Spain’s travel agents are facing up to 2004 in a more upbeat way than they looked at the previous year in which the travel industry endured the consequences of a war, the SARS outbreak and the 9/11 fallout, said Jesus Martinez Millan, president of the Spanish Travel Agency Federation (STAF).

In Mr. Millan’s opinion, elections are the only factors that could have some repercussion on travelers’ minds because “such major events as general elections or the World Soccer Cup do sway the way customers usually go shopping around.”

Christiaan Van Manen took over as marketing director of Bahia Principe Clubs & Resorts, the hotel chain owned by Spain’s Piñero Group, with great hopes to face the new challenge in a satisfactory way. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Van Manen served as deputy director of marketing for Barceló Hotels & Resorts in the European market.

German airline Lufthansa and Mexicana de Aviacion agreed to operate codeshare flights, to actively engage in frequent flyer programs in a mutually beneficial way, to offer access to their respective VIP halls at a number of terminals and to use unified documentation.

The Board of Air Company Representatives sent a bulky document to national authorities to complain about the discriminatory treatment that international air transportation has been subjected to. According to the report, that’s the only public service penalized by the dollar-economy rates, a situation that implies a 200 percent spike in operational costs all across the Argentinean territory.

The Meliá Varadero Hotel, located in Cuba’s second-largest travel destination, became the first on the island nation to receive an award bequeathed by the Ministry of Culture on the basis of sustained efforts in the promotion of Cuban roots both in and out of the country.

Culture Ministry official Lucia Sardiñas presented the award –signed by Cuban Minister Abel Preto and designed by painter Zaida del Rio- to the hotel’s front office.

Artemio Santos Santos, tourism secretary in the state of Quintana Roo –home to all major destinations in the Mexican Caribbean- called on the Federal Government to define its posture on the issue of taxes levied on cruise passengers, or at least to hand over the results of a poll conducted last year with a deadline ending in March.

Within the framework of the International Meeting of Marketplaces held at the Westin Regina Hotel, Mr. Santos noted the longer the response takes, the better for Mexico’s competitors in the Caribbean Basin.