Since attaining independence from the UK in 1973, The Bahamas have flourished through tourism and international banking and investment management.
The tourism industry has prospered over the years and now accounts for approximately 60 percent of the country´s Gross Domestic Product.
A trend toward building ever bigger cruise ships, such as a 3,600-passenger vessel to be launched in June, has some industry experts wondering whether it might be too much of a good thing.
Cruise lines taunt dream vacations at sea, complete with Broadway-style shows, cinemas, gourmet food and even artificial waves for surfing. But some travel agents worry passengers might eventually feel the dream is turning into a crowded nightmare.
Prostitution has long been part of life in San José and it has become a steadily growing factor in attracting thousands of foreign tourists to the small Central American country every year. But foreign diplomats are concerned that the availability of sex with minors such as Pamela may be helping to create pedophiles back home.
“Underage sex in Costa Rica is becoming a global problem,” says a diplomat at the UK embassy in San José. “People travel from Europe and elsewhere, in some cases engage in under-age sex for the first time, and that creates a risk of them returning to the UK and starting to offend there.”
Long gone are the days when an airline passenger is able to go straight to the gate and catch their flight. As you all know, the way we think about travel has been profoundly changed by the events of September 11 and their aftermath.
These shifts have had a practical and psychological impact on all of us. Most of these changes have taken place in the airline industry although other parts of the travel industry and the nation as a whole have been forced to adjust also. Immediately after September 11, as you know, travel was drastically reduced virtually across the planet. In the past year, it has been steadily picking up.
Travelers who think cruise-line sightseeing tours are passive propositions are in for a surprise –nothing could be further from the truth. Today, cruise lines offer a wide variety of shore excursions including whitewater rafting, race-car driving, rappelling, diving and zip-lining atop rain-forest canopies.
The increased availability of high-activity sightseeing tours is evidence of the changing tastes of today´s seagoing vacationers, according to the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the marketing and training organization for the world´s 19 leading cruise lines and nearly 17,000 North American travel agencies.
For the third consecutive year Italy´s Venice held on to its crown as the best performing market in terms of revenue per available room (revPAR), according to the Hotel Benchmark Global Ranking Index (GRI). The GRI compares the performance of 165 global cities outside North America on an annual basis.
Europe´s dominance of the ranking remained strong during 2005, securing 11 of the top 20 positions in the revPAR GRI. Despite three European cities dropping out of the top 20 –Athens, Edinburgh and Dublin. Istanbul was a new entry securing 20th place, as revPAR in the city grew 43 percent in 2005, fueled by a substantial increase in visitors and the city hosting the Formula 1 Motor Racing Championship for the first time.