Cuba’s potentials as a destination for scuba diving enthusiasts and its projects to tap into this modality together with other Caribbean nations were displayed at the 2003 Diving Expo, a weeklong event that took place in Varadero with a turnout of divers, tour operators and experts from nearly a dozen countries.

The gathering included theoretical sessions in which outstanding personalities dictated a number of lectures. One of the top attendants was Mauricio Hadler, a scuba diving expert who touched on the development of the diving industry.

Costa Rica’s 19th EXPOTUR tourism fair that recently rolled down the curtain in San Jose, yielded sales way over $100 million and a white-heat promotional effort to portray Central America as a tourist destination.

EXPOTUR chairman Manuel Carranza pointed out those sale outcomes came as a result of a poll taken by a majority of Costa Rican purchasers, plus others from Nicaragua, Panama and other regional countries.

The 18th Inter American Tourism Congress will get cracking from June 18 to 20 under the sponsorship of the Organization of American States (OAS), said Ester Brol, a spokesperson for the Guatemalan Tourism Institute (INGUAT).

Planners expect a huge turnout with delegations headed by hemispheric tourism ministers and OAS representatives to each and every of the region’s 34 nations belonging to that organization. The private sector and European representatives are also supposed to attend the conclave.

The inaugural Caribbean Fair hosted by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) at the historic Bowling Green Park in New York has raised interest among New Yorkers to travel to the Caribbean, Hugh Riley, CTO’s director of marketing for the Americas has said.

Companies from six countries were here for the 15th International Hall on Technology, Products and Services for the Tourist Industry (TECNOTUR 2003) that came to a close Thursday in Havana.

Sponsored by Cuba’s ministries of tourism and foreign trade, the Chamber of Commerce and the International Conference Center, the meeting gathered producers, providers and investors linked to the realm of tourism.

Mexico, one of the world’s top tourist destinations, is equally becoming a major congress and convention planner in a market segment that’s leapfrogging everywhere under the sun and is destined to get a big boost in the Mexican market following the drop of the Additional Value Tax (AVT) beginning in 2004.

The Mexican Congress passed an amendment to provision 29 of the country’s Additional Value Tax Act scheduled to go into full effect in 2004 with a zero AVT rate on all congress, conventions, fairs and tradeshows to be held in the nation.