The cash flow going into Venezuela´s Tourism Fund could soar to nearly $9.4 billion in 2005, according to estimates reckoned by Jaime Padron, president of the Autonomous Institute of the National Fund for Tourism Promotion and Training (INATUR is the acronym in Spanish). The figure is based on a successful promotional campaign launched by the administration of President Hugo Chavez in an effort to bring the issue home among officials and the general public, sources close to the institute told local news agency Venpres.

Brazil is badly needing cash to upgrade roads, railroads and seaports in the face of an export bonanza that´s definitely making the nation´s economy pick up some steam, local officials and entrepreneurs said over the weekend. Infrastructure for transporting and warehousing crops and minerals to be shipped overseas is currently working at full throttle across the South American nation.

Mexico´s travel industry is on the road to a new milestone: 20 million tourists and $11 billion worth of revenues in a single year, explained John McCarthy, chief of the country´s National Tourism Fund. The high-ranking official said "no wonder the country is going to step up investment to new record highs this year with as many as $2 billion. A considerable chunk of that cash (35 percent) will come from foreign investors and the rest will be forked over by impresarios from the turf."

Mexico is ready to shell out $2 billion into the local tourist industry all through this year, up a whopping 39 percent from 2003, said John McCarthy, chief of the country´s National Tourism Fund. In the course of a meeting that gathered some of the Aztec nation´s top travel companies, Mr. McCarthy informed Mexico will reach the 20-million-tourist milestone by the end of the ongoing year. "At the end of the day," he added, "the country will be putting $11 billion into its coffers."

An $800 million package, datelined until 2007, will be invested in Argentina’s travel industry with a considerable chunk of those funds being poured into the building of new hotels and restaurants, the Argentina Entrepreneurial Hotel & Gastronomy Federation (FEHGRA is the acronym in Spanish) and the Tourism Hotel Association (AHT) reported this week. In addition to building new hotels, this megabuck investment project pursues the streamlining and reequipping of food outlets and eateries across the country, officials from both organizations pointed out.

A grand total of 924,606 foreign tourists traveled to Chile in the first half of the ongoing year, up a blistering 18.6 percent hike from the first six months of 2003, the National Tourism Service (SERNATUR) reported this week. That inflow of travelers generated $520 million worth of gains for the country, a 30 percent increase from the first half of 2003. “This is an extraordinary growth, the biggest number of tourists ever to visit Chile,” said SERNATUR Chief Oscar Santelices.