The recently concluded Caribbean Travel Marketplace 2013 saw an increase in pre-scheduled business meetings between buyer and supplier companies with 12 476 appointments scheduled in advance, which is 226 more appointments than the 2012 edition of the event. Another positive highlight is the increase in international buyer interest with 22 countries represented, an increase of four more countries over 2012.
Additionally, buyers from five new countries participated in the region’s premier marketing event, including 15 companies from France as well as delegates from Belgium, China, Ireland, Poland and Switzerland. The event also had six more companies register from Italy versus 2012 registration.
“Tour operators and wholesalers are often the first to feel shifts in demand for vacation products,” said Richard J Doumeng, president of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), noting: “If
interest from buyers at Caribbean Travel Marketplace is any indication, things are definitely looking up for the region in 2013.”
Staged by the CHTA in conjunction with the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association and the Nassau/Paradise Island Promotion Board, Caribbean Travel Marketplace was held at the Atlantis, Paradise Island from January 20-22. The event affords hotels and destinations of all sizes the opportunity to meet face-to-face with wholesalers selling Caribbean vacation travel over the course of two days of business meetings.
A highlight of the two-day event were the festivities surrounding the retirement of Alec Sanguinetti, CHTA’s director general and CEO, who has 19 years in executive positions with the association and 52 years as one of the tourism industry’s top airline and hotel executives. Sanguinetti received fitting tributes from the Bahamas and CHTA.
Business meetings just prior to Caribbean Travel Marketplace resulted in the CHTA board of directors calling for the Heads of Government to hold a summit on tourism within the next six months.
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