The International Monetary Fund (IMF) put out a bleak report on the economic future of St. Lucia, a small Caribbean island that’s still dealing with high unemployment rates regardless of a solid 3.7 percent growth in 2003. The Washington-based banking institution warned the poor going of the banana industry, coupled with the country’s scarce ability to keep the Gross Domestic Product growing, will also have a negative impact on the local job market.

Cuba has just opened an experimental currency exchange house to swap euros, Japanese yens, Venezuelan bolivars and Mexican pesos for convertible Cuban pesos (CUC). The action is part of a plan implemented by local authorities in an effort to knock the U.S. dollar out of circulation in the national territory and leave the CUC as the only one currency used to purchase goods and services on the island nation.

Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador have shelled out more money than any other Latin American country in the promotion of their own travel industry. Armed with an array of top-flight exhibitors full of gaudiness, traditions and great cultural values, the three pack put out all the stops at the recently concluded World Tourism Market in London. Peru, for instance, has deployed a $500,000 publicity campaign in the U.K., the country’s number-one tourist sending market alongside Spain and Germany, following the tremendous success that promotional blitz had in the United States.

TUI, the Germany-based tour operator, informed Friday that its Tourism Division snapped up €720 million worth of benefits in the first three quarters of the ongoing year, up a whopping 36.7 percent from the first nine months of 2003. The company’s front office says the good outcomes stem from a feverish summertime travel season that yielded over €10.5 billion in revenue.

The first three quarters of the ongoing year couldn’t be any better for Sol Meliá. The Spanish hotel chain has reportedly netted €55.5 million worth of gains, compared to little more that €32 million in the first nine months of 2003. Sol Meliá’s benefit estimates before tax deduction and hedges earlier this year was hovering around 20 percent, yet the company scooped up an unthought-of 24.1 percent increase.

The cash surplus of Mexico’s travel industry scored a big increase in the first eight months of the ongoing year, up a whopping 20.8 percent from the same span of time in 2003. During that period, the country reaped over $2.8 billion worth of revenues, thanks in part to a 13.3 percent climb in tourist benefits that totaled more than $7.3 billion.