Born in Holland, the representative of The Reef Playacar Resort talked with Caribbean News Digital about the hotel’s experience with the Russian market in recent years, which is encouraged by the gradual discovery of the Mexican Caribbean and the existence of charter flights to Cancun.

Russia’s third-largest tourism wholesaler was among the pioneers in opening Caribbean destinations to the Russian market. Some of the one hundred countries it presently works with are located on this side of the world, such as Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Brazil, Peru, Argentina and Panama. That expansion, as Mrs. Filosofova tells us, doesn’t affect the status of Spain, which remains “a sought-after destination among Russian sunbathers”.

The Caribbean Week in New York provided the perfect backdrop to rekindle contacts with some of the region’s tourism directors, commissioners and ministers. Following the Caribbean Marketing Conference, we sat down with Warren Solomon, a man who has deservedly earned the respect of travel industry execs in his native Trinidad after his successful tenure at the helm of the Tourism and Industrial Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (TIDCO).

Founded in 1955 and officially established in 1962, Surinam Airways started offering its international flights two years later and in 1975 it introduced its transatlantic service. Today, the airline is the only company from the South American country providing services overseas; it hooks up Miami with Paramaribo and Aruba and it’s looking forward to establishing new routes in the region from that Floridian city.

TAM Airlines’ consolidated routes linking Brazil with Spain y Portugal are transporting a huge amount of passengers from that South American country to Europe. That’s the reason why, the company assesses perspectives for agreements with other airlines who also integrate the Star Alliance so as to offer passengers more destinations. But that’s only one of TAM Airlines’ future projects for these markets.

From its operation base in Madrid, TAM airline manages not only its interests and growth in the European market, but also in the Middle East and Asia, offering safe and almost direct connections with the South American market, a region the company knows very well due to its routes in the region. This statement is confirmed by Mr. Sales in this interview with Caribbean News Digital.