Costa Bonita Resort on Culebra, Puerto Rico, brought in New Jersey-based Key Management Group as its new management company, effective February 1, to relaunch, reopen and re-brand the 164-villa resort. Although the $45 million property had a soft opening last summer, the restaurants and almost half of its rooms never did open.

The Truly Independent Professional Travel Organization claims to have created a comprehensive website with product information and interactive training for independent agents. The 20-member marketing organization has made a “major investment” in the site, which goes live on February 1 and includes the launch of the online TIPTO Academy training facility. The address is unchanged at www.tipto.co.uk.

MSC Cruises said it has signed up more than 2,500 retailers to its Web-based Caribbean Select Agents education program, and in an effort to increase participation in the initiative, the cruise line unveiled prizes promoting enrollment. According to MSC, the line created the program to help agents become aware of the MSC Cruises Caribbean product and diverse itineraries. The program was introduced with a soft launch last fall and more than 1,000 agents enrolled in the program during its first week, with more than 250 qualifying as Caribbean Select Agents, said Jim Henwood, vice president of sales for MSC Cruises in a statement.

Spirit Airlines has a busy month ahead with more flights to the Caribbean and an increase in packages by its vacation arm, Spirit Vacations. From Fort Lauderdale, the carrier will launch a daily, nonstop flight to Grand Cayman on February 9, daily service to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos, on February 16 and twice-weekly service on Wednesdays and Sundays to Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos, on February 19.

A group of British tourists had just arrived in Brazil´s Rio de Janeiro when gunmen stormed onto a bus of elderly British tourists who has just arrived in Rio de Janeiro and robbed them of valuables, the Foreign Office says. Their bus was on its way from the city´s airport to the tourists´ hotel when it was held up by three men. The driver was forced at gunpoint to drive to woods where jewelry, passports and credit cards were taken.

BET Jazz, one of the leading global television networks, indicates continued support for Counterpart International´s popular Caribbean Media Exchange (CMEx) on Sustainable Tourism series this year. Cybelle Brown, BET Digital Networks´ Vice President of Sales and Marketing, says the organization´s contribution to CMEx was its way of giving something back to a region that had traditionally supported the television network.