Ranked among the Caribbean´s best islands for diving and called one of the top destinations for new divers, the island of Curacao will be holding the first annual Curacao Dive Festival from May 20 to 27. Registration is free and visitors can enjoy a week full of guided dives, workshops, seminars and advanced dives, while nightfall brings happy hour gatherings with live entertainment, movies on the beach, BBQs and night dives.

Preparations are underway at white-heat pace for the upcoming tenth edition of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference (CHTIC 2006), scheduled to be held at the Fairmont Southampton Hotel in Bermuda from April 4 to 6 this year. The two-day confab is organized by the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA), in conjunction with the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and Burba Hotel Network (BHN).

The economic benefits of sustainable tourism and its implications for the social and cultural environment, will be the central focus of the 8th Annual Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development, also known as the Sustainable Tourism Conference (STC-8), to be held this year in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The conference –slated to take place from April 25 to 29- will stress the importance of balancing the gains of tourism development while cherishing the value of the natural environment, said Mareba Scott, the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO)´s sustainable tourism product specialist.

International Living announces its Live Overseas - Latin America Conference taking place in the Fiesta Americana Hotel in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, from April 27 to April 29. According to Grant Perry, Conference Director for International Living, the conference program is a “72-hour, insider´s tour of Latin America´s best destinations”. Over three power-packed days at International Living´s Live Overseas - Latin America Conference, attendees will pick up great insider intelligence and on-the-ground know-how.

Mexico is gearing up for the 31st annual Travel Tradeshow, scheduled from March 26 to 29 in Acapulco. A one-stop shopping opportunity for international and local buyers and sellers of tourism, the event is credited with generating as much as 40 percent of Mexico´s annual tourism sales as a result of agreements inked at the trade fair, according to organizers.

More than one hundred high officials and managers from the tourism sector participated in the Knowledge Management for Excellence in Tourism Destination Governance seminar on January 26 during the Madrid-based FITUR. The seminar was organized by the UNWTO Department of Education and Knowledge Management. The seminar was presided over by UNWTO Secretary General Francesco Frangialli, Ecuadorian Tourism Minister M. Isabel Salvador, Andorran Minister of Tourism and the Environment Antoni Puigdellivol Riberaygua, Mexican Undersecretary for Tourism Planning Oralia Rice, and Argentine Tourism Secretary Carlos Enrique Meyer, among other boldface names.