Following a bonanza that stretched out for nearly a month and a half with thousands of tourists flocking to Cancun and other sightseeing spots in the state –where they spent some $130 million- the local hotel sector is now hoping against hope that conventions could take up that occupancy slack of coming weeks.

After logging occupancy rates of up to 100 percent in hotels, the tourist meltdown that started last week with the beginning of the school year is now making a dent in the hotel industry.

The upcoming conclave of the Latin America Tourism Organization (COTAL) –scheduled from May 7 to 11- will be used by the Mexican travel destination of Cancun to spearhead the recovery of the South American market to its premises, a segment whose total inflow took a double-digit slide from 12 to 2 percent over the last couple of years, the event’s Organizing Committee pointed out.

The Council of Tourism of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States will gather May 6 and 7 in St. Kitts-Nevis, with the formation of an OECS Tourism Policy Framework as the key topic of the agenda.

Among other items of the agenda are to define an OECS Tourism Brand, joint approach to tourism marketing, the Secretariat´s Tourism Work programme, and an OECS approach to development of the yachting sector.

The meeting will be preceded by a one-day gathering of OECS Directors of Tourism on May 5th, which will feed into the deliberations by the Ministers.

The 24th Cuban Tourism Convention wound up successfully Wednesday evening with an award ceremony and a panoramic perspective of the Cuban tourist industry by Minister Manuel Marrero. The event gathered more than 2,000 delegates from nearly 60 countries.

Planners are giving the finishing touches to the fifteen edition of the Jamaica Product Exchange (JAPEX), a fair scheduled to take place from May 2 to 4 this year at the Half Moon Resort in Montego Bay.

JAPEX came into being in 1990 in an effort to provide both wholesale buyers and tour operators with a professional framework for business exchanges and meetings in which they can cut deals with all major suppliers of Jamaica’s travel industry.

With a hands-on exchange of ideas and views on digital journalism in the new millennium, the International Seminar on Travel Press and New Technologies: Trends and Challenges, opened Monday with a turnout of 40 professionals from seven countries.

The Travel Press Circle of Cuba´s League of Journalists (UPEC is the acronym in Spanish), the Jose Marti International Journalism Institute and the Latin American Travel Press Confederation (CLAPTUR) joined hands to sponsor the event that´s scheduled to come to a close Friday.