Adventure, cultural and nature tourism will once again be the stars of the show at the upcoming edition of FITUR, Spain’s International Travel Market scheduled to hold its 25th edition from January 26 to 30 next year at the Juan Carlos I Fairgrounds in Madrid. ACTIVE FITUR is getting more attention than any other travel segment in Spain. According to Christie & Co., a consulting firm, the 7,400 establishments dealing with rural tourism in Spain are making approximately €1.5 billion every year with growth projections of 35 percent over the next five years.

Mexico’s National Tourism Entrepreneurial Council (CNET) held its sixth congress last week. Attendants discussed hot topics on travel industry competitiveness, the going of regional tourism, fiscal matters linked to it and the advance of sustainable tourism. CNET Chief Gordon Viberg explained the event sought to find ways of improving Mexico’s leisure industry as far as infrastructure, judicial matters and promotional aspects are concerned.

“Argentina and the Moon”, organized by the Gattoni Company, walked off with the award to the Best Incentive Tourism Program at the 2004 EIBTM during a ceremony held at the Catalonian Conference Palace in Spain´s Barcelona. The top award is a recognition to efficient planning and creativeness of business meetings and events that embraces a 14-category series of prizes.

With a view to come together in a professional forum to discuss topics and exchange experiences on the factors that play a major role in the training of human resources for the travel industry, Mexico’s Caribbean destination of Playa del Carmen was home this week to the Ninth National Meeting on Tourism Education. The event featured a massive turnout of principals and professors from several educational centers that teach tourism training at higher, high and elementary levels, as well as federal public officials, state and municipal authorities with a say in tourism training and education, and members of corporate Mexico.

The tenth edition of the FIART 2004 International Artisanship Fair will get going in Havana between December 12 and 19 under a slogan reading “Artisanship and Vital Space.” The goal of the event’s Organizing Committee is the promotion of those works of art whose designs, craftsmanship and usefulness suggest an attractive vital space that raises living standards through the esthetic shaping of any daily environment.

The World Tourism Forum for Peace and Sustainable Development that took place in Brazil’s Salvador de Bahia last week –the event was opened by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva- was intended to foster tourism as a tool for the promotion of peace, economic and social development, cultural diversity and environmental protection. The World Tourism Forum gathered tourism authorities, scholars, impresarios and NGOs representatives from 28 countries in the Brazilian city of Salvador de Bahia under the sponsorship of the WTO, the United Nations Development Program and UNESCO.