(Second of three parts, jump to part 1, part 2, part 3)

The second stage of our China journey commenced in the bustling port town of Yichang, where, after dinner at a local restaurant, we boarded the MS Victoria Star, one of the 5-star cruise ships in the American-managed Victoria Cruises fleet used by my host, Value World Tours, and other operators.

Our 4-night/5-day, 410-mile upstream cruise of the amazing Yangtze River from Yichang to Chongqing would prove to be a relaxing,...

Cruising is looking good for 2006 and 2007. The cruise industry appears set to boom over the next two years, due to continuing economic prosperity worldwide; the aging of the world population and the resultant disposable income and time, and the creativity of the cruise lines in developing new, attractive ships and shipboard attractions.

I will discuss this topic by forecasting shipbuilding for the next two years, then describing the really fun stuff: the new attractions that are...

by Deanna Palic

When I arrived in Peru in mid-September 2005 for the Latin America Travel Mart, Lima was in the last throes of winter. Spring was just one week away and temperatures were in the high 60s day, mid-50s evening.

Limeños boast that rainfall there is “less than a tear a year” and that there isn’t an umbrella factory in the city. Except in summer, Dec. 23-March 23, the city is blanketed in a gray pall, a heavy mist that moves in from the sea. The locals call it garua...