Serious attention has to be given to the creation of a single currency by the countries of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) that earlier this year signed an agreement to establish a Single Market. If they don’t, the single market will begin to unravel as free movement of goods and services fails to bring significant benefits because transaction costs remain high and exchange rates continue to foster uncertainties.

What do low-cost airline pioneers, EasyJet’s Stelios Haji-Ioannou and AirAsia’s Tony Fernandes, have in common, apart from their wish to fly in their respective budget carriers to India? Both are venturing into the booming hospitality sector in country.

Major travel groups are responding to fierce competition from online travel agents, such as Expedia and Travelocity, in the fight for the lucrative online travel retail industry, according to the new report just published by Euromonitor International, “Global E-travel habits”.

After several years of discussion and debate, the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility was launched June 1, coinciding with the start of the 2007 Atlantic Hurricane Season, which spawned Tropical Storm Barry in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida that very day.

Many government leaders have come to understand the importance of tourism as an economic development tool. Yet despite the fact that the world’s largest peacetime industry is as major source of jobs, tax revenue and often, urban revitalization there is still a lack of understanding that tourism is more than merely a part of economic development, to a great extent tourism is economic development.

Ecotourism may be just as environmentally damaging as traditional travel due to the greenhouse gases vacationers are burning to reach remote and pristine areas, industry experts warned Tuesday.