up 1.2 percent –deducting the money it spent on corporate overhaul- to €1.6 billion, though returns fared differently depending on the region of the world.

At a time when wintertime vacations haven’t begun yet and strategies have not been completely assessed, Mexico’s Tourism Promotion Council revealed some figures that paint a pretty accurate picture of how revenues and foreign arrivals have fared so far this year. By the end of 2004, Mexican tourism authorities expect to close the twelve-month period with flying colors: 20.5 million visitors and $10.6 billion worth of gains.

Uruguay’s Gross Domestic Product grew 13 percent in the first nine months of 2004 compared to the first three quarters of last year. The country’s latest quarterly report indicates the Uruguayan economy took a solid 2.8 percent increase in the third quarter of the ongoing year.