Wesley Gibbings, the President of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM), has credited Counterpart International’s Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx), for contributing towards a rich and vibrant association of media Addressing the recent installment of CMExPress, Counterpart’s one-day version of CMEx at the Courtyard Marriot in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Gibbings said much of the early groundwork aimed at building his organization took place in the corridors and meeting rooms of successive CMEx encounters. It can be said that “some of the
required sustenance to put us on our feet came from the fact that this media exchange provided a regular rallying point for regional journalists.”

Gibbings, from Trinidad and Tobago, said the ACM’s association with Counterpart International and CMEx is by no means a recent one, as the birth of CMEx in October 2001 pre-dates the advent of the ACM by just one month. “The fact that the ACM and CMEx have now deepened this alliance is thus the natural outcome of a courtship developed over some time,” he said.

“We are proud of this association with the Fourth Estate,” said Dr. Basil Springer, chairman of Counterpart Caribbean and a member of Counterpart International’s International Advisory Council.

“The ACM and regional media have played a tremendous role in giving a voice to important regional development issues and keeping our public and private sector officials accountable.”

Dr. Springer concluded that over the short life of CMEx, there has been an improvement in media coverage of tourism and its linkages throughout the region, both in terms of quantity and quality - but that there is much more investigative work yet to be done.

There is hope now, he said, that strategic concepts will be foremost in the journalists’ minds, that they will become focused on the need for sustainable tourism growth and, what is more, will recognise the important role they can play in keeping the general public informed.

Gibbings thanked the CMEx team for the open arms with which the ACM has been embraced.
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