The event this year aims to promote Costa Rica as a tourism destination and center for convention events.
Organizers of the 30th edition of the largest tourism fair in Costa Rica and the isthmus have ensured the participation of 220 companies at the event, which will be held from 9th to 11th May in San Jose.
The organizer’s main objective is to project the image of Costa Rica as a tourism destination for events, conferences and conventions, reported Nacion.com.
The foreseen work includes changing the carpets, installing new lighting and repairing the roof of the convention center.
Refurbishing the Atlapa convention center will cost about $2.5 million this year. It is the most ambitious of three projects that will absorb 75% of the budget approved in 2012 for the tourism master plan (2007-2020) which totals $4.1 million.
With an investment of $16 million, Aloft Hotel has started operations, a business which is counting on the support of business tourists.
The new hotel aims to attract businessmen arriving in Costa Rica to take part in international events or conduct private business.
Aloft Hotel Central America, with 150 rooms and a 175 square meter space dedicated to meeting rooms, offers guests broadband connection in all areas of the building.
Insecurity has affected the arrival of tourists to Honduras, but hotel owners and managers are pinning their hopes on business travelers.
Owners and managers of hotels are happy with the stability seen in the level of foreigners arriving on business trips to San Pedro Sula and other cities, giving hope to a sector that has seen insecurity reduce the amount of leisure travelers.
From 12th to 16th the country will host the XXIX Congress of the Federation of Conference Organizers and Allies of Latin America.
Under the theme "New trends in the conference industry: the challenge of finding opportunity in changing markets," the event will take place in the city of San Pedro Sula, according to the National Chamber of Tourism of Honduras (Canaturh).
Leveraging the recent inclusion of the country as one where Americans can organize tax deductible congresses, fairs and conventions, is a priority for 2012.
This one of the aims of the Panamanian government to consolidate Panama as a destination for conventions and business tourism, and is the first target that has been set by Tourism Authority of Panama for the year just begun.
The Costa Rican Tourism Institute has assigned a floor plan and is preparing the specifications for a tender for the construction work.
Based on the preliminary designs, the new Convention Center will be located in Barreal de Heredia and will feature a 6,000 square meter exhibition hall.
The Minister for Tourism, Allan Flores, said that it looks as though they will have the new facility by the end of 2013.
The sixty events held this year generated revenues of $300 million for the country.
Occupancy rates in hotels, shops and spending power are some of the benefits these kinds of conventions have generated for the Panamanian tourism industry.
So said Minister of the Panamanian Tourism Authority, Solomon Shamah, who released results regarding this segment of the tourism sector which has grown so much in the last few months.
Yesterday, November 17, saw the start of the XVII World Fair on Incentives and Congresses MITM Americas 2011 which is being held in El Salvador .
The president of the Spanish company GSAR Marketing, and organizer of the meeting, Ramon Alvarez, in an interview with Acan - Efe said El Salvador was chosen because it has the ideal conditions for a good destination for convention tourism.
The 17th Meetings and Incentive Travel Market (MITM) event will take place in San Salvador between 16 and 18 November.
The event's goal is to promote the country as a destination for business seeking to hold conferences and conventions abroad. Over 100 international tourism operators will be present.
"El Salvador aspires to become the location of various international conferences next year as a result of this event, whether from public sector companies or private multinationals," reports Elsalvador.com.
Hotel occupancy in Panama has dropped by two percentage points in the first months of the year, and it is estimated that by 2012 the occupancy rate will fall to 38%.
In the race for growth between the number of tourists arriving in Panama, and the supply of available beds, the latter is winning, and it is estimated that it wont be until 2016 that the current occupancy rates are achieved again.
More than 5,000 visitors are expected at the two United Nations conferences on climate change which will take place in October.
Between 1st and the 7th of October in Panama City two meetings on the subject will be held by United Nations working groups, these will serve as a prelude to 17th session of the Convention on Climate Change to be held between November and December in South Africa.
Three new convention centers will open within the next three years.
With an investment of $30 million, a project promoted by the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo, to be built in Barreal de Heredia. is expected to completed by the first quarter of 2014.
For his part Fernando Poma, Vice President of Real Hotels & Resorts (operator of the Intercontinental Hotel chain), will announce the start of construction of a facility with a 2,700 person capacity, in Guachipelín of Escazú this July.
If growth in the number of tourists doesn’t reach 25% per year, hotel occupancy will fall from the 74% seen in the first quarter of 2001, to just 50% over the coming years.
Panama is growing and so are the number of hotels, which in 2012 will be offering over 27 thousand rooms.
The warning comes from the Panamanian Association of Hotels (Apatel), whose president, Sara Pardo, noted of the sector that, "supply is growing faster than demand. "