The U.S. travel industry, outpacing other sectors, saw significant employment gains in January, according to the U.S. Labor Department’s January 2012 employment numbers reported on Feb. 3. Since the employment recovery began in March of 2010, travel industry employment has expanded by 223,000, up 3.1 percent.

Puerto Rico plans to build a hotel and a planetarium as part of a $50 million project to attract more visitors to the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, officials said Tuesday. It is the first major announcement from the new managing consortium for the Arecibo Observatory, which fought budget cuts last year that could have forced its closure.

GainingEdge CEO Gary Grimmer announced that the meetings industry consulting company has appointed a new team member, Graziela Padoin, who is based in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

MSC Cruises named Wayne Peyreau director of sales in the company’s U.S. division. Working out of the Fort Lauderdale office, Peyreau will be overseeing the business development and field sales teams as well as key account and MSC Yacht Club sales managers.

In a 10-K filing submitted today to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Carnival Corp. reported that bookings fell in the three days after the Costa Concordia sank on Jan. 13. Fleetwide, excluding Costa, bookings have declined in the mid-teens.