Some 500 unlicensed tour firms are operating illegally in Nicaragua, the country’s National Tourism Institute denounced this week. “These bogus travel agents are breaching the law and could be sanctioned if they do nothing to stop their actions,” said Nohelia Sanchez of the Nicaraguan Tourism Companies and Activities Department. Mrs. Sanchez told Caribbean News Digital that the country’s new General Tourism Act entitles prosecutors to throw the book on underground travel operators dealing with publicity and assistance to foreign and national visitors.

Panama’s Copa Airlines announced today its intention to buy four new Boeing 737 aircraft over the next couple of years. So far this year, the air company has added two more planes to its fleet and is planning to purchase a 737-800 airliner in October and a 737-700 in December. Copa Airlines CEO Pedro Heilbron spelled out the details of the new purchase and said his company will soon count on twenty Boeing 737-700 and 737-800 aircraft for a grand total of 26 jetliners in 2006.

Uruguay’s Pluna Airlines –run by Brazilian company Varig- will soon start flying to Mexico and Venezuela. Execs have already listed a couple of weekly flights to Caracas while the Mexico connection is yet to be decided. The latter, however, is scheduled to make stopovers in Bolivia’s Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the airline’s CEO Milton Rodriguez explained. The initial date for the flights also remain undisclosed, though the main goal is to support the current efforts of the Uruguayan Tourism Ministry to nab more sunbathers from overseas.

Mexico’s Tourism Undersecretary Francisco Madrid paid a two-day visit to El Salvador where he met with officials and businesspeople from the Central American nation, including Salvadoran Minister of Industry Luis Cardenal, to share views on the development of the leisure sector in the region. The visit also served to talk about Mexico’s experiences on tourism development, an industry that now ranks third on the list of the country’s top sources of hard-currency income and has made significant social and economic progress in the 170 Mexican municipalities harboring tourist facilities nationwide.

Taking account of first-half arrivals in 2004, tourism authorities in Guatemala are hoping against hope to close this year with at least one million visitors, with the help of such world-class companies as Mexicana de Aviacion. Alejandro Sinibaldi, president of the Guatemalan Tourism Institute (INGUAT), pointed out that regardless of how big the challenge really is, uncertainty, shortage of infrastructure and lack of services could make a dent in the effort to reach this milestone.

The Guatemala Tourism Institute will set going a new national blitz aimed at developing and strengthening its own travel sector, the country’s second-best source of income money. Under a slogan reading Tourism Is In Your Interest, the Guatemalan people will get hipped on the need to protect visitors and preserve the nation’s cultural heritage.