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All over again and now caught in a troubled 21st century, the Plaza America Conference Center will proudly host for a second time in a row the Tourism Convention whose 23rd edition will take place from May 5 to 8 this time around. The abundant experience provided by the previous convention has allowed planners to count on all relevant mechanisms and piece together a schedule aimed at making the event click like clockwork.

On the same basis of a new concept for this kind of event -that unfolded for the first time ever in 2002 and is now heightened by initiatives and projections derived from the signs of the ongoing times- the 23rd Tourism Convention has already mapped out its planning and working guidelines.

The event will no doubt provide the perfect setting for meeting and exchanging experiences among tour operators, travel agents, airlines reps and other related entities linked to the sector that could take a firsthand look at the Cuban tourist product in its complete assortment of modalities, attractions, potentials and projections.

In this year's event, the potentials of Cuba as an superb tourist destination in the category of incentives and events will be fully displayed. The island nation is raking in a figure somewhere in the neighborhood of three to six times more than the earnings it makes in conventional tourism.

Cuba: A Compelling Destination, besides being splayed everywhere as the event's motto, will also be the heart of the main exhibit that will lay bare the features of Cuba's tourist industry, its different modalities, diversified products, peculiarities of its hotel and extra-hotel outlay, experiences and initiatives in that field.

Part of the event's schedule includes product presentations, business meetings, professional powwows, exhibitions and outlooks on new promotional and commercial strategies, a series of lectures (chiefly those dealing with incentives), the International Seminar on Tourist Advertisement, visits to a number of Cuban tourist circuits (Holguin, Varadero, Trinidad and Cayo Largo), award presentation ceremonies, the meeting with Cuba's Tourism Minister and other activities.

If previous conventions have definitely proved valuable steps forward as far as Cuban tourism's development and coming of age are concerned, this year's meeting is marked by the need to churn out wise strategies in an effort to cope with the shroud of uncertainty dangling over the world right now. Cuba's 23rd Tourism Convention will have a ripple effect that could carry some momentum for the future of the island nation's leisure industry.