The spiraling wave of violent crimes sweeping Guatemala has unfortunately drifted into the country’s travel industry. A recent press report published by local newspaper Prensa Libre indicates the administration of President Oscar Berger is bent on thwarting crime against both nationals and foreigners, a situation that has been getting worse off in recent weeks. The press report bitterly warns that authorities in the U.S., the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and the U.K. have issued travel advisories to their nationals who intend to visit Guatemala, a country whose travel industry accounts for one of its top income sources.

Eastern Caribbean States put off the implementation of a common passport as they wait for CARICOM to get the initiative going, this as part of the regional economic integration program its leaders have been advocating for a number of years now. The nine members of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) –all full-fledged members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) as well- expected to come up with a common passport for their residents to move more freely around their tiny island nations.

Determined to buttress Cancun’s presence in the Brazilian market, the Visitors & Conventions Bureau attended this week the ABAV 2004 Fair, an event that helped Mexico’s world-class destination to cut deals with wholesalers and airlines from the South American nation. According to Jorge Luis Tellez Martinez, the Bureau’s marketing chief, the new accomplishments will allow Cancun tourism authorities to step up their promotional efforts in Brazil all through 2005.

Netizens willing to be hipped on the many travel and business opportunities the Spanish capital has to offer now have a new website to click on. Esmadrid.com, run by the Madrid City Hall, posts information in Spanish, English and French. Details in other languages will be uploaded soon.

A grand total of 803,601 foreign vacationers visited Guatemala between January and August this year, a whopping 34 percent increase from the first eight months of 2003, official sources told Caribbean News Digital this week. Guatemala, a Central American country that came in for little more than 600,000 visitors and tallied up $325.9 million in revenues in the first eight months of 2003, is this time around revving up on its bid to crack the one-million-tourist plateau for the first time in history.

Tourists traveling to Brazil tell the country apart for its shoreline, its world-class carnival and top-notch soccer. But few people know the huge diversity this country has to offer. That’s the opinion of Brazilian Tourism Minister Walfrido dos Mares Guia. An exposé of the South American nation’s potentials was displayed at the recently concluded World Travel Market in London, where Brazilian authorities coupled the more traditional sun-and-sand offers with such new cultural values as baroque architecture, music, dancing, painting and handicrafts.