Electronic retail shopping in Brazil topped $1.8 billion in 2003, up 23.7 percent from 2002, according to stats tabbed by E-Consulting, a specialized consulting office, and revealed by the Brazilian Chamber of Electronic Commerce (BCEC).
In 2003, 3.4 million Brazilians shopped online, with 1.7 million new e-customers buying items on the Web for the first time. “This figure accounts for a 19.5 percent of the total 17.4 million netizens in the country, a clear indication that this trend is on the rise,” BCEC Chairman Cid Torquato said.
Mexico’s tourism sector set a new record high in 2003 with $9.5 billion worth of revenues, up a 6.8 percent hike from the year before, the country’s Tourism Secretary Rodolfo Elizondo pointed out.
With these figures in the bag, Mexico jumped from number 13 to the tenth spot among the world’s biggest foreign tourist receivers, Mr. Elizondo went on to explain.
The high-ranking Mexican official also noted the country held on tight to the number eight spot in international arrivals with 18.6 million vacationers.
Cuba’s company CIMEX –made up of more than 80 enterprises providing services to the travel industry, a free trade zone and a real estate firm- churned out little more that $1 billion in 2003 for a good 6.8 percent growth over previous estimates.
CIMEX Vice President Enrique Sentmanat said the Cuban corporation scored a 15.7 percent increase in public sales, double-digits spikes in exports and an 11.9 percent upsurge in tourist services.
These numbers gave 20-year-old CIMEX the necessary edge to average an overall 6.8 percent annual growth rate.
In a much-anticipated ruling, the U.S. Trademark Appealing Bureau (TTAB) turned down a motion to cancel the Havana Club trademark in that country, a move that automatically upholds the registration renewal presented by Havana Club Holding (HCH), a joint venture founded by Pernod Ricard S.A. back in 1993.
The legal scuffle started out with a demand for the cancellation of the Havana Club trademark registration in U.S. soil filed by the Bacardi Co. on the basis that such registration had been made under fraudulent circumstances.
A senior Air Jamaica official is predicting a good performance for the carrier in 2004 based on its overall showing including moderate financial growth last year.
Vice President of Marketing Michael Going said that the company has been making steady strides during the course of last year and was well positioned for a productive take off during 2004.
"We are on a very strong road to rebuilding the carrier to pre-911 positions both in terms of our financial and operating performances and our position in the market place", Going told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
Christened with champagne by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, EMBRAER, the world’s fourth-largest airplane maker, unveiled its new mid-size airliner in an effort to capture markets that use big commercial aircraft at the expense of costly operations.
At a price tag of $30 million per unit, the EMBRAER 190 can seat up to 108 passengers. JetBlue Airways Corporation, a U.S. company, has already bought a hundred of those planes.