Rio de Janeiro has put on its glad rags to host the Brazil Today Destination Fair and the 32nd Congress of Brazilian Travel Agencies (ABAV), two of the South American nation’s major tourism events. The tradeshow that kicked off Wednesday is showcasing the best products and services the local travel industry has to offer. This time around, each and every continent is flashing new stuff and featuring massive turnouts as far as governmental officials and tour operators are concerned. Counting Brazil in, there are 35 nations attending the Fair of the Americas that will stretch out until Sunday.

Costa Rica proudly presented the 2004 Central America Marketplace, an event that pursued direct businesslike contacts among leisure industry professionals. The tradeshow –it came to a close on Friday- gathered some fifty impresarios from Latin America, the Caribbean, North America and Europe who discussed such major issues as multi-destination offers, hotels and tourism attractions in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama.

The International Association of Latin America Air Transportation (AITAL) is convening a powwow in Miami for November 17 and 18 to gather the CEOs of the region’s top airlines with a view to foster international debate, make headway on major issues and improve aviation in the hemisphere. The list of boldface people for the AITAL gathering at Miami’s Intercontinental Hotel includes Fernando Flores (Aeromexico), Juan Emilio Posada (Avianca), Carlos Luis Martins (Varig), Marco Antonio Bologna (TAM), Pedro Heilbron (Taca), Jorge Neves (Pluna), Ernesto Asbun (LAB), Emilio Romano (Mexicana), Enrique Cueto (LAN) and Fred Smith (FedEx).

With a massive turnout of delegates from virtually all Caribbean nations, Aruba was home this week to the 27th Annual Caribbean Tourism Conference that came to a close Wednesday after dealing with some of the major issues affecting the region´s leisure industry right now. Under a slogan reading "Caribbean Tourism: Driving Business in a Global Economy" the gathering was sponsored by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and the Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA). CTO´s President Pamela Richards concluded in her farewell address that the meeting had proved a great success to the benefit of all the attending parties.

Over a thousand impresarios from some 40 nations will join representatives from 110 Cuban firms for the 22nd edition of the Havana International Fair, the island nation’s number-one tradeshow, that’s scheduled to take place from November 1 through 7. Abraham Maciques, president of the Organizing Committee, explained this year’s massive turnout stems from Cuba’s increasing perspectives to do business with other countries.

Though the 25th edition of Spain´s International Tourism Fair is still five months away, its organizers are mapping out a hands-on promotional campaign in an effort to target unexplored markets. Scheduled for January 26 through 30, 2005 at the Juan Carlos I Fairgrounds in Madrid, FITUR planners have already cranked up a far-reaching promotional blitz in Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.