Argentina’s economy ramped up 6.3 percent in March compared to the same month the year before and remained unaltered since February, according to the National Statistics and Censuses Institute (INDEC).

The monthly economic index scored a 5.2 percent increase during the first quarter of the year compared to the same span of time in 2002 –penciled in as one of the worst periods ever for the Argentine economy- and went up 2.1 percent in keeping with the last quarter of 2002.

Earnings in Guatemala’s tourism jacked up 41.2 percent during the first third of the year compared to the first four months of 2002, the Guatemalan Tourism Institute (INGUAT) informed.

According to the state-run institution, visitors coming to the country since the turn of the ongoing year have shelled out $224 million, a much larger tally than the $182.8 million funneled into the nation’s coffers in the first third of 2002.

Spanish hotel chain Sol Meliá churned out sale revenues for 209 million euros in the first quarter of the year, a figure that stands for an 8 percent dip compared to 2002. The company pins the blame on the meltdown of the leisure industry sparked off by the war in Iraq, on the Holy Week held in April and on a plummeting dollar against the European currency

The World Labor Organization (WLO), still assessing the fallout of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, reported the loss of 10.5 million jobs worldwide in the travel and tourist sectors.

In a document entitled World Employment Trends, the WLO stated the situation has been worse off all around the globe in the past 24 months and chances of a snapback in the course of the ongoing year are pretty slim.

Accor, the France-based company and one of the world’s leading hotel businesses, is making plans to expand its operations in South America prodded by Brazil’s economic thrust, Chile’s financial sturdiness and Argentina’s hopes to score bigger numbers, the French hotel chain reported.

Amid the political and economic hurly-burly that’s turned South America into a tough region, Accor is considering to step up investments there with the opening of 70 lodging facilities to raise the total tally to 115 hotels in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador.

The Inmann Investment Corporation, a Mexican-American company, bought Las Americas Hotel in Guatemala City, a facility franchised by Spain-based chain Sol Meliá.

The undisclosed total amount of stocks was purchased by Inmann Investment Corp. with a view to place that hotel among the finest in the Guatemalan capital, Mexican-born Juan Fernando Jimenez, the hotel’s new general manager, told news media.

The shares were formerly in the hands of the Botran family, owner of a liquor factory headquartered in the Central American nation.