On the heels of a day of rampant crime triggered by drug smugglers, law enforcement agencies in Rio de Janeiro have turned up the heat on the streets to guarantee safety and security in the population during the upcoming Carnival.
Renato Hottz, chief of Military Police in the state of Rio de Janeiro told news outlets Tuesday that all battalions under his command remain on a state of high alert and all troopers are on the beat.
The 2003 Latin America Meetings and Incentive Travels Market (an event usually known by the acronym MITM) will open its fourth edition in Mexican city of Merida (Yucatan) on March 13 through 15. This is so far the first and only professional meeting exclusively devoted to the corporate travel sector: conventions, incentive travels, congress and events.
A limited number of purchasers and companies will gather on the fairgrounds in which quality above everything else is the name of the game. Up to now, more than 150 businesspeople from 16 countries have registered for the 2003 MITM.
Contrary to what some news outlets have been reporting, Cuba’s Convention Bureau (BCC) rebuffed in an official press release the establishment of any alliance with its Central American counterparts to boost event and fair tourism in the region.
At the same time, the BCC denied any participation in a meeting held in Guatemala with a view to sign such an agreement.
Under the spell of Cuba’s aromatic top-notch stogies, the Fifth International Cigar Festival rolled up the curtains in the wee hours of Tuesday morning with an opening dinner at the glamorous 60-plus-year-old Tropicana Cabaret and the attendance of more than 900 people from 48 nations, chiefly scores of Europeans who can’t wait to puff at hand-rolled Premium cigars.
The Berlin International Tourism Marketplace (ITB) –one of the major commercial events of the sector worldwide- will open next March 7 amid one of the worst crises the leisure industry has undergone in the last decades and blotched this time around by the threat of war in Iraq and the economic recession endured by industrialized nations.
Stretching out for just four days –two for the public and the other two for professionals- the BIT Milan tradeshow was held from February 15 to 18 with a record turnout of 72,000 visitors and 28,600 professionals, compared to 65,350 and 18,500, respectively, back in 2002.
However, the Caribbean was dented by the absence of such regional heavyweights as Colombia, St. Kitts, Jamaica, Aruba, Curacao and Puerto Rico, only to name but a few.
The current crisis has swept over into many countries that had been bound to slash their budgets by not attending the fair.