The Caribbean Tourism Organization
(CTO) has described the 25 th Annual
Caribbean Tourism Conference (CTC-25)
held on Grand Bahama Island from
October 28-31, 2002, as “very
successful.”
“I believe that CTC, by any of the usual
criteria, will be regarded as a success,”
said Jean Holder, CTO’s secretary
general.
Over 1000 people attended the opening
ceremony, and there were
approximately 850 conference
delegates.
The Bahamian Prime Minister, Hon.
Perry Christie delivered a scintillating
keynote address at the opening, in
which he challenged the Caribbean
region to work together to reinvent
Caribbean tourism.
“There can be no reinvention of
Caribbean tourism without our daily
intent to cooperate,” said Mr. Christie.
“We have a wealth of knowledge of tourism in our region; we need to
share that knowledge to our
maximum benefit.”
During the three-day conference,
industry experts and analysts made
“some excellent presentations” on
various issues deemed critical to
the Caribbean tourism sector.
CTC-25 was held at Our Lucaya
Beach Resort in Freeport.
Mr. Holder complimented both the
government of the Bahamas and
the hotel for their “exceptional
competence.”
“One of the things that stood out at
the conference was the
extraordinary efficiency of the
government of the Bahamas and
the hotel, which delivered really
excellent service and were the
epitome of hospitality,” stated Mr.
Holder.
The secretary general of the Caribbean
Tourism Organization (CTO), Jean
Holder has warned that the region’s
tourism sector must act on the
recommendations coming out of CTC-25,
if it is to have meaning.
“If the conference is to have any real
meaning then the prescriptions for
change really have to be taken seriously
and action has to follow the
recommendations,” said Mr. Holder.
The secretary general said that the
conference, which had as its theme
Reinventing Caribbean Tourism, was
an important event, but the region’s
tourism sector would not be properly
served if there were no follow up
action.
“The change in the right direction to
meet the challenges of the global economy must take place, otherwise it
would just have been another good
conference,” he said.
The Board of Directors of CTO, in a pre-conference
meeting, established a
working group which will re-examine
the structure and purposes of the
organisation.
The group, headed by Pamela Richards,
CTO’s first vice chairperson and tourism
commissioner of the United States
Virgin Islands, will look at issues such as
CTO’s business plan; how the
organization funds itself and the
relevance of its programmes to the
various categories of its membership. The committee is to present
recommendations to the Ministers of
Tourism when they meet in Curacao
next February.
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