Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels has named Miguel Rivera vice president. Based in Miami, Mr. Rivera is responsible for overseeing the development of the firm´s hospitality advisory, investment sales and debt and equity capital raising services in Mexico and Latin America. Mr. Rivera´s new role reinforces the firm´s commitment to enhance its hotels service platform and to strengthen its growing hotels presence in Mexico, Central America and South America.

The Mexican federal government is pledging millions of dollars to help destinations in Quintana Roo state, such as Cancun and Cozumel, recover from Wilma, with President Vicente Fox setting a goal of having 80 percent of resort facilities ready to accept high-season visitors as of December 15. Mexico City is exempting all investments in storm-affected areas from tax through June, and will allow affected businesses to pay Social Security taxes and utility bills in interest-free installments.

Google is experimenting with travel search and comparison shopping of sorts. The model appears to resemble Travelzoo´s Super Search and Smarter Living´s Booking Buddy, both of which prompt users to select advertisers´ flight-search engines one-at-a-time instead of running simultaneous comparisons. Google´s flight-search product works in the standard Google search box. If you enter two airport codes or cities into the Google search box, the results include two boxes to manipulate desired flight dates.

The France parliament has passed a bill prohibiting anyone in France to carry more than ten packets of cigarettes outside their home, according to a published report. Under the legislation, the transport of more than 200g of cigarettes bought retail for personal use will be banned, and the quantity that may be stored at home will be limited to 10 cartons, or 2kg. If the bill is signed into law, those caught in violation will be fined.

Germany´s Lufthansa Airlines has announced the appointment of Claudia M. Huegel to the position of Regional Director for Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. Prior to this post, Ms. Huegel was General Manager of Global Sales Development. Based in Frankfurt, she was responsible for Lufthansa´s sales strategy and the airline´s positioning worldwide from 2001.

Victoria Cruises is teaming with International Concepts & Travel, a part of the JAL Group, also known as InConTra, to hold a series of educational seminars led by Chinese experts. The first three programs planned for 2006 fall under the grouping “Approaches to Alternative Medicine.”