The Dominican government warned that plummeting tourist arrivals from the United States and Canada, coupled with outbreaks of infectious diseases in some areas, have already cost the Caribbean nation some $300 million so far this year.
In early February, Dominican President Leonel Fernandez ordered the creation of a healthcare institution for tourists visiting the nation in an effort to stave off the outbreaks of infectious ailments that hit the east and north of the country.
A grand total of 260,000 visitors with $147 million in their pockets are expected to come to Cancun during the oncoming Holy Week festivities, pushing up hotel occupancy to 95 percent during that brief span of time, local hoteliers believe.
As we speak, hotel occupancy is in the neighborhood of 85 percent, with as many as 49,000 tourists staying in 23,000 hotel rooms. However, tourism officials in Cancun are confident the week ending on March 27 could bring much higher rates.
Real estate investments linked to Chile´s tourist sector will climb to little more than $2 billion in the first quarter of the ongoing year, the Higher Tourism Council of the nation´s Chamber of Commerce (CONSETUR) informed this week.
That investment package comprises a 5.2 percent spike from the last quarter of 2004 when that figures peaked $927.3 million. This year´s projected investment is 13.4 percent higher than the cash flow anted up in 2003.
Americans will take a record number of trips this spring, according to a new report by the Travel Industry Association (TIA), even though the overall increase in trips is expected to be only slightly higher than that of spring 2004.
TIA is estimating Americans will take 281 million person-trips of 50 miles or more one-way from home during the months of March, April and May. That represents a 1.2% increase from last spring when travelers took a record 277.5 million trips.
German tour operator Thomas Cook closed 2004 with $30 million worth of gross benefits, thus reversing the financial woes that pounded the Frankfurt-based company for more than a year.
The yearend spreadsheets of Europe´s second-largest travel company, though, had wrapped up 2003 with a $104 million shortfall.
The Dublin-based company Web Resrvations International, specialized in youth and budget travel, has acquired hotel distributor, WorldRes, adding to its platform 35,000 hotels and 2,000 online distributors, Travel Weekly reports.
Now operating on the WRI´s platform are Opodo, Lastminute.com, SAS.com and Hotels.de, among others. WRI´s existing brands, which operate under its hostels division, include Hostels.com, Hostelworld.com and Trav.com. WRI also provides reservations technology to Rail Europe, Ryanair.com, Lonelyplanet.com and Flybe.com.