Neko Grant, a minister of Parliament representing the Lucaya district on Grand Bahama Island, has been sworn in as the new minister of tourism and aviation for the Bahamas by prime minister Hubert Ingraham, who was elected to office May 2.

New 11 787-8 Dreamliners and 50 Next-Generation 737s will be delivered to TUI Group after the signing contract with Boeing. The orders were previously recorded on Boeing’s Orders and Deliveries Web site as unidentified. The value of the orders is approximately $4.7 billion at list prices. Two of the airplanes have since been delivered and identified.

Guatemalan President Oscar Berger has praised the work of Counterpart International in Guatemala over the last few years in helping communities find sustainable incomes through tourism and archaeology.

The number of tourists who visited Mexico during the first quarter of this year was up compared with the same period in 2006, and those visitors also spent more, according to the Mexico Tourism Board.

Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer posted a lower first quarter net profit as production costs increased and deliveries declined. The company said last week that net earnings fell to $29 million. On the operating level, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, a measure of cash flow known as EBITDA, fell to $91.4 million from $179 million.

The Caribbean Hotel Association and the Caribbean Tourism Organization have announced that Smith Travel Research will become their official partner in the collection and distribution of hotel performance data for the Caribbean.