Tampa, Fla.-based Dynamic Leisure Group North America purchased Island Resort Tours, a New York-based Caribbean specialist, and tapped two industry veterans to top posts. Stephen Hicks, IRT´s owner and president, was named president of the group while Nigel Osborne was appointed executive vice president and COO. Osborne most recently was president of Auto Europe´s vacation packaging unit Destination Europe Resources.

Since hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau (NOCVB) with the government and business leaders have vowed to put New Orleans back on the tourism map. In fact, historic structures around the French Quarter and tourist areas like the CBD, Warehouse and Arts District, Garden District and Algiers have remained dry and suffered the lightest damage. Most of the city´s historic homes and buildings remain intact. Six months after Katrina, New Orleans old town and the main tourist districts celebrated the 150th anniversary of Mardi Gras and provided an ideal opportunity to take stock of the situation.

America will lose hundreds of millions annually if a new federal law requiring everyone who crosses into the U.S. from Canada to have secure passport-like ID is initiated. In 2008 new regulations will require U.S. citizens to possess a passport or a similar secure document. With this new regulation in place, Michigan alone could lose more than $100 million in revenue if spontaneous travel to Canada is hindered by a complicated border ID documentation policy. “The country can not afford to lose any portion of annual income,” said Karen Rogers, Mayor, Port Angeles, Washington. “It is critical that we work with U.S. leadership to protect the country´s economy and ensure that required border ID documentation remains convenient and affordable for both local citizens and Canadian visitors.”

Breathtaking views high above Rio de Janeiro´s beaches and mountains can be yours for just a few dollars a day –if you skip pricey hotels and sleep in a slum. Rio´s slums, or favelas, are infamous for drug and gang violence. But a new hostel called “The Little Slum Inn” is attracting adventurous tourists, mainly from Germany, France and the United States, who dare to live amid the grit and poverty.

A law banning nearly all abortions without exception for cases of rape or incest in South Dakota was signed Monday by Governor Mike Rounds prompting women´s groups to call for a tourism boycott of the state. Setting up a court fight aimed at challenging the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, the ban drove the Women´s Medical Fund and other abortion-rights activists to advocate a boycott of all tourism in South Dakota.

Delegates and officials from around the world have gathered for the ceremony at City Hotel Shanghai, the first hotel in China, awarded certified membership with Boutique Hotels & Resorts International. City Hotel Shanghai is renowned for being the first deluxe hotel in Shanghai and currently aims to be the best business hotel in the center of Shanghai.