Every year in December, the Cuban capital becomes a huge movie theater. There isn’t enough time to watch so many films during the Latin America New Cinema Movie Festival. More than a hundred flicks will be vying through December 17 for Coral Prizes in a number of categories. This time around, the event will show eight Argentina-made feature presentations out of nearly two dozen fiction films. Daniel Burman’s The Broken Arm, Lucrecia Martel’s The Holy Girl, and Adolfo Aristarain’s Roma are some of the standouts.

The historic city of Salvador de Bahia, in northern Brazil, was home from December 1 through 6 to Destinations 2004, the first Annual World Summit on Tourism for Peace and Sustainable Development that gathered representatives from 40 countries. Members of private companies and civil institutions, researchers and students who attended the conclave, had the opportunity of coming together in an array of functions and events aimed at sharing information and assessing projects that seek to change the fate of communities and individuals, regions and countries, through sustainable development.

Adventure, cultural and nature tourism will once again be the stars of the show at the upcoming edition of FITUR, Spain’s International Travel Market scheduled to hold its 25th edition from January 26 to 30 next year at the Juan Carlos I Fairgrounds in Madrid. ACTIVE FITUR is getting more attention than any other travel segment in Spain. According to Christie & Co., a consulting firm, the 7,400 establishments dealing with rural tourism in Spain are making approximately €1.5 billion every year with growth projections of 35 percent over the next five years.

Mexico’s National Tourism Entrepreneurial Council (CNET) held its sixth congress last week. Attendants discussed hot topics on travel industry competitiveness, the going of regional tourism, fiscal matters linked to it and the advance of sustainable tourism. CNET Chief Gordon Viberg explained the event sought to find ways of improving Mexico’s leisure industry as far as infrastructure, judicial matters and promotional aspects are concerned.

The tenth edition of the FIART 2004 International Artisanship Fair will get going in Havana between December 12 and 19 under a slogan reading “Artisanship and Vital Space.” The goal of the event’s Organizing Committee is the promotion of those works of art whose designs, craftsmanship and usefulness suggest an attractive vital space that raises living standards through the esthetic shaping of any daily environment.

The World Tourism Forum for Peace and Sustainable Development that took place in Brazil’s Salvador de Bahia last week –the event was opened by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva- was intended to foster tourism as a tool for the promotion of peace, economic and social development, cultural diversity and environmental protection. The World Tourism Forum gathered tourism authorities, scholars, impresarios and NGOs representatives from 28 countries in the Brazilian city of Salvador de Bahia under the sponsorship of the WTO, the United Nations Development Program and UNESCO.