Cuban tourism products were promoted in Japan during their annual International Fair, JATA 2008, in an effort to boost the Japanese market.

Cuba expects tourism to increase 13 percent this year despite destruction from hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which damaged colonial and coastal towns, and hit picturesque hideaways in the tobacco-growing west even harder. Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said Saturday that officials believe foreign visitors will top 2.3 million in 2008, up nearly 200,000 from last year.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Travel Promotion Act of 2008 by voice vote. The bill establishes a public-private partnership to promote the U.S. as an international destination. Travel promotion would be paid for by private-sector contributions and by a head tax on foreign travelers who don’t pay $131 for a visa. The Travel Promotion Act now moves along to the Senate.

BCD Travel, a leading global corporate travel management company, announced today that it has continued its dramatic growth in Africa with the signing of a new partner in Mozambique. In addition to the five new country Partners that were announced last month, Mocambique Expresso Turismo e Viagens (MEXTUR) becomes the sixth sub-Saharan Partner signed since July.

The June 4, 2009, opening of ABBA the Museum in Stockholm has been postponed. The renovation of the 100-year-old Stora Tullhuset –the location of the museum- will take longer than expected.

In an effort to promote cultural tourism and to honor Barbados’ slave heritage, Richard Sealy, Barbados’ minister of tourism, has unveiled a new “Slave Route Signage Project,” which will involve the identification, research and interpretation of sites linked to slavery and the transatlantic slave trade across Barbados.