Mexico’s tourism sector set a new record high in 2003 with $9.5 billion worth of revenues, up a 6.8 percent hike from the year before, the country’s Tourism Secretary Rodolfo Elizondo pointed out.

With these figures in the bag, Mexico jumped from number 13 to the tenth spot among the world’s biggest foreign tourist receivers, Mr. Elizondo went on to explain.

The high-ranking Mexican official also noted the country held on tight to the number eight spot in international arrivals with 18.6 million vacationers.

Cuba’s company CIMEX –made up of more than 80 enterprises providing services to the travel industry, a free trade zone and a real estate firm- churned out little more that $1 billion in 2003 for a good 6.8 percent growth over previous estimates.

CIMEX Vice President Enrique Sentmanat said the Cuban corporation scored a 15.7 percent increase in public sales, double-digits spikes in exports and an 11.9 percent upsurge in tourist services.

These numbers gave 20-year-old CIMEX the necessary edge to average an overall 6.8 percent annual growth rate.

On the heels of a past year that closed with $43.8 million worth of revenues and the strengthening of the carrier’s reshuffling, Argentine Airlines (AA) is now weighing to pour some $190 million into its own benefit, said Antonio Mata, chairman of AA Executive Committee.

Major indicators show that the company tallied $658 million in service earnings for a blistering 59.4 percent growth from 2002. In the same breath, AA flew 39.8 percent more passengers, jumping from 3,687,264 fliers in 2002 to 5,153,959 travelers last year.

Electronic retail shopping in Brazil topped $1.8 billion in 2003, up 23.7 percent from 2002, according to stats tabbed by E-Consulting, a specialized consulting office, and revealed by the Brazilian Chamber of Electronic Commerce (BCEC).

In 2003, 3.4 million Brazilians shopped online, with 1.7 million new e-customers buying items on the Web for the first time. “This figure accounts for a 19.5 percent of the total 17.4 million netizens in the country, a clear indication that this trend is on the rise,” BCEC Chairman Cid Torquato said.

Christened with champagne by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, EMBRAER, the world’s fourth-largest airplane maker, unveiled its new mid-size airliner in an effort to capture markets that use big commercial aircraft at the expense of costly operations.

At a price tag of $30 million per unit, the EMBRAER 190 can seat up to 108 passengers. JetBlue Airways Corporation, a U.S. company, has already bought a hundred of those planes.

The Louvre Museum of Paris, France, came in last year for 5.73 million visitors compared to 5.78 million who walked past the turnstiles in 2002. For the museum’s management, “these figures are welcome news amid a difficult situation marked by a tourist slowdown.”