There are countless rationales that make Rio de Janeiro a well-known city worldwide, and perhaps the carnival is the biggest of all those reasons. Now Rio’s famous carnivals could be running all year round according to a plan that local authorities still have in the offing. The Samba City, a 93,000-square-meter compound housing the workshops of some fourteen samba schools, will open in September. Those same schools will also hold parades and shows in addition to offering visitors a closer look at the preparations of the world’s best-known street celebration.

The Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) agreed to hold the 2005 Caribbean Marketplace in Jamaica’s Half Moon Montego Bay Resort from January 5 to 11 next year. This is the first time since 1985 that Jamaica will play host to the region’s major business gathering. “The designation of the host country is generating great expectations among purchasers and suppliers from the industry that were anticipating their return to Jamaica after nearly twenty years,” said Alec Sanguinetti, director-general and CEO of the Caribbean Hotel Association.

Cuba’s Hemingway International Nautical Club is inviting sport anglers from everywhere to sign up for the upcoming 22nd International Blue Marlin Fishing Tournament scheduled from Sept. 20 through 25 in Havana. Fishermen willing to come aboard their own yachts and boats will get a $15 visa upon arriving in Cuba. All anglers and their crews must have valid passports, and the owner or skipper of the boat should produce all legal ownership documents.

The Salvadoran Tourism Ministry opened Monday the First National Tourism Forum in an effort to make all sectors linked to the travel industry join hands and come up with a comprehensive development strategy. “The objective of the forum is to establish both priorities and needs for the sake of the sector’s sustainable development through a hands-on and harmonic process. This process will require a through assessment of all strategies based on a number of guidelines,” the Central American country’s Tourism Ministry informed in a press release.

The University of Commercial Sciences, under the auspices of the Pan American Confederation of Hotels, Gastronomy and Tourism, will hold the Tenth Congress on Tourism and Hotels August 19 and 20 in Managua under a slogan reading "Tourism: Challenges of Today and Tomorrow." The event will gather over 400 attendants likened to the travel industry in the Central American region, as well as a number of high-profile institutions such as colleges, hotels, restaurants, tour operators, travel agencies, airlines, investors, tourism chambers and many others.

The Third National Tourism Summit will take place in July 15 and 16 in Chile´s Viña del Mar under a slogan reading "Culture and Technology in the Globalization Era." Planners are expecting a turnout of approximately some 500 entrepreneurs, let alone countless national and foreign experts that will focus on different topics and engage in exchanges on expertise, new ideas and experiences.