TUI, Europe´s biggest travel and tourism group, said earlier this week that it planned to restart regular services between Germany and Israel after withdrawing from the market six years ago amid an outbreak of violence. “After a number of years of absence, we´re returning to Israel,” TUI said in a statement.

Fantasy Holidays, a 25-year-old packager of vacations to Italy and Hawaii, stopped answering its phones, creating concern in the travel agent community. Although the company´s Web site continued to appear operational, attempts by TravelWeekly.com to log into its booking engine failed. In addition, calls and e-mails to Fantasy Holidays from TravelWeekly.com were not returned.

Mexican President Vicente Fox says the seaside resort of Cancun, devastated by Hurricane Wilma, will be rebuilt by Christmas. Hotel operators and engineers say it can´t be done. “To repair the hotels 100 percent will take eight months,´´ said Alejandro Ortiz, an engineer hired by Europe´s largest travel company, TUI AG, to assess losses.

Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, S.A. de C.V. (ASUR), the first privatized airport group in Mexico and operator of Cancun Airport and eight others in the southeast of Mexico, released last week a preliminary report on the effects of Hurricane Wilma, which struck the Yucatan Peninsula on October 20, 2005. Seven days after Hurricane Wilma left the region, ASUR reported that power to the Cancun airport is already restored, while some of the domestic and international commercial airlines have resumed ticket sales in and out of Cancun to the general public.

Victoria Cruises and International Concepts & Travel have launched a series of educational seminars led by numerous high-level experts in China. Three programs, dedicated to the subject of Approaches to Alternative Medicine, are scheduled for 2006. As an added benefit to this motivating and informative seminar experience, medical professionals can discover Yangtze River, as well as spend several days in the cities of Beijing and Shanghai. The alternative medicine seminars and cruise are the centerpiece elements of the program.

Trinidad businessman Arthur Lok Jack is the new Chairman of BWIA West Indies Airways Limited. The new Board of Directors has been appointed and now consists of Arthur Lok Jack (Chairman), Terrence Farrell, Gervase Warner, Robert Riley and William Lucie Smith. The mandate of the Board is to ensure that BWIA is an efficient, safe, reliable and customer-oriented airline.