The CTO Foundation, the scholarship program of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), has increased the number of opportunities it provides for Caribbean nationals studying tourism/hospitality-related disciplines. This year, the Foundation awarded more scholarships and grants than it has done in any previous year.

In 2003, the CTO Foundation provided support for fifteen Caribbean nationals pursuing tourism/hospitality studies within and outside the region at a cumulative cost of over US$70,000.00.

Earlier in September, Sandra Balladares replaced Humberto Paneque as head of the Buenos Aires-based General Manager’s Office of Cubana de Aviacion for the American Southern Cone (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile). Mrs. Balladares wants to give this office the necessary thrust in an effort to meet the expectations generated once again by a roaring Argentine market.

Central American nations are tuning up a regional strategy aimed at developing sport fishing as a kind of recreational activity linked to both tourism and sustainable improvement for this particular industry. The Central American Fishing and Marine Life Breeding Organization reported that the region’s ministers of agriculture and the environment were recently handed in a draft of the joint strategy during a meeting held in Guatemala.

The deadline fixed by Spanish travel agencies to work out a dragging squabble with Iberia over slashed commissions expired without any agreement whatsoever. Now top members of the Syndicated Travel Agencies of Spain will stop selling Iberia plane tickets as soon as next January if the airline does not implement changes in the current dealership system that cuts commissions down from 6.5 percent to a meager 1 percent. The organization considers that Iberia’s action damages its interest and claims commission fees shouldn’t be lower than 2.5 percent.

Air France has just appointed Jean-Marc Pouchol as the airline’s marketing director for the Iberian Peninsula. Mr. Pouchol, who has a college degree in Trade at the EDHEC in Lille, France, had remained as head of the Big Business Accounts Division for the French carrier’s Marketing Department since 1999.

The governments of Mexico and Peru agreed to increase up to ten the number of commercial flights between the two countries in an effort to boost up bilateral tourism, Peruvian first vice president Raul Diez Canseco said. The decision is contained in the Agreement of Understanding inked by both parties within the framework of the Fifth Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization recently held in Cancun.