U.S. giant Carnival Corp. said its shareholders have approved the acquisition of British enterprise P&O Princess for $5 billion to clinch the berth as the world’s largest cruise company.
Miami-based Carnival said in a brief press release that the stockholders of P&O Princess –a cruise company famous for its “love boats”- are planning to hold a meeting Wednesday in London to officially announce the transaction.
Taca Group’s announcement of cutbacks in plane ticket sale commissions has put travel agencies in a jam that, as many experts believe, could pave the way to bankruptcy if other airlines follow suit.
Panama’s Travel & Tourism Association (APAVIT is the acronym in Spanish) says Taca’s decision –scheduled to go into effect next April 16- deals a deadly blow to the travel industry.
Financial group Banorte will grant a $93 million credit line all through 2003 to back up small and medium enterprises linked to Mexico’s tourist industry, said Othon Ruiz, the group’s president.
Mr. Ruiz explained Banorte’s confidence in the development of tourism-oriented companies in the country was key in its decision to funnel that lump sum into a sector that stands for one of the nation’s major economic boosters.
According to the banking official, tourism is by and large one of the fastest-growing economic fields in both the mid and long run.
American travel agencies dealing with Asian destinations have pretty good chances of going belly up given the massive avalanche of cancellations triggered by the hard-hitting atypical respiratory syndrome (ARS), sources close to the sector informed.
The number of U.S. tourists flying to Asia dropped from 80 to 90 percent in the last couple of weeks. “It’s a catastrophe,” said Golden Yuan, owner of Perfect Transportation and Travel Service, an L.A.-based company specialized in sending groups of travelers to China.
Leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have aired their concerned about the downbeat economic impact of the U.S. war against Iraq. Attendants to the small-scale summit held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Jamaica’s Kingston assessed the disastrous ripple effects the ongoing military conflict could bring for Caribbean states that depend on smaller economies.
In the same breath, the organization weighed the possibility of giving out a document among all member states with a view to reach general consensus against the White House’s manhunt of Saddam Hussein.
Mexican authorities and entrepreneurs will fork over $353 million from 2003 to 2025 to foster tourist development in Acapulco in the southern state of Guerrero in virtue of an agreement between the Tourism Department and local officials in both Acapulco and Guerrero aimed at giving the Acapulco Metropolitan Area Tourism Plan a big leg up.