(www.livinginperu.com).-TACA and Lufthansa intend to cooperate closely in future under a memorandum of understanding signed by representatives of the two airlines. Their objective, among others, is to begin codesharing on national and international routes. With an eye on future cooperation, TACA and Lufthansa are also testing other benefits for their customers such as pooling frequent flyer programmes, closely coordinating their flight schedules and mutual lounge access.

“Future partnership with TACA will allow us to offer customers shortly an array of new destinations in Latin America and expand our global network,“ said Jens Bischof, Vice President The Americas Lufthansa. “Our passengers should be able to profit possibly this year from cooperation with the quality carrier, TACA,” added Götz Ahmelmann, Lufthansa Vice President Alliances, Strategy & Subsidiaries.

(www.showbuzz.cbsnews.com).-But not as in "defeat" or "undermine." More like "comprehend" _ but with an audacious, some might even say irreverent, style.

This is the premise for a most ungodly documentary series, "John Safran vs. God," which makes its U.S. premiere on Sundance Channel at 9 p.m. EDT Thursday.

(http://phoenix.bizjournals.com).- Denver-area hotels improved their occupancy and room rates in 2006 from '05.
Average room rates for last year increased to $101.54 a night from $91.10 per night the previous year, according to the recently released Rocky Mountain Lodging Report.
Hotel occupancies averaged 66.4 percent in '06, up from 64.1 percent a year earlier.
Downtown Denver, as usual, attracted the highest average rate -- $139.96 -- with occupancies averaging 69.1 percent.
The Denver International Airport (DIA) area, including the old Stapleton airport area -- had the highest average occupancy at more than 73 percent. DIA hotels had an average rate of $97.94, while more bargain-priced Stapleton hotels averaged $71.70 a night.

(www.hotelinteractive.com).- New Prototype Design, Innovation of New Products and Services and Renovation Strategy Sets Upscale Brand on Aggressive Growth Pace for 300 Hotels by 2010 In just one year since the Embassy Suites Design Option III prototype was launched at the ALIS Conference in Los Angeles, the Embassy Suites brand has set a record development pace with 25 new project approvals in 2006. Couple that figure with the implementation of the 20/10 Brand Enhancement Program, and Embassy Suites is a brand on a mission.
“With our latest prototype, we have opened up the Embassy Suites brand to developers who have believed building an Embassy was a challenge, due to the rising costs of real estate and construction,” said Jim Holthouser, senior vice president, brand management, Embassy Suites Hotels. “With the prototype’s flexible features and several new brand innovations, we are closing the gap between the costs to own and operate a full service hotel, versus a focused-service hotel.”

(www.iht.com).- The Dominican Republic's foreign minister will travel to Saudi Arabia to lobby for a new oil refinery in the Caribbean country that faces fuel shortages, his office said Thursday.
Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso is scheduled to meet with Saudi oil minister Ali Naimi in February. A date has not been set, but the meeting would take place immediately after a Feb. 1 trip to Washington to discuss Haitian affairs with U.S. State Department officials, the ministry said.
Dominican officials have been pushing for a refinery in hopes of ending fuel shortages, lowering prices and becoming a transshipment point for oil to other Western Hemisphere ports, including the United States.
Fuel prices are high in the Dominican Republic, where regular gasoline sold for US$3.62 (€2.79) per gallon on Thursday. Saudi Arabia holds over 260 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, a quarter of the world's total.

(www.tuscaloosanews.com).- This Super Bowl is all about family to Maureen and Dan Grossman. Their son, Rex, is the Chicago Bears quarterback, but the family has strong ties to football in Indiana going back to the 1940s. They've held Colts season tickets for 23 years, and Dan Grossman, like his brother Dobby and their father, also named Rex, played football at Indiana University. On Super Bowl Sunday, though, their allegiance will be with the Bears.

"We're excited, nervous and proud," Maureen Grossman said Thursday. "There's a lot of love for Rex in Bloomington, and I think everyone is wishing him well."

