Mario Gonzalez-Lafuente, executive director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company (PRTC), was officially named to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Travel and Tourism Advisory Board by U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson.

Tourism Cares, the nonprofit travel industry organization formed to preserve the travel experience for future generations, launched a new Global Outreach program with a five-day program in Peru.

The activity report published by the Spanish Association of Conference Centers’ (APCE) members reveals that in 2011 its venues held a total of 4,981 events and welcomed 3,918,629 visitors. This generated an economic impact for their cities of around 1,200 million euros. Data provided by APCE members show that last year Spanish venues held a total of 436 congresses.

A cruise ship may soon call at Port-Au-Prince, the first such visit in Haiti after a quarter of a century, a milestone that Minister of the Interior Thierry Mayard-Paul welcomed Friday at a gathering in Tuscaloosa, Alabama with the organizers of the cruise that combines tourism with volunteer work.

UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, met with the Spanish Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism, Jose Manuel Soria, to discuss tourism’s role in meeting the challenges currently facing the sector.