January 1, 2006        www.LatinEPR.com          LatinEPR News Wire

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LATIN AMERICA - COMMUNICATIONS/MEDIA

 

MTV Introduces Caribbean Entertainment Channel to LatAm

 

MTV Networks recently launched Tempo, the new cable network devoted to all things Caribbean, to 2.5 million viewers in 20 Caribbean markets.  The television channel features music videos and original programming, including concerts, cultural events, and documentaries, and is set to enter the US market in 2006.   Tempo is currently seen in 300,000 households, making it the most successfully distributed new channel for Caribbean Cable Co-op, one of its key regional distributors.

 

Argentine Weblog Honored at 2005 Best Blog Awards

 

Argentine fiction writer Hernan Casciari’s Mas respeto, que soy tu madre (A Little Respect, I’m Your Mother) won the Gold Jury Prize in the Best Weblog category at this year’s Weblog Awards, organized by CBS Arts, Reporters Without Borders, and Deutsche Welle International.   The blog journal follows the life of fictional character Mira Bertotti, a 52-year old Argentinean housewife inspired by Casciari’s own mother.  Taking the Silver User Prize in the Best Weblog category was the Portuguese blog Tupiniquim, which aims to raise awareness of Brazil’s indigenous people in the nation’s media through original reporting.  Upon receiving his award, Casciari expressed hope that his accomplishment will encourage others to be more creative with the growing blog writing format.

 

Google Expands in Latin America

 

Google Inc. has announced its continuing international expansion with the launch of two Latin American operations centers in São Paulo, Brazil and Mexico City, Mexico. These new offices will enable Google to better provide advertising services and search experience to its users, advertisers, and partners in both countries as well as all of Latin America.  Google also plans to further develop its regional client base, which already includes Mercado Libre and Dell in Mexico, and Wal-Mart in Brazil.

 

 

LATIN AMERICA - NEWS BRIEFS

 

Economy

 

New Mercosur Member Venezuela Pushes Gas Pipeline

 

Venezuela was integrated as a full member of Mercosur at the Common Market’s 29th summit meeting, held December 8-9 in Montevideo, Uruguay, and now hopes to become a major partner in a $10 billion South American gas pipeline project.    An agreement to consider the project was signed at the summit by Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela, which has the continent’s largest natural-gas reserves.  If completed, the pipeline would run over 6000 miles, from Venezuela’s Caribbean coast to Patagonia, and supply markets throughout the region.  The project’s viability still hinges on its environmental effects and its eventual cost, which could potential run as high as $17 billion.   

 

Peru: Economic Growth Projected at 7% for 2005

 

In a recent public announcement, Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo estimated that his country’s economy will have grown 7% by the end of 2005.  Fueled by strong gold and copper production, as well as fish meal and natural gas, Peru’s economy took an upturn in October after September registered growth below analysts’ expectations.  New free trade agreements like the Thailand accord, signed in November, could add $500 million in annual exports and create 300,000 new jobs, thereby helping to continue the positive trend.  In fact, Peru is poised to become the world’s sixth fastest expanding emerging market economy, according to President Toledo, who faces reelection this year.

 

World Bank Gives Loan to Reduce Poverty in Northeast Brazil

 

The World Bank Board of Directors has approved a $49.3 million loan to the State of Bahia to reduce urban poverty in Northeast Brazil. The Bahia Poor Urban Areas Integrated Development Project – Viver Melhor II will improve the quality of life of the urban poor by upgrading informal settlements, improving access to social programs, and enhancing the state and local government capacity to manage integrated urban poverty reduction strategies.  Roughly a third of Bahia’s urban dwellers- about 3 million people-live in households that fall below the poverty line, and urban poverty correlates strongly with informal housing and slums. Brazil’s Ministry of Cities and federal savings bank (Caixa) will co-sponsor the technical assistance activities, creating opportunities to replicate the integrated slum upgrading approach elsewhere in the country.

 

Tourism

 

Rio de Janeiro Hosts Destinations2005

 

Over 3,000 people and nearly 200 speakers attended the 2nd Annual Summit of the World Tourism Forum for Peace and Sustainable Development – Destinations2005 – this past October in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  The event, organized by the WTF in collaboration with The International Ecotourism Society and the Rainforest Alliance, aims to educate travel professionals about good tourism practices that sustain small businesses and help eliminate poverty.  One of the summit’s main successes was an accord to organize a task force that would combat sexual tourism involving children and adolescents, signed by the following fifteen Latin American countries:  Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Surinam, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

 

DR Tourist Arrivals Rise in 2005

 

(Dominican Today) -- The flow of tourists that arrived to the Dominican Republic by air travel during the first 10 months of 2005 increased 7.4% in contrast with the same period in 2004, according to national tourism sector sources.  The Association for Tourism Development in Juan Dolio and Guayacanes on the eastern shoreline, reported that this increment was motivated mainly by the 13.14 % growth that occurred in October, the second highest of the year, after March registered an 14.05 % increase. Also, stated the association, the flow increased in October by virtue of the natural disasters that affected various Caribbean countries during the hurricane season this year. The association’s reported that 46.90 % of visitors came from North America, while 45.47 traveled from Europe. 

