SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, Jan. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The ministers of tourism from all of Central America are gathering today in the colonial city of Suchitoto -- a municipality in the Cuscatlan department of El Salvador -- for the 71st Regular Meeting of the Central American Tourism Council (Consejo Centroamericano de Turismo -- CCT), to review the progress made by each member nation on shared agenda topics, such as attendance at international tradeshows, air and land connections and statistical record systems, among other subjects.

A new development of this year's CCT meeting is that El Salvador, through its Minister of Tourism, Ruben Rochi, will assume the organization's Pro Tempore presidency. Willy Kaltschmitt, Presidential Commissioner of Tourism of Guatemala, will officially announce the post on Friday. The next country slated to preside over the CCT is Honduras.

Also attending the event are Ricardo Martinez, Presidential Commissioner of Tourism of Honduras; Mario Salinas Pasos, Executive President of the Nicaraguan Tourism Institute (Instituto Nicaraguense de Turismo -- INTUR); Michelle Gallardo de Gutierrez, Vice Minister of Tourism of El Salvador; Sara Sanchez, attending as the Minister of Panama's representative; and Allan Flores, General Manager of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (Instituto Costarricense de Turismo -- ICT), attending as the representative of Costa Rica's Ministry.

Prior to the Ministers' meeting, the CCT's Executive Committee is holding a meeting for the general managers of the tourism departments of each member nation. A parallel meeting for the region's tourism marketing managers (COMECATUR) is being held, along with another for the Central American Chambers of Tourism Federation (FEDECATUR).

Representatives of CA-4 member countries are meeting during the event, as are members of the Maya World Organization (Organizacion Mundo Maya), which is composed of the following member countries: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico, Colombia and the Dominican Republic. The latter three countries cannot attend, however, due to internal scheduling issues.

Source: MITUR; CORSATUR