Hoping to win back tourists, a Tijuana-based transportation consortium has launched a hop-on, hop-off bus tour of Tijuana’s main tourist attractions.

With more than 400,000 tourists passing through Chile’s ports in 2007 and an expected 12 percent growth this year, there is no doubt that cruise trips are gaining popularity in South America. Chile, along with Brazil and Argentina (the ABC triangle) is one of the leading providers of cruises through the southern tip of South America.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced it has cleared any impediments to further expansion of Registered Traveler (RT) business opportunities beyond the initial 20 airports. TSA determined that the current security threat assessment largely duplicates the watch list matching that is conducted on all travelers every time they fly.

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has announced it will manage a luxury property in Moscow, which will open in 2011. The hotel will be located on Tverskaya Street, only minutes from Moscow’s Red Square, the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral. The hotel itself will be a redevelopment of a historic building, which was originally constructed in the early 19th century.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. has restructured the 2009 commission thresholds for some consortia, following its announcement in May that it was raising thresholds for the first time since 1999.

Ask Me About Destination Weddings, a reservation and resource center for travel agents, is going to expand its reach by advertising directly to consumers in 2009, according to Marilyn Cairo, vice president of marketing.