The Costa Rican Tourism Institute will hold a fair on community rural tourism in early December with a view to foster the advance of that particular activity as a model of sustainable development in the country and across Central America. The fair will take place from December 3 to 5 on the premises of the National Biodiversity Institute as an alternative for tourists willing to see the country´s rural areas, learn about the traditions and customs of its residents, and share with members of local communities.

The beautiful village of Vista Hermosa, in Mexico’s Tabasco, played host to the First International Congress on Rural Tourism that took place on November 29 and 30 with the support of governmental institutions involved in this matter. The event featured a number of round tables, expositions, tours to ranches, lectures, conferences and gourmet functions.

Representatives of children advocacy groups from Central America and Mexico gathered in Panama City to propose legal reforms in the struggle against the abuse, smuggling and sexual exploitation of children and teenagers. Nils Katsberg, director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for Latin America and the Caribbean, said the meeting’s goal was to find some common ground for local policies implemented in the region to foil sex tourism.

The Congress of the International Hotel & Restaurant Association (IH&RA), that took place in Turkey’s Istanbul this year, bestowed its annual Innovation for Better Environmental Protection Policy Award on the Aruba & Bucuti Beach Resort in a presentation ceremony held at the Conrad International Hotel in the Turkish capital. The distinction was created by American Express in association with the United Nations Environmental Protection Program, Green Globe 21 and Shell LPG in an effort to both recognize and praise leading environmental management within the hospitality industry.

Residents of Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital, literally swarmed over the 35,000 square yards of exposition space set up for the Ninth International Tourism Fair (FIT), one of Latin America’s major travel markets. For this year’s event, La Rural de Palermo in Buenos Aires gathered more than 1,500 exhibitors from 31 countries. Organizers of the world’s sixth largest travel tradeshow estimate a record-breaking 61,000 people traipsed past the turnstiles this time around, a figure way above the 2003 turnout.

With an entourage of representatives from different travel companies and institutions, Cuba took part in the Shanghai 2004 International Tourism Fair that came to a close last week. The Cuban delegation, that brought along a slogan reading "Cuba: A Multi-Destination In Itself," was headed by the island nation´s Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz.