Most families love theme parks and Orlando, Florida is the king, with Disney, Wet’n Wild, SeaWorld/Acuatica and Universal Studios Orlando being the big names, along with many smaller ones scattered over a radius of 30 miles. After walking under the Florida sun for 8-10 hours with kids, family or relatives, the first desire is to extricate oneself from the masses, get off the feet and seek refuge in a cool, quiet environment with some sort of liquid refreshment.

Looking for energy efficient, centrally located and green oriented hotel that caters to the corporate client, then think Sonesta Hotel in downtown Orlando. This less than one year old recently purchased ex-Sheraton is undergoing a green evolution according to General Manager Mark Moravec. Located on Lake Ivanhoe, with 341 spacious and contemporary decorated guest rooms it offers comfort in an urban environment with easy access to shopping, downtown businesses, entertainment and cultural attractions. Only blocks away is Interstate-4 (cross town expressway) ensuring rapid access to local and more distant tourism attractions?

Situated on 500 acres along a mile-long section of tropical beach adjacent to the Caribbean National Rain Forest of El Yunque and the Mameyes River, Rio Mar Beach Resort & Spa, a Wyndham Grand Resort, is going to be hosting two important events of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association in September. Those are the “Taste of the Caribbean”, and “Small Hotels Retreat”.

This is a man who built on himself by forging one of Europe’s most competitive travel companies with each passing day –the only vertical-integrated company left in Spain- and who shattered the old saying that says that “no man is a prophet in his own land. With an overwhelming personality, rock-solid character and –as his aides put it- tremendous humaneness, he’s a heck of a good friend and an implacable tiger for his foes. Smart, brisk, bold, accessible, knowledgeable of what the market has to offer, a lover of soccer and above all a hardworking man who’s always open to suggestions and new ideas, this man has built an empire from the ground up.

DFASS is a duty-free company that has been providing airport services and onboard airline services for over 20 years. However, it has also branched out into other areas of the travel retail segment, giving passengers the chance to make catalog purchases with pre-order and mail order conveniences. Its full-fledged infrastructure and logistics –two issues broached briefly by Mr. Perez in this interview- allows the company to be one of the World’s most efficient and recognized companies.

San Juan de Puerto Rico (Special for Caribbean News Digital) – Wrapping up the last day (May 7, 2010) of the CHTIC, we have the input of the Secretary General of the CTO, Mr. Hugh Riley, commenting that this was an “extremely stimulating conference with excellent information, views, opinions and overall very encouraging for us.”

We have interview Mrs. Nicole Alleynen, Chief Development Officer of BTA, about the upcoming Sustainable Development Tourism Conference, (STC), to be held on the Island of Barbados, May 9-12, 2010.

How will you define ITB, as a fair, a tradeshow or meeting grounds for tourism professionals?
ITB Berlin is the world´s leading travel trade show. It is the industry’s most international trade visitor event in the world and offers the most balanced and most international portfolio of exhibitors in the world.

As the tourism industry is aware, this 11th Annual Conference on Sustainable Tourism Conference, (STC-11) will be held from May 9-12, 2010 in Barbados, and is being organized in collaboration with the Barbados Ministry of Tourism. For the first time in several years is bringing even more synergy between the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), and the CTO, as Barbados is a part of ACS and CTO at the same time.

This is Gail Henry’s debut at the Sustainable Tourism Conference. She is the official of CTO for this STC, and for several months she has been dedicated in soul and spirit to the programming and organization of this important event. Now, expectations are growing, new flights are announced to make it easy to attend, and more and more tourism professionals are interested in attending this conference that will take place in Barbados from May 9th-12th of this year.