FreemanGroup has announced that the official launch of FreemanGroup Destinations (FG Destinations) in the Caribbean will take place at the Caribbean Hospitality Industry Conference (CHIC), in Miami, on June 26. The Caribbean has been a primary market of FreemanGroup over the past twenty years.

Aruba is gearing up to host an extraordinary lineup for this year´s Fifth Annual Aruba Music Festival, featuring rock legends, Styx (October 6) and Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter, Lionel Richie (October 7). For two days, sunbathers will not only get the opportunity to bask in the near-perfect weather, enjoy an endless roster of fun to-dos, and meet some of the friendliest people in the Caribbean, but also rock out to Styx and groove to unforgettable sounds from Lionel Richie.

The Caribbean Tourism Organization´s annual Caribbean Week celebrations, meetings, and activities got underway in New York on June 10 without the presence and input of Pamela Richards, the CTO chairwoman as well as commissioner of tourism for the U.S. Virgin Islands. According to reports published in the St. Croix Avis, the local newspaper on St. Croix, Charles Turnbull, governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, did not approve Richards´ request to travel to New York for Caribbean Week.

Hundreds of airline CEOs and executives who gathered here heard International Air Transport Association director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani declare this a year of “cautious optimism” for the global aviation industry, thanks to strong economies, high demand for air travel, higher fares and increases in revenue that have been doubling the historical average. But those executives also heard from oil company executives who told them jet fuel prices might not begin to significantly improve until 2010 –they may first get worse- and from a renowned investor who predicted that 2006 might be “as good as it gets” for the airline industry.

The Caribbean Tourism Organization will honor distinguished sons and daughters of the Caribbean during the annual fundraising event for the CTO Foundation at the Governments of the Caribbean State Ball at the Waldorf Astoria. Among the honorees will be a senior public servant, a carnival organizer, a filmmaker and a Caribbean band.

The Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA) along with its private sector partners in the Aruba Hotel and Tourism Association (AHATA), announced that the island has been picked as host for the 28th Annual Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) Marketplace 2007 to be held from January 14 to 16. The choice of Aruba as the host nation for next year´s Caribbean Marketplace marks the first time ever a destination has been unanimously chosen by all CHA members and the first time that the host country has been handpicked more than six months prior to the event.