Maybe not too well, though.

(http://cbs5.com).- Starting Tuesday, air travelers who are U.S. citizens returning home from all out of the country locations must ,with few exceptions, display passports to enter the United States.

The rule change impacts travelers of all ages returning to the U.S. via airplane from Canada, Panama, Mexico and a number of the Caribbean islands. In the past, you did not need a passport to travel to and from those places.

Until now, citizens traveling in the Western Hemisphere usually needed to display little more than a birth certificate or driver's license to cross U.S. borders.

(www.statesman.com).- Shop around. The only shot required for travel to Ghana is a yellow fever vaccine. I priced this shot along with the required office visit at area travel clinics.

This is a good time to check your other vaccinations (tetanus, measles, chicken pox, etc.).

In addition to yellow fever, several other inoculations are recommended for this trip, according to Elisa Pearson, travel nurse consultant at Passport Health Austin. Those include hepatitis A and B, flu, polio, meningitis and typhoid fever. Also recommended are a prescription for malaria medicine and a tuberculosis test on your return. The cost of all these shots and tests will total more than $700.

(www.theheraldbulletin.com).- Beginning Jan. 23, all United States citizens traveling by air between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Bermuda, will be required to show a valid passport.
The change is a result of recommendations made by the 9-11 Commission, which Congress passed in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.

Travel agencies, post offices (which process applications) and other travel specialists encourage potential travelers to apply for their passports well in advance.

“I’ve had quite an encounter with that this week,” said Mary Jo Hall, of Mary Jo’s Travel Service in Daleville. “I had a couple call and say ‘We want to get away and go to Cancun, (Mexico).’”

(news.bostonherald.com).- Legislation moving through the Senate would end one of the most beloved benefits of Congress, being able to hitch rides on corporate jets at heavily subsidized rates. Instead, senators would be required to pay far more expensive charter rates for private air travel.

That would apply both to official business, when senators skip airport lines to use private planes for trips to their districts or tour areas in their states, and to political or fundraising trips. The latter would come out of a lawmaker’s campaign funds.
The House has gone further, barring its members from using official or campaign funds to pay for noncommercial, corporate jets. Lawmakers trying to reach that remote village, disaster site or campaign stop will have to turn to charter plane services. e]

(www.mercurynews.com).- Never mind that destinations like Buenos Aires are already so popular that booking flights and hotel rooms there at this time of year is difficult. The more visitors the merrier, apparently.
That's the outlook for travel to Central and South America this season - busier than ever.
True, travel there may cost a bit more than last year, but that's not preventing Americans from heeding the call to go south.
``Prices have gone up, but not dramatically,'' said Manny Lubian of Futura Travel, a Miami travel agency. That, coupled with the soaring cost of travel to Europe, will drive more Americans to South America, he believes.

(http://minnesota.publicradio.org).- Holiday shopping at the Mall of America might be a smidge more crowded than in years past. Mall officials says they're finishing the year with 500,000 more international visitors than usual. It's due in part to a weak dollar, but it's also a sign that tourism is picking back up after post-9/11 declines.
St. Paul, Minn. — Clay Olafson looks like the kind of guy you'd have to drag to a mall kicking and screaming. He's stocky and muscular, with tattoos and piercings all over his arms and neck-- not exactly someone you'd expect to travel halfway across the globe form Iceland to shop. But Olfason and his girlfriend Maria have done just that. They flew in to the Twin Cities for a three-day spending spree at the Mall of America. This seemed so hard to believe, I felt timid asking about it.

(www.ccnmatthews.com).- a leading interactive global entertainment services company offering private label ticketing and data management solutions throughout North America is pleased to announce they have signed a five year contract with The Greater Vancouver Convention and Visitors Bureau (Tourism Vancouver) DBA Tickets Tonight . RepeatSeat will be providing full interactive, online and point-of-sale box office solutions to service Tourism Vancouver's new expanded mandate.
Tourism Vancouver is looking forward to working with RepeatSeat as they expand their services with ticketing to a wide variety of entertainment options available in the Vancouver area.
"We have already experienced the superior service and variety of interactive solutions offered by RepeatSeat through our previous relationship with Tickets Tonight. Tourism Vancouver's brand essence is about "exceeding expectations.

