CHTA pleased with response to annual travel market place conference

NASSAU, Bahamas, Dec 10, CMC – The Caribbean Travel Marketplace will be held here next month and the organisers say the event is attracting an influx of new buyer companies.

The January 31-February 2 event allows for Caribbean tourism stakeholders to meet face-to-face with wholesalers from around the world selling Caribbean vacation travel.

Director General and chief executive officer of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), Frank Comito, says at least six new buyer companies from Germany, United Kingdom, Russia, France and Ireland are to participate in the event..

“Some of these companies are expanding into the region, an indication of the continued interest in and demand for the Caribbean’s diverse product,” Comito noted.

The annual event will be held at the Atlantis Paradise Island and will feature the region’s largest gathering of tour operators, wholesalers, and online travel agents. They will be joined in a two day business exchange with buyers and suppliers through a busy programme of pre-scheduled appointments.

“These business appointments set the tone for meetings, groups and vacation packaging for the entire year,” Comito said, adding that the one-on-one pre-scheduled appointments provide for “an incredible amount of business to the region.

“It is vital therefore that companies register early to maximize their participation,” he said.

Meanwhile, Caribbean hoteliers meeting in Miami have stressed the importance of tourism in United States-Caribbean relations, saying it is key to both sides’ interests.

CHTA president, Karolin Troubetzkoy, said that “the Caribbean must ensure issues of critical socioeconomic importance are firmly addressed with the US Congress and the incoming administration”.

According to the CHTA, Troubetzkoy commented on this during a presentation on the impact on the tourism industry of de-risking and correspondent banking relationships at the 40th Annual Conference on the Caribbean and Central America in Miami, produced by the Caribbean-Central American Action (CCAA) organization.

Underscoring the common interests between the Caribbean and the United States and the critical importance of tourism to the region’s socioeconomic development and stability, Troubetzkoy called for a “new focus” by regional governments and the private sector in support of recent legislation aimed at strengthening United States relations with Caribbean countries.

CHTA said it has joined CCAA in urging the US Senate to adopt the US-Caribbean Strategic Engagement Act of 2016 (H.R. 4939), which has already received bipartisan support in the US House of Representatives.

The bill this week moved out of US Senate Committee for consideration by the full Senate.

H.R. 4939, introduced by New York Democratic Congressman Eliot L. Engel with Florida Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, would require the US Secretary of State and the Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to submit to the US Congress a multi-year strategy focused on enhancing engagement with the countries of the Caribbean.