2003 Travel News Archive – Page 5

The 297-room Emi Resorts Sun Village Beach Resort in Cofres? announced it has joined Sterling Hotels & Resorts. This is the first Dominican hotel to join the London-based hotel marketing system. Sterling promotes itself as a premier global collection of first-class, independent properties. Sterling Hotels owns 55 independent hotels across the world. http://www.sterlinghotels.com

The Puerto Plata Merengue Festival is on for Constitution Day?s long weekend ? Friday, 7 November through Monday, 10 November. The festival is being sponsored by the Tourism Ministry, the Puerto Plata Hotel Association and the Governor of Puerto Plata. On the agenda is a gastronomic festival and merengue bands will perform at the Puerto …

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The Ministry of Tourism stand won the first prize for best stand in the Otdykh-Leisure 2003 Russian travel market trade show held at the Olympic Sport Complex in Moscow, 12-17 October. The Dominican stand won for its originality. This was Russia?s 9th International Trade Fair for Tourism. The Dominican pavillion work area was a small …

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The Central Bank statistics show that air arrivals increased 16.6% during the first nine months of the year. A record number of foreigner travelers ? 2,116,450 visited from January to September 2003. The Central Bank attributes the record number of visitors to the good value of Dominican vacations, more so following the steep depreciation of …

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Air Canada begins scheduled service into Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ) from Toronto, Canada this coming Sunday, 26 October. The flight marks the return of the Canadian carrier to the Dominican Republic. Air Canada first serviced the DR in 1986 with flights from Toronto to Puerto Plata and Las Americas. Service to the DR (SDQ) …

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In addition to the year round Punta Cana to Montreal and Toronto connections, and the Toronto-Puerto Plata direct flight, Air Canada announces several winter season connections to Punta Cana from Ottawa, Winnipeg, London, Halifax and Moncton. Punta Cana-Ottawa. Saturday departure. 20 Dec 03- 24 April 04. Punta Cana-Winnipeg. Sunday departure. 21 Dec 03- 28 Mar …

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Liat has requested permission to fly the Antigua/Santo Domingo/Antigua route. The flight would offer passenger, cargo and mail service. In addition to Liat, BWIA (Trinidad-Santo Domingo) and Air Caraibe (St. Martin-Santo Domingo) also connect the DR to the English and French-speaking Caribbean.

Competing for the Dominican Republic, 19-year old Susanne Mai placed first place in the kiteboarding world championship, Red Bull King of the Air, held mid-October in Maui, Hawaii. Teammate Luciano Gonzalez placed third. The team competed against the best 55 men and 18 women kiteboarders of the world. Mai won the Women’s Freestyle division, defeating …

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The World Tourism Organization forecasts international travel will increase from 703 million travelers at present to 1.6 billion by 2020. The figure comes from the Tourism 2020 Vision report published by the WTO that provides a long-term forecast and assessment of the development of tourism up to the first 20 years of the new millennium. …

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Another interesting factoid in the study is that Russia is now ranked tenth among the world’s top spenders on international tourism, passing Canada in 2002. The top spenders now are the US, Germany, UK, Japan, France, Italy, China, Netherlands, Hong Kong (China) and the Russian Federation. The fact is published in the World Tourism Organization …

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