The Cruise Line Industry Association (CLIA) logged a 9.52 percent increase in the number of passengers all around the world in 2003, with American tourists punching a 6.9 percent growth in that same period of time.

According to the latest issue of Travel Weekly magazine, cruises also netted a 102.3 percent spike in human cargo, up four percentage points from 2002. CLIA members also reported that a dozen new vessels are scheduled to take their maiden voyages in the course of 2004, compared to 15 ships that sailed for the first time last year and 13 that were launched in 2002.

The inflow of tourists to the Dominican Republic all through 2003 grew a whopping 19.5 percent, compared from the year before, to $3.1 billion, some $380 million more than in 2002, the nation’s Central Bank revealed.

The banking institution also reported that the number of travelers and the volume of revenues “set a couple of record highs for the local sector and now point to more positive outcomes yet to come in the course of 2004.”

Colombian hotel chain Decameron has just announced its intention to pour $150 million into building at least nine hotels in Panama in the course of the coming years.

Jorge Loaiza, a consultant for the Colombian company, told the local press that the decision to build the hotels came over after the tremendous success of the Farallon, a lodging facility some 110 miles southwest of Panama City.

The European Union (UE) will promote the free circulation of the euro in Central America in an effort to guarantee a much larger trade exchange with this region, European officials were quoted as saying in Panama.

Thomas Abadia, chargé de affaires of the European Commission to Costa Rica and Panama, explained that a stronger euro circulation and a fairer currency exchange rate will further trade, cooperation and investment.

Spanish hotel chain Sol Meliá reported this week that the strengthening of the European common currency hobbled its results in 2003 –a tough year for the leisure industry worldwide. The company, though, managed to snap back steadily from the fourth quarter on and prospects for 2004 are still looking good.

Mexican tourism authorities are hoping to rake in $10 billion and to create 5,000 new jobs in 2004, figures that will make the Aztec nation move up a notch from number eight to the seventh spot on the list of the world’s top tourist receivers, said Rodolfo Elizondo Torres, the country’s tourism secretary, and Enrique Alvarez Prieto, chairman of the National Tourist Corporate Council (CNET is the acronym in Spanish).

For his part, Zacatecas Governor Ricardo Monreal Avila stressed the travel industry’s position as one of the nation’s major hard-currency makers.