Beverly Nicholson Doty, commissioner of the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism, said the destination saw a 10 percent average increase in hotel bookings from agents last year.
Harold Lovell, Antigua and Barbuda’s minister of tourism, is optimistic that a newly created tourism authority will enhance and strengthen the destination’s brand.
Tourists are flocking to Cuba despite hurricanes, global recession and the retirement of Fidel Castro. The trade, a major source of hard currency for Cuba, peaked in 2005 with the arrival of 2.3 million visitors, but dropped to 2.1 million in 2007.
The Jordan Tourism Board is targeting tourists from China and Hong Kong with 2 websites in Mandarin and traditional Chinese.
Visitor numbers to Hong Kong increased in 2008, thanks to increased arrivals from China (PRC). The Hong Kong Tourism Board announced that arrivals in 2008 totaled 29,506,616, an increase of 4.7 percent on 2007.
Spain’s tourism officials completed an inventory of the country’s tourism infrastructure and carefully made plans for future development. Last year they laid the groundwork in a comprehensive strategic document, the Plan del Turismo Horizonte 2020, Tourism Plan Horizon 2020, designed to improve the quality of the country’s tourism product by the year 2020.