by Jose Carlos de Santiago Iberia has taken Latin America to heart. The airline’s immediate development strategy for the region calls for a shot at doubling many existing flights, beef up others and continue its far-reaching expansion in the U.S., a country where the Spanish air carrier holds a good deal of untapped opportunities with 40 million Spanish-speaking residents. Right now, the company is revamping its fleet with new jetliners for both long-haul and short-haul routes. This is the first step up toward a future growth.

by Jose Carlos de Santiago The Brazilian Travel Agencies Association (ABAV is the Portuguese acronym) attended once again the World Travel Market in London in a bid to promote the upcoming Fair of the Americas, one of Latin America’s oldest and most prestigious tourism events.

FITUR is coming back in January ready to put much heftier numbers on the board and strengthen its position as the world’s second-largest tourism fair, trailing behind just Berlin’s ITB. The international area will remain on the rise, especially exhibitors from Asia and Africa.

Mr. Rochi is pinning his hopes on the cohesion the seven Central American nations have forged to get together under one solid tourism brand in terms of international promotion and advertisement. He’s confident this group of countries will be able to work out current differences with Costa Rica, a nation that decided not to attend the latest edition of the Central America Travel Market held in Honduras.

by Jose Carlos de Santiago The Dominican Republic’s travel industry has put pretty good numbers on the board in the first three quarters of the ongoing year, with growth nearly in the double digits from 2005. The main efforts of this major Caribbean travel destination are now focused on raising the bar for the local tourism products and pouring far more money into the national infrastructure in a bid to branch out lodging on the one hand and clinching heftier revenues with cost-cutting policies on the other.

by Jose Carlos de Santiago Getting a bigger slice of the European market –especially from Spain- and closer ties for exchange and cooperation with Spanish hotel chains –they have emerged as big-time investors in the region over the past three years- continue to be pending topics in the joint agenda of CTO and CHA. However, Mr. Schreibmaeir says the Caribbean is looking to Europe and Spain like never before. And CHA will keep on going the extra mile with visits to those markets and putting far more faith in their investors.