From June 6 through 9 this year, Havana will host the first edition of the International Rum Festival. In an exclusive interview with Caribbean News Digital, Regla Jimenez, chairwoman of the Organizing Committee, explained the event will serve as a perfect setting for exchanges among distillers, distributors, retailers, barmen and friends from around the world linked in any way to the realm of rum and its culture. Mrs. Jimenez indicated as many as eight new Cuban-made rum brands will be unveiled to the international market after faring pretty well among domestic consumers: Cubay, Santiago, Mulata, Santero, Varadero, Caney , Legendario and Arechabala. Havana Club, the flagship brand of Cuban spirits that has made a name of its own in the world market, will claim its share of the limelight, too. The festival´s program includes a theoretical session to be attended by boldface names in the industry that will broach some major aspects, plus an international cocktail contest in the classical

Within the framework of Cuba’s 24th International Tourism Convention, Mr. Riley talked exclusively with Caribbean News Digital about Guatemala’s lately tourism takeoff and pointed to CATA as the body that will help give the destination a strategic niche in the European market. He also referred to the possibilities of piecing together a joint strategy to further put Central America on the world travel map. Likewise, he mentioned some of the concerns and initiatives launched by the new Guatemalan administration in an effort to make the country’s leisure industry a major source of hard-currency money. Finally, he stressed on the need to combine endeavors –like the merger between Air Madrid and Aladatour- as a key factor in strengthening Central America’s stance as a travel destination.

In an exclusive interview during Cuba’s 24th International Tourism Convention, Jose Brichs Sala, corporate marketing director for Barceló, the Spain’s first-string hotel chain, speaks to Caribbean News Digital about the company’s expansion and strengthening in Latin America and the Caribbean. At the same time, Mr. Sala is really upbeat about tourism’s growing numbers around the world at a time when lots of countries are staging clear-cut comebacks in that field, including Germany, the region’s top tourist-sending market. Mr. Sala also touches on Barceló’s ongoing investment makeover in both the short and the long run. Last but not least, he talks about the partnership between Barceló and British group First Choice, and lets CND in on possible negotiations in the offing that will eventually benefit the company.

In the fourth anniversary of Havana’s Rum Foundation, Stefano Oldrati, an executive from Havana Club International S.A. –a joint venture between Cuba and French company Pernod Ricard- talked exclusively to Caribbean News Digital about the firm’s goals and importance at a world level, its contribution to the island nation’s travel industry and marketing efforts worldwide to sell a top-notch Cuban spirit that ranks among the globe’s top three rum brands.

During his recent visit to Cuba to attend the International Tourism Fair in Varadero, Estuardo Molina, an in-depth connoisseur of his country’s tourism policies, talked exclusively with Caribbean News Digital about Guatemala’s promotional plans and projects in the world’s premier sending markets serving the Caribbean and Central America. In the same breath, Mr. Molina spelled out the basics of his country’s collaboration efforts with Cuba for the advertisement of the Mayan Beach Project, a multi-destination endeavor that combines the best of both nations’ beauties and charms.

In the course of Cuba’s 24th International Tourism Convention, Caribbean News Digital talked to Barry Roberts on the dramatic increase of tourist inflow that has taken place in Costa Rica in recent years and the reasons that have made these outcomes possible, including the addition of new flights. Mr. Roberts makes an interesting analysis of Central America’s advantageous perspectives as a region and mentions an array of factors that –in his own view- have chipped in the most to a much higher development of regional tourism. Among them –Mr. Roberts goes on- the zone’s natural beauties, a heftier stance as a peaceful and safe region, let alone a much stronger Central American unity, something that’s largely owed to the Central American Tourism Agency (CATA). He also refers to the new strategies that must be advanced in order to bring more investment to the region, the role played by TACA PASS, and the area’s potentials as a multi-destination, among other issues.