Brazilian authorities are keyed up and for good reasons. The government’s decision to take mugs and fingerprints of all American citizens traveling to the country could dampen efforts to lure sunbathers to the nation, said Ricardo Schaefer, special advisor to Tourism Minister Walfrido dos Mares Guia.

Cuba is in a position right now to reach its estimated goal of 1.9 million visitors by the end of the year, a figure that will account for a mighty 12.7 percent increase compared to the previous twelve-month period. Those numbers –experts anticipate- will add a fifth of a million more travelers in 2004 for a foreseeable double-digits growth.

Though small hotels of less than 60 rooms in the Mayan Riviera have not fared well lately, owners hope to turn tables from this weekend on.

At its best, tourism builds bridges of peace and understanding and tries to break down barriers of ignorance, religious, racial and cultural prejudices. The UN was supposed to represent all these fine ideals but has manifestly failed and has largely become a forum for the crudest excesses of bigotry and political point scoring. For all our shortcomings the tourism industry is closer the UN´s founding ideals than the UN, writer David Beirman concludes.

The Spanish Chambers of Commerce warned today that a strong euro and its stepped-up value against the U.S. dollar will wind up doing a number on the tourist sector and the manufacture industry.

Contrary to the expectations raised by Artemio Santos, Tourism Secretary in the state of Quitana Roo (Mexican Caribbean) about the opening in a little while of gambling centers and casinos in the country, especially in Cancun, Jose Chapur Zahoul, chairman of the Quintana Roo Hotelier Association, believes “a few slot machines are not going to make any difference.”