Scores of proactive tourism offices, tour operators, hotels, resorts and providers of travel from around the globe are getting set to participate at the Beijing International Travel and Tourism Market (BITTM) 2006. Recently, the China Daily newspaper reported results of an Australian market research study that revealed a strong preference among Chinese tourists to travel to the USA, France and Australia.

Short movies on film and video are growing in importance for promoting tourism. The travel and tourism industry has its own “Oscars” and film-makers are competing for awards for the best tourism promotion movies being screened at next month´s ITB Berlin travel fair. The art of tourism promotional videos will be celebrated at a film festival and competition next month –an event that has grown into the travel industry´s equivalent of the Oscars.

Ranked among the Caribbean´s best islands for diving and called one of the top destinations for new divers, the island of Curacao will be holding the first annual Curacao Dive Festival from May 20 to 27. Registration is free and visitors can enjoy a week full of guided dives, workshops, seminars and advanced dives, while nightfall brings happy hour gatherings with live entertainment, movies on the beach, BBQs and night dives.

Registration for the 34th Annual Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC) is now available, with this year´s event highlight to be HFTP´s GUESTROOM 2010. The model guestroom will be part of a 90-for-40-foot pavilion featuring some of the latest and near-future technologies for the modern hotel room now available. “HFTP´s goal is to be the information source for the hospitality technology industry,” said HFTP International Secretary Jules Sieburgh, CHTP. “In pursuit of this goal, the HFTP Board of Directors felt it was the association´s obligation to fully explore the possibilities that are usually presented in pieces at HITEC. Guestroom 2010 will be a realistic model demonstrating the numerous concepts that circulate at HITEC, viewed by HITEC attendees - the industry´s major players.”

Preparations are underway at white-heat pace for the upcoming tenth edition of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference (CHTIC 2006), scheduled to be held at the Fairmont Southampton Hotel in Bermuda from April 4 to 6 this year. The two-day confab is organized by the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA), in conjunction with the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and Burba Hotel Network (BHN).

The economic benefits of sustainable tourism and its implications for the social and cultural environment, will be the central focus of the 8th Annual Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development, also known as the Sustainable Tourism Conference (STC-8), to be held this year in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The conference –slated to take place from April 25 to 29- will stress the importance of balancing the gains of tourism development while cherishing the value of the natural environment, said Mareba Scott, the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO)´s sustainable tourism product specialist.