Japan’s best-kept secret is probably its success to attract more foreign travelers to the country over the last decade. To further boost Japan’s tourism, the incumbent government decided to proceed with a new tourism body, the Japan Tourism Agency (JTA), which will be in charge of achieving Japan’s target of 20 million travelers by 2020.

Tourism minister Francisco Javier Garcia said recently resolution 02/2008, issued in July, that suspended approval of real estate projects in certain areas of Las Terrenas, Samana, will be repealed in the next few days.

A coalition of 27 organizations called the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria Partnership on Monday issued criteria for sustainable tourism at a conference in Barcelona.

With beautiful beaches and many adventure and eco-tourism options, El Salvador is a gem to discover in Central America. Although relatively undiscovered and new to the global travel scene, El Salvador is quickly becoming a choice destination in Central America. As a way to jump start its place in the global tourism market, El Salvador introduced a new ministry of tourism project in 2005. As part of this focused project, El Salvador adopted http://www.elsalvador.travel/ as its primary marketing message.

UNWTO’s Executive Council met in Madrid from October 14 to 15 and agreed to create a “Resilience Committee” to support its members with accurate economic analysis and response mechanisms. The tourism sector is already suffering from reduced consumer demand –both business and leisure tourism businesses are already feeling the credit crunch.

The easy access to visa facilities often permitted by India to overseas patients, coupled with the best emerging medical infrastructure facilities in its large and tertiary towns, means the prospects of India Medical Tourism becoming a lead foreign exchange earners will grow to an extent of Rs. 80 billion ($2 billion) by 2012.