The province of Holguin in eastern Cuba stressed its stance as Cuba’s third-largest tourist circuit after chalking up a 64 percent increase in the number of foreign visitors from 2002.

In an interview published Wednesday in Ahora newspaper, Arturo Sanchez, delegate of Cuba’s Tourism Ministry to Holguin, said the province set a new territorial high with 8,069 foreign travelers who stayed overnight in a single day.

Each week, Holguin’s International Airport receives 50 flights for a grand total of 10,469 seats combined.

Business Traveler Deutschland picked German airline Lufthansa the safest carrier for both domestic flights and long-haul trips to Europe, North and South America, the Far East and the Pacific Basin. The company’s digital portal was also chosen the best-looking site on the Web.

Urbano Garcia Santiago, a supervisor for the Tourist Police Department, warned that as many as fifteen more law enforcement officers and several four-wheel bikes are required to efficiently comb the Playa del Carmen beach resort in the Mexican Caribbean, in an effort to stave off a rampant flurry of robberies against tourists there.

The number of flown passengers in the first four weeks of 2004 soared 3.8 percent compared to the same period of time the year before, the European Airlines Association (EAA) informed.

All markets operated by EAA-member airlines logged dramatic increases in the number of flown passengers in January 2004.

The North Atlantic market features the highest increase with 4.7 percent, followed by the Intra-European market with 2.2 percent, and Asia & Oceania with 1.3 percent.

Beginning on May 1, 2005 to October 31 that same year, First Choice will start flying to the Mexican island with direct flights from London every other week for up to 254 passengers. “This is definitely going to put Cozumel on the map for Europeans,” said Gaston Cantarell Diaz, president of the Cozumel Hotels Association.

Continental Airlines A President Gordon Bethune announced his company’s decision to start flying to the Chilean capital all over again in a codeshare operation flown by Delta.

By doing so, Continental seeks to beef up its trademark in the South American nation by offering daily flights to Santiago from Newark and Houston with stopovers in Atlanta. From that city, passengers can then fly on to other destinations operated by Continental Airlines.