The French Caribbean destination of St Martin will make history when it hosts the first state of the industry conference organised by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) in September.

President of the St Martin Tourism Authority, Ida Zin-Ka-Ieu, and the CTO secretary general, Hugh Riley, made the announcement at a joint news conference.

The event was also attended by Edward Dest, the marketing manager of Dutch St Maarten’s tourism bureau and Lisa Noel, the product development assistant, also of Dutch St Maarten.

“The Caribbean Tourism Organisation is thrilled that St Martin has taken this opportunity to demonstrate its creativity to the Caribbean and the world by hosting our first ever state of the industry conference,” said Mr Riley.

“We are excited about the event and we are confident that St Martin will make itself and the Caribbean proud.”

The September 14th-17th conference will look at the current state of the Caribbean tourism industry and how to deal with issues that impact on the sector, with a view to building for the future.

This conference will also see the return of the Tourism Youth Congress at which Caribbean youth will debate issues of concern to the tourism industry.

“This is a very important conference which deals with a number of issues that are relevant to St Martin and the Caribbean tourism sector,” added Ms. Zin-Ka-Ieu.

“We are very pleased that the CTO has chosen St Martin to host this historic event.”

Details of the programme being planned by the CTO and St Martin will be released in early June.

Check out the website for more information.