Recent flooding and water outages have highlighted the need for national infrastructure and disaster preparedness to be upgraded for the sake of the tourism industry. Colin Jordan, President of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association assured that the industry learned a few lessons from the recent incidents and that the Association is working with its members to move the infrastructure of the tourism industry to a level where it can cope with these issues more effectively in the future.

Grenada is to undergo a major rebranding of its tourism product during 2011 as it seeks to attract more visitors to the destination. With its focus on the traditional markets such as Caricom, Europe, and the USA, the rebranding is expected to focus heavily on the dive, wedding, honeymoon, and sport tourism sectors.

Tourism officials in Miami and New York City are trying to sweeten the travel love affair between the two destinations. The Big Apple sent 1.6 million visitors to Miami-Dade County last year -- more than a tenth of all tourists to the county in 2009. More than 775,000 Miami residents headed north to New York. In these still-soft economic times, both areas are eager for more visitors.

In an address to the Puerto Rico Hotel & Tourism Association (PRHTA) today, Puerto Rico Tourism Company Executive Director Mario Gonzalez Lafuente, told attendees that yesterday’s indictment of 133 individuals identified as protecting drug traffickers will make the island safer for everyone, including tourists.

Tourist arrivals to the U.S. Virgin Islands between January and October 2010 totaled more 865,000 guests, a 7.4 percent increase over the same period in 2009, according to government officials.

Cuba has welcomed some 2 million tourists so far this year and the sector is on its way to a 3 percent increase over 2009, according to a press release from the Tourism Ministry cited Tuesday in the official media.