St Martin to Host Caribbean Tourism Organization Conference

The French Caribbean destination of St Martin will make history when it hosts the first state of the industry conference organized by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (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 Organization 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 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. Bringing together policymakers, executives and tourism industry professionals, this conference will mark the premiere State of the Industry Conference for CTO, who represents tourism for over 30 Caribbean countries.

This year’s conference will focus on the themes of beating the global recession and the ways to succeed within a competitive environment. Organized in part with the Saint-Martin Tourist Office, the event will also demonstrate the ways in which the Caribbean has overcome current economic challenges and how they are continuing to improve local tourism. Topics to be covered will include maximizing on limited resources, how to influence the affluent traveler, and tips on being competitive.

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.”

The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), with headquarters in Barbados and marketing operations in New York, London and Toronto, is the Caribbean’s tourism development agency.
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