TRAVELHotNews.com Magazine

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC INVESTS IN THE FUTURE

Felix Jimenez, Minister of Tourism for the Dominican Republic visits Canada to announce $1B investment in Dominican’s infrastructure
Lisa Raffaele

The Honourable Felix Jimenez, Minister of Tourism, Dominican Republic; Abdalah Castillo, Director of the Ministry of Tourism, Dominican Republic (Toronto office)

On Friday afternoon, the Honourable Felix Jimenez, Minister of Tourism for Dominican Republic hosted a luncheon at Toronto’s Panorama Lounge to discuss and announce the future of tourism for the Dominican Republic. The lunch was themed “A Night in Santo Domingo,” and hosted approximately 35 members of the media and tour operators. Jimenez spoke about the large investment being infused into Dominican’s infrastructure by both the government and private investors. A total of $1 billion US will be invested into the country from now until 2012. Most of the money will be spent towards getting the private sector “upgraded” with increased marinas, infrastructure, roads, environment, schools and churches. [Full text and pictures]

THN HOLIDAY SNAPSHOTS 3 IS HERE!

Annual holiday photo contest is back; submit up to three photos and you could win a trip to Grand Sunset Princess in the Riviera Maya

You could win a trip to the Grand Sunset Princess, Riviera Maya

Retail travel agents and aspiring shutterbugs, get ready for this year’s THN Holiday Snapshots 3 contest! It’s back and better than ever. The contest kicks off today and will end on July 27, 2008. All pictures must be your own original work and can be on any subject but must include a travel-related theme. All the pictures will be posted online at our National Holiday Snapshots Contest Online Photo Album at TRAVELHotNews.com. Only digital photos sent by email will be accepted. The grand prize winner will enjoy a one-week trip to the Grand Sunset Princess in the Riviera Maya, Mexico, courtesy of Sunwing Vacations. It’s time to leaf through your digital photo collection and dust off your favourites for submission. TRAVELHotNews.com will be accepting your photos for the contest until July 13, 2008, so get started now! Click here to read the contest rules. Click here to submit your photo.

SMILE, YOU’RE IN SPAIN!

Tourist Office of Spain & Madrid Tourism Board host media event, celebrating launch of Air Canada’s direct Madrid service
Charmaine Pang

Jorge Rubio, far left, Director, Tourist Office of Spain, with Madrid Tourist Office officials, visiting chef Dario Barrio (at centre, in chef's whites) and Madrid tourism partners

Last Friday, the Tourist Office of Spain teamed up with the Madrid Tourism Board to celebrate the launch of Air Canada’s Toronto-Madrid flight, commenced on June 15, Sunday. The new Air Canada flight offers daily direct year-round service to Madrid from Toronto, which complements the seasonal flights that Air Transat has offered (since 2006) to the Spanish capital from Toronto and Montreal. The media luncheon was hosted at Babaluu restaurant in Toronto, where tapas and Spanish wine were served. On hand at the event were several tourism partners and Madrid Tourist Office representatives, as well as Director of the Tourist Office of Spain, Jorge Rubio, who thanked the media for their support over the past year. [Full text and pictures]

ACTA ATLAS AWARDS

ACTA's annual ATLAS award winners announced at gala hosted in Montreal
Anne-Marie Santos

Moscou Côté, Regional Council President, ACTA (Québec); Christiane Théberge, President and CEO, ACTA; Jacqueline Jamieson, new President of the Board, ACTA; Jean Collette, outgoing President of the Board, ACTA

ACTA hosted their annual ATLAS awards gala at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal Thursday night. The event aims at honouring the work of certain individuals or companies that set themselves apart from their competitors throughout the year in the travel industry. Awards were given for five categories which included: travel professional of the year, allied member of the year, travel agency of the year, Ches Chard award and travel personality of the year. To congratulate the recipients for their commitment, 150 travel professionals from across the country were invited. Jean Colette, outgoing president of the Board of ACTA, a position he held for two years, kicked off the evening. [Full text and pictures]

SUNWING OFFERS $100 TO TRAVELLERS

Sunwing thanks travellers with $100 MasterCard Cash Back Program; book before Oct. 31, 2008

Sunwing Vacations will make pre-holiday errands even easier for your clients with their new TruCa$h MasterCard gift card. The card, which is preloaded with $100, will automatically be sent to every couple booking their holiday before October 31 this year, and may be used anywhere MasterCard is accepted. Even if you’ve already done your pre-holiday shopping, Sunwing has good news: you can redeem it for $100 cash at virtually any ATM in Canada. "We can't think of a better way to say thank you for booking with us than by giving people $100 worth of exactly what they want," says Daryl McWilliams, the package holiday company's vice-president of sales and marketing.