The Paradisus Princesa del Mar hotel is the seventh lodging Spain-based company Sol Melia has opened in Cuba’s Varadero Beach, a destination this Spanish group eyes as a major steppingstone to get a much tighter grip of the sizzling Cuban market where it owns two dozen properties right now. The establishment’s General Manager told Caribbean News Digital he wants the Paradisus Princesa del Mar to be Sol Melia’s finest resort on the Caribbean island nation.

by Maria Caridad Gonzalez The Madrid International Tourism Fair (FITUR) has turned out to be a major tradeshow for Panama’s private sector companies given the number of deals they cut with similar partners in both the Spanish and European markets. This is what the Marketing and Communications Manager for the IPAT had to say to Caribbean News Digital.

In recent weeks, Aruba was home to the largest tourism marketing event held every year in the region: the Caribbean Marketplace. In addition to the recognition for having been picked to host this major gathering, the Island Where Happiness Lives took advantage of this opportunity to unveil a far-reaching plan of hotel refurbishment and bit flips in terms of tourist infrastructure. These efforts will surely lead this hot Caribbean destination to revamp its image and lure a larger amount of visitors in coming months.

The Dominican Republic’s travel industry put great numbers on the board in 2006 and now continues to be one of the Caribbean’s top destinations. The country reeled in nearly 4 million visitors last year, up a whopping 8.4 percent from 2005. This time around, the island nation hopes to get similar results or even go them one better based on an all-out diversification process in the local hotel sector.

Caribbean Marketplace 2007 -Aruba Once again this year, CHA and CTO have squandered a good opportunity to attend FITUR and cotton on to what this tradeshow actually means to the endeavor of bringing the Caribbean closer to a major outbound market and ever-expanding hotel investor in the region like Spain. Even now that a good deal of Caribbean countries have decided to join the Madrid fair, these two organizations have once again turned their backs on both FITUR and Spain.

Panama has turned out to be a hot destination for shopping, leisure, gambling and retirement. The country’s newest enhancement plan includes the expansion of the Canal, a move that’s supposed to make all these allures far more attractive. This is what Mr. Franco had to say about all this in an exclusive interview with Caribbean News Digital.