Rising sea levels caused by climate change are set to cause damage of billions of dollars to the islands states of the Caribbean by the middle of the century, including wiping out more than 300 premium tourist resorts, a remarkable new report suggested yesterday.

Jamaica’s tourism industry is continuing to experience strong growth, with recent figures showing an increase in arrivals during the summer months. The Caribbean Tourism Organization revealed that the island welcomed 7.7 percent more visitors between July and September this year than in the same three-month period in 2009.

Representatives of the Ministry of Tourism and the Belize Tourism Board (BTB) and other key officials today met with stakeholders in Belize’s fledgling cruise tourism industry, based in Belize City, in order to drum up support for the newly established Fort George Tourism Zone, scheduled to go into operation next week.

Despite lingering global economic uncertainties, Turkey’s ongoing popularity as a tourism destination continues to strengthen, with strong growth among international arrivals, according to officials at the Turkish Culture and Tourist Office in New York.

A series of tourism surveys concluded in November by Cape Town Tourism as a means to better understand and prepare for the upcoming summer season in the Southern Hemisphere indicate cautious optimism. In the accommodation sector, 70.9 percent of respondents to Cape Town Tourism’s survey of member hotels are expecting an average or above average summer season (relative to 2009 figures) and 75.3 percent of those expect returning visitors.

A new study finds that consumers are increasingly using online methods to book travel and make other purchases. The research was conducted by IDC Retail Insights and surveyed 1,500 consumers in the U.K, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden. Travel figured very prominently in online sales with 47 percent of respondents saying that they had used the internet to make bookings. Travel experts expect this to be part of a growing trend of people booking holidays to the Greek islands in 2011 and other trips from their mobile phones and personal computers.