The Herradura Hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica, will be the perfect venue for the First Symposium, Workshop and Exhibition on Event Standardization, an event planned with a view to suggest applicable standards to specific cultures and circumstances both in Latin America and elsewhere around the globe.

Under a slogan reading Latin America as an Event Destination - Assessment and Perspectives, the 21st Latin American Congress of the Confederation of Latin American Congress and Related Event Organizers (COCAL) will unfold from March 1 to 4 at the Sheraton Lima Hotel & Casino in Peru.

Targeting companies and institutions linked to the organization of events, state-run entities, airlines, hotels and conference centers, this gathering serves as a peerless opportunity for VIP professionals in the business to exchange views and experiences on the matter.

The Cuba destination ranks among the top five spots for Copa Airlines Conventions, a division of the Panamanian air carrier founded in 2002 to transport attendants to meetings, conventions and other events in the Americas, said Aida Abreu, an executive with Copa Airlines in Havana.

Mrs. Abreu explained that this year her company will act as an official carrier in sixteen different events to be held in Cuba, even though they’re working right now to add more meetings to the list.

More than 450 exhibitors from as many as 30 nations have confirmed their attendance to the 23rd Travel Marketplace of the National Travel Agencies Association of Colombia (ANATO is the acronym in Spanish), said Omar Riveros, head of mass media and public relations for the event’s organizing committee.

The Central American Convention (CAC), representing the region’s tourist private sector, will make its public debut at the 2004 FITUR by holding a joint press conference in Madrid with the Central American Tourism Association (CATA).

Central American heads of state are convinced the region’s seven nations are seen as a solid unit in the travel industry worldwide. Based on that common strategy, these countries agreed to found the Central American Tourism Association (CATA) on December 2002.

More than 190,000 people visited the CMT Tourism Fair in the German city of Stuttgart that this time around had Cuba as the guest country, sources close to the event’s organizing committee reported.

CMT director Ulrich Kromer pointed out that such a high number of visitors shows that Germans are once again licking their wanderlust chops. Furthermore, Mr. Kromer explained that nearly a quarter of visitors booked their next vacation travel packages at the fair, while little more than ten percent spent some $3,150 in its stands.