Background: The first annual Caribbean Tourism Conference was started by the Caribbean Tourism Association (CTA) in the 1960’s and continued as CTA’s annual convention until 1976, when the then three existing tourism organizations, CTA, the Caribbean Tourism Research and Development Centre (CTRC) and the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) decided to organize a joint conference.

This would be known officially as the First Caribbean Tourism Conference (CTC 1).

These three joint public/private sector efforts continued until 1983 when CHA decided to host a separate conference, specifically targeted at hoteliers, known as the Caribbean Hotel Industry Conference (CHIC). CTA and CTRC continued to maintain the series of CTC conferences.

From the beginning, the Caribbean Tourism Conference catered to the entire tourism family, bringing together on an annual basis:

- Ministers of Tourism
- Tourism officials of every kind including Directors of Tourism
- Cruise lines
- Airlines
- Hoteliers
- Travel and international press
- Advertising Agencies
- Glossy Magazines - Travel Agents and a wide range of suppliers to the industry - Related industries eg. technology providers

Conference Objectives: This annual tourism conference is the climax of a series of business sessions involving CTO’s Tourism Ministers, Officials and Private Sector Directors on the Board.

CTC is a major forum for networking at a high level between the tourism public and private sector, both from in the region and the marketplace.

CTC provides educational sessions in which the tourism issues of the day are discussed and solutions sought.

CTC provides an excellent opportunity for the host country to show off its products to the leaders of the Tourism Industry and to those members of the distribution system and the press who sell and/or promote Caribbean Tourism.

The 25th CTC takes place in Freeport, Grand Bahama from October 28 - 30, 2002.
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