On a weekly basis, with flights on Saturdays, Delta Airlines has scheduled non stop flights between Belize and its Atlanta hub. This service was opened December 11th with a Boeing 737 that brought 100 visitors to this Central American country. Delta’s Boeing 737 aircraft has a seating capacity of 150 passengers and will offer customers one round-trip, nonstop flight on Saturday only. The flights will leave Atlanta at 10:30 a.m. and arrive in Belize at 12:40 p.m. On its return, it will leave Belize at 2:15 p.m. to arrive in Atlanta at 6:10 p.m.

Albert Pozo has just been appointed general manager of Travel Services & Leisure, the new agency resulting from the merger of Amadeus Tours and Travel Service Partners. Mr. Pozo, whose mandate will officially kick off on January 1, will be in charge of the corporation´s marketing strategies with its non-air service providers from around the world.

The government of Jamaica has assumed sole ownership and management of Air Jamaica, which accounts for 51% of air traffic into the island, after Caribbean all-inclusive resort kingpin Gordon "Butch" Stewart and his business group, pulled out of the carrier. All members of the board of directors of Air Jamaica Acquisition Group (AJAG) and Air Jamaica Holdings -- including chairman Stewart and chief executive and deputy chairman Chris Zacca -- stepped down December 23. They had controlled about 78% of the airline.

The international airport of the fledgling travel destination of Jardines del Rey, off the northern coast of the Ciego de Avila province and over 300 miles east of Havana, nabbed the ISO 9001 standard certification for good services. The certification will remain in effect through 2007 and stands for the highest rating qualification offered by the National Standardization Office and Verita International, a Brazilian standard-implementation partnership.

Tourism and travel impresarios from Costa Rica´s North Pacific Zone are blasting the lack of governmental support to keep the industry running smoothly, especially due to the bad conditions of roads that move approximately 45 percent of the tourist inflow to that Central American nation. The Guanacaste Tourism Chamber complained about what they called "critical infrastructure problems." In a recent poll, 54 percent of respondents said roads and streets are rundown or way too bumpy, a situation that´s increasingly becoming a nuisance for most motorists.

The appointment of Ramon Sanchez to join the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau (PRCB) as new marketing vice president was announced by Ana Maria Viscasillas, president and CEO of that institution. Mr. Sanchez was serving as sales and marketing manager for Paradisus Sol Meliá. “As a partner and associate of the Bureau, Ramon has endorsed our vision of making Puerto Rico the top destination for meetings in the Americas,” Mrs. Viscasillas said. “His vast experience in sales and marketing within the hospitality sector, coupled with his expertise of the travel industry, make him the right person to be at the helm of our marketing efforts.”