The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) has announced that its yearly publication, Annual Tourism Statistics Reports is now available for purchase and download online at www.onecaribbean.org, CTO’s intranet site. Persons can now order 2001-2002 report directly from the site at any time, day or night, using a credit card.

Jaime Alberto Cabal, chairman of the Colombian Hotel Association , was appointed President of Colombia’s Tourism Chamber, an organization that gathers guilds from the local leisure industry including restaurants, airlines, travel agencies and hotels.

Chilean authorities are trying to step up the tourist attractiveness of poet Pablo Neruda’s seafront houses in the central part of the country which meant to be a source of inspiration for the 1971 Literature Nobel prize winner.

The mayor of Quinta Region, Luis Guastavino, is behind this initiative that intends to turn Neruda’s house in Valparaiso –known as La Sebastiana- and his residence on Isla Negra into huge must-sees for tourists.

Chilean Sen. Jorge Martinez Busch addressed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to blast some Argentine tour operators that put Cape Horn as part of Argentina’s territory or in a kind of no man’s land. The information is based on the report released by rear-admiral Arturo Ojeda, navy chief in the southern Chilean province of Punta Arenas.

Interval International, one of the world’s top companies in the hospitality industry, has donated $30,000 to the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s Education Fund with a view to contribute with the CTO’s professional training programs and the granting of scholarships.

Spanish company Habril Equestrian and Bullfighting Events will add a major option to its travel packages this year: a chance to meet Cuba and Argentina riding on horseback, thanks in part to an agreement the company has just signed with the World Equestrian Tourism Organization (WETO).

The horseback ride across Cuba –it includes plane ticket and lodging- comprises an eight-day package leaving from the tourist circuit of Soroa (on the westernmost side of the island) all the way to Viñales Valley to scour natural landscapes and the countryside riding on the back of stallions.