What’s on tap at Caribbean Week in New York

It’s nearly June, signaling the start of the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s annual Caribbean Week event in New York.

The theme this year is “Where Business and Culture Inspire Travel.” Highlights of the week include seminars, a trade show, a students’ colloquium, a Romance Pavilion, a diaspora forum, a marketing conference, celebrity chef demonstrations and the Rum Rhythm finale.

The week will kick off with a trade show and educational seminar for travel agents June 1, with Arnie Weissmann, Travel Weekly’s editor in chief, as guest speaker.

Weissmann will focus on the opportunities presented by the evolution of consumers’ desires for new and authentic experiences.

“A new traveler is emerging who rejects the symbols and trappings of old-guard status symbols,” Weissmann said in a sneak-peek preview to his address. “One way this has impacted travel is that the young and affluent don’t want to wall themselves up in the iconic, classic hotels that their parents aspired to inhabit, and they aren’t satisfied with only tokens of local color.”

Denis Walcott, a former New York City education chancellor, will speak to students on a range of issues, including sustainable tourism.

Walcott will be joined by representatives from the College of the Bahamas, Monroe College in New York, Jamaica’s University of Technology and the Turks and Caicos Islands Community College.

To inject a bit of romance into Caribbean Week, the Caribbean Tourism Organization retained Wedding Salon, the planners of U.S. bridal tradeshows, to organize the Romance Pavilion as a forum for engaged couples seeking honeymoon or destination wedding information. More than 300 couples have registered to attend the event, where they’ll meet with local vendors from the Caribbean who can help plan honeymoons or nuptial ceremonies.

The final event, Rum Rhythm, takes place June 5 at Tribeca 360 in lower Manhattan. Proceeds from the event go to the CTO Foundation, which provides scholarship opportunities for Caribbean students.