Uruguay expects 200 cruise calls this 2010/2011 season totaling 300,000 visitors between passengers and crewmembers said the country’s Tourism and Sports minister Hector Lescano during the official launching of the cruise season.

This year, Macau saw two major hotel openings. Wynn Encore Tower opened in April and Mandarin Oriental Macau opened in June. Macau is now home to 93 hotels, with a total of 20,963 rooms. In early 2011, the Galaxy Macau will open with more than 2,200 five-star luxury hotel rooms. Themed around the concept of a “Mystical Oasis,” it will include Galaxy’s own 1,500-room hotel, Hotel Okura’s 500-room property, and Banyan Tree Macau’s 250 suites and 10 villas.

The 3,000,001st tourist to arrive in Israel in 2010 touched down at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport on Nov. 22 on a flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil, setting a new all-time high for tourism to Israel. Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, Director-General of the Israel Airports Authority Kobi Mor and other leading figures in Israel’s tourism industry welcomed the 3,000,001st tourist in 2010, Pastor Ribamar Araujo Ladislau and his group of Evangelical pilgrims and the other tourists aboard the El Al flight from Sao Paulo.

Jamaica is anticipating the opening of its third international airport next month, The Ian Fleming International Airport, located just five miles from Ocho Rios. Formerly known as the Boscobel Airstrip, the facility has undergone refurbishment and has been expanded to facilitate the arrival of private international aircraft as large as the Dash-8.

The Dominican Republic Ministry of Tourism reassures visitors that the isolated case of cholera contracted in Haiti by a citizen visiting his family in that country has been diagnosed and successfully treated at a hospital in the Dominican Republic. Due to careful DR monitoring and prevention systems, the 32-year-old Haitian construction worker who returned to the DR last Friday with symptoms of the intestinal illness, was quickly hospitalized and is in stable condition.

A new survey conducted by Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing offers an insight for parents into what their kids really want from a family holiday. Almost 80 per cent of children surveyed revealed they had a say in where their family went on their last holiday, while a massive 97 per cent believe their parents are happy to go along with whatever they want to do on holiday.