Aruba, located in the southern Caribbean Sea and near Venezuela, churns out most of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with tourism. In 2011, the island has carried out an action and investment program to improve the quality of its touristic product, in terms of hotels and air facilities as well as the restoration of colonial buildings in Oranjestad and the promotion of the country in markets overseas.
Mr. Modeste sat down recently with Caribbean News Digital within the framework of WTM 2011 in London and spoke about Antigua & Barbuda's efforts to make the most of the islands' outbound markets. In this exclusive interview, Mr. Modeste talked about the European travel fairs and other interesting topics.
Iberia, the leading airline in terms of flights between Europe and Latin America, increases its routes, opens new destinations in other continents, tries its wings at the low-cost market and joins alliances that ramp up its global outreach. Mr. Martin speaks with us about these and other topics.
Q & A with Estefania R. Escobar, Representative of Cuba’s Ministry of Tourism in Russia and Eastern Europe
Cuban travel authorities are looking forward to closing 2011 with a much larger uptick of visitors from Russian, compared to last year’s figures, thanks to Autentica Cuba (Authentic Cuba), a campaign that got underway in 2010 to promote sun-and-beach destinations, the keys and cities, history, sport and arts, let alone reflect the Caribbean nation’s lifestyle.
Q & A with Gaston Isoldi, General Director of La Cumbre and Chief of Development and Business at Reed Travel Exhibitions for Latin America
La Cumbre 2011 ended up in Las Vegas last September with over 220 exhibitors and 203 buyers. For 2012, when the event returns to Orlando after eight years, organizers are looking forward to seeing these numbers increase by 15 to 20 percent. Such uptick must be mainly based on larger presence of Latin America at the exhibition hall and the stepped-up attendance of buyers from North America, Latin America and Europe.
This year, InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) has also sponsored La Cumbre fair, held in Las Vegas. Within the framework of this important event, we had the chance to interview Mr. Tony Ruiz, recently appointed sales general director for Latin America and the Caribbean, who talked about the group’s new strategy to boost sales in Latin America, keeping up with their hotel expansion in that region.