Acapulco will put on its bib and tucker from April 18 to 21 to host the 29th edition of the Tourist Marketplace, one of the top events of Mexico’s travel industry targeting business tour operators, wholesalers, incentive purchasers, charter flight operators and travel agents.

The Sixth Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx) will unfold from June 24 to 28 in St. Lucia, according to a confirmation made by Counterpart International, the event’s top organizer.

The St. Lucia conference will be a follow-up to the previous five meetings that got cracking for the first time on October 2001 with the intention of gathering press professionals specialized in the realm of tourism. The other media exchanges were held in the Bahamas, Barbados and Jamaica.

Congress, seminar and meeting tourism in Uruguay was up a whopping 32.8 percent in 2003 from the year before, the Uruguayan Association of Congress and Related Event Organizers (AUDOCA) reported.

During the course of last year, Uruguay played host to 470 events, including 179 of international scope. Each attendant to those congresses averaged $1,400 worth of revenues for the country’s coffers.

Around 81 percent of those conclaves took place in Montevideo, little more than 9 percent in Punta del Este, and the remaining 10 percent in other cities around the nation.

People from nearly all European nations will huddle from April 24 to 28 at the Maho Beach Resort & Casino tourist compound in St. Maarten to catch the Dutch Caribbean Meets Europe (DCME) event.

Under a motto reading “The Dominican Republic Is All The Rage,” the 2004 DATE, the annual tourist meeting, will get underway from April 28 to 30 at the Plaza Playa Dorada Commercial Center in Puerto Plata. Members of the local National Hotel & Restaurant Association (ASONAHORES) and the Council for Tourist Promotion (CTP) are confident this year’s turnout will go the 2003 edition one better by a long haul.

Expobuceo 2004, an international event on scuba diving, is scheduled from June 29 to July 2 at the Plaza America Conference Center in Varadero. This will no doubt be a perfect setting for tour operators, travel agents, professional and retired divers, scuba aficionados, marine biologists, scientists, underwater shutterbugs, environmentalists and diving students from all around the globe to exchange views and experiences on the topic.