The 23rd Tourist Tradeshow of Colombia’s National Association of Travel Agencies and Tourism (ANATO) rolled down its curtains Wednesday after showcasing the recreational products of over two dozen countries and highlighting Panama as the guest nation.

ANATO President Oscar Rueda pointed out this year’s fair grew a whopping 26 percent in number of exhibitors, jumping from 410 participants in 2003 to 480 this time up. In the same breath, exhibition space rented for the tradeshow soared from 4,000 to 5,000 square yards for a 25 percent increase.

"Tourism enriches individuals, families, communities and all the world." This is a central, simple but straight-forward message of the new awareness campaign with which the World Tourism Organization (WTO) wants to raise awareness of the positive impacts tourism can have on life, culture and economy, in short on society at all levels.

The "Tourism Enriches" campaign was launched at the First World Conference on Tourism Communications (TOURCOM) end of January in Madrid. "This is the

Celebrated American writer Alice Walker (The Color Purple) put a great final spin on Havana’s International Book Fair with the presentation Sunday of her latest work. The Fair will now hit the road into 33 other cities across the island nation and is scheduled to come to a close next March 7.

Expobuceo 2004, an international event on scuba diving, is scheduled from June 29 to July 2 at the Plaza America Conference Center in Varadero. This will no doubt be a perfect setting for tour operators, travel agents, professional and retired divers, scuba aficionados, marine biologists, scientists, underwater shutterbugs, environmentalists and diving students from all around the globe to exchange views and experiences on the topic.

Around 90 percent of European tourists coming to Mexico swing by destinations in the state of Quintana Roo, in the Mexican Caribbean, thus making Italy “a very interesting market” that has been steadily on the rise in recent years, local tourist authorities stated.

Most European sunbathers stay in the Mayan Riviera, while a lower percentage goes to the Cancun hotel area, the same sources indicated.

The Berlin International Tourism Fair (ITB) –one of the world’s largest tradeshows in the industry- will draw in this year a staggering 9,000 exhibitors and somewhere between 60,000 and 70,000 specialized visitors, IPK International, the event’s organizer in Munich, estimates.