The Barbados Police Department has just appointed a liaison officer to serve as linkage between its law enforcement agents and the local tourist industry in an effort to stave off crime in tourist-laden areas.

The president and financial chief of Thomas Cook, the German travel wholesaler, has gotten the ax in the wake of heavy losses triggered by a sharp fall of travel demand in Germany.

Despite one of the most difficult periods in the history of the world´s travel and tourism industry, the Caribbean remains an attractive destination for American vacationers. Research conducted by Hall & Partners shows that the Life Needs the Caribbean marketing campaign kept the region as a top of mind destination, and kept the brand buoyant in the marketplace.

They report that this success was largely due to the creativity of the campaign, which resonated well with the American public, far better than usual advertising campaign norms.

Paraguay’s tourism authorities are seeing red over a campaign knocked together by Brazilian tour agencies that targets their nation and warns potential trippers that traveling to Paraguay is extremely dangerous due to rampant crime rates and overspread uncertainty in the country.

Paraguay’s tourism secretary Evanhy de Gallegos turned to a MERCOSUR ministerial meeting –held over the weekend in Montevideo- in an effort to put a halt to that campaign carried out by Brazilian tour operators.

United Airlines, the U.S. second largest air carrier, announced it intends to put an end to the shared-code agreement and regulatory cooperation accord it signed with Mexicana de Aviacion seven years ago.

For its part, Star Alliance –the world’s number-one airline as far as passenger benefits are concerned- informed it could leave Mexicana out of its programs following the latter’s rejection to renew its share-code agreement with UA.

Delta Air Lines and Air Jamaica have announced the expansion of their codeshare service between several cities in the United States and Jamaica. The new codeshare flights are from Baltimore, Chicago, Ft. Lauderdale, Houston, Orlando and Philadelphia to Montego Bay, Jamaica, and from Ft. Lauderdale to Kingston, Jamaica. These new flights are effective immediately.