 

Mexico: New Low-Cost Air Carriers

 

Low-Cost Air Carriers are taking off in Mexico, a country where more than 40 million people travel via bus annually.  Interjet is the first such airline to be launched in the Mexico City area, and introduced discount fares this past December that beat out premium bus travel.  The Mexican government has given concessions to at least three other low cost airlines, among them ABC Aerolineas and Vuela, a new project for broadcasting company Televisa and billionaire Carlos Slim.  Controladora Posea is another newly formed airline company, in this case a joint venture between Brazilian airline GOL and Mexican investors.  Controladora Posea is scheduled to begin operations by mid-2006.  Currently, Mexico represents Latin America’s second largest aviation market after Brazil with 20 million passengers.  If low cost air carriers with their competitive prices managed to capture half of all bus travelers, Mexico’s air travel could essentially double in the coming years.

 

Buenos Aires Expects 2.26 Million Tourists

 

Holiday travel and popular stadium concerts like U2 and the Rolling Stones could contribute to a record 2005-06 summer season for Buenos Aires.  City tourism officials expect 2.26 million tourism arrivals, half of them foreign, from mid December to March, a period which historically has been high-season for the city.  Marcela Cuesta, Deputy Tourism Secretary of Buenos Aires  observed that the tourism industry is expanding, with luxury hotel bookings up 10% and cruise ship arrivals up 40% over last year.  Overall, arrivals to Buenos Aires have increased 5% over the 2004-05 season.

 

“Historic” year for Chile

 

Foreign tourist arrivals to Chile between February and August 2005 increased 11%, according to the latest figures released by the Chilean Association of Tour Operators (ACHET).  The organization also revealed that Chilean travel abroad rose 8% during the same period, with Brazil and the Caribbean proving the most attractive destinations.  If the upward swing, which ACHET Chair Lorena Arriagada described as ‘historic’, continued through to the end of 2005, then the country could well have received as many as 2 million visitors for the year.

 

Additional weekend flights Punta Arenas-Santiago

 

Early December, Aerolineas del Sur, a subsidiary of Spanish owned Aerolineas Argentinas, increased weekend service to its Santiago-Punta Arenas route after experiencing an average 85% occupancy on the route to the popular Chilean destination.  Overlooking the Straight of Magellan, Punta Arenas is the southernmost city of Earth.  The four additional roundtrip flights between Punta Arenas and the Chilean capital are a sign that business is back to normal at Aerolineas Argentinas after a nine-day worker’s strike in N

 

General Interest

 

Four Provinces Kick Off Patagonian Marine Project

 

Argentina’s four southernmost provinces  - Chubut, Rio Negro, Santa Cruz, and Tierra del Fuego - are joining with Antarctica and the South Atlantic Islands to conduct the $8.5 million Patagonian Marine Project.  The object of the project is to preserve biological diversity and prevent coastal pollution in a sustainable manner under the motto 'Growing towards the sea with one's feet on solid ground.'   The project will mainly work to conserve and protect coastal areas as well as the national Patagonian continental shelf, where manmade pollution, overfishing, the introduction of exotic species, and the indiscriminate growth of tourism have adversely affected the marine environment.    

 

South America Faces Volcanic Eruptions

 

With increased volcanic activity punctuating the end of 2005, the list of nature’s hotbeds was joined by Colombian Volcano Galeras, as it erupted near the country’s southern border with Ecuador in early December.  Luckily, there were no reports of damage or casualties. Galeras was preceded weeks before by Sierra Negra in the largest Galapagos island, Isabela. It was the island’s first major case in eight years since Cerro Azul. 

 

 

Argentina, Colombia Host Unusual Marathons

 

This December, the town of Tanti in the province of Cordoba played host to Argentina’s first nudist marathon.  The event, which had 60 participants, was organized by the Nudist Marathon Runners of Argentina to celebrate National Nude Tourism Day. Meanwhile, the Colombian city of Cali staged the nation’s first baby ‘crawling marathon’ as part of a national health initiative.  Open to infants 8-18 months old, the ‘marathon’ consisted of a five meter straight-line crawl.  Event organizers expected 600 babies, but on the day close to 1200 participated - though very few actually finished the race.

 

Mendoza Joins Great Wine Capitals of the World

 

The Gobal Network of Great Wine Capitals recently incorporated the Argentine wine region of Mendoza into its elite list of wine regions.  The network already embraces Melbourne, Bordeaux, San Francisco – Napa Valley, Porto, Cape Town, Bilbao – Rioja, and Florence, and works to encourage international winery tourism, as well as economic, academic, and cultural exchange.  Highlighting Medoza’s growing reputation as one of the world’s most important wine growing regions, the Argentine province’s Finca Y Bodega Carlos Pulenta was also among nine wineries worldwide to be recognized by this year’s prestigious Best of Wine Tourism Awards 2006.  The Carlos Pulenta winery distinguished itself in the Winery Restaurant category.

 

Barbados to Host the 2006 World Golf Championship

 

The Sandy Lane Resort in Saint James, Barbados, is set to host the 2006 World Golf Championships-World Cup, December 5-10, 2006.  This marks the first time a World Championships event will be held in the island nation.  The last World Golf Championships to take place in Latin America and the Caribbean was the 2002 World Cup in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico.