Santo Domingo._ Eric Bacmeister was appointed Chief of Marketing for two hotels owned by Spanish chain Sol Meliá in Punta Cana: Paradisus Punta Cana and Meliá Caribe Tropical. Until now, Mr. Bacmeister was serving a stint as Marketing Director for Caribe Tropical. Under the new structure, all sales teams are unified.

Paris._ Accor, the French hotel group that owns establishments in the Caribbean and recently opened one in Cuba, ratcheted up gross benefits for 474 million Euros in 2001, 6% more than the year before, sources close to the company revealed. As far as this year is concerned, Accor foresees the opening of 224 hotels, thus adding 25,116 more hotel rooms.

Santo Domingo._ European and Canadian tourists, among all travelers visiting the Dominican Republic every year, are the ones more keenly inclined to the ecological-tourism activities the country has to offer. The Caribbean nation sports protected areas embracing 14 national parks and 9 scientific reserves that comprise roughly 12% of the national territory.

Madrid._ During 2001, 20% of tourists visiting Madrid came from Latin American countries, a figure that stands for an 8% increase as compared to the year 2000. This piece of information was broken by Teresa Carame, Director-general of Tourism in the Madrid Community during the 5th Iberian-American Conference of Tourism Ministers and Entrepreneurs (CIMET), recently held at the Juan Carlos I Fairground of the Spanish capital.

Santo Domingo._ The president of the Association of Hotels of Sosua and Cabarete, Iris Perez announced the implementation of a plan to improve Sosua beach in Puerto Plata. She said the plan is to improve the landscaping, build a parking lot, and a plaza for the vendors. Dozens of vendors´ shacks dot the north coast beach. The Amhsa Marina hotel chain will develop the project and it will be headed by Cecilio Mercedes, himself a former president of the regional hotel association.

Tegucigalpa._ Barceló will open its first establishment in Honduras this February –the Barceló Palma Real Beach Resort & Casino, a four-star hotel in Playa Roma. In the same breath, the chain enhanced its presence in Panama with the addition of two hotels: the five-star Barceló de Ville in the capital and the four-star Barceló Guayacanes in the city of Chitré, some 250 kilometers from Panama City on the Pacific coastline.