The Dominican Republic is and will be a dream destination for many vacationers, as proven by nearly four million satisfied foreign tourists, more than 3,000 new hotel rooms in the exclusive four and five-star segments and record results of USD 4.2 billion. The Dominican Republic was able to further consolidate its position as leading Caribbean destination in 2008.

The new Minister for Tourism of the Dominican Republic, Francisco Javier García, inaugurated in August 2008, supports further expansion of the infrastructure. He intends to take up the policies of his predecessor, promoting the positive investment climate through growth and consolidation and thus positioning the tourism industry as the economically strongest industry in the country.

FlyBalaton will be back on April 4, 2009

Spring will bring not only the birds back to the Balaton – the fliers will return, as well! From April 4, 2009 on, FlyBalaton Airport (www.flybalaton.hu) will resume operating after a winter hiatus caused by the general crisis.

Main contributor to the renewed traffic will be weekly flights performed by Lufthansa City Line in a joint initiative by special operator Mutsch Ungarn Reisen and Hévíz Tourism Marketing Association (www.hevizmarketing.hu). They will connect Germany to the western Hungarian thermae region and the Balaton “on the fly” every Saturday via direct flights from Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Hamburg.

Cathay Pacific Airways was named “Airline of the Year 2009” in the world’s largest passenger survey, conducted by renowned British research organization “Skytrax”, on April 1, 2009. The premium air carrier from Hong Kong was also awarded the title of “Best Airline in Asia”.

The awards were presented to Cathay Pacific at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany, the leading trade fair for airliner interiors, entertainment and communication, where Skytrax was celebrating the 10th anniversary of the World Airline Awards. The 2009 awards were based on the annual World Airline Survey run by Skytrax, which was conducted between August 2008 and March 2009.

Modern lighting technology simulates natural sunlight

The design of Finnair aircraft cabin interiors is being completely renewed. The changes will affect seat textiles, carpeting, blinds, lighting and wall panel surfaces. The new interior makes its debut on Finnair’s new Airbus A330 aircraft on the flight to New York leaving today, Monday April 6. Finnair will take delivery of four Airbus A330 aircraft over the course of the current year, and the new interior will feature in all of them.

INAIR Aviation Brokerage, an affiliate of INTRA Tourism group, commercialized over 80,000 seat in 2008.
Inair offers service to all destinations around the globe, particularly between Turkey and Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and the Middle East countries. As indicated by founder Mr Karaoglu and sales manager Mrs Cimen, InAir is looking towards reaching 100,000 utilized seats in 2009.

With the reputation from its successful operations in both, domestic and international markets, InAir, which organizes charter flights on the basis of seats or whole aircraft for tour operators, has a voice in the sector and cooperates closely with Atlas Jet, Best Air, Corendon, Free bird, Pegasus, Sun Express and Turkish Airlines.

The traditional name fits, indeed: With 404,491 registered international guests generating 3.24 million overnight stays and providing a total of 453 million US dollars in foreign exchange proceeds during an average stay of eight days, the Yemen achieved an increase in visitors of 6.61 percent in 2008.

The country on the south western tip of the Arabian Peninsula recorded significant growth in European visitors: 35,489 travelers made for an increase in arrivals of seven percent (2007: 33,079). This makes Europe the third-most important incoming market now, following the undisputed front-runner Middle East, as well as Asia, which showed negative growth in the previous year.