Over the past five years, Panama has added 39 new hotels to its stock of accommodations, a figure that is keeping local tourism authorities red hot about the prospect of welcoming nearly a million foreign travelers in 2004.

Jamaica´s Tourism Minister Aloun Ndombet-Assamba has confirmed plans to develop the island´s south coast with assistance from overseas investors will result in a significant increase in tourism activities along that section of the island.

"Based on the performance of other nature-based destinations in the Caribbean that have doubled their tourist numbers in five years, we see a south coast target of doubling its share of Jamaican tourism over the next 10 years from 3.5 per cent to 7 per cent as achievable," she said.

Job creation in Costa Rica accrued 2.2 percent in 2003 thanks in part to rekindled exports and growing tourism, while take-home pays were up 3 percent, official sources informed.

Ronulfo Jimenez, economic coordinator for the Costa Rican administration, said the government created 12,056 new jobs in 2003 for a 2.2 percent hike in the private sector compared to the year before.

The Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CRSCF), though, placed job creation slightly lower at 1.5 percent for a grand total of 9,563 new posts.

The leisure industry will surely be a major source of jobs for Brazilians, said Tourism Minister Walfrido dos Mares, whose department is estimating growth numbers in the neighborhood of 7 to 8 percent and announcing the creation of 180,000 to 220,000 new jobs this year alone.

LanChile has just unveiled its new corporate image that gathers all companies under the name Latin American Network (LAN) with simultaneous presentations in all of its Latin American destinations.

Now the air carrier has merged its own corporate image with affiliates in Chile, Peru, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic in an effort to make it work in a more comprehensive way while keeping its independence in one piece.

Panama ought to cope with more economic reforms, skyrocketing unemployment and bulkier shortfalls regardless of good outcomes in such fields as transportation, tourism and the building industry, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) disclosed in a recent report.

On May 2002, Panamanian authorities passed a fiscal responsibility legislation with a view to slash public debt by half of the nation´s gross domestic product (GDP). So far, the country has managed to make a gradual dent in its once heavy deficit.