The first time I heard the word Aruba I assumed it was the latest trendy name celebrities were calling their daughters. But I soon realized it won’t be joining Fifi, Bluebell and Elbowgrease (OK, I made that one up) in my VIP column.

Focused on the MICE segment in Latin America, the second edition of the Business Travel Meeting (BTM) –held in Chile earlier this month- gathered a large number of travel industry companies and professionals from the country and all over the region willing to do what it takes in the face of the ongoing economic and financial crisis that’s sweeping the planet.

From a bird’s eye view, agents face one major challenge: the economy. But when viewed up close, that one issue fractures into multiple challenges: chasing prices, constant marketing and cash flow, among them.

Given a choice between a snowy mountain and a sandy beach, I prefer the cold. But my wife is from Miami and my infant son howls when exposed to a chill. So this year I deferred to them, and we headed to Aruba.

For 46 years, U.S. citizens have been effectively banned from travel to the largest Caribbean island, just 90 miles off our shores. If there ever was a sensible reason for this prohibition, it expired long ago.

The current world economic slowdown and low consumer confidence have already had a significant impact on international travel and tourism in 2008, and realistically we can expect that this will continue throughout 2009.