American Airlines and Continental Airlines have just opened new direct routes between the United States and Costa Rica, an official Costa Rican source reportedly informed.

According to a press release issued by the Costa Rican Presidency, AA will count on three weekly flights from Miami all the way to Liberia, a strategic spot for tourists given its nearness to Guanacaste, Costa Rica’s most sought-after beach.

Beginning in July, AA will increase the number of flights to five a week.

Cuba’s Council of State made a decision Wednesday to release Tourism Minister Ibrahim Ferradaz, who had taken over that post in 1998, and appointed architect Manuel Marrero Cruz as new chief of the island nation’s leisure industry, Granma newspaper informed.

Ximena Caraza-Campos has taken over as new chief of Mexico’s Tourism Promotion Council for Spain and Portugal. Mrs. Caraza-Campos replaces former director Fernando Olivera who resigned on the eve of the 2004 FITUR Fair in Madrid.

The Casa Granda Hotel, in eastern Santiago de Cuba province, remains a favorite spot for foreign vacationers, 90 years after its inauguration. Owned by Grupo Gran Caribe and inaugurated in January 1914, the four-star hotel has 58 rooms, a la carte restaurant, bar-terrace and a restaurant-bar in the Roof Garden.

Caribbean students pursuing tourism and hospitality or foreign language studies can get assistance from the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO). The regional tourism institution, through its scholarship program, the CTO Foundation, is offering a number of scholarships and grants for 2004.

The first nitrox technical dive course for tourist trainers in Cuba let participants steal a good long peek at the development of scuba diving on the island nation. Rolando Baños, head of the Levisa Key Diving Center, admitted this is the first time ever such a course is taught on Cuban soil, this time up for fourteen trainers from Cubanacan S.A. and Horizontes Hotels, two state-run companies.