Small hotels in the Caribbean along with travel agents are set to realise tremendous benefit with the introduction of an online booking engine by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO). CTO will launch the booking engine at the 26th annual Caribbean Tourism Conference (CTC-26) next month, said Arley Sobers, the organisationå‘s director of research and information management.

“We are placing particular emphasis on small hotels which we want to bring into the new technological environment,” said Mr. Sobers.
“The booking engine will also have a capability for travel agents to book online and to get their commissions and for tour operators and large businesses to be able to purchase large numbers of rooms,” he added.

CTC-26 takes place at the Marriott Frenchman’s Reef Resort in St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands (USVI) from October 16-18, 2003. The theme of this year’s conference is “Recovery & Growth in a Fiercely Competitive Environment.”

Packed with dynamic speakers, seminars and workshops, CTC-26 will focus on practical approaches to sustaining and building on the recovery which the Caribbean tourism sector is beginning to experience after two very difficult years.
Related Stories on Caribbean Weekly:
(22/08/03) CTC to be Hosted in USVI
(09/09/03) USVI `Excited` to host CTC-26
(25/09/03) Leading travel and tourism experts to present at CTC
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