Bankrupt US Airways may have saved itself by agreeing to merge with America West Airlines, but it does little to address what many in the industry believe is a fundamental problem: too many carriers offering too many flights. When US Airways Group Inc. made its second trip into bankruptcy in September, some competitors hoped and many experts believed the airline would never emerge, allowing competitors to pick the bones from the carcass of the nation´s seventh largest airline.

At the 9th Annual Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference and Profit Partnership Meeting held recently in the Barbados, CARICOM (Caribbean Community) countries industry experts bask in the assurance of clear signs of recovery past the global downturn post 9/11, SARS and the Iraq war. National economies have been markedly improved with tourism economies well on the rebound stage. The Caribbean has recovered faster than the US post-September 11, as banks and investment managers have noted.

Cuban tourism authorities are aggressively pursuing plans to recover markets that have gone into decline in recent years, such as France and Mexico even as they look to emerging ones, including Turkey, Japan and China. The new thrust comes against the background of a boom in the industry, with the officials predicting that 2.3 million holidaymakers will enjoy the Caribbean island´s destinations during 2005, compared to two million in 2004.

Cuba´s tourism is on a roll. That´s what many experts assert based on information about tourist arrivals and the true scope of the island nation´s travel and recreational industry. Another element that underscores the assertion is the yearly international tourism fair –now with a quarter of a century under its belt- that gathers a solid team of experts and developers bent of making the future of the local hospitality sector look even brighter.

A recent report issued by the Spanish Research Center on New Professions and Trade (CENP), of the Higher School of Tourism, asserts that the sun-and-sand is in full swing all across Spain. The CENP report is based on a poll that surveyed 500 attendants to last year´s FITUR Fair in Madrid. The study sample included industry experts, students and the general public.

In an age when airlines are going bankrupt faster than you can say Chapter 11, some might say that starting one in a developing nation like Brazil was a brave decision. But since taking off in January 2001 with just six planes and seven destination cities, Gol Airlines has proven itself a worthy successor to the US and British discounters that founder Constantino de Oliveira Jr. used as templates. The youthful Mr. Oliveira sought to create affordable travel by "taking a bit of Southwest, a bit of Ryanair, a bit of JetBlue, and Easyjet and tropicalizing them for the Brazilian market," he says.