Summoned by the National Tourism Fund, the Mexican Tourism Investment Marketplace (BMIT is the acronym in Spanish) will come to Mexico City on Sept. 8 and 9 with a view to promote the travel destination as a safe and reliable place for investors. In the same breath, Mexico City will be hyped as an alternative for both local and foreign developers in an effort to spur up the corporate sector through new strategies and publicity campaigns.

The World Tourism Organization (WTO) and the European Travel Commission (ETC) have joined hands with Hungary’s National Tourism Office to sponsor an international seminar on marketing assessment methodologies scheduled to take place in Budapest next Sept. 23 and 24. The seminar offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get word of the WTO-ETC joint research study entitled Assessment of Marketing Actions in National Tourism Organizations, the first detailed guideline and tool to size up the volume and efficiency of the countries’ actions in the field of tourism.

“The World Under Just One Roof” will be the slogan of the upcoming World Tourism Exposition (WTE), scheduled for Sept. 23 to 25 in Mexico. According to the organizers, this second edition is supposed to go the 2003 WTE one better in every way. This time around, there’ll be five theme pavilions linked to the so-called convention tourism, as well as to ecotourism, spa, golf and cruises. As a matter of fact, the latter is highly important for the host country as Mexico holds 45 percent of the world’s total number of cruise passengers that sail around the seven seas every year.

The prodigious Caribbean nature has turned out to be a valuable source of adventures and new discoveries, a reason why ecotourism and its different modalities have claimed a top spot of their own in the daily going of the region’s travel industry. A paradise for endemism, natural beauties and biodiversity as far as flora and wildlife are concerned are some of the choices the Caribbean has to offer, other than the more traditional sun-and-sand circuits. Birds, famous geographical features, one-and-only rocky formations, beaches of powder-thin sands and crystal-clear waters, peerlessly beautiful sea bottoms good enough to make a scuba diver’s day and bright sunshine all year round are things the region has always offered in an array of unforgettable experiences.

The Fourth Mexican Tourism Investment Marketplace will take place in Mexico City’s Camino Real Hotel on September 8 and 9 this year, sponsored by the National Tourism Promotion Fund (FONATUR). The event’s schedule includes a blue-ribbon panel on the challenges for the hotel industry, and lectures to weigh alternatives to financing, investment opportunities and travel in the Aztec nation.

Sponsored by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the Universal Cultural Forum of Barcelona 2004 wrapped up a debate entitled Tourism, Cultural Diversity and Sustainable Development. Planned by the Institute of Responsible Tourism, the debate featured the participation of the World Tourism Organization, an entity that played a major role in the organization of the event and the selection of paper works.