Orlando-based AirTran Airways is set to offer service to the Caribbean island of Aruba. The top ranked low-cost airline two years in a row will introduce the new route beginning December 19, with flights from Atlanta, and from Orlando beginning February 13, 2010. It is the airline's fifth Caribbean destination, including recently added Montego Bay, Jamaica; Nassau, Bahamas; Cancun; and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

» Read more at airtran.com

Diving Unlimited International recently announced a consumer finance program on all new DUI drysuits, DiveWear insulation and accessories. For purchases over $399 there's no interest if paid within 90 days; for $499 and above there's no interest if paid within six months; and for purchases over $999, no interest if paid within 12 months. The best part? Dealers can use the same program to sell all other types of equipment in their store, too, not just DUI.

» Read more at DUI-Online.com.

Typhoon Ondoy hit the Philippines on September 26, flooding Metro Manila and the surrounding areas in a matter of hours. The heavy rainfall and resulting landslides has left hundreds dead or missing, and displaced thousands in what is being called the worst tropical storm in the Philippines in 50 years. "Our tourist destinations, particularly the dive sites, are not affected at all," said Rene de los Santos, of the Philippines Department of Tourism. "Transportation and basic services within Metro Manila, including tourist belt areas, have normalized." Atlantis Dive Resorts' John Boozer says everything at their resorts in Dumaguete and Puerto Galera is fine, and that anyone wanting to offer aid to the storm's refugees can contact their trusted charity, the Springboard Foundation, at springboard-foundation.org.

A recently released list of 2008's top 20 destinations for US travelers has few surprises. Though travel is down worldwide, 63.5 million Americans still ventured abroad in 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Travel and Tourism. Topping the list at No. 1 was Mexico, followed by Canada and the UK. Jamaica, the only Caribbean destination in the top 20, came in at No. 8, ahead of China and Spain.

» Read more at inet.ita.doc.gov.

In response to figures that show the population of humpback whales has grown significantly since the International Whaling Commission instituted an international ban on whaling in 1986, the U.S. government is considering taking the charismatic mammal off the endangered species list. "Humpbacks by and large are an example of a species that in most places seems to be doing very well, despite our earlier efforts to exterminate them," said Phillip Clapham, a senior whale biologist with NOAA. By law, the federal government must review the status of a species on the endangered list if new information comes to light; a 2008 study shows the North Pacific humpback population has grown more than four percent each year in recent decades.

President Mohammed Nasheed of the Maldives revealed plans to levy an environment tax on tourists who visit the island-nation. Based on the 700,000 tourists who visit the paradise annually, the $3 per tourist per day tax would raise approximately $6.3 million year-on-year – a not insignificant contribution to the funds that need to be raised for the Maldives to realize its target of becoming the world's first carbon-neutral country within a decade.