Japanese tourism officials were out in force at the World Travel & Tourism Council’s 11th Global Travel & Tourism Summit in Las Vegas this week. For one thing, Tokyo will host the summit next April, but Japan also is looking to quickly recover tourism lost after the devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant radiation emissions that occurred earlier this year.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon, interviewed by travel journalist Peter Greenberg last week during a session at the World Travel & Tourism’s Global Travel & Tourism Summit in Las Vegas, took the opportunity to reiterate that Mexico is safe destination for tourists despite the perception in the market about drug wars and violence in the country. “We are working very hard prosecuting criminals, building our local and federal police force, building a community and working in the community,” Calderon said.
A joint project to develop tourism links between Cuba and Mexico could open the U.S. tour market to the Caribbean island in the form of vacation packages that combine Mexico and Cuba.
Business travel has accounted for one third of the growth in global trade over the past decade, improved global corporate productivity tenfold and created millions of jobs worldwide, according to the latest economic impact research released by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). The report was released May 18 at the group’s Global Travel & Tourism Summit in Las Vegas.
The Panama Tourism Authority (PTA) launched a global advertising campaign to promote the country’s “beautiful beaches, cosmopolitan cities, diverse culture and variety of ethnic groups throughout the country,” along with its main tourist attraction for international visitors, the Panama Canal, said PTA officials.
While the tourism industry in the US Virgin Islands is growing, visitor numbers and revenues still have not returned to pre-recession levels. Statistics released last week by the Bureau of Economic Research showed 2010 had a 13.5 percent increase in the total number of visitors to the territory, compared with 2009.