Lynne Morris, a travel marketing and public relations specialist, has been appointed as the new chairperson of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO)´s UK Chapter, with immediate effect. Ms. Morris runs the specialist travel marketing and communications agency, LCM Communications, which she founded in 2003. She has spent her entire career in the travel industry, including nine years working in marketing and public relations and seventeen in travel operations such as conference/incentive, event management, tour operating and business travel.

Cuba´s deadliest hurricane in 40 years has killed at least ten people, knocking down power and phone lines, unleashing floods and snapping towering trees out of the ground. "This has helped us learn more, and to put to the test our civil defense mobilization," said President Fidel Castro on Cuban TV Saturday.

China has annually received an average of 2 million Japanese tourists since 2000, maintaining a two-digit growth rate, according to the country´s National Tourism Administration. China absorbed nearly 3 million Japanese tourists in 2004, and replaced the United States as the second largest destination for the Japanese tourists only after the Republic of Korea, according to a probe into the Japanese tourist market conducted by the Liaoning Provincial Tourism Bureau.

The 2010 soccer World Cup should boost tourism in southern Africa, which is currently handicapped by its image as a war zone and the difficulties of travel within the region, an industry leader said last week. Shepherd Nyaruwata, executive director of the Regional Tourism Organization for Southern Africa, said the troubled Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remained a worry for tourists, but the return to peace in Angola had raised hopes of stability in the region.

Since May 1, 2005, Mrs. Nejeska Mesman, 35, is the new Marketing Director of the Curacao Tourist Board Europe, located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. In that position she follows Mrs. Brenda Benjamin, who went back to Curacao after a period of five years. Nejeska Mesman has worked with CTBE since 1996, with a brief interruption of six months. The last few years she filled the position of Marketing & Sales Representative at CTBE. As Marketing Director Europe she is responsible for all CTBE activities in Europe.

Francisco Medina, Business Chief for the Americas at NH Hotels, said this week the company is seeking to pour some 23 million euros into the building and remodeling of resorts in Mexico and MERCOSUR countries, especially in Argentina. Bent on moving beyond the city lodging concept, NH Hotels is putting its smart money on the Caribbean, chiefly in the all-inclusive category.