(www.antiguasun.com).- As destinations reach to a more mature stage in the tourism life cycle, more sophisticated niche tourism products are developed by planners aiming to retain market share. Genealogy Tourism, also known as “ancestry” and “roots” tourism is one such product, which falls under the umbrella of culture and heritage tourism, and is travel aimed at visiting birthplaces of one’s ancestors and getting acquainted with distant relatives. It is generally considered as a viable option for tourism product diversification.
In some countries, such as in the UK and Europe, genealogy has developed into a major hobby. The great surge in the US started in the 1930s, increased after World War II and intensified significantly after the publication of “Roots” by Alex Haley in 1976.

(http://cities.expressindia.com).- ‘‘THERE are a lot of Nepalese in the city — students and the working population. This is like a second home to us...,’’ this was conveyed by State Minister, Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Nepal, Gopal Rai at ICSSR Complex, Panjab University, today.
Rai was in the city for the celebrations of 93rd birthday of the first Prime Minister of Nepal, P.P. Koirala, which was on September 9. The celebrations were organised by Nepali
Jan Sampark Samiti.
Rai said Nepal is an excellent tourist destination, though due to the conflicts, the industry had received a setback. He added that the bio-diversity made it an ideal place to visit.
Rai said the immediate concern in Nepal was to achieve political stability. ‘‘All parties have realised that for the country to progress, it is important that there is no conflict or crime.

(www.m-travel.com).- Worldspan has simplified car rental and hotel booking capabilities for travel agency subscribers worldwide with advanced, interactive tools that sit right on the travel agent’s desktop.
The travel technology company says the new Worldspan Go! Car and Hotel Booking products are timesaving tools that allow agents to shop and book travel for their clients in a rich media, browser-based environment, using the latest technologies and interactive features.
“Worldspan’s new car and hotel booking tools present an abundance of new and unique capabilities not previously available to our subscribers -- all timesaving features that eliminate manual processing and increase speed and productivity,” said Kathy Fitzpatrick, Worldspan vice president - North America.

(http://thechronicleherald.ca).- It’s a difficult one to answer because everyone seems to have a different interpretation of what’s going on in the tourism industry, and opinions range from things going well to times being desperate.
Officially, according to the Tourism, Culture and Heritage Department, 859,000 people visited Nova Scotia in the first six months, an increase of seven per cent over 2005. What these figures don’t state is how much these people are spending, and some in the industry believe tourists are spending less, because cruise ships are attracting more but less affluent people.
Having said all that, you do get the idea that this is an industry that needs a shot in the arm.
The industry is coping with the high Canadian dollar, which has jacked up our prices by about 30 per cent in three years for American tourists, and high gasoline prices, which have exacerbated the situation.

(www.layover.com).- TravelCenters of America (TA), committed to being the favorite interstate shopping choice of professional drivers and highway travelers nationwide, has recently rebuilt its travel center in New Haven, Connecticut. Located on I-95 at Exit 56, TA New Haven now features an exciting, contemporary look that sets it apart from the ordinary highway truck stop.
The new design includes a 35-foot-tall pylon with the TA logo, accented by a red neon arch and "welcome" sign. The exterior also features upgraded lighting, improved parking lots and a new motorist entrance.
The TA New Haven site offers a food court with seating for 75, where customers can choose between Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits and Subway sandwiches. Starbucks, the nation's largest coffee retailer, is scheduled to open at the site in mid-September.

