Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela are the first markets chosen by Amadeus for the launching of its new business line that will provide training and professional consulting services. Amadeus´s new division will make all necessary arrangements to add extra value to its services in order to give GDS customers the possibility of streamlining their own technological and human resources.

Cuba showed off its very best business opportunities during the course of the first Latin America & Caribbean Incentive Market Exchange (LACIME) that unfolded from June 23 through 25 in Brazil. The tradeshow, organized by Reed Exhibitions together with the Brazilian Association of Travel Agencies (ABAV), provided a perfect setting to showcase all business opportunities that Latin America and the Caribbean have to offer as far as events and incentive travel are concerned.

Jamaica´s economy will leapfrog dramatically following the enhancement of the island nation´s cruise service on the basis of a new agreement signed between Royal Caribbean Cruises and local authorities. The treaty will bring a minimum of 2 million cruise passengers to Jamaica and over $16 million worth of revenues over the next five years. A similar accord had been inked last February with Carnival Corporation to take some 50,000 travelers to Jamaican shores, the island nation´s Minister of Transportation Robert Pickersgill told Caribbean News Digital.

The Nicaraguan travel industry put on a whopping 19 percent growth in the first quarter of 2004 compared to the same span of time the year before, according to a report provided by the National Tourism Institute (INTUR). The report indicates that as many as 196,843 tourists visited the country between January and April this year, with $54.9 million worth of revenues.

The Caribbean tourism industry is projected to grow significantly this year, the World Travel & Tourism Council indicated in an analysis on the region´s hotel industry. The business group released projections that tourism industry´s receipts in the region will grow 16.8% over last year, nearly quadrupling earlier expectations. Visitors are expected to spend $19 billion in the region this year, Executive Director Rick Miller told attendees at the annual Caribbean Hotel Industry Conference. Private sector tourism investments are forecast to grow to $7.4 billion in 2004 - 21.7% of the total investment in the region and 1.6% more than last year, Miller said. Caribbean governments are also projected to spend $1.9 billion on tourism, 4.5% more than last year.

Argentina’s leisure industry raked in $2 billion worth of revenues in 2003, a 7.7 percent slice of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, and it’s now setting aim at making tourism the country’s second-largest economic powerhouse in a way similar to what Spain has accomplished. Daniel Pablo Aguilera, undersecretary of Tourism Management and Policy, and Daniel Aime, chief of Promotion and Development, aired their views on this issue in a recent press conference with Spanish journalists in Buenos Aires.