The Puerto Rican leisure industry closed 2004 with a bang after averaging 78.9 percent hotel occupancy, up nearly three percentage points from the year before.
The Puerto Rico Hotel & Tourism Association (PRHTA) said the final tally for the island nation´s economy peaked $4.9 billion, up a walloping 42 percent from 2003. The local hospitality sector now accounts for 6.6 percent of the gross national product.
The number of foreign visitors that traveled to Chile in 2004 spent $1.2 billion in all. According to a recent report released by the South American nation´s National Tourism Service (SERNATUR), the country welcomed 1.8 million trippers from overseas all through last year.
The local tourist sector also snapped up 10 percent more revenues in 2004 than the year before, when it came in for 1.1 million sunbathers.
US Airways got a boost in its effort to survive when the federal Air Transportation Stabilization Board (ATSB) agreed January 13 to let the airline extend its use of cash proceeds from its federally guaranteed loan through June 30.
US Airways has been operating with the use of ATSB cash collateral since its second Chapter 11 filing Sept. 12 of last year, but that agreement was due to expire Jan. 15.
Several of the top U.S. air carriers slashed airfares in an effort to be up to par with competitor Delta Airlines that had cut down on plane ticket prices by fifty percent.
Delta´s decision unleashed a new price war in less than 24 hours that industry experts believe could only add insult to injury for the already downtrodden airlines.
Executive Chairman of Air Jamaica Limited, Vincent Lawrence, has announced that 35 million US dollars were raised between December 23 and 31 to facilitate the repayment of debt incurred by the airline.
The sum includes $5 million of the $20 million, which former chairman Gordon “Butch” Stewart had committed to the government as part of the takeover process.
The World Tourism Organization (WTO) will dispatch a mission to the Dominican Republic in an effort to boost up joint development projects on the Haitian border.
The Dominican Tourism Department informed in a press release the WTO delegation will stay in the country for 11 days to sketch out a master plan for the nation´s southwest region that involves businesspeople and governmental officials from both countries.