Accor Asia Pacific is on record as showing faith in the long term tourist potential of Thailand, which has been rocked back on its heels by domestic crises and the worldwide economic downturn. It is also putting its money where its mouth is with a significant slate of Thailand hotel projects.

Virgin America reported its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2008. Despite fuel costs and a challenging economic climate in 2008, the new airline reported strong and steadily growing unit revenue, significant cash on-hand, and strong load factors in the latter part of 2008. The airline ended the quarter with $68 million in cash.

Lufthansa said it almost matched last year’s results by posting operating profit of around 1.35 billion euros. The group profit was posted at 599 million euros; last year’s figure was 1.66 billion euros, but it also included 585 million euros of profit from extraordinary items.

Travel companies should hold their nerve and not panic into cutting prices too soon. That’s the advice from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, based on the results of a poll of 2,000 British consumers.

US Airways Group, Inc. reported February and year-to-date 2009 traffic results. Mainline revenue passenger miles (RPMs) for the month were 4.0 billion, down 9.3 percent versus February 2008. Capacity was 5.2 billion available seat miles (ASMs), down 9.3 percent versus February 2008.

Booming tourism is set to boost Brazil’s foreign property market, industry experts are claiming at ITB. The sales manager at the Property Professionals Group, uv10, believes that the rising population could open up new opportunities foreign investors, as Brazilian consumers begin to spend more and more.