Caribbean Travel Marketplace in Puerto Rico was an 'absolute success'
The first in-person Caribbean Travel Marketplace (CTM) since the COVID-19 pandemic was a phenomenal success, attracting nearly 800 delegates, including travel agents.
There were 53 new buyer companies representing 25 countries at the 40th annual Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) event in San Juan, Puerto Rico from October 3 to 5.
First-time buyers, included representatives from India, Poland and Latvia.
“We had representation from nearly every Caribbean destination and, to me, that is absolute success,” said CHTA President Nicola Madden-Greig at the closing press conference at the Puerto Rico Convention Centre. “We also had our inaugural travel forum talking about the business of tourism which was really exciting as it gave us an opportunity to really delve deep into the data and share it. That is something that will be included going forward as part of the Marketplace agenda so as to be able to talk about tourism in a very strategic and real way.”
The Puerto Rico Convention Centre (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
The CTM is held annually in January.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it took place in October this year.
Madden-Greig said the 2023 edition could be held towards the end of the first quarter next year.
“We are looking more at a spring show,” she pointed out. “We are going to be reaching out to our partners with a survey to determine if we return to the January slot. We are hoping that when we make the announcement this year for 2023, we will be able to announce where the 2024 event will be held. Based on the level of interest from various destinations, we think we will be able to award two years of Marketplace coming out of this one.
“…I think it is a very relevant show and we are trying to increase that relevancy by adding more components. We will continue to find a way to ensure that Marketplace is what it is and deliver more value to our members and partners.”
The CTM, noted Madden-Greig, is a platform to showcase Caribbean destinations in one spot.
“You really get an idea of exactly what is happening instead of trying to figure things out,” she said.
A few countries, including Guyana, were not represented at the just concluded Marketplace.
Just three years ago, Guyana was named the world’s top ‘Ecotourism Destination’ at the Sustainable Top 100 Destination Awards in Berlin.
Madden-Greig said attempts will be made to bring them into the fold and ensure they are part of the important initiative that brings together regional suppliers and global buyers.
“Since becoming President, I have been doing the rounds visiting a lot of our partners, including some that have been less in the fold in terms of participating and we will continue to do that,” she noted. “Coming out of the pandemic, there is a recognition that we find strength in partnership. I think everybody is there, but we need to bring them closer. Some of our smaller destinations find it a little more difficult to travel sometimes and we will be making the effort to visit them as well.”
This year’s event concluded with the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and the CHTA supporting Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness call for the official designation of February 17 as Global Tourism Resilience Day.
“This is about a collaboration of working together for the better interest,” said CTO Chairman Kenneth Bryan who is also the Cayman Islands Minister of Tourism. “In the last couple of weeks, we have seen evidence of exactly why we are sitting here at this table. With the recent hurricanes and rising sea levels the Caribbean is facing, it is time for us to unify not only from a government perspective, but from a private sector perspective and the specialists who research these things to find ways to be sustainable and protective for our region and the industry which we represent by way of tourism.”
Madden-Greig concurred with Bryan.
CTO Chairman Kenneth Bryan and CHTA President Nicola Madden-Greig at the Caribbean Travel Marketplace closing press conference in Puerto Rico (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
“It is very important that both from a public and private perspective, we are on the same page on how we will continue to roll out resilience for the Caribbean,” she said. “It is not by mistake that we are choosing to go down this path. The pandemic allowed us to understand how collaboration truly works as we saw an unprecedented amount of co-operation in the public and private sectors. We have learnt so many lessons and it is critical that we use that in all aspects of the challenges the Caribbean has faced over the years to ensure that we achieve not just recovery, but growth. The Caribbean is already resilient, but we are seeking to ensure we become better at we are already doing.”
Jamaica will host the inaugural Global Tourism Resilience Day Forum next February.
“The recovery calls for building better and stronger and to be more resilient,” said Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett who co-founded the Global Tourism Resilience & Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) based at the University of the West Indies Mona Campus. “Understanding resilience is to enable sustainability. We can’t have an industry that is going to survive over time unless we build the capacity to sustain it.”
Edmund Bartlett (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
The GTRCMC grew out of the November 2017 jobs and inclusive growth global conference held in Montego Bay.
Last March, Bartlett and George Brown College President Dr. Gervan Fearon signed a Memorandum of Understanding, making the Toronto college the first Canadian institution of higher learning to collaborate with a global academic centre focussed on travel industry crises and resilience.
Tourism is the main economic driver for many countries, contributing substantially to income generation, employment and foreign exchange earnings.
Prior to the pandemic, 1.4 billion tourists accounted for US$9 trillion in expenditure and the industry employed 435 million workers, representing 10.5 per of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