(www.contactmusic.com).- PRIMETIME co-anchor CHRIS CUOMO will join anchors DIANE SAWYER and ROBIN ROBERTS as a newsreader on ABC TV's GOOD MORNING AMERICA. Cuomo, son of former New York governor MARIO CUOMO, will read the news and substitute for Sawyer and Roberts as needed. He will star on 5 September (06) when the show goes head-to-head with NBC's TODAY show featuring the new anchor team of MATT LAUER and MEREDITH VIERA. Cuomo, a lawyer who serves as ABC's senior legal correspondent, will travel on breaking news stories and continue reporting on Primetime.

(www.americanheritage.com).- Driving along the narrow blacktop road toward New Mexico’s Acoma Pueblo, as you round a sharp bend and the road plunges down to a windswept grassy plain for the final couple of miles, you can barely make out the jagged roofline of the legendary “Sky City.” It looks like a mirage.
North America’s oldest continuously inhabited city sits high atop a seemingly unscalable sandstone mesa, its cliffs rising 370 feet above the surrounding terrain. For more than 2,000 years the Acoma tribe has thrived in the face of droughts and invasions. Indeed, the pueblo’s enduring legacy seems to defy probability, which is a big reason so many travelers to New Mexico make visiting Acoma a top priority.

(www.forbes.com).- Seeking to fill more of its seats with business travelers, low-cost airline JetBlue signed agreements on Friday with reservation systems giants Sabre Holdings and Galileo International that will put information about its flights in front of an expanded audience.
JetBlue (nasdaq: JBLU - news - people ) specializes in point-to-point routes between underserved markets and on metropolitan areas with relatively high fares. It has been popular with cost-sensitive consumers but for the past year has been taking small steps to broaden its appeal to business travelers. The company was unprofitable in 2005 and expects to lose money this year as well.
In the five-year Sabre deal, travel agents who subscribe to the global reservation system will have access to all of JetBlue’s flights. They will also be available on Travelocity, Sabre’s consumer-oriented website

(www.andnetwork.com).- This was confirmed by the latest statistics released by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) reflecting that the country has the potential to attract a sizeable number of tourists, regionally and internationally, earning the much needed foreign currency and creating employment.
Although the industry has the potential to contribute 6% to gross domestic product, 2,2% to the formal employment and 10% of the total foreign currency inflows, Zimbabwe has not been enjoying significant regional and international arrivals.
However, half-year statistics by the ZTA are encouraging as arrivals rose by 33% with over one million holiday makers visiting the country.
The increase is quite refreshing. But what becomes the source of great worry is the fact a lot of resources have been invested with a view to reviving the sector with little success.

(www.alternet.org).- Tourism in the post-9/11, post-colonial era remains a minefield of moral issues -- and living as a sin-free travel writer is damn near impossible.
Colonialism is alive and well every time you travel from the First World to the Third and come home bearing photographs of sharks and storms and slums, of scorpions fried for snacks, sunflowers bigger than your head, stalled buses whose aisles are slick with spit, and then you tell your friends and co-workers, "Oh man, it was so great, you gotta go."
We call it ecotourism and adventure travel. That sounds sensitive. We think Ugly Americans are the fat ones on cruises and on package tours -- anyone but us. We think we're different because we don't have a stars-and-stripes patch on our backpacks as -- buckle your seatbelt -- this summer's travel boom defies the presence of not one but several wars around the world right now which may or may not become a world war.

(www.nzherald.co.nz).- Tourists are turning their backs on New Zealand because of a "woeful shortage" of top-class hotels, according to the head of the national airline.
Rob Fyfe, chief executive of Air New Zealand, told an American Chamber of Commerce meeting that many of the great five-star brands - such as Raddison, Four Seasons and Westin - were American.
"Where are those five-star hotels here? Because we now also have a woeful shortage of true world-class five-star hotel capacity nationwide."
Mr Fyfe said luxury hotels would attract "high-value, high-spending and discerning customers who demand nothing less than world-class accommodation".
They were "customers who benefit all of us in the tourism industry".
But some in the industry criticised Mr Fyfe's comments last night.

(www.gaynz.com).- Fiji is not anti-gay, according to the defensive Fiji Islands Hotels Association, which claims the tourism-reliant Pacific nation does not discriminate on gender or sex, despite advice to the contrary provided by Fiji’s High Commissioner to New Zealand.
Hotels Association chief executive Mereani Korovavala was responding to the controversy surrounding New Zealand’s Out Takes gay film festival offering a prize of a holiday for two adults at a Fiji resort. The NZ AIDS Foundation, Body Positive Auckland and a growing number of gay human rights observers in New Zealand have expressed extreme disappointment at the prize offer, because legislation criminalising homosexual acts between adult men in private appears to still be on the Fiji statute books. This is despite a ruling last year by a High Court of Fiji judge which eventually freed an Australian tourist and a local man jailed for having sex, on the basis that the law is contrary to Fiji’s constitution and human rights obligations.

(www.laramieboomerang.com).- June has long been considered one of the worst months of the year for Laramie hotels. While rooms fill up in July with summer travelers, then later with football fans, snowmobilers and parents of university students — hoteliers call June “the shoulder month.”
To draw in more tourists this month, the Albany County Tourism Board has spent the past year organizing the upcoming Western Outlaw Festival and advertising the festival to regional, national and international audiences.
“A couple years ago, my board came to me and said, ‘Come up with something to bring in the tourists in June,’” said Jo Ann Davis, director of the tourism board. “This is the first year ever that we’ve tried to make a really big bang.”

(http://iagblog.blogspot.com).- The recent outbreaks of Avian (Bird) Flu in various nations around the world have caught the tourism industry's attention. While there is certainly no reason for anyone to go into a panic mode, and there is a good possibility that there the feared human-to-human outbreak may never occur, it still behooves the tourism industry to use this as an opportunity to be prepared. Although the avian flu has been reported in the Middle East, Europe and even North America the worst outbreaks so far have been in SE Asia and Eastern Europe or Eurasia.
Despite the great amount of publicity given to Avian Flu, it is important to note that as of this writing there have been less than 200 humans so far who have contracted the disease.The recent SARS panic caused far fewer deaths than did traffic accidents in the impacted places, but the panic that SARS caused created economic havoc.

(www.crookstontimes.com).- Crookston is one of the communities across Minnesota brushing off their welcome mats in anticipation of the arrival of this summer's travelers. The week of May 13-21 is designated nationally to highlight the positive impact of this travel business. "See America Week," sponsored by the Travel Industry Association of America, promotes greater public awareness of the powerful economic, social and cultural impacts of travel and tourism.
In Minnesota, tourism generates about $10 billion for the state economy, bringing significant dollars into communities throughout our state, including Polk County.

(www.sfgate.com).- San Francisco posted solid tourism gains in 2005, drawing in 15.74 million visitors, a 4.1 percent year-over-year increase, the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau said in its annual report released Friday.
The out-of-towners were free with their money. Visitor spending rose 9.5 percent over 2004 to $7.37 billion.
Tourism is San Francisco's No. 1 revenue-generating industry, and the city has been voted the No. 1 travel destination in the United States in a poll in the Conde Nast Traveler magazine for 13 consecutive years and in 17 of the past 18 years.
The industry's gains are filling up San Francisco lodgings. The occupancy rate at hotels in the city in 2005 was 76.4 percent. It's projected that 2006 will come in at about 78 percent, an indicator of an improving economy, said John Marks, president and CEO of the visitors bureau.

(www.gotravelinsurance.co.uk).- Cruisers looking to escape entirely can now visit 13 national parks in the wilderness of Alaska with Holland America Line.
The cruise company's Alaska cruise itineraries include Glacier Bay National Park and Kenai Fjords National Park, with local experts and park rangers on hand to offer fascinating facts and intriguing insights into the heritage of the area.
Other sights to soak in during the ten to 20-day excursions include the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, Misty Fjords National Monument and the Klondike National Historic Site in Dawson City.
Any excursions that head to the Hubbard Glacier also get the benefit of an authentic Yakutat Tlingit interpreter to make the most of this memorable experience.