The number of United States travelers to Cuba has dropped drastically over the past year reported Monday the Miami press. The alarming 60 percent reduction is a direct consequence of tougher restrictions imposed on dealings with the island by President George W. Bush´s administration in a bid to “promote a democratic transition on the island.”

With 86 percent of its gross domestic product from tourism, the tourism minister of Antigua said the country is the most tourism-dependent nation in the world. Antigua´s economy cannot be based on anything else but tourism. This was the view expressed by Minister of Tourism and Aviation Harold Lovell, last week at launching of the fifth edition of the prestigious publication A Little Bit of Paradise.

Puerto Maldonado, in Peru´s south-eastern Amazon region, feels like the end of the road. In this hot, dusty town 500 miles east of Lima, young men on motorbikes scour the streets looking for taxi fares. Cars cannot handle the dirt-and-pebble roads. Within two years, this backwater will be at the center of South America´s most important road. Today, construction begins on the Peru-Brazil transcontinental highway, a 40-year-old plan to connect the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Brazil´s local currency, the real, kept strengthening this week against the dollar as record exports and some of the highest interest rates worldwide increase, prompting trade and investment inflows. "The real rose to its strongest against the dollar since April 2002 on expectations that monthly trade surpluses will remain close to June´s record $4.03 billion," said Flavio Farah, Treasury desk chief with WestLB in Sao Paulo.

Thirty agents who filed an antitrust suit against seven commission-cutting airlines in U.S. District Court here two years ago withdrew their lawsuit last week with a view to watching for outcomes of other similar suits before re-entering the fray. The Ohio case -with Timeless Travel in Valley View, Ohio, as lead agency- is one of three in which a limited number of named agencies brought action for damages to their own businesses but without pursuing a class action.

Priceline.com has just acquired Bookings B.V., a European Internet hotel reservation service, for $133 million, Priceline said. The move supplements Priceline´s purchase last year of Active Hotels. Together, the two have negotiated rates with 18,000 properties, primarily in Europe, Priceline.com noted.