St. Croix will provide the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise with a warm Caribbean welcome as the island´s famed St. Croix Blues Festival entertains passengers with an unbeatable selection of top-notch performers. Held in the historic waterfront town of Frederiksted on February 11, when the ship is in port, the festival will provide music fans continuous entertainment from 3:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.

Spain’s International Tourism Fair, the opening event of the year’s international tradeshow schedule, is conducting its 23rd edition Jan. 29 through Feb. 2 on the premises of the Juan Carlos I Fairgrounds in Madrid. Over 9,000 companies from as many as 170 countries are expected to turn out at the venue.

Within the framework of the Caribbean Marketplace now underway in Puerto Rico, hotel owners from the Mexican state of Quintana Roo –the country’s major tourist circuit- are turning to the Caribbean Hotel Association to put up a fight against the tourist cruise industry, said Abelardo Vara Rivera, leader of the local hotelkeepers.

“Time has come to halt the voraciousness of cruise companies that haven’t so far been faced off by so united a group like Quintana Roo’s hotel owners,” Mr. Rivera was quoted to say.

Cuba hopes to notch some 325,000 arrivals this year in the category of events and incentive travel, a modality that grabbed roughly 200,000 tourists in 2002. This piece of information was broken within the framework of the Convention Bureau’s annual meeting to assess last year’s upshots.

Also in 2003, Cuba is gunning for 3.7 to 5 times more earnings per capita in this modality than in conventional tourism, alongside a 15 percent increase in using the island nation’s tourist infrastructure, a figure that peaked 12 percent last year.

Mexico’s charms will be showcased at the FITUR 2003 Fair with a view to strengthen its ties with the Spanish tourist industry. As the world’s eighth most visited country with as many as 20 million travelers every year, the 32 Mexican states combine leisure and culture with over 15,000 archeological sites. The top tourist companies operating in this European nation show off their services at the country’s 839-square-meter stand decked out in Pavilion 6.

The Confederation of Latin America Tourist Organizations (COTAL) announced this year’s congress and tourism tradeshow will both be held in Panama City from May 6 to 10 and under a motto reading COTAL: A Canal For The Peoples’ Peace and Progress. Those who file their application papers before the January 31 deadline will be entitled to some major discounts.