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| Senator Allan Chastanet, Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation of St Lucia, who is also Chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), said the matter of tourism will be included as a permanent item on the agenda of the conference. (File photo) | |
ST JOHN'S, Antigua, July 2, 2008 - Tourism will be the sole item facing the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) today as the working sessions of the 29th Meeting get underway.
Eleven of the Heads of Government of the Member States of CARICOM and four of the Heads of Government of the Associate Members will focus on matters related to tourism, the single largest contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of CARICOM.
This one-day focus on tourism was agreed to at the 19th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference in the Bahamas in March.
"The leaders will discuss the issues identified by a Task Force, presided over by Senator Allan Chastanet, Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation of St Lucia, as they search for options to enhance regional tourism in the context of current international trends. These trends include rising prices of food and fuel and cutbacks in routes by airlines," a CARICOM release said.
Senator Chastanet, who is also Chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), said the matter of tourism will be included as a permanent item on the agenda of the conference.
He says a number of papers will be presented during today's session.
"There is a paper being presented on destination branding, there is a paper that's being presented on the aviation issue, there is a paper being presented on taxing tourism, there is a paper being presented on the need for a regional marketing campaign and there are other transportation issues both from a fast ferry purpose and also a single domestic space purpose," the minister said.
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