The impact of technology on the region´s tourism business will be the general focus of a crucial Master Class at the 28th Annual Caribbean Tourism Conference (CTC-28), which is taking place from October 21 to 26 this year at the Marriott Frenchman´s Reef & Morning Star Beach Resort in the United States Virgin Islands. With experts predicting that online travel will comprise more than 50 per cent of all travel bookings by 2006 and with travel sites becoming one-stop-shops for an entire travel experience it is important for those involved in Caribbean tourism to critically examine how best to make use of technology to drive business, the CTO said.

A novel gathering of journalists, tourism industry folk, government officials and other movers and shakers in the largest employer in the Caribbean has been so successful it is being pulled to other regions of the world. The Caribbean Media Exchange (CMEx) on Sustainable Tourism put together by Counterpart International and a host of partners and supporters, this month hosted its first effort outside of the English-speaking Caribbean.

The World Leisure EXPO 2006 to be held next year in Hangzhou, China, will include the 100 Cities Exhibition, the 9th World Leisure Congress, the World Leisure Summit and the World Leisure Innovation Prize, sources close to the organizing committee informed earlier this week. The Inaugural Prize Awards –Gold Standard, Silver Standard and Bronze Standard- will be presented at the lavish EXPO Opening Ceremony on April 22, 2006.

Eric J. Light, President of the International Medical Spa Association and President of the Strawberry Hill Group, headquartered in Maineville, Ohio, will be the keynote speaker of the second annual Caribbean Health Tourism & Spa Symposium to be held at the Hilton Kingston Hotel, Jamaica, from February 12 to 13, 2006. The Health Tourism & Spa Symposium is the brainchild of Theo Chambers and Sharon Parris-Chambers, founders and producers of the event which has received wide acclaim. The Symposium included a multi-cultural expo which was held last year at the Hilton Kingston hotel, the main sponsor.

In response to terrorist bombings occurred this year, the program of the Third Global Summit on Peace through Tourism is being adjusted to include a special plenary session to debate a "Strategic Tourism Industry Response to International Terrorism." The Third Global Summit on Peace through Tourism is being held from October 2 to 5 at the award-winning Royal Cliff Beach Resort and Conference Center in Thailand´s Pattaya.

TRAVDEX@ITB Berlin is a new European-American alliance for the global travel, tourism and hospitality industry. The International Tourism Exchange ITB Berlin, scheduled for March 8 through 12 next year, and PhoCusWright Inc., one of the travel industry´s leading research and consulting firms, have announced a long-term agreement to organize joint conferences focusing on travel technology. According to information from Messe Berlin and PhoCusWright, the US-based PhoCusWright team plans to organize a two-day travel technology convention at the ITB Berlin 2006 under the name of TRAVDEX@ITB. The unique program will target the industry´s IT professionals, including CTOs, CIOs, software architects, scientists, engineers and